Chapter 38: The Food of the Swordfish

  Since someone was treating, it was naturally the best. Xiao Ping sat in the car without hesitation and said: "Let's go to Ru Jia Hotel on Wen Hua Road."

  "Ru Jia Hotel?" Zhang Yu Xin's heart skipped a beat when he heard the name, his eyes widened as he stared at Xiao Ping beside him, and didn't immediately start the car.

  "Why don't you drive?" Xiao Ping casually asked, then discovered Zhang Yuxin's strange expression and immediately understood that she had misunderstood him.

  "Don't get any strange ideas!" Xiao Ping wrapped his arms around his shoulders: "I really just live there, but it doesn't mean anything else!"

  Looking at Xiao Ping's appearance of a girl about to be bullied, Zhang Yuxin couldn't help but burst out laughing. However, she quickly composed herself, her pretty face turned cold, and she hummed: "Not even looking at your own appearance, who would want you!"

  Xiao Pingcai wouldn't be foolish enough to get into a dispute with a woman, so he pretended not to hear Zhang Yuxin's words. The two of them didn't have much common language anyway, and the atmosphere in the car was somewhat dull all along. It wasn't until they were almost at the Ru Jia Hotel that Zhang Yuxin finally asked in a low voice, "Do you really have confidence in curing Governor Wen's illness?"

  Xiao Ping said confidently: "Your father's illness is much more serious than his, but I still cured it, didn't I?"

  Zhang Yuxin fell silent for a moment before saying, "Secretary Wen has great prospects for further advancement, but his body is holding him back. If you can cure him, it will be of great help to him."

  Xiao Ping knew that Zhang Yuxin said this out of kindness, reminding himself how much he owed Wen Zhiping. However, Xiao Ping really hadn't thought about how to deal with this matter, after all, the gap between him and Wen Zhiping was too big, and for the time being, he couldn't think of anything that would need to trouble the governor.

  Zhang Yuxin spoke briefly and Xiao Ping understood his meaning, so he didn't say much more. They soon arrived at the entrance of the Rujia Hotel and stopped the car.

  Zhang Yuxin hesitated for a moment and followed Xiao Ping out of the car, calling out to him: "Momo really likes this uncle, when you have time... come visit my home more often."

  Xiao Ping knew that Zhang Yuxin said this entirely for the sake of his daughter, and nodded in agreement: "Alright, I also quite like that child Momo, and there will be plenty of opportunities to visit her when I come to the provincial city on business."

  "Then thank you," Zhang Yuxin smiled and thanked Xiao Ping.

  Xiao Ping waved his hand at Zhang Yu Xin, indicating that she didn't need to be polite, and walked into the hotel without looking back. Zhang Yu Xin watched Xiao Ping's back with a complex expression. By now, she could basically believe that this young man had approached her father without any ulterior motives, it was just a coincidence. However, Zhang Yu Xin was also used to being proud and arrogant, although she knew she had wronged Xiao Ping, she didn't intend to apologize to him, she just thought about finding an opportunity to repay him in the future.

  Xiao Ping also felt that Zhang Yuxin's attitude had changed, but he didn't pay much attention to it. What Xiao Ping was really concerned about was the situation of the knife fish, and he didn't know how they were living in the Lian Yao Hu. So as soon as he returned to his hotel room, Xiao Ping immediately entered the Lian Yao Hu space to check on the knife fish.

  Just as Xiao Ping had hoped, the knife fish were doing great in the Lian Yao Hu. The two fish swam back and forth in the clear water, occasionally jumping out of the water to create a small splash before sinking back down to continue their joyful swimming.

  Seeing the current state of the knife fish, Xiao Ping's hanging heart finally completely put down. The Lian Yao Hu is obviously very suitable for the survival of the knife fish, and has already rescued them from the brink of death. Song Tianming had confirmed that these two fish were a pair, and Xiao Ping was convinced that as long as he raised this pair of knife fish in the Lian Yao Hu for a period of time, they would naturally be able to successfully breed knife fish fry, which would be another lucrative path.

  Xiao Ping stood by the pond for a while, watching the knife fish swim happily, but always felt that something was missing. He thought for a long time, and suddenly had an epiphany, finally realizing what was missing.

  "How could I have forgotten to feed the fish!" Xiao Ping slapped his own head heavily, expressing his dissatisfaction with his own carelessness. Animals are not like plants, even in a refining cauldron they cannot survive on just water and air, they must be provided with sufficient food.

  Xiao Ping hastily retreated from the Lian Yao Hu and rushed to the largest flower and bird market in the provincial city.

  Generally speaking, when raising a large number of fish, feed should be purchased from professional feed manufacturers. However, since Xiao Ping is only raising one pair of fish, it's not necessary to go through the trouble of finding a manufacturer, and buying some at the flower and bird market will do. Many of the fish feeds sold here are high-end imported goods that are better than ordinary fish feeds in terms of nutrition and palatability, making them suitable for Xiao Ping's precious pair of knife fish.

  However, Xiao Ping had never raised knife fish before and didn't know what food they liked to eat. In desperation, he bought several of the best fish feeds and returned to the hotel to experiment slowly in the Alchemy Pot. What made Xiao Ping disappointed was that every time the knife fish swallowed the feed floating on the water surface and then spat it out, clearly not interested in the things he had bought at all.

  Judging from the behavior of the knife fish, they are obviously hungry and want to eat something, but these feeds do not suit their taste. If the knife fish can't eat food for a long time, it will definitely starve to death, and then Xiao Ping's plan to breed knife fish will also fail.

  "What can be done about it?" Looking at the knife fish in the water, Xiao Ping was really anxious. However, he had always been a quick-witted person and soon thought of a solution to the problem.

  Xiao Ping immediately came out of the Lian Yao Hu and dialed the phone number of Song Tianming's laboratory.

  "Who?" The phone rang for several times before someone picked up, and then Song Tianming's somewhat impatient voice came on: "I'm very busy now, if it's not something important, please call back in two hours!"

  "Professor Song, I'm Xiao Ping, do you still remember me?" Xiao Ping didn't want to wait any longer and hastily said: "The specimen of the knife fish is almost complete, I plan to add a description, but after searching for half a day, I couldn't find any information about the food of the knife fish, so I had to come ask for your advice."

  Song Tianming had a good impression of Xiao Ping, this young man, and immediately slowed down his tone: "It turns out that it's Little Xiao, you're asking the right person about this. According to my research, knife fish are carnivorous, in short, larger knife fish eat small fish and shrimp, while knife fish fry and juvenile knife fish feed on water fleas and other planktonic animals, wild knife fish prefer live food."

  "Small fish, small shrimp and water fleas, got it." Xiao Ping carefully wrote down Song Tianming's words, then smiled and said: "I'll go buy... no, I'll go make a note card, thank you, Professor Song."

  "It doesn't matter, you're doing this to promote scientific knowledge, we should support it!" Song Tianming smiled and responded with a "yes" before hanging up the phone.

  Then Xiao Ping rushed to the flower and bird market again, where there were live bait fish for sale. These bait fish are big and small, all from the rivers in the suburbs, and the price is very cheap. Xiao Ping spent dozens of yuan to buy a lot. Before leaving the flower and bird market, Xiao Ping also bought some live water fleas. However, they are called fish insects here, and you can buy a lot for just a few dollars.

  Xiao Ping hastily returned to the hotel and entered the demon-refining pot, trying to throw a few fish feeds into the water pool. This time, the situation was very good, two knife fish immediately swam over and swallowed the fish feed thrown by Xiao Ping. Fortunately, he found suitable food for the knife fish, and Xiao Ping couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

  Xiao Ping poured all the feed fish and fish insects he had bought into the water pool, so that the knife fish could eat freely. This was Xiao Ping's hope for raising knife fish, of course, to create the best environment for them. The two knife fish couldn't finish eating so much feed fish and fish insects in a short time, Xiao Ping did this just to avoid going into the Lian Yao Hu every day to feed the fish.

  Finally settled the food for the knife fish, Xiao Ping also felt a great sense of relief. For now, there's nothing to do but wait patiently and hope that this pair of fish will breed soon. With his mind at ease, Xiao Ping fell asleep in the Alchemy Cauldron, lost in a daze, and didn't know how long he slept before waking up again.

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  Thank you for the reward from Pàng Liàng and Shénjí Shūdāizǐ, thank you for your support.

  P.S: The following is very tight, hippocampus continues to seek various supports!