Chapter 405: The Battle Begins!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr
Li Yingjie's dispirited appearance caused the hall to fall silent again. In contrast to Wu Jiong's concern, Ling Lan's expression was indifferent. She only tapped on the cup in her hands, as if considering something.
Not long after, Lin Zhong-qing reappeared from the kitchen where he had been clearing things up. He came to stand before Li Yingjie and placed a cup of ice water which was still radiating cold air onto the tea table. Compared to before, Lin Zhong-qing seemed to set the cup down rather heavily — the sound of the cup slamming onto the tea table was loud and jarring.
"You too are laughing at me, aren't you?" Li Yingjie was startled by this noise. He jerked his head up and glared at Lin Zhong-qing with red-rimmed eyes, expression stubborn as he snapped this question at the other.
With a tray in his hands, Lin Zhong-qing placidly leaned over to collect that cup of hot coffee in front of Li Yingjie. He did not get angry, only tossing out the following statement. "What is there to laugh at? Judging by your previous methods, I'm not surprised that someone would betray you."
These words of Lin Zhong-qing's hit Li Yingjie right where it hurts; Li Yingjie became livid, the sadness and frustration shrouding his heart being chased away in an instant. Pointing indignantly at the coffee in Lin Zhong-qing's hands, he yelled, "Even though I used some bad methods in the past to bully you, you can't take my coffee away! Also, you are actually giving me ice water on such a cold day? Are you abusing your position to take revenge 1 ?"
Lin Zhong-qing's lips quirked at these words. He pointed at the cup of ice-cold water and said coolly, "I think, that it's best for you to use this to cool down a little right now. So there's been a traitor. Is that worth becoming so melancholic 2 ? Seeing you like this ... you're really not at all like the Li Yingjie who only knows how to bully me and push me down."
That said, he did not even turn his head back to look at the other as he stormed back to the kitchen with a stony expression. That manner showed clearly that he was not at all taking the now furious Li Yingjie seriously.
Li Yingjie had always been arrogant — even though the traitor had appeared from his team, indeed dealing him a heavy blow, and from young, he had eaten crow many times by Ling Lan's hand ... overall, his life had been smooth sailing. He was loved by his family and constantly praised by his subordinates — this had cultivated his haughty and arrogant temperament. Now, actually being mocked by someone he used to look down on, he felt greatly insulted and could not stand it.
Therefore, he actually ignored Wu Jiong and Ling Lan, charging after Lin Zhong-qing impulsively into the kitchen, thinking to argue with Lin Zhong-qing until he saw reason. Did this godd*mn Lin Zhong-qing not have any bit of comrade-like compassion? Striking a man when he's down 3 ... that, that, that's just too bloody despicable!
Wu Jiong stared in astonishment at Li Yingjie who had still been moping in self-recrimination and frustration a while ago. Now, he was actually spiritedly chasing after someone else into the kitchen and had begun an intense debate with Lin Zhong-qing. He looked towards Ling Lan who was sitting on the sofa, his expression completely nonplussed. He had just been thinking how he could console that punk just a moment ago!
Ling Lan narrowed her eyes slightly, set down the cup in her hands, and said calmly, "Li Yingjie's matter, let's not bother with it. I believe he knows where his problem lies." Otherwise, Li Yingjie would not have been so shaken. He actually knew very well where his problem lay; he just did not want to admit it.
Wu Jiong had also calmed down now. He nodded and said, "Makes sense. I just don't know whether this incident will affect tomorrow's battle." Wu Jiong could not help but worry.
"No matter. The reason why I did not want the name list exposed before the fight was to avoid complications. Frankly, even if Leiting knows now, it won't be an issue." The true killing blow had never been the name list to begin with. Ling Lan had only been misleading the opponent with a smokescreen of carefully cultivated truth and omissions, letting Leiting truly believe that Lingtian's trump card was the two unexpected additions on the name list.
After hearing what Ling Lan had to say, Wu Jiong's heart finally settled. Boss Lan would not make a promise unless everything was within his control.
Wu Jiong and Ling Lan continued to discuss things they had to note for tomorrow's battle. When they suddenly noticed that Li Yingjie's initially loud and energetic voice in the kitchen had gone silent, the two of them turned with surprise to look in the direction of the kitchen. Then, they saw Li Yingjie huffily scrubbing a cup in his hands with a clean rag, the force with which he was doing so making it seem as if the cup was his archenemy.
Wu Jiong felt that that cup seemed extremely familiar. He reflexively looked down at the coffee cup in his hands and immediately realised what it was.
"Wu Jiong, do you still want more coffee?" Lin Zhong-qing noticed Wu Jiong's glance at his cup and briskly walked out of the kitchen with the coffee pot to ask seriously.
"Uh, uh, um, okay ... er, that, just a little." Lin Zhong-qing's sudden question made Wu Jiong respond reflexively. He thrust out the coffee cup in his hands only to find that he had barely taken two sips from his cup. It was still almost full, and so, he could only quickly amend his answer.
Lin Zhong-qing did not seem to notice Wu Jiong's embarrassment. He very carefully poured a little more coffee into Wu Jiong's cup and then carried the coffee pot back to the kitchen ...
"I'm done cleaning this. Like this, you can finally give me coffee now, right?" Li Yingjie saw Lin Zhong-qing return and quickly raised the spotless cup he had wiped, showing Lin Zhong-qing that he could pour him some coffee now.
Lin Zhong-qing cast a cold glance at him and put the coffee pot back on the shelf, saying coldly, "If you want to drink, pour it yourself!"
"Why? Wu Jiong is a regiment commander, and I'm also a regiment commander. Why can you pour for him but not for me?" Li Yingjie was enraged once more.
"You were the one who made a mistake. Do you still have the right to get others to pour coffee for you?" Lin Zhong-qing calmly dropped this sentence and then stopped paying any more attention to Li Yingjie. Li Yingjie was flushed to his roots with anger; his hands were balled up into fists and he looked like he was on the verge of punching Lin Zhong-qing.
"This logistics head of yours has finally gotten his revenge." At this point, Wu Jiong could not help but shake his head and comment with a wry smile, feeling somewhat speechless at how Li Yingjie was mindlessly serving himself up for this abuse.
Ling Lan raised her head to look at Wu Jiong and said evenly, "Zhong-qing is not taking revenge."
Wu Jiong was bewildered. Ling Lan said with a half-smile, "What? Don't you feel how Li Yingjie has turned back into the Li Yingjie of before? Arrogant, overbearing, somewhat unreasonable?"
Wu Jiong was enlightened. He cast a searching look at Lin Zhong-qing who was still ignoring Li Yingjie in the kitchen. Once again, he found that, in terms of understanding people, he was truly no match for Boss Lan. In his eyes, Lin Zhong-qing's behaviour had obviously been meant to taunt and mock Li Yingjie, revenge for Li Yingjie's oppression of him in the past. However, after Boss Lan's hinting, he realised that Lin Zhong-qing was just goading Li Yingjie to motivate and encourage him so that the disheartened and lost Li Yingjie could be revived.
It made sense when he thought about it. If Lin Zhong-qing were really so petty and short-sighted, how could he be worthy of following Boss Lan till now? He had still underestimated Lin Zhong-qing.
Leaving aside the sense of failure in Wu Jiong's heart, Li Yingjie was feeling as if he and Lin Zhong-qing were truly archenemies in their past life. Their enmity must have carried over into this life, dictating that they could not coexist peacefully for even one day. Worked up by Lin Zhong-qing almost to the point of exploding, it was lucky that he still remembered that he was in Boss Lan's territory. He finally managed to control his anger with much effort, and only then did he leave Ling Lan's villa with Wu Jiong, expression still indignant.
Right then, Li Yingjie could only think that he absolutely could not let Lin Zhong-qing look down on him. He, Li Yingjie, was naturally born as an arrogant person — hells, wasn't it just one traitor? He would let the other know that betraying him, Li Yingjie, would result in no so-called future.
Thus, he must win in the big mecha fight with Leiting tomorrow. He would let the other know that, if they wanted to make the Lingtian Mecha Clan disappear, if they wanted to see Li Yingjie out of sorts and miserable ... there was absolutely no way!
Li Yingjie, who had always been somewhat breathless from the oppression of Thunder King Qiao Ting, actually managed to sweep away the burden in his heart due to this betrayal and Lin Zhong-qing's goading. Right now, Li Yingjie had once again reverted to that fearless and arrogant 'I'm number one' mode — the Li Yingjie now would be able to rip a chunk of flesh off even someone as powerful as Thunder King Qiao Ting out of sheer fearlessness.
A night passed in silence. The time soon arrived at one in the afternoon. The military academy made the unprecedented decision of declaring the day a school holiday, allowing all the students to spectate the mecha fight between Lingtian and Leiting. The instructors of each class even set an assignment for the students to write a reflection after viewing the fight ...
The mecha fight between Lingtian and Leiting was a virtual battle. As such, the venue was in Mecha World. However, this match was set as an internal event by the mainframe, which only allowed people coming from login points in the First Men's Military Academy to enter and spectate.
In Mecha World, both Leiting and Lingtian were already primed and ready. They were only waiting on the mainframe's notification to enter the map of the mecha fight.
In order to ensure fairness, the mecha fight's battlefield map would be randomly selected by the mainframe. Therefore, neither team knew which map they would be fighting in. Compared to the Lingtian Mecha Clan, Leiting was obviously more confident in this regard. After all, having been through countless virtual mecha fights, they had a pretty decent understanding of all the various maps of Mecha World. It could be said that, from the very start when both teams entered the map, they would definitely have an advantage over the Lingtian Mecha Clan in deciding how to adapt and handle the situation.
In the waiting room of the 12 participating members of the Lingtian Mecha Clan, when Ling Lan operated the mecha Chang Xinyuan had modified to appear before the group, those who did not know the full story were filled with awe. Just as Ling Lan and her team expected, Wu Jiong, Li Yingjie, and the others all thought that Ling Lan's mecha was a special-class mecha. Wu Jiong, Li Yingjie, and the rest were both admiring and in awe that Ling Lan was the first to become a special-class mecha master in the Lingtian Mecha Clan. As expected, Boss Lan was the strongest of them all.
As the Lingtian Mecha Clan now had three special-class operators on the roster, Wu Jiong and the rest found themselves a lot calmer. Although Ling Lan had always stressed that Lingtian was not certain to lose in the fight against Leiting, they had still been uneasy deep inside. Now, they finally felt a little more confident.
The only one who was calm was instead Li Yingjie. Lin Zhong-qing's goading might have worked too well — Li Yingjie's eyes were filled with fighting spirit, as if planning to use strength to prove that he, Li Yingjie, would never be beaten down.
Very soon, everyone received the alert from the mainframe. Three minutes later, they would be automatically pulled into the battlefield by the mainframe.
Ling Lan swept a cold gaze around at the 11 people in the room and said, "Later once we get in, if everyone is together, split up into the teams as we arranged previously before acting. If we're split up, the first thing is to hide yourselves well. I'll find a way to contact you all. At that time, it's highly likely that you all will have to team up with the three people closest to you. Team coordination might not be as good, so be mentally prepared, everyone."
Ling Lan's warning made everyone's heart clench, but they immediately replied, "Roger, Boss Lan."