"Sister Ruyue, I… why must I wear clothes of this sort?" Qin Xiaolei looked down at the white lace dress upon her.
It fell within the bounds of a princess's gown, granted, but… this skirt was far too short, surely — and there was this very low collar, and the fair skin left bare at the back besides.
Qin Xiaolei's cheeks were faintly red; both her hands kept trying to press the hem down.
"Your Highness, think a moment of whom you are about to meet. That is the great meritorious officer who helped you complete your revenge and unify the Starlight Empire. And facing a great meritorious officer, must one not show a little sincerity?" Zhao Ruyue folded her arms across her chest and looked, much satisfied, at the Qin Xiaolei her own arranging had produced.
Qin Xiaolei's figure was not the most striking, granted — but she had room yet to grow.
Add to that the bonus of Qin Xiaolei's standing, and pair it with this decisive battle-dress she had prepared for her—
and it must certainly bring down that thick-skulled younger brother of hers.
To this day, Zhao Ruyue had always held that Qin Xiaolei was the best choice for her brother; however many women her brother might have in the future—
Qin Xiaolei had to be the first!
"But… but… I feel… there's a draft down below." Qin Xiaolei was red in the face, as though blood might drip from it.
Not only the clothes she showed on the outside — even those beneath had been chosen by Zhao Ruyue in person.
"Ahem, ahem… that is not important." Zhao Ruyue put on an encouraging smile.
"The Owl Dragon lord pays his respects."
The voice of a guard woman-soldier came from beyond the hall.
"I… I… I had better go and change into something else." Qin Xiaolei made to flee.
But Zhao Ruyue pressed her by both shoulders straight down into the chair.
"Let Zhao Chen come in," Zhao Ruyue called toward the door.
As the footsteps drew nearer, Qin Xiaolei felt for all the world as though she had been dropped into a pan of hot oil.
Most important of all, what she sat upon now was a sort of temporary throne, with nothing whatever in front of it.
When Lord Zhao Chen came up before her, a moment's carelessness and he might well see certain things.
To prevent such a thing happening, Qin Xiaolei could only draw her legs together and press her hands down hard upon her hem.
"Your Highness. Big Sis." Zhao Chen came up before them, and looked at the Qin Xiaolei who sat with her head bowed, and at his eldest sister Zhao Ruyue, who watched him with a smile on her face.
"Zhao Chen, illustrious though your standing is now, when one meets Her Highness the Princess the proper courtesies ought still to be observed, oughtn't they?" Zhao Ruyue looked at Zhao Chen, half smiling and half not.
Zhao Chen was taken aback; he thought it over, and decided to give his eldest sister this much face.
He made to kneel on one knee, lay his right hand over his heart, and salute Qin Xiaolei.
"No! No! No! There's no need for courtesies! There's no need for courtesies!" Qin Xiaolei said it with something very near a sob.
Standing, she could still keep herself covered; but were Zhao Chen to go down on one knee, that angle…
Qin Xiaolei would, at a guess, have gone looking straight off for a crack in the ground to crawl into.
Zhao Ruyue saw the state Qin Xiaolei was in, and knew she must not press too hard.
"Little brother, I was joking with you. This is no formal occasion; there's no need for these worldly courtesies." Zhao Ruyue laughed.
Zhao Chen was left wholly bewildered, with no notion what turn his eldest sister was playing at here.
"Then we may begin discussing the business," Zhao Chen said, taking the lead.
"Yes! The business! Let us discuss the business! Let us go elsewhere to discuss the business." Qin Xiaolei meant to propose moving to a conference room, where at the least there would be a conference table for cover.
"There's no need for such trouble; here will do." Zhao Ruyue pressed Qin Xiaolei by both shoulders.
Move to a conference room, and how was her brother to appreciate the little princess's figure? She did not believe there was a man in this world who disliked a beauty.
Little brother — I have the little princess packed up and delivered before you; you had better make a good showing of it.
"Ahem, ahem… the Starlight Empire is now essentially unified, but considering certain vacated posts, and certain questions of resource allocation, all of it wants settling anew. And there is the post-war recovery work besides. This upheaval of civil war has left our Starlight Empire's treasury essentially exhausted; the losses everywhere are grievous, and the losses among the people are quite grievous as well. If we cannot recover within a short span, it will work an enormous effect upon our Starlight Empire. At present, small rebellions and disputes have already appeared in various places." As Qin Xiaolei came to these matters of business, the look on her face turned serious.
Seeing it, the corner of Zhao Ruyue's mouth rose slightly.
The clothes upon Qin Xiaolei were one thing; but think a moment — a beauty dressed so, wearing a serious expression before you: is that not stirring?
Zhao Ruyue narrowed her eyes at the Zhao Chen opposite.
And sure enough, she saw an instant's abstraction in Zhao Chen's gaze.
Men. Got you.
That brief abstraction in Zhao Chen's gaze was not what Zhao Ruyue supposed it to be — it was over how to "shake down" this little princess before him.
Just now this little princess was like a cake with no power whatever to protect itself, while in his own hand was the knife; how he wished to carve and eat of her wanted only a word from him.
She had no room whatever to resist.
"On these matters I have plans here in several directions. First is the problem you speak of — the civil war leaving the Starlight Empire's political situation unstable, and popular grievance boiling over. These are easily solved. In truth, what the vast majority of the people want is very simple: they want a job, an income, three meals a day, an easy environment to live in, and one thread of hope in the life ahead of them. On the matter of work: our Northern Goose Group will build subsidiaries in every star region, and these subsidiaries will take on part of the component-processing work of interstellar warship production — what is commonly called outsourcing. Our Northern Goose Group outsources the production of these components to these subsidiaries, and so a great many jobs are naturally created. Military industry has always been one of the pillars of an economy. But so that the warships the Northern Goose Group manufactures have their outlet, the Northern Goose Group hopes to obtain a promise from the Starlight Empire's royal house to come. That over the next 50 years, of the Starlight Empire's imperial military procurement orders, at the least 70% shall be given to the Northern Goose Group. And of course, the warships the Northern Goose Group supplies will certainly be able to meet the imperial military's needs. On this point, with the Owl Dragon Legion's guarantee, no one need have any worry at all." Zhao Chen dropped a stone into this quiet lake.
Zhao Ruyue's brow rose, and she looked at the Zhao Chen before her with his faint smile.
It was as though she saw an abyssal monster putting out its tentacles, binding up, bit by bit, the Starlight Empire that belonged to the little princess.
This proposal of Zhao Chen's looked like a thing that served both sides well.
In truth, it would let the Northern Goose Group take the Starlight Empire's military-industrial chain thoroughly and utterly into its own grasp!
It would set every star region of the Starlight Empire making blood for the Northern Goose Group without cease, and then feeding it back to the Starlight Empire — forming a closed military-industrial loop within the Starlight Empire itself.
And it would make the Northern Goose Group, over the coming 30 years, the Starlight Empire's greatest military-industrial enterprise!
Without a second.