Haidu: Top of the Tower

Chapter 17

Thinking about it now, whether it was the night when I read "Star of Arcana" in the tavern, or the morning when I waved goodbye to the Night Castle at the port of Haidu, it was as clear as yesterday.

Milady remembered that after she had just stepped off the boat, she couldn't recover for a while.

After a year, Haidu is now so bustling and busy that Milady feels strange.Even when she was walking on the road, she still felt that her feet were still ups and downs, as if she was still stepping on a boat; when her footsteps adapted to the smooth ground, she would look at her watch from time to time, because she was afraid of missing the time to return to the boat for assembly—— It was only when she raised her wrist that she remembered that the sailing schedule was over and she had already left the Night Castle.

In the past year, Milady has contributed a lot in collecting resources and exchanging goods. When the Night Castle successfully sold out the cargo, she also received a good reward.Thanks to this money, she was able to live quietly in a hotel for several weeks after disembarking, instead of going home.

Compared with other rooms, the door of her room is full of things every day: In addition to the newly released newspapers, ordered mechanism materials, and new works of various types of mechanism techniques, there are also correspondence with Hailan and Doreen. Correspondence with Lu Ranzhou and the friends on the ship, the return of hiring someone to inquire about the news... It wasn't until she went through many investigations that she believed that the Gaota family hadn't found out the sender of the secret letter, and Milady moved out of the hotel. When I came out and went home, when I greeted my neighbors, I smiled and said, "Yes, I just got off the boat."

Even so, she did not dare to take it lightly, and was still waiting for that aunt Hong to come to her door.She was like a rabbit with one hind leg stretched out, ready to jump up and run at any time.

However, one year seems to be long enough, long enough for family affairs to change one after another, long enough for Aunt Hong to lose interest in her completely, long enough for Milady to carry out her new plan with confidence.

The first thing she did was to spend a lot of money to order a new suit.

"Bandor Road" is a very short road, and it takes less than 10 minutes to walk slowly from one end to the other.The storefronts on this small road have high walls and heavy doors, and almost no signboards. They only wrote the owner's name on the doorway in a low-key manner.If you are not from an upper-class family in Haidu, even if you walk on Bandor Road, you still don’t know what these houses are used for—just to find out the tailor shop, Milady has racked her brains to make clothes. She almost spent her hard-earned property.

But that hunting suit is a work of art.

It flows with the dark light of her gestures, and the fabric fits and flatters her curves, like skin and armor.Walking a few more steps, one feels that it is not a dress made for her body, but a seat made to support her will: the calmness of the cool and smooth fabric restrains the murderous intent, the soft leather and the cold and hard metal, Embedded with ambition.

The light from the skylight fell on her shoulders, and her gray-blue eyes in the mirror were foggy.

On this day, Milady really waited for Luna.

The fame of the gifted siblings of the Hanxing family meant that they would attract attention everywhere, so it was easy to find out their personalities and behavior habits, for example, where to order new clothes when the seasons changed.

When Milady walked out of the fitting room, she saw Luna from a distance——on closer inspection, she realized that Luna was only eleven or twelve years old at most, and she was easy to call people because of her stable temperament and decent manners. misunderstood her age.When she passed by the little girl, Luna seemed to be attracted by a magnet, and her eyes followed Milady half a circle.

Milady paused, and smiled back at her. "Luna?"

Luna showed a bit of confusion on her face.

"I'm Milady from the High Tower family." She stretched out her hand to the little girl whom she met for the first time, and said, "We met once in the jungle meeting before, you may have forgotten."

Luna obviously couldn't say that she really didn't have any impression of this sister, she said "ah", she held her hand shyly, and said, "So it's Sister Milady... your clothes are so beautiful .”

Milady smiled.

After a few minutes, she managed to get Luna to propose "again" to the jungle party for the weekend - Luna didn't seem to notice when she said enthusiastically, "I heard there is a new game for the weekend" Well, the idea of ​​participating in the game with the other party was actually planted in Milady's mind during the conversation.

This is also impossible.If she didn't find a guide, Milady wouldn't be able to enter the Jungle Club where the celebrities' children gathered.

Power, money, status...they are intangible, but they can make tangible walls take root, separating the people in that circle far from Milady's world.They walked the same land of Haidu, and breathed the same air of Haidu, but if there was no chance and no tricks, they could live a whole life without intersecting each other like parallel lines.

The Jungle Meeting was where Milady decided to let the two parallel lines intersect.

In Haidu under the threat of Jiejing pollution, there is no trace of natural green other than man-made, and even finding a wild flower is an extremely difficult task.She still remembers how much effort her mother put into planting that small pot of beauty fern, hoping to use it to supplement part of her own tuition fees in the future.

The Jungle Club, as the name suggests, is a lush jungle in Haidu City.

It is not only a jungle under a huge glass cover, among various rare trees, vines, ferns and bananas collected from overseas, but also installed large fountains and paved grass. Outside the ballroom, there was even a small zoo—it wasn’t a mechanism this time. Milady looked at it quietly for a few seconds before moving her eyes away from the big pink birds standing in the water.

When Milady followed a group of young people from Han Xing, Chang Ge and other families to the grassland of the Jungle Club, she finally met Luo Geng as expected.

It's funny to say that even though she and Luo Geng belong to the same family, they are not as close to him as the upper-class children of other families. Even the other party's habit of coming to the Jungle Club was only found out after a lot of trouble.

"You guys came too late," Luo Geng smiled and stood up, "We got impatient and declared victory first."

The young people all laughed.Sure enough, Luo Geng was just as the rumors said, with amazing elegance and ease in his actions and speech. In a few words, he had already taken care of everyone, but when his eyes met Milady, Luo Geng was taken aback. , obviously treating her as a stranger.

Before he could speak, Milady had already smiled and said: "Cousin Luo Geng, so you are here too. Little Luna invited me, and I came today as a foreign aid for the Han Xing family."

He glanced at Milady's tower brooch, and couldn't figure out her identity for a moment, but under the eyes of the people around him, he patted her on the shoulder and said with a smile: "I never thought that our Gaota family was quietly Dig a corner?"

Luna smiled embarrassedly; when everyone greeted them and walked to the grass together, she took Milady by the arm and asked, "Sister Milady, why didn't you wear that new dress today? But this one looks good too. .”

That dress was the ticket to talk to Luna, but when she saw Luo Geng, Milady knew that she had to bow down and behave herself.Luo Geng is about to become the head of the Gaota family, so she should naturally show a subordinate appearance on the surface, so as not to make the other party wary.

While everyone was chatting, a staff member brought in eight horses—they were called "horses" because they were all like real horses, with strong backs and flexible joints.

Someone asked, "Could it be that we are playing polo today?"

Not only Milady, but others also understood what game they were about to play.

Even if it's just a game between teenagers, it's like the "Prosperity Reappearance Trial". The contestants don't know what project they are participating in until the competition starts.It is more similar to the trial competition, even if you have never been in contact with it before, you have to bite the bullet and try to win while learning in the competition.

They quickly divided into two big camps, Gaota and Hanxing, and several teams under their respective banners. In the six rounds of "chuka" in the polo match, the teams will take turns to play.

Milady only used a few words, and Luna happily arranged Milady and herself as Luo Geng's opponent.

Milady's teammates came from various families, and beside Luo Geng were three members of the Gaota family.When the two sides played, Luo Geng saw her and made a joke to her: "If you fight against the family, you will lose."

"Next time," Milady replied with a smile, "If the family needs me, I will definitely contribute."

She hoped that Luo could remember this sentence better, especially when he lost, he could think of this sentence.

Haidu people are not good at equestrianism, and Milady is no exception.

In the first few minutes of the race, everyone was in a hurry, but Milady had an advantage that no one else had: she had already developed an excellent sense of balance after fighting against the rough waves for a year.

In just a short moment, she put herself firmly on the horse's back, stopped, turned, and accelerated... like flowing clouds and flowing water, chasing and driving the polo on the grass, while others were still fighting with her mount , and scored a goal for the Hanxing team first—but soon, the others caught up.

Luo Geng is indeed outstanding in skill, and his teammates are also outstanding.

For example, the young man named Li Wei has a thin body but is full of supernatural power. If he does not let go of his hands and feet, he can hit the polo with a glass cover; another girl named Nawa has a very poisonous gaze when catching the polo. It was the ability to reach out and hit the ball from an angle that seemed impossible; the last boy named Nanshan matched Luo Geng seamlessly.

Under the kicking and swinging of the horse's legs and the club, the shadow of the white ball appeared and disappeared on the grass, back and forth, and the battle was stalemate for a while.

A round of Chuka only lasted 7 minutes, and the goals of both sides were to score two goals.Seeing that the time was approaching, the polo was being pushed deeper and deeper into the Hanxing camp by the horses of Gaota's family time and time again, and the calls from the side to watch the battle became louder and louder. Beside Nanshan, seeing that there was still no room to grab the ball, he made a decisive decision and blew a whistle.

Luna, who had been prepared for a long time, immediately ran diagonally and cut in front of several people.

She must let Luo Geng lose here.

Not only because of her hatred and pride, but also because Luo Geng has always had the reputation of knowing people and making good use of them.To take advantage of him, she had to prove her worth with Team Tower's defeat.

When Nanshan passed the ball to Luo Geng and he hit the ball towards the goal, Luna just arrived; although she was small, her eyesight and speed could not be underestimated, and the small ball rolled into a ball among the grass waves Shiro Shadow, however, still couldn't escape her cue - she looked at the position, leaned her body, swung her arm back in a semicircle, and hit the ball back accurately, rolling right under Milady's horse's hooves.

"30 seconds!" someone shouted outside.

As if Milady didn't hear it, she turned the horse's head hastily, and with a sharp angle, she caged the polo between the horse's hooves; at this time, the High Tower team also rushed in front of her, Luo Geng, Nanshan Er People are obviously ready to attack the ball as soon as it comes into range.

But Milady didn't give them a chance.

If they had been on real horses, Milady might have lost because of her inexperience; and since they were riding a trick horse, she would have more ways to play.

Under her control, the mechanical horse seemed to be running and dancing on the grass suddenly: whenever the white ball appeared between its limbs and attracted the clubs of the tower players to hit down, Milady's mechanical horse They will step on fast or slow, or change their feet or shrink their steps, and use the metal horse legs as a block, and hit the club head with a "dang".

Her timing was extremely accurate, the two hit the club several times in a row, the ball was still firmly controlled by Milady between the horse's feet, and Nanshan hit the horse's leg repeatedly, almost cursing out loud.

Milady used her cue stick and mechanism horseshoe to flash back and forth with the ball; before Nava, the biggest threat in this tactic, finally found a gap, raised her arms high, and threw the polo with all her strength. It hit the tower team's camp line.

The white ball slid across the grass like an electric snake, passed Li Wei who was trying to defend, and rolled into the back of the camp line.

The referee lit up the flag of a successful goal, and the young people in the Hanxing camp were all excited and kept applauding. "I actually scored a goal in the last five seconds." When they were leaving the field, people kept patting Milady on the shoulder and said, "It's amazing!"

Milady didn't go back to the Hanxing camp, but sat down beside the tower team members.

The few people except Luo Geng can only be said to be quite gracious, looking at her and nodding.Only Luo Geng, who was happier than he himself won, stretched out a hand with a smile on his face, and congratulated: "Your eyesight and manipulative ability are all admirable! Milady, isn't it?"

"Cousin Luo is more polite," said Milady, smiling and holding his hand, "I will fight again for the family next week."

She knew very well that it would be impossible for Luo Geng to come to the jungle meeting next week.

Sure enough, Luo Geng shook his head and replied: "Next weekend is the day for the official registration for the trial competition. After registration, we will live in the place arranged by the trial competition, and we will not be able to come out until the competition is over."

Milady acted as if suddenly realized, and said, "I haven't paid attention to the trials, and I really forgot. That's a pity. Have the players in our family been decided?"

"It's all here," Luo Geng raised his hand to signal, "It's just us who are not talented."

Milady was startled, her heart sank.

She is still too far away from the core of the Gaota family, and the news she has heard is that apart from Luo Geng, the Gaota family has only booked two people so far.

"Nava was decided by us yesterday," Luo Geng forgot to maintain the saying of "self-determination to participate in the competition", it seems that after the competition, he has already grown close to Milady. "Her vision is poisonous. If she got close to the ball just now, you might not be able to win."

"That's why I avoided her," said Milady, trying not to smile.

Generally speaking, the number of participants is four or six. If it is plural, it is easier to allocate and deal with the situation.Now that the other party has three people, no matter how talented they are, they won't bring one more person with them.

How to do?
Could it be that she can't even enter the trials?

Milady felt that the smile on her face must be ugly; she forced herself to wish good luck to several people one by one, secretly wondering that they didn't realize the anxiety and disappointment under her smile.

It took her so much effort to get to this point, so naturally she wouldn't give up easily, she made a few indirect remarks, but soon realized that she was hopeless.

You can't ask any more questions, and you can't make them suspicious.

She couldn't stay any longer, otherwise she was really afraid that she would kick over the table where they had tea.

Enduring the anxiety that gnawed at her belly, Milady politely declined as much as possible, saying that there was still something to do first, thanked Luna, maintained her superficial stability, and left the Jungle Council.

She didn't go far.

...Since there is no room for her, she should create one.

When this group of young people left the Jungle Club after a full two hours, Milady, who had been guarding outside, ordered the car rental master to quietly follow some of the locomotives heading for Gaota's residence.

One of them turned towards the patriarch's mansion, and Milady ignored it; from the other three, she abandoned the pink car that obviously belonged to Nava.At an intersection, she asked the car rental driver to speed up a bit, and after seeing the silhouette of Nanshan in one of the cars, she slid behind him silently.

When she followed Nanshan to the front yard of a mansion, Milady couldn't continue to follow; she watched the gate open and made way for Nanshan's car, so she had to let the rental car continue to drive past. She went straight home - at least, now she knew Nanshan's address and what his locomotive looked like.

Now I just need to think about how to prevent Nanshan from participating.

That night, Milady sat on the floor, surrounded by all the organ materials she had recently acquired.

She repeatedly tested several ideas in her mind, implemented them one by one, and ruled out the unworkable methods; she was completely immersed in mechanism techniques, experimenting, adjusting, overthrowing, and starting again... The day came Gone, and the night came and went. Except for going out to buy the missing materials, Milady stayed at home, forgot to eat, and didn't know if she had slept.It seems that there is only one goal left in her life: to make the mechanism in her mind come true in front of her eyes.

After she finally got everything ready, there were only ten hours left before the registration for the Prosperity Restoration Trial Competition began.

(End of this chapter)