First Interstellar Guide Chapter 27: At the Charity Banquet

Chapter 27: At the Charity Banquet

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

In early March, the Federal Investigation Division finally announced the results of the investigation into the mysterious deaths of the three sentinels on Planet B73—Officer Leonard died in an accidental fall, while the brothers, Kelt and Mark, killed each other in a physical altercation on the spaceship due to a dispute. The official website provided a very complete chain of evidence, and there were no traces of any other perpetrators at the scene.

The public didn’t seem to doubt these investigation results. Many people online even blamed the deceased for their fate. The substantial amount of money carried by Kelt and Mark was confiscated by the government. This money was originally intended as compensation for the families of the B73 mining accident victims but was embezzled by the mining company bosses and Leonard.

Now, with all three individuals deceased, the compensation funds finally reached the families of the victims.

Yu Ran’s parents had both perished in the accident, and he received hundreds of thousands of star coins in compensation.

The case that had been weighing on Lu Zexuan’s mind had temporarily come to a close. However, Yu Ran felt that Zhu Tianyi’s sudden announcement of the investigation results was not so simple. With the temperament of the head of the Investigation Division, he wouldn’t easily give up the investigation. It could be a “fishing expedition,” deliberately releasing the information to relax the vigilance of those behind the scenes and then finding clues from there.

On the day he received the compensation, Yu Ran invited Lu Zexuan to dinner. As a student, he couldn’t spend so much money; the hundreds of thousands of savings would be enough for him to graduate from college. Therefore, this time, Yu Ran boldly chose a very expensive seafood buffet restaurant and treated Lu Zexuan to a lavish meal.

Hearing that Yu Ran had received the compensation, Lu Zexuan said, “You finally received the compensation. Your parents in heaven should be comforted.”

Yu Ran replied, “Yes, I hope they can rest in peace.”

Lu Zexuan looked at Yu Ran and said seriously, “You have no family now. If you need help in the future, you can always come to me.”

The implication was clear—you may have no family or connections, but I can be someone you can rely on in the future. Unfortunately, Lu Zexuan wasn’t very good with words, and it sounded a bit like the kind of support between friends. Yu Ran didn’t think much of it, nodded, and continued to peel shrimp.

After dinner, Lu Zexuan took Yu Ran to a place—a private custom clothing store specializing in men’s suits. When Yu Ran entered the shop, he was immediately attracted by the unique decoration style. The stairs were all suspended, like piano keys floating in the air, and the walls were adorned with many beautiful abstract paintings, complemented by some green plants, which were very pleasing to the eye.

The designer, a very elegant man, approached Lu Zexuan and said, “Mr. Lu, hello, do you need custom-made clothes?”

Lu Zexuan glanced at Yu Ran and said, “He also needs one. Let’s have one suit made for each of us.”

Yu Ran was taken aback for a moment. “Are we getting suits made?”

Lu Zexuan said, “Yes. There are certain dress requirements for attending the gala, so I’ll have him order a suit tailored to your measurements.”

Yu Ran nodded and followed the designer to get measured. Meanwhile, Lu Zexuan picked out the suit fabric. He quickly made his selection and brought it over to ask for Yu Ran’s opinion. “Black and white are too common and formal. I’ll wear charcoal gray, and you can wear light beige. How does that sound?”

Yu Ran said, “Sounds good. I don’t know much about suit styles. You decide.”

A few days later, the clothes were ready. Lu Zexuan took Yu Ran to try them on, and the tailored suits fit them both perfectly. Moreover, to their surprise, Yu Ran looked very elegant in a suit. With his fair skin, handsome face, and tall, slender figure, wearing a suit gave him a youthful and mature charm.

Seeing Lu Zexuan staring at him, Yu Ran’s ears turned slightly red. “Is it awkward?”

Lu Zexuan coughed lightly. “You look very good.”

Yu Ran looked up at Lu Zexuan. He also looked handsome in a suit. Sentinels were naturally tall and imposing, and wearing formal attire made him even more handsome and dignified. With a height difference of nearly 20 centimeters, wearing suits of the same series but different colors—Lu Zexuan with a necktie and Yu Ran with a bow tie—they looked very well-matched standing together.

White Eagle chirped in Lu Zexuan’s mind, “Why don’t you two turn left and go take some wedding photos? There’s a photography studio nearby.”

Lu Zexuan didn’t pay attention to the spirit body eager to get paired up. However, he suddenly felt that besides having a guide essence compatibility rate of 98% with Yu Ran, their heights and appearances seemed to match well? If Yu Ran didn’t object, when the military’s approval came through in a while, he would take Yu Ran to the Eagle Special Forces and officially make him his guide.

“Shall we leave now?” Yu Ran asked.

“Yes…” Lu Zexuan snapped back to reality and led Yu Ran out.

***

The Twin Palace was located in the most prosperous central area of the capital star. The entire palace consisted of two buildings, with classical and exquisite architecture, resembling two distant white castles facing each other. It was said that Mrs. Adeline had a twin brother who passed away due to illness. She built the Twin Palace in memory of her late brother.

Today, there was a charity gala, and with many guests arriving at the Twin Palace, traffic control was in place for the aerial parking lot, only allowing vehicles with invitations to park.

Lu Zexuan showed his invitation to the security guard, who let them through smoothly.

After parking the car, Lu Zexuan took Yu Ran to the eastern castle, where the banquet hall was located.

Yu Ran followed closely behind Lu Zexuan, looking a bit nervous. The two walked into the venue of the banquet side by side. The banquet hall was decorated extravagantly, with magnificent crystal chandeliers reflecting soft light on the marble floor. The guests in the hall were all dressed in their finest attire, chatting in small groups.

Almost everyone here was a high-ranking sentinel or guide, and amidst various bird and beast spirit bodies, the little white fox seemed extremely out of place.

Feeling a bit insecure, the little white fox curled up and buried its head.

Lu Zexuan looked at Yu Ran, who was visibly pale with nervousness, and whispered to him, “It’s okay, don’t be nervous. While the guests at the charity gala are all influential figures, they will give the host some face and won’t unnecessarily trouble you. If you feel pressured, you can let the little white fox retreat into the mental landscape to rest for a while.”

Yu Ran nodded, and the little white fox quickly disappeared into the mental landscape.

Noticing its absence, White Eagle felt a bit dejected and said in Lu Zexuan’s mind, “I’ll take care of the fox. Why did you make it hide?”

Lu Zexuan replied, “There are too many S-class sentinel spirit bodies here. It’s safer for it to hide.”

White Eagle responded with an “Oh” and didn’t protest further.

Suddenly, a disdainful snort came from a corner. “Look at that little guide, so scared that he doesn’t even dare to release his spirit body. Is he Yu Ran, who matches Captain Lu by over 98%?”

“Definitely him. Besides him, who else could Captain Lu bring here among the C-class guides he has? Who would have thought that Captain Lu, who has been single for so many years, and has been given so many high-level guide profiles by the association, would end up with a C-class guide with the weakest mental energy, and one who just turned 18?”

“Captain Lu has unique tastes.”

The senses of an S-class sentinel were the sharpest in the world, and Lu Zexuan heard every word of the whispered conversation in the corner.

Over the years, Mrs. Joseph had introduced him to many A-class or above guides as potential partners. There were actually quite a few A-class guides who wanted to match with him, but he had politely declined them all. Perhaps no one had expected that Lu Zexuan would choose a C-class guide with low mental energy, who had lost both parents, and who was completely incompatible in terms of both family background and ability.

Lu Zexuan’s gaze lightly swept in the direction of the corner. He didn’t know who brought their companion or family member and why they were so fond of gossip. White Eagle flew over to them, its sharp eyes fixed on the spirit bodies of the two people in the corner, and the two immediately shut their mouths and walked away voluntarily.

Lu Zexuan shielded Yu Ran behind him and whispered, “Stay close to me and ignore the gossip of those people.”

Yu Ran looked puzzled. “Huh? What gossip? I didn’t hear anything.”

“…If you didn’t hear anything, that’s fine.” Lu Zexuan looked at him with gentle eyes. “As a guide, your hearing isn’t so sharp, so it’s better not to hear.”

Yu Ran pinched his earlobe, smiling awkwardly. His smile was noticed by many people around him. They observed Yu Ran stealthily, thinking that although this little guide had low mental energy, he looked quite handsome. Wearing a suit, he looked naive and innocent, like a little white lamb thrown into a den of wolves, attracting a lot of attention.

Lu Zexuan protected him closely, fearing that this “innocent little lamb” would be devoured by the fierce predators at the banquet.

Just then, a beautiful red sparrow flew into the venue, accompanied by a majestic golden eagle—General Lu Tingyu and his wife, Madam Jiao Shuo, had arrived.

Lu Zexuan’s back stiffened slightly. He hadn’t expected his parents to attend the banquet. Weren’t they usually quite busy? Before he could adjust his expression, a lion carrying a cute stuffed cat briskly ran in—General Ottis of the Sunday Legion and Mrs. Joseph had also arrived at the banquet.

Not long after, the commander of the Snow Leopard Legion, accompanied by his beautiful white snow leopard, appeared at the door. The man wore a white military uniform, his tall and muscular figure exuding a strong sense of oppression.

Accompanying him was General Xie Chen of the Starlight Legion—the only female general among the four generals of the Federation. She wore a deep blue military uniform, walking with a heroic stride, her waist belted, her legs straight, and a high ponytail swaying rhythmically behind her, with a giant black shark floating beside her.

Yu Ran was beyond speechless. Yu Ran was about to burst. Why were there so many people here today?! So, who was the one looking for the chip?

Lu Zexuan also hadn’t expected so many important figures to be present today. He didn’t know many people on the business side, but on the military side, except for Marshal Qin who hadn’t come, all four high-ranking generals had actually gathered together, making it even livelier than the New Year’s gathering.

What could be the reason? Could it be related to the auction items for tonight’s charity gala?

Lu Zexuan turned his head to see Yu Ran standing beside him, looking completely at a loss, almost hanging his head to his chest, clearly very nervous. With so many S-class sentinel spirit bodies, all of them fierce beasts, Yu Ran, a C-class little guide, was easily frightened. Lu Zexuan discreetly led Yu Ran to a secluded corner.

Yu Ran’s face turned pale with nervousness, his voice starting to stutter, “I-I’ve never seen s-so many S-class spirit bodies before…”

Lu Zexuan comforted him in a low voice, “Don’t be afraid. Just follow me and sit quietly in the corner later, don’t wander around.”

However, he needed to move around—he couldn’t help but need to use the restroom, right?

To pave the way for himself to go to the restroom, Yu Ran licked his lips and said, “I’m a bit thirsty. Is there anything to drink here?”

Lu Zexuan glanced around and went to the self-service beverage area, pouring Yu Ran a glass of juice. Yu Ran took a few sips and gradually relaxed his expression. He leaned closer to Lu Zexuan and whispered, “Why are so many important people here tonight? Is there any special event?”

Lu Zexuan was also puzzled and speculated, “Maybe it’s related to the auction items? I don’t know either.”

Curious, Yu Ran asked, “The uniforms of those generals are all different colors. Are they from different legions?”

Lu Zexuan nodded, introducing, “The one in brown uniform over there is General Ottis of the Sunday Legion, whom I’ve seen before in Bay Park. The one in white uniform is General Raphael of the Snow Leopard Legion; the one in deep blue uniform is General Xie Chen of the Starlight Legion; the one in black uniform is my father, and next to him is my mother. I’ll introduce you to them later.”

Yu Ran was speechless. No, I don’t want to meet them. Caught off guard by his parents’ presence, was this banquet too lively?

It wasn’t convenient to move around after the banquet started, so why not take advantage of the fact that nobody was paying attention to him now and quickly go to plant the chip? Thinking of this, Yu Ran immediately furrowed his brows and said uncomfortably, “I need to use the restroom. Maybe I ate too much for dinner and drank juice, so my stomach feels a bit upset.”

Lu Zexuan stood up and said, “I’ll take you there.”

In front of the VIP seats, several generals were chatting with each other. Lu Zexuan led Yu Ran around from the back of the hall and arrived at the side restroom.

This banquet hall had five single restrooms side by side, each with a door lock, regardless of gender. Seeing that the door to restroom number 3 was open, Yu Ran decisively rushed in and locked the door behind him.

The moment he locked the door, his expression immediately turned cold, and his sharp gaze swept around. The restroom was luxuriously decorated, with marble walls and floors so smooth they could almost be used as mirrors. There was also a pleasant fragrance on the sink, with no place to hide anything.

Yu Ran looked up at the ceiling. It was a live one. Standing on the smart toilet, he gently pushed with both hands and indeed opened a hidden compartment on the ceiling.

At the moment when he placed the chip inside, he suddenly had a thought— Something’s not right.

While previous charity galas were grand, these generals were usually too busy with military affairs to attend. Today, not only did they come, but they all came together—when things were out of the ordinary, there must be something fishy. It definitely wasn’t as simple as Lu Zexuan guessed.

Could it be that this was a trap set in secret? The higher-ups knew that someone was going to exchange top-secret information here, so they came to the scene to catch them in the act? No matter how skilled someone was, they couldn’t possibly escape under the noses of so many high-ranking generals. Once he was exposed, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Yu Ran quickly stuffed the chip back into his pocket and sealed the compartment in the ceiling as it was. He looked at the window used for ventilation in the restroom, took off his suit jacket, put on special gloves, walked over to the window, opened it, and agilely leaped out—

There were many sentinel patrols outside, all A-class sentinels, tall and muscular, with spirit bodies all being fierce beasts. Tonight’s banquet was extremely important, with security measures stricter than those at the presidential palace.

The Nine-Tailed Fox enveloped Yu Ran the moment he jumped out of the window, with flames like its nine tails spreading out instantly, covering its master. The invisibility ability of the S-class spirit body automatically made Yu Ran disappear from the awareness of the surrounding sentinels. He used the special gloves to climb up the wall, quickly climbed along the wall, and in the blink of an eye, he climbed to the highest point of the castle—the bedroom of the owner of the Twin Palace.

The castle was ten stories high, and the top floor bedroom was the most luxurious. At this moment, the curtains were drawn, and Yu Ran looked inside through the gap in the curtains—

“Why did these generals give me so much face today and come to the banquet in person?”

“Could it be that they came for the invaluable red crystal necklace?”

“I don’t think so. The auction items haven’t been announced in advance.”

“Anyway, let’s be careful. We mustn’t let anyone discover the switch of the necklace.”

Inside the room, two identical orchid mantises were playing together. From their relationship, it seemed that the owner should be very close to them.

—Her twin brother, it turned out, hadn’t died after all.

Claiming to have died of illness externally, he had actually “faked” his death to escape and do some shady things in secret.

The security of the Twin Palace was extremely strict. Adeline siblings themselves were invisible guides. She had carefully checked the list of attendees for tonight and found no suspicious individuals. The two were talking in the bedroom on the top floor of the castle—she never expected that there would be an even more powerful invisible guide who dared to climb outside her bedroom window and eavesdrop on her secrets.