Dragon Raja 5; Chapter 260: For Your Majesty (75)

Dragon Raja 5

Lu Mingfei gave Chu Zihang a look, and he had already put his knife away. The two men opened the door with the lazy air of someone just waking from a dream. A silver-plated breakfast cart was parked at the door. Bunin leaned against the aisle, smoking his pipe, a smile that only a seasoned gangster could muster.

A classic Russian breakfast: pancakes, crispy cucumbers, sliced ​​bread smothered in blueberry jam, and the ever-present fried sausage. If there’s anything special about it, it’s Beluga caviar. This ingredient, worth more than gold, is found only in the stomachs of white sturgeons over 60 years old. For every box of caviar produced, one white sturgeon is killed. Even in top restaurants, chefs only garnish dishes with a limited number of grains, leaving the entire table sparkling with a few grains of caviar. But on Bunin’s train, this stuff is available in unlimited quantities. Lu Mingfei and Chu Zihang eat it like fermented bean curd, spreading it on bread.

“It’s still three hours to the port of Lake Baikal. The scenery is nice before it freezes, so you can get off and take a look.” After Bunin sent the dining car off, he continued to lean against the door frame and smoke.

Lu Mingfei was slightly taken aback. They were almost at Lake Baikal. This place, which he had learned about in geography textbooks since childhood, was about to appear before his eyes.

He’d traveled extensively over the years, weathered many storms, and seen many corners of the world. Many people would envy his life, but he couldn’t quite decide if it was worth it. Nuonuo had opened this strange road for him, letting him choose whether to walk it or not. If he could go back to that moment, would he choose this gorgeous, thrilling, but exhausting path again? Or would he have retreated and lived in that small city, where even trips to Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand were a rare memory?

He put down the bread in his hand, turned his head, and stared blankly at the big lake outside the window. A black kite was flying across the lake like lightning, its sharp claws drew a ripple, and it caught a fat fish.

“Siberia is actually Mongolian, meaning ‘a peaceful place’.” Bunin said in a slow and leisurely tone.

“What a great name.” Lu Mingfei said sincerely.

“As early as BC, you Chinese explored this area, possibly reaching as far as the Arctic Ocean. The Shenyi Jing says, ‘In the north, there’s a layer of ice a thousand miles long, a hundred feet thick. Under the ice, there live stream rats in the soil. They are shaped like rats, feed on ice grass, and their meat weighs a thousand pounds and can be made into jerky.'”

Lu Mingfei thought for a moment, “Seal?”

Bunin smiled. “More likely a walrus. Seals don’t weigh enough. Back then, it was truly a peaceful land. After the Golden Horde took control of Siberia, they sent people to explore the area. They claimed to have found the Silver Valley, a land covered in silver, and the mountain where the sun never sets.”

“The Arctic Circle’s midnight sun?”

Bunin nodded. “Later, it split from the Golden Horde and became the Shibir Khanate. At the end of the 16th century, Kuchū Khan was defeated and fled, and the Shibir Khanate was annexed by the Grand Duchy of Moscow.”

Lu Mingfei’s mind wandered thousands of miles away, wandering over that ancient “land of tranquility.” It was made of layers of ice, with mountains where the sun never set and valleys covered in silver. It was cold and peaceful, isolated from the world.

“We’ll stop at the next station to replace the tractor locomotive. Gentlemen, you might consider getting off to get some fresh air.” Bunin paused, as if suddenly remembering something. “I heard that Her Royal Highness the Princess booked the entire dining car for Mr. Lu last night?”

But the flickering look in his eyes seemed to indicate that he had come to deliver breakfast in person just to ask about this.

Lu Mingfei was stunned for a moment. It wasn’t that there was a secret he couldn’t tell, but there really wasn’t much to say.

During the entire journey, all three meals were delivered to the private room by the waiters, but yesterday evening, the waiter only delivered Chu Zihang’s dinner and invited Lu Mingfei to go to the dining car to have dinner with Her Royal Highness the Princess.

The moment he walked into the restaurant, Lu Mingfei was surprised. The huge dining cart was empty, with only a dining table covered with a white linen tablecloth and lit with candles.

Zero sat quietly in the candlelight, waiting for him. She wore a lace-trimmed white silk blouse, a camel-colored long skirt, and matching high heels. Her platinum hair was braided and then piled on top of her head. She wasn’t dressed particularly formally, but it was clear she had deliberately embellished it. Lu Mingfei’s first impression wasn’t that she was beautiful and celestial, but rather that there was no good wine and no good banquet. The princess was about to reveal her true intentions.

Ever since they arrived in Russia, they’d been pointing fingers at Zero for everything, but she’d never explained why she was helping Lu Mingfei. It felt like it was natural for her to do so… Lu Mingfei actually thought it was natural, too…

But emotions aside, Lu Mingfei still felt that Zero did this not simply out of “loyalty”, but there must be some reason behind it.

Tonight, Zero acted like she was going to have a serious talk. He didn’t invite Bunin or Chu Zihang, but instead pulled him out to have dinner alone. It seemed like she had something important to say.

He sat down tremblingly, all sorts of possibilities running through his mind, waiting for the princess’s instructions.

The dinner was extremely sumptuous, and surprisingly, it was not Russian food but Chinese food. There were famous dishes such as dry-fried prawns and steamed Dungeness crab with Huadiao wine, as well as Lu Mingfei’s favorite braised lamb and mapo tofu. God knows where Zero found such an authentic Chinese chef.

But how could Lu Mingfei be in the mood to eat? He barely settled into his chair for the entire meal, expecting Shiren Huang Romanova to say coldly, “Isn’t it time to pay back the debt owed to the Romanov family? The landlords don’t even have enough food!”

The two of them finished the meal in silence. Lu Mingfei felt like his throat was full, but Zero didn’t say anything worthwhile.

To be precise, she only said three sentences in total. The first sentence was at the beginning, when she picked up the chopsticks and said, “Eat.” The second sentence was when the two of them were burping at each other, she asked Lu Mingfei, “Are you full?” Lu Mingfei nodded, and she said, “That’s it.”

The inexplicable dinner ended just like that. Even if Bunin was determined to get to the bottom of the matter, all Lu Mingfei could do was to tell him the names of the dishes.

“I heard from the people in the dining car that Her Royal Highness had the ingredients prepared for that dinner three days in advance, and she also asked to find a qualified Chinese chef at the stations along the way.” Bunin continued to probe, “Her Royal Highness seems to attach great importance to dining with Mr. Lu.”