Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Ling Lan seemed to be looking around casually but in actual fact, she was gathering any useful information she could find.
She realized that the dining hall was filled with ordinary tourists. The dinner was a buffet where everyone just took what they wanted to eat. The food was ordinary too. There weren’t any expensive ingredients and no chefs were present to cook food on the spot. The waiters took out trays of food from the back. They seemed delicious but might not be.
The tour group they joined was a civilian tour group. Ling Lan saw tourists, who dressed nicely in high-class clothes, walking in and out of the other two halls and knew that the other two halls served people with higher statuses.
Ling Lan took her plate and placed the food that she liked on her plate. Her plate slowly piled up. When she saw the other people staring at her, she reminded them, “It is free. Of course we should take more. We must eat our money’s worth.” After she finished talking, she stuffed her mouth with food. She didn’t look elegant nor ugly while she was eating. Her cheeks were stuffed with food and it made the food looked delicious.
Li Lanfeng understood Ling Lan. He took a pile of food too. As he ate his food, he scanned his surroundings and checked if anyone was looking at him. When he saw someone turning their head in his direction, he stopped chewing and pretended to be calm. His actions were comical.
However, these behaviours depicted a curious young man who just graduated from school and never went out of his own country before. The pile of free food in front of them showed others that they were civilians.
Li Lanfeng and Ling Lan’s actions enlightened the rest of the people. They found their own seats and took a huge pile of food. Then, they stuffed their faces with food.
Only Li Yingjie was confused. He looked at the food in front of him and snorted. Then, he turned his head away. He would never eat this kind of food.
“Ma Rao, stop acting like a young master. If you aren’t willing to eat the food, you can upgrade to VIP all by yourself. There is no need to follow us.” Li Lanfeng smiled but his words were threatening.
Li Yingjie almost exploded in anger but he saw Ling Lan’s eyes staring at him and shivered in fear. He remembered the warning that she gave him before they left.
He sneered and said, “Forget it, I will give you all some face and eat this civilian meal.” He grabbed his chopsticks and slowly picked his food. After some time, he finally took a few pieces of food which looked appetizing.
He placed it in his mouth and chewed it. The colour of his face instantly changed. He wanted to vomit the food out.
“Ma Rao, swallow the food.” Qi Long glared at him.
Li Yingjie had no choice but to swallow the food. However, he lost his appetite.
“Young Master Ma Rao wanted to experience the civilian life so he decided to come with us. But, we can’t let him suffer like this,” Lin Zhong-qing spoke up for Li Yingjie. Li Yingjie gave him a look of appreciation. Lin Zhong-qing was such a nice person. Sob. Why did he get snatched away by Ling Lan? It would have been nice if he was in his team.
Lin Zhong-qing seemed to have guessed Li Yingjie’s thoughts. He titled his body to block his face and glared at him with murderous intent in his eyes.
Li Yingjie shivered. He almost forgot how much Lin Zhong-qing hated him. He was acting just now. Li Yingjie felt depressed and looked down without saying a word.
“If Young Master Ma Rao wants to continue staying with us, you need to stop acting like a young master. We saved up for a long time to get on this tour. We don’t want your attitude to ruin this trip,” Zhao Jun reminded him unhappily.
Li Yingjie looked at the floor and replied in a soft voice, “I understand. I will eat and stay with you guys. I will not complain anymore.”
Ling Lan placed some food from her plate onto Li Yingjie’s plate. She recommended the food enthusiastically, “Ma Rao, this is delicious. Hurry up and have a taste. I will get more for you later before it runs out.”
Li Yingjie felt helpless. He stared at the food that Ling Lan gave him. What is this yellow gooey pile? Can it be eaten? However, Boss Lan gave it to him. If he didn’t eat it, he would be punished severely.
Was it better to be disgusted by the food or to be tortured by Ling Lan? Li Yingjie chose the first option. He forced himself to have a bite. He wanted to swallow it immediately but the delicious taste in his mouth stopped him. His eyes lit up. He chewed the food and ate the rest of the food that Ling Lan placed on his plate.
I decided that I will just eat this dish! Li Yingjie had no shame at all.
“It is delicious, right?” Ling Lan asked seriously.
Li Yingjie nodded furiously. Although it could not be compared to what he ate before, it was at least edible.
“I will help you take more then.” Ling Lan took her plate and prepared to go for the second round. Li Lanfeng immediately stood up and said, “I will go with you.”
Li Lanfeng and Ling Lan came to the buffet table again. There was no one around the buffet table. Only the two of them stood beside the food and whispered into each other’s ear. They seemed to be discussing which food was more delicious…
“How is the observation going?” Ling Lan grabbed some dishes that were left and asked Li Lanfeng in a low voice. It was near the end of meal time. There was no one coming to take the food anymore.
Li Lanfeng pointed to the dish in front of him and whispered, “There are at least five suspicious people.”
Ling Lan looked at the dish that Li Lanfeng pointed at and shook her head. She said, “I agree, good observation. Where are the five people located at?”
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Li Lanfeng nodded to express that he accepted Ling Lan’s suggestion. They walked to the next dish and lifted the cover. The food inside seemed good so he took some and placed it on his plate. “There are two people sitting at the table closest to the entrance. They didn’t release their power but their hacker aura is evident to people with spectre abilities like me. I pretended to look at them casually just now. They had the Shun Feng Tourist Group badge on their chest. Seems like they plan to hide themselves in this tourist group too. I am just not sure if they are our friends or enemies.”
Ling Lan appeared to have seen something good and pulled Li Lanfeng’s hand hurriedly. She came to the other side of the buffet table, cleverly dodging two tourists who came to take some food. The Feiyang Ship’s crew saw that there were still many people in the dining hall and there wasn’t much food left. Hence, they took out three more trays of food. The three waiters placed the food on three different spots of the buffet table. The food which Ling Lan chose was the most expensive dish out of the three: Barbecued Duomo Meat.
Ling Lan quickly took the meat and placed it on her plate. She only stopped after her plate was full. Li Lanfeng did the same thing. They took almost one-third of the meat. The tourist behind them rolled their eyes at them.
The two of them snickered as they walked back to their table. Zhao Jun and the rest of the gang welcomed them happily. However, after eating a few pieces of meat, they chased Li Lanfeng and Ling Lan away to get more food.
The three dishes were empty already. There was no one at the buffet table again. Li Lanfeng and Ling Lan frowned as they opened the covers of the other food items.
Li Lanfeng stood in front of an empty plate with a sad look on his face. “The third person is the one that tried to come close to us just now. He seems to be very interested in the six of us. I don’t know if we exposed ourselves.”
Ling Lan shook her head and pulled Li Lanfeng in front of another dish. “It is okay. Only Li Yingjie had some loopholes in his acting. He is unable to suppress his physical skills like us so he is at the peak of Refinement now. Reaching Refinement at his age makes him a talent. It is normal that people would take notice of him. However, our conversation just now should have lessen his suspicion on us.”
“Another one is sitting at the Southeast corner of the dining hall. If I didn’t make an effort to look at every corner of the room, I might have been fooled by him. His physical skills are powerful. The corner he chose allowed him to observe everyone in the room. No actions would be unnoticed by him. Impressive.” Li Lanfeng couldn’t see the person’s level so he was worried that he might have seen through them.
“I can sense the murderous presence on his body. He is either a soldier or an assassin. I feel that he is an assassin. The position he chose was a position that assassins would like…” Ling Lan took all the remaining food left on the tray. She said with an unhappy face, “However, we can’t deny the possibility that he might be a soldier. Some soldiers do similar things too so it is normal that he has the habits of an assassin.”
There was only a thin line between an assassin and a soldier. Because of external pressure, some things couldn’t be solved openly. At that time, the military would send out soldiers to do such missions.
Li Lanfeng nodded. He opened another tray and realized that there were still so much food left. He happily called Ling Lan over and they took everything that was left.
Li Lanfeng said as he took the food, “I didn’t notice the last one at first but when we were talking, he put down his chopsticks. This was a reaction of someone who is eavesdropping. He was very careful and didn’t look at us. I might have missed him if I didn’t notice this action.” Li Lanfeng didn’t expect so many powerful people to be hiding in a civilian dining hall. It widened his perspective and realized that the outside world was indeed very interesting.
“Actually, if he looked at us while he eavesdropped, I might have not suspect him. However, he pretended to not see us.” Ling Lan put the cover back.
Li Lanfeng pondered over her words. “That is true. If he did things openly, I would rule him out. However, he didn’t.”
“It was not easy for you to find these five people. In actual fact, the two hackers were the hardest to find. However, they didn’t expect someone with spectre abilities to be here. If not, they would stay in their rooms and try to hack the mainframe of the cruise…” Ling Lan seemed happy at the hacker’s misfortune. Li Lanfeng realized that after Ling Lan relaxed, his tone gotten livelier too. It was not as cold as before.
Ling Lan didn’t notice Li Lanfeng’s change in expression. She continued, “There is actually a 6th person.”
“A 6th person?” Li Lanfeng was shocked. “Who?”
“One of the waiters who brought out the food trays just now,” Ling Lan replied calmly. She turned and left after seeing that there was no food left. They returned to their table with piles of food.
Li Lanfeng stuffed his face with food as though he was extremely hungry. He was wondering which waiter it was. He sighed. He was still a level behind rabbit. He didn’t notice the waiter. He needed to work harder.
Li Lanfeng took a huge bite of the meat. His eyes lit up. He looked at Ling Lan and pointed at the meat. “This… is really delicious.”
Ling Lan nodded. “Yes, this is the one. Luckily we managed to get a huge portion of it.” Ling Lan confirmed Li Lanfeng’s guess. The waiter who served the Duomo meat was the 6th person she was talking about.
Li Lanfeng remembered that buffet waiters were supposed to place new dishes at conspicuous locations so that customers would know a new dish came out. The other two waiters placed their trays on the side of the buffet table facing the dining tables. The one who carried the Duomo meat, on the other hand, placed the tray on the other side of the table. There was only one table which was able to see that tray of meat. That was the table which the potential assassin was at.
Without a doubt, the waiter was passing a message to the assassin. He did it so well even Li Lanfeng didn’t notice him. Unfortunately, Ling Lan was here. Nothing could escape her eyes.
Li Lanfeng was finally able to eat his meal in peace. Very quickly, the two of them finished their food. Li Lanfeng was in a good mood so he finished everything without caring about the taste. Ling Lan was able to eat anything after being trained by the learning space. When she was famished, she even dug out worms and ate them raw. As long as the food was edible and it was not harmful to the body, she would swallow them.
The group of them happily returned to their rooms and waited for the dance party at night.
This dance party was not organized by Shun Feng Tourism Agency. It was organized by the crews on the Feiyang Ship. This meant that people you met at the dance party might be civilians or elites. It might even be an explorer or a member of a noble family…
According to rumors, people from noble families and explorers liked to find ‘partners’ at dance parties. Partners here had many different meanings.
Some people liked pretty women so their targets were the beautiful ladies. Others wanted to look for followers for their families so their preys were civilians who had the talent and ability but lacked the opportunity due to their status.
Every year, many female commoners would get the chance they wanted at dance parties. However, no one cared about their ending.
Everyone remembered the moment when Cinderella wore her glass heels. They forgot that this was just an illusion. Once the clock struck midnight, Cinderella had to return to where she came from. No one could stop time.
Not every lady was fortunate enough to let the prince find her with a glass heel.