T/N: Thank you Yue & Wildzivia for the ko-fis! Had a brain fart and miscounted, so there’ll be 3 extra releases from this and the previous week!
The next few days flew by, and mid-December rolled around, and the Lambda delegation visited the Capital Star as scheduled.
The Nebula City is covered in sparkling silver, and the long streets are covered with white snow.
Today’s news is scrolling on the mobile floating screen in the air –
Lin Jinshuang, the chairman of the Supreme Council of the Lambda galaxy, with his wife and accompanying officials, are visiting Capital Star, and will attend a welcome dinner with Chairman William at six o’clock tonight.
After five o’clock in the evening, the lengthened version of the black military vehicle with the license plate number AA00001 galloped above the sky, headed for the state banquet hall of Prosperity Palace.
Xu Xinghe, who was wearing an exquisite suit, and Ling Changfeng, who was wearing a military dress, sat in the car, leaning side by side.
Xu Xinghe seemed to be in good condition tonight. He talked more than usual along the way, chatted with Ling Changfeng non-stop, and from time to time he stretched his finger out of the window, motioning him to watch the interesting pictures that flashed by the city.
Adjutant Qin sat across from them and looked at the hands of the two of them clasped together. He endured and endured, and finally he couldn’t help but say, “I say, the two of you have stuck together the whole way, aren’t you tired of crooked?”
The couple turned to look at him.
Their eyes seemed to say “look at that single dog”, “he looks so miserable”.
Qin Yuan: “…”
Blame him for talking!
“Is there anything I need to pay attention to at the banquet?” Xu Xinghe asked. “Except… that matter.”
Adjutant Qin shook his head and replied: “There is nothing else, this welcome dinner is literally hundreds of people. Boring greetings, media meetings, formal dinners, and meaningless cultural performances and dance parties.”
Xu Xinghe asked again: “Then what do I need to do?”
“Just stay with me.” This time it was Ling Changfeng who spoke.
Marshal Ling patted his lover’s hand, and the two looked at each other, tacitly agreeing.
Qin Yuan knew that they weren’t flirting on purpose. But who knows what the two of them are doing. As long as their eyes meet, it’s like they are glued together, and can’t be torn apart. Even mundane whispers can turn into flirtatious teasers under shared tacit understanding.
Seeing this, the ‘single dog’ adjutant simply turned his eyes out of the window and no longer watched the couple in the car.
Speaker William Martino will welcome the Lambda galaxy delegation to a banquet tonight at Prosperity Palace.
As many as 600 people from both military and political circles of the two major galaxies are attending, forming a long welcoming queue that could not be captured in one glance.
Xu Xinghe was already familiar with this kind of occasion, and didn’t stop at the media access area after getting out of the car. Amid the frenzied shutter clicks of the media and the flickering of the spotlights, he walked directly into the Prosperity Palace, arm in arm with Ling Changfeng.
At 6:30 in the evening, the speakers of the two galaxies entered the splendid state banquet hall after a brief exchange of greetings, and the grand reception finally kicked off.
A beautiful and cheerful welcome song echoed in the hall as everyone took their seats.
Although the state banquet is a formal and serious occasion, it became lively with more people present.
Xu Xinghe looked around and saw hundreds of people sitting around.
He is not sensitive to the pheromones of ordinary people. At this moment, he took a deep breath, and his nose was full of Ling Changfeng’s breath.
“Are you okay?” Ling Changfeng sat beside Xu Xinghe, quietly observing his little spouse.
Xu Xinghe nodded, turned his head and smiled and said, “It’s nothing, but I don’t seem to feel it…”
Ling Changfeng shook his head. “Let’s eat first, and then we’ll talk about it in a different place later.”
“En.” With a sound, Xu Xinghe switched conversation topics. Pointing at the plate with his fork, he said: “I heard that the chef in charge of this state banquet is Como Sinde, a famous chef. I tried to reproduce his signature low-temperature grilled Angus rib-eye steak before. Everyone who’s eaten it says it’s good!”
“Everyone who’s eaten it?” Marshal Ling’s eyes drifted over when he heard the words. His tone was neither salty nor bland. “Who’s eaten it?”
“A lot of people. Like my college classmates, and a few colleagues… uh, do you want to eat it too?”
The words in Xu Xinghe’s throat got stuck when he finally noticed his lover’s “kind” gaze.
Ling Changfeng just commented casually: “So many people have eaten it.”
Xu Xinghe secretly muttered “not good” in his heart.
Sure enough, he heard Ling Changfeng ask: “Why haven’t I?”
Xu Xinghe: “…”
Because you said that you’re not interested in eating before!
Chef Xu complained a little inwardly, but on the bright side he still conscientiously smoothed the cat’s ruffled fur: “Then I’ll go back and cook it for you?”
Ling Changfeng glanced at him, shook his head lightly, and said, “No need, I’m not very interested in eating.”
Xu Xinghe: “…”
Why is this cat getting harder and harder to serve!
He racked his brains for another reason: “Isn’t this because the food at the Marshal’s Mansion is very good? I used to cook by myself, and will share with everyone when there’s extras. But now, I rarely cook for myself anymore.”
Marshal Ling: “En.”
Xu Xinghe turned his head to look, but found that the pair of blue and gold was looking at him with a clear smile. There was no such disappointment in his eyes at all.
Turns out he’s playing tricks again!
Xu Xinghe turned his head angrily, forked the cod on the plate fiercely, and swallowed it in three or two mouthfuls.
“Slow down, don’t choke.” Marshal Ling pushed his water glass over and looked at him helplessly. “Are you able to taste it if you eat in such a hurry?”
Xu Xinghe: “…” There doesn’t seem like there is any taste.
“I’ll give you this as well.” Ling Changfeng said, pushing his untouched dinner plate over.
Xu Xinghe was not polite.
Once again, in the envious eyes of everyone around him, he achieved the achievement of “snatching food from the tiger’s mouth”.
At 7:30 in the evening, with dinner wrapping up, the dinner party officially entered the time for theatrical performances.
The representative programs of the two galaxies were staged one after another in the center of the stage. As the supreme military commander of the Gamma Galaxy, Marshal Ling had his own exclusive VIP seat.
He took Xu Xinghe to the elevator upstairs, and walked into a box on the second-floor where they can watch the performance alone.
The glass of the box is one-way, and the sound insulation effect is excellent. Even the sound of the external music can only be transmitted to the room through an amplifier.
After less than five minutes, someone knocked on the door of the box. Ling Changfeng glanced at Qin Yuan’s face on the monitor screen and said “Come in”.
The fully automatic security door opened in response, and Adjutant Qin walked in with a portable terminal.
As soon as Qin Yuan entered the door, he locked the door from the inside and turned off the loudspeaker in the room.
The sound of the performance on the stage suddenly disappeared.
The box seems to have become a closed space, mysterious and quiet.
Qin Yuan opened the optical brain terminal and holographically projected the recorded images of the more than 100 surveillance cameras in the banquet hall into the air.
“This needs to be supplemented with your signed authorization later, otherwise doing this will be illegal. This is Prosperity Palace…” He said to Ling Changfeng, and then split the screen to zoom in on the three Wells.
From the time the three of them entered Prosperity Palace, from initial greetings to the meal, to watching the current performances, their entire journey was displayed in front of Xu Xinghe.
“George Wells, Norman Wells, Daniel Wells…”
Qin Yuan pointed to the images of the three with his finger, then turned his head to look at Xu Xinghe, “Among the three, do any of them look familiar?”
Perhaps it was because of a layer of projection, Xu Xinghe didn’t feel nervous or scared at all., but shook his head.
“Just looking at the body shape, it doesn’t seem like they are very similar.”
Xu Xinghe recalled with a frown: “I remember that the man was tall and strong, taller than me. All three of them are quite tall, but this—”
Any guesses on who it is? One of the Norman trio, or someone else?
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