"Report. The Star-Shark Guild's representative fleet has arrived in the space about the Qian family's main planet, but has not berthed within the moorings of the Qian family's City in the Sky. They are holding station out on the outer edge instead; they'll be going to the wedding by shuttle, presumably."
"Some dozens of interstellar powers have come to this marriage feast of the Qian family's, and the City in the Sky's starship moorings are near enough all full."
"By our reconnaissance, the Qian family has stationed a fleet of 300 ships about the City in the Sky for the occasion, with a T3-grade interstellar battleship for its flagship. Beyond that there are 20 T3 interstellar warships, and all the rest are T2s."
Zhao Chen sat in the captain's chair and listened to the reports his people brought in.
"Commander-in-Chief, when do we drive in there and carry her off!" Xue Xiaoxiao was past all patience by this hour; every second her sister spent in that wretched place turned her stomach on her sister's account.
"There's no need for haste. Your mother Guiji has people posted about Gu Xiaoxiao, and by the latest word Gu Xiaoxiao is quite safe just now — that Young Master Qian hasn't so much as laid a finger on her. But if we drive straight into the Qian family's City in the Sky to get her out now, the rescue squad will be bound to take losses. We can hardly shell the Qian family's City in the Sky outright, after all — can we?"
Zhao Chen sat easy in the captain's chair, setting out his thinking. "I mean to make the move tomorrow, on the day of the Qian family's wedding itself. There'll be more people at the feast-hall then than at any other hour — but it's exactly in such a case that the Qian family's guard upon the bride is at its weakest. To act at that moment is the most convenient of all. The one charged with this rescue plan is Panther-Girl; she has already slipped into the Qian family's City in the Sky. You may rest quite easy. All you need do is wait here for that sister of yours."
Much as Xue Xiaoxiao longed to see Gu Xiaoxiao at once, looking at the confidence in this man's eyes, she chose to trust him.
Because this man had never yet failed anyone.
"Then… I put it in the Commander-in-Chief's hands." Xue Xiaoxiao stood up straight, and showed her gratitude to him.
"Doesn't it strike you that you're growing better and better acquainted with this business of carrying off other men's betrothed?" Chu Xuan's voice came from beside him just then.
Zhao Chen was brought up short, and said without thinking, "It does rather seem so…"
And the next moment he caught what was wrong, and looked round at the Chu Xuan who was watching him with no goodwill whatever in her eyes.
"This— I hadn't much choice in it either. One can hardly stand by and watch a girl leap into a pit of fire," Zhao Chen explained.
"Quite so, quite so. You're the savior of the world, the great hero. Very impressive indeed. Last time it was in the Purple Perilla Star Region, and you carried off their Su Lan. This time it's in the Stellar Alliance, and you carry off their Gu Xiaoxiao. I wonder whom the lord Commander-in-Chief means to carry off next?" Chu Xuan said it in mockery.
Er—
For a moment Zhao Chen had nothing to say.
Coincidence!
It truly was coincidence!
…………
The next day · the Qian family's City in the Sky.
This day might well be called one of lanterns hung and silks strung; every arrangement was of the most festive kind, for all the world as though they feared somebody might fail to hear that the Qian family and the Star-Shark Guild were joined.
It had been the same in Stellar City before: to publish this marriage abroad, the Qian family had bought up a great many advertising spaces.
Low though the Star-Shark Guild's fortunes had begun to run, their strength within the Stellar Alliance was considerable still — and above all their web of connections in the line of interstellar adventuring!
And to that pack of 'interstellar merchants' in the Stellar Alliance, connections were a very important resource.
With connections enough at hand, wealth could be created.
The Qian family too had risen fast in a short span only by leaning on the two mountains at its back.
Gu Xiaoxiao at this hour was already in her formal gown, waiting in her room.
"Miss Gu, the hour is nearly upon us. We must go to the wedding ground." A matron spoke from beside her.
She was one of the Qian family's people.
Gu Xiaoxiao looked at herself in the mirror, and drew not the least joy from her own flowering beauty.
Her expression was that of a corpse; she rose in silence and walked toward the door.
That Qian matron looked at the expression Gu Xiaoxiao wore, and urged her in a low voice, "The eldest young master of our Qian family is not much in the matter of character, it's true. But once you've set foot inside our Qian family, what waits for you hereafter is a rise to wealth and rank. Today is the day of your great joy. Be a little happier."
Gu Xiaoxiao's feelings did not stir in the least at any of it.
From today onward, she, Gu Xiaoxiao, was dead — dead in this world altogether.
The Qian matron, seeing her urging had no effect, spent no further breath on it. The duck was cooked in any case; it could hardly fly away now.
The door was pushed open.
Outside, a ceremonial guard had been waiting well beforehand.
They closed about Gu Xiaoxiao and her maids in the middle of them, and set off toward the wedding hall.
The eldest young master of the Qian family, and the Qian family's guests, were all waiting there by now.
Soon they had come to the doors of the feast hall, and the doors were pushed open by attendants.
Revealing the wedding ground within, splendid in gold and green.
At the principal seat of the wedding ground, the Qian family head Qian Feng and his son Qian Dafu were both waiting.
And below them were several guests of the Star-Shark Guild who had come by invitation — President Guiji among them!
"Ha ha ha ha, this daughter of President Guiji's is lovely as a flower indeed, the very image of President Guiji herself! How I wish joy might be piled upon joy between myself and President Guiji." As Qian Feng said it, his eyes travelled over Guiji without the least attempt at concealment.
There were no few beauties within the Stellar Alliance — but the one with the most flavor to her was, naturally, this president of the Star-Shark Guild, Guiji.
And with that standing of hers besides, there was no telling how many men had long had an eye upon her.
Had it been in former days, Family Head Qian Feng would not have dared such discourtesy.
But the Qian family of today was not the Qian family of the past, and Family Head Qian Feng had naturally acquired a lecher's designs — even a wish that his Qian family might take in the pair of them, mother and daughter together.
And then would the Star-Shark Guild not amount to a set of claws and teeth for the Qian family!
Even the bridegroom of this wedding, Qian Dafu, had his eyes travelling over President Guiji; set against President Guiji, Gu Xiaoxiao came off rather the poorer.
If he could have a taste of that pair of blossoms, mother and daughter both… he'd think nothing of living 10 years the fewer for it.
At the thought of these things, Qian Dafu could not hold down the wicked fire in his belly.
He believed that so long as the Qian family went on rising, the chance to bring that wish about must come to him in the end.
And for the present, let him first taste this Gu Xiaoxiao by way of a dessert before the meal.
Faced with the Qian family's discourtesy, the Star-Shark Guild's people naturally held their anger down by force; and President Guiji's face gave nothing away, though there was an apology in her eyes as she watched Gu Xiaoxiao come slowly forward.
Over this arranging of Gu Xiaoxiao's marriage to the Qian family, President Guiji was in truth much troubled in her own conscience.
Happily, there was now a chance of changing all of it.
Only she did not know how that lord meant to act.
Guiji had supposed that lord would move in the days before; but the wedding day had come and there had been no sign of anything.
Which left only one possibility.
And that was, beyond doubt, the way of slapping the Qian family's face the hardest.
She wondered what expressions the Qian family's people would be wearing over what was shortly to happen.