FEAR OF HEIGHTS IS A BIG PROBLEM SORRY I LOST CONTROL

Chapter 14: Fear of Heights is a Big Problem

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: mjn0898

When the hover car entered a sprawling city, Ling Lan could see towering skyscrapers and other tall buildings all around her, making her feel like she was truly in a future world. Almost every level of every building had parking spaces, and Ling Lan saw numerous hover cars hanging by the various levels of the tall buildings as they travelled. The sight made her think of Christmas trees, decorated with baubles, uniquely interesting. It couldn't be helped since those hover cars came in all colours of the rainbow, vibrant and eye-catching.

Very quickly, Ling Lan had arrived at her destination. Ling-Zero-Seven paused for a moment in mid-air as it requested landing approval from their target building. The response came quickly, telling them to park at Area B Number 77–9.

The hover car started circling the building until it arrived at a particular section. Then, it started rising, up and up for an unknown number of levels, before finally touching down on an empty landing spot.

After Ling-Zero-Seven had finished parking properly, the car doors once again swung open on their own. As Lan Luofeng stepped out of the car, bending over slightly in the process, Ling Lan got a glimpse of the floor beneath her mother's feet ... and then, tragedy!

The floor was entirely transparent — one could see everything below it. And just like that, Ling Lan grew dizzy and light-headed.

Dammit, so she was afraid of heights! Since she had been bedridden from a young age, for most of her life, she had never known she had this fatal weakness.

Ling Lan could almost cry — she was starting to think that coming to the future was a terrible thing. On the way here from home, she had noticed that almost all the buildings in this world basically consisted of 100 levels or more ... Furthermore, the main mode of transportation here seemed to be the hover car, which could freely travel up to several hundred metres into the air. All this just proved that she would never be able to escape from heights in this life.

Ling Lan was tormented ... how was she supposed to live? Ignorant of Ling Lan's plight, Lan Luofeng brought her into the building and walked into a transparent viewing elevator.

As for what happened next, not surprisingly, Ling Lan fainted dramatically. Er ... I mean, fell asleep. Well, at least that's what her mum Lan Luofeng believed, totally missing the tears clinging to Ling Lan's eyelashes.

Now, even if she did notice them, she would have just thought that those tears were the result of her baby's sleepiness. Look, don't they just make her eyes sparkle in such an adorable way?

Ling Lan did not know how long she had fainted ... eh-hm, slept, before she was woken up by a screeching sound. Opening her still somewhat blurry eyes, she saw a rampaging female dragon spitting out indiscriminate fire.

"Lan Luofeng, you think you still have the right to show up here?" The yelling woman was still quite pretty, but that affected peacock-like attitude was rather unbecoming, making her lose all sense of class.

Ling Lan categorised her as an unsavoury character with one glance. She had no tolerance for anyone who scorned her mother.

Still, Ling Lan was a little curious. Till now, she had not seen a single ugly person — everyone had at least looked decent. Ling Lan guessed that this future world was probably technologically advanced enough ... enough that a person's features could be calibrated while within the womb?

Uh, Ling Lan, what do you think foetuses are? Programs or machines? Calibrated indeed ...

Ling Lan only found out later that, quite simply, although it did have something to do with technology as Ling Lan had guessed, the changes weren't made before birth, but after. Anyone whose appearance did not fit within certain beauty parameters could choose to use beauty correction agents to fix their appearance. Although that sounded impressive, it was basically the same principle as cosmetic surgery, just more technologically advanced so everything could be handled via injections without the need to go under a knife.

Of course, this did not preclude the existence of extremists, who for the sake of greater beauty beyond regular parameters, would push aside the agents and opt directly for the knife.

Lan Luofeng said nothing in reply to the seething woman, but merely cast a cold glance at her, before ignoring her completely to head towards an empty VIP room with her daughter in her arms.

Lan Luofeng's clear dismissal made the woman even angrier. She grabbed hold of Lan Luofeng by the shoulder, and was just about to speak when Lan Luofeng hissed at her, "Let go!"

Before the woman could do so, Chamberlain Ling Qin had rushed over from a few steps away to administer a light flick of his finger.

With a shout of pain, the woman was pushed back a step and naturally lost her grip. Interest flashed in Ling Lan's eyes — she hadn't expected that the outwardly gentle and understated Chamberlain Ling Qin was such a skilled fighter. That almost imperceptible small movement had been caught by Ling Lan's bright eyes.

"Mistress, please go ahead into the VIP room with the young master. There are too many riff-raff here, they shouldn't disturb you." Without any expression on his face, Ling Qin stepped in between that woman and Lan Luofeng. If he hadn't been a bit too far away from Lan Luofeng back then, this woman wouldn't have had a chance to lay a hand on his mistress.

Ling Qin was annoyed at himself — it was all because of his negligence that the woman had managed to get close to the mistress and the young master. If she had had any evil intentions ... at the thought, Ling Qin felt a cold sweat break out along his back in belated fear.

In truth, Ling Qin was being too hard on himself. If someone had truly had intentions to harm Lan Luofeng and Ling Lan, an expert of his calibre would definitely have sensed it and taken the appropriate defensive measures. He had only been taken by surprise because he hadn't sensed any killing intent from the surrounding people. Furthermore, this VIP section was specially set aside for women, so the surrounding people were all either noblewomen or women from rich and powerful families, leading Ling Qin to subconsciously slow his steps.

"Alright, Uncle Qin!" Lan Luofeng had no interest in arguing with the woman and making a public spectacle.

Ever since Ling Xiao had died and she had broken ties with the Ling family, Lan Luofeng had known that she would be ostracised by some of the noblewomen circles. Over the years, though the Ling family hadn't conducted much proper business, they had been rather proactive in arranging marriage alliances with the various elite and noble families. While they did not manage to connect with the main descendants of those families, they still managed to build some significant contacts among the lesser branches of those families.

That woman who had grabbed Lan Luofeng was one of those Ling family marriage prospects. Her family had agreed to the marriage alliance because they had been interested in the power accumulated by Ling Suzheng and Ling Xiao in the army, and were hoping that the Ling family would be able to help them with that power. However, following Major General Ling Xiao's sudden death, the Ling family had failed in their power struggle with Lan Luofeng and had been forced to leave Doha, leaving her plans in ruins. The main cause of all this was Lan Luofeng's clever trap, which is why her resentment had flared at the sight of Lan Luofeng, causing her to rush up like a mad dog to vent her frustrations. Lan Luofeng was not at all surprised by this turn of events.

However, Lan Luofeng didn't care. She had never had any aspirations for power to begin with. If it weren't for the fact that she had wanted to show her baby the world outdoors, she would have just happily stayed home without a thought for the outside world. As such, why would she care if others ostracised her or scorned her?

It cannot be denied that Lan Luofeng was a proud woman. While Ling Xiao had been around, she had still been willing to make an effort to mingle with these noblewomen. But now, she had no mood for it. Ling Xiao's death had robbed her of half her soul, while the remaining half had become dedicated to the raising of Ling Lan and the defence of Ling Xiao's hard-earned premium military benefits.

Lan Luofeng ignored the whispers that broke out after that scene and walked into one of the unoccupied VIP rooms. At the same time, a waiting VIP service staff entered after her to provide her services.

Ling Lan sighed. The damnable class system still existed 10000 years later despite efforts to remove it — looked like equality among all human beings really only worked in theory.

Chapter 15: Sorry, I Lost Control!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: mjn0898

In the VIP room, Ling Lan was having her horizons expanded. She would never have imagined that in this world 10000 years later, one would no longer have to look for items in a store personally, but could just sit comfortably in a VIP room and select categories of items to look at from an ultra-wide screen in the room. These items would be presented to you in 3D imaging, along with a detailed introduction. If a customer was particularly interested in an item, they could click on it to get even more information.

Lan Luofeng perused the items with her full attention. She was basically only looking at items for Ling Lan, and very quickly, item after item had been delivered to the VIP room to await Lan Luofeng's final decision.

"Infant Musical Bed: This item is elliptical in shape. There are two freely-interchangeable modes — half-sealed transparency mode and fully-sealed transparency mode. While the infant is sleeping on the bed, it can automatically select the appropriate music based on the infant's brain waves to encourage sleep. Besides that, this bed comes equipped with its own internet network and can download the latest music in the Federation on its own, saving parents the trouble."

Its own internet network? Automatic downloading and updating? The idle Ling Lan had just been about to fall asleep when these words poured into her ears, waking her up immediately. It should be known that she had been pestered half to death by Little Four recently. Every day he would whine and plead with her to find a chance for him to go online. In his words, "The one who has control over information shall triumph ..."

Of course, Little Four was just saying it for the sake of saying it — Ling Lan and Little Four had no real enemies on the surface after all. The reason for Little Four's urgency was that he needed to understand more about this world so he could better serve his host, lest he make any serious mistakes out of ignorance.

Take the incident of the gene stimulating agent for example. It was precisely because Little Four had no clue about the absorption rate of infants in this world that the results had been so shocking, almost causing immense trouble for Ling Lan. If a mysterious benefactor hadn't stepped in to seal the information, Ling Lan might have already been snatched away by the military to become a war machine.

Of course, the mentally adult Ling Lan would not have been so easily brainwashed and could have chosen to run away and hide. However, that would spell the end of her freedom, unless there came a day when she was strong enough to break free from the shackles of the country.

Whenever Little Four and Ling Lan thought back on the incident, they would break out in a cold sweat. Even now they dared not drop their guard. A large part of the reason why Ling Lan took over two months to master the first stance was that she hadn't dared to put full effort into her training. She was constantly worried there were spies around, so she didn't want to do anything else out of the ordinary to arouse their suspicion.

Today, such great news just happened to fall into her lap. A way for her to access the internet, and in such a subtle manner too. It was an infant bed after all — who would suspect an infant sleeping on the bed to be secretly accessing the internet?

Hehe, brother, you must be crazy, please seek treatment immediately.

Everyone would look at you as if you were an idiot, a fool, a madman ... and then throw down that line and walk away.

Ling Lan was overjoyed — this bed was just made for her. Only she could use this infant bed to its full capacity, and not let its functions collect dust.

Ling Lan clambered up decisively and started babbling excitedly while pointing at the infant bed. She was telling her mother that this bed was hers.

Lan Luofeng was on the same wavelength as Ling Lan this time. With some surprise, she said, "Does Ling Lan want this bed? Could it be that Ling Lan likes music? Alright, since Ling Lan likes it, mummy will buy it."

Okay, Lan Luofeng was obviously a doting mother — anything her child wanted, she would get. Fortunately, Ling Lan was a mentally mature person on the inside, or else she would certainly be spoiled rotten under Lan Luofeng's unreserved affection.

Ling Lan got what she wanted, so her mood was great. She went to look for Little Four to gloat.

"Little Four, Little Four ..." Little Four seemed to be in a strange mood, for he didn't respond at all to Ling Lan's calls, but was drawing circles on the ground with a sad look on his face.

Ling Lan was exasperated and immediately greeted his head with a fist. "You rascal, what are you doing?"

Unexpectedly, Little Four remained sullenly silent. Under normal circumstances, Little Four would have jumped up by now and would be loudly complaining about Ling Lan's domestic abuse.

Ling Lan was miffed and at a bit of a loss. She proceeded to pinch and pull at Little Four's face with all her might, hoping that Little Four would return to his senses.

This time, there was finally some effect. Listlessly, Little Four smacked her hand away, and asked with a long face, "What's up?"

Ling Lan asked concernedly, "Did something happen?"

Little Four expelled a heavy breath and said, "I have been played by this world."

The words had barely left Little Four's mouth when the furious Ling Lan gave him a solid kick in the ass, sending him flying. "Dammit, are you kidding me?!"

This kick chased away Little Four's strange mood and replaced it with anger. He threw himself at Ling Lan, grabbing hold of her thigh and yelling, "You promised you wouldn't use violence! You're still hitting me, I want to complain! Complain!"

"Complain my foot! I still need to ask you why you tricked me! Looking like you were gonna die, letting me worry?!" For some reason, Ling Lan just couldn't control the anger burning within her. She knew very well that Little Four might have just been playing a prank — this was something she would have easily brushed off with a laugh in the past, why couldn't she do that now?

Ling Lan didn't know that this was an explosion caused by the build-up of negative emotions in her heart. Although Ling Lan had consoled herself all this time after the gene stimulating agent incident that everything was fine, Ling Lan had actually been unable to truly be at ease. She had been frightened that her secret would be exposed to the military, that she would become an experiment and end up torn between life and death. These sorts of negative emotions had been hiding deep in Ling Lan's heart all this time — if she didn't have a chance to release them, they would have had a negative impact on Ling Lan someday in the future.

It should be said that Ling Lan was very lucky. Ling Lan's mood had brightened considerably due to this outing, a vast difference from her usual calm and forced tolerance. The torments of her previous illness may have given Ling Lan unbelievably strong tolerance and resilience, but that was also where the problem arose. Tolerance was a double-edged sword — being overly tolerant was harmful to both body and mind.

Of course, just this sudden upswing to happiness would not have been enough to set off Ling Lan. However, Ling Lan had become extremely excited by the internet-equipped infant bed, and when she had sought Little Four out to share this news with him, his hopeless demeanour had pushed Ling Lan from the heights of happiness to the lows of anxiety. This sudden and dramatic shift in strongly opposing emotions caused Ling Lan's perfect tolerance to crack.

As a result, the deeply hidden negative emotions exploded ... leading to Ling Lan's uncharacteristic kick and subsequent rampage.

The two of them wrestled in the mind-space until they both ran out of energy and flopped to the ground.

Ling Lan lay there, panting heavily. She hadn't expected to fight with a little kid, but her heart now felt amazingly light, as if her soul had been cleansed.

Ling Lan chuckled, saying, "Little Four, I'm sorry. I lost control."