Chapter 27 (2): The Secretary Starts to Pretend

 

The hovercar once again began moving, this time heading towards Luo Ran’s little apartment.

And the forum became lively again that night.

@Hoping LuRan Get Married Tomorrow: aaaaahhh I live on 5 XX Street! Above the shop! Tonight I was about to sleep when I heard noises outside and saw a hovercar make an emergency landing, and thought, o-ho! I don’t know which couple argued?! Then I saw our devastatingly beautiful* Secretary Luo come out!!!

Not long after that the admiral also came chasing him and directly slammed him against a wall, aaaaaa it’s a pity my house’s balcony blocked my view! I don’t know what they did but they soon came out, and before they got on the hovercar the two smiled at each other, letting go of their previous resentment!

I’m done! Waaahh what a wonderful love!

This post quickly racked up thousands of comments.

[XXX: A wonderful love!! aaaaaaaa that damn balcony!! I’m going to OP’s house right now to dismantle it!!]

[XXX: A wonderful love! Geez what else could they be doing, it must be that the admiral kissed and hugged, showed off the strength of an SSS alpha, and coaxed the secretary back (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)]

[XXX: A wonderful love! I’ve been smashed by sugar today too!]

[XXX: A wonderful love! I don’t understand… why the admiral and secretary haven’t tied the knot! Could it be that the marshal and his wife aren’t satisfied that Secretary Luo was born a commoner and isn’t an omega? Boohoo]

This was immediately followed by a reply from Qiao Beauty.

[Qiao Beauty:* Nonsense! I’m an insider, and let me say, the marshal and his wife hope for Secretary Luo to join their household every day! Secretary Luo is a very good child (^v^)]

[Qiao Beauty: Forgot the formation]

[Qiao Beauty: A wonderful love!!]

Luo Ran: “…”

He’d been swiping through the forum while in bed as usual when he saw this post from the marshal’s wife’s friends circle and fell into deep thought.

If he could turn back time, he definitely wouldn’t get off the hovercar just to tease Lucas.

The party involved now regretted it very much.

Then, he saw Nana’s update.

The last update talked about how the relationship between Zimei Xueran and his secret love, Lucas K. Dior Gucci Prada, heated up, and how Zimei Xueran then escaped.

Lucas K., furious, frantically searched for this man who took his bun and ran, but he couldn’t find him anywhere in the world.

He was heartbroken.

This damned man!

Lucas K. sat in a 10,000m2 luxury hovercar gazing out the window, his eyes filled with sadness and gloom.

Three years later…

Lucas K. saw the man he dreamed of every night at a banquet, accompanied by a three-year-old child.

“Heh, I’ve finally found you, you can’t escape from my grasp!” Lucas K. gripped Zimei Xueran’s chin. He grimly said, “Now you must suffer my punishment!”

“Waah! Uncle, don’t!” The boy beside Zimei Xueran hugged Lucas K.’s leg and cried cutely, “Don’t bully my dad!”

“You even had a son with someone else! Speak! Whose is he? Is it that playboy Shangguan Mingkai?” As Lucas K.’s grip strengthened, Zimei Xueran felt pain both physically and in his heart.

How could he tell Lucas K. that this was his own child!

He even had the same passionate yet humble heart!*

A rainbow-coloured tear flowed down from the corner of Zimei Xueran’s eye.

“Heh!” Lucas K. picked the child up and snarled, “I’ll kill this despicable thing you had with another man!”

“No, don’t!” Zimei Xueran panicked. “He’s a nationally recognised prodigy! His IQ is 250 and his EQ is 380! He designed a mecha at one, opened an interstellar supermarket chain at two, and is one of the top ten richest men! He’s now treasured by the state as an important researcher! The country is protecting him!

“If you kill him, I will never forgive you, for the rest of my days!!” The resolve within Zimei Xueran’s opalescent eyes pierced Lucas K.’s heart.

“You’re actually disobeying me for another man! It must be because I treat you too well, so you dare to do this! If that’s the case, then I’ll take him away. I’ll wait for you to come and beg me!”

“No–” Zimei Xueran fell to his knees. “You might as well kill me. Kill me, Lucas K. Dior Gucci Prada!”

Lucas K. cruelly replied, “You wish. If you want to die, you can only die on my bed.”

“Ah~”

* * *

Luo Ran: “…”

Luo Ran didn’t bother to read the rest, because it was full of 38cm.

Luo Ran: “…”

Luo Ran began to doubt life.

Fuck.

He even gave birth to a child, then took the bun and ran.

Luo Ran felt a little sorry for Zhou Mingkai.

Afterwards, he felt that his precious time should be spent sleeping instead of reading his own real-person fic.

So he expressionlessly turned off his terminal, washed, and went to bed.

The forum experienced unprecedented furore that night. Yet just three days later, the Empire announced even more exciting news.

Admiral Lucas and his private soldiers broke into Xie Ancheng’s villa. For a military officer to violently invade the private residence of the duke’s son, they could be charged with serious crimes.

The ducal family wanted to sue Lucas, but before they could get started, Lucas already sued them first.

When they broke in, they happened to catch Xie Ancheng in the act with four or five omega beauties who all turned out to be illegal prostitutes.

The ducal family was criticized as soon as this news spread, bringing them great shame.

Then Lucas’ complaint was brought to court. He accused Xie Ancheng of colluding with interstellar pirates to conduct illegal transactions on the black market and using his purchases on his secretary during the banquet.

Illegal pimping, illegal transactions, colluding with interstellar pirates, intentionally causing harm to others…

Just a single accusation could make Xie Ancheng suffer. No matter how hard the duke tried, he could only reduce the sentence and had no way to rescue him completely.

No one thought Lucas would be so resolute, not leaving any escape for them, and no one thought he would dare to directly break into their house.

What Lucas did do was send a clear message to everyone: don’t challenge his authority, and don’t touch his secretary.

“Admiral…”

In the office, Luo Ran gripped the court notice with a tangled expression. “You really… now the news networks and netizens are all talking about you.”

For this matter, Lucas for once took the initiative to take care of everything himself. Luo Ran hadn’t done much, he only helped collect information on the black market to track down the source of the drugs and their connection to the interstellar pirates.

He never thought that when the evidence was just about complete, Lucas would take people to raid a house when Luo Ran was busy at Xia Zhi’s home dealing with the UNK.

“Impulsive? You didn’t notice how smoothly this case went?” Lucas leaned back in his seat, crossed his legs, and raised his eyebrows with a smile. “Even the royal family secretly helped out.”

He was asking for it.* Xie Ancheng previously targeted many people – the daughter of an earl, the son of a prominent minister, and so on. He had long been hated by many.

This wasn’t even mentioning that this guy even attacked Zhou Mingkai’s little sister. Although he hadn’t succeeded, it was undoubtedly a challenge to royal prestige, and the emperor carried this knot in his heart ever since he learned of it. The duke had moved too fast for anyone to find the evidence. Omega were inherently disadvantaged in this type of encounter, so no one dared to stand up and resist.

The royal family had wanted to clean up this person for a long time, but it was easy for them to be criticized if they took any unreasonable actions against aristocratic families.

As for the second prince, he seemingly took the Xie family as his followers, but secretly, he’d wanted to get rid of them as soon as he knew their deeds.

If the first prince was a classic politician, then the second prince acted more like a warlord. The eldest prince was gentle and affable towards others, whereas the second prince was stubborn and indifferent.

For these reasons, and because of his identity as the eldest son, the eldest prince had the upper hand in the struggle for power.

Now that Lucas took the first step, it was natural for everyone to give him a hand.

“I know…” Luo Ran said, “I just think that things would go better if Admiral directly submitted the evidence to the court.”

And not break into someone’s home to escort them to the judicial court while quarrelling with the ducal family, which would make them hold grudges.

Luo Ran’s thinking was to hope everything went well with Lucas and to close any loopholes that others might use to attack him.

“Where’s the information you found about the black market? Give it to me.” Lucas didn’t answer, he only changed the topic.

Luo Ran reacted after a short silence. “Yes.”

They traced Xie Ancheng’s clues and found that he was instigated to go to the black market by some good-for-nothing friends where he bought drugs from a group of people.

Although neither buyers nor sellers at the black market were registered, judging from the remaining evidence, that group of people were probably interstellar pirates.

After several years of war, the Empire had stabilized, and now the only real threat was the interstellar pirates.

“If those people really are interstellar pirates, our question now is – how did they get in?” Luo Ran furrowed his brows. “This was a mistake in security.”

Lucas nodded.

“There have also been new developments on the investigation team’s side,” Luo Ran said as he handed the other report to Lucas. “We previously looked into Luobing’s prince, Andika, and… found that recently, the amount of inhibitors he bought has reached frighteningly high levels.”

Lucas didn’t bother to read the report after he took it, he just waited for Luo Ran to get to the point.

“He either bought it himself, let the maid from that night go buy it, or he would occasionally order another maid to go. In addition, he has taken all the inhibitors freely provided by the embassy. At a rough estimate, if he is the only one using those inhibitors, he is using them at a rate of fifteen tubes a day. A normal omega would never use so many, even during a heat.”

When Luo Ran had his heat, he only used one or two tubes a day.

Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Both contraceptives and inhibitors?”

Luo Ran nodded. “Indeed, it’s suspicious.”

Lucas had already locked onto him, but Luo Ran knew that wasn’t possible.

So he thought, maybe on that night… Andika did experience some trouble, and he did do ‘exercises’, but with someone else.

Maybe that person had a special identity, and there was a secret behind it?

“We will continue to investigate. Not only Luobing’s prince, but everyone in their delegation.”

Lucas’ intelligence network was completely handled by Luo Ran, and he himself was only responsible for giving orders. Once Luo Ran finished his report, Lucas just waved his hand and let him take care of everything.

Lucas and Luo Ran chatted for a few more minutes, then it was time for lunch.

Luo Ran delivered a meal to Lucas and went to eat his own boxed lunch with Rong Duo next to their desks.

The boxed lunches were made by the company’s logistics department, and were all the same apart from Lucas’ meal.

But Lucas wasn’t taking advantage of his position at all. The company benefits were very good – employees could eat meat, vegetables, and eggs with rich taste – but Lucas wasn’t used to eating this delicious food. His meal consisted of a bland carbohydrate product and some blanched meat, the simpler the better. If he only ate good food, he would feel weak and hungry.

Rong Duo swiped through her terminal as she ate for the whole lunch break, and the corners of her mouth didn’t flatten once.

“What are you reading?” Luo Ran asked curiously, swallowing a mouthful of vegetables. “Anything interesting?”

He definitely wasn’t paranoid. After watching Rong Duo and the others happily celebrate his CP every night, he couldn’t help but think in that direction.

At first, Rong Duo was surprised, but then she thought that it wasn’t anything that had to be hidden, so she smiled and replied, “A commentator published an article online, and everyone is discussing it.”

“Oh?”

“Now, everyone is praising the admiral, and they’re really envious of you.” Rong Duo handed her terminal over with a grin.

It was a short article.

—— On Why the Admiral Did Not Apply For an Expedited Appeal, But Broke Into a Private Residence

In summary: Why? Of course it’s to beat up the scumbag! It’s said that Scumbag Xie was covered in wounds when he went to court. However, the admiral controlled himself well and the person didn’t go to hospital, so he can’t be convicted of causing injury. As for why it was necessary to beat him up, of course it was to help his secretary vent his anger!

The admiral is telling everybody not to mess with his people (subordinates)! Otherwise, he’ll definitely go crazy.

Rong Duo probably didn’t dare to let Luo Ran see the comments praising the CP, so she specially downloaded the article for him to read offline.

After reading it, Luo Ran didn’t know how to feel.

With Lucas’ personality, it wouldn’t be strange for him to make trouble at someone’s house, so Luo Ran was surprised to discover that he did it for him.

And… it was for an outsider.

What if Lucas hadn’t done it for him?*

Either way, there would be movement on the forum. Luo Ran, unsure whether to laugh or cry, handed the terminal back to Rong Duo.

Sneakily glancing over, Rong Duo saw Luo Ran smiling quietly to himself as he ate and read documents; not the usual polite smile, but a real smile filled with stars.

A wonderful love!

Rong Duo covered her mouth and cried.

* * *

The next day, Luo Ran once again accompanied Lucas to the military camp.

However, this time was a bit special. The Empire’s three princes would bring the two royals of Luobing and a few of their ambassadors to watch the exercises, in order to enhance their understanding and relationship.

This was the normal procedure, and the Empire was also happy to show off some of its might.

“This is the exercise grounds.”

“This is the canteen.”

“This road leads to the warehouse and barracks. As outsiders are not allowed in, we will not visit there today.”

Lucas’ adjutant, Lu Cheng, was their tour guide.

Lucas and Luo Ran merely followed, walking alongside several royals.

Luo Ran noticed that Princess Lillia kept looking at him with a sad gaze.

Andika’s eyes never left Lu Cheng as he spoke, as if wanting to absorb every word. In contrast, Lillia paid him zero attention, and instead stared at Luo Ran and Lucas, not missing a single interaction between them.

Luo Ran: “…”

That’s right, he lied to Lillia that he and Lucas were already together.

Then today… he had to pretend?

Luo Ran gave the indifferent Lucas a glance.

After putting on a formal military uniform, Lucas looked much fiercer, and barely anyone dared to get close.

Luo Ran felt a headache coming on.

He had to give the impression that he and Lucas were a pair, under the circumstances that the other party wouldn’t cooperate and he could only act by himself.

And it couldn’t be too much. If it was too much, Lucas would resist, and if he responded with a questioning look, his whole plan would collapse.

Several people walked while deep in their own thoughts as Lu Cheng kept babbling on. Lucas, bored out of his mind with his arms crossed over his chest, could only turn to look at Luo Ran.

Luo Ran also wore a suit today, with a formal military uniform underneath a white coat, all neatly buttoned up.

The blue ends of his hair, which was combed tightly back, perfectly matched his buttons.

Since Lucas only looked because he was bored, he found that Luo Ran’s tie was crooked.

He unthinkingly reached out to straighten it for him.

So Luo Ran watched this tall man with lowered eyes use his inflexible mechanical fingers to fix his tie, his movements natural yet careful.

Lillia: “…”

Just like Lucas, Luo Ran didn’t think much of it either. After all, they’d had closer physical contact before. “Thank you,” he said with a smile.

When he turned his head to look at Lillia, Luo Ran began to feel a little strange.

After the tour, everyone split up to walk around. The ambassadors all followed the eldest prince and second prince to chat about politics.

Luobing’s Prince Andika went to the bathroom, while Lillia brought her maid and bodyguard together to stick to Luo Ran and Lucas like glue.

Zhou Mingkai was embarrassed* to see this, so he suppressed his laughter to give Luo Ran a hand, suggesting they go to the canteen to eat something.

Along the way, Luo Ran tried to imagine how he might act at the canteen if they were a couple.

He quickly opened his terminal to look for references.

[Ten Things Couples Do When Eating: Have You Fallen Prey to Them?]

1: One person orders food for both of you!

2: You’re familiar with each other’s likes and dislikes, and will keep them in mind!

3: They eat the food you don’t like off your plate, and give you a taste of their delicious food!

4: When others are present, they sneakily start flirting!

5…

Luo Ran hadn’t finished reading yet when they arrived at the canteen.

“What do you guys want to eat? I’ll order everything at once,” Zhou Mingkai said with a smile as he held the menu.

Lucas crossed his arms and didn’t answer.

Luo Ran reflexively said, “The admiral will have one bowl of white rice, not too thin, and a C set meal, but the meat only needs to be blanched, no sauce, and the other dishes and soup should be switched with the B set meal.”

“Okay.” Zhou Mingkai wrote this down. “Secretary Luo, why don’t we eat this large A set meal together?”

Before Luo Ran could reply, Lucas already interjected, “No.”

Zhou Mingkai: “Huh?”

“Luo Ran can’t eat spicy food, can’t eat tomatoes, and can’t eat coconuts,” Lucas said.

Zhou Mingkai looked at the menu’s main dishes and desserts, and let out a dumb “oh.”

Luo Ran nodded. He‘d had digestive problems ever since he was young, and felt terrible every time he ate those things.

Luo Ran smiled at Lucas and received a raised eyebrow in return.

The food arrived not long after they ordered.

During this time, Zhou Mingkai and Luo Ran kept talking, so the atmosphere wasn’t so awkward.

Luo Ran had ordered a bowl of noodles with two egg halves on top, which looked very tempting.

He took a bite, then put the other half of the egg into Lucas’ bowl.

“Admiral, try this, the egg is deliciously sweet.”

Lucas ate it in a single bite, grunted, and didn’t have much more of a reaction. He’d never been very fond of this type of food.

Luo Ran also knew Lucas didn’t care, but he still did it as usual, since Lucas would eat it either way.

Luo Ran ate a few mouthfuls of noodles, thinking that he should find opportunities to start acting.

And then…

Luo Ran: “…”

He felt that something was off.

Something was definitely off.

There truly is something weird??

 

 

Footnotes:

Devastatingly beautiful [沉鱼落雁倾国倾城]: actually two idioms back to back. The first, 沉鱼落雁 (lit. sinking fish and falling geese), describes Xi Shi and Wang Zhaojun – two of the four beauties of ancient China. It’s said that Xi Shi was so beautiful that when she washed her clothes in the stream, the fish there would stare at her face, forget how to swim, and sink. Wang Zhaojun was sent to the foreign Xiongnu for a political marriage, and on the journey there, when she played the pipa the geese flying south saw her incredible beauty, forgot how to fly, and fell from the sky. The second idiom, 倾国倾城, describes a woman so beautiful her feminine wiles cause the destruction of countries and cities, similar to how Helen of Troy is called ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’; previously derogatory but now carries positive connotations of praise.Reminder that Qiao Beauty is the username of the marshal’s wife (i.e. Lucas’ mother)Humble is not how I would describe Lucas…He was asking for it [不作不死]: a meme in China, which may take the form of ‘no zuo no die’; meaning if you hadn’t done it, you wouldn’t be suffering now. Exactly what it says on the tin.Not sure on this. Here’s the raws if anyone wants to help out: 而且……这只是个外人。/ 也许卢卡斯不是为了他呢？Embarrassed [尴尬]: feel awkward, second-hand embarrassment