Chương 19: Sweet victory

The moment she prepared herself for this mission, she had known that there could be a possibility that she would have to use Wrath her steel bat to defend herself, which is why she had asked T4 to get her an interchangeable bat if it was available.

Turns out, those are the cheapest and most common bats on planet Corl. They were created as children's toys for hitting games. They did not have as much power as her original Wrath the safety bat.

She had exchanged ten packets of strawberry seeds for twenty of these bats. She figured if she sold fifteen of them at a million Yuan per bat, she could make fifteen million Yuan easily.

Therefore, it was no coincidence that she had used this bat the way she had and the moment she did. She was simply marketing her product.

She blinked innocently like she had no idea what he was asking about.

"What are you talking about?" she pretended to re-arrange her hair.

"The bat that you used to hit the bomb, we all saw it grow in size." The squad leader looked around at his men to see if they agreed with him.

Chi Lian smiled like a fox, "You mean this." She pulled out the tiny pen like metal and once more, the audience at home and the soldiers before her saw the bat increase in size and length.

It was like watching a magic show of sorts."it's a newly developed power bat for self defence and hitting games like baseball. "

"Sis, that's so cool. I want one too." Chi Rui shouted. He wanted to be first in line to use it before anybody else. He could already imagine how envious his friends would be if he carried one around.

"Sure." She pulled one out of her pocket and handed it to him. Knowing that she had managed to get the reaction she wanted out of her audience, she bade them goodnight and Chi Rui switched off the camera.

"Great, now I can turn on my phone." Chi Rui pulled out his phone and immediately started taking pictures of himself with the bat in different angles. With a little dust on his face and clothes, surrounded by military special police in uniforms, he looked like a hero returning from a long hard victorious battle.

In fact, he deluded himself into believing he was now one of them. He was fist bumping them and calling them bro. This was a great improvement from someone who had been terribly fearful of them before.

"We should go home." His sister said.

The operation had taken over three hours from start to finish. It was coming to four o'clock in the morning. All those involved in the operation were awfully exhausted and could not wait to go home to their beds or loved ones.

"Sister, I want a bat as well." The squad leader widened his eyes and blinked. He desperately tried to appear adorable before Chi Lian.

"They are hard to manufacture and the materials are very rare. I have eleven bats and I am selling each of them for around one million Yuan."

She knew that the military would be interested in these bats as a weapon. Of course they could not possibly manufacture them because the material they were crafted from was only available on planet Corl. However, if she intended to make as much money as she could out of the military, she needed to sell the rarity and high cost involved in there manufacture.

"One million," Chi Rui gasped and immediately put his bat in his inner jacket. This was a treasure that he could not afford to misplace. He was now a wealthy little man with an item worth a million.

He suddenly thought of his bank account that had only fifty thousand Yuan and laughed.

Meanwhile, the squad leader continued to plead as they walked towards the cars which would take them back to the police headquarters.

"Sister, we have just gone through a life and death situation together, we are now bonded for life." He claimed. "Sister, we saved each other from death_"

Chi Lian rolled her eyes and relented, "Fine, I am only giving you one because you trusted me back there."

She pulled another one out of her pocket and handed it to him.

The rest of her squad was eyeing her pocket like it was a magic factory for candy.

Another soldier moved to her and said, "Sister_"

"Keep moving." The squad leader ordered.

The soldier looked so wronged and aggrieved. He kept giving Chi Lian hopeful glances but his captain fiercely kept his eye on him.

When the other soldiers saw that he had failed, they backed off.

They got onto the armored vehicles and were driven straight to the headquarters were their colleagues and some few citizens were waiting for them with flowers.

They were the heroes of the empire today.

After receiving the flowers, they were ushered into the building to meet the higher ups and recount the details of the operation.

The minister of state for security who previously disliked Chi Lian because he found her to be too pushy was now smiling at her like she was a goose that laid golden eggs.

"How are you Miss Chi?" he asked like a worried father.

"I am okay minister. I am sure you were watching the broadcast so you know that nothing happened to me physically."

"Yes, yes, I noticed. You did a really wonderful job out there. If it wasn't for you, our empire would have been struck by disaster."

As he patted her held her hands, his eyes eyed her pockets like an x-ray machine.

Chi Lian was exhausted; she had no interest in being in the police station anymore. She simply wanted to shower, get something to eat and sleep. All this sweet talking that the minister was doing was obviously because of the bat.

"Two million per bat." She said.

"What! That's not what you said. I already know that you said one million per bat." The minister looked outraged and betrayed. If he could take back all the nice things he had said about her, he would.

"The price has gone up." She shrugged.

"Y-Yo-You, how can you be so ruthless?"

Chi Lian knew that now was the right time to strike another deal with the minister.

"Oh, that poor man." T4 said.

"Shut up."

She smiled at the minister cunningly," I can lower my price." She said, "But you have to give me something in return."

"State your demands." He sighed.

"I want the exclusive rights to cover the next six stories involving military action or police raids."

The minister crossed his arms over his chest, "That's a big ask."

"And this is an exclusive weapon. It's small and mighty. With this, you soldiers on missions can capture more targets alive." She took a bat out of her pocket and handed it to the minister, "Try hitting something and see."

He looked over it, trying to figure what its mechanisms. He pressed a tiny red button and it grew.

"Whoa," He said. He looked more like an excited nerd than a stone hearted general.

His subordinates brought a dummy for him to hit.

One swing and the dummy separated into two pieces.

"Holy shit!" he swore. "This is one powerful bat. How many of these can you provide?"

"Ten."

He looked deeply into her eyes sternly to see if she was holding anything back.

"The military would like to buy them all. We will pay ten million dollars and you will get exclusive coverage for the cases I choose."

"This deal does not include the cases I will have discovered on my own. For those cases, I expect the same treatment as I received today." She emphasized.

Reluctantly, the minister agreed.

"Send someone to my address to pick up the package tomorrow."

The minister walked away with the bat that she had given him to try out. Chi Lian was not particularly happy about that because she had yet to receive her money. But the minister would have to demonstrate the power of the bat to those who had more power than him. They needed to see what they were buying.

She looked at her brothers who were leaning against one another on a bench and dozing off. She tapped them on the shoulders and they left the station.

It was coming to five thirty in the morning when they got home. Mama Chi and Papa Chi who were waiting to scold their children lost the desire to do it when they noticed the look of exhaustion on their faces. Honestly, they were just glad to see that the children were home safe.

"I will go and prepare some porridge for you." She quickly runs to the kitchen in cathartic tears.

"You all made us worry so much. How could you be so reckless?" Papa Chi was determined to say one thing at least.

However, the three had already made their way to their bedrooms.

In the house next door, Jun Muyang who had not had a wink of sleep all night sighed with relief when he saw Chi Lian come home through his bedroom window upstairs.

"Such a foolish woman!" he whispered.