The Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe · a certain star system
This was the headquarters of the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group; Huaya Lanlan was in her own office at that moment, seeing to recent business.
She frowned at a report before her and asked the deputy beside her, "Why has the purchase cost of this gone up again?"
"Where this commodity is produced, natural disasters have cut its output sharply over the past year. So the purchase cost has gone up," the deputy answered.
Frowning, Huaya Lanlan began to work it out, and soon came to a figure. "That way, even if we fill this order for the goods without a hitch, our net profit will be under 10%."
"Then could we raise the order's shipping fee and sale price?" the deputy suggested.
Huaya Lanlan shook her head and said, "Competition for this commodity has been tight lately as it is. If we raise prices now, the dealers downstream are very likely not to buy this lot of goods from us. Mind you, no few of them have their eyes on the plate in our hands right now."
The deputy nodded helplessly.
Huaya Lanlan looked over some other things and brought up a document. "At present the funds in our hands have reached the warning line. If Nini's order can't be filled, our cash flow may run into trouble. Then we'll have to give up some market share ourselves."
At the mention of it, Huaya Lanlan's face darkened.
Giving up market share was very easy, but winning that market share had cost a great price, and time.
To give it up now before her very eyes was something her heart could not accept.
But if it truly came to that, there would be nothing for it but to do so.
"Still no word back from Huaya Nini?" Huaya Lanlan could not help asking.
"By the timing, filling the order, unloading, taking payment and coming back to our Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe will take two or three days more at least," the deputy answered.
Huaya Lanlan rubbed her head, shut her eyes, and muttered, "Yes, it'll take that long still. How could I even forget that?"
The pressure of late had made this strong woman forget no small number of things she ought to have remembered.
Just then
a video call came in.
Huaya Lanlan looked at the caller's account: it was none other than her younger sister, Huaya Nini.
She looked at the account in some surprise. Why would her sister contact her two or three days early?
Could it be?
Huaya Lanlan thought at once of the worst possibility, but she put on a show of calm and took the video call all the same.
Huaya Nini's figure appeared on the other end.
"Sister." Seeing her sister, Huaya Nini greeted her at once.
But Huaya Lanlan said with a grave expression, "What's happened? Were you attacked by raiders? Are you all right? Do you need our people to deal with them? Tell them that so long as they don't take your lives, we'll agree to any terms!"
At her sister's words, Huaya Nini was taken aback for a moment.
Then she understood: her sister thought they had been attacked by the enemy and that something had happened to them.
Huaya Nini explained at once, grinning, "Sister, nothing's happened to me. I'm perfectly safe. That order's been filled too; the goods were delivered on time and in full into their hands, and they've confirmed the order is complete. Our interstellar transport fleet is at the port of Gold-Mountain Shire right now loading the payment they're making. Because of some business, I came back early. But I've already put someone else in charge of matters over there."
Hearing her sister's explanation, Huaya Lanlan could set her mind at rest at last.
The worry in her eyes eased, and a smile came to her face. "The order's filled; that's truly wonderful. For our Bailan Interstellar Trade Group, it's a very important thing. With this payment, our Bailan Interstellar Trade Group won't run into any great trouble for the next half year."
She paused, then looked at her sister curiously. "Then what's the business that needs you to hurry back early and contact me?"
Interstellar traders usually kept watch over an order to the very end, until they returned with the payment and it was entered in the books;
only then was the whole order and its trade complete.
And Huaya Nini had always been a very earnest, careful person.
For her to set the order aside for the time being and hurry back on purpose, it must be something especially important.
A grave look came over Huaya Nini's face now. "Sister, what I have to tell you is very important!"
Huaya Lanlan sensed something; she looked at the deputies in her office and said in a low voice, "All of you, step out for a moment."
"Yes." The deputies all went out.
At once the office seemed a great deal quieter.
Huaya Lanlan also pressed a button in the office.
Out of sight, the office had become a place of very high secrecy, shielded against every possible means of eavesdropping and spying.
"You can speak now," Huaya Lanlan said.
Huaya Nini at once told Huaya Lanlan everything, point by point, about the Villain-Envoy Mercenary Legion Fleet and the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
When she first began to listen, Huaya Lanlan's face still wore a calm expression.
But on hearing that it was an Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire fleet disguised as the Villain-Envoy Mercenary Legion Fleet, and that the Owl Dragon Emperor himself was even hidden in it,
the look on Huaya Lanlan's face turned unusually grave, and she said, "I understand. Since you've already made arrangements, a matter this important still needs us to meet and talk it over."
"I thought so too. And that gentleman seemed very much in a hurry. I suspect that in looking for allies, we may be their first choice, but not their only one. So I hurried back without a moment's rest. We're back in the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe now, on the way back to our headquarters. We expect to reach our headquarters' star port docks in another ten hours."
"I understand; I'll arrange what follows." Huaya Lanlan nodded.
After they had said their goodbyes, the call came to an end.
Huaya Lanlan sat in her chair, and for a long time could not be calm.
The Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
The Owl Dragon Emperor.
Cooperation.
This sudden business had thrown all Huaya Lanlan's plans for the work ahead into disorder.
She opened her handheld terminal and contacted her first deputy. "Cancel every engagement I have for the next twenty-four hours."
"Yes," the deputy answered, puzzled but compliant.
Then Huaya Lanlan began using her own access rights to bring every piece of data and information on this Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire and the Owl Dragon Emperor before her.
Before this, she had known only the broad outline of this Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
It was hard to believe that an interstellar empire of such great military strength had now actually appeared before her.
She had to make every preparation for the meeting to come.
……
A long while later.
Looking at the interstellar fleet that had appeared at the port, Huaya Lanlan dared not look down on it in the least, though these interstellar warships looked old and worn from outside.
Mind you, these were all Owl Dragon-line interstellar warships,
very nearly the most advanced interstellar warships of their grade among the known universe's civilizations,
beyond the interstellar warships of the Holy Elf Empire and the Devourer Civilization.
Huaya Lanlan drew a deep breath, stepped into her interstellar shuttle, and flew it toward one of the huge interstellar warships.
Though this interstellar warship's exterior had also been disguised and made to look old, Huaya Lanlan could still feel the overbearing presence coming off its hull as she drew near.
It was not that Huaya Lanlan had never seen powerful interstellar warships; she had seen T6 interstellar warships in service with some interstellar civilizations, and had even gone aboard a few to look around.
But she could swear that all those interstellar warships together had not shaken her as this one interstellar warship before her did.
Very soon, following guidance, she flew into a hatch this interstellar warship had opened.
The interstellar shuttle settled slowly onto a berth.
The interstellar shuttle's hatch opened.
Huaya Lanlan stepped out.
She saw a squad of interstellar soldiers waiting there.
"Hello. I've been ordered to receive you. This way, please. First we need to confirm whether you're carrying any weapons." The NCO stepped forward, gave a military salute first, then spoke with a straight face.
"All right." Huaya Lanlan had no objection, and meekly let herself be checked.
In fact it took only a few steps, for it was only walking through the threshold of a scanning device.
"Very good. Please come with us." The NCO led the way with her soldiers.
Huaya Lanlan followed meekly behind, but her eyes still swept the surroundings now and then.
This giant interstellar ship looked very old from outside, but once truly inside the starship, all was brand-new.
And the structures inside, though she saw only part of them,
Huaya Lanlan could swear this was an interstellar warship of the T6 grade beyond doubt, and a very powerful T6 interstellar warship at that.
After all, its worth needed no telling if it could be the Owl Dragon Emperor's flagship.
Very soon Huaya Lanlan was brought to the outside of a great door.
The NCO knocked on the door; then a beam of light shone down, and after it had scanned the group,
the door opened by itself.
The NCO stood aside and made way. "Please go in on your own, Your Excellency. His Majesty is waiting for you inside."
"Thank you." Huaya Lanlan walked through the door.
Inside the door stood a screen wall, so the layout of the room could not be seen directly.
Once she had gone round the screen wall, Huaya Lanlan saw a plain hall, very plain, with dragon-pattern work to be seen only on a few pillars.
But plain as it was, Huaya Lanlan could tell that the few ornaments in the hall were all priceless.
The screen wall she had seen on coming through the door, for instance, was of some very rare jade, and a single piece, not pieced together.
A piece of jade that large would fetch tens of millions of star coins at the least on the market,
and even then it was the sort of thing no amount of money could buy.