From the White-Fur System's star gate to the delivery location the Northern Goose Group had designated, there was still a voyage of roughly three hours. These three hours were not long, if you called them long; not short, if you called them short.
Strange to say, this location, of all things, encircled a meteorite field — and about the outer edge of the meteorite field a fleet was on patrol, one of the fleets under the North Wind Governor's banner, at that. And, moreover, in name, this region had been fixed as a special forbidden zone; without permission, none were allowed to set foot within. One could see that this was the North Wind Governor's "mending the fold after the sheep were lost," carried out in what time he could spare from dealing with the interstellar hive-race disaster. And so, apart from the arms-procurement department's fleet, all the other interstellar warships wishing to watch the good show had been barred outside, one and all.
Passing through the meteorite field, a wide, open expanse appeared before them.
Huang Zhixiong's pupils dilated despite himself; he'd caught sight of swaths upon swaths of interstellar warships hovering there. Uniform, one and all, every single one a T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer!
"How is this possible…" Huang Zhixiong rose to his feet, his face a grim sight.
"Marshal, this… we're going to begin the acceptance-inspection of these T2 Tibetan Mastiffs."
A video window appeared; the official opposite looked at Huang Zhixiong.
"Inspect them! Inspect them good and thoroughly for me!" Huang Zhixiong said, sitting in the captain's chair, in a low, grave voice.
"Yes."
Huang Zhixiong stared at those T2 Tibetan Mastiffs; he still, all the same, didn't believe that the Northern Goose Group could truly produce these 3,000 T2 Tibetan Mastiffs, up to quality and up to number.
At this moment, in a region adjacent to the delivered-starship inspection zone — because the meteorite field lay between them, the fleet where Huang Zhixiong was could not see over to this side. Were they able to see over here, they would, without doubt, have been the more astonished still. For here were several hundred interstellar industrial ships of one and the same model — and these interstellar industrial ships had built up an industrial system quite terrifying to behold! T2 Tibetan Mastiff after T2 Tibetan Mastiff was being produced and manufactured without cease, in the form of an assembly line.
"President, over on that side they've already begun the acceptance-inspection of the interstellar warships we delivered." The secretary walked up before the office desk, looking at the president of Northern Goose before her.
Li Yaqi lifted her head, and said blandly, "They ought to be inspecting exceedingly carefully, I take it?"
"Yes. Under normal circumstances, a large-scale delivery of interstellar warships of this kind would do with a spot-inspection of 5% of the interstellar warships. And as for the count, that too wouldn't be demanded so strictly — so long as the discrepancy weren't too great, it would do; for, after all, this is only the order's second batch. But this time, they're inspecting every single interstellar warship one by one — and, at the same time, tallying up the count as well. At the pace at which they're going about it, the whole inspection process may need at least three days' time," the secretary answered.
Li Yaqi gave a scornful little laugh. "Want to inspect? Then let them go inspect."
And what of a strict inspection? Li Yaqi had, before this, personally checked over these T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyers produced by way of the T2 Iron Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships. The quality of each and every one fully met the standard — and, moreover, the quality was several tiers higher, even, than that of her destroyed starship-manufacturing factory of before; there was not a single defect to be found. And so Li Yaqi wasn't the least bit worried over the other side's inspection.
As for the count? Under Lord Zhao Chen's plan, Li Yaqi had smoothly produced close to 500 T2 Iron Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships; before the end of June, she'd not only produced enough of these 3,000 T2 Tibetan Mastiff-class Medium Interstellar Destroyers, but had, besides, delivered a portion of other clients' orders — and this, as a matter of course, could shatter the rumors of the outside world. And, moreover, after this affair, the Northern Goose Group's renown would rise yet another storey higher — it could even stand shoulder to shoulder with those several top-tier starship-technology manufacturing powers of the Starlight Empire.
Li Yaqi turned on her heel, her chair now with its back to the office desk. The wall that had originally been behind her had, too, become an enormous floor-to-ceiling window like transparent "glass"; she could see, outside, that astonishing system of interstellar industrial ships!
By all estimates, not a soul would believe that her Northern Goose Group had, in a bare two years, risen so overwhelmingly to stand in this position it held today. Were someone to have told her of two years ago, then by all estimates she herself would not have believed it. But all of this lay within that man's grasp — a few starship technical blueprints, plucked forth as easily as reaching out a hand, and a commercial empire could be forged. A mere Owl Dragon System absolutely could not contain this giant dragon. She was beginning to feel a touch of anticipation: when the myriad stars of this universe truly came to face this giant dragon, just what sort of scene would it be?
Three days of inspection time — this exceeded the acceptance-inspection efficiency of every past occasion of the Starlight Empire's arms-procurement department, and it left the show-watchers waiting outside this forbidden zone all fallen into a kind of illusion. Had they, back then, truly watched with their own eyes as the arms-procurement department's fleet entered this meteorite region?
And at the last, the inspection report was submitted up before the two officials; upon seeing the inspection report, the faces of these two officials went somewhat complex.
"You go contact the Marshal…"
"You'd best be the one to contact the Marshal."
The two of them, at this point, were each pushing it off onto the other. But the notice of a video comm came in just then, as it happened — it was precisely Huang Zhixiong. The very moment the inspection report was concluded, Huang Zhixiong's side had gotten wind of it. The two officials helplessly connected.
"How's the situation?" Huang Zhixiong looked at the two officials, his face somewhat darkly overcast.
One of them pointed at an electronic document and said, "All the T2 Tibetan Mastiffs have been inspected; inside and out, there's not a single problem. Even the little problems that some starship manufacturers in the past would pay no mind to — on these T2 Tibetan Mastiffs, not one of those was to be found. Even if we'd wanted to pick a bone out of an egg[1], there was no… no such opportunity."
"Is it certain it's 3,000? Not one short?" Huang Zhixiong inquired.
"Yes, 3,000. Not one short," the official answered.
"I understand." Huang Zhixiong's mood was, at this moment, on the contrary, comparatively calm; in truth, over these three days of his waiting, he'd already guessed at the result. He was not so excellent as the Governor of Chu River — but that didn't mean he was a fool. These three days, if some problem could have been found, these two officials would surely, at the very first moment, have told him of it in the manner of claiming a merit. That they hadn't reported to him — that, in itself, had already told the tale.
"That, Lord Marshal — our matter, the two of us…" The two officials' words hadn't yet fallen when the video comm cut off. With the affair turned out this way, the conditions the two of them had put to Huang Zhixiong had, more than likely, gone up in smoke as well.
"You tell me — who could have imagined that this Northern Goose Group could, of all things, really conjure these 3,000 T2 Tibetan Mastiffs out of thin air. That Li Yaqi — just what heaven-reaching means does she have?" the official said in vexation.
"Who's to know… At any rate, this time, we tried to steal a chicken and only lost the handful of rice. Instead, we've gone and let the Northern Goose Group's renown rise another tier!"
Thereupon, the 3,000 T2 Tibetan Mastiffs came sailing out, mighty and vast, from this meteorite-field forbidden zone. The people who'd waited three days outside, seeing this scene, were, beyond doubt, dumbstruck and staring, scarcely able to believe it.
And thereupon, this whole farce pushed Northern Goose onward toward a still higher stage!