It had been raining for almost a whole day, and it finally stopped in the evening.

Ling Pingan yawned lazily and looked at the pedestrians coming and going outside the door. He looked at his cat and said, “Little one…”

“How many days have we not opened for business?”

“It's been three days, am I right?

Meow!

The kitten purred softly.

Ling Pingan also sighed.

He had earned enough money for utilities last month!

He scratched his head and began to hesitate whether he should continue to apply for the 'University Student Entrepreneurs.h.i.+p Subsidy' next month.

He had no choice. The bookstore had too little business.

It might seem a little shameless if he applied again.

It was equivalent to blatantly asking the country for money!

“How about…” Ling Pingan looked at his pet. “Let's not apply…”

His monthly allowance was more than seven thousand when he thought about it carefully.

They were enough for his living expenses.

There was no pressure at all as long as he didn't go out and pay for the IQ tax.

Meow!

The kitten purred softly.

“Face the gale!” The phone rang.

Ling Pingan picked it up and looked at it.

400100, the number of the Federal Committee for the Children of Meritorious Contributors.

His expression was a little gloomy.

“Again?” He frowned.

However, he was gaining benefit from them and couldn't do anything about it. He could only laugh bitterly and pick up the phone.

“h.e.l.lo…”

“h.e.l.lo…” a sweet female voice came from the other end of the phone. “Young Master Ling, I'm Qin Keqing, the personal secretary of Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess Rouan…”

“I spoke to you the last time…”

“Oh…” Ling Pingan recalled that there was indeed something like that? Thus, he asked, “Is there anything, Secretary Qin?”

“It's like this…” she smiled and said, “Her Royal Highness, the Crown Princess Rouan, and his majesty, the Emperor, are concerned about the descendants of the empire's meritorious deeds…”

“They plan to hold a meritorious deed descendants' fellows.h.i.+p party in the capital in the middle of next month…”

“At that time, her Imperial Highness, the Crown Princess, and His Majesty will personally come…”

“I wonder if you have the time?”

Ling Pingan instantly felt a headache coming on as he listened.

Fellows.h.i.+p party?

The terrifying memories surfaced in his mind one after another.

A boring c.o.c.ktail party…

Beautiful women…

The n.o.ble descendants who spoke of 'small goals' and 'trivial matters'…

Also, there were many dazzling luxury cars at the entrance.

Of course, the most important thing was the superficial looks in their eyes.

In any case, Ling Pingan had an awfully bad impression of the fellows.h.i.+p party!

Comparisons and covetousness were everywhere.

Everyone was like a peac.o.c.k with its tail open, surrounding those few focal figures.

More importantly, the food at the fellows.h.i.+p party was terrible!

The cold food that tasted like plastic…

Gla.s.ses of old wine that would make one drunk if they smelled it…

And the smell of cosmetics in the air…

And that was only the fellows.h.i.+p party in the Guangnan Governor District!

Who knew what the fellows.h.i.+p party in the capital would be like?

Anyway, Ling Pingan would avoid this kind of thing as much as possible.

So, he immediately refused. “Please thank His Majesty and the Crown Princess for their kind intentions…”

“I'm flattered…”

“It's just that…” he thought for a moment and said, “I have some things to deal with here…”

“Please forgive me, Secretary Qin…”

He hung up the phone as if he were running for his life after saying that.

Then, he patted his chest.

“It's so scary…” he looked at his pet with lingering fear, “It's too scary!”

A fellows.h.i.+p party?

Give him a break!

It was purely a waste of time and energy.

In the end, he even had to come back hungry…

It was too tragic!

It was too horrible to look at!

Anyway, Ling Pingan was determined not to go there a second time after going there once, when he was sixteen!

Was it interesting?

Listening to other people bragging!

Then, looking at the group of people and examining him with the same look as when they shop in the supermarket.

He wasn't an item for sale!

He also refused to become an item for sale!

Meow!

The little one jumped into her master's arms and rubbed against him intimately.

He seemed to agree with that much!

Yes…

How could a lowly mortal be worthy of his master?

Qin Keqing listened to the sound of hanging up the phone…

Her pretty face gradually turned cold.

It was the second time!

That was the second time he had rejected her!

Moreover, he had rejected her with incomparable decisiveness!

Even His Majesty the Emperor and Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess couldn't let him come to the capital?

That man was way too arrogant!

At this moment, the red phone on the office desk rang.

Qin Keqing immediately grabbed it and said in an extremely respectful tone, “This humble subject is Qin Keqing…”

“Yes…”

“Young Master Ling refused…” Qin Keqing lowered her head with incomparable respect. “Yes… he said that he had something to deal with…”

“This humble subject is guilty…”

“Your Highness… Do you want this humble subject to go personally?”

“Okay… this humble subject understands…”

Qin Keqing wiped the sweat from her forehead after hanging up the phone.

Then, she looked at the computer screen, which was covered by the two big words 'top secret'.

“What the h.e.l.l is going on?” She thought.

Last month, everything about this descendant with an Cla.s.s Meritorious Contributors was still accessible.

But now…

Everything about him was already top secret.

And it was the highest level of top-secret!

The Federal Committee for the Children of Meritorious Contributors of Jiangcheng City had once wanted to visit him personally.

In the end, a ban notice was thrown on their face.

The Blackguard announced that any unauthorized interference would be a 'threat to national security!

Even the Federal Committee for the Children of Meritorious Contributors.

They could not meet him without approval and permission.

And the authority to approve that was in the hands of the Blackguard's Commander-In-Chief.

That was too abnormal!

What was even more abnormal was the Crown Princess's att.i.tude.

The fellows.h.i.+p party wasn't part of the plan as far as Qin Keqing knew.

The Federal Committee for the Children of Meritorious Contributors hadn't held such a national fellows.h.i.+p party for a long time.

Similar fellows.h.i.+p parties had been organized and held by local organizations in the past thirty years.

The Federal Committee for the Children of Meritorious Contributors was only responsible for one thing, coordinating and arranging the employment, marriage, and childbirth of the children of meritorious service throughout the country and providing financial subsidies.

The Crown Princess suddenly took the lead and wanted to hold a national a.s.sociation for the Children of Meritorious Contributors.

That was surprising.

What was even more surprising was…

It seemed that he was the only person who the Crown Princess had personally invited after the file was cla.s.sified as top-secret Cla.s.s Meritorious Contributors.

The others had received the invitations sent by the Federal Committee for the Children of Meritorious Contributors in the form of an email notification.

He was the only one. She had personally called to invite him, and he had even cleanly rejected them!

The reason for his rejection was 'I still have things to deal with'.

That was too unexpected.

Things to deal with?

What matter was more important than coming to the capital?

That was an honor that many people dreamed of!

Qin Keqing couldn't help but sigh.

“Her Highness the Crown Princess probably won't give up…” she thought.

She was clear about her monarch's personality as the personal secretary of the Crown Princess Rouan.

She had to do whatever she wanted to do!

A person with a resolute personality was not like a woman. Even many men might not be as resolute and decisive as her royal highness the Crown Princess.

Otherwise, she would not be the regent after the late Emperor pa.s.sed away.

Although the current royal family ruled from the bottom and never interfered with the affairs of the commoners.

However, there were still a lot of matters concerning the royal family.

Just the normal foreign affairs activities every year were already challenging.

Not to mention that the committees directly led by the royal family were the hubs that directly connected the metropolitan territory with the independent kingdoms.

The enormous Federal Empire could be maintained for three hundred years without being divided.

The most important link was the royal family other than the great unified cultural tradition and realistic interests that had existed since ancient times.

The motto of being loyal to the emperor was still the mainstream motto in the empire.

After all, Emperor Taizu was a good example. He officially announced that 'the heavens listen to us, we listen to the people' and linked the source of the legitimacy of the monarchy to the people.

Thus, the emperor became the son of the people.

He was ordered by the heavens and became ordered by the people.

But it provided extremely strict requirements for the royal family in return.

The royal family had to act by the expectations of the people since they were taking orders from the people.

And the committees directly led by the royal family were windows to show their image to the outside world.

And all the committees had undergone drastic reforms under her leaders.h.i.+p since the Crown Princess was a regent.

It had completely changed the image of the royal family.

She wouldn't have wanted to break the tradition and cause a const.i.tutional crisis if it weren't for the fact that she was a woman.

Perhaps, she could rule the world as the Empress!

Qin Keqing stood up as she thought of that. She walked to the window, pulled open the curtains, and looked downstairs.

The Crown Princess's car was slowly driving out of the courtyard.

“As expected…” Qin Keqing thought, “His Highness will not compromise easily…”

The direction of that car was heading to the residence of the Commander-In-Chief of the Blackguard!

Ling Pingan took his phone and ordered a takeaway.

He was still a little shaken up.

So he just placed the phone in the drawer.

He refreshed the author backstage on his computer with a deep sigh.

Twenty-five…

The speed of the increase was gratifying!

That speed made him feel at ease for a new account.

So, he crossed his legs in satisfaction and turned on the television.

It was already seven o'clock.

It was the time for the news, and he was used to watching the news.

A place that looked like a trench appeared on the television screen.

A few large howitzers appeared in front of the camera.

Some soldiers in military uniforms were nervously preparing in the trench.

One sh.e.l.l after another was pushed into the barrel of the cannon.

The camera zoomed forward. One armored group after another was rolling forward on the vast field. There were at least hundreds of tanks.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The cannon started to roar. One sh.e.l.l after another was fired, and steel sh.e.l.ls flew everywhere.

Ling Pingan watched with his mouth wide open.

The voice-over began to appear at that time. “Everyone, what you see on the screen is the border between the Northern Tianzhu Gonghe and the Southern Tianzhu Kingdom…”

“It is reported that the Northern Tianzhu Gonghe has accused the Southern Tianzhu Kingdom of being responsible for the many tragedies that happened at its border a month ago…”

“And the Southern Tianzhu Kingdom has refuted the accusations of the Northern Tianzhu Gonghe, claiming that this was caused by terrorists in the Northern Tianzhu territory…”

Ling Pingan looked at it and sighed. “They're fighting again…”

The Tianzhu subcontinent was similar to the Kunlun States from what he remembered.

A large number of countries were fighting each other.

There would be a piece of news almost every year.

“Why can't they put on a war?” Ling Pingan shook his head.

What was so good about war?

He couldn't figure it out!

Couldn't they sit down and discuss it if anything happened?

Unfortunately…

He could only sigh in the bookstore.