Once this so-called welcome-and-celebration banquet was underway, it was the Azure Governor and Chairman Feng who kept up the small talk with Zhao Chen throughout — and all of it about matters of no importance. Marshal Huang Zhixiong, for his part, paid Zhao Chen no mind at all; his gaze roved over the female guests at the banquet, and for the better part of the time settled on the three women beside Zhao Chen — Su Lan and the others.
During this stretch, more than a few of the banquet-goers came up to toast Zhao Chen. But Zhao Chen, on the grounds that a student ought not to drink, returned each toast with tea in place of wine.
Soon the tea had gone round three times.
The Azure Governor looked at Instructor Qin with a smile. "Instructor Qin, we have a few private matters to discuss with Zhao Chen. Might I trouble you to take these two young ladies aside for a moment?"
A flustered look crossed Instructor Qin's face. Teaching, guiding students, commanding a starship in battle — those she could do. But in a setting like this she was like a green girl fresh out of school, at a complete loss.
"Your Excellency, Instructor Qin and these two are all close confidantes of mine. Whatever it is, you may speak of it directly — there's no need for them to withdraw." As Zhao Chen said it, he leaned back into the sofa and draped both arms straight over the fair, pale necks of Su Lan and Instructor Qin, hands coming to rest on their shoulders.
Instructor Qin went rigid, and looked at Zhao Chen with a flustered, uncertain gaze. In all her years of teaching, she — like her father the dean — had been absorbed in research and instruction, and had basically never had any intimate contact with a man.
Su Lan, by contrast, wore a placid expression, sipping her juice, and all the while said nothing.
Xue Xiaoxiao, off to the side, pouted, rather put out.
Why was this fellow only wrapping his arms around Su Lan and Instructor Qin? In what way was she any worse than the two of them?
Xue Xiaoxiao shot a glance at a certain spot on Su Lan and Instructor Qin, then lowered her head to look at her own — and her mood soured further. She picked up a papaya drink from the table, one that claimed to have a certain special effect, and gulped down several mouthfuls.
Don't lose heart, Xiaoxiao — you're still young, you're still developing!
"Oh… I hadn't imagined you favored beauties older than yourself, Zhao Chen. As it happens, I have a niece in my family, 30-odd — if you're interested, I could introduce the two of you." The Azure Governor said it without the slightest reserve.
Straight to the honey trap, was it?
"And if you have no interest in the human race, Zhao Chen, our Hurricane Conglomerate has lately come by a batch of women slaves from other interstellar civilizations — we could give them to you as a gift," Chairman Feng said with a smile.
Ah-ha — and now came the sugar-coated bullets.
"A young man should cherish lofty ambitions — to roam the great sea of stars, to explore the vast firmament! He mustn't lose himself amid clouds and rain! Zhao Chen thanks you both in advance." Zhao Chen put on the very picture of an upright young man — yet the arms wrapped around Instructor Qin and Su Lan didn't come down in the slightest.
Xue Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes beside him.
Instructor Qin's cheeks had gone faintly red.
Amid clouds and rain? What did that mean? Why couldn't she understand it — and yet feel that something wasn't quite right about it?
Su Lan narrowed her eyes and cast a sidelong glance at Zhao Chen beside her, sipping her juice, saying nothing.
"Good, good, good! A young man ought to have such lofty aspirations!" The Azure Governor clapped in approval.
He looked at Zhao Chen with a smile. "Since these confidantes of yours aren't outsiders, then, let's speak frankly. The truth is, we're very much interested in your superb starship manufacturing and research technology — especially your two warships, the T3 Blizzard and the T2 Black Rhino. Chairman Feng here very much wishes to work with you, and so he's dragged me in as go-between. So long as you're willing, you can have 30% of the profits down the line!"
Chairman Feng cut in from the side, "We're also willing to provide you, Zhao Chen, with the finest starship research institute and resources and equipment, free of charge, to support your future starship research. And if… you have a team behind you, we're prepared to hire them at three times the pay and terms one would get here in the Starlight Empire!"
Crafty enough, this old fox. 30%? What kind of joke was that? Governor Chu, for his part, had offered a licensing fee of 30 times build cost on a T3 warship; sold on the market, the sale price ran to roughly 40 or 50 times build cost. That worked out to about a 70/30 split — Zhao Chen taking 70, Governor Chu 30.
Now that was vision! That was breadth!
You two old foxes — set against Governor Chu, your vision is downright small.
"Ship technology? You gentlemen may have misunderstood — those ships weren't researched and built by me. On an interstellar voyage, I was in an accident and had to make a forced landing on a certain planet. Just when I thought I was going to die, as luck would have it I came upon a great personage's starship construction base. This great personage saw that I was fated to it, and made me a gift of these warships." Zhao Chen wore the expression of a naïve innocent telling nothing but the plain truth.
Wrecked in space? Ran into a mysterious big shot? He saw you were "fated to it"? Gifted you warships?
The papaya milk in Xue Xiaoxiao's mouth sprayed out all at once, all over her own face. What kind of hackneyed web-novel cliché was this?
"Sorry… so sorry…" Xue Xiaoxiao at once took a napkin to the papaya milk on her face, still fighting down the urge to laugh.
"Then might I trouble you, Zhao Chen, to tell me where this great personage's starship construction base is? I should be glad to pay it a visit!" The Azure Governor watched Zhao Chen with a smile — but there was a chill in his gaze. He plainly didn't believe a word of the boy's nonsense.
"That, I'm afraid, won't do. Not long ago that great personage said he meant to take his fleet off to wander the cosmos, so for the time being he can't be found. A pity, a great pity." Zhao Chen put on a rueful air.
"You really do love your jokes, Zhao Chen — we've looked into your whole history. Before you went off to study at Northstar Academy, you'd never once left the Owl Dragon Star System. So where's the room for any tale of a shipwreck and a chance meeting with a great personage? What's more, those two warships, the T3 Blizzard and the T2 Black Rhino, have never turned up anywhere among any other interstellar power. Are you telling me this great personage was so mysterious that his very own warships left not a single trace behind?" The Azure Governor took a sip of wine, eyes narrowed on Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen said, the picture of innocence, "But everything I've told you is the plain truth!"
Crack!
Marshal Huang Zhixiong crushed the wine glass in his hand, the wine dripping to the floor. His face darkened as he said, "Boy — don't refuse the toast of courtesy only to be made to drink the toast of punishment! That the Hurricane Conglomerate is willing to work with you is your good fortune. Otherwise — never mind 30% of the profits — a piddling little baron like you wouldn't see so much as 1%. Cooperate with us honestly, and the three of us can guarantee you wealth and glory — we could even set you up with a rich, prosperous star system in the Azure Star Region, so you needn't stay cooped up in that godforsaken Owl Dragon Star System."
The smile did not leave Zhao Chen's face. "As the saying goes: a son doesn't scorn his mother for being plain, nor a dog its household for being poor. Barren as the Owl Dragon Star System may be, it's still the estate our Zhao ancestors left behind. I'd rather stay on my own little patch of dirt and be a carefree lord — that's the freer, happier life. The wealth and glory you gentlemen offer, I haven't the fortune to enjoy."
In that instant, the very air around where these several sat began to turn wrong.