Chapter 469: Clouds of Suspicions
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
While Zhang Lisheng was asking, the valet boy in the front hall of the hotel had already walked up to the car. The young man regained his calmness and walked out of the car as though nothing had happened. After he watched his girlfriend hand the key of the jeep and tip the valet boy, he strode up and put his arm around Tina’s waist.
Sensing the hot temperature of her boyfriend’s palm, the girl smiled and gently placed her hand on the back of Zhang Lisheng’s hand. As they walked into the hotel, she whispered, “Baby, I’ve seen the picture of the Atlantis s.p.a.cecrafts and they are indeed luminous and shuttle-shaped. I’ll tell you about them in detail later. Now what we should do now is get a room for you and let you take a hot bath so that you can change into a new set of clothes and go to T-Trish’s…” As Tina was speaking, she, who was walking up to the hotel front desk, suddenly stopped. Zhang Lisheng, who was next to her, also stopped abruptly.
A few seconds later, looking at the red-haired young couple with long slender limbs and exquisite facial features standing in front of the black marble counter, Zhang Lisheng’s narrowed eyes returned to their normal sizes. The arm that was holding his companion’s waist patted lightly as he continued to walk to the front desk.
“Excuse me, do you have a first-cla.s.s suite?” When they reached the counter, they stood next to the red-haired man and woman. Zhang Lisheng asked a pretty white female receptionist in a polite manner.
“Welcome to Ginger, Sir!” Even though the receptionist started to serve Zhang Lisheng, she kept glancing at the red-haired couple beside him and said absent-mindedly, “Suite? We have three kinds of suites, ranging from 350 dollars to 750 dollars…”
“I’m asking for a first-cla.s.s suite, Miss. In that case, give me the 750 dollar one.” Before the receptionist could finish her sentence, Zhang Lisheng already took out his ID and credit card and handed it over. “And please send a set of changing clothes and shoes to the room in the shortest time possible. I want a formal attire for the outer-coat.”
When the receptionist heard the annoyance in the guest’s tone, she hurriedly turned her attention back to her job. At this moment, she finally saw that the guest in front was completely unkempt like a tramp, while his female companion was dressed glamorously and had a physical appearance that looked like a model, causing her to be stunned right away.
After a while, she finally snapped back to her realization and smiled awkwardly. “Y-Yes, Sir!”
In a haste, she swiped the card and a.s.signed a suite before handing the credit card to the guest with both hands. “Your room is B0701. The penthouse suites offer a bird’s eye view of the entire New Was.h.i.+ngton A’s night view. It’ll take at most 15 minutes for your formal attire to arrive.”
“Thank you!” Zhang Lisheng took the credit card and suddenly asked,” You seem to be very interested in Atlanteans?”
“I’m sorry, sir,” The receptionist opened her mouth and replied incoherently. “I-I was indeed… B-But they’re aliens, handsome and beautiful, mysterious and have red hair and fair skin. They also have supernatural powers and they’re really, really…”
“I understand.” Zhang Lisheng interrupted the receptionist and nodded with a smile before shrugging. “I wasn’t blaming you, Miss. You don’t have to worry about being complained. goodbye.”
“I’m very honored to serve you, goodbye sir!” Without warning, the receptionist abruptly felt that this filthy yet young Asian man in front of him also had a unique and attractive charm. After being forgiven, she blurted out but at this moment, Zhang Lisheng had already led Tina to the lobby elevator.
“Pacification! These Atlanteans are using pacification to achieve things that their ancestors have not achieved before,” the young man whispered in a solemn expression as he walked. “They’re using a method that we Chinese would call ‘killing with a soft knife’. To put it in a good way, it means that they would only strike when the Earthlings have put down their vigilance.”
“Baby, things are not what you imagine,” Tina said to her boyfriend. “The Atlanteans didn’t rely on their empty words to get the trust and recognition of all the countries on this Earth in such a short period of time. Their technological level, especially in solar thermal energy, is far above the Earth’s civilization. It’s exactly by disclosing their solar energy and geothermal energy storage and utilization technology that they’re able to win the trust of the Earthlings.”
“Tina, this is even more suspicious! Without any reason or interest, why would the Atlanteans be so good to us? They drove such a huge fleet undergoing the danger of crossing hundreds of millions of kilometers through the Milky Way to Earth just to help the Earth raise her level of civilization? Is that even possible?” When they reached the elevator, Zhang Lisheng pressed the up b.u.t.ton and said in disapproval.
“Baby, Atlantis is not asking for nothing from us. They’re very afraid of the foreign world and think that it would destroy the purity of our universe…” As the girl was speaking, the elevator suddenly opened with a ‘ding’. Several hotel guests walked out and one of them, a slightly skinny young white man who was not particularly tall, had his eyes lit up when he saw Tina. With a smile, he said, “Miss Tina, so you’re already here in the hotel lobby. Trish has been looking for you. The guests that arrived today are more than we expected, so we may not have enough wine…”
“This is a good thing, Drax. Just go take more wine from Bart’s wine cellar if the wine is not enough. I’ve already told him about it,” the girl smiled and replied. “Please tell Trish that my boyfriend is here so I’ll go to the receptionist with him.”
“Oh, this is your boyfriend?” The young white man did not seem to see Zhang Lisheng’s beggar-like appearance. Enthusiastically, he extended his hand. “Good day, Sir. I’m Kenny Drax, Miss Trish’s campaign a.s.sistant.”
“Good day to you, Mr. Drax. I’m Zhang Lisheng, nice to meet you,” Zhang Lisheng, who was laden with worries, shook Drax’s hand and forced a smile.
“Me too.” The young white man nodded at Zhang Lisheng politely. “Unfortunately, I can’t chat with you right now. I must go and take the wine bottles first. See you, Mr. Zhang. See you, Miss Tina!”
Hastily, he walked out of the hotel.
“Trish’s campaign a.s.sistant? Didn’t you say that Trish’s position is only equivalent to a town mayor? Does such a small position also need a campaign a.s.sistant?” Glancing at the disappearing back of the young white man, Zhang Lisheng curled his lips in astonishment, before leading the girl into the elevator.
“Campaigning is very energy-intensive and professional. No matter how small the job is, it’s still difficult to win alone,” Tina shrugged and replied. “And, if you really want to go very far, it’s best to get started with the help of a professional campaign team and get used to the ‘political ecology’.”
“Oh I see, interesting. But we were on the Atlantis topic just now right?” Zhang Lisheng shrugged. “Anyway, you were saying that they’re very afraid of the foreign world?”
“Yes, Lisheng. Perhaps it’s because of a ‘species invasion’ or some other unknown and mysterious reason, that those Atlanteans are very concerned about the foreign worlds that appear on Earth. They have built an isolation measure called the light curtain at every known world pa.s.sage, isolating the Earth from other worlds, claiming that a catastrophe would eventually fall on the universe if the Earth is allowed to communicate with the foreign worlds.” As the girl was speaking, the elevator had arrived at the seventh floor.
Zhang Lisheng silently walked out of the elevator and walked into room B0701 with the guidance of the room attendant. After giving a 20 dollar tip and sending the grateful attendant away, he walked into the bathroom and opened the water tap as he said, “The Atlanteans’ approach is just too weird and unexplainable. I’m a biologist so naturally, I know that there are indeed examples of how a perfect biosphere would collapse because of the invasion of some foreign species. However, this is only limited to a planet, how can the species invasion cross the Milky Way… Oh G.o.d! Maybe they’re afraid that other transcendental civilizations that are completely different from technological civilizations would appear in our universe. Wait, then again, we also have such things in our universe as well… I can’t get any answer at all. There’s no explanation at all. Besides, it may not be difficult to isolate Earth from foreign worlds but once all the worlds are widely opened, the contact area between Earth and every ‘world’ would be as large as several tens of thousands square kilometers! How are we going to isolate it by then?”
“Oh baby, you’re thinking too much. And besides, the information we have now is too little.” Tina walked over to Zhang Lisheng, and gently took off her dress to kiss her boyfriend. “The Atlanteans are not showing any signs of malicious intent at all for now so can you please stop worrying so much? There won’t be much change as long as you are more careful when you go in and out of Shrimp World No. 2 and watch out to not expose your tremendous achievements in the foreign world when you’re on Earth.”
“You make it sound so easy, Tina. Don’t forget that it’s the nuclear war between the Atlanteans and the Muryan, who evolved from the Tattdu people who were reincarnated by G.o.ds, in the solar age that those foreign worlds would appear in the first place. And now they return abruptly and suddenly became a close comrade of Earth, wanting to work together to maintain the purity of the universe? This is too weird! There must be some huge conspiracy that we’re not informed of! If we’re not careful, we might…” Zhang Lisheng said in panic. However, before he could finish his words, his mouth was immediately blocked by his girlfriend.
After a bout of sweet kiss, Tina said softly, “Baby, the scruples that you said are the conjectures we made before this. They may not be correct so stop being worried, okay? Relax, I don’t wish for you to be always this tired.”
“Ok, you’re right, Tina. We have too little information so it’s no use thinking too much based on our conjectures anyway.” Zhang Lisheng became silent for a while and heaved a sigh of relief. “It’s indeed wiser for us to be relaxed.”
After saying so, the young man ripped his st.u.r.dy desert windbreaker apart and picked up the naked girl, who was giggling happily, before jumping into the bathtub.