Chapter 3.2 - The Party

JiLing absent-mindedly took a sip of wine, thinking that this invite actually helped him ward off many of the persistent bugs that flocked to him.

Take this club, for example. The beauties that served them were all top-class goods that came from all over the galaxy. They could enjoy them freely here... If a noble didn’t like one of these lower class members, or if by chance they did find one they liked, they could come here and have a go any time.

This was how the private life of imperial nobles currently went.

After continuous evolution, the average life span of imperial aristocrats was now over 500 years old, three to four times that of ordinary people. Their long life span and extravagant lifestyle made them indulge in pleasure, regardless of male or female…

In addition to marriage between man and woman, marriage between the same sex was now fair and legal! With the current technology, gender was no longer an issue hindering human reproduction. As long as there was money, even the same sex could reproduce with the help of scientific advancements.

Through evolution, the differences in physical fitness between aristocratic men and women were growing smaller and smaller. The gender differences were also decreasing continuously. According to the latest statistics, the percentage of homo and hetero marriages among imperial aristocrats had remained roughly the same for many years.

On the contrary, the backwards ordinary civilians still maintained relatively primitive living conditions and habits. Therefore, heterosexual relationships were the mainstream.

Because ordinary civilians didn’t have enough resources, it was difficult for them to evolve, and there were still many differences between men and women. They usually didn’t have enough economic strength to undergo "gene fusion reproduction with the same-sex". That’s why they’d generally choose a more primitive and economical way of reproduction. In other words, a heterosexual marriage.

In Ji Ling's view, after solving the issues of physical differences and offspring reproduction, imperial aristocrats had gradually evolved into a higher race with near gender equity. However, this so called equality was only within their class, and not towards ordinary civilians, as they were high above them.

For the nobles, the gender of marriage partners wasn’t the issue, the class difference was.

This was Ji Ling’s problem; He was one of noble birth and beautiful appearance living in this kind of imperial society without gender boundaries and restrictions on private affairs. Even amongst an aristocracy full of handsome men and gorgeous women, Ji Ling was dazzling and eye-catching... He was especially popular, and men and women suitors flowed in endlessly.

Whenever he thought of this, Ji Ling was very grateful that he only had Emperor Sui in his heart…

And he knew that the Emperor would never like him back. Emperor Sui always scoffed at this imperial trash that was beneath worms. He was basically not even worth acknowledgement… Ji Ling felt like he was throwing money to reblog and promote his post. As long he got the benefits, it didn’t matter if he declared love to his idol 10,000 times a day. His idol wouldn’t really love him anyway.

As he was thinking that, there was suddenly a burst of malicious laughter beside him.

Ji Ling turned to look, and he saw Rhodes and several friends looking at the holographic projection in front of him. They were pointing fingers with sarcasm and ridicule.

In the projection was a very handsome young man with short black hair, green eyes, a high nose, thin lips, and a bright expression. His straight steel gray military uniform exemplified his heroic bearing, showing off his wide shoulders, narrow waist, and long slender legs… He was arguably, a very attractive person, but not at all respected by this group of rich kids.

That was the main shou of this book, Ning Yu.

Ji Ling shook his head with a sarcastic and contemptuous smile on his face, but sighed inwardly. No matter how excellent he was, as long as he was from an ordinary civilian background, he was doomed to unequal treatment by these nobles.

Rhodes smiled and whistled with a hint of peevishness in his eyes: "Have you seen him? That’s the rising star who’s been hot in the star domains recently. He’s been big since the battle in the Nadeau Galaxy with the Bugs. The lower beings adore him and think he’s especially standing up for them. "

Another rich kid, Saunter, laughed grimly: “Those lower beings just haven't seen the world. A mere S class evolver can make them so happy. Any more, and they’d raise him to the heavens."

Ji Ling’s eyebrows twitched. A mere S level evolver…? He’d better be careful with his big mouth. 

You had to know that even among imperial aristocrats, there were very few with an evolution level of S, and all of them were outstanding talents. Even with the current science and technology, people still couldn’t be directly upgraded to S class with an evolution agent. That’s why nobles also had to rely on their own talent and efforts.

It was said that only Emperor Jing Sui and Marshal Brandon, also known as the ‘Imperial War God,’ belonged to the most powerful level, SSS class. 

Ji Ling felt that Carlos may have hidden his strength, and was actually also at the SSS class of evolution. However, due to his high status and position, he hardly needed to do things himself, so no one knew his true strength.

In any case, although Ji Ling played the role of an aristocratic rich kid, he actually admired Ning Yu in his heart.

Those who didn’t use genetic evolution agents were called natural evolvers. All of them had extraordinary potential. Ning Yu was one of those high-level natural evolvers. He could only get to where he was today by relying on his own innate strength !

Take Ji Ling for example. Although both his parents were high-level evolvers, it was hard for them to produce offspring. They finally gave birth to the original with much difficulty. However, he only had a C class constitution. It was like two phoenixes gave birth to a chicken, and a third-rate disabled child was born to normal parents. It was all because of a gene mutation...

However, Ning Yu, an ordinary civilian, had become an S class evolver using only his own talent and strength, without help from external factors. Although he could also be considered a product of gene mutation, this kind of change was no easier than going from *rags to riches,  or a mortal cultivator ascending to become immortal. 

This group of rich kids who played with Ji Ling were weak trash who were all talk, with as much ability to face the world as a house made of straw.

They still had the face to laugh at Ning Yu.

A group of shining rich gold whales wasn’t as good as a hardworking F2P. How tragic. 

Tsk, tsk tsk.

Although Ji Ling thought this way, he didn’t abandon his character setting. Taking in their sentiment, he said contemptuously, "What’s the point of flattering a mere S class evolver?”

Of course, Ning Yu could kill trash like us in one blow. Still, we wouldn’t be content; As long as we had one breath remaining, we would continue to swear at him.

Everyone insulted Ning Yu, the star of tomorrow highly praised in the empire, from head to toe. Then, they began discussing the imminent return of Marshal Brandon and the army. It was likely His Majesty would personally greet them.

Rhodes looked at the tall, cold man in the projection with dark red hair and silver-gray pupils, a trace of fear showing on his face. He said in a small voice: “That guy’s lucky the marshal was willing to promote him. Otherwise, as a lower civilian, how else would he have had the chance to show off in the limelight?”

Everyone knew that Marshal Brandon belonged to the minority of nobles who treated civilians equally. As a military soldier, he created no distinctions between ordinary and noble civilians, just seeing people based on their ability as soldiers. He had always disliked these scaredy-cat playboys… But they didn’t dare slander Brandon as openly as Ning Yu. Instead, they did it very carefully.

Saunter comforted himself by saying, “So what if the marshal was willing to promote him? Anyway, once he’s done in the spotlight, who’d still remember that star of tomorrow? Just let the lower links be happy for a few days."

They nodded in deep agreement and stopped talking about this topic.

Ji Ling gave a thoughtful look. In the original book, Marshal Brandon was a devoted character. He ought to be on the battlefield getting along with NingYu, and gradually becoming attracted to him, right? Since they were coming back soon, the official plot was about to begin.

Ji Ling stayed there for a while, and took a deep breath. His nose filled with a strong smell. Rhodes and the others had already started doing some unspeakable things. His surroundings had gotten lively.

Ji Ling felt slightly dizzy and massaged his heavy head,  preparing an excuse to leave.

At that moment, a young nobleman in a black tuxedo passed by, and looked happily at Ji Ling in surprise, "Xiao Ling, so you came here as well.”

Ji Ling lifted his head, and recognized that this was one of his suitors, Nie Tianqi. He was persistent and difficult to deal with.

Ji Ling felt a little annoyed, and posed as he always did in a proud and cold way, ignoring him.

Nie Tianqi acted like he didn't care about Ji Ling's attitude just now. He sat down beside him with great composure. His black eyes stared at him with deep feeling: "I haven't seen you for several days, and you haven't returned my messages.”

Ji Ling twitched his eyebrow, and said coldly, "Go away. Don't bother me."

Nie Tianqi looked at the handsome and delicate side profile of the young man. His watery blue eyes looked darker than before in the dim light. His pink lips, stained with a beautiful color from drinking the fruit wine, became many times more attractive than before. Nie Tianqi’s Adam's apple bobbed a bit, and the expression in his eyes changed. He suddenly gave a lost expression, saying: “You’ll break my heart if you say that.”

Although he said that, Nie Tianqi's eyes were full of lustful expectation. He thought he had already shown enough patience to Ji ling, but Ji Ling had unfortunately been unmoved. Why not just use some forceful means to obtain him? After that, he could just coax him again. Ji Ling probably wouldn’t make a fuss about these kind of things outside anyway.  

Bedding someone was no big deal to nobles.

Nie Tianqi thought up til this point, and his smile deepened. He softly said: "Since we’ve met up here already, it’s not too much to ask for a drink together, right? I’ll leave after this cup of wine, okay? "

Ji Ling just wanted to get rid of this guy as soon as possible. He didn't want him pestering him for half a day like last time. Thinking it was just a glass of wine, he paused and said, "So you’ll leave after this?”

Nie Tianqi looked greedily at his beautiful eyes, slowly nodding, and raised his hand to set the glass in front of Ji Ling.

Ji Ling didn't think much of it, and stretched out his hand, ready to take the glass...

Nie Tianqi's heart beat faster. He looked at Ji Ling intensely and saw that he was about to touch the wine he was holding. Suddenly, a strong force knocked the glass in his hand to the ground with a crash.

Glistening wine spilled all on the floor and soon seeped into the carpet, leaving only pieces of glass all over. The fragments glimmered faintly in the dim light...

Nie Tianqi flew into a rage, wanting to say ‘Who did that?!’ As a result, he looked up to find Carlos' deep cold eyes and suddenly shuddered. His blood turned cold with fear. He stammered out a few words: "Your Excellency, Carlos..."

Ji Ling looked up in a daze and saw Carlos standing there with his palm still in mid-air. Obviously, he was the one who knocked over Nie Tianqi’s glass just now.

How come he was here…again!

Translator Notes

*鲤鱼跃龙门 (carp jumping over dragon’s gate) stems from an ancient legend about carp living in the turbid environment of the Yellow River. Due to the yellow muddy waters, only carp could thrive there. They grew strong yellow scales due to the environment and in spring, they would swim against the current and try to jump over this part of the gorge at the top of a waterfall called ‘dragon’s gate.’ Since the ancients didn’t see any carp above the waterfall, they imagined the golden carp who jumped over, ascended to heaven as a dragon.
[Okay, I seldom add T/Ns for proverbs because I’m lazy I feel like I can capture the idea well enough with an English idiom, but this one was lacking XD]