Chapter 273: Constantine

Xia Fei did not take part in the second round of the preliminaries as planned, yet he still managed to enter the finals with his outstanding performance in the first round, though he was ranked at the bottom, barely reaching the cut off point.

Meanwhile, Li Mo had displayed his talents in machinery once again. The problem assigned to him in the second round was optimizing the combustion of fuel. Without any surprise, he managed to reduce the fuel consumption of a spaceship by twenty-five percent under normal circumstances. In the end, he came first in the preliminaries and secured a spot in the finals. He was considered the first seed participant of the tournament, while Xia Fei’s current rank was about a thousand.

Xia Fei was still hard at work in the garage. He was fine as long as he made it to the finals, and his ranking was not even among his concerns.

The day after the preliminaries came to an end, Xia Fei received a video-call from Bai Ye out of nowhere. The two were not necessarily close, so Xia Fei was a little surprised that Bai Ye would take the initiative to contact him.

Xia Fei tossed the tool in his hand aside and rolled out from below the machine tool. Avril quickly gave him a glass of orange juice as she followed him obediently.

Xia Fei accepted the call. He saw Bai Ye on the screen, but he was not alone; his cousin Li Mo was seated beside him, too.

“Avril.” Li Mo saw Avril who was standing beside Xia Fei. He called her name directly with a dark face instead of greeting Xia Fei first.

Avril began to panic a little. It was natural for a person to seek protection when they were feeling lost. Avril subconsciously hugged Xia Fei’s arm before lifting her gaze and saying, “Li Mo, what do you want from Xia Fei?”

“Hmph!” Li Mo harrumphed before saying disdainfully, “So he’s the reason you rejected me?”

Avril braced her chest and nodded, her face blushing immediately. Her reaction was stinging Li Mo’s eyes and he gritted his teeth to restrain his anger.

Xia Fei did not expect that he would be confronting Li Mo at a time like this. He preferred to take out his opponent secretly, but there was no need for him to hide any further. He would gladly accept the challenge.

“Avril, wait for me outside; I have something to discuss with Mr. Bai and Mr. Li.” Xia Fei smiled at Avril. Either way, Avril was innocent. He was hoping to keep her away from trouble, so he decided that it was best for her to leave for now.

Avril was a little worried about Xia Fei, but she did not dare to oppose him. She kept turning her head around while she was leaving the garage.

Xia Fei casually wiped the stains in his hand on his uniform and took out a box of Hongtashan cigarettes from his pocket. He lit a stick and took a drag.

“So what do you two want from me?” Xia Fei asked.

Li Mo asked in return, “Do you think you are best suited to Avril?”

Xia Fei smiled. “Not really, but I think you are even less suited to her. Besides, she has the right to decide who she wants to be with. It has nothing to do with what we think.”

Li Mo suddenly burst out laughing. He said while shaking his head, “A pauper like you will never understand people on our level. The truth is, my family doesn’t really care if I marry Avril. Our Li family doesn’t really care about the Jians’ wealth, but it must be an astronomical sum to you.

“I just happen to be quite fond of Avril, or else I won’t even bother humbling myself to approach her. I’ll be frank: How much do you want so you’ll leave her alone?”

Xia Fei was amused. Avril’s father had used the same approach to make him leave Avril. Did the upper class only know to assert their superiority with money? Did they only know to settle every problem with money?

Xia Fei said after a brief pause, “Alright.”

Li Mo harrumphed disdainfully. “I thought you’d be stubborn, but this was all it took. Name your price, and I’ll transfer you the money later.”

He turned to Bai Ye and said, “I told you; there’s nothing that money can’t settle in this world. Look, this Xia Fei may be putting on airs, yet I’ve managed to take care of him with a small sum of money.”

He did not even care if Xia Fei was on the other side of the screen as if he was saying it on purpose. Bai Ye quickly nodded his head in agreement.

Xia Fei smiled. “My price is pretty high.”

“I can afford it nevertheless,” Li Mo said.

Xia Fei reached out two of his fingers and said, “I want the net worth of Planet Conglomerate, multiplied by two.”

Li Mo was stunned. He finally realized that Xia Fei was teasing him, calling him a dumbass in this way.

Li Mo was enraged. He smacked the armrest of the couch heavily and said in a hoarse voice, “Very well! I heard you’re quite talented in machinery. I’ll be taking part in the icosithetra-thon of the Golden Finger Cup. I hope that you are as unyielding then as you are today. Don’t lose too miserably.”

Xia Fei took a puff of his cigarette with a smile and said, “Same to you.”

Li Mo left the room with a dark expression. Bai Ye immediately went after him while calling his name. He told Xia Fei mysteriously prior to leaving the room, “I initially thought that you have feelings for Moon Song, but it looks like I’ve misunderstood you. A friendly reminder for you since you’re in the same batch as I am in the training camp: Those who mess with Li Mo usually don’t have a good end.”

Xia Fei smirked. “Actually, you didn’t misunderstand me; Moon Song is mine, too.”

1

Bai Ye’s effeminate face turned even paler. He snarled, “You’re going to regret what you said today!”

Xia Fei no longer had to be wary of them after this fall out. He pretended to sound like a rascal. “The woman your cousin likes is mine, and the woman you like is also mine; why should I regret it?”

Bai Ye was almost driven mad. His long hair almost stood on its end. He was unused to handling Xia Fei’s pestering, for he was born to a noble family. Thus, he was at a loss on how he should respond. At that instant, Li Mo began shouting from outside the room. Bai Ye stomped the ground and ended the video-call before chasing after Li Mo.

Xia Fel flicked the cigarette bud into the air. It spun for a few circles before landing on the ground, leaving some sparks across it. He slammed into the chair behind him after taking this huge weight off his mind.

Phantom said with a frown, “It’s not like you to provoke someone you shouldn’t mess with. Li Mo’s background isn’t normal. Things are going to be very tricky if he is serious about getting rid of you.”

Xia Fei said, “It’s not like me? I’ll make sure that those who want to mess with me will suffer the consequences no matter who they are. That’s my biggest principle.”

Avril was still waiting outside the door. She came in hurriedly when she realized that Xia Fei was done with the call. “What did Li Mo say to you?”

Xia Fei replied, “He asked me to stay away from you, but I told him that I will only do so if he gives me the entire Planet Conglomerate.”

Avril pouted and said gloomily, “Are you seriously thinking of letting me go if he agrees to your condition?”

Xia Fei smiled. He lifted Avril’s golden fringe with his finger and answered, “I won’t trade you even if he gives me the whole universe.”

Avril’s eyes reddened and she collapsed into Xia Fei’s arms, causing him to be greeted by her unique fragrance.

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As a safety precaution, Xia Fei decided to produce three sets of the Black Bat Radar System. He brought the first to Thuram in the Adjudicator Union headquarters right away to have it tested and evaluated as promised, while he kept the other two sets for the tournament.

He registered a patent for the Black Bat Radar System with the Alliance and used the name of Quantum Holdings to register it as a backup component with the organizer of the tournament so that he could use it whenever he wanted during the competition.

Xia Fei was being extra careful throughout the registration process. He only put ‘radar system’ as the product description. Thousands of companies would register their products to be used in the tournament, so the organizer would only place them in the storage without checking each thoroughly. After all, it was a machinery tournament. If a machinist could not even tell if a component was faulty, they were not qualified to be a machinist.

Xia Fei only left the Black Bat Radar System with a very simple description. Besides, Quantum Holdings was far from reputable in the Alliance, so it was unlikely for anyone to even consider picking it among the countless components available. In addition, Xia Fei attached an insane price to Black Bat Radar System. The others could easily choose high-quality components with that same price tag. The Golden Finger Cup had strict restrictions on the overall cost of the participants’ design, so Xia Fei could only consider himself unlucky if someone did end up choosing the Black Bat Radar System.

The icositetra-thon consisted of a variety of fields for a machinist. Normally, the participant who came first in the icositetra-thon would emerge as the champion of the tournament, too. There were rarely any exceptions.

The first round of the icositetra-thon was the optimization of energy systems. The participants would have to optimize the energy system of a warship to increase its energy output without compromising on the reactors’ lifespan. Xia Fei chose to increase the quantum collider’s energy output and won by a single point, placing Li Mo second.

The second round involved modifying a warship’s armor by tweaking its four main resistances to achieve perfect balance between its defense and resistance.

There were four main types of damage that every weapon could deal. For example, laser cannons used extreme heat to damage a warship’s armor. If a warship’s heat resistance was high enough, it could greatly reduce the damage dealt by laser cannons. Meanwhile, electro cannons worked by turning atoms into electrons. The speed of electrons was proportional to the damage dealt. It was referred to as kinetic damage. If the armor was sturdy enough, it would defend the warship better from electro cannons.

The organizer requested the armor to be resistant toward explosions, kinetic energy, heat, and electromagnetic energy. It was a very difficult problem to tackle. If one of the resistances of the armor was improved, it would definitely reduce its other resistances.

Xia Fei did not really have a brilliant idea to tackle the problem. He decided to use a little trick by changing the shape of the armor to a rhomboid. As a result, every hit that the warship received from any directions would be weakened due to the difference in angle, preventing the attacks from doing maximum damage.

It was actually a loophole in the tournament since the organizer did not state their requirement on the armor’s shape. Xia Fei managed to take advantage of it to secure a 27-point lead over Li Mo.

The organizer was quite embarrassed, since no one would consider driving a rhomboid warship. Not only did the shape take up a lot of space, it was very ugly, too. It was unnecessary to change the shape of a warship into a rhomboid just to raise its resistance by five percent.

However, the organizer could not deny Xia Fei’s solution, for they did fail to notice the loophole. It could only record it as a reminder for the next tournament.

Earth, in headquarters of Quantum Holdings, the management had just finished its regular meeting. Everyone was discussing Xia Fei’s performance in the first two rounds. Charlie said excitedly, “Xia Fei has won two rounds in a row, leading the second place by 28 points in total. He’s currently ranked first in the whole tournament. He might just win the whole competition at this rate.”

Old Porter shook his head. “The Golden Cup Finger lasts for more than a month, and the schedule is quite complicated. It’s only been two rounds so far. It’s too early to predict the champion now, but Xia Fei did pretty well in the first two rounds. He managed to find a loophole in the rules and use it to secure a lead of over 20-something points. It’s his strength of being observant.

“Still, there’s one thing I don’t understand. Didn’t he say that he won’t waste his time participating in every event of the tournament because there are too many of them? Why did he end up registering for the icositetra-thon? It’s obviously against his original intention.”

Andre was confused. “Xia Fei’s primary goal is to promote the energy-shield booster to increase the company’s sales. His decision seems to have gotten a little sidetracked.”

Sarah was paying attention to the conversation. It was no secret that she had feelings for Xia Fei. This lady from the Wild Star Region was a lot more open-minded when it came to expressing her feelings.

“We shouldn’t think too much about it. Xia Fei must have his reasons. We just need to believe in him.” Sarah spoke forcefully. Speaking of loving the house and its crow, Sarah never doubted Xia Fei’s decision. She was easily the model employee of the company.

Charlie went along with her, too. “I agree. Xia Fei knows what he’s doing. It may be a good thing if he comes first in the tournament. If he makes a name for himself, Quantum Holdings will certainly benefit from it.”

The rest of the group nodded in agreement.

The events on the second day of the tournament were time trials. Both Xia Fei and Li Mo surprisingly lost in the event of the gravity monitoring system. They both lost the first place by 5 points and came second. Xia Fei was not too fussy about the outcome as his focus was on preparing for the drone-repairing time trial event that afternoon.

Avril was waiting for Xia Fei when he left the venue. A dozen bodyguards led by Pang Xing, who were protecting the lady in the shadows, were noticed by Xia Fei despite them doing their best to blend with the crowd. He nodded at Pang Xing before approaching Avril.

“Xia Fei, you did well today. You came second,” Avril said excitedly.

Xia Fei smiled. “Why are you congratulating me for coming second? Constantine, who came first, finished two minutes earlier than I did.”

Avril said sternly, “You should know that you are always the best in my heart, whether you come first or not.”

Xia Fei swiped his finger down Avril’s nose. “I know that; let’s go grab some lunch. The drone-repairing event this afternoon is my forte; I’m hoping to get a good result.”

A voice suddenly came behind them. “I will still win against you later just like before.”

The voice was icy like a knife. Xia Fei looked up and saw a skinny young man approaching him while lowering his head. His long hair was disheveled, and his dirty white shirt was crooked. Even the buttons were done incorrectly.

He was wearing a pair of filthy basketball shoes as if he had never cleaned them since they were bought. They were fully covered in grime and oily stains. All in all, he looked very unkempt.

The skinny, young man lifted his gaze. Xia Fei saw an extremely pale face. As a matter of fact, the face had an cultured temperament, with a slight hint of grief. His brows were drooping, and his nose was holding a pair of golden glasses.

“Everything is possible. No one can predict the outcome, not even you,” Xia Fei said. The man was Constantine, who had entered the limelight in the morning event. Xia Fei clearly remembered the winner of this morning’s event.

Constantine glanced at Xia Fei then at Avril. He suddenly wore an evil grin. He bent forward, bowed at Avril, displaying the standard etiquette of a noble, and said in a grieving tone, “Miss, my name is Constantine. I came from a cursed kingdom. Please accept the affection of a sinful man; I’m willing to offer my whole life to you.”

Constantine’s voice was not loud, yet it was extremely clear. The event had just ended, thus thousands of spectators were leaving the venue. They did not expect that Constantine would confess to Avril in front of so many people.

The crowd was intrigued. They stared at the strange combination of two men and a woman. Some immediately recognized Avril at the first glance and began whispering to one another.

“Isn’t she the eldest daughter of the Jian family?”

“What Jian family? I can only tell she’s quite pretty.”

“How could you not know the Jian family? They own Starlink Corps. How could you not know the Jians when you use the interplanetary internet every day? She’s Avril, Avril Jian.”

“Oh, it’s her; the woman seems to be in some kind of trouble.”

“Isn’t it obvious? Those two are obviously her admirers.”

“They’re pretty bold for daring to go after the only heiress of the Jian family.”

Pang Xing and the bodyguards swiftly formed a circle to separate the crowd from Avril. He also pushed a button on his communication device to summon more men to his aid.

Avril was panicking slightly. It was the first time someone had confessed to her in the public, not to mention that the person was a stranger whom she had never met before.

Avril tried her best to remain calm. She hugged Xia Fei’s arm and said, “I have no idea who you are. Please show some respect.”

Constantine might have an cultured appearance, yet his behavior was no different from a rascal. He smiled. “My beloved lady, please tell me your name; I’m willing to fight this warrior to the death to win your affection.”

Another voice sounded as soon as Constantine finished his sentence. “Please let me join the duel, since I too have feelings for the woman.”