Dragon Raja 5; Chapter 178: Leviathan’s Song (15)

Dragon Raja 5

Lu Mingfei’s eyes were dull and his mouth was wide open, as if his jaw would fall and hit his feet at any moment.

Even the timid kid who grew up in a second- or third-tier city in southern China had heard of Peter the Great and others, but to him, those people were mere busts in paintings, far away and unrelated to a commoner like him. But last night, he had slept in the same bed that a great emperor or princess had slept in, sharing the same bed after centuries of separation. Just thinking about it was a bit erotic!

But he still couldn’t understand the blood relationship between Zero and the Romanov family. In fact, Zero had already told him clearly, but understanding still required some historical knowledge.

Historically, Elizabeth I was unmarried and therefore presumably childless, but rumors persisted that she had secretly married her favorite, Razumovsky. Upon ascending the throne, Empress Catherine II was deeply troubled by this secret, as a child by Razumovsky would have been the legitimate heir to the Romanov dynasty. Therefore, she dispatched her chancellor to meet Razumovsky with a humble handwritten note, addressing him respectfully as “Your Majesty.” Razumovsky, once at the pinnacle of power, understood the Tsarina’s intentions and retrieved his marriage certificate from a safe and burned it in front of the chancellor.

The handsome Ukrainian man, who once worked as a singer in a village church, said with a tone of experience, “I was once Her Majesty’s singer, and I was simply favored by her. Now, I have no documents to prove my relationship with Her Majesty.”

Catherine II was pleased with this and spared the “secret husband of the former tsar” and his children, who were Zero’s ancestors.

“Uncle and aunt are not at home?” After the shock ended, Lu Mingfei immediately showed an expression of “I am a sensible child even though this is my first visit.”

“They passed away when I was very young, and I live here alone. I have a housekeeper, a chef, and two cats,” Zero said. “The place you’re going to is a military restricted area. No one can enter that area without a special permit. I don’t know why it’s a restricted area yet, so I’ll have to use some high-level connections to find out.”

Lu Mingfei had already given Zero the coordinates. For some reason, he felt like he had nothing to hide from her, but Zero insisted they go to Moscow first. It turned out the area had been designated a restricted area. Could it be that the secrets buried there had already been discovered by the Russian government? What kind of high-level connections would be needed to uncover that secret?

Zero finished writing the letter, sealed it in a sky blue envelope, poured some heated sealing wax on it, picked up the copper seal with his name on it from the side, stamped it, and then rang the small bell at hand.

The door opened, and the well-dressed butler hurried over to Zero’s side. He was the one who had driven to pick up Lu Mingfei and his group last night. He nodded slightly at Lu Mingfei, then took the letter from Zero.

“You hand this letter to Mr. Defense Minister personally and tell him that Zero Razumovsky Romanov wants to invite him to dinner.” Zero said calmly.

“Yes, Your Highness!” The butler bowed and walked out of the study with his head held high.

    ***

Fallen leaves were fluttering as a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow drove along the road along the Volga River. Most of the pedestrians on the street were in a hurry, but there were also old men in coats standing by the river, gazing at the flock of black swans on the river from afar.

The Soviet Union, a behemoth nation, had ended more than two decades earlier, yet its legacy remained everywhere in the city, with its castle-like buildings, towering monuments, vast squares, and fountains resembling artillery arrays. Occasionally, traces of the Romanov dynasty appeared, too, with its colorful churches and marble statues of St. George slaying the dragon.

This was a nostalgic city.

Zero drove the car herself, wearing a straight-leg mink hat and a pewter-gray wool trench coat. If she hadn’t sat upright, barely above the steering wheel, she’d have looked a bit like a lady. Lu Mingfei, donning a coarse wool hunting suit and a peaked cap, sat in the passenger seat. Chu Zihang was left at home, served his thirteen-course dinner by two butlers and twelve maids.

“Wouldn’t it be too conspicuous?” Lu Mingfei shrank his head and tried to lower the brim of his hat to cover his face.

He understands EVA’s global network search routine too well. As long as you flash in front of a camera, even if it is a camera connected to IFI and it is not filming, it will identify you based on features such as pupil distance and bone structure that are difficult to modify even with plastic surgery.

Humanity has produced hundreds of billions of cameras, especially in major cities. These cameras are like countless eyes, forming a ubiquitous network. Moscow is not like the vast Mongolian steppes, where driving a vintage Rolls-Royce here will earn you a few more shutters from passersby.

“This is Russia, a country once administered by the KGB. Although there’s no Kaguya to protect you, EVA’s tentacles don’t work very well here.” Zero said calmly, “But the academy has a branch here, so it’s right to be cautious. The Russian branch is very elite, their style is very traditional, and they don’t rely much on the Internet.”

Lu Mingfei’s heart skipped a beat. He wondered if what Zero meant by “very traditional style” was what he understood. A man in a gray-black windbreaker and a baseball cap suddenly dragged you into an abandoned factory and threatened to shove a red-hot iron into your mouth if you didn’t tell him the password… It seemed normal for this kind of thing to happen in a city like this.

The car moved away from the center of Moscow, and the trees along the way became more and more dense. It was still early autumn, and most of the trees were still dark green, but the tall birch trees had begun to turn yellow. The fields with a mixture of yellow and green looked like Van Gogh’s paintings, rough, unrestrained and desolate.

“If we want to meet the Minister of Defense, shouldn’t we go to the Kremlin?” Lu Mingfei was a little surprised.

“He invited us to meet him at his home in the suburbs,” Zero said. “You’ll understand when you see him.”

After leaving Moscow, they drove for about an hour before entering a hilly area. The road became increasingly narrow, and there were no more houses on the roadside. Occasionally, a soldier would man a roadblock. But they didn’t need to hand over a pass or anything; they would open the roadblock as soon as they saw their license plate from a distance.

There was a yellow birch forest in front of them. The unpeeled birch trees form a courtyard, and the crisp sound of chopping wood echoes in the courtyard.

 Zero parked her Rolls-Royce outside the yard and walked in, followed closely by Lu Mingfei. Amidst the bleak fallen leaves, an old man in a military green vest, with shoulders as broad as a bear, wielded a large axe, splitting large pieces of wood into pieces.

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