Chapter 659: Dividends (2 in 1)
Translator:Radiant Translations
Editor:Radiant Translations
A sliver of a sneer appeared at the corner of Carolyn's mouth. Under usual circumstances, due to their status as part of the 10 Great Families, she would still greet Laura at the very least. However, this time, she merely shot a look at Laura, before presenting an aloof attitude as she turned and walked away, clear footsteps ringing along the corridor.
"What an atmosphere and pressure. I've never felt this before." Only after Carolyn was long gone did Scarlet exhale deeply. In the past, her impression of the goddess of the Federation had been built only from the information she obtained from Skylink, which painted an image of someone who was warm, gentle and easy to get along with. However, having met her personally, Scarlet was able to experience the powerful aura that Carolyn radiated. Wasn't this pressure a bit too much?
"Most of the aristocratic family members are like that." Clearly, Laura had forgotten her status as a member of an aristocratic family when she had said those words, while turning her gaze back towards the hospital room. Due to Wang Zhong and Carolyn not bothering to lower the volume of their conversation, the two standing outside had heard everything clearly.
At this moment, Laura was still debating whether to give Wang Zhong some private time to ponder over this matter. At the same time, she felt some faint signs of worry surfacing within her heart.
Clearly, she was able to understand the hidden matters that Carolyn had reminded Wang Zhong about. To the aristocratic families, who excelled at playing with words and authority, this was already equivalent to an open show of intimidation! In fact, she had also heard about some of these rumours from her family, though she didn't really believe that they were as serious as Carolyn had portrayed them to be. Furthermore, there was old Potter. His attitude and the way he treated Wang Zhong put her mind at peace.
"Forget about it. Let's not think about those things." Laura said as she shook her head, before laughing out loud. At the very least, she was secretly happy about the attitude Wang Zhong had maintained earlier. Not only did he reject Carolyn with decisiveness, he had even mentioned the Potter Family. Clearly, that fellow had already subconsciously decided to maintain ties with her and her family.
Having gained a better understanding of Laura during this period of time, Scarlet was immediately able to know why Laura was happy with just a single look. As a smile crept onto her face, she took the opportunity to extend her hand, and gave that voluptuous bottom a tap. Even a girl like her would get addicted to the feeling of that supple flesh! "What are you thinking, huh? You have to share with your good sister the reason behind your beautiful look, right!"
Laura immediately clenched her bottom as her heart turned weak. However, before she could say anything in return, Wang Zhong had already gave a shout. "Oi oi! The 2 at door! Our game hasn't ended yet! Come in quickly, I'm gonna strike the jackpot! Don't take this chance to escape!"
The 2 girls standing outside the door exchanged glances, before laughing out loud. Grabbing onto Scarlet's soft hands, Laura replied. "Don't make wild guesses! This miss is naturally thinking how to triumph over you, you vile fellow! Hmph! I already know the true secret of poker! Come, let's go and dominate him! I want to make sure his entire body gets plastered with stickers saying 'I'm a big idiot'!"
Carolyn's visit appeared to be just a coincidence, yet also seemed to represent some kind of ambiguous signal, as fewer and fewer people came over to visit Wang Zhong. This had allowed the "door protector" Laura become more relaxed, also creating a much more peaceful atmosphere. Sounds of laughter would ring out from the hospital room everyday, as the trio enjoyed a rare period of leisure time.
Wang Zhong quickly recovered from his injuries, as his Great 5 Elements Constitution's self-recovery capabilities were definitely powerful, coupled with the best medical treatment the Federation could offer. If not for Laura and Scarlet's insistence for him to undergo the most thorough checks and treatments to prevent any hidden injuries from remaining untreated, Wang Zhong would have already been able to move about freely a few days ago.
Compared to the relaxed times Wang Zhong was enjoying when he stayed in the hospital, Ma Dong, who was also staying in Stuart, had been extremely busy over this past period of time. Nevertheless, he would still take some time every single day to visit Wnag Zhong/
Unlike the carefree and mischievous great president Ma who had always smiled and laughed all day long, the current Ma Dong had clearly become much more mature, as though he had become a totally different person! Without talking about his closest brother, Wang Zhong, even Laura and Scarlet could clearly see that he was hiding some extremely heavy matters deep down in his heart. However, despite their probing, he did not reveal anything at all. In fact, they didn't even know what he had been up to for this period of time!
Milami had disappeared, right on the day the Tianjing squadron was going to leave Stuart City.
Ma Dong had only known about it after she had disappeared. According to what Colby described, Milami had told everyone at the train station that she was going to accompany Ma Dong in Stuart, something that everyone took for granted. However, only Ma Dong knew that Milami had, in fact, not gone to find him.
Other than sorting out the issues regarding the new area in Tianjing City with the Stuart Family, he had spent the majority of his time and effort on looking for Milami. In fact, he had even roped in quite a few helpless but specialised people from his family over to aid in his search. Nevertheless, the search had been fruitless; the person known as Milami seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Only on the 2nd day after her disappearance did he find a message left for him on his Skylink: Sorry, and goodbye.
A sentence that made no sense, and contained completely irrelevant words. Yet, it had only caused Ma Dong to feel even more pain and frustration.
In fact, while Grai was being tended to by the medical squad, they had discovered traces of a coagulant present within his blood. This was the most effective weapon to use against members of the Blood Race. However, the problem was that Grai was always rather attentive to what he ate and drank, so it was definitely impossible for him to consume it deliberately, causing this to become an unsolved problem. However, Milami's disappearance, along with the message he had received, allowed Ma Dong to make some guesses. During the CHF, Milami had always been the one pouring water for everyone.
However, how did Milami know that Grai was a member of the Blood Race? Furthermore, how was she able to obtain this extremely rare blood coagulant? Why did she cause Grai to almost lose his life in that duel? Why did she need to set Tianjing up? Most importantly, why did she have to betray him?
Ma Dong was extremely frustrated with this entire issue. Yet he could not voice it out, nor could he remain depressed about it. In fact, after a couple of days, he had already managed to control his tumultuous heart, forcing himself to remain as calm as he could possibly be.
There were matters that needed to be attended to, and life goes on. Some matters would not be solved by being anxious. Therefore, he could only bury those questions deep at the bottom of his heart. As long as he did not give up, he would eventually uncover the truth behind this matter!
These carefree days passed by extremely quickly. Before half a month had passed, much of the craze for the CHF had already dissipated. Although everyone would still chat and discuss during their leisure time, there was already no need for it to be mentioned every single day. Despite allowing the citizens to relax during this period of time, the Federation would absolutely not extend this period of relaxation indefinitely, and everyone gradually returned to their everyday lives.
Everything still needed to function. People still needed to pay attention to this dangerous world, as mankind was still far away from obtaining the proper control of Earth that they had in the past. Everyone had their own lives to lead. Furthermore, life was never easy, and no one could let their guard down fully.
The majority of the Federation citizens returned to their usual peaceful state. However, that definitely didn't include Tianjing City, which had progressively descended into an increasingly berserk state.
Various prizes and benefits from this CHF had started to be sent over. Other than the unremarkable prize money, various kinds of benefits were arriving in succession, with each one being more awesome than the previous.
This year, Tianjing had received an unprecedented quota of 8 slots for the mechanized battalion, and those weren't just ordinary slots; they were recommendations! The students that obtained these quotas would experience 1-to-1 specialised training, personally conducted by the elite instructors of the mechanized battalion! Furthermore, all of those students would have a certain amount of resources allocated to them. This was worlds apart from the training ordinary soldiers of the armed forces would receive. As long as their performance wasn't too poor, the 1-to-1 training was an almost 100% guarantee for them to be accepted into the ranks of the mechanized battalion. Although condensing a Dharma Idol was still a far-fetched dream, ordinary elites from any Heroic Soul academy out there would definitely be able to cast their Heroic Souls when placed in such an environment.
This piece of news was personally delivered to Tianjing Academy by teacher Grace, and she immediately started the registration process. When Grace had announced this piece of news, every single Tianjing student had gone batshit crazy in delight. Being a second-class combat-oriented academy which usually had 3 or 4 ordinary quota slots, having 1 or 2 students being able to enlist into the mechanized battalion after passing the recruit training process would already be a matter of celebration for Tianjing Academy. However, the treatment they were receiving now was worlds apart from before! Colby and Lily were immediately included among the selected, with both of them being emotional and appreciative for the whole matter. If not for Wang Zhong, they would have never come across an opportunity on this scale. From now on, their fates would be entirely different from before! Naturally, there were different arrangements planned for Wang Zhong and Grai, with directions from the Federation. Clearly, with their exemplary performance throughout the CHF championship, the Federation definitely wouldn't treat these 2 in the same way as everyone else.
However, the surprises did not end here. Subsequently, the Tianjing municipal administration had received its prize from the Federation Parliament. Being the runner-ups for this CHF, Tianjing's trade, municipal, customs and citizen tax rates were lowered by 30% for the next 4 years. At the same time, the Tianjing resident welfare packages, social and insurance benefits were also boosted by 30%. Furthermore, the Parliament had approved the use of 3 million credits to renovate the infrastructure of Tianjing Academy, 2 million credits to aid in the repair works of Tianjing city's protective walls, and 250 million credits into the Tianjing resident social securities fund...
The amount of benefits was absolute insane! These benefits involved more than 20 to 30 aspects of residents' everyday life! Furthermore, these benefits could be directly enjoyed by each and every resident in Tianjing! The Parliament was really generous this time round, channeling much of their capital into financing these rewards. Just the credit rewards alone totaled to a staggering 3 to 400 million, and that was before factoring the reduction in tax rates! This was their reward for the city that had been able to nurture such outstanding soldiers. This was precisely the reason why every city would treat their own Heroic Soul academy with importance. This was also one of the key reasons for the massive strength of the Federation. No matter the era, geniuses were always treated with the greatest importance.
At the same time, other than these favorable policies and the resulting excitement among the people, there were large numbers of small to medium-sized financial groups starting to gather in Tianjing, with even more people flocking over for employment opportunities. Even the refugee camps situated outside of the city walls were able to reap benefits from the expanding business opportunities and development. A low estimate of around 40 to 50 thousand refugees were able to find jobs, and the unemployment rate of the Tianjing citizens had nearly reached 0%, with the new business opportunities looking for much-needed manpower. These refugees were the least picky when it came to job openings and compensation… in the past, it was practically impossible for the municipal administration to attract investors to Tianjing City, even if they begged. However, at this moment, they needed to pick and choose from an ever-growing list! Now, even small affairs employees of the municipal administration were basically celebrities in the eyes of those financial groups.
This was how a chain reaction worked. The positive feedback of prosperity caused countless other cities to view Tianjing City with bloodshot eyes. As for the Assassin Family, who had managed to establish a stable footing in Tianjing City before everything kicked off, they were now smiling so wide to the point that their mouths were turning askew!
Their development had been going on too smoothly! Not only did Ma Dong manage to obtain a straight succession of green lights with regard to his requests and negotiations in Stuart City. Favourable policies from Tianjing city, reduction in taxes, as well as massive business opportunities, had rapidly sped up the development of the new area. It was estimated that only another half a year was required for the new area to be fully constructed, and it would be officially inducted into the Federation as a subsidiary domain of Tianjing city. At the same time, a portion of the dimensional base station would be activated. This had resulted in a massive boost for the development and progress of the entire Assassin Family. Old Tumo was so busy right now that he didn't even have time to sleep; his schedule was packed with endless tasks to complete. He was really too busy! Nevertheless, the entire family was filled with enthusiasm, and was filled with confidence for the future.
The various snippets of good news streaming in caused Wang Zhong and Scarlet to feel heartfelt delight and happiness. Even Ma Dong, who had been extremely silent for the past few days, was now wearing a smile on his face. Although no one knew if it was because he had managed to settle his personal matters, or whether it was the large amount of good news, but it really was difficult for anyone to be unhappy.
Frankly speaking, the little bit of monetary rewards the CHF gave to the squadrons were entirely negligible when compared to these pieces of good news.
At this moment, Tianjing City had already gone utterly crazy, as everyone was partying like crazed chickens as they bustled about. Every single day, there would be hundreds, if not thousands of reporters present outside Tianjing Academy, turning it into a famous landmark. Furthermore, there were also thousands upon thousands of people that had come all the way to express their gratitude. The majority of them were refugees who had managed to obtain the rare opportunity to enter the city. This was, without a doubt, a rebirth for them. If the situation allowed, they would be absolutely willing to prostrate themselves in worship of Wang Zhong, Grai, and every single member of the Tianjing squadron!
Truthfully speaking, Grai, Barran, Colby and the other squadron members who had returned to Tianjing had already become gods in the eyes of the Tianjing citizens. Hymin's parents had immediately been promoted from their small affairs posts in the municipal administration to the core supervisor level. Barran's parents were given the best housing within the most expensive district of Tianjing City. In fact, even Qian Duoduo, whose projects had always run into difficulties with the municipal administration, with his gifts and dinner invitations always being rejected, had been personally invited by them and given the green light for all of his activities!
There were too many awesome matters happening, causing everyone that was related to Tianjing to be enveloped with bliss and happiness, with the entire city celebrating in song and dance for their newfound prosperity.
Wang Zhong, who was nursing his wounds, was also enveloped in good news every single day, as he was safely en route for a full recovery. Staying a whole half a month in the hospital was definitely an extremely long and slow holiday for a restless person like Wang Zhong.
"...your platelet levels are normal, your red blood cell count is normal, your psych evaluation is normal…" The main doctor gave a faint smile as he skimmed through the test results. "Congratulations, Mr Wang Zhong. You can be discharged."
"Thank you, thank you! I've been waiting so long to hear that!" Wang Zhong replied with a hearty chuckle. He had been itching to leave this place. Having already packed his luggage, he immediately leapt off the bed while exclaiming, "Time to head back to Tianjing! If I continue sleeping like that, I really feel that my entire body will grow rusty."
He had made a full recovery from life-threatening injuries in just half a month. Other than the extremely high standards of medical treatment that Menkeller Hospital was able to provide, this was an indication of just how perverted his Great 5 Elements Constitution's self-recovery capabilities were. When he had been sent here, he was completely unconscious, with over 30% of his blood vessels having burst apart, his flesh and bones being ripped and broken, with some bones having been split into 17 different pieces...