Chapter 14: Fear of Heights is a Big Problem
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: mjn0898
When the hover car entered a sprawling city, Ling Lan could see towering skyscrapers and other tall buildings all around her, making her feel like she was truly in a future world. Almost every level of every building had parking spaces, and Ling Lan saw numerous hover cars hanging by the various levels of the tall buildings as they travelled. The sight made her think of Christmas trees, decorated with baubles, uniquely interesting. It couldn't be helped since those hover cars came in all colours of the rainbow, vibrant and eye-catching.
Very quickly, Ling Lan had arrived at her destination. Ling-Zero-Seven paused for a moment in mid-air as it requested landing approval from their target building. The response came quickly, telling them to park at Area B Number 77–9.
The hover car started circling the building until it arrived at a particular section. Then, it started rising, up and up for an unknown number of levels, before finally touching down on an empty landing spot.
After Ling-Zero-Seven had finished parking properly, the car doors once again swung open on their own. As Lan Luofeng stepped out of the car, bending over slightly in the process, Ling Lan got a glimpse of the floor beneath her mother's feet ... and then, tragedy!
The floor was entirely transparent — one could see everything below it. And just like that, Ling Lan grew dizzy and light-headed.
Dammit, so she was afraid of heights! Since she had been bedridden from a young age, for most of her life, she had never known she had this fatal weakness.
Ling Lan could almost cry — she was starting to think that coming to the future was a terrible thing. On the way here from home, she had noticed that almost all the buildings in this world basically consisted of 100 levels or more ... Furthermore, the main mode of transportation here seemed to be the hover car, which could freely travel up to several hundred metres into the air. All this just proved that she would never be able to escape from heights in this life.
Ling Lan was tormented ... how was she supposed to live? Ignorant of Ling Lan's plight, Lan Luofeng brought her into the building and walked into a transparent viewing elevator.
As for what happened next, not surprisingly, Ling Lan fainted dramatically. Er ... I mean, fell asleep. Well, at least that's what her mum Lan Luofeng believed, totally missing the tears clinging to Ling Lan's eyelashes.
Now, even if she did notice them, she would have just thought that those tears were the result of her baby's sleepiness. Look, don't they just make her eyes sparkle in such an adorable way?
Ling Lan did not know how long she had fainted ... eh-hm, slept, before she was woken up by a screeching sound. Opening her still somewhat blurry eyes, she saw a rampaging female dragon spitting out indiscriminate fire.
"Lan Luofeng, you think you still have the right to show up here?" The yelling woman was still quite pretty, but that affected peacock-like attitude was rather unbecoming, making her lose all sense of class.
Ling Lan categorised her as an unsavoury character with one glance. She had no tolerance for anyone who scorned her mother.
Still, Ling Lan was a little curious. Till now, she had not seen a single ugly person — everyone had at least looked decent. Ling Lan guessed that this future world was probably technologically advanced enough ... enough that a person's features could be calibrated while within the womb?
Uh, Ling Lan, what do you think foetuses are? Programs or machines? Calibrated indeed ...
Ling Lan only found out later that, quite simply, although it did have something to do with technology as Ling Lan had guessed, the changes weren't made before birth, but after. Anyone whose appearance did not fit within certain beauty parameters could choose to use beauty correction agents to fix their appearance. Although that sounded impressive, it was basically the same principle as cosmetic surgery, just more technologically advanced so everything could be handled via injections without the need to go under a knife.
Of course, this did not preclude the existence of extremists, who for the sake of greater beauty beyond regular parameters, would push aside the agents and opt directly for the knife.
Lan Luofeng said nothing in reply to the seething woman, but merely cast a cold glance at her, before ignoring her completely to head towards an empty VIP room with her daughter in her arms.
Lan Luofeng's clear dismissal made the woman even angrier. She grabbed hold of Lan Luofeng by the shoulder, and was just about to speak when Lan Luofeng hissed at her, "Let go!"
Before the woman could do so, Chamberlain Ling Qin had rushed over from a few steps away to administer a light flick of his finger.
With a shout of pain, the woman was pushed back a step and naturally lost her grip. Interest flashed in Ling Lan's eyes — she hadn't expected that the outwardly gentle and understated Chamberlain Ling Qin was such a skilled fighter. That almost imperceptible small movement had been caught by Ling Lan's bright eyes.
"Mistress, please go ahead into the VIP room with the young master. There are too many riff-raff here, they shouldn't disturb you." Without any expression on his face, Ling Qin stepped in between that woman and Lan Luofeng. If he hadn't been a bit too far away from Lan Luofeng back then, this woman wouldn't have had a chance to lay a hand on his mistress.
Ling Qin was annoyed at himself — it was all because of his negligence that the woman had managed to get close to the mistress and the young master. If she had had any evil intentions ... at the thought, Ling Qin felt a cold sweat break out along his back in belated fear.
In truth, Ling Qin was being too hard on himself. If someone had truly had intentions to harm Lan Luofeng and Ling Lan, an expert of his calibre would definitely have sensed it and taken the appropriate defensive measures. He had only been taken by surprise because he hadn't sensed any killing intent from the surrounding people. Furthermore, this VIP section was specially set aside for women, so the surrounding people were all either noblewomen or women from rich and powerful families, leading Ling Qin to subconsciously slow his steps.
"Alright, Uncle Qin!" Lan Luofeng had no interest in arguing with the woman and making a public spectacle.
Ever since Ling Xiao had died and she had broken ties with the Ling family, Lan Luofeng had known that she would be ostracised by some of the noblewomen circles. Over the years, though the Ling family hadn't conducted much proper business, they had been rather proactive in arranging marriage alliances with the various elite and noble families. While they did not manage to connect with the main descendants of those families, they still managed to build some significant contacts among the lesser branches of those families.
That woman who had grabbed Lan Luofeng was one of those Ling family marriage prospects. Her family had agreed to the marriage alliance because they had been interested in the power accumulated by Ling Suzheng and Ling Xiao in the army, and were hoping that the Ling family would be able to help them with that power. However, following Major General Ling Xiao's sudden death, the Ling family had failed in their power struggle with Lan Luofeng and had been forced to leave Doha, leaving her plans in ruins. The main cause of all this was Lan Luofeng's clever trap, which is why her resentment had flared at the sight of Lan Luofeng, causing her to rush up like a mad dog to vent her frustrations. Lan Luofeng was not at all surprised by this turn of events.
However, Lan Luofeng didn't care. She had never had any aspirations for power to begin with. If it weren't for the fact that she had wanted to show her baby the world outdoors, she would have just happily stayed home without a thought for the outside world. As such, why would she care if others ostracised her or scorned her?
It cannot be denied that Lan Luofeng was a proud woman. While Ling Xiao had been around, she had still been willing to make an effort to mingle with these noblewomen. But now, she had no mood for it. Ling Xiao's death had robbed her of half her soul, while the remaining half had become dedicated to the raising of Ling Lan and the defence of Ling Xiao's hard-earned premium military benefits.
Lan Luofeng ignored the whispers that broke out after that scene and walked into one of the unoccupied VIP rooms. At the same time, a waiting VIP service staff entered after her to provide her services.
Ling Lan sighed. The damnable class system still existed 10000 years later despite efforts to remove it — looked like equality among all human beings really only worked in theory.