Chapter 109 Prelude
Mingyu's brain was working rapidly.
The most likely scenario was that the strange "wormhole" was deliberately left by Ming Zhilang and Zhao Ying to monitor Ming Zhengen's movements. However, this was Ming Zhilang's home, and if they truly wanted to monitor him, such a circuitous method wouldn't be necessary.
Unless there is still some kind of game between him and Ming Zhengen that has no outcome.
Mingyu tapped his forehead.
Before he could figure it out, Zhao Ying finally made a move.
She seemed to have received a message from someone, looked at the communication bracelet on her wrist, and then stood up.
"We'll see." She smoothed her hair and sighed. "The banquet is about to begin. I hope this one will be a success."
She pushed open the door at the back of the lounge.
Albin said nothing as he and Zhao Ying walked through the corridor behind the lounge. The windows on one side of the corridor were all covered with heavy curtains, not letting in a single ray of light. Mingyu collected his wandering thoughts and watched Zhao Ying pass through the identity verification process once more and push open the door to the room at the end of the corridor.
This is an empty room. Except for two single chairs in the middle, all the retro furniture in the room has been removed.
Fei Lun was sitting on one of the chairs. Ming Yu was startled when he saw him and almost thought that Fei Lun had really withdrawn from the competition due to health reasons.
He was obviously much thinner than before, his face was extremely pale, his expression was blank, and he turned a deaf ear to the sounds of the door opening and closing.
"Feren." Zhao Ying spoke first.
There was a hint of worry in her voice, and she saw the driver in front of her turn to look at her with a confused expression.
Then, Feren's eyes swept over Albin beside Zhao Ying.
Feren: “…”
His movements suddenly stopped, his eyes widened, and the dazed look on his face was like a fragile mask that suddenly broke.
"Ah——!" On the light screen, Feren was sitting on a chair in the room with a ferocious expression, howling in pain.
"You forced me." He suddenly jumped up from his seat like a wild beast that had lost its mind, pounced on Albin, and howled, "You forced us!"
At the same time, several dark yellow threads of mental force suddenly shot up from the seat opposite Feren.
Sitting on that chair was a tall, thin, middle-aged man, also wearing the uniform of the Third Legion. His face was covered in sweat and he looked exhausted.
Dark yellow threads of mental force quickly surged out from his body, quickly wrapped around Feren's body, and pressed him hard against the seat.
Feren struggled and yelled, "You forced us to participate in the Star Navigation Competition—"
More yellow mental threads wrapped around Feren's body, like spider silk spit out from a spider's mouth, tightly wrapping him. Feren seemed like a prey caught in a spider web, and his futile struggles became smaller and smaller.
And those mental threads not only fixed him firmly to the seat.
They spread across Feren's body, climbing up his neck, the sides of his face, brushing against his temples, and then... penetrating into his brain.
Feren let out a scream.
In front of the light screen, Mingyu shuddered violently.
His hands and feet were cold as he watched one mental thread after another penetrate into his skin from his temples and from Feren's forehead.
"I'm not sick..." Feren cried hoarsely, "You forced me to cheat... You forced me to cheat in the Star Navigation Competition..."
His voice gradually became weaker under the attack of more and more mental threads.
Those dark yellow mental threads are trying to tamper with his memory and cognition.
This is a kind of hypnosis that relies on special mental power, and it is also what Zhao Ying calls "treatment."
As more and more mental threads penetrated into his brain, Feren finally stopped howling and struggling. He raised his head slightly, and his expression returned to confusion again.
"Let's go." Zhao Ying turned her head and said to Albin, "It's not working. It seems that he can't leave the dinner tonight."
She sighed.
There was a lot of doubt online about Lieyang's withdrawal from the competition, and she had originally wanted to have Fei Lun show up at the banquet. Fei Lun's appearance and demeanor were very suitable for the role of "recovering from a serious illness."
But his mind was too unstable. Just seeing Albin's face made him go crazy again.
"I didn't expect that losing to Wucaibancai consecutively would be such a huge blow to him." She said a little disappointedly, "Xiaoyan is probably better at withstanding pressure."
*
As five o'clock approached, more people came into the banquet hall.
Waiters carrying trays were moving among the crowd, and well-dressed guests were gathering in groups of three or four, holding their wine glasses.
The Ming family invited many people to this banquet.
The party was attended not only by those who wanted to curry favor with the Ming family, but also by those Ming Zhilang wanted to curry favor with. For example, Ming Zhengen's old colleagues, who clearly had a large number of connections but had retired to live behind the scenes, were among them.
Now that Lieyang's limelight has been eroded, the Ming family's several ongoing projects are not progressing smoothly. The Third Legion's starship design technology is lacking, and its starship performance is threatening to be surpassed by the Second Legion...
Ming Zhilang must add some more powerful weight to the Ming family.
For example, the personal connections these people have.
This group of old people usually didn't want to show up in public. Ming Zhilang had invited them to the manor several times before, but he had always declined. Ming Zhengen also always opposed him and refused to introduce him to his true friends...
"I've left you enough." Every time he made a request, Ming Zhengen would simply respond coldly, "You don't need to bother my old friends who are enjoying their retirement."
Ming Zhilang frowned.
Power, money...how can there be enough of these things?!
He didn't understand his father's reasoning, but regardless, he had finally agreed to come to the Ming Family Manor, using his father's 300th birthday as an excuse. He had to take advantage of this rare opportunity to win their favor.
To this end, Ming Zhilang meticulously arranged the banquet. Considering the relationships between those individuals and his father, he even rehearsed a series of affectionate father-son interactions. With the banquet about to begin, Ming Zhilang's full attention was focused on this crucial dinner occasion. To prevent distraction, he temporarily set his communication bracelet to silent mode.
The same is true for Zhao Ying.
The two were making final preparations for the upcoming dinner. Ming Zhuo followed them, his eyes occasionally glancing at Ming Zhengen, who was sitting in a wheelchair not far away.
Ming Zhengen has lived alone in the small courtyard for decades. Ming Zhuo has no impression of him and is not close to him. He just feels that his grandfather is full of the decadent smell of old age... which makes him very uncomfortable.
In the banquet hall separated by a wall, Ming Yan was receiving guests on behalf of his parents.
"Yes, my parents are taking care of grandpa. The old man will be here soon..."
He was thinner than before, his face looked a little haggard, and he had a decent and friendly smile on his face.
Mingyu walked into the banquet hall and his eyes swept across Mingyan's face. He wondered if he had seen Feilun undergoing treatment and what he felt.
Mingyu still felt a little cold just thinking about the images that were fed back.
Even if Feren once wanted to kill him and Mu Baixing...even if Mingyu disliked Feren a lot.
But the tragic scene of the other party during hypnosis treatment still made him feel extremely uncomfortable.
Mingyu sat in a corner of the banquet hall and subconsciously rubbed the communication bracelet on his wrist.
Because of Feren, he slightly advanced his plan. Not only did he submit evidence of the Third Legion's indiscriminate killing of innocent people in order to seize resources, he also called the police again on the grounds of conducting illegal hypnosis treatment on awakened humans.
Feren's condition looked abnormal, and the surrounding environment was obviously not a regular hypnosis clinic.
Relying on mental power to hypnotize is a serious threat to humanity. Even though it involves the Third Legion, the special operations team of the Capital Star Police Department responded immediately.
Under normal circumstances, Ming Zhilang might have been the first to receive the police's notification through his own channels, but today...
Today, the Ming family was unable to respond in time.
Mingyu's eyes swept over Mingyan, and then saw Albin.
The captain of the Third Legion's First Squad had already returned to the banquet hall. He was standing not far from Ming Yan, not talking to anyone. He simply stood against the wall, his eyes shifting as he reached for his drink, and they happened to meet Ming Yu's.
After a one-second pause, the driver politely raised his glass to Mingyu.
Mingyu blinked.
He had met Albin several times before, and he had always been treated like air. Mingyu didn't know why he suddenly became so polite today.
The designer then raised his glass and responded perfunctorily.
Albin straightened up and seemed to want to say something, but the next second, he turned his gaze behind Mingyu.
Qi Wei, deputy commander of the Second Legion, and Mu Lian, dressed in a formal dress, entered the banquet hall in the last few minutes before the dinner began.
Mu Lian was holding a square gift box in her hand. It seemed that she had no intention of playing coy with Ming's parents and was planning to give the gift directly to Ming Zhengen at the banquet.
Mingyu looked surprised, not expecting someone from the Second Legion to show up. He exchanged a subtle glance with Mulian, then walked to the edge of the banquet hall, holding his drink, and found a corner to activate his communication bracelet.
"When we first came to the Central Star Region, Mr. Ming Zhengen helped the Mu family several times." A minute later, Mu Lian also found a corner and sent a communication.
The Mu and Ming families maintained a superficial peace, but everyone knew they were at odds. Tonight was the Ming family's banquet, and no one was trying to establish a connection with the Second Legion on Ming family territory.
Mulian enjoys the quietness.
"It seems the Ming family hasn't discovered anything yet." He had a blank expression, but he typed incredibly quickly, his fingers leaving a trail of afterimages. "Your social media account has gone viral."
What Mu Lian was talking about was of course Mingyu’s Star Network social account, which was officially certified as LUCE by the Star Navigation Competition.
The account had just been verified, and the first post it sent had nothing to do with LUCE himself or anything colorful, but rather a shortened account of the Third Legion's harm to innocent people and a long list of investigative evidence.
The relevant content was published within just one minute when it caused an uproar on Starnet.
The second update was about the Star Navigation Competition, and it turned out to be evidence that Feren was illegally imprisoned and hypnotized... The video was not labeled much, but someone had already recognized the voice of Zhao Ying, deputy commander of the Third Legion.
And those words that Feren said in the later part of the video, such as "you forced me" and "cheating"... were like throwing a large amount of boiling water into the already boiling oil pan.
The StarNet exploded even more violently.
Mu Lian knew all this because he knew Ming Yu's plan and immediately targeted Star Network. However, the Ming family and the people from all walks of life who came to attend the Ming family dinner were still kept in the dark for the time being.
The lights in the banquet hall gradually dimmed when Mulan sent the message.
In the darkness, the guests' eyes were focused on the podium at the front of the banquet hall.
This grand banquet is about to begin.
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