Walking out of the Old Gothic Winery, Lan Jue’s mouth was still filled with that abundant, meaty flavor, as well as the pure fragrance of that ‘heavenly treasure’. The Coffee Master, having received a satisfactory answer from him, had left earlier.
Turning his head, he looked at the Gourmet who had left alongside him. Lan Jue couldn’t help but want to laugh.
In the previous era, Iberico ham truly did have rather thick fat. But the method which the Gourmet had selected for them to eat had another effect; it reduced the amount of grease. After reducing the amount of grease, naturally it was a little bit tastier.
At this moment, Lan Jue’s mind was still full of that look of hidden bitterness in the eyes of the Wine Master when he stored away the remaining ham.
“I’m off.” The Gourmet waved at him, then merged into the night.
Lan Jue passed through Skyfire Avenue. He saw, to his somewhat astonishment, that the lights in his store were still lit. It was already very late at night.
Pushing the door open and entering, he saw Xiu Xiu, standing there with a smile.
“Xiu Xiu, why haven’t you gone home to rest yet? It’s very late.” Lan Jue looked towards her questioningly.
Xiu Xiu smiled as she went to welcome him, handing an envelope over to him. “Boss, this is the letter which that young Miss Mao left behind. I was afraid of delaying some important matter, so I waited until you came back. Ke’er originally wanted to wait alongside me, but she was sleepy, so I had her go home first.”
Lan Jue gave her a courtly hug. “You are always so thoughtful.”
Xiu Xiu smiled. “Then I’ll go home now?”
“Right. Good night. Be careful on the way home.” Lan Jue lightly kissed her on her cheek.
Xiu Xiu walked to the door, turned her head towards him, smiling beautifully. “The wine fragrance you are wearing today smells very good.”
Lan Jue laughed. “If I smelled this good every day, the Wine Master would try to kill me.”
Xiu Xiu shut the door after walking through it. Lan Jue stayed at the store at night. Not for the sake of standing guard or working at night, but because this was his home.
Holding that letter, Lan Jue strolled into the VIP room. He pressed a button on one of the side walls of the VIP room, and the wall slide away, revealing the room behind it.
Lan Jue’s residence wasn’t very large, only a hundred square meters or so, but it had all sorts of necessary equipment. Every day, Xiu Xiu and Ke’er would volunteer to help him keep it clean, so this place was always spotless.
The room still had the faint, natural fragrance left behind the two girls. Lan Jue didn’t like the smell of strong perfume, which Xiu Xiu and Ke’er both knew.
Sitting down on the sofa, Lan Jue pulled open the envelope. He actually didn’t want to read it at all, because he didn’t want to ruin the good mood the ‘heavenly treasure’ wine had given him, but…all people are affected by curiosity. He was no exception. In addition, he had the faint sense that this letter wasn’t a simple one.
Opening the envelope, he only saw four words, but these four words caused him to instantly forget about the flavor of the ‘heavenly treasure’.
Lan Jue’s eyes, slightly intoxicated after having drank wine, suddenly turned blue, and electricity crackled within them. The originally bright lights in the room began to flicker and turn dim, sometimes bright, sometimes dark, while emitting a nonstop crackling sound.
Hera! Is! Not! Dead!
Those were the four words on that piece of paper.
Hera was a name. In the previous era, on the home planet, she was the Queen of the Gods in Greek mythology.
Zeus was the King of the Gods. His wife, naturally, was the Queen of the Gods, Hera.
In the New Era, Hera Mao was Lan Jue’s wife. The wife who had disappeared in what was, to him, an utterly calamitous event. The explosion which had ended the event had destroyed an entire star. No one believed that Hera could have survived.
It had happened three years ago. After it happened, he had arrived here and settled down here.
Dragons have their weak points. Zeus did as well.
Lan Jue sat there for a full quarter hour, not moving at all.
After the quarter hour passed, he flipped the letter over. On the back, he found a contact number.
With his left hand, he pressed down in mid-air. The electronic screen on facing the sofa immediately lit up, and a holographic 3D image appeared. The image was that of Skyfire Star. Lan Jue’s left hand was now covered with a layer of light as well.
His elegant, agile finger transformed into a blur as he entered a lone line of numbers, and the holographic image in front of him rapidly moved.
Seconds later, the image of Skyfire Star disappeared. The woman who had come to the store before appeared in front of him, still dressed in white. But of course, this was just her digital hologram.
“Zeus, can we have a chat now?” The woman had a smile on her face as she spoke. She was very confident; perhaps even a bit coy.
Lan Jue’s face was very calm, and the blue color had vanished from his eyes. “Do you know what the price of lying to me is?”
Although they were separated by a great distance and only speaking through a communications device, upon hearing those words, the woman’s face couldn’t help but change. Strong heart palpitations caused her to suddenly feel as though her chest was under great pressure. Still, she quickly managed to calm down. “When Zeus is angered, the heavens and the world will know it. I know. My name is Pearl [Yue].”
Lan Jue said coldly, “Show me the evidence.”
“Alright.” Pearl agreed easily. Raising her two arms, she made pulling motions in mid-air, and an image appeared.
The image was that of a picture. It seemed to be a classroom in a school. The students were all dressed in school uniforms, and they were walking in line, preparing to go to class.
Suddenly, Lan Jue stood up. The blue light which had just disappeared from his eyes appeared yet again.
He saw a person. A person who, for him, had been engraved deep into his soul long ago.
The first thing he saw was her head of long, black hair. Her black hair was somewhat naturally wave, utterly black and glossy, rolling down to her waist. Her school uniform revealed her orchid-like, pure white arms, long and tender. Because the table obstructed the view, one couldn’t see anything lower than mid-skirt.
The most shocking thing was, her eyes had pupils that were different from that of ordinary people’s. They were sky blue, like the color of the sea, without a hint of impurity. Her long eyelashes blinked, and those sky-blue eyes became the most soul-stirring part of her exquisite features. Anyone who she looked at would feel that their soul was enchanted by her two beautiful eyes.
Black hair, blue eyes. It was her!
The picture disappeared, and Pearl’s voice rang out once more.
“Zeus, can we talk about our partnership now? The school uniform which Hera is wearing, in the area of Skyfire Star alone, is used by the students of over two hundred schools. In addition, the star she is at isn’t necessarily Skyfire. I can tell you a secret beforehand. Within the next ten days, if you aren’t able to find her, then, you will definitely regret it all your life.”
Lan Jue, or, to be precise, “Zeus” Lan Jue, said, his eyes flashing coldly, “Terms!”
Pitch-black and boundless. Two phrases that shouldn’t be put together. But if you were to use them to describe the universe, it would be appropriate.
But even in the pitch-black universe, on occasion, there would be some beautiful sights. For example, right now!
A ray of silver light streaked past the dark space, flying off into the distance.
This was a spaceship. A passenger spaceship that was quite frequently seen in the New Era, also known as an interstellar shuttle. It was usually around 534 meters long, 168 meters wide, and colored white. This was the color of the Northern Alliance, the most powerful of the three great powers which arose after humanity entered the New Era.
This interstellar shuttle was capable of simultaneously carrying both passengers as well as large amounts of cargo. It had a pre-determined route. It would jump through the safe wormholes which humanity had discovered during the past hundred years which led to each of the stars which humanity governed.
Not too far away, an enormous planet was visible. This was the capital planet of the Northern Alliance, the planet of Luo. This was an administrative planet which was even larger than the planet of Skyfire, and half of its surface was suitable for human life.
Drawing near its target, the interstellar shuttle’s speed began to lessen as it prepared to make an atmospheric entry into the planet of Luo.
When entering the atmosphere, the speed couldn’t be too fast, as otherwise, even an interstellar shuttle would break apart.
Just as the interstellar shuttle was slowly down to roughly three times the speed of sound, the empty space to its left suddenly distorted slightly, and a faint shadow suddenly, silently attached itself to it.
What was even more astonishing was that the interstellar shuttle didn’t react at all. Its sensitive radar seemed to have been completely unable to sense the presence and arrival of this shadow.
Suddenly, the interstellar shuttle shook powerfully. Its left side began to reveal traces of faint blue electric bolts, and the entire shuttle began to shudder violently.
“DIIIII! DIIIIII! DIIIII!”
Within the interstellar shuttle, ear-piercing warning klaxons were going off!
Bosen [Bei’seng] was an interstellar shuttle pilot of thirty years, who had over a hundred thousand hours of piloting experience. This captain was an old pro. Hearing the warning klaxon from the ship, he picked up the communication tool in an unhurried, unpanicked manner.
“All employees, please take your seats and fasten your seat belts. We have encountered some static electricity in the atmosphere, and will temporarily postpone our passage through the atmosphere. Everything will be fine soon. At the same time, please temporarily refrain from engaging the procedures for waking our passengers from deep sleep.”
Captain Bosen’s judgment was extremely accurate. Moments later, the interstellar shuttle’s vibrations halted and everything returned to normal.
Most interstellar shuttles had roughly 70% of their renovated space reserved for holding cargo. Only the remaining space was used for holding employees, and of course the passenger cabin.
The passenger cabins were divided into three types. The first class cabin, the middle cabin, and the economy cabin, which was also known as the commoner class.
The three different cabins naturally had astronomically different prices, and each had their own services.
Each person in the commoner cabins only had a square meter of personal space, a simple seat, and were locked in place by metallic bonds, as though they were being chained up for punishment. When reaching light speed, the only support their heads had for when they were in deep sleep was a helmet which definitely couldn’t be described as comfortable.
The middle cabins was slightly better. At least, it allowed for a person to lie down while wearing the helmet. Thus, when waking up out of deep sleep, at least they wouldn’t feel as miserable as those people in the commoner cabin, whose entire bodies would feel sore, as though they had been beaten.
As for the first class cabins, it could only be described using the phrase ‘lavish’. Every single first class cabin had twelve square meters of space, including a proper, comfortable sleeping berth, a lavish seat that could be sat on or reclined on, and a shower as well as a changing room.
When sleeping within these sleeping berths during interstellar travel, not only would they receive the best rest, more importantly, these sleeping berths were equipped with nutritional liquids that could allow their bodies to be in a state which used up very little energy, to the point where the aging process was greatly slowed. After all, every single long-distance journey would take perhaps more than a month. Compared to those in the commoner cabins who over the course of the journey would perhaps lose at least a terrifying ten pounds of body weight, the first class cabins would actually help their passengers be in peak condition.
The price of a first class cabin was ten times that of a middle cabin, and a hundred times that of a commoner cabin!
Most standard interstellar shuttles only had around thirty or so first class cabins. After all, very few people would choose to pay such an astronomical price. The middle cabins were already enough to satisfy the needs of most ordinary people, who only wanted their bodies to not be damaged during the passage.
Leng Lingxi, undergoing the deep sleep awakening protocols, slowly escaped from his deep slumber.
“Uhhh….what a wonderful sleep.” She murmured, then looked through her mask and found the green button which opened and closed her cabin. With a gentle push, the cover above her sleeping berth opened.
Leng Lingxi sat up from the middle of the viscous nutritional fluid, revealing her slender, fine lines. She removed the mask on her face and took a deep breath of fresh air. Instantly, she revealed a relieved look on her face. However, she immediately began to brush off the liquid on her arm with a look of some disgust.
“Sleeping in a first class cabin is comfortable, but these nutritional liquids are really unpleasant. Can’t they improve it to something which is similar to clear water?”
There were partitions to every single first class cabin. Even if the first class cabins were all full, as long the partitions weren’t pushed open, nobody would be able to see anyone else.
Climbing out of her sleeping berth, she rinsed off the rest of the nutritional liquid in the shower, then put on a clean set of clothes. Leng Lingxi immediately felt much better.
She made several stretching motions and did a few yoga movements, then walked towards her seat while opening her partition.
The partition next to her slowly opened with a gentle, metallic sound, revealing the walkway for her cabin as well as the outside scene.
Hey, someone was even faster than me? Leng Lingxi looked with some surprise towards the left partition. That partition was also opened, and there was someone sitting on a seat.
This was a young man with short black hair, deep blue exercise clothes, and an extremely handsome face.
Someone seated in first class was wearing exercise clothes? This discovery caused Leng Lingxi to be unable to retrain her curiosity. This was the first time she had seen a guest like this in first class. Generally speaking, shouldn’t most people change into crisp suits or chic apparel, so that they would be ready to start working as soon as they disembarked the shuttle?
Leng Lingxi herself was an exception, because she herself was wearing a set of white exercise clothes. Thus, another exception easily attracted her interest.
“Hi, how are you. I think I didn’t see you when we boarded the ship?” Leng Lingxi’s temperament was completely different from her surname Leng, meaning cold. Not only was she not cold, she was very warm and generous.
A faint smile drifted onto the face of the young man. In a very gentlemanly manner, he inclined his head towards her. “Greetings, beautiful young miss.”
What proper etiquette, and not seeming affected or pretentious at all. “To be able to see such a handsome gentleman by my side as soon as I woke up truly is a happy event. My name is Leng Lingxi.”
The young man seemed to have been somewhat intrigued by the ambiguous meanings in her words. His lips curved upwards. Smiling, he said, “My pleasure. I am Zeus!”
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