Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In August, if one wanted to escape the streets of New York that was as hot as the sun, other than the shops and supermarkets along the roads, one could only stay in the shade of the trees, enduring the cricketing of the cicadas.
However, despite the torment of such temperature, thousands of demonstrators still gathered on the Cat Ear Avenue. Under the leadership of a thin-haired, bald, white, old man, they shouted slogans in unison. “The Earth belongs to Earthlings! Get out of our planet, Atlanteans…” while holding placards like ‘We are born on this planet; we have the right and obligations to protect it!’, ‘Eat sh*t, aliens!’, ‘All politicians are traitors of Earths’ ostentatiously in the city.
Wearing cool shorts, all of the men and women were bare chested and would throw flags drawn with a picture of planets aflame onto the ground to step on them from time to time. Those flags were a symbol of Atlantis, and when the demonstrators trampled them until it was covered with footprints, they throw them into a trash can on the street.
Under the flamboyant French phoenix tree on the street, the Wizard Li’s god who was wearing a Garfield T-shirt while carrying a beige backpack across his shoulder looked at the noisy parade while sipping on a cold can of Coke as he muttered sarcastically, “A free country, a group of demonstrators who behave like artists, a sensible parade that doesn’t forget to throw their crap into a trash can. Aha! From what I can see, the Atlanteans will be able to be driven out of Earth by just these awakened New Yorkers alone…”
It had already been three weeks since he sneaked back to New York, but he did not alert anyone. After signing the cash hidden in the safe deposit box of New York’s Union Bank to settle down, Zhang Lisheng had been doing three things for the past 20 days. One, paying attention to the movement of the Atlantis fleet stationed at the New York military base. Two, gathering all kinds of intelligence on the Internet and carrying out an inductive analysis, so he could make his move after contriving a plot. Three, digesting and absorbing the creation technology of the biological weapons left by the Ancient Hellfire gods he found on the Nutao Sea’s three islands before innovating with new ideas. Before leaving the island, the young man had given his order; thus, even without his presence, Wizard Li would still have to continue its path of conquering the Hellfire Sea. He should have enough faith to create his own giant biochemical weapons the next time he returned to the foreign world.
After a long period of observation, Zhang Lisheng discovered that the Atlanteans in New York did not act rashly. Now that his preliminary intelligence analysis had been completed and knowing that creating biochemical weapons was a long-term work, he decided to sneak out of the apartment he had rented online anonymously and strolled alone on the street to let his mind unwind.
After watching the fun rather than the severe demonstrators walking away, he curled his lips and left the shade. Casually throwing paper cups into the trash can, while placing one hand over his eyes to look around, trying to find a restaurant with enough guests to eat a simple lunch, a familiar face suddenly appeared before his eyes.
At the same time, when Zhang Lisheng looked over their direction. As though there was a tacit understanding, that black, short-haired, young girl with beautiful facial features also turned to look at him.
When both of them looked at each other, the girl’s jaws dropped in shock. Following a series of complex expressions flashing across her face in succession, she finally smiled happily and waved her hand as she shouted loudly, “Lisheng, why are you here, and why are you dressed like this?”
“Senior Sister, I’m a young New Yorker. Isn’t it normal to see me wearing cartoon T-shirt on the streets of New York?” Encountering Guo Caiying in this part of town had an incredibly small probability; Zhang Lisheng could not dodge in time and could only cross the streets, not knowing whether he should be happy or worried. Shrugging, he evaded the major question by engaging in trivial ones, “I should be the one asking you this instead. You’re a young Chinese cadre who has a bright future, why did you suddenly appear here?”
“I’m now Director of the South and North America Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I’m here to accompany the entrepreneurial delegation to New York to participate in the economic and trade fair in an official identity,” Guo Caiying answered with a standard answer.
“The Chinese government still organized an economic and trade business meeting at this time? This is so f*cked up!” Zhang Lisheng looked stunned. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, he blurted out.
“Although economic development is not the primary task of our party in power, developing the economy and striving to improve the material and civilized level of the people has always been an important issue in front of the Party’s Central Committee…”
“Okay, stop, Senior Sister Caiying, it’s obvious that you’ve become a qualified, young, Chinese bureaucrat, but I’m not a reporter of an Associated Press. If you don’t want to answer the question, then you can directly say that it’s not convenient for you to disclose it,” The young man said with a curl of his lips.
When his words left his mouth, a gentle and elegant 34 or 35-year-old man who was still wearing a well-fitted gray suit and a tie scrupulously in the midsummer beside the girl smiled and spoke politely as though it was his occupational disease, “Sir, Director Guo is not brushing you off. She’s telling the truth. The international situation is becoming more and more stable now since both the US and China have a whole intact foreign world waiting to be developed urgently. Strengthening trade cooperation and achieving a win-win situation are the common aspirations of the governments and the people of both countries…”
Zhang Lisheng patiently listened to the refined man to finish his words before replying with a shrug, “Alright, dear respected diplomat, your words made a lot of sense, but I don’t want to do anything else other than to go to lunch now. I rarely come to this neighborhood, so is there anything you can recommend me?”
“Lisheng, Consul Hong is the Consul General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in New York. He’s a senior diplomat and has very high debating skills. Stop joking around,” The girl reminded the young man and pointed to the front with a smile, “There’s a Chinese Sichuan cuisine restaurant that tastes very authentic at the corner of the street. We also happen to come out for food, so let us go together.”
“Sichuan cuisine? It sounds quite good,” Being able to eat the dishes from his hometown that he had not eaten for a long time was also a delightful surprise for Zhang Lisheng. With a smile, he nodded, “I’ll treat you as a welcome gift for returning to New York.”
“You rarely eat at ‘small shops,’ so let me treat you this time instead,” Guo Caiying smiled with a sincere smile. “Speaking about it, I still owe you a big favor. You left without saying goodbye in Noah last time, so give me this chance to repay the ‘debt’ this time.”
“I had a reason to leave Noah quietly last time. I’ll tell you when we have the time,” Upon hearing the objections in the girl’s words, Zhang Lisheng explained in a whisper.
“Is that so? I’ll wait for your explanation then,” Upon hearing the young man saying that there was a reason for his leaving without a goodbye, the girl’s smile relaxed a lot as she walked with light footsteps forward.
After seeing Zhang Lisheng and having a few short conversations, Guo Caiying’s mood had obviously elevated. The interaction between the two had somewhat shifted into something slightly ambiguous. Some of the young men traveling together with the girl could not help but put on a gloomy expression.
Zhang Lisheng was no longer the simple boy he used to be. Of course, he could feel the jealousy in the air, but how could he possibly care about the feelings of ordinary people? He took a few steps forward and chased up to Guo Caiying before asking in a whisper, “Senior Sister, how’s the situation in China? Are the Atlanteans there well-behaved?”
“How can a wolf that bares its fang possibly be well-behaved. However, according to the analysis of the think tank, they dare not act too uncompromising because they might be fearing a nuclear war. Not only that, but the central government has united all the forces that can be united, so the situation is still controllable. I really can’t believe that being a powerful nuclear nation can actually have this advantage,” Now that they’re talking alone, the girl no longer had too many scruples. With just one sentence, she revealed a lot of information.
“Fear against nuclear war? United all the forces that can be united?” Zhang Lisheng smiled faintly in ponderation and saying with a deep-lying meaning, “Looks like everyone has started to pay attention to ancient mythical legends now.”
“Pay attention to ancient mythical legends?” Guo Caiying slowed down her footsteps and suddenly sighed, “Lisheng, it seems that your position in the US is higher than I imagined. To think that you can actually get access to such information…”
“It’s not what you think, Senior Sister. I don’t have any fixed sources of information from the US government,” Zhang Lisheng interrupted the girl. “All the information I have now is obtained through a chanced analysis. My brain is much smarter than you imagine.”
“Of course I know that you’re competent,” Guo Caiying fell into a moment of silence before saying with a hint of annoyance in her tone, “In that case, why didn’t you return to China? The situation there differed completely from before. As the force of bloodline passed down by the Ancient Goddess Nuwa, witchcraft has become one of the important chips used by the central government to keep the Atlanteans in cheek. The legend of repairing the sky has made the witchcraft into something valued compared to the Gate of Dao’s descendants now. People like you who master ancient heritage…”
“Stop, stop, Senior Sister! You really know a lot of things now!” Zhang Lisheng interjected with amazement. “It’s really awkward listening to a proletarian atheist like you talking about ancient god bloodline heritage or something in such a clear and logical manner.”
When Guo Caiying saw how Zhang Lisheng evaded major issues by engaging in trivial ones to avoid her suggestion, Guo Caiying felt delighted deep in her heart but wisely stopped questioning. Instead, with a smile, she said, “Its existence is reasonable. Now that gods and deities are about to reappear in the world, isn’t it the same as burying one’s head in the sand if I still bring up atheism now? As a bellwether for Lehmanism, the social theory in China has already advanced with the times. My father has even presided over the revision of the teaching materials for the members.”
The young man left the mountain village in China since he was a teenager, and everything he knew about the Chinese regime came from the ideology and moral lessons he learned in elementary school and junior high school. He could still talk about one to two empty theories, but he did not understand what it meant by presiding over the revision of the teaching materials for the party members.
Of course, to the Wizard Li’s god, who did not have any external interference, and one could say that he had the Shrimp World No. 2 in his hand now, he would not pay any attention to it even if he knew about the meaning in this matter.
After all, he was no longer the small wizard who needed to be concerned about the Chinese Gate of Dao two to three years ago. Relying on several dozens of faith stones that Zhang Lisheng carried with him, he had the confidence to cope with unexpected situations. The foundation that had already been planted well in the foreign world also gave him the ability to retaliate against the most powerful enemy.
“Senior Sister, the concept ‘advancing with the times’ taken from ‘I Ching’ and recorded in ‘Zhuangzi’ is not meant to be used like this…” Shaking his head without concern, the young man casually remarked, and before he could finish his words, a female voice accompanied by a chuckle resonated behind him, “Caiying, what are you telling your Junior Brother that make you two laugh so happily?”
