DF Chapter 54
by VolareManila isn’t a particularly beautiful city. At least, apart from the central BGC, most places are no different from slums. Expensive prices, internet fees, and unscrupulous drivers who overcharge have become Sheng Jia’s deepest impressions of this place.
By the time she was waiting for her connecting flight the next day, she couldn’t wait to leave.
Song Ji’an ate fruit beside her and sighed, commenting quietly, “In terms of experience, Manila is the worst of all the cities I’ve been to.”
In fact, Auntie Liu arranged most of her overseas trips, so she rarely had to plan things herself. That meant she didn’t have to experience all the ins and outs, just enjoy herself. Even safety wasn’t a major concern.
Unlike this time, she arranged everything herself. They even researched hotels in advance to avoid staying in anything too expensive, lest they be targeted for showing off their wealth.
Guns are legal here, and robberies happen frequently.
After being ripped off by a black-hearted driver for nearly 500, they finally arrived at the airport to prepare for their connecting flight.
This time, Song Ji’an didn’t hesitate to use her privilege, and the two were led into the VIP lounge by a flight attendant.
There weren’t many people in the VIP lounge. They hadn’t had breakfast at the hotel, so they found something to eat and sat at a table by the window to enjoy their first breakfast abroad.
Before long, the flight attendant respectfully led in another young woman. She wore sunglasses, her long hair cascading down her back, and her outfit was so trendy it could give someone rheumatism. The small diamonds in her ears glittered faintly, attracting attention.
After she came in, her gaze landed precisely on Sheng Jia and Song Ji’an, and then she took off her sunglasses.
Song Ji’an and Sheng Jia, who were watching, were slightly stunned to see a familiar face under the sunglasses.
“Sheng Jia, Song Ji’an.” Meng Yeran walked over in her combat boots, but there was no surprise in her eyes. Without waiting for an invitation, she sat directly on the empty sofa next to Song Ji’an.
“What are you doing here?” Song Ji’an stuffed another piece of cut steak into her mouth. It wasn’t very tasty, but she still chewed it diligently and swallowed.
The world is so big, for classmates in the same class to gather in an airport lounge abroad at the same time, no one would think it’s just a coincidence.
Sure enough, Meng Yeran heard this and folded her hands on her lower abdomen, sitting upright, and said leisurely, “Of course, it’s because I have the same goal as you.”
“Were you also invited to Ansdert Island by Selena?” As she spoke, Song Ji’an remembered what she had overlooked, smiled slightly, and introduced her to Sheng Jia across from her, “The person in front of us is not only Meng Yeran, the studying member of Class 1, Senior Three of Jingjiang No. 1 High School, but also the heiress of Meng’s Entertainment, and a strong competitor for the island we are trying to win over.”
Meng Yeran’s family never allowed her to reveal her identity casually, but since she had taken the initiative to mention it, Song Ji’an, as someone in the know, naturally had to give Sheng Jia a grand introduction.
“Hello, heiress.” Sheng Jia suppressed the surprise in her eyes and calmly gave her support, extending her hand. Jingjiang No. 1 High School was full of hidden talents, with many children of high-ranking officials or the wealthy, but most were very low-key. Meng’s Entertainment had become very famous in recent years. After all, several films they had invested in in the past two years had won extremely high awards, and their limelight was unparalleled. Song Ji’an only had to mention it slightly for Sheng Jia to understand the general idea.
Meng Yeran glanced at her, raised her hand to pat her palm, considering it a handshake, “Why so formal? We’re old classmates, why not exchange some information?”
As soon as this was mentioned, Song Ji’an became vigilant, “What’s your information?”
“Obviously, you know more than we do. Do you know who else is going this time?”
“You don’t want to take a loss at all,” Meng Yeran muttered, “You know, but what will you exchange it for?”
“No need to exchange? Then forget it,” Sheng Jia answered for Song Ji’an.
“Why forget it just because we have to exchange?” Meng Yeran glared at her. She used to think Sheng Jia was annoying, but why was she even more annoying now?
“Because we’ll know everything when we get there,” Song Ji’an interjected with a smile, “Since you’ve already made preparations, then we can just follow you and we’ll find out what we want.”
“Wouldn’t that make me a sheep in a tiger’s mouth?” Meng Yeran joked, “But I really do have a reason to form an alliance with you.”
“The other competitors are strong?” Sheng Jia asked.
“Yes,” Meng Yeran replied seriously this time, “Besides you two, there are two other groups, and I’m the only lone wolf. Aunt Selena requires that you can only bring one companion at most. If you don’t ally with me, you’ll also be at a disadvantage, because the other side has a total of four people, and they will definitely form an alliance.”
“So sure?” Song Ji’an raised her eyebrows, “Who exactly are they?”
“Julia and Dong Zhen,” Meng Yeran didn’t keep her in suspense this time, telling the truth, and considering that Sheng Jia wasn’t familiar with these two, she continued to explain, “Julia’s grandmother is an old overseas Chinese in Europe, whose family mainly does wine business and maritime transport. Their maritime coverage in Northern Europe exceeds 40%. The family is a veritable maritime hegemon in Northern Europe. She herself likes to study occultism and is very interested in wasp jade, wanting to detect energy, so she’s determined to get it. The companion she brought is her teacher, Martha.”
“Dong Zhen is a mystery novelist, backed by Ms. Fu Minglang, who picked her up and raised her from a young age, single-handedly creating a myth,” Meng Yeran said, “She’s here this time representing Fu Minglang. Our parents agreed to only let the younger generation come, so she sent Dong Zhen.”
“Dong Zhen and Julia are pen pals, and their relationship has always been good, so the possibility of them forming an alliance is the highest.”
“Not necessarily,” Song Ji’an smiled when she heard this, “You say that because you and Dong Zhen and Julia have a bad relationship, but I don’t have any conflicts with her, and I don’t have any conflicts with Julia either. I can totally choose to form an alliance with any one of them.”
Meng Yeran touched the tip of her nose awkwardly.
Song Ji’an was right, she really didn’t have a good relationship with these two people. That’s why, after getting the list in advance, she rushed over to “accidentally” encounter Sheng Jia and Song Ji’an, wanting to quickly establish an alliance with them, lest she become the first to be eliminated.
Dong Zhen’s mystery novels are very good, but Meng Yeran also likes to read this type and is somewhat nitpicky. When she was only fourteen years old, Dong Zhen had already gained both fame and fortune and was praised by the media as a genius girl. Meng Yeran was unconvinced and bought her book to read, pointing out some places that she considered unreasonable.
Later, she accidentally met Dong Zhen at a banquet. She grabbed Dong Zhen and relentlessly criticized her face to face, successfully making the extremely quick-witted but not very articulate genius cry. In the end, her grandmother and Fu Minglang came out to mediate and end the children’s quarrel. It was also because of this that Meng Yeran’s grandmother decided to kick her to Jingjiang alone to train.
But since then, Dong Zhen has had a big opinion of Meng Yeran, and her good friend Julia also has a big opinion of Meng Yeran, after all, in the eyes of that blonde, black-eyed mixed-race young lady, everything Dong Zhen writes is perfect.
Over there, Song Ji’an had already told Sheng Jia about this embarrassing thing. Meng Yeran’s ears turned slightly red. People always have to pay the price for their past impoliteness and ignorance, like now.
She forced herself to calm down and analyzed according to her plan, “If you choose to unite with them two and kick me out, then you and Sheng Jia will immediately become their targets. Can you guarantee that under the siege of four people, you and Sheng Jia can survive to the end and win?”
“Maybe I have a way to sow discord between them and get Dong Zhen to ally with us?” Song Ji’an supported her chin and retorted with a smile, “Are you a little too confident? For Dong Zhen, she’s here with Grandma Fu’s mission, so her goal is to eliminate as many opponents as possible. But Julia and she are too familiar, and they both want the island. If we’re all eliminated, how will they deal with each other? That one reason is enough to convince Dong Zhen to cooperate with us.”
“She doesn’t know our level, but like Julia to her, in her heart Julia is as smart as her. Such a powerful opponent, are you sure that in the end, between Julia and us, she will still choose Julia?”
Dong Zhen is a somewhat arrogant person, because her thinking IQ is indeed enough for her to look down on most people. Julia can get her favor because of their years of communication. Perhaps she also knows Song Ji’an well enough in the past exchanges, but she doesn’t know the depth of the combination of Sheng Jia and Song Ji’an, and the more she doesn’t know, the easier it is to underestimate.
It’s actually very simple for Song Ji’an to use her arrogance to achieve her goal.
But if she had to choose, she would choose Meng Yeran instead of Julia or Dong Zhen. There was no other reason, just because the other two were more challenging and more interesting as opponents.
She leisurely put down the fork in her hand, waiting for Meng Yeran’s response.
Meng Yeran smiled bitterly and pulled out the invitation from her pocket a little irritably, slapping it on the table, “I knew I couldn’t convince you with just words. I have to take out my old capital to be done with it.”
It was an invitation exactly like the one Song Ji’an and Sheng Jia received, exquisite and elegant.
The welcome message written on it was basically the same as theirs, except for the name change.
And the invitation interlayer also contained the same thing—a ship ticket filled with love written in red ink, destination Antarctica.
This was completely opposite to the information they had obtained.
“What’s wrong?” Meng Yeran saw that the two were lost in thought, put on her sunglasses again, leaned back, and said lazily, “Anyway, I’ve told you everything I know, give me a definite answer, will you cooperate with me?”
Sheng Jia and Song Ji’an exchanged glances, both of them with flickering eyes.
There was a small gap in the ship ticket, which was obviously a used mark. This ship ticket probably represents someone’s collection or memory.
The contract they got was full of saving lives, and this ship ticket was full of love, a very extreme contrast.
Of course, the most important thing is that the signature on this ship ticket is exactly the same as the flamboyant name on the contract—Ms. Zhi Meng.
A completely unfamiliar name.
The sudden sound of boarding reminders rang out in the VIP lounge. The enthusiastic flight attendant walked over to prepare to lead the three to board the plane. Their luggage had already been sent to the shuttle bus by the staff.
As Song Ji’an got up, she smiled and said to Meng Yeran, “Let’s go, alliance, we’re going to the battlefield.”
“Alliance?” Meng Yeran blinked.
“Your current performance makes us doubt your reaction ability,” Sheng Jia put down the coffee in her hand and said slowly, “You have been our best choice from beginning to end.”
Compared to the unfamiliar Dong Zhen and Julia, they are in the same class, can see each other two hundred and ninety days out of three hundred and sixty-five days a year, and their grade rankings are mostly consecutive numbers. Could their alliance be worse than the tacit understanding between Julia and Dong Zhen, who can only video chat most of the time?
It’s just that Sheng Jia and Song Ji’an are used to getting the maximum benefit before speaking.