Located on the South District's Orchid Street, the Iceberg Restaurant is a high-end location in the Cobblepot Group's Iceberg dining industry series. It is also a flagship product of Gotham's tourism industry in the field of catering culture.
Since his mother's health stabilized, Cobblepot has devoted a lot of time and energy to business. He is a good businessman. Backed by the Falcone family, he has harnessed the benefits of the era and caught the fast train of Gotham's transformation.
After the second Iceberg Restaurant in the East District had been operating smoothly for a year, Cobblepot launched the concept of Arctic Iceberg dining culture with followers who had come out of East Hell, integrating the industry into two business lines: Arctic and Iceberg.
Arctic businesses are aimed at locals in Gotham, including self-constructed and externally-invested integrated entertainment venues, including nightclubs, casinos, strip clubs, etc., while the Iceberg business is aimed at tourists and high-end consumers. The restaurants primarily offer Gotham's local fusion cuisines. Each restaurant is outfitted with a massive iceberg landscape to facilitate visitor photo opportunities.
As the tourism industry in Gotham flourishes, the Iceberg Restaurant is beginning to appear in East Coast food and travel news. Cobblepot's net worth is increasing with its rise. As the weather gets hotter, some of the local middle class has started to prefer dining in the Iceberg Restaurant.
Cobblepot seized the opportunity and went beyond the massive iceberg landscape. He placed a small iceberg mist landscape on every dining table, converted the floor and ceilings to an icy blue resembling ice crystals, and used dry ice to create a cold and refreshing atmosphere. Business at the restaurant is flourishing, and most of the time, it's jam-packed.
However, today, the only Iceberg Restaurant in the South District informed all diners that the second floor was fully booked, and all private rooms were sold out, suspending service temporarily.
Loyal customers were disappointed but understood that the restaurant's proprietor, Cobblepot, must be hosting VIPs. The last time the restaurant shut down an entire floor was to host all the bosses of the Twelve Families.
But today, the second floor of the Iceberg Restaurant was empty, with only two figures sitting by the window. Shiller looked around the restaurant's décor, comparing what had changed since his last visit.
Shiller and Victor had visited the restaurant once when it just started, without informing Cobblepot. After all, they were only there for a meal, and there was no need to make a big deal about it.
Compared to that time, the Iceberg Restaurant's unique characteristics are more apparent now. Presumably, Victor had offered Cobblepot several suggestions after his visit back then. It seems the advice was quite visionary, as it's probably the only restaurant in the world with furniture made from dense ice.
It's not that the restaurant is called the Iceberg Restaurant because it uses icebergs to cool down. The coolness in the Iceberg Restaurant is still mainly due to full-strength air conditioning. The current version of this dense ice can be stored in a room at normal temperature without any heat interaction. It's more like a dense material that looks just like ice.
But most people don't understand the principle behind it. They think walking on ice, eating meals on ice tables, and using ice utensils is cool. Coupled with the dry ice mist that's very visually appealing, it's as if all the unbearable summer heat and hot air has just disappeared entirely upon entering the restaurant.
Shiller looked at the steaming dish on the dense ice plate with curiosity. Cobblepot adjusted the position of the dish on the table and explained, "This is the dense ice technology specially developed by Professor Victor, designed to insulate heat. In all aspects, it presents better material properties than glass. Unfortunately, the production cost remains high, so unless we go the high-end custom route, it's challenging to become a new star in the material industry."
"Roy has been trying to promote this unique technology in Gotham, but decorative dense ice doesn't appeal to people more than glass and resin materials, so sales are average. Gotham's cold chain industry's flagship product is still industrial dense ice."
"It's too early to consider decorative building materials." Shiller shook his head and said, "But it indeed can leverage this unique material for urban landscape decoration, such as city statues, or raw materials for public area art."
"Mr. Mayor has already thought about this issue, but the city government team is still discussing how to cleverly combine it with Gotham's greening work."
"I had to rebuild my garden." Shiller shook his head, and then said, "This is probably also something my butler and I need to consider. I was planning to move an ice sculpture back. I just felt that no matter where I put it, the style doesn't match."
"How about turning it into a children's playground?" Cobblepot proposed. "Children will surely like slides and swings made from ice. Dense ice is much stronger than glass and crystal, so you don't have to worry about safety."
Shiller looked thoughtful, seemingly somewhat interested. Cobblepot cut the ham on the plate and said, "I recently planned to add a children's playground on the third floor of the Arctic shopping center. After all, only by freeing the parents from their little devils can they have time to shop."
"I will send the purchase order to your email tomorrow. You can mark the items you are interested in. I will have the factory make an extra set and send it over."
"You've opened a shopping center?" Shiller asked in surprise, "Where is it located?"
"Near the newly opened tourist beach in the East District, not far from the Falcone Hotel and the new Wayne Hotel."
"That's a great location, how's business?"
"It wasn't very good before." Cobblepot gave an answer that surprised Shiller. He continued, "I misjudged the tourist crowd's flow. Those who want to sunbathe, surf and swim at the beach are not the same people who want to go shopping downtown. They rarely book the same hotel. I would've been better off buying and renovating the old shopping center downtown."
"So, you incurred a loss?"
"I'd say it broke even. So now, I'm planning to transform the new shopping center into a comprehensive entertainment venue related to marine culture. We will be selling and renting swimming equipment, running a seafood restaurant and marine product boutique catering, offering post-exercise relaxation massages and therapy, as well as cultural visits and science popularization in the Marine Culture Center, family interactive activities, etc. We will no longer just be selling jewelry and clothes like before."
"Your business acumen is admirable. I believe this will be successful." Shiller genuinely said.
After a slight pause, Shiller returned to the original topic. He said, "There have been some developments in the murder case you asked me to investigate. The murderer hasn't been found yet, but I think the occurrence of the murder may be related to me."
Cobblepot frowned. He didn't think that Shiller was implying that he was the murderer. He quickly guessed, "Could it be that someone is trying to attract your attention by killing people within the city?"
Shiller shook his head and said, "No, not that. My club has been very peaceful lately. They have been discussing topics on blood diseases. No one in the entire East Coast has been making any moves. This time, the threat might be a proper enemy."
Cobblepot immediately became nervous. He stared at Shiller intensively and said, "Are they dangerous? What do they want to get from you? Should we take some defensive measures?"
Shiller, slightly surprised, opened his eyes wide. He really hadn't expected that at this point, someone would genuinely be concerned about him. He couldn't deny he was moved by it, so he said, "You don't need to worry about my safety. Things will not escalate to such an extreme extent. However, possible probes and harassments may persist for some time. Therefore, I have to warn the mob, the city government, and some other influential Gothamites. We need to be more alert during this period."
Cobblepot frowned, thought for a while, and then asked, "Is the opponent hard to deal with?"
"Have you heard of the Assassin's Union?"
"It seems familiar." Cobblepot recalled, "I heard Alberto mention it a few times. But it might have been a grudge from the time of the Old Godfather. The Old Godfather and the father of the Gotham Cathedral have most likely dealt with their leaders. But that was several decades ago. Alberto's understanding is not very detailed."
"The leader of the Assassin's Union is Ra's al Ghul. He is a long-life, possibly having lived for nearly a thousand years. He believes that the existing order of the world must be changed, importantly by him."
"Some of my past actions disrupted the world order. He sharply picked up that besides the Assassin's Union, others were also influencing the historical trajectory of the world. They are not pleased about this, and after inquiring in multiple directions, they have set their sights on me."
"They consider me an enemy, but at the same time, they want to win over my students." Shiller lightly tapped the cutlery with his fingertips as he pondered and spoke, "Ra's al Ghul admires Batman. He wants his daughter to marry Batman, therefore making Batman join the Assassin's Union. If this is not possible, they intend to get his genes and an excellent progeny."
"But I believe that his plan has only reached the first step. They are still trying to win over Batman. But considering they are my enemies, Ra's al Ghul might be wanting to kill two birds with one stone."
The train of Cobblepot's thought halted at cutting his food. He said, "Does he want to use Batman against you?"
"It's not impossible." Shiller said, lightly tapping his plate with the fork, "From an observer's perspective, what is my relationship with Batman?"
Cobblepot was about to comment "Torturing mentor and student," but he thought better of it and decided not everyone could possibly understand what Shiller and Batman were actually doing while torturing each other for all those years.
Perhaps only Gothamites could understand that mutual torture was actually a necessary process for the development of a friendship. In the eyes of normal people, once a conflict arises, the contradiction inevitably deepens.
"When I voluntarily accepted the Federal Bureau of Investigation's misconduct investigation, Talya had appeared inside the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I don't think this is a coincidence." Shiller mentioned another detail, "Talya may not know what she is really doing, but Ra's al Ghul must be clear about the deep implications hidden behind every order of his."
"When I was accused of dereliction of duty, Ra's al Ghul knew it would be a good opportunity to observe the relationship between my students and me. That's why Talya appeared there in good time. It seemed that she had only made a token visit and didn't do anything, but she brought back vital news for Ra's al Ghul."
"Batman is not a respectful student, and I am not a tolerant and loving teacher. Ra's al Ghul thinks he has found the crack to instigate contradictions between us, and so Talya has come to Gotham."
"A honey trap?"
"Rather, it would be said that opposite-sex hormones are the best combustion aid for mind manipulation." Shiller slightly lowered his head and chuckled, "Now, it all depends on who is better at manipulation."