167: Chapter 166 Self-Reflection

For the guests who were able to reach Tianxing Garden today, the greatest benefit was this luncheon. It took half an hour just to serve the dishes, the result of a whole morning's work by over ten master chefs and dozens of assistants. Just looking at it was a feast for the eyes and made one's mouth water. Various rare ingredients never seen even in five-star international hotels were meticulously prepared into dozens of exquisite dishes, so many that even a large round table with a diameter of two and a half meters couldn't hold them all! Delicacies from the mountains and the sea were laid out in abundance; it was truly a gluttonous feast.

Cao Xiao wasn't joking when he said he was sparing no expense. Take the seafood, for example: wild South African Langoustines are sweeter than those from other regions but much smaller. The largest South African Langoustines on the market weigh less than four hundred grams and sell for over two hundred huaxia currency each. However, the ones he brought out were all carefully selected, each weighing at least five hundred grams. These top-grade South African Langoustines would be snatched up for five hundred each on the market, and the price sold to hotels would be even higher. Ten per table cost five thousand, not counting the master chef's processing fees; just one plate of ten South African Langoustines would cost at least twenty thousand in a hotel! That's equivalent to nearly half a year's salary for an ordinary white-collar worker. Even billionaires spending at a hotel would think twice before ordering a dish that costs tens of thousands.

Abalone prices are generally calculated by the 'head' count—the number of abalones per catty. The larger the size, the more precious it is. South African dried abalones are generally quite large; a genuine three-head South African dried abalone costs around one thousand, a two-head costs two to three thousand, and a one-head abalone even reaches over five thousand. Moreover, it's hard to find genuine wild one-head abalones on the market because the deeper the water they grow in, the larger they get, making the larger ones harder to harvest. Naturally, what Cao Xiao brought out wasn't one-head abalone but three-head abalone. A single one-head abalone weighs a catty, and one person finishing one wouldn't be able to eat any other dishes. Even a plate of ten three-head abalones is worth over ten thousand. Adding in other South African delicacies like giant sea crabs, salmon, tuna, mussels, large mackerel, and sturgeon, the cost of the seafood alone was at least sixty thousand. Cao Xiao only prepared one catty of Megalodon meat per table, but even that one catty had to be counted as at least ten thousand us dollars. Not to mention its exceptionally delicious texture, the gimmick of 'sea monster meat' alone was worth the price!

The mountain delicacies weren't as expensive as the seafood; wild boar, wild rabbit, and wild vegetables couldn't compare. However, in Cao Xiao's view, that Xenogeneic Python meat wouldn't be expensive even at one hundred thousand per catty—if someone could sell it to him, he would buy as much as they had! Since he cherished it so much himself, others found it even more rare. After these people eat it today, when the Tianxing Auction puts some up for sale in a while, it will definitely be hyped up to an absurdly high price. Two catties per table could be roughly estimated at two hundred thousand. Combined with a thirty-year-old Wild Mountain Ginseng worth five hundred thousand, which was divided into four portions for stewing soup, the value of these mountain delicacies, seafood, and medicinal ingredients reached over four hundred thousand!

The liquor provided was 4L jars of 50-year-old collection-grade Old Xishan Fenjiu, costing one hundred thousand per table. Calculated this way, the cost of the food and drinks for one table was over five hundred thousand. For more than four hundred tables, that's two to three hundred million huaxia currency. And this was just the cost of the ingredients; the value of the dishes prepared by high-level chefs would at least double. If someone else were to organize this, it might not even be possible with one billion. Just sourcing the ingredients would cost five to six hundred million, and they might not even be able to gather everything in a short time. It was luxurious to the extreme; spending several hundred million huaxia currency on a single banquet is rare in this world.

For those guests who only came for social networking, today was a huge gain. They casually gave ten thousand or so as a gift and ended up eating back several times that amount—not just double or triple, but five or ten times over! For most people, this might be the most delicious and luxurious meal they've ever had in their lives. Telling their friends about it later would definitely give them a lot of face. So, besides eating and drinking heavily, they were also busy taking photos with their phones. They took several photos of every dish from various angles, several around the table, and kept snapping shots of the surroundings. They took close-ups of the gathered beauties, celebrities, famous figures, successful people, billionaires, and leaders, and some were even lucky enough to get a group photo. These photos alone would be enough to show off for a long time. Some started posting on Weibo and their Moments immediately, excitedly replying to comments while scrambling to eat.

The tourists who came to Tianxing Garden today to see the faucet didn't expect to encounter such a great event. They felt a bit awkward hearing the people around them comment on the dishes. Originally, seeing someone holding a celebration with such a lively atmosphere, they had casually given a few hundred in gift money, intending to have a drink and share in the joy. But they didn't expect to first be shocked by the betrothal gifts and now be faced with a banquet worth hundreds of thousands. Thinking about the small amount of gift money they had given, they felt a bit embarrassed to even pick up their chopsticks.

People visiting Tianxing Garden for the first time didn't know the secrets within these dishes, but many had been fortunate enough to taste Python meat before, and some uninvited guests had even come specifically for it. At the beginning, these people silently gorged themselves on the Python meat. Once their table's portion was finished, they actually disregarded their image and ran to other tables to snatch more. It wasn't just one or two people doing this; at the start, at least twenty or thirty people were at it. These people were usually well-dressed big bosses, but now they were shamelessly fighting for food just for one dish, eating until their mouths were greasy and not caring at all, looking like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

This strange phenomenon immediately aroused the curiosity of others. Before long, once the guests found out, the place exploded. More people joined the scramble for food, including the elderly and children; people were fighting for it everywhere. After the Python meat was gone, they started fighting for the Megalodon meat, snatching whatever was delicious. In the end, every table actually had several dishes left untouched, which were relatively common dishes like wild boar or tuna. After one round of eating and not being satisfied, they continued waiting for the second round of dishes to be served and then started snatching again. The high-end banquet had turned into a wet market!

It wasn't that no one was maintaining order, but there were simply too many people to manage. Fortunately, the guests were only focused on snatching food and didn't cause any other trouble; otherwise, they would have had to call the police to help maintain order! Looking at those people who were showing off how much Python meat they had eaten while having nosebleeds after the meal, Cao Xiao finally understood what 'foodie spirit' meant. If people dared to eat pufferfish at the risk of death, then over-nourishing themselves on good food was nothing.

This engagement caused a huge psychological shadow for Cao Xiao. He made up his mind never to host such a large banquet again. When he gets married, he'll go abroad for the wedding, invite a hundred or so of his closest friends and relatives, and hold it quietly on a small island or a yacht.

Cao Xiao could have left long ago and wanted to escape Tianxing Garden, but after Commissioner Zhang returned from his phone call, he said the matter at the gate was temporarily handled. Father He then dragged him to toast the relatives from the He family side. He Yueyou's family had many relatives—and they had to be many. As the saying goes, 'a rich man in a busy city has many relatives.' All the aunts, uncles, and distant relatives who could claim any connection had come today. This resulted in Cao Xiao being tossed around for over two hours without getting a single bite of food. Only after Father He had drunk his fill did he fake being drunk to escape.

"Huh! Cao Xiao, how can you be perfectly fine after drinking so much?" He Yueyou helped Cao Xiao into the villa, only to see him, who had looked drunk and unsteady on his feet, suddenly stand up straight with no trace of drunkenness on his face.

Cao Xiao said proudly, "I played a little trick; otherwise, I wouldn't have your father's tolerance for alcohol. Yueyou, can you help cover for me in a bit? I need to go to the city to handle some business."

"I can, but you must promise me that you won't kill people at the drop of a hat anymore! Although in your eyes some people deserve to die ten thousand deaths, it's not always necessary to kill to solve a problem. You can use other methods to punish those who do evil. Moreover, some people's crimes don't warrant death. Even if you must act out of necessity, it's best not to kill if you can avoid it. Killing unknowingly affects one's character; since ancient times, those who kill too much have never had a good end! Besides, Heaven has the virtue of loving life; you must accumulate merit not only for yourself but also for your family and future generations. Can you do that?" He Yueyou seemed to have guessed what Cao Xiao was going to do. She held his hand, looked seriously into his eyes, and spoke in a tone that brooked no argument.

Hearing this, Cao Xiao looked into He Yueyou's bright eyes and felt her resolute attitude. His heart suddenly turned solemn. He had never seen He Yueyou like this before. She rarely interfered with his actions or decisions, yet today she was so firm, speaking such commanding words. He felt a bit of panic in his heart and actually started to daze for a moment.

It wasn't that he hadn't realized the issue He Yueyou mentioned, but rather that his perspective was different from hers. He didn't consider himself a compassionate 'Holy Mother' type, but he wasn't bloodthirsty or cold-blooded either. Now, hearing He Yueyou's words, he couldn't help but reflect on his actions over this period. He suddenly discovered that, without knowing when it began, he had stopped treating human life as something significant. Talking about killing seemed natural, with no psychological burden at all. When he first killed someone with a sniper rifle at the Cape Town seaside villa, he didn't feel the strong sense of nausea that others usually feel their first time. Later, at the Angress Family manor, he had cruelly killed dozens of armed personnel. Although he was driven by anger at the time and those people were outlaws, he hadn't taken such a bloody scene seriously at all. It was the same later in Somalia. This reaction was not at all like what an ordinary person should have after killing; it was like an executioner who had served for years, indifferent to life and blood, treating killing as a routine matter.

No one is born so cold; he wasn't like this before. The first time he killed a rabbit, he hesitated for a long time, unable to bring himself to do it. Later, he hardened his heart and drowned the rabbit by throwing it into water and covering it, not wanting to see its struggling before death. If it was said that the cold-blooded genes hidden deep in his bones were being exposed—could someone who grew up with proper values and had never suffered an inhuman tragedy have such dark psychology? He wasn't mentally ill, so he didn't think that was the case.

Seeing Cao Xiao suddenly fall silent, He Yueyou brewed a cup of tea for him and sat with him on the sofa in the second-floor living room without saying a word.

Drinking the strong tea He Yueyou brewed and tasting the bitterness, Cao Xiao continued to daze silently. Suddenly, his heart stirred. He flipped his hand, smashing the teacup on the floor, picked up a sharp porcelain shard, rolled up his sleeve, and slashed his arm hard.

"Ah! Hiss! It hurts! Yueyou, quickly help me get the first aid kit from the study."

The sharp porcelain shard cut a two-inch-long wound on his arm. Blood immediately gushed out, and the pain brought tears to Cao Xiao's eyes.

"Cao Xiao! What are you doing! Hold the wound yourself, I'll get the first aid kit right away!" Seeing this, He Yueyou shouted at Cao Xiao in a mix of anxiety and anger, then quickly ran upstairs.

"Haha!"

Although it hurt a lot, Cao Xiao was very happy. He finally understood why he didn't take killing seriously. It was because his killings lacked a sense of reality; he didn't even use his own strength to act. His first kill was at night and observed through the detection interface of the industrial mother machine. This situation was like playing a game—there was no physical contact, and the images he saw didn't create a visual impact on him. Other factors like smell and atmosphere didn't directly affect his physiological response mechanisms to create a conditioned reflex, resulting in a subtle psychological neglect effect. It was equivalent to a gamer being able to kill people in the real world through virtual operations in a game. In such a case, even if he knew he was killing, he wouldn't have a strong negative reaction. Over time, even the sense of guilt would vanish.

Other factors contributed to Cao Xiao's psychology. First, the power he possessed after obtaining the industrial mother machine was peerless, creating an arrogant and self-inflated mindset where he gradually stopped considering others' feelings or caring about their lives. Second, he hadn't experienced the fear and pain of death himself, so he didn't truly understand the meaning of life. Third, he always had a reason for killing, the targets were enemies, and he never had to face the consequences for his killings, so he felt no guilt at all.

Now realizing these things, he couldn't help but feel a lingering fear. If this continued, he might truly become a murderous demon. Even if he only killed enemies, if he didn't hesitate at all before killing and acted simply because he subjectively thought the other party deserved to die, he wouldn't think that even a heinous enemy might have a virtuous side. While he might feel satisfied after ruthlessly dealing with the opponent, it could cause a family's livelihood to collapse, leading to tragedies he didn't know about, or even killing the wrong person due to a misunderstanding, leaving no room for recourse. Once the truth was known, he would be tormented by regret and guilt for the rest of his life! So, the so-called 'leaving a way out' is not just for others, but also for oneself. He wasn't a 'Holy Mother' type and wouldn't be compassionate to the point of stupidity; he would never show mercy to enemies who threatened his life or his family's. But as long as the other party didn't court death, he wouldn't easily take a life again. There are many things in this world more terrifying than death.