Chapter 638: Disdain?Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Ling Lan knew that she was suspected but she wasn"t upset. She was prepared to be exposed when she made the decision to follow the princess to this auction. However, it happened faster than she expected.
With Little Four"s help, Ling Lan found out where the princess and Senior Colonel Mu Youyun were at. The organizers of the auction put a lot of effort into making sure that they were far away from each other. If something really did happen to the princess, they would be unable to come to her aid.
Ling Lan pondered over her actions and decided to stay put. She believed that although the organizers of the auction wanted to kill the princess, they couldn"t bear to destroy the underground auction. Hence, they would not act during the auction. They would most probably do something after the auction when they would be heading back with the Babu scepter. This meant that the princess was safe for now.
Thus, Ling Lan and her friends played around happily in their booth without any worries. Soon, it was time for the auction to start.
An image suddenly appeared on the wall that was made of gla.s.s. It was a live broadcast of the auction. There were many people at the auction. No seats were left empty. Not everyone had a booth like them. A huge portion of the guests were at the auction.
Ling Lan glanced at Li Lanfeng secretly. Li Lanfeng understood what she wanted. He wore a curious expression on his face and walked to the optical supercomputer in the room. He started looking through the items up for auction.
There were all kinds of items up for auction. The total number of items were 6000. However, only 50 of them would be auctioned off on the spot. Those were all rare items. You could bid for the other 5950 items before the auction for the 50 rare items starts. As long as your bid was the highest, you would win the bid. The item would be sent to you personally after the auction ended and the necessary doc.u.ments would be signed on the spot.
The rest of the group gathered around the computer. When they saw a used ace mecha of the Federation on the auction list, they gasped in shock. Everyone knew that an ace mecha was forbidden to be sold on the market. If the Federation knew that someone bought an ace mecha privately, they would use all means to s.n.a.t.c.h the ace mecha back.
To protect the Federation, powerful weapons like an ace mecha, which might be the deciding factor in a battle, was not allowed to be in the hands of the public. Even elite families couldn"t own any weapons like this.
However, the Federation probably never expected their ace mecha to be auctioned off on a planet a few millions of light-years away.
The ace mecha wasn"t the only forbidden weapon on the list. Other powerful technology from other countries appeared on the list too. For instance, the information about the ATOMIC BEAM BAZOOKA invented by the Caesar Kingdom. Based on rumours, it could be equipped onto a mecha and its power was enough to destroy a military vessel.
However, the Caesar Kingdom hadn"t made the ATOMIC BEAM BAZOOKA into a mecha weapon yet. It was still an explosive that could only be used on a military vessel. Ling Lan believed that many countries would be interested in this set of information.
“Boss, they are not selling the information of the latest version of the ATOMIC BEAM BAZOOKA. It is just information about the first generation ATOMIC BEAM BAZOOKA,” Little Four could hear Ling Lan"s thoughts so he quickly told her what he found out.
“Can someone make the ATOMIC BEAM BAZOOKA based on this information alone?” Ling Lan didn"t believe that that was the most updated information for the weapon too. As a subordinate of the Caesar Kingdom, Aoqi would not sell such important information.
“You can make the ATOMIC BEAM BAZOOKA but the materials are very difficult to obtain. Even if you could obtain the materials, you would need to research for a long time before succeeding in making the weapon,” Little Four said with disdain.
“As expected. Caesar would not release the results of their research so easily,” Ling Lan replied. She suspected the appearance of the information about the ATOMIC BEAM BAZOOKA was to cover up the appearance of the ace mecha. That way, the Federation would not be able to do anything to Aoqi even though they knew that their ace mecha was being auctioned off. After all, even the weapon invented by Caesar was on the auction list. This showed that the auction was based on a free-market.
“Yes. Caesar is already researching the third generation of ATOMIC BEAM BAZOOKA. Even if other countries bought that information, they would be behind Caesar Kingdom by 10 to 20 years. Caesar would still be the leading nation in atomic weapons. If the other countries placed their emphasis on this doc.u.ment, they would be unable to surpa.s.s Caesar in terms of weapon making.”
“I hope that our Federation will not fall into their trap,” Ling Lan said.
“Let me tell you a piece of bad news. I just gathered the guest list for this auction. There are at least four different groups of people who came from the Federation,” Little Four replied.
“Who are they?” Ling Lan was curious.
“One of them is a merchant with the surname Jiang. His background is a mystery. He seemed to have some business with the 3rd Division,” Little Four said in a mysterious manner.
Ling Lan flicked his forehead and said coldly, “Speak properly. He is just a representative of the 3rd Division.”
Little Four rubbed his forehead. He asked in a depressed tone, “Boss, how do you know that?” He wanted to create some excitement for his boss but before he could say anything else, his boss exposed him.
“Even my father doesn"t dare to offend the three great marshals of the Federation. If he has a business relationship with the great marshals, it would mean that he is under their wing.” As she aged, Ling Lan understood more things. After entering the 23rd Division, she experienced how powerful the three great marshals were. They were so powerful they could control almost anything. That was why her proud father chose to work under the First Marshal.
Little Four didn"t dare to fool around anymore. He quickly told her about the other three batches of people. “The other two groups came from the two most powerful elite families of the Federation, Li family and Ye family. However, I don"t know what their motives are. The last group is from the Yun family.”
“Li family?” Ling Lan looked at Li Lanfeng instinctively. Although Li Lanfeng was just a branch descendant of the Li family, Ling Lan felt that the Li family placed a huge importance on him. He was treated differently from the other branch descendant, Li Jinghong.
This was Ling Lan"s instinct. She trusted her instinct. However, Ling Lan would not ask Little Four to research about Li Lanfeng"s background. That was his personal affairs. As his friend, she respected Li Lanfeng"s private life.
Li Lanfeng noticed Ling Lan"s gaze and looked at her with a puzzled look.
Ling Lan smiled. Li Lanfeng was stunned. He quickly lowered his head and looked at the optical supercomputer. He looked as though he just saw a ghost. Ling Lan"s smile froze. After a while, her facial expression turned cold.
“Do I look ugly when I smile?” Ling Lan gritted her teeth and asked herself. She rarely smiled so her smile might seem a little stiff. However, she didn"t think that she would be that bad.
Little Four pinched his nose. He wondered if he should tell his boss the truth. Her smile was… Little Four recalled the smile that he saw just now. He felt blood flowing out of his nose. To protect his image in front of his little brother, Little Four decided to make a move first. As for the explanation… he was not the one being misunderstood. Li Lanfeng wanted to s.n.a.t.c.h his boss"s love from him. He would not be so kind and help him.
Little Four disappeared from Ling Lan"s mindscape.
Li Lanfeng felt the cold aura coming from Ling Lan. He regretted his actions just now. He didn"t expect himself to be stunned by her smile. It was not something he should do to his rabbit! He thought about how he hated it when other people looked at Ling Lan…
His rabbit must hate him now! Li Lanfeng"s mind was in a mess. He was controlling the optical supercomputer but his mind was blank. All he was thinking about was the fact that Ling Lan disliked him. Li Lanfeng started to lose his composure.
“Hey, don"t flip through the list that fast.” Li Lanfeng was forced out of his position by a huge force. The huge force allowed Li Lanfeng to regain his senses.
Li Yingjie had angrily taken over Li Lanfeng"s spot. He started observing the items on the optical supercomputer carefully. Li Lanfeng flipped through it too quickly just now so they couldn"t read the description of the items properly. If it was only done once, they could bear with it. However, Li Lanfeng did it too many times. Hence, Li Yingjie got angry and pushed him away.
Li Lanfeng calmed down a little. He saw Ling Lan standing at the side. He thought about it for a while and walked towards her. “Rabbit, I"m sorry.”
Ling Lan glanced at him. “What are you sorry about?”
“I couldn"t control myself just now.” Li Lanfeng was not someone who gives up halfway.
“Was it scary?” Ling Lan raised her eyebrows.
Li Lanfeng smiled bitterly. “Yes, it was scary.” That smile was too enchanting!
“Hmph!” Ling Lan was unhappy. With Ling Xiao and Lan Luofeng as her parents, she could never be ugly. Ling Xiao"s smile was able to warm people"s heart but her smile could only scare people? Her mother"s smile was as gentle as her father"s. Was it because her parents" smiles were too beautiful so he didn"t like the way she smiled?
“Rabbit, I think that you should just keep a cold face.” Li Lanfeng knew that some powerful people liked to collect all kinds of pretty faces. Although Ling Lan had Ling Xiao helping her, it was still better to be careful. Some people would do anything to get what they wanted.
Keeping a cold face is better? Does he not like my smile that much? Ling Lan looked at Li Lanfeng coldly. She squeezed the words out of her mouth, “Leopard, I thank you for your advice.”
She would never forgive this stupid leopard! Ling Lan turned her head and looked at Li Yingjie. She ignored Li Lanfeng.
Li Lanfeng felt an even colder aura coming from Ling Lan. His rabbit seemed to be really angry at him! Li Lanfeng felt cold sweat on his forehead. A sense of danger, which he never felt before, rose in his heart.
No way. He must regain his image in rabbit"s heart. Li Lanfeng clenched his fist secretly.
The other four people in the room didn"t notice the strange atmosphere between Li Lanfeng and Ling Lan. They were enthralled by the list of items in the auction. Unfortunately, they were supposed to be poor people so they couldn"t get anything. Even Li Yingjie"s fake ident.i.ty wouldn"t have the money to buy these items.
They decided that when they go on another vacation, they must find a way into this auction again. Then, they would get anything they wanted.
Of course, not everything in the auction was expensive. There were many interesting little gifts and items which couldn"t be identified. The difference between the prices were enormous. Some was only worth a few thousand credits while others needed a few hundred millions.
1000 credits was the lowest price in this auction. Anything lower than 1000 credits would not appear in the underground auction.
“Boss!” Little Four suddenly appeared with an obedient looking expression.
“What?” Ling Lan was on her guard. Every time Little Four looked at her with that expression, nothing good would come out of it.
A 3D image of an item appeared in front of her. It was a cylinder made from an unknown material. It was yellowish brown in color and there was a layer of dirt on it. The description said that the dirt couldn"t be removed and the material underneath the dirt was unknown.
The Aoqi auction identified this item as a part of a building which had been around for a long time. Most of its other parts were lost so they couldn"t identify its true form. Hence, the price was low. The starting price was 3000 credits.
A few people had started bidding for it. However, the highest bid was just 3280 credits. Not many people were interested in it. The people that bidded just felt that since it was cheap, there was no harm buying it and bringing it back for research. If it was just a useless thing, all they lost was just 3000 credits. It was not a lot to them.