Xiao Lou also wanted to leave the palace to take a look. If he stayed in the palace, he would be easily monitored by His Majesty. The assassin of unknown origin was also keeping an eye on his Gemini Palace. In addition, the use of cards was restricted in the palace, making it difficult for him and Yu Hanjiang to find any clues in the palace. His Majesty would definitely not leave any clues related to clone in the palace.
Based on clues gathered from various investigations by teammates, the current focus is on two main areas: first, Lin Yan's mother, Zhang Shaohua, a renowned professor at the Imperial Academy of Sciences and a participant in the Noahs Ark Project, who certainly knows many secrets; second, the star coins left by Shao Qingge's father, and the lost memories of Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci.
These things can only be found after leaving the palace.
However, as a prince, it wasn't so easy for Xiao Lou to leave.
Yu Hanjiang said, "His Majesty has not allowed you to go out for so many years. If you tell him directly that you want to go out and see the world, he definitely will not agree. So, we only have one way—to escape from the palace."
Xiao Lou walked to the window and looked at the guards patrolling the palace. He frowned slightly. "The last few times I went out of the palace with you, we kept it under two hours, which is why His Majesty didn't find out. If we just run away, His Majesty will send people after us. Wouldn't that be asking for trouble?"
Xiao Lou might not die if he stays obediently in the palace, but if he runs away, His Majesty might indeed be ruthless enough to kill him...
He and Yu Hanjiang stayed in the palace to put on a show, while CEO Shao (Ninth Brother) went outside to investigate. Xiao Lou was very worried, fearing that his teammates might be in danger. Moreover, the whereabouts of Liu Qiao and the other three were still unknown, which had always been a knot in Xiao Lou's heart. He couldn't even sleep peacefully until he saw them again.
After much deliberation, Xiao Lou made a decisive decision: "We can't just run away rashly. We must come up with a foolproof plan. First, we need to gather all our teammates and go to Peach Blossom Spring to discuss our strategy."
Yu Hanjiang agreed and stood up, saying, "Let's go, I'll take you out of the palace."
To prevent Spirit Fox from recording Gemini Palace's surveillance, Yu Hanjiang simply forced the smart mecha to shut down. Xiao Lou changed into the Royal Guard uniform and followed Yu Hanjiang out of the palace, finding a secluded corner to activate Peach Blossom Spring.
Soon, the teammates gathered under the peach tree, and Ye Qi even brought in a silver safe.
Tang Ci can stand now, and everyone was pleasantly surprised to see him walking slowly on his own two feet instead of in a wheelchair. Ye Qi excitedly looked him up and down and blurted out, "Mr. Tang is so tall..."
Previously, Tang Ci was always in a wheelchair, so no one knew how tall he was. Now that he can stand, everyone realizes that he is actually about 1.8 meters tall, a full half a head taller than Ye Qi. Moreover, he is wearing well-tailored black military trousers and matching military boots, which makes his legs look straight, long, and very handsome.
Seeing Ye Qi looking up at Tang Ci, Shao Qingge couldn't help but chuckle, "No need to look, you're the shortest."
Ye Qi retorted, "I'm young, I can still grow taller, okay?"
Shao Qingge gently patted his head: "You need to face reality. Being a little short isn't a big deal; it suits your baby face better. Imagine if you were 1.88 meters tall with a baby face, wouldn't that be terrifying?"
Ye Qi: "..."
CEO Shao often teases Ye Qi, saying Ye Qi can never win an argument with Shao Qingge. Xiao Lou smiled and glanced at Ye Qi's baby face, then walked up to Shao Qingge and said seriously, "Is this the safe your father left you?"
Tang Ci looked the silver cabinet up and down: "What's inside?"
Shao Qingge opened the cabinet and pointed to the coins inside, saying, "He left me a box of banknotes. These banknotes are arranged strangely. The missing banknotes in each row, when connected, form an eight-digit number, 29750715, which looks a lot like your birth date."
Xiao Lou's birthday is indeed on this day; it's definitely not a coincidence.
Lu Jiuchuan stroked his chin: "Could this date be the launch date of the Noahs Ark Project?"
Yu Hanjiang said, "I think so too. But just leaving a date doesn't mean anything; we need to dig out more clues." He turned to Ye Qi, "These banknotes, you haven't moved them?"
Ye Qi hurriedly shook his head: "In order not to destroy the clues in the safe, I brought the safe in directly using a teleportation card, and I didn't touch a single coin inside."
Xiao Lou took a step back and looked at the safe.
Eight layers, stacks of coins were neatly arranged, the empty space was indeed 29750715. He tried to take out the first stack of coins, untied the white ribbon, and carefully counted them.
There are 100 Star Coins in the stack, each with a face value of 1,000 Star Coins, totaling 100,000 Star Coins.
Each row contained nine stacks of Star Coins, totaling 900,000. The cabinet had eight rows in total, meaning the total value of the banknotes in the safe was 8 × 90 = 7.2 million Star Coins.
Xiao Lou pondered: "If I remember correctly, CEO Shao's father is a well-known wealthy businessman in the empire. He left his son a safe with only 7.2 million in cash and left an empty space indicating a date... This is too unreasonable."
Why go through all that trouble to get a whole box of banknotes, only to leave a date? Why didn't he just send Shao Qingge a text message saying, "I remember His Highness's birthday"?
The prince's birthdate can be found by any citizen of the empire at any time. Why would so many coins be used to display just one birthdate? Shao Qingge's father wouldn't be so bored; these coins must have some other clue.
Yu Hanjiang asked, "What does 7.2 million represent?"
Xiao Lou shook his head slightly: "I don't know either... How about this, we'll think about the money later, let's discuss how to escape first." He looked at Lu Jiuchuan, "Brother Jiu, has the military assigned you any new missions?"
Lu Jiuchuan said, "The first thing I did after returning to Capital Star was to see my direct superior, General Lin. He said that we suffered heavy casualties in the alien attack on Hilt No Mans Land, and that Tang Ci and I should rest and recuperate at Capital Star. In particular, Tang Ci lost both legs in the accident, so he asked me to take good care of Tang Ci and gave us a week off."
Tang Ci said, "Ninth Brother and I have been staying at home these past few days and haven't gone to the military headquarters. We are indeed on holiday."
Yu Hanjiang frowned unhappily: " General Lin gave you leave on the surface, letting you stay at Capital Star, but actually he didn't want you to leave and investigate this matter, right?"
Lu Jiuchuan said seriously, "That's for sure. So, without permission from the military, Tang Ci and I can't enter Arrow Legion's mothership or leave Capital Star. The space station will block us."
Xiao Lou was naturally unable to leave either. The Imperial Capital Star space station was similar to an international airport in the Earth era, with the strictest security system. All incoming and outgoing spaceships, ships, and hovercraft required an "entry and exit permit" before being allowed to pass. Xiao Lou was a prince, Yu Hanjiang was the captain of the Royal Guard, and Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci were forced to take leave by the military and could not leave at all.
Xiao Lou said, "I do have a way to deal with the security check. We can all become invisible and evade the space station's security check. Or we can have one or two people pass through the security check and leave the space station first, and then use the Peach Blossom Spring to pull us all out."
Lu Jiuchuan's eyes lit up: "That makes sense!"
Tang Ci calmly said, "I prefer to use Peach Blossom Spring Teleportation. Invisibility Cloak only hides the body's form, it doesn't turn a person into air. I'm not sure if the space station's security equipment has high-tech things like electromagnetic induction or thermal induction. Even if the body is invisible, the body's metabolism will not stop. If there is high-tech scanning equipment, it will still be detected and intercepted."
Xiao Lou agreed, "Then let's use the Peach Blossom Spring Teleportation. We can have our teammates who can pass the security check leave the space station first, and then use Peach Blossom Spring to pull us over..." He looked at Shao Qingge, "Currently, only CEO Shao and Xiao Ye can freely enter and exit the space station, right?"
Everyone else's identity—military personnel, guards, princes—is a key target for surveillance; being stopped by the space station would be disastrous. Qu Wanyue also finds it difficult to obtain a pass to travel alone; only the company boss, Shao Qingge, can travel to other planets without restrictions under the guise of business trips or tourism.
All eyes turned to CEO Shao.
Shao Qingge readily agreed, "Alright, leave this to me. I just picked up Ye Qi from Southern Cross Star a couple of days ago, and my entry and exit permit has expired. Applying for another one shouldn't be difficult. I'll just say… my son is on summer vacation, and I want to take him on a trip. That's a good enough reason."
Xiao Lou asked, "To leave Capital Star, we need to take an interstellar spaceship, right?"
Shao Qingge nodded: "Of course, private hovercars can only travel on planets and don't have the ability to travel across interstellar distances. Ninth Brother's warships can't be driven either, so we can only take interstellar passenger ships. Tickets for the ships should be easy to buy. You guys decide on your destination and where to go first?"
Xiao Lou opened the interstellar navigation map and looked at the human-inhabited planet marked in blue.
Suddenly, some fragments flashed through his mind...
A young and beautiful girl, dressed in a luxurious white wedding gown, walked down the long red carpet of the palace. His memory of the woman's face was already hazy, but he remembered her gentle voice, as if she were whispering in his ear: "Xiao Lou, your sister is going to marry someone from a very, very far away place. You must take good care of yourself, grow up quickly, and come to see me when you have the chance in the future."
That seems to be the last thing she said to Xiao Lou.
Xiao Lou frowned slightly: "In the Aquarius constellation, the Azure Empire, I have an older sister there."
Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci exchanged a glance, and the latter said, " Princess Xiao Rou? I have no impression of this person. I only heard that she married the prince of the Azure Empire, and the wedding was very grand back then."
Yu Hanjiang thought carefully for a moment and said, "I don't have any memories of her either. Maybe it's because she was older than us. We were all just kids when she got married... Xiao Lou, what do you remember?"
Xiao Lou shook his head: "I don't remember what she looked like. I only remember her walking through the palace in a wedding dress and telling me that she was going to marry someone from a faraway place and that I could visit her someday." Xiao Lou paused and said, "Since the Guardian has arranged an older sister for me, this sister can't be completely useless, right? I have a feeling that she might know something."
The teammates felt the same way.
Regardless of whether Xiao Lou knows any clues related to cloning, everyone should go and meet her.
Shao Qingge said, "Okay, then it's confirmed that we're going to Azure Empire. I'll book the tickets later."
Xiao Lou took out the [ Tao Yuanming ] card and handed it to Shao Qingge: " CEO Shao, could you please spend 5 million to duplicate this card? We can use it to teleport away from Capital Star. We might also need this card when we return to Capital Star." He looked at Long Sen and Qu Wanyue, saying, " Teacher Qu, Lin Yan over here..."
Qu Wanyue readily agreed, "I understand what Professor Xiao means. We can't all leave Capital Star. I'll follow up on the leads with Lin Yan. I'm her dance teacher, and she's not wary of me."
Xiao Lou cautioned, "Be careful, and retreat immediately if you encounter danger."
Qu Wanyue smiled and said, "Don't worry, I have a Chameleon card, escaping won't be a problem."
Long Sen said, "Then I will..."
" Stay by His Majesty's side and see if the other clones take any action. If anything happens in the palace, I'll inform you immediately."
Xiao Lou nodded: "That's settled then. Remember, pretend you don't know anything about cloning, and whatever you do, don't reveal your identity."
Long Sen and Qu Wanyue nodded solemnly.
Shao Qingge completed the copy of [ Tao Yuanming ]. Xiao Lou handed one of the cards to Qu Wanyue and told her that if they were ever intercepted at the space station, Qu Wanyue could directly initiate a teleportation.
The other card was temporarily given to Shao Qingge, who would then activate the teleportation after boarding the spaceship.
After everything was arranged, everyone left Peach Blossom Spring and returned to their respective residences.
Xiao Lou felt uneasy. Today, he suddenly remembered the scene of his sister's wedding. For some reason, although he couldn't remember her appearance, he could clearly feel that when the woman walked down the long red carpet in her wedding dress, there seemed to be a strange loneliness and sadness in her back.
Was it because she wanted to leave her hometown, or did she really know something?
Xiao Lou checked the information and found that he was exactly 5 years old when the princess got married.
He lost too many memories of that year, so the only thing left in his mind about his sister's wedding was a blurry image: blue sky, white clouds, a red carpet that stretched for a kilometer, and the back of a woman in a white wedding dress walking on the heart.
Xiao Lou pressed his temples, feeling a headache coming on, and said softly, "I hope everything goes well with CEO Shao. I need to find a way to see my sister."
****