The city before them could be seen at a glance to have been built recently,
and with the modular construction technology the Fierce Dragon civilization provided.
The great majority of the building modules, even the roads and bridges, were all built complete by companies in factories,
then carried by construction drone-robots to the designated sites and assembled.
Under such techniques and building conditions,
building a city able to house ten million people took less than a month.
Technology of this kind, bearing on people's livelihoods, the Fierce Dragon civilization provided free of charge.
Zhao Chen knew very well that to make these ordinary people work wholeheartedly for him,
the first thing was to give them a good environment to live in.
"This restaurant looks good; it has local dishes, and the reviews are very high." Once Zhao Chen had connected his handheld terminal to the local network, he very soon found a restaurant with very good reviews.
This restaurant was nothing very extravagant; its spending per head sat right in the middle for the area.
From this it could be judged that the reason this restaurant had made the list of well-reviewed places
was in large part that it truly was worth the price.
"Let's go; this is the one." Zhao Chen showed the address to the driver.
The driver at once headed for the place.
Ten-odd minutes later,
the vehicle was parked in this restaurant's own parking lot.
This restaurant was of the small-courtyard kind.
Because it had a great many diners, a parking lot had been set up specially beside it.
On entering the parking lot, one could take a number and wait.
Those who wanted to wait in their cars could; there was a number-calling system in the parking lot.
Those who wanted to wait in the waiting area could too; it was in a hall beside the parking lot.
Because Zhao Chen's guards had used a few privileges, they had reserved several places long in advance.
So once their vehicle was parked,
they went straight into the restaurant.
The restaurant was very large, five floors in all.
Zhao Chen and the others went to the fifth floor.
It is worth mentioning
that there were no private rooms here; everything was in the open dining hall.
Zhao Chen and the others took a place by the window,
a rather large round table, quite enough for eight diners.
And the tables around it had all been booked by Zhao Chen's guards.
The guards were all in plain clothes, so unless one looked closely,
one could never tell who these people were.
"Wow, the view here is so nice!" Nannan looked at the window beside her.
Outside the window was a forest of red trees,
all of them red trees, with every kind of red plant and flower among them.
It could be said that at a glance, over eighty percent of everything in sight was red.
It truly had a charm all its own.
"Why should we give up the place we clearly reserved to them!"
"Why? Because my dad is this city's deputy city lord!"
Zhao Chen and the others had only just sat down when they heard a quarrel not far off.
That too was a place by the window.
Several young people had already sat down.
Beside the table stood a family of three.
The father, red in the face, stood in front, arguing with those young people.
"Waiter. This is the place we reserved. They came straight in and took it. Aren't you going to do something about it?" Seeing that these young people paid them no heed at all and had even begun ordering, this father
could only pin his hopes on the waiter.
The waiter came over, glanced at those young men and women, and looked at the father in some difficulty.
"Well… are you sure… you want me to throw them out? Actually I can arrange another place for you later. You'd only need to wait an hour."
The waiter's eyes signaled the father to swallow his anger and put up with it.
"Then if I wait an hour, will I still get a place by the window? It's my daughter's birthday today. Her only wish was to have her birthday at a place by the window! I reserved it a week in advance. Why should I give it up!" The father clenched his fists.
Behind him, a girl of twelve or thirteen was holding her father's wrist,
her eyes a little red at the way things stood.
She said softly, sobbing, "Daddy… why don't we not eat; let's go home."
Hearing his daughter's almost pleading tone, the father clenched his fists, feeling wretched inside.
"Hey, old man. Today it's a seat you're making us give up. Tomorrow it'll be your post you're giving up!" One of the young men at that table looked the middle-aged father up and down. "By your looks and your clothes, you must hold some middle-level post in this city. You've worked hard to get where you are now. Why throw away your prospects over a meal!" the young man said contemptuously.
The threat in these words was already plain:
if you make me give up this seat today,
then what you give up tomorrow will be your job!
The middle-aged father gritted his teeth.
"Big sister. Don't cry. Is it your birthday? Do you want to come eat over here with me? The view over here is nice too."
Suddenly a little hand took hold of the girl of twelve or thirteen.
The girl looked down and saw a very cute little girl pointing at a better window seat next door,
where the view looked still nicer.
"I…"
"It's all right. Our table's really big. There are only three of us eating. We can share the table and eat together. Big sister… what flavor is your cake?" As Nannan spoke, her eyes were shining, full of hope.
No one could possibly refuse this little cutie.
"It's red-chocolate flavor. It's really good. We'll share it in a bit." The girl's words amounted to accepting Nannan's invitation.
The girl looked at her father.
The middle-aged father looked at the young man and woman sitting at the table.
This young man and woman wore hats and glasses, and did not look like locals.
"This…"
Before the middle-aged father could speak,
Zhao Chen spoke first: "Sir, today is your daughter's birthday. Don't let certain garbage spoil a happy mood. Our place here is very roomy, and the view is very good too. Why not sit here with us?"
Hearing this, the middle-aged father looked at his hopeful daughter,
and in the end agreed, privately making up his mind too:
since they had invited him,
then when it came time to pay, he would just pay for them as well.
Though this restaurant's prices were not cheap, at worst he would drink a little less over the next few months.
Today was, after all, the birthday his daughter had looked forward to for so long.
The family of three came over to Zhao Chen's side, expressed their thanks and sat down.
And at this point, the young men and women at that table were displeased.
The young man who had made threats earlier heard what Zhao Chen had said, and stood up and came straight over.
As he made this move,
the plainclothes guards at the next table made to get up without thinking.
But a look from Zhao Chen signaled them to stay calm.
These guards did not move again, but their movements grew somewhat slower than before, and they talked less often.
Their hands rested at various places on their bodies.
At this moment they were ready for anything.
The moment these fellows did anything that threatened His Majesty, they would step in at once!
"Who are you people, to dare meddle in our business? Since you're so kind-hearted, why don't you give us this place of yours too!" The young man slapped his hand down on the table.
"Since when do dogs get to put their paws on the table at dinner?" Zhao Chen said unhurriedly.
"Dog's paws? Does Daddy mean him?" Nannan looked this young man up and down.
Then she nodded slowly: "He does look like a dog."
But then she shook her head and said, "But he's not as good-looking as our dog Big Yellow at home."
The young man looked furious; he had never imagined that this family would actually call him a dog!
In this city, no one dared speak to him like that.
Though his father was the deputy city lord,
by what his father had said after drinking once,
the present city lord was soon to be promoted, the city lord thought highly of his father, and most likely the city's next city lord would be his father.
This was why he had the nerve to be so arrogant.
His father was to be city lord of this city of ten million.
So what if he was a little overbearing?
"You dare insult me! You're asking to die!" With that, the young man made to grab Zhao Chen by the collar.
The eyes of the guards around turned icy; at this moment this fellow was already a dead man.
What this young man ought to be grateful for
was that before these guards could act,
Zhao Chen acted first.
He stood up with a high kick, and his shoe made intimate contact with the young man's face.
Then the young man's face slammed hard into the floor.
Bang
A great crash.
It gave half the restaurant a fright.
The diners eating right downstairs, feeling the shake in the ceiling, all thought there must be renovation going on upstairs.
The young man felt his head spinning, as if something in it had broken.
"You… you… you dare hit me. Do you know who I am? Lay a hand on me and my father won't let you leave here alive!" the young man roared.
At this moment, his companions from that table all crowded round too.
But none of them dared make a move lightly, for none of them had seen clearly how this man had struck.
It was too fast.
In practically the blink of an eye, their companion had been stamped into the floor.
But one thing at least was certain: this man was very strong.
People like them were no match for him.
Though they were smart enough not to go up and ask for trouble,
they made threats from the edges instead: "Hey, I don't care where you're from. You've provoked this young master; just wait and pay the price."
"Do you know? This young master's father will soon be this city's city lord! When that happens, you won't be able to leave even if you want to!"
Threats of every kind filled the air around them.
Nannan pouted and said, "These people are so noisy. Nannan's hungry; Nannan wants to eat."
Chu Xuan took off her glasses at this point, raised her head and swept her eyes over these young people.
"Either shut your mouths, or never speak again."
These young people felt a bone-chilling killing intent; they felt as if they were in hell,
with the most terrifying god of death before them.
If they dared say one word now, this woman before them truly would make sure they never spoke again in their lives.
One of the young women, staring at this woman, actually felt a sense of familiarity.
It was as if she had seen this woman somewhere, but she could not for the life of her think where.
"Sir… you… maybe you'd better let him go. Leave here early. Otherwise… his family background… really could mean some trouble." The girl's father was startled to see Zhao Chen actually standing with his foot on that spoiled young master.
He had never imagined things would turn out like this.
"It's fine. You haven't ordered yet, have you? Order your food first. Don't waste this lovely mealtime over some garbage," Zhao Chen said with a faint smile, giving him a reassuring look.
The middle-aged man noticed that look.
Thinking back over what had just happened:
that spoiled scion had already announced who he was, and this man still was not afraid.
Then there was only one possibility: he had something to back him.
If that was so,
then perhaps there truly was nothing to fear.
At worst, if something really did happen, he would take his wife and daughter out of this city and start over in another city.
The work he did was not the kind he could not find elsewhere.
Having thought everything through, the worst case included, he thought no more about it.
As for the spoiled scion under Zhao Chen's foot,
Zhao Chen naturally had no time to keep standing on him; he kicked him in the stomach and sent him flying.
He skidded several meters across the floor in an arc before a pillar stopped him.
"Cough, cough, cough…" The spoiled scion spat blood, and it was a good while before he recovered.
He gave Zhao Chen a wary and furious look.
"You… you just wait. If I let you walk out that door today, I'll take your surname!"
"Take my surname? You're not good enough for it." Zhao Chen gave a contemptuous smile and raised his hand.
The spoiled young man fled in fright.
The other young men and women followed one after another; after something like this, they naturally had no heart to stay here any longer.
But the spoiled young man did not leave the restaurant.
Instead, once he had rushed outside, he began contacting people right away.
He called several people on good terms with him who had always wanted to use him to climb up to his father.
Without exception, they were all managers in this city with some people under them.
One was even the chief of the local peace bureau.
The things he usually did, these people had covered for him plenty of times.
His father was about to become city lord; one call from him, and this lot had to come running obediently!
"Let that lot eat their meal first. When all my people are here, then see how I beat the crap out of him!" the spoiled young man said through gritted teeth.
A somewhat calmer young woman beside him warned, "That man knows who you are and still isn't afraid of you. Could he really have some trump card?"
"A trump card? What trump card could that fellow have? No bodyguards, coming to eat at a restaurant like this. What kind of big shot could he be? At most he has some clout on another planet. But don't forget whose turf this is!"