CH 84

Chapter 84: Succession Ceremony

“Want to go in and have a look?” Victor smiled suddenly and looked at Lin Luo.

Lin Luo was taken aback for a moment. While he was considering how to answer, Xing Mo spoke first and politely declined Victor’s invitation, “No, the succession ceremony of the crown prince of your country is coming soon. I believe the palace must be quite busy around this time. I don’t think we need to go in and bother.”

The country can’t be without a king for a day. The preparations for the succession ceremony were in full swing, but it was absolutely impossible for Andre to let Brad succeed. Xing Mo guessed that he was likely lurking somewhere right about then waiting for an opportunity to act. If foreigners like them entered the palace, it might arouse the vigilance of the guards and add trouble to Andre’s actions for no reason.

More importantly, he saw the banter in Victor’s eyes when he spoke, indicating that he was just teasing and didn’t really intend to take them in. On the contrary, he himself might even have to stay away from the palace to avoid being implicated.

Victor looked at Xing Mo’s clear eyes and heard the true meaning of his words, and couldn’t help but give him a glancing look of high regard. In the previous video recording, this young man showed amazing combat effectiveness. He thought he was just Lin Luo’s guardian, but now it seemed that he was more than that.

“Mr. Lin, what is the relationship between the two of you?” Victor asked curiously.

Lin Luo didn’t expect that Victor would suddenly ask about that, and his cheeks suddenly flushed.

“We are lovers.” Xing Mo put an arm around Lin Luo’s shoulder possessively while straightforwardly pointing out their relationship.

“That’s it then. The two are really well matched.” People like Victor knew exactly what to say and when to say it, especially as he had made up his mind to befriend Lin Luo. He wouldn’t hesitate to say something nice.

Both Lin Luo and Xing Mo showed smiles on their faces.

After the sightseeing activities, Victor took them to a prestigious upscale restaurant in the main city for dinner. This restaurant was notoriously high-class and only accepted Lords and Royals.

The restaurant was located on a street very close to the palace. When night fell, the lights of the surrounding buildings were all turned on, making the whole street as bright as day.

The vehicle slowly stopped at the door of the restaurant and immediately someone came over to open the door for them.

“My Lord, please.” The service staff guarding the entrance of the restaurant recognized the famous Marquis Victor at a glance and opened the door respectfully for them.

The interior of the restaurant was decorated in retro style. In order to ensure the privacy of guests dining, all parties ate in separated private rooms.

The private rooms weren’t big, but the furnishings were all exquisite. Beautiful crystal lamps were hung above their heads. The soft lighting gave people a beautiful and pleasant feeling, and made them feel very comfortable.

Victor had noticed them eating a lot of food at the barbecue stall previously, most of which was seafood, so when ordering he basically chose what they liked as well as some Toby national dishes.

When the dishes were served, the silver trays were filled with exquisite delicacies, but the portions were on the smaller side which made Lin Luo, who was accustomed to eating food in large mouthfuls, a little uncomfortable.

But… the taste was still good…

During the meal, chatting was inevitable and eventually Victor asked how they met Andre.

Victor had also heard about Andre’s trip to the Empire to participate in stone gambling. Knowing that they met there, he didn’t continue to ask more and instead asked some things about the two of them. He asked a few more things about the two of them, and they basically told the truth without hiding too much.

Victor was not surprised that Lin Luo was a stone gambling expert, but he was surprised that Xing Mo was just a trader.

He didn’t look down on the Empire like the Theisser, but he also felt that the Empire’s combat effectiveness wasn’t very strong. A triple-line ability user like Xing Mo with superior combat effectiveness should have a higher status.

Xing Mo couldn’t explain the twists and turns, so he only explained things vaguely and Victor didn’t ask too much. He just exchanged communication numbers with them, waiting for their country to establish trade with the Empire. He hoped to get in on the action once the trade channels were established.

Looking at the empty plates that were constantly being taken away, Lin Luo felt that this meal must have eaten up a lot of Victor’s money, which made him a little embarrassed.

However, Victor was obviously also a local tyrant. Seeing that Lin Luo and Xing Mo were having a good time eating, he added two more dishes. Only after he was sure that they had eaten enough was he ready to pay and go.

Victor originally wanted to arrange another hotel for them, but was declined by the two. On the one hand, they were embarrassed to trouble Victor again, and on the other hand, it was because Sisi had already arranged a room for them. It would be too impolite to just leave like that.

Since they insisted Victor didn’t say much, and the three of them got in the vehicle again and returned to Sisi’s residence.

The two of them had been busy outside for a long time and were really tired. After returning, they washed and slept.

It was a good night’s sleep.

The next day Sisi had also rested enough, so he pushed a cart full of jadeite and went to Trade Street to set up a stall. Lin Luo and Xing Mo went with him as they had nothing else to do, only this time no one dared to trouble them. After yesterday’s events the whole street knew that these two Imperials were not easy to provoke. Lord Victor was standing behind them!

Sisi’s shop was small, and there weren’t many jadeite that could be placed. The goods in his cart were just right.

Sisi sold water stone jadeite that was a special product of his planet. Generally the skin was very smooth, but those with python bands and pine flowers were basically good gambles. He would also pick one or two pieces of the more ordinary looking ones and cut an incision to try his luck. If he was able to cut out the jade, the piece could be sold as a semi-gambled material, which was much more valuable than normal jadeite.

Lin Luo chatted with Sisi in his spare time and inquired about the kind of carbonized jadeite that Andre had brought to the empire before. He was very interested in that kind of carbonized jadeite. The carbonized matrix was buried for many years and was only formed deep underground. The possibility of betting excellent quality jade was very high. Cutting the purple-gold two-color glass jade from the carbonized jadeite that he won at the Vermi Open Auction was still fresh in his mind.

However, Sisi said that he had never seen this kind of jadeite on the trade street and asked Lin Luo if he had remembered it wrong.

Lin Luo was shocked, then quickly changed the subject. He decided to ask Andre once things were settled. Anyway, the succession ceremony should be just a few days away, and Andre’s affairs would have to be handled before the ceremony.

It was okay to be idle anyway. Lin Luo chose two pieces of materials from the jadeite pile that Sisi had set up and bought them. He didn’t cut them on the spot, but planned to take them back to the Empire.

*********

However, Andre’s speed was much faster than they had imagined. On the evening of the third day, he took a suspended vehicle and arrived at Sisi’s residence.

When the doorbell rang, Lin Luo and Xing Mo, who lived on the first floor, were the first to hear it, so Lin Luo went to open the door.

After the gate opened, Lin Luo saw Andre standing in front of the gate wearing finery.

Lin Luo widened his eyes in surprise, “Andre?”

“It’s me.” With a gentle smile on Andre’s face, “I’m here to send you two invitations. Tomorrow is the succession ceremony. After the ceremony is over, there will be a dinner in the palace. Please be sure to join us.”

“Your business is finished? So soon?” Lin Luo still couldn’t believe it. Andre managed the complicated power disputes in the palace in just two days?

Andre snorted coldly when he heard the words, “Just a bunch of buffoons. It wasn’t difficult to deal with.”

Xing Mo noticed the cold light flashing under Andre’s eyes, and believed that his method of dealing with them was definitely not very gentle.

Now that Andre’s matter had been dealt with and he personally came over to give them invitations to the dinner, the two of them wouldn’t refuse. They calculated the time and figured that the starship Yin Ye sent to pick them up shouldn’t come until the day after tomorrow. The timing was just right.

After Andre handed them two exquisite dinner invitations, he sent them an address for a clothing store he frequented so they could go there to buy clothing for the dinner. He said he had told the shop to expect them, and they only had to mention his name.

“Thank you, Andre.”

“We’re friends; you don’t have to be so polite.”

“Andre, shall we go in the room to sit and talk? I have something to ask you.”

Andre raised his eyebrows. He knew Lin Luo’s intention to invite him to sit in the room was because he didn’t want their conversation to be heard by Sisi, so he readily agreed.

After entering the room, Lin Luo directly asked about the carbonized jadeite. “Sisi said he had never heard of this jadeite.”

“It’s normal that he hasn’t heard of it. That jadeite is very valuable, and the output isn’t high, so I haven’t publicly sold it. All are directly sent to major public auctions for bidding.” This way he could maximize the benefits. For example, he was planning to release the news that someone bet on carbonized jadeite at the Vermi Open Auction and won a purple-gold glass jade from it. That way the price of the carbonized jadeite would rise again just like the once highly sought after old elephant skin jadeite that used to be popular.

For the Toby people, the energy of jade can’t upgrade their abilities. All they need is the power of the elements, so no matter how bad the crystal structure is, it’s a good jade for them so long as it has good color. Therefore, they didn’t have much pursuit for the best jades. Faced with a piece of the best jade worth hundreds of millions of credits, they would rather sell it for money, then buy a lesser quality jade to use.

After hearing what he said, Lin Luo finally knew how Andre made such a fortune. He really was a man of wealth.