Ling Lan was surprised to see who was outside her door. She asked, “How did you all come here?” She leaned slightly to one side, motioning for the two girls to come in.
Han Xuya saw that Luo Chao was completely immobile now, so she decisively grabbed Luo Chao’s hand and pulled her into the room.
Only then did Ling Lan close the door, turn around, and ask, “What would you all like to drink?”
Ling Lan was very happy to see Luo Chao and Han Xuya again. She actually really wanted to have several good girl friends to gossip with and talk about feelings and so on … though looking at the current circumstances, this wish was impossible to realize.
Face red, Luo Chao stuttered, “A-anything is f-fine, Boss Lan.”
However, Han Xuya did not stand on ceremony. “I want to drink Aimuro juice.” Aimuro was an extremely rare and precious fruit, and so the juice extracted from it was also extremely expensive. Hence, Han Xuya was normally reluctant to drink it, but she had no need to be polite with Boss Lan here; after all, Boss Lan was the second generation of a top-level military family in the Federation — the amount of pocket money he had must be staggering …
At this notion, Han Xuya felt resentment stir in her heart. Why were Boss Lan’s parents so willing to give him so much credits, while her parents were so calculative? Every time she went to them to ask for some pocket money, they would even ask her for a full accounting of her expenses. Her heart ached just thinking about it.
Han Xuya came to the profound realisation that, sure enough, other people’s parents were always the best.
Just as Han Xuya believed, Ling Lan did not care at all about that amount of credits. Leaving aside the credits her parents gave to her, her omnipotent Little Four could already help her earn countless credits in a never-ending supply — no matter how she spent, the credits never ran out.
In this way, under Luo Chao’s reticent shyness and Han Xuya’s decisive help when she could not take her friend’s timidity anymore, Ling Lan finally figured out why the two girls had come looking for her. She considered how she really had nothing much to do today anyway, and so agreed to go shopping with them.
They had yet to leave the house, however, when Ling Lan’s doorbell rang again. Ling Lan opened the door to see Li Lanfeng standing there, and she asked curiously, “Leopard, what’s up?”
Li Lanfeng glanced into the room and saw the two girls sitting on the sofa in the rabbit’s room. Li Lanfeng had not forgotten what they had said earlier, about how Luo Chao really liked the rabbit. He wondered if she had already confessed. It was rather unexpected that his rabbit was younger than him by three years, and yet the peach blossoms were already blooming everywhere in his vicinity 1 . This left an astringent taste in Li Lanfeng’s heart — even he himself did not have a girlfriend yet; this was a little disgraceful …
“You have guests?” Li Lanfeng tried hard to tamp down on the rising sourness in his heart and pretended as if he had just caught sight of the girls, his face filled with surprise.
“Yes, my two sisters. We’re going to go shop at the marketplace,” said Ling Lan breezily.
Li Lanfeng’s expression turned pleased at those words. “What a coincidence. I too was about to ask you to go shopping together. Why don’t we all go together?”
Ling Lan considered it and agreed. She felt that she might be too busy to handle both girls — it would be safer with Li Lanfeng coming along as well. Ling Lan did not forget that Luo Chao’s outstanding beauty was just like Luo Lang’s, capable of causing trouble on the scale of Helen of Troy.
By the time Ling Lan and company departed, however, the group was no longer just the four of them because they had bumped into Qi Long as they were leaving. When this fellow Qi Long heard that Boss was going shopping, he was instantly ecstatic. He very quickly summoned a large group of people, so in the end, it became a trip involving the entire Lingtian Battle Clan. The twelve members rushed towards the marketplace in high spirits.
*******
Meanwhile, on the Second Men’s Military Academy’s end, after receiving news that Luo Chao and Han Xuya were going shopping with a group of people from the First Men’s Military Academy, Jiang Shaoyu also led his own battle clan out after them …
As they had much more people now, Lingtian split into two groups. Luo Chao and Han Xuya were with Ling Lan, Li Lanfeng, Luo Lang, and Zhao Jun 2 , while Qi Long’s group included Han Jijyun, Lin Zhong-qing, Xie Yi, Chang Xinyuan, and Li Shiyu.
Compared to Luo Chao’s group which was planning to shop around aimlessly, Qi Long’s group was much more purposeful. As the team’s specialised researchers, Li Shiyu and Chang Xinyuan would instantly buy anything which would be beneficial to their research, while the head logistician Lin Zhong-qing would not forget to gather useful resources for his battle clan. Luckily, Ling Lan was prepared for this. Before the two groups went their separate ways, she transferred a large bulk of credits to Lin Zhong-qing. That figure was enough to make even Lin Zhong-qing, who managed the finances of the Lingtian Battle Clan, to tremble, feeling as if he would be flattened by the sheer weight of all those credits. It was clear to see how large this sum of credits was.
As Ling Lan’s team browsed the stalls, compared to the impatience that gradually surfaced on Luo Lang’s and Zhao Jun’s faces, Ling Lan and Li Lanfeng were much more composed. They sat in a rest area, patiently waiting for Luo Chao and Han Xuya to finish trying out clothes.
When Luo Lang could take it no longer, he stared across the street with stars in his eyes. There was a mecha equipment store there and he really wanted to go take a look.
“Boss, I’ll be going over there to take a look. I’ll be right back,” Luo Lang finally spoke up to say. He no longer wanted to accompany his younger sister while she shopped for clothes.
Zhao Jun’s eyes lit up at his words and he quickly joined in to say, “I’ll go too.”
Ling Lan waved nonchalantly. “Go!” And then, Zhao Jun and Luo Lang could be seen running over to the store like they were being chased by demons.
Ling Lan found it rather funny and turned to ask Li Lanfeng sitting beside her, “Leopard, is accompanying girls to buy clothes such an unbearable thing?” Although Ling Lan did not have the chance to personally try on these pretty outfits before her eyes, she was happy just looking at them. That was why she did not find waiting for the girls tiring at all and was instead happy to do so.
Li Lanfeng seemed to be in a bit of a bad mood. He said lowly, “If you value the girl, then no matter how you accompany her, you will feel happy … Rabbit, that … girl inside, do you value her a lot?”
Ling Lan smiled and replied, “They are my dear little sisters. How can I not value them?”
Are they really just little sisters? If they were just little sisters to Ling Lan, then why couldn’t Luo Lang endure it? And Luo Lang was even Luo Chao’s actual biological brother … Li Lanfeng cast a searching look at Ling Lan, trying to judge the truth of Ling Lan’s words. Truth be told, Li Lanfeng did not really wish to see Ling Lan have a girlfriend right now. He just had the feeling that the friendship between Ling Lan and himself was still a distance away from his ideal; thus, Li Lanfeng did not want for a girlfriend to pop up and influence Ling Lan right at this critical period.
********
In the fitting room, blushing, Luo Chao was holding onto a gauzy dress Ling Lan had chosen for her, completely zoned out. Seeing this, Han Xuya nudged her helplessly and said, “Don’t just stand there. Change quickly and go out to dazzle the hell out of Boss Lan.”
Han Xuya’s words made Luo Chao’s face turn even redder, but she was at least aware again now to begin changing her clothes. As she changed, Luo Chao suddenly turned to ask Han Xuya, “That Big Brother Li … doesn’t he seem to dislike me?”
Taken aback, Han Xuya asked urgently, “Did you sense something?”
Luo Chao frowned as if trying to recall something. “Every time I try to talk to Boss Lan, he always interrupts and changes the topic. He seems to have something against me.”
Han Xuya’s expression turned serious as she began thinking back on everything that had happened along the way here. She found that it was really as Luo Chao had said — whether intentionally or not, that person called Li Lanfeng had been subtly trying to exclude them from their conversations. If Luo Chao had not brought it up, Han Xuya might not even have noticed.
However, that Li Lanfeng had been constantly smiling, and when he spoke to them, his tone had always been gentle and polite. He had not shown any sign of disliking them — could it be that they were just being overly sensitive? Han Xuya voiced this possibility and Luo Chao bit her own lip, unable to tell for sure. They could only decide to continue observing the situation.
********
Very soon, they were done changing and they walked out of the fitting room. The customers browsing the racks in the store saw a seductive witch and an ethereal fairy step out, and their eyes lit up instantly.
Han Xuya pulled the bashful Luo Chao right up to Ling Lan and then asked directly, “Boss Lan, are we pretty?”
Truly, humans were visual animals — even though Ling Lan was a girl like them, she was still stunned by the beauty of Han Xuya and Luo Chao. She nodded and praised, “Not bad, the clothes suit you both very well.”
Luo Chao’s face was extremely red, but she could not conceal her joy at these words. Her lips curved up into a small smile.
Li Lanfeng also smiled and said, “Yes, these two little sisters are really great beauties. They look lovely no matter what they wear.” The sincere praise made Luo Chao and Han Xuya feel rather ashamed — it looked like they had misunderstood this Big Brother Li.
Just as Luo Chao and Han Xuya were preparing to change back to their own clothes and pay for their selections, a great commotion suddenly broke out from the store across the street. Quite a few customers ran out from that store in a panic. When Ling Lan saw this, her expression changed. She had not forgotten that Luo Lang and Zhao Jun had gone over to that store.
“Leopard, you stay here and protect Luo Chao and Han Xuya. I’ll go over there to check things out.” Ling Lan was decisive. She summarily entrusted Luo Chao and Han Xuya to Li Lanfeng, and then with a quick dash, she had disappeared from the store.
“Where is Boss Lan going?” Han Xuya saw Ling Lan disappear before their eyes and quickly turned to ask Li Lanfeng.
“He has gone to the other side to take a look. Go pay for your things first. We’ll talk more later,” instructed Li Lanfeng. The smile that had been on his face had disappeared and there was a trace of grimness in his expression. Just now, he had sensed some displacement in the air coming from the other side — it looked like a fight had broken out there and the physical skills levels of the people involved were not low. He wondered if it could be Luo Lang and Zhao Jun.
********
After leaving the women’s clothing store, Luo Lang and Zhao Jun had run straight for the mecha equipment store. As this market was a temporary one, its layout was rather chaotic. You might have just passed a small eatery, only to find a weapons store next door selling guns and ammunition. For instance, this mecha equipment store they just entered was surrounded by either clothing stores or jewellery stores, which were all somewhat incongruous with a mecha equipment store.
The items in the equipment store were varied and comprehensive. There were energy packs, medical packs, weaponry bags, and even quite a lot of precious materials from various planets. These materials could be used to modify mecha and could also be used to forge weapons; as such, there were quite a number of cadets inside this store.
As the Mecha Grand Tournament used real mecha 3 , everyone wanted to find equipment that could strengthen their mecha’s combat power before the tournament began. This was also why equipment stores were the prime target for cadets to visit.
Luo Lang looked at a cold weapon in the store in surprise. The weapon actually looked extremely similar to Regretless which Boss Lan used inside Mecha World. The long, narrow, and thin pitch-black blade raised concerns about whether the 7-metre sword would hold up in battle.
“This sword, it’s so familiar!” Following Luo Lang’s line of sight, Zhao Jun also caught sight of the sword and, like Luo Lang, he was also extremely surprised.
Luo Lang could not stop himself from walking to stand right below the giant sword to try and see what material was used to forge it. He found that the material was not one he knew.
A shop helper standing to one side saw how interested Luo Lang was in the giant sword, and so he approached him to introduce it, saying, “This sword is called Firmament 4 . It is made from a newly discovered material. Don’t look down on it for its long and narrow blade as it is actually very sturdy. And this Firmament has a special characteristic — the blade has a certain degree of flexibility.”