Their fingers touched. Li Lanfeng looked at Ling Lan and smiled. Ling Lan almost got dazzled by his smile.Ling Lan calmly reminded him with a cold face, "You don"t have to smile in front of people whom you trust. That is a bad habit."
Ling Lan thought about it carefully before continuing, "It"s dangerous."
"d.a.m.n it! Even I can"t handle your smile. Blood, please don"t come out of my nose. To maintain my reputation as their boss, I must stop this demon from smiling in front of me!"
Ling Lan didn"t believe in her resistance against such a beautiful smile. Hence, she decided to completely stop it from happening instead.
Li Lanfeng was touched by Ling Lan"s words of concern. It warmed up his stone-cold heart. Only Ling Lan was able to warm his heart. Li Lanfeng never wanted to let go of this feeling. He wanted more of it. He even had the desire to keep all this warmth to himself.
However, he knew that if he really did it, Ling Lan would stray further from him. d.a.m.n it, he took Ling Lan as his most important companion and confidant but Ling Lan had her family and friends. Her family and her friends were more important than him.
Why couldn"t he be satisfied? Li Lanfeng hated his selfishness and greed. However, no matter how he tried to convince himself, this selfish thinking wouldn"t disappear. The longer he stayed beside Ling Lan, this selfishness and greed got even stronger. This was why he followed Ling Lan to Mai"er Fa even though he knew that she might be angry. He wanted to become more important to Ling Lan. He wanted to become the most important person in Ling Lan"s heart.
He didn"t know when he would be satisfied, but he knew he wasn"t satisfied now, he wanted more. This was not enough at all. Maybe one day, when their friendship reached a certain point, he would be satisfied.
Li Lanfeng tried to suppress his emotions but this feeling of something in the throat was suffocating. He took a few deep breaths secretly to calm himself down. He knew that Rabbit didn"t like it when her comrades got too emotional. Freaking out about this kind of thing would just make him look irrational to Ling Lan. He understood Ling Lan"s liking so he wouldn"t make such a low-level mistake in front of her. He wouldn"t let Rabbit have any bad impression of him.
Li Lanfeng threw away his thoughts and coldly said, "It looks like our thoughts are the same. We both think that there"s something amiss with this mission."
"They wouldn"t be able to interact with the higher authorities of the military in other missions. This is the only mission that they could." Ling Lan continued, "The Flying Dragon Special Forces was a.s.signed to this mission. At first, we thought that the military realized something was wrong with the annihilation of the Magic Ace Mecha Clan so they sent the Flying Dragon Special Forces to prevent other higher authorities from meddling with this affair or to make sure that this matter was attended to seriously. But, from the looks of it now, it might not be the case."
"The mission for the Flying Dragon Special Forces might be a smoke bomb." Li Lanfeng went into deep thought.
Ling Lan smiled coldly. "It might not be a smoke bomb. It might be like a robber acting like a cop."
Li Lanfeng narrowed his eyes. "Are you saying that there"s a problem with the Flying Dragon Special Forces? But, the problem is the Flying Dragon Special Forces!"
The Flying Dragon Special Forces belonged to the military but their top chain of command was with the three marshals. Plus, the Flying Dragon Special Forces had the power to watch over the other regiment commander of the various mecha clans in the military. Once they noticed a problem with a regiment commander, they would be able to arrest the regiment commander with the warrant from one of the three great marshals.
Thus, the commander of the Flying Dragon Special Forces mustn"t belong to any factions of the three great marshals. He was an independent faction. He must maintain a neutral position in order to complete the mission given to the Flying Dragon Special Forces.
If something went wrong with the Flying Dragon Special Forces… a chill went up Li Lanfeng"s spine. He looked up at Ling Lan and said sternly, "Rabbit, we can"t interfere with this matter." They couldn"t even get near on this matter. If not, they would get implicated and might even die from it.
Ling Lan felt that this matter was troublesome too. At first, she thought that this case only affected the higher authorities of the military. The person behind everything might be as powerful as her father. However, after going through all the information they received, the waters behind this was too deep. It might drown her and her father.
Ling Lan clenched her fist tightly. She paced around Li Lanfeng"s room. Her mind was working furiously. If she interfered with this matter, would there be more benefits or risks?
"This could explain why Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran got eyed on the moment they entered Mai"er Fa. They were abandoned by the Flying Dragon Special Forces from the beginning." Ling Lan gritted her teeth angrily.
Although she only interacted Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran for a short while, she had a good impression of them. She knew that they were loyal to the Federation and were two of the most outstanding soldiers of the new generation.
To her, these people would become the pillars of the Federation after they grew up. Such talents were precious so the Federation should nurture them carefully. But, due to some people"s selfish desires, they forsook such exceptional fresh blood of the Federation. Ling Lan felt really bad for them.
"Are you saying that Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran were abandoned the moment they accepted the mission?" Li Lanfeng felt that the matter was bad but he didn"t expect it to be so terrible.
"By right, with Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran"s stealth abilities, it would be hard for the people in Mai"er Fa to discover them within such a short time even if they knew that some people were sent over to investigate the annihilation of the Magic Ace Mecha Clan. The only reason this could be possible was, they knew that the people that were sent over were Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran. Hence, finding them would be easy." Ling Lan explained, "From the start, I didn"t understand why Mai"er Fa didn"t find you but found Mu Chaoran and Tang Ningyu instead. You took the mission before them but they found the two of them easily instead of you. Now, I know."
Li Lanfeng nodded. He was still too naive. He didn"t think too much about these dark dealings. He looked at Ling Lan with admiration. Once again, he felt the difference between him and Ling Lan. There were still many things he had to learn from her.
"Why didn"t Mai"er Fa kill Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran? " Li Lanfeng agreed with Ling Lan"s prediction but as an adviser, he still had to be careful about the loopholes in her prediction.
"This is why I didn"t suspect them at the start. By right, since they had already forsaken Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran, they wouldn"t bother with how Mai"er Fa treated them." Ling Lan frowned. She felt that there were still some things she hadn"t seen through in this matter. This could be the key to everything.
"However, we should be glad that Mai"er Fa didn"t want to kill Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran now. But, no one knew what would happen in the future." Ling Lan felt relieved for the two of them. If not, she might not be able to help them yesterday night. They would have already been killed by Sword Monarch if they didn"t want them to live.
"Do you think that Mai"er Fa is taking pity in their talent so they asked them to enter the mecha tournament? They might want to use them to increase the excitement for the mecha tournament." Li Lanfeng raised another possibility.
"Use them?" Ling Lan felt enlightened by these words. She felt that she was about to grasp something. She repeated, "Use them?"
There were many ways to increase the excitement for the mecha tournament. It was not a good idea to let these two pieces of chess to take part in the mecha tournament, as they possessed a threat to them. Unless, there were some underlying reasons.
To become the leader of the new generation, the mecha piloting skills of these people must be at pseudo imperial level. They might not be the match of those experienced and sly ace mecha masters but their mecha piloting skills could offer good practice for those rising stars.
Practice! Ling Lan felt that she had uncovered the mist covering up this problem.
"Little Four, find all the rising stars that are partic.i.p.ating in this mecha tournament." She finally felt that she might have had a breakthrough in this complex situation. It might be useless but she still hoped that she was able to find something.
"I understand." Little Four quickly went to do research. Very soon, he created a list of all the rising stars and gave it to Ling Lan.
"These are all the rising stars the other nations and various factions are grooming. Help me take a look. Who do you think are under Mai"er Fa?" Ling Lan pa.s.sed the list to Li Lanfeng. She trusted Li Lanfeng"s judgment.
Li Lanfeng looked through the list and frowned. He couldn"t see anything from this name list.
Because of Xiao Yiqiu, Su Pei used a different ident.i.ty to partic.i.p.ate in this tournament. Hence, their pictures and personal details on the list had nothing to do with their real ident.i.ty.
"If there"s really someone from Mai"er Fa, based on their prudence nature and the fact that they are the host, they might have altered the personal details of their candidates." Li Lanfeng thought of this possibility.
Ling Lan nodded. She said in a low voice, "I have this thought too but I still hope that they will make some careless mistakes. It seems like I"m hoping for too much."
"Boss, don"t worry. The personal details might be problematic but the real person will have to appear soon anyways. I"ll keep my eyes on the arena." Little Four saw Ling Lan sighing so he quickly consoled his boss.
"Okay. I"ll leave it to you." She saw Little Four"s excited look so she didn"t want to douse his enthusiasm. She didn"t think that Little Four would be able to get anything out of watching the arena, but nothing was impossible. What if he really found something?
Little Four was excited when his boss gave him such an important task. He went off hurriedly to watch over the arena. Of course, he didn"t forget to evade the stupid G.o.d-cla.s.s hacker. He couldn"t act boldly like last time so the areas he could control got smaller.
"What should we do now?" Li Lanfeng looked at the list again. They couldn"t find any clues so he asked Ling Lan about their next actions.
"Let"s give up Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran"s trails for now." Since they couldn"t get anything from this line of thought, Ling Lan let go of it.
"Let"s look at the mission the Magic Ace Mecha Clan took that time. Their mission was to help the Flying Dragon Special Forces as they retreat. Something might have happened while they were protecting the Flying Dragon Special Forces. What did they see and what did they discover? What made the higher authorities of the Flying Dragon Special Forces lay their hands on the Magic Ace Mecha Clan one month after this mission? Why did they annihilate the Magic Ace Mecha Clan with the help of Mai"er Fa?"
"We know that the higher authorities of the Flying Dragon Special Forces already had contacts with Mai"er Fa." Li Lanfeng understood what Ling Lan wanted to say.
"Not only that, they even sent Huang Yaobing out successfully and pa.s.sed him to Mai"er Fa. The annihilation of the Magic Ace Mecha Clan allowed Huang Yaobing to disappear, creating the illusion that he was dead." Ling Lan said seriously. "I suspect that the Son of G.o.d project never ended. They just changed their base of operation."
Ling Lan asked Little Four to look up Huang Yaobing. She realized that he was suspected to be dead.
When Ling Lan pa.s.sed the information of Huang Yaobing to Li Lanfeng, Li Lanfeng managed to guess what happened that year.
"Killing two birds with one stone! The person who set up this scheme is amazing. If we didn"t look up the Magic Ace Mecha Clan again, we might have been fooled by him." Li Lanfeng was thoroughly shocked by this finding. He realized that there were many clever people who specialized in schemes. He needed to work even harder now to catch up to them.
"If Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran died in Mai"er Fa while investigating the Magic Ace Mecha Clan, what would the military do?" Ling Lan suddenly asked Li Lanfeng.
He thought for a moment and replied, "There might be two results. First, they will be furious and break ties with Mai"er Fa. Second, they might give up the investigation because they knew that the waters here are too deep."
"Breaking ties on the surface is the best form of cooperation." Ling Lan was determined to get to the bottom of this.
"You mean that they would pretend to be very furious?" Li Lanfeng"s eyes lit up. He seemed to understand something.
"Then, the suspicion on them would just wash away," Ling Lan lowered her voice and said.
Ling Lan paced around the room again. After some time, she made a decision. "I"ll inform my father to investigate the higher authorities of the Flying Dragon Special Forces."
"Leader!" Li Lanfeng stood up in shock. Although he was attempting to uncover the secret behind the Magic Ace Mecha Clan with Ling Lan, it didn"t mean that he supported interfering with this matter.
"Lanfeng, there are some things I have to do. I can"t betray my heart." Ling Lan"s gaze were resolute as she said, "This is my path!"
Li Lanfeng was unable to persuade Ling Lan when he saw her resolute gaze. He knew that once Ling Lan made a decision, she would complete it even if she had to risk her life. The battle on Planet Haijiao was an instance of this trait.
"I understand. I fully support you," Li Lanfeng said seriously. Since Ling Lan made her decision, he would support her no matter what it took.
"Thank you, Lanfeng." Ling Lan smiled at Li Lanfeng. Li Lanfeng was stunned by the smile. He realized that Ling Lan"s smile was as enchanting as his smile. Even with all the scars on her face, they were unable to hide her charisma.