Chapter 13: Car or Aircraft?

Recently, for some time, Lan Luofeng's was occupied with joy.  This was because her baby no longer gave her time to Zhougong1 arrange and only woke up during mealtimes.

However, before she could be happy about it, she was occupied with another worry.  Her baby suddenly started bending into a concave shape.

A concave shape was a concave shape.  But every time she saw those two feet being twisted around like a pillow for the head, Lan Luofeng couldn't help but twitch and felt her bones groaning.  This position was not something her old bones could endure.

If it wasn't for the fact she saw Ling Lan smiling like a small silly idiot and that this position did not cause the slightest difficulties for babies, she really wanted to rescue those two little feet from those fat little hands.

Ling Lan fortunately did not know what Lan Luofeng was thinking or would have certainly burst into tears.  Her position, in fact, was not as simple and easy as her mother thought it was.  Even with a baby's body, this position was not so easy to twist out.  More sadly, this was only the easiest first position; there was still eight even more difficult ones.  The further along she went, the harder it was.  As of right now, Ling Lan was unsure, could she really completely learn all nine positions within a year?

She remembered mentor No. 9's warning – if she could not complete this within a year, there would be punishment.  Of course, if she could complete it on time, there would also be a reward.  In fact, the sooner she completed it, the richer the reward would be.

In Ling Lan's consciousness s.p.a.ce, doing these nine positions were very easy.  That's why she thought it was strange that mentor No. 9 gave her a year; she had arrogantly thought she could finish it in a month.  Only now did she realize that she had really been looking down on the Learning System's course.  It was truly abnormal.

In truth, the difficulty was not in creating the shape, but in the accuracy.  The angles and curves of the body must have no deviations.  Ling Lan spent today constantly working on the first position, yet still had difficulties getting into the most accurate position and had to slowly adjust.  This absolutely could not meet the mentor's requirement – to complete each position accurately within a second.  

However, Ling Lan wasn't anxious.  Upon waking, she twisted into the concave shape and when she fell asleep she went to the consciousness s.p.a.ce to practice.  Even though practicing in the consciousness s.p.a.ce could not directly affect the body, it allowed her to get an accurate grasp of precision.  In other words, she could judge if her posture was correct or not.

Sure enough, heaven helps those who help themselves2.  After two months when she was almost nine months old, she practiced to the point where with just a single thought she could position herself accurately in place within a blink of an eye.  This represented that she had successfully mastered the first position.

Right when Ling Lan was happily preparing to start practicing the second form, good news interrupted her.  Her mother finally decided to take her out shopping…

In truth, with a n.o.ble ranked family like the Ling family, all needs were properly arranged by the steward.  As the mistress, Lan Luofeng had no need to go out and buy.  However, Lan Luofeng thought that since Ling Lan had begun to recognize the world around her, it was important to let her go out and experience the world outside.

Steward Ling Qin felt it was still too early to go out, but he did not refuse Lan Luofeng's decision and made arrangements.

And Ling Lan, for the first time was able to leave the house to see what kind of place the world had become like after countless years.

After pa.s.sing her house's gorgeous hall and out the door, Ling Lan felt a fragrance scent wafting over.  What greeted her eyes turned out to be a great large lawn…

Yes, after opening the front door, what greeted Ling Lan wasn't giant stone terraces and stairs, nor solid concrete pavement, but a huge lawn that extended outwards.  Ling Lan could not see the end of the lawn; exactly how large was it, ah?  How big was her home?

Before Ling Lan could even finish her sigh, a car flew from afar.  Yes, flew.  This thing was like a car, yet not like a car.  The shape reminded Ling Lan of a high end racing car, and was empty of people.  It was divided in a front and back seating area and had no steering wheel.  The bottom had nothing that looked like wheels and was flat.

Could it be an unmanned car or plane?  Please forgive Ling Lan, she could not determine what to call it, although her subconsciousness leaned towards car.

That thing hung directly in the air, around 3 meters from the ground.  However, when closing in on Ling Lan's group, the height became increasingly lower to the point that when it stopped in front of Ling Lan, the height was only 50 centimeters from the ground.  A convenient height for people to step up and down.  

The door automatically opened and gave the unprepared Ling Lan a shock.  At that time, Lan Luofeng and Ling Qin's attention were not on Ling Lan, so the change in her color did not catch their attention.

"Madame, please enter the car!" Ling Qing spoke respectfully.

Enter the car? Bingo, years later, the tool that carried people around was still a car.  Ling Lan didn't have to worry about inadvertently saying the wrong thing.

Lan Luofeng, while carrying Ling Lan, immediately sat in the back seat.  Ling Qin settled into the front seat.

Ling Qing ordered: "Ling 07, please transform into a completely closed state."

A machine voice immediately sounded in the car:  "Ling 07 has accepted."

With this sound, the four doors sealed.  Not only that, the original open top was tightly sealed with a transparent cover.  Sure enough, it transformed into a completely closed car.

At this time, in her consciousness s.p.a.ce, the snoozing Xiao Si was awakened:  He had felt a similar existence….

The mechanical voice spoke once again: "Please choose your destination."

This time, Ling Qin didn't answer.  He turned back and asked Lan Luofeng with his eyes.  Lan Luofeng thought for a bit.  In order to ensure safety, she chose an old and famous shopping building that only qualified members were able to enter.

Once knowing the location, the transport vehicle Ling 07 quickly started up.  Perhaps because it was floating, it didn't shake.  If it weren't for the fact that the scenery outside was moving towards the back, Ling Lan would have thought she was in a small sealed room.

The car gradually drove to a downtown and Ling Lan saw a lot of similar cars driving around.  She originally thought that the height that cars flew at would be the same, but it was not the case.  On the same path, she could see four cars at different heights and directions moving forward at the same time.  

Ling Lan felt very surprised, she didn't know how these cars automatically adjust height.  Were they not afraid of accidental crashes occurring?

Soon Ling 07's voice answered Ling Lan's doubts:  Discovered a hover car along the same line 3 km away.  Signal to adjust has already been issued…

It seemed that these cars had a main program in it.  Of course, there also had to be a certain level of intelligence that could notice a problem and prevent the event of a collision.

The following words showed that the two had achieved a unified agreement: "Dropped down by one meter!  In three seconds, please pay attention."

Sure enough, in three seconds, their hover car decreased in alt.i.tude by one meter, while the opposite one increased by one.  Thus the two cars, one up and one down, pa.s.sed by each other.  As for the distance between them…

Alright, Ling Lan's heart did a sudden jump.  Ya de, that was way too close, wasn't that just a ten centimeter difference?

However, upon seeing that her mother and steward Ling Qin didn't panic nor lose calm, Ling Lan understood that this distance was quite normal here.  She still had to practice.

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Translated by somnious, unedited

1 I'm not clear on what the author means by using 周公安排 (zhōugōng ānpái)

2 皇天不負有心人 (huángtiān bù fù yǒuxīnrén)