novelraw Chapter 901: Coming-of-Age Ceremony
Chapter 901: Coming-of-Age Ceremony
At Kulsaval International Airport.
Here sits the world’s most expensive private jet, a Boeing 757.
Even ground crew and flight crew would stop and stare at such a plane…it’s a symbol of status and power. Generally, such planes would have a company name or family surname painted on them to show off their considerable wealth. However, this plane had nothing but its serial number.
Extraordinarily mysterious.
This Boeing 757 has been parked at the airport for half a month. The daily parking fees and crew salaries alone probably cost more than 70,000 yuan.
A day’s cost is equivalent to many people’s yearly salary.
Many second-tier bigwigs’ private jets are actually managed by professional companies; otherwise, they would feel the pinch of tens of millions spent on maintenance every year. But the owner of this private jet doesn’t seem to care about such expenses.
The plane has a captain, a co-pilot, four flight attendants, a chef, and a security personnel. But the security personnel is not to ensure the safety of the plane, but to monitor these crew members…At this moment, the private jet’s staff are waiting anxiously.
These crew members are all veterans, each selected through layers of screening. Flight attendants must be capable, beautiful and graceful, and maintain their weight; the captain is required to have more than 12,000 hours of flight experience.
But they are still very nervous. Because no one told them who they were waiting for, nor were they allowed to ask.
Furthermore, all crew members have signed non-disclosure agreements. They must conceal all their experiences and…live anonymously for 10 years.
All staff have had their communication devices confiscated, with security personnel specifically responsible for managing them. In compensation, they receive unimaginable remuneration.
Now, the captain and flight attendants are waiting with legally permitted firearms on the plane.
This is to prevent any unusual behavior among them…
Under these circumstances, anyone would be nervous; the owner of this plane is clearly extraordinary!
More importantly, since the private jet was purchased, it has never had a passenger.
The crew only receive orders to go to India, Nepal, France, the Netherlands…to stand by.
Every time they go to a place, they just wait quietly, waiting for a passenger who may or may not come. The plane takes off and lands very frequently, but their job seems to be always on standby, without needing to do anything else.
The Boeing 757 flies endlessly, but they haven’t even seen a passenger, as if they are serving air.
At one point, they even doubt their jobs. Are they really crew members? Will anyone ever ride this plane?
Those empty flights come and go, as if fuel is free. However, they’ve worked on this plane for a long time, and even without passengers, their salaries are still paid, and there are even bonuses…
The next moment.
They see a convoy of black cars approaching. The car doors open, and Qing Chen, wearing sportswear, looks like a student going to school. The captain and flight attendants are stunned. It’s him!
Master of Daybreak, Qing Chen!
In this world, how could there still be people who don’t know him!
He’s always on the hot search!
Only at this moment do they understand that they have been flying around in the sky, just waiting for one person. This entire private jet is for this one person only.
Yes, there have been news reports in China about the massacre on Mount Everest and the purge in Amsterdam…these tracks all match their flights.
Therefore, wherever Qing Chen goes, they will be ordered to fly there and wait, whether Qing Chen uses them or not, as long as he needs them, they will be there.
This is the exclusive service provided by Hu Family Group for Qing Chen.
While Hu Xiaoniu is lavishly spending money taking Knight reserves everywhere, Hu Family Group also has a dedicated team serving Qing Chen: even if he doesn’t use them, this team will always be there.
Not only the crew, but also the security houses established by Hu Family Group worldwide with retired domestic intelligence personnel, and two sports cars airlifted by transport planes…Qing Chen has never used them, but Hu Xiaoniu has been preparing them for him…
Qing Chen said he really doesn’t need them, Hu Xiaoniu said, this is the treatment a major shareholder of Hu Family Group deserves.
Hu Family Group has now become one of the world’s largest multinational corporations.
Its business involves military industry, Cybernetic Limbs, drug research and development, virtual world development, chemicals, agriculture, new energy, automobile manufacturing, Airship manufacturing, semiconductors, aerospace…
Too many.
In places once colonized by Roosevelt Kingdom and Future Organization, after Kunlun destroyed them, Hu Family Group’s presence would immediately appear, and behind Hu Family Group is the Qing Family of the Inner World.
Hu Dacheng, Hu Xiaoniu’s father, is a very clever man. He didn’t get complacent but transferred 70% of the equity to Qing Chen for 1 yuan, 22% to Kunlun, keeping only 5% for himself and 2% for Hu Xiaoniu.
Hu Family Group is a publicly listed company, so any equity change exceeding 5% must be announced.
When this equity transaction was announced, it immediately topped the hot searches. Many people were puzzled as to why Hu Dacheng did this, but his answer was: A year ago, his Hu Family Group had a market value of only 70 billion yuan, but now he only holds 5% of the equity, worth 170 billion yuan.
And that’s in less than a year.
In Hu Dacheng’s view, business is not about making all the money yourself, but about knowing how to choose. If you only want to make money, you won’t make money.
He is still the chairman of the board of Hu Family Group, managing the company for everyone. He still eats in the staff canteen and still lives a peaceful life, seemingly no different.
Only one thing is different: many of Hu Family Group’s businesses have begun to shift from the surface to the underground, continuing quietly.
After the equity transfer was completed, many media reporters wanted to contact the new major shareholder, Qing Chen, but Qing Chen seemed to have evaporated, and no one could find him.
Other group chairmen have more or less accepted some interviews. Bigwigs will give reporters some red envelopes and generous travel expenses to get better press coverage.
But Qing Chen seems to have no need for such fame.
This Master of Daybreak doesn’t seem to be a person living in the mundane world; he is more like a god living in another world, unreachable. But the problem is that almost all the current hot topics in China can’t avoid him.
Wealth, power, strength, appearance, wisdom, personal charm—these things seem to have suddenly come together in one person, and he’s single. Qing Chen’s super topic fan count on Weibo is always ranked number one.
Reporters feel itchy if they don’t report on such a person.
So, reporters have to pay to get information from Qing Chen’s fan club president, ‘Big Rich Man,’ such as Qing Chen’s scandals, the battles he’s experiencing, what kind of person Qing Chen is?
At first, Big Rich Man’s asking price was quite reserved, but later, she started an auction online. The last time Big Rich Man appeared, she sold a photo of Qing Chen for 1.2 million yuan, along with the detailed process of his recent battle in the Virtual Realm, and even an embellished account of his thoughts…
Yesterday midnight, Big Rich Man appeared again. She sold a detailed news story for 3.2 million yuan: At this time, the news of Qing Chen and He Jinqiu killing an Inner World Demi-God is on the top of the hot search.
However, Qing Chen’s fans are beginning to question why this fan club president keeps profiting from their idol?
Then, Big Rich Man posted her donation receipts.
This Yi didn’t use the money for online dating as before but donated it all to the Hope Project. Now, there are more than 30 Hope Primary Schools named after Qing Chen…
Big Rich Man stated: Qing Chen asked her to do this.
Now, the moment the four flight attendants see Qing Chen, they feel that the world has brightened, as if all the waiting has been worthwhile.
Earlier, they were thinking, who’s the rich person with money to burn, buying a private jet without using it, a fool with too much money. But now that they find out that the owner is Qing Chen, they immediately find everything reasonable.
After Qing Chen gets off the car, the first thing he sees is not the beautiful flight attendants, but the security personnel holding guns behind them.
This is his instinctive reaction, his combat instinct.
The captain says nervously, “Hello, I’m the captain of this plane. It’s a pleasure to serve you. We will arrive at our destination in 12 hours…” Qing Chen turns to him and smiles, “Don’t be nervous, I won’t eat people.”
After saying this, he walks into the cabin and sits down, quietly waiting for takeoff.
A flight attendant kneels in front of Qing Chen in the most elegant posture she can manage and asks with a smile, “Mr. Qing, it’s 00:42, would you like any midnight snacks?”
“No, I don’t eat anything.”
“Would you like a drink? The plane has 50-year-old Yamazaki Whiskey, 1957 Bowmore Whiskey, distilled in 1957 and bottled in 2011, and 1907 White Snow Champagne ‘Silent Ship’…”
“Thank you, I don’t drink. I brought my own water,” Qing Chen says with a smile. His current identity means he can no longer drink water of unknown origin, or eat unknown food.
It’s not that his identity is so noble, but it depends on how much of a threat he poses to his enemies.
The flight attendant smiles and leaves. When she returns to the galley, the other three flight attendants immediately whisper, “How was it? How was it?”
She shakes her head disappointedly, “He didn’t give me a chance to serve him at all. He doesn’t seem to need anything.”
This expensive private jet seems to be just a means of transportation for him, without any added value.
However, just as the plane closes its doors, Qing Chen suddenly walks into the galley. He looks at the security personnel first, and the security personnel immediately stands up, “Leader, everything is ready.”
“Is auto-takeoff confirmed?”
“Confirmed, Qing Family’s technology.”
Any plane in the Outer World has an autopilot mode, but it is limited to automatic landing and automatic flight. Automatic takeoff is not possible, relying on technology brought from the Inner World by Hu Family Group.
Qing Chen nods. He knocks on the cockpit, “Activate autopilot mode, then follow me.”
After speaking, he turns and walks towards the aft. The security personnel opens the bathroom door for him, but Qing Chen steps out and disappears into the transparent ripples on the bathroom wall.
The crew are all stunned. What’s going on? How did he suddenly disappear?
And, didn’t you buy this plane to ride on it? If you have this ability to travel through space, why buy this plane?
But the security personnel says to them, “Follow me.”
The crew members go in one by one. Behind the door is the bookstore in Zheng City. Lu Yuan is sitting leisurely in a chair reading. He sees Qing Chen and immediately teases him, “You’re really rich now, spending 800 million yuan on a plane?”
As he speaks, someone from the bookstore closes the Key Gate.
Qing Chen thinks for a moment and says, “This is the stage of the game, more probing is always right. As for money, it’s just numbers.”
At this time, he turns to the crew members, “Please wait here for a while, at most 8 hours, there will be results before the plane lands.”
Lu Yuan stands up, “Let’s go, to Whale Island.”
“Wait, I’ll change my clothes,” Qing Chen says, “Boss He is so particular, attending his funeral, I need to dress formally, otherwise he’ll dislike it.”
Lu Yuan falls silent.
…
…
Whale Island is slowly sailing on the Pacific Ocean. The waves outside are hitting its cliffs, splashing several meters high. Inside Whale Island, the Time Travelers are all wearing neat school uniforms, and everyone’s mood is a little low.
“Do you think my tie is straight?” a boy asks the girl next to him.
“It’s straight.”
The Time Travelers are dressed impeccably, expressing their importance to this matter…they are attending a memorial service.
The current Time Traveler Academy is far from what it used to be. Everyone has become a true cultivator. They have Eternal Heaven Fruit, Jingshan Tea, Purple Orchid Star, and almost everyone has grown into a C-level cultivator at an extremely fast rate, and some are even higher.
But more importantly, they received systematic combat training here, and finally became warriors.
They learned how to use firearms, and on Whale Island, where ammunition is unlimited, they even trained dozens of sharpshooters skilled in using sniper rifles.
When the firearms class opened, almost all the students wanted to be sharpshooters…because the person they admired is a god in this field.
Zheng Yuandong has now resigned as Observer and is concentrating on training these students on Whale Island. He took his students to destroy a total of 27 overseas military bases belonging to Roosevelt Kingdom and Future Organization, just for training.
Everything seems to be developing in a good direction, but when Zheng Yuandong thinks of the dangers and disasters that are about to come, he still feels that they are not fast enough.
At this time, the Key Gate at the entrance of Whale Island opens, and a young man in a black suit and white shirt walks in, slowly walking towards the Qingshan Cliff on Whale Island.
When the students see him, they immediately quiet down and stop in their tracks.
When he passes by the students, they bow slightly, “Hello, young dean.”
After he walks away, the students talk in low voices, “The young dean and Boss He killed a Demi-God in West Continent together.”
“They also destroyed West Continent’s Silver City.”
Rumors about Qing Chen have not stopped even after he went to West Continent.
Especially, Time Travelers killing an Inner World Demi-God, which in the students’ opinion, is simply impossible. But Qing Chen did it.
Now the Agricultural Academy has been renamed War Academy, and the magnificent war fortress continuously provides students with various cultivation resources. When Zheng Yuandong intentionally retreated behind the scenes, Qing Chen became the spiritual leader in the hearts of all students.
He himself didn’t realize this. The memorial service begins.
There is no music, no flowers, and no mourning; everything proceeds in silence.
Qing Chen stands quietly in the front row, watching Yu Cheng and Jiu Ran of Nine Provinces personally carry the wooden coffin and sink it into the dug grave. He didn’t place He on Qingshan Cliff but at the foot of Qingshan.
Because Zheng said, He was actually a very lonely person.
The wooden coffin is covered with soil, and the tombstone is simple: a black and white photo. In the photo, He is holding a black scepter, wearing a well-tailored gray suit, and smiling brightly.
Below the photo is his name, He Jinqiu.
After the burial, Zheng Yuandong looks at Qing Chen, “You were the one who fought alongside him in his last moments, and you were the one who brought his body back. Say something to everyone.”
Qing Chen turns to the Time Travelers behind him.
Some have come of age and have joined Guardians’ Union or Kunlun.
Some have not yet come of age and are still at school learning combat skills. Some are even very young.
Qing Chen is silent for a moment and says, “Consider this your coming-of-age ceremony.”
“In wartime, your adulthood doesn’t begin at 18, but from the moment the people who protected you, the people who fought alongside you, die. That’s when it begins.”
“From that moment on, you must learn to take up arms and fight those enemies. You must learn how to protect your comrades-in-arms, because war doesn’t care how old you are.”
“When Roosevelt Kingdom’s Air Fortress arrives in East Continent, we will all embark on a life-or-death march; we have no choice.”
“Don’t grieve too long for He’s death; he just did what he should have done. Now it’s our turn.”
Qing Chen only says this much. After speaking, he leaves Whale Island.
The students disperse calmly. They go back to class, back to training, back to cultivation.
Everyone seems to be accumulating some kind of power.
Three hours later, the news that Boeing 757 was suddenly attacked by two NATO fighter jets during its flight made headlines in various countries. Currently, the plane has crashed in Poland, and it is not yet known whether there are any survivors.
When Qing Chen sees this news, he suddenly falls into deep thought.
He guesses that someone has infiltrated them, but he cannot yet determine who it is.