Novel Bin Chapter 8: Comparison of Assessments
The more Ling Suren thought about it, the surer he was of his suspicions. Gaining confidence, he sneered, saying, "Since Mrs. Ling Xiao has so decided, we, the Ling family, shall not force you both to stay. The whereabouts and future actions of Ling Lan shall be none of our business."
"If Ling Lan inherits, the Ling family will have to move out of Doha within a months time — Uncle Ren, I hope you will not blame me for my ruthlessness when that happens?" Lan Luofeng raised a brow as her eyes flicked towards the two representatives, reminding Ling Suren that both the government and the military would be witness to this agreement — there would be no way for the Ling family to renege on their word.
Facing such an aggressive Lan Luofeng, Ling Suren exploded in anger, "And if Ling Lan doesn’t inherit, can I also request that you both leave Doha within a month?"
Lan Luofeng smiled icily. "I wouldn’t ask this if I wasn’t willing to do it myself. Could it be that the Ling family is too afraid to take this risk? Are you even more cowardly than a woman like me? Of course, if you are willing to give up on the inheritance, I can be merciful and let you all continue to remain in Doha."
Lan Luofeng’s offer served two purposes. One, by taking a step back, she could force Ling Suren to state his decision clearly, so the Ling family would have no way to feign ignorance later. Two, she also wanted to give the Ling family one last chance — if they could control their greed, they would still be able to remain in Doha for another twenty odd years, which Lan Luofeng believed would be more than enough time for them to cultivate an outstanding operator of their own and secure their position in Doha.
However, Lan Luofeng’s words only served to cement Ling Suren’s suspicions that this was just a desperate gambit on her part. Thus, without any reservations, he sneered coldly in response, "Since you are so stubborn, alright, the Ling family agrees to your terms. As you said, if Ling Lan inherits, the Ling family shall leave Doha. If the child we chose inherits, then Ling Lan will have to leave Doha. He shall never be able to enter Doha within his lifetime, and shall not be allowed to enter any military system of the nation." These stipulations would utterly destroy any chance of Ling Lan gaining rank, and would prevent an adult Ling Lan from ever returning in the name of vengeance.
Hearing this, Lan Luofeng felt hatred grow within her heart. It had been foolish of her to feel sorry for them, to try and give them a way out. What the Ling family suggested was utterly ruthless — if Ling Lan had truly been a boy, the Ling family’s requests would have ruined his future, forcing him to toil away his life in the working class. The little mercy she had felt for them was now completely snuffed out, and her eyes were cold as she said, "Very well! As you wish."
Lan Luofeng called for a servant to prepare an assessment device, but was stopped by Ling Suren. He turned to the military representative, "The military must have brought an assessment device over for this visit. If you please?"
Lan Luofeng let him do as he liked. She had no intention of tampering with the device to begin with, and even if she had, she would not be so foolish as to do it in front of the military representative.
The military representative did not refuse Ling Suren’s request. This fit in nicely with their goals after all. In terms of getting accurate data, the military’s assessment devices were naturally much more reliable than the ones available for public use.
In short order, a top-of-the-line assessment device had been brought in by military troops.
Meanwhile, in her mother’s arms, Ling Lan was frantically going over the situation with Little Four.
"Will they be able to determine my gender? Or discover your existence?" asked Ling Lan anxiously. If either of those secrets were discovered, she would have to leave this place with her mother, and although she did not know what the outside world was like, the impression she got from Ling Suren and Lan Luofeng’s conversation was that life outside could not compare to life here.
Moreover, although Ling Lan was not afraid of suffering, she felt that she should naturally inherit her father’s premium military benefits as her father’s child. Why should a wild child who sprang out of nowhere get to inherit what belonged to her by right?
That’s right, Ling Lan was still thinking based on the logic she had developed on Earth ten thousand years ago. Inheritance by blood was clear-cut back then, so she really could not understand this current situation. As such, she refused to give up. She would definitely be the one to inherit Ling Xiao’s premium military benefits.
Little Four’s tone was full of disdain. "As if a device which has yet to develop artificial intelligence would be able to thwart me? Don’t worry, even if it could assess gender, I can change the data to reflect that you are male."
Ling Lan was struck by Little Four’s cocky tone. "Little Four, do you have the ability to change the assessment results as you like?"
Little Four became exceedingly smug. "Of course! When you were first assessed, if I hadn’t covered for you, your spiritual power would have exploded that assessment device."
Exploded? Why did that word sound so ominous to Ling Lan? Before Ling Lan could ponder on it any further, she heard the military representative ask, "Who’s first?"
Lan Luofeng tightened her arms around Ling Lan, face expressionless as she said, "Let the Ling family’s child be tested first."
Ling Suren assumed that Lan Luofeng was just intending to delay the inevitable, and did not want to waste words arguing with her. He nodded and motioned for the woman by his side to place the child in her arms into the assessment device.
Soon, the child’s results were presented:
Physical Fitness: [S] rank!
Spiritual Power: Tier-1!
Potential: [A+] rank!
Assessment overview: Excellent; heavy cultivation recommended.
Seeing these results, the military representative’s entire bearing changed — this child was definitely worthy of heavy cultivation by the military. A child with [A+] rank potential had a certain chance of becoming an IN mecha operator, albeit a small one, but having any degree of probability was better than none.
Ling Suren was very satisfied with the military representative’s reaction. As he had expected, this child was an undeniable lure for the military. However, he showed none of this satisfaction on his face but turned calmly to face Lan Luofeng and said, "Mrs. Ling Xiao, there is still time, if you take back your words now and surrender the inheritance, the Ling family shall raise Ling Lan with the utmost care."
Pretending to be a good Samaritan after going to all this trouble to rob a child of his inheritance? In his dreams!
Lan Luofeng said mockingly, "That won’t be necessary. I just hope all of you will move speedily when leaving Doha."
So saying, she walked over to the assessment device and carefully placed Ling Lan inside it.
By this time, Ling Lan and Little Four had come to an agreement to maintain the original assessment results. At first, Little Four had still been a little worried that the other child’s results might be better than Ling Lan’s, and had struggled over how he could secretly increase Ling Lan’s stats, but after seeing these results, Little Four was reassured.
Just like that, Ling Lan’s sealed results were revealed.
Physical Fitness: [S] rank!
Spiritual Power: Tier-2!
Potential: [S] rank!
Assessment overview: Excellent; all out cultivation recommended.
In the end, Little Four had still not been able to resist tweaking the results a little. The original recommendation of ’focused’ cultivation was upgraded to ’all out’ cultivation. Little Four was extremely pleased with himself — take that! ’All out’ was way better than ’heavy’!
In reality, even if Little Four had not changed anything, the results would still be the same. The moment these results were presented, the representatives from both the military and the government decided unanimously that Ling Xiao’s premium military benefits would be inherited by Ling Lan.
The decisiveness of the two representatives was primarily due to the assessment of Ling Lan’s potential. Although the other stats were also important, those stats could be improved later on, while potential was innate and had a direct correlation with a child’s room for growth. Although the gap between an [A+] rank and an [S] rank seemed negligible, in the long run, the difference would reveal itself to be extremely significant — an [S] rank had a 5 to 10 percent higher chance of becoming an IN mecha operator.
Based on this point alone, Ling Lan truly deserved ’all out cultivation’ from the military.
Lan Luofeng finally let out a sigh of relief. Although she had had confidence in Ling Lan, she still couldn’t help but feel a little unsettled before the results were confirmed.
By this time, Ling Suren could not help but know that he had fallen into Lan Luofeng’s trap. His face flushed with anger, and he sorely wished that he could slice Lan Luofeng up into little pieces. On the other hand, Lan Luofeng faced him fearlessly. The Ling family would never have the guts to make a move with the two official representatives here.
Lan Luofeng said shortly, "Ling Suren, you know the way out!" Since she had already decided to cut all ties with the Ling family, there was no point in forcing herself to make nice with them anymore.
"Hmph, let us go!" Seeing the disdain on most of the visitors’ faces, Ling Suren knew that they had overstayed their welcome. There was no reason to linger, so he took his men and left.