Out on the banquet floor now, a good many people had noticed the strange atmosphere around the central booth — above all the curtain of light that had risen, and the four black-clad bodyguards standing outside it, eyes fixed on Zhao Chen.
The guests who could appear at this "banquet at Hongmen" were, nine in 10, on decent terms with the three men of that iron triangle; they could well guess what was afoot.
"See that? That Zhao Chen boy is a caged canary in the hands of our father and the two lords now — he couldn't escape if he sprouted wings!" Feng Dawei stood not far off, wine glass in hand, keeping a steady watch on the goings-on inside the booth.
Feng Xiaowei, for his part, felt thoroughly delighted just now — a pity only that he couldn't hear with his own ears Zhao Chen's groveling tone and the look of him eating crow. Hmph — wasn't he so very arrogant before? Extorting them aboard his ship, no less. The thought of the tens of thousands of star coins he'd spent on those few days of "fine delicacies" still made his heart ache.
"So how'll this boy be dealt with in the end? Are they really going to work with him?" Feng Xiaowei asked.
"Are you an idiot? Working with this boy now is purely to draw out the ship technology he carries. Once every last bit of value has been wrung out of him, he'll die somewhere, for some reasonable cause, without a soul the wiser. He's only a baron, after all. What's he got to fight us with? For our father and the two lords, crushing him dead is a matter of a single word." Feng Dawei said it flatly.
Feng Xiaowei leered. "Then, big brother — when the time comes to finish him off, could you leave the handling of it to me?"
Feng Dawei glanced at his younger brother and easily guessed the petty little thought in his head. "All right. When the time comes, I'll find a way to put you in charge of it."
"Thanks, Brother!" Feng Xiaowei leered again; already he'd begun dreaming up ways to torment that boy.
T3 Blizzard — Bridge
"Strange — why wouldn't Brother let me go with him?" Zhao Wan'er sat in the captain's chair, puzzled.
Charlotte and Lilith, off to one side, traded a glance. A "flower" raised in a place like the academy had yet to feel the world's cruelty in her own flesh.
Just then someone walked onto the bridge, her expression very grave.
"Just now five separate parties demanded to board — three from the Azure Star Region, two from the Imperial military. I turned every one of them back." Chu Xuan came up before Zhao Wan'er and Charlotte.
"What did they want to board for?" Zhao Wan'er didn't understand.
Chu Xuan looked at Charlotte and Lilith, her face solemn. "Do you two know something about what's going to happen? Did Zhao Chen leave you some instruction? And I've noticed your ship has been holding at Level-1 combat readiness the whole time!"
Chu Xuan had seen that, up to now, every last one of the female crew on the bridge stood ready at her post. And the ship's engines were held in a dormant state at minimum power — able to run at full power at any instant!
At Chu Xuan's words, Zhao Wan'er too looked to Charlotte and Lilith.
Lilith said, "The Commander instructed us earlier that, should the two of you press us repeatedly, we might tell you. This rescue of the two academies' people was, for the Commander, in truth a very dangerous operation. The T3 Blizzard, a T3 warship the likes of which had never been seen, displayed extraordinary combat power in the fight against the interstellar hive-race. It was certain to draw many covetous eyes — yet the Commander's own rank is but a trifling baron. That makes him rather like a dazzling treasure that has, as yet, no guard at all."
Zhao Wan'er hopped down from the captain's chair, her expression tense. "You mean the Azure Governor means to do my brother harm?"
Lilith nodded.
Zhao Wan'er's face filled with alarm. She slapped a hand to her own head — how had she only now grasped this? If not for saving her, her brother might never have exposed the T3 Blizzard at all, and there'd be none of this present danger.
She bit her lip and, in her alarm, seized Charlotte's hand. "Sister Charlotte… my brother won't come to any harm, will he?"
Charlotte looked at Zhao Wan'er and nodded. "Your brother will be fine."
Chu Xuan, for her part, said urgently, "I'll contact my grandfather at once!"
Ever since she'd earlier helped her grandfather get in touch with Zhao Chen, Chu Xuan had known nothing whatsoever of what passed between the two of them. When she'd asked her grandfather, he'd — for one of the very few times — fobbed her off, telling her he was very busy just now and not to trouble him without cause, instructing her only to stay by Zhao Chen. But who could have imagined that, at this so-called celebration banquet, that Azure Governor would dare to seize a man outright. It was shameless past all bounds. And yet, at this moment, she still couldn't reach her grandfather — a most unusual thing.
"What's the matter with this crotchety old man? Pick up, hurry! Every other time I've called him, he answered within three seconds!" Chu Xuan paced back and forth across the bridge in her anxiety.
"I'm going to find my brother!" Zhao Wan'er made ready to leave the ship then.
But Lilith stopped her. "Right now, staying aboard the ship is the greatest help you can be to your brother. You've seen his abilities for yourself — under siege from all those bugs, he came through without a scratch. A mere starport — if he wants to leave, could they hold him?"
Hearing this, Zhao Wan'er halted her steps, but the worry stayed on her face. Never once had she wanted, as urgently as she did now, to see that face she'd originally so disliked.
The Domed Restaurant — Central Booth
Hearing what Zhao Chen said, Huang Zhixiong wore a look of mockery. "You think you'll ever get your chance at the 'river running west'?"
Since things had reached the point of poking through the paper window, the three big shots saw no further need to keep playing house with this boy.
"Since Zhao Chen won't cooperate, then we'll have to trouble you to cooperate with our investigation first. Men — kindly escort Zhao Chen to the villa we've prepared for him, so he may rest well." At this the Azure Governor gave the order directly to his bodyguards.
Zhao Chen's face was expressionless now. With the pretense torn away, he had nothing more to say. The reason he'd come down off the T3 Blizzard in the first place had been to draw the other side's attention away from her. Otherwise, so long as he remained aboard, the T3 Blizzard would become the target of every eye. As for these few bodyguards — were they any tougher than those bugs? He could easily seize these several big shots; there were 10 million ways to take the T3 Blizzard and leave this wretched place. Only, to do so would be the very worst situation Zhao Chen least wished to face.
Suddenly, a piercing beam of light blazed across the whole domed restaurant, so dazzling that no one could keep their eyes open. When the beam faded and everyone looked outside—
There, plain as day, an interstellar fleet of a good 300 and more warships had appeared beyond the starport, and at its head, unmistakably, a T4 Boreas-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship. On these ships, moreover, gleamed a golden character: "Chu." And there was more than the one T4 Boreas — at a glance, at least three!
"Why would the Chu family's fleet appear here!" The Azure Governor's face changed abruptly.
And in that moment, aboard that T4 Boreas, the bow gun and every main and secondary gun swung around and trained on the domed restaurant.
Then a holographic image appeared, of all things, right there inside the domed restaurant.
The man wore an Imperial military uniform, a greatcoat draped over his shoulders; on his epaulettes shone, unmistakably, five glittering gold stars. Old as he looked, the mere hologram of him carried an aura that commanded dread without a trace of anger.
"Blue Fatty. Yellow Rat. Where's my grandson-in-law, Zhao Chen? I've come to take our grandson-in-law home."