Chapter 388: Weak!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
Ling Lan's team members who knew about General Ling Xiao's relationship with their boss also knew that this father-son pair was rather strange in their interactions. They definitely did not give off the typical intimate feeling other father-son pairs did. Therefore, the members were not too surprised by their boss's impassive reaction.
Meanwhile, Li Lanfeng and Li Shiyu had no clue about Ling Lan and Ling Xiao's relationship. Even though they were rather surprised at how Ling Lan could keep so calm in the presence of the military's idol General Ling Xiao, when they considered how Ling Lan was perpetually cold and unemotional, they no longer thought anything of it. They just took it as a personality issue of Ling Lan and did not suspect anything else.
Ling Lan's calm and toneless response was followed by a beat of silence — Ling Xiao suddenly did not know what kind of attitude he should use when treating his baby daughter now. If he used the tone of a superior speaking to a subordinate, even if he could bear to do so, if his wife Lan Luofeng found out, he would definitely meet no good end ... if he acted a little more intimate, he wondered whether this would irritate his daughter, because his daughter's behaviour indicated that she did not want to reveal their relationship and expose her identity.
Ling Xiao once again felt it profoundly — it was truly very difficult to be a satisfactory father for a daughter 1 ...
Right at that moment, Qiao Ting on the other end had also operated his mecha over, bringing his faction members in tow. He came up to stand beside Ling Lan and said excitedly, "General Ling Xiao, hello. I am a 4th-year cadet of the First Men's Military Academy, Qiao Ting. It's nice to meet you." His words were similar in meaning to Ling Lan's greeting at the start, but compared to Ling Lan's cold indifference, Qiao Ting's tone of voice was obviously much warmer and more excited.
Ling Xiao turned his head to look at this ace trainee mecha who had come forwards uninvited. He knew that this must be one of the outstanding students of the military academy — mind you, for a 4th-year cadet to have already advanced to ace operator status was extremely rare, as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. And so, he operated his mecha to give Qiao Ting a nod in response.
This attitude of Ling Xiao's was exceedingly normal. Even though Qiao Ting was an outstanding cadet, Ling Xiao had seen more than his fair share of this type of talent. At his current level, Qiao Ting was not yet able to gain Ling Xiao's acknowledgement. As one of the twelve god-class operators of the Federation, one of the ten great generals, Ling Xiao's standards were undoubtedly very high.
However, having a comparison, Qiao Ting did not think so. They were both cadets piloting trainee mecha, but Ling Xiao's attitude when treating the other ace operator was obviously warmer. This made Qiao Ting feel a little unhappy; he felt he was being treated coldly. In the military academy, the instructors had high hopes for him and the other students gathered around him like stars around the moon. Thus, he naturally felt that he had the right to garner the same treatment as the other ace operator ...
Ling Xiao naturally knew nothing of these little thoughts running through Qiao Ting's mind. Right then, his daughter was the only thing he could see. If not for the strangers around, Ling Xiao would have directly pried Ling Lan's mecha open so that he could see for himself that his daughter was truly safe and unharmed. However, Ling Xiao was after all Ling Xiao. He knew that in this situation, he could not do as he wished. In order to find out his daughter's true condition, Ling Xiao decided to put a swift end to the battle.
Thus, he said, "After regrouping, head for the dormitory district immediately!" That said, Ling Xiao's giant mecha once again disappeared from the group's sight, leaving no trace behind. If not for the roaring flames left behind by the fall of the imperial mecha, everyone could have imagined that General Ling Xiao's presence here had merely been a wishful dream.
Seeing Ling Xiao leave, Ling Lan let out a mental sigh of relief. At this time, Little Four finally leapt out from the little black room he had been confined to and shouted indignantly, "Boss, you're a coward! Not even daring to call out 'daddy'! I look down on you!" It turned out that Ling Lan was afraid that Little Four would be too excited at seeing Ling Xiao and affect her emotional balance, and so had shut Little Four up in that little black room when Ling Xiao had approached her.
Ling Lan said helplessly, "This is a battlefield. It's not appropriate for me to call him that here."
"I'm not listening, not listening! You're just afraid and cowardly! Are you ashamed of having Ling Xiao as your daddy?" Little Four covered his ears, showing that he would not accept any of Ling Lan's explanations. Instead, he continued to question Ling Lan with an even angrier tone.
"How could I be ashamed of that? I'm very proud to be Ling Xiao's daughter! I'm just more afraid that I'll disgrace Ling Xiao," Ling Lan told Little Four bitterly, her expression a little lost.
The reason why she could accept the virtual world Ling Xiao was that she understood that that Ling Xiao was fake — it was only a remnant spiritual imprint. Thus, she could let her emotions run free and call the other 'daddy' without reservations, and the other's reaction was just as she had expected, immensely happy and content. And that was all — things ended there, and there was no future to worry about.
But now things were different. The present Ling Xiao was a real person. He had feelings, he possessed all seven emotions and six desires — he might accept her now with his selfless fatherly love, but he could also become disappointed in the future, and become angry and hate her ... Ling Lan was afraid that once she accepted Ling Xiao, she would become weak and start hoping for even more.
Over these past 16 years, in order to support the burden of the entire Ling family on her shoulders, Ling Lan had already learned how to be strong and independent, accustomed to handling everything on her own. Ling Xiao's return changed everything she had already gotten used to, and this made Ling Lan somewhat panicked.
What flustered Ling Lan even more was Ling Xiao's full berth of fatherly love. He displayed it so obviously, and the enthusiasm and intensity of it were so distinctly different from her father's demeanour in her previous life; her past father's eyes had always been full of fatigue and weariness. This was another reason why Ling Lan had been avoiding the issue, unable to examine her true emotions too closely.
Yes, it wasn't that Ling Lan did not want to accept Ling Xiao; she was just afraid that one day in the future, those love-filled eyes of Ling Xiao would also end up filled with distaste and weariness ... Ling Lan did not want to experience that kind of hurt ever again. It was just as Little Four had said — weak, she pushed away Ling Xiao's overflowing fatherly love again and again, even though she knew that her response would hurt Ling Xiao a little.
"Like this, can I become a daughter Ling Xiao would be satisfied with?" Ling Lan asked Little Four with a sad smile. Already trained to be a cold-blooded and ruthless killer by the learning space, she could no longer be that soft and gentle, sweet and adorable little girl in Ling Xiao's mind's eye.
Little Four was taken aback by Ling Lan's question, and then his entire face collapsed into a deep frown. He found that what his boss had said was not wrong. Already used to seeing his boss's cold, fierce, and domineering demeanour, Little Four really could not imagine her acting like a petite and sweet young miss instead. Thus, Little Four consoled her with a face full of regret, "Boss, my condolences!"
Ling Lan wordlessly flicked Little Four's forehead and then ignored Little Four's woeful eyes of condemnation. Somewhat dejectedly, she said, "I can only take things one step at a time. If ..." She did not finish her sentence. One day, if she managed to overcome the barriers in her heart, perhaps she would be able to call Ling Xiao 'daddy'.
Ling Lan very quickly gathered her emotions. Turning to check on her team, after she found that they were all unharmed, she moved to lead her team back to the dormitory district. Ling Lan knew well that her father must have already gone ahead to wrap things up there.
Just then, Qiao Ting, who had similarly finished settling matters with his team, called out to her, "Please wait!"
"Something the matter?" Ling Lan paused and turned her head to ask. At the critical moment, Qiao Ting did not choose to abandon his companions and subordinates — this had turned Ling Lan's impression of Qiao Ting favourable.
"May I ask, which year and specialization you are from?" Qiao Ting really wanted to know who this other ace operator was. Who exactly was this person who had also managed to advance to ace operator like him?
Qiao Ting's question caused Ling Lan to quirk a brow, but she did not answer.
Ling Lan's silence made Qiao Ting even more unhappy. His frustration and disappointment at being treated coldly by Ling Xiao rushed to his head and he found himself blurting out, "Do you know General Ling Xiao?" Or else why would General Ling Xiao treat you so warmly yet treat me with such cold indifference? This was the only reason Qiao Ting could come up with during this short period of time.
Ling Lan could not help but laugh at his question. No matter how cool she had tried to play it, Ling Xiao's behaviour had still raised some flags. For some reason, Ling Lan suddenly felt really happy — though initially she had not planned on answering, her good mood prompted her to ask in return, "Could it be that you don't know General Ling Xiao?"
Ling Lan's question rendered Qiao Ting instantly speechless. Mind you, in the Federation, aside from those newborn children who knew nothing, as long as one was a mentally aware Huaxian, there was no way one did not know General Ling Xiao. As such, Qiao Ting's previous question was a rather silly one.
Qiao Ting was just about to change the phrasing of his question when he heard Ling Lan say evenly, "General Ling Xiao ordered us to head to the dormitory district immediately. I think that, General Ling Xiao probably would not want us to dawdle."
Ling Lan's words caused Qiao Ting's heart to clench in fright. He swallowed his questions and looked searchingly at the ace trainee mecha before him for a moment before turning to order his faction members to head swiftly for the dormitory district.
Watching the disappearing figures of Qiao Ting's group, Li Lanfeng, who had been silent all this while, asked, "Rabbit, are we leaving it like this?" Qiao Ting's previous overbearing and impolite behaviour had seriously ruffled Li Lanfeng's feathers — though of course this was also because Li Lanfeng already had some negative bias against Qiao Ting to begin with, so all of Qiao Ting's improper behaviour was magnified endlessly in his eyes.
"We'll clash again in the future. Leiting will not forget the grudge established this year. In at most two years' time, they will challenge us again." A smirk appeared on Ling Lan's lips. Qiao Ting's refusal to act against his companions had indeed improved Ling Lan's opinion of him, but she also deeply disliked the inherently overbearing and haughty side of him.
It should be said that Ling Lan had also cultivated a robust air of dominance from her training in the learning space. However, her dominance was deeply embedded in her bones and was not waved about on the outside. As such, regarding Qiao Ting who was equally dominant, she naturally felt slightly repelled — this was perhaps the logic behind the theory of keeping kings away from each other 2 .
Ling Lan's words made Li Lanfeng recall that time a while back when the New Cadet Regiment had gone up against Leiting in an arena battle. He knew that Leiting would definitely enact their plan for revenge when the time was right, and so he said, "When it's time for the mecha fight, count me in."
Ling Lan was surprised. "Aren't you part of Wuji?"
Li Lanfeng chuckled and said, "We're just collaborators. Wuji will not be comfortable letting us external allies join them." Just like Zhao Jun, who was also excluded from the group. Li Lanfeng rubbed his jaw as he suddenly thought, ' Perhaps next year, he could also lure Zhao Jun over ... 3 '
Zhao Jun, who was currently hiding in the dormitory district, suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He anxiously checked his surroundings, but other than cadets, he could only see more cadets. There was no sign of any danger at all. He scratched his head in confusion, unsure where that sense of danger had come from ...