CHAPTER 171 ♦ PREPARATIONS II
Ai Er Ge stood there in a daze. Well, you really can’t blame him. After obtaining a human body, the only memories he had in his head belonged to the obedient Xuan Mo. Work was an extraordinary setting for him, but he didn’t have to worry about food. After coming to City H, and having given in to the “order-in” lifestyle as a result of working at a LAN cafe, he’d not since once touched any kitchen appliances.
Xuan Mo’s mother didn’t seem particularly surprised. From his attire, she figured that he came from a well-off family. She didn’t dwell too much on this though, and instead pulled him and Xuan Mo over together to sort out the hygiene.
Lu Yu Chen had a room of his own here. There was a huge sofa in the study room and living room too. The three additional guys seemed very easy to look after, none of them had any disagreement about the sleeping arrangement.
Meanwhile on Xuan Mo’s end, after she lied down, her mother came into her room, closed the door behind her and asked mysteriously: “Mo Mo, what are your thoughts on the three?”
“Thoughts?” Xuan Mo frowned. “And three of them?”
“Yeah, I like all of them, c’mon tell me what you think of them, out of the three, who do you like?” Before Xuan Mo could reply, her mother continued: “Aye, you used to like that boy Yi Hai Lan in the past, you think I can’t tell? But you were too young back then. Even though Xiao Lan is a clever and obedient kid, he was still young. Now that you’re bringing back home three, things are looking much better, now spill it, who do you like?”
How did Yi Hai Lan make a surprise return into their conversation again? Xuan Mo was a little dazed. What was her mother trying to say? Who did she prefer to go to the army?
“Hello, earth to my daughter?” Her mother waved her hand in front of Xuan Mo’s eyes.
“None of them can do.” Lu Yu Chen was too hotheated and easily agitated, Ling Yun was not mature enough, Ai Er Ge, let’s not even talk about him, without her he’d never make it to the army, as for joining the Great Coalition army… humph!
“Are you sure? Yu Chen seems to like you a lot? He used to be your brother but you guys are not related anymore, your mother I’m a very open person… as for Xiao Ling, I’ve never heard you speak of him before so I don’t know, as for Ai Er Ge…” Her mother frowned, “I don’t know why I seem to quite like him, he seems like someone I would get along with very well, but you can tell from the get-go that he’s from a very well-to-do family, I’ll be worried if you marry into a much more affluent family.”
Marrying into an affluent family!? Xuan Mo was amazed at her brain cannon. So this was what she was going on about? She’d thought her mother was asking her who would be going to the army?
Xuan Mo didn’t know how to react, and so she shook her head: “Don’t worry about this, I have my plans.”
“You’re just undecided!” Her mother reprimanded, “if not you won’t be walking so close to all three of them? If you dilly dally with all three for too long, things won’t turn out well. You need to make your decision early, so you don’t waste their time either.”
“…” Xuan Mo was even more confused. Exactly who was she worrying about at this point.
In the end, their conversation ended on a not-so-sweet note. Ling Yun had nowhere else to go, Ai Er Ge had three days of leave, and Lu Yu Chen sucked it up and refused to attend to his father’s summons, as though he was willing to sacrifice everything just to stay by Xuan Mo’s side. Xuan Mo’s mother on the other hand immediately headed off with her friends the next few days to enjoy soaking in all the mahjong. And so, Xuan Mo had to spend the next three days with the mind-boggling group of them.
Ling Yun was an astrology die-hard, and he especially liked astronomical phenomenon in particular. He had zero awareness that he was already venturing into the realm of another species, even though he had since a long time ago realised that Xuan Mo and Ai Er Ge were temperamental… creatures that were not humans? And so he’d tried to keep his distance all the while.
And then there was the oblivious Lu Yu Chen and the fearless and trouble-making Ai Er Ge.
In the past three days, Xuan Mo had gotten so annoyed she’d really wanted to chop up Ai Er Ge. If it weren’t for his provocation, Lu Yu Chen wouldn’t be exploding all the time. The problem was, she couldn’t throttle any of them. Ai Er Ge’s arrival reminded her even once more of the rules of the Great Coalition.
The four of them stayed in for three entire days. During their holiday, Lu Yu Chen discovered Ai Er Ger’s true identity. He laughed at how dumb the latter’s ID was, but at the same time he was green with envy of his powers, and was incredibly unreconiled about that fact.
Ling Yun also turned out to be a strategy game lover. The four of them finally found something in common, and hence managed to survive the holiday without anyone getting butchered.
On the fourth day of Chinese New Year, Zhao Jing Lei’s call came in bright and early in the morning. He seemed to be incredibly urgent, almost: “Xuan Mo, do you want to travel?”
Xuan Mo rubbed her eyes, looked at Ai Er Ge changing before he left for “work”, and replied: “No.”
“…then what about work?”
“You have no rights to make me work.”
“I mean you did join the golden stone research team didn’t you.”
“The golden stone research is still called golden stone even though the golden stone was lost?”
“We lost the small piece of golden stone we had previously.” Zhao Jing Lei paused, “but we discovered the fully pieced one!”
Xuan Mo paused, before a strange feeling surfaced. She squinted: “What do you mean?” As she spoke, she raised her hand to gesture at Ai Er Ge to stop him from leaving.
“The golden stone first appeared abroad, but it was camouflaged among the artefacts that were being resold overseas. Yi Fei had a few collector friends, and they specialised in purchasing lost artefacts that are sold on the overseas market, so when they returned they brought the golden stone back, but we didn’t expect there to be multiple golden stones in the same batch of artefacts. Because of the authentication and the subsequent publicity by the auction house, these golden stones have caught the attention of many overseas research teams. Some of them managed to get their hands on a sample… This is also why there was a lot of research on golden stones happening overseas.”
“Enh, and then.” Xuan Mo’s tone was very flat. She definitely heard Zhao Jing Lei’s excitement, but she had no idea what he was excited about…
“Did it not occur to you? The entire world is researching this golden stone, but the actual stones were mixed in the artefacts from our country — this means that the original piece must be somewhere in our country!”
“Oh.”
“You didn’t feel anything?” Zhao Jing Lei was very disappointed at her lack of reaction, “this means that only our country had mastered such a mysterious smelting technique in the past!”
“…” Xuan Mo really wanted to say, they were really very unlucky to have welcomed the galaxy door; wherever it went, it’d leave a trail of dead bodies of intelligent beings in its wake. In the end, she managed: “Enh, good for you… what do you need me for?”
“According to the data that we have on hand, the golden stones seem to be able to sense each other. There are a few organisations overseas that are eyeing this opportunity. We need to find the original body of the golden stone before them. We’ve almost collated all the necessary information to locate it. The stars will align in our favour, and we definitely will find it before the others!”
“Then go, why are you looking for me.”
Zhao Jing Lei coughed: “You know, our golden stone was stolen… even if it’s found now, we don’t know what’s gonna happen if we were to come into contact with the stone…”
“So I’m your guinea pig?” Xuan Mo laughed.
“I know your ability to sense the golden stone is intermittent, but it’ll definitely be much better than us going around like headless flies. We can’t continue without you this time.”
Xuan Mo looked at Ai Er Ge. She had expanded the sound barrier to include Ai Er Ge, so he would be able to hear the call, but no one else could. Ai Er Ge wore a complicated expression, one that was a mix of excitement and concern, before he finally nodded his head.
Xuan Mo raised a brow at him, and gave him a meaningful look.
Ai Er Ge clenched his teeth and spoke in Elgeian: “Even if they’re bringing you there to destroy it, I want to see it with my own eyes!” He knew that there was no way he would outlive Xuan Mo, he wasn’t as merciless as her, he would never be able to win her in a battle, neither would he be able to escape her control. He’d rather follow her over and check it out than not be able to see it at all.
Xuan Mo nodded, and replied: “Alright, I’m going, when is it?”
“This is a secret mission. In order to keep it under wraps, we used another reason for this trip. You have one morning, go do some research on how to be a PA, you’ll be a PA to a celebrity. I’ll pick you up at 1:30pm in the afternoon, we’re going to Henan, we might be there for quite a few days, so bring your necessities. Don’t worry about not having everything, you can buy what you need there, it’ll be compensated.”
“Enh.” Xuan Mo checked the time, saying: “I’m bringing one more person over.”
“What?”
“I’m bringing someone that will definitely be useful and trustworthy over. That’s all, I’m hanging up.”
After she ended the call, Xuan Mo looked at Ai Er Ge: “You’re really fine with watching me destroy it?”
Ai Er Ge gave a bitter smile: “D’you remember what I’d told previously, after you activate it, attract the others over…”
“This is as risky as opening the galaxy door itself.” Xuan Mo didn’t agree.
“Abdory, have you lost the courage of a Scorpion Marshal?!”
“Ai Er Ge, this sentence fully explains why you’re only a small fry while I’m a Marshal.” Xuan Mo stood. “Go get a day of leave from Ah La Lei, we need to start prepping.”
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