Galactic Star Calendar, year 3031, October the 5th.
Over the preceding several days, the procurement committee had one after another settled a number of single-item procurement projects. But they'd all been small projects, worth anywhere from a few hundred million star coins to a few tens of billions. Set against today's procurement project, that was wholly a case of the small sorcerer beside the greater.
A resplendent, gold-and-jade spherical building — this was the official venue for the procurement fair. Just now, outside it, unmanned aircars kept setting down at each of the passage entrances, and dedicated personnel checked these people's invitations. Only those with an invitation could attend today's procurement fair. Besides these attendees, there was also a great crowd who hadn't gotten a slot to enter, all waiting outside — waiting for the moment the news was announced. They'd be the first to go make contact with the winning ship manufacturer; so long as they could get a share of the soup from the manufacturer — even just the construction work on one small ship module — that would be enough to earn them a tidy fortune.
Zhao Chen, Chu Xuan, Zhao Wan'er, Su Lan, and Xue Xiaoxiao rode an unmanned aircar and arrived here. Because they all knew one another, they'd agreed beforehand to simply share one private box for this procurement fair.
"Say — if Hurricane Conglomerate's plan falls through this time, and some other ship manufacturer carries off this procurement order, what'll happen? I found that Feng Xiaowei especially insufferable, throwing his weight about, all that grand air of being ever so important just because he's the Hurricane Conglomerate's young lord." Xue Xiaoxiao spoke her mind as she followed Zhao Chen and the others into an independent private box.
Su Lan shook her head. "The odds of that are very low; the Hurricane Conglomerate's T2 Hyena is, beyond doubt, the finest choice among T2 interstellar destroyers at present. And on top of that, it's been mass-produced for years, so cost control comes a great deal easier for them too. The going market price now is around 4 million star coins; and signing an agreement with the Empire military, they could even bring that price down to 3,500,000. In all likelihood the Empire military will still choose the T2 Hyena."
Xue Xiaoxiao pouted, very much displeased at this state of affairs.
"But a great many things in this world have their 'what if.' Who knows — what if this Hurricane Conglomerate goes and capsizes in a gutter?" Zhao Chen sat on the sofa, wearing the look of one waiting to watch a good show.
"Capsize! Let them capsize!" Xue Xiaoxiao, waving her little fists, kept on praying away. Watching her, even Chu Xuan beside her felt this little loli was too adorable.
The independent box Zhao Chen and the others were in had, in one direction, a huge floor-to-ceiling glass window, through which one could see the round hall within. The whole hall was laid out high on the outside, low toward the middle, with a round platform at the center. Every ship manufacturer would take their product up onto it to speak, each with their own fixed span of time — 30 minutes, 20 minutes, and so on. For some simple procurement projects, a single round would decide who won the bid. And for the larger-sum procurement projects, several rounds of deliberation might be needed — steadily selecting the best from among the warships, and then, from among the best, selecting the finer still.
On one side of the hall, up in the air, was a seating tier suspended in midair — the seating of the procurement committee. Originally the procurement committee numbered 100 people all told, standing for 100 votes. Whoever won the higher tally won the bid. This year, though, was somewhat special: a total of 111 votes. Of these extra 11, one vote belonged to the specially invited guest, the North Wind Governor; the remaining 10 came from the little princess. Never mind, for now, whether the little princess had any deep attainment in this field — on the strength of the little princess's identity alone, holding those 10 votes, no one would dare to question it. And besides, she was of royal birth; even one who hadn't eaten pork had at least seen the pigs run, hadn't they? Her insights on interstellar warships would, naturally, have a system all their own.
By this time, every seat in the hall was filled with people. The procurement committee's seats, too, began to fill one after another, and at the last the little princess and the North Wind Governor took their seats together as well.
As the host stepped up to declare it open, this single-item procurement fair, worth as much as 40 billion star coins, formally began.
"This No.09 single-item procurement fair is the T2 interstellar destroyer procurement project. On this occasion, seven T2 interstellar destroyers will vie for selection; each party will bring their own product up on stage to exhibit and deliver a 30-minute address. Now, may we invite number one." The host swiftly moved into the process and got straight underway.
The first ship manufacturer's representative was a middle-aged man, who walked briskly to the middle of the stage and, by holographic image, put up the picture of his T2 interstellar destroyer. "This T2 Wildebeest-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer produced by our company employs the most advanced ship core technology at present, making use of…"
Zhao Chen took a look and had the gist of it in his mind. This one was here to make up the numbers.
In truth, of those seven so-called T2 interstellar destroyers, the vast majority were there merely to make up the numbers; they knew their chance of being selected this time was next to none. But that was no bar to their coming here to run an advertisement, was it?
The 30 minutes ended, and this first ship manufacturer stepped down from the stage. After that came number two, number three…
Zhao Chen took a glance at the schedule and was somewhat surprised. Whether by deliberate arrangement or not, the Hurricane Conglomerate's T2 Hyena — the seeded favorite of this procurement — was the very last to appear. Perhaps it was reckoned that the T2 Hyena would most likely win the bid, and so placing it at the end could just as well give those earlier T2 interstellar destroyers a bit of a chance to show themselves. And, most fittingly, ranked sixth to appear was none other than the T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer, produced by Li Yaqi's Northern Goose Starship Technology Group!
This was too delicious. He reckoned that when Li Yaqi finished setting forth the various performance figures of the T2 Tibetan Mastiff, everyone present would be struck with astonishment. The expressions of those three Hurricane Conglomerate father-and-sons were certain to be quite the spectacle.
Zhao Chen's gaze happened to fall on the audience seats nearest the central round platform, where the three Hurricane Conglomerate father-and-sons sat, upright and composed, wearing confident expressions as they took in the performances of those so-called competitors. In their eyes, this procurement was beyond doubt already a victory firmly in hand. The corner of Zhao Chen's mouth curved faintly upward.
Some hours later.
The host again stepped up. "Next is the T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer, produced by the Northern Goose Starship Technology Group."
The Northern Goose Starship Technology Group.
At the sound of this name, no few of those present let a look of interest show. For their T1 Wolf-Louse-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer had, by now, become the very best-selling existence among T1 warships. And over this half-year they'd rolled out several fine warships one after another besides. This had, in one stroke, made Northern Goose a rising, up-and-coming group of the Starlight Empire — carrying much of the momentum the Hurricane Conglomerate had had in its day.
Li Yaqi, dressed in a long gown, walked gracefully onto the round platform. Under the gaze of all, she raised a hand and put up the holographic image of the T2 Tibetan Mastiff. And what came next — her performance would prove to be the most brilliant scene of this whole procurement fair!
Li Yaqi opened her mouth, but the words she spoke were something no one had expected.
"Everyone — in order to display our group's T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer in fuller detail, we've specially made use of a fellow merchant's warship data. Please have a look."
Thereupon Li Yaqi put up the model of a warship black through and through, along with its related data. Even so, everyone could tell at a single glance: this so-called "fellow merchant" was the Hurricane Conglomerate's T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer!