"5 billion — that's rather a vast figure… Through regular channels it'd be easy enough to handle. But to do it covertly, unknown to anyone…" Li Yaqi showed a somewhat troubled expression, then said, "Still — there may be one person who can do it."
"Who?" Zhao Chen asked.
"Someone you've met before," Li Yaqi said.
Into Zhao Chen's mind rose that masked woman with the black markings on her face and the crimson eyes.
"The Bloody Mary Mercenary Company?" Zhao Chen spoke the name of the woman's organization.
Li Yaqi nodded. "Bloody Mary has channels to find covert raw-material supply, and she's extremely skilled at transporting such materials besides. She knows the inter-system fringe space between every system like her own back garden. Whatever job she takes, she can always deliver the order into the customer's hands in the shortest time. But… there's one thing… her price is very high!"
"How high?" Zhao Chen asked.
"Suppose you want to transport 5 billion star coins' worth of raw materials — she'll take 30% of it, that is, one and a half billion star coins. But the good of it is, she takes her cut on delivery; she's most true to her word. So in the interstellar black market, no few people are willing to do business with her. Though because of the way she operates, she's made no few enemies too," Li Yaqi said.
31% cut — that was no small profit at all. But right now Zhao Chen urgently needed a batch of raw materials — to build the star gates and expand his fleet, for every side of it.
"Put me in touch with this person — I want to discuss this deal with her!" Zhao Chen said gravely.
Li Yaqi was astonished. Before, Zhao Chen had asked her for an advance of just 20 million star coins; now he was talking a deal of 5 billion without so much as a blink.
"I'll help you make contact; there should be an answer within three days," Li Yaqi said.
"Good." Zhao Chen looked at Li Yaqi and asked, "About that crimson-eyed masked woman — how much do you know? And how did the two of you come to know each other?" To be honest, Li Yaqi's style and that woman's were two different worlds entirely.
Li Yaqi answered, recalling. "That was back when I'd only just started doing business for my father; at the time I was handling a long-haul trade shipment. I was leading a fleet of my interstellar transports to carry a batch of goods to the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth, and along the way, crossing a medium-risk zone, I happened on Chitong just as she was fleeing enemies who were hunting her down. Oh — you don't know her name yet. In fact no one knows her name; those who know her all call her Chitong — 'Crimson Eyes.' Over time it became her code name. Chitong was fleeing in a battered wreck of a shuttle back then, and somehow — I don't know what possessed me — I took her in. I helped her evade the enemies hunting her, and then brought her all the way to the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth; along the road I even nursed her wounds and put her up in my own room. Bit by bit we grew close. When she left, she told me that if ever I needed anything, I could contact her. To tell the truth, I've asked her for help no small number of times; by the reckoning of favors owed, the debt was repaid long ago, but she's still willing to do things for me — and of course I always pay her a fee. As for understanding her… in truth I don't know much. She has a great many secrets; even with me she won't open up. To this day I've never once seen the face beneath her mask…"
Listening to Li Yaqi's tale, Zhao Chen gradually formed a certain notion of this woman called Chitong. Here was a woman cold without and warm within — one who valued feeling, yet was not good at expressing her own feelings.
"In short, if you work with her — so long as you don't do the thing she hates most, there'll generally be no trouble at all," Li Yaqi said.
"And what's the thing she hates most?" Zhao Chen asked.
"Slave trading — child-slave trading above all," Li Yaqi said gravely. "We of the Northern Goose have never engaged in the slave trade. Perhaps that's exactly why Chitong doesn't find me distasteful. As for why — I'd guess it has to do with something in her childhood. There's a rumor that her own younger brother was seized and sold; and when their parents finally found him, they discovered that, owing to a failure in the oxygen system of a transport's cargo hold, a whole hold of child slaves had all died — her brother among them."
Zhao Chen was taken aback. Slave trading?
Then buying slaves to be his crew — he wondered whether that counted as violating her principle.
"All right, I understand. Put me in touch with her first; the rest I'll discuss with her myself," Zhao Chen said.
"Very well." Li Yaqi agreed.
After that the comm ended.
Waiting for Li Yaqi's reply would take a few days. Zhao Chen didn't sit idle in the meantime; he led the six migrating T2 Iron Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships and set off toward the Owl Dragon domain. At the Owl Dragon base, the Blizzard Zero was left behind to stand guard and protect the four T2 Iron Hammers completing the build plans for the four warships. Because the T2 Iron Hammers' cruising speed couldn't match the T3 Blizzard's, this leg of the journey would take a full half month.
On the third day of the return to the Owl Dragon Star System, Zhao Chen received a "guest" on the bridge — a "little girl" with dark circles under her eyes and a mess of tousled hair. Looking at the Annie before him, Zhao Chen didn't recognize this creature at first.
"The two star gates you wanted — the detailed construction plan." Annie tottered onto the bridge, swaying with every step, as if she might topple at any moment. She came before Zhao Chen and sent him an electronic file. Then, heedless of the astonished looks of the crew around her, Annie walked to the captain's chair, seized it with both hands, gave a kick of her little legs, and barely managed to clamber up. Looking utterly hollowed out, she slumped limp into the captain's chair.
"When was… the last time you rested?" Zhao Chen looked at Annie's frail state with some concern.
"Ever since you gave me that T3 star gate technical material, I've been working around the clock, drawing up the construction plan by your scheme… I finally got it done." Annie, her eyes half closed, raised a trembling hand and pointed at the electronic report before Zhao Chen — as though it were her dying charge.
Zhao Chen ran an eye over the electronic document. He had indeed handed this task to Annie earlier. He could have done it himself, of course, but such things couldn't forever be done by his own hand; he needed to cultivate talent. Zhao Chen had a mind to cultivate Annie, so naturally he'd handed her this task. And Annie hadn't let him down — she'd truly completed it.
Having read it through, Zhao Chen found not a single problem with it. He couldn't help marveling at this little dwarf Annie's talent — it truly was quite something.
"This plan you've made is excellent. It can greatly cut the star gate's build time, and raise the T2 Iron Hammers' work efficiency besides," Zhao Chen said with approval.
Annie cracked her eyes half open. "Commander… then… then could you… give Annie… a little… bonus…?"
"A bonus can be arranged…" Zhao Chen suddenly seemed to notice something. He pointed behind Annie. "Lilith, why have you come carrying a chocolate cake?"
"What — chocolate cake!" Annie suddenly came alive, planting both feet right on the captain's chair, eyes shining as she looked behind her. But all she saw was Lilith, hands quite empty, wearing a smile.
At this, Annie felt a gaze from behind her. Annie thought inwardly: this is bad.