238: Chapter 239 Young Master, Have a Safe Journey

The boyfriend was completely stunned, the straw he had just picked up frozen in mid-air, his mind a complete blank:

"Wait... babe, I... what did I do wrong?"

"If I did something wrong, tell me, I can change!"

"You didn't do anything wrong, I just don't think we're a good match." The girl coldly shifted her gaze, her tone devoid of any fluctuation. "There is no future for us."

With that, she grabbed her bag and walked away on her high heels without looking back, leaving her boyfriend alone in the cold wind of the cold drink shop, staring in disarray at the cup of Mango Pomelo Sago with the straw already inserted.

...

Compared to those with high compatibility, those who tested with extremely low compatibility were naturally filled with disappointment and burning with rage.

In an apartment in Jianghai City, the owner of a "Duke Zhou Support Group" with hundreds of members was staring at her phone with a dark expression.

She had just tested it with high expectations, but a glaring "3%" popped up on the screen, accompanied by a System comment: "Shallow fate, strangers on different paths."

Before she could even recover from the disappointment, the core group chat with her best friends that she had created started pinging non-stop.

"Oh my, I tested at 42%. Although it's not a passing grade, it shows that I have a tiny bit of fate with Duke Zhou, so happy!"

"Wow, I'm at 58%! Just a little bit away from passing! Duke Zhou, wait for me!"

"I only got 62%, but I just posted the screenshot on my Moments, and so many people are liking it, it's so annoying."

...

Watching these people in the group chat chattering non-stop, the group owner's hand holding the phone trembled slightly.

Looking at those screenshots, she felt increasingly stifled. She just felt that these people who usually claimed to be her best friends were now all hideous, absolute green tea bitches!

They clearly knew she had the lowest compatibility score, yet they were still here pretending to comfort her. In reality, who knows how smugly they were laughing behind their phone screens!

The group owner's anger grew the more she thought about it, and a nameless rage surged straight to her head.

"Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!"

Without a word, she opened the group management interface and, with lightning speed, kicked all the best friends who were chatting the most out of the group, then immediately disbanded the group.

"What are you so smug about! It's all fake! A wild chicken wants to turn into a Phoenix? Pfft!"

The group owner muttered through gritted teeth and reached out to click on the website to test again, attempting to salvage some dignity.

However, this time when she clicked refresh, the webpage would no longer load, leaving only a small spinning chrysanthemum icon endlessly rotating in the center of the screen.

Because in the past ten minutes, millions of concurrent users, like her, frantically refreshing, had directly burned through this makeshift, rudimentary server with tens of millions of concurrent traffic.

The website had completely crashed!

...

The public opinion on the internet was so lively it was almost absurd, while the atmosphere in reality seemed even more surreal.

Upon learning that the Royal Palace Congress in the Forbidden City was about to be held in two days, the eyes of the entire nation and even the world were locked onto this ancient imperial city.

Countless citizens of the Great Han Nation, in order to witness this historic moment with their own eyes, began frantically fighting for tickets and train tickets to the Forbidden City.

For Lin Xiaoxiao, an ordinary Lord in Jianghai City, the process of grabbing tickets was simply a nightmare.

At first, she intended to grab a plane ticket.

But when she skillfully opened the airline's ticket booking interface, the webpage that should have opened in a second spun for over a dozen times in the center of the screen before slowly opening.

When the page finally loaded, Lin Xiaoxiao took a closer look, and her heart immediately sank.

Sold out!

Not only were all direct flights from Jianghai to the Forbidden City displayed in gray, but even all the remote routes requiring two or three transfers, including first class and economy, had all been snapped up, leaving not a single seat left.

"No way..."

Lin Xiaoxiao gritted her teeth and, without hesitation, immediately switched to the railway ticket booking app.

But this ticket booking app was just like the airline's webpage; because of the overwhelming number of people flooding in, the circle symbolizing loading spun for a long time before laggingly opening the train schedule list.

However, this time, there was still a glimmer of hope; a line of small green text actually lit up on the screen:

[Jianghai to Forbidden City, Train G1024, remaining second-class seats: 64.]

"There are still tickets!"

Lin Xiaoxiao was overjoyed. Without time to think, her finger tapped the ticket booking button with a blurred motion.

However, the payment interface did not pop up on the screen; instead, a prompt box with a red exclamation mark abruptly appeared:

[System prompt: Insufficient tickets, order submission failed, please re-select the train.]

"It clearly said there were 64 left, how is it sold out?!"

"What kind of trash System is this!!!"

Lin Xiaoxiao stomped her feet in anger and immediately went back to refresh.

With this refresh, the originally bright green "64" instantly turned into a cold gray, displaying zero.

No more bullet trains to take either!

But Lin Xiaoxiao's mind turned quickly. She remembered that just across the street from where she lived was the Jianghai City long-distance bus station.

Online ticket booking was definitely out of the question, but maybe the offline manual counters would still have some reserved temporary bus tickets?

Thinking of this, she grabbed her coat and rushed downstairs in a hurry.

But as soon as she reached the street, she was dumbfounded.

The usually crowded old street had completely turned into a giant parking lot today. All vehicles were stuck dead in the middle of the road, horns blaring one after another, and traffic had already fallen into paralysis.

Lin Xiaoxiao could only run all the way along the sidewalk in her sneakers.

When she ran panting into the ticket hall of the long-distance bus station, the scene before her left her completely desperate.

The entire ticket hall was overcrowded. There were over a dozen lines of people waiting to buy tickets, stretching from the innermost window of the hall, even spilling directly onto the steps outside the hall!

The hall was incredibly noisy, and almost everyone was shouting the same sentence at the ticket clerks with red necks:

"Are there any tickets to the Forbidden City?!"

"Any time is fine! I'll even take a standing ticket!"

"My roommate wanted to see me go to the Forbidden City before they died! Brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, grandpas and grandmas, please fulfill my roommate's wish!!"

...

Lin Xiaoxiao prided herself on not being weak, but in front of these layers upon layers of human waves, she used all her strength, yet couldn't even squeeze through the door of the ticket hall and was directly pushed back by the surging crowd.

She leaned against a stone pillar outside the bus station, dejected, her eyes red.

"I just want to meet Duke Zhou... why is it so hard..."

Just as she was nearly desperate and ready to give up, a middle-aged man with a vigilant expression suddenly walked up to the intersection outside the bus station and shouted at the top of his lungs:

"Anyone going to the Forbidden City? Carpooling! Private SUV, delivering directly to the outskirts of the Forbidden City!"

"Two seats left! Five thousand each, hurry if you want one, we leave as soon as you get in!"

Lin Xiaoxiao trembled all over and suddenly looked up.

Five thousand!

Hearing this number, her first reaction was that this guy was extremely black-hearted; five thousand was usually enough for a round trip in first class.

But before she could curse the words "black-hearted profiteer," several young people nearby who also hadn't bought tickets went crazy, scrambling to pounce on him:

"I want one! I'll pay fifty-five hundred! Take me!"

"I'll pay six thousand! Let me get in the car first!"

Lin Xiaoxiao was startled and didn't dare to hesitate, hurriedly shouting:

"I'll pay five thousand! I'm paying right now! Save one for me!"

In just a few seconds, the remaining two spots in the private car were snapped up.

Because so many people were scrambling for them, even the driver, who originally thought his price of five thousand was very black-hearted, was stunned. Looking at the ten thousand yuan that instantly arrived in his phone, his lips trembled, and he didn't react for a long time.

This real world, seemingly because of the two words "Duke Zhou," had completely fallen into a frenzy that could not be measured by common sense.

...

The next morning, Jianghai City.

The mayor personally led a team to the entrance of the old street, using the highest specification private plane and motorcade to welcome Zhou Yun and send him to the airport to fly to the Forbidden City.

When parting, Zhou Tianhao stood at the entrance of the fruit shop, looking at his son, who was in a formal suit and looked spirited.

He was silent for a long time, and finally just reached out and patted Zhou Yun's shoulder, saying meaningfully:

"Take care of yourself out there. If anything happens, contact home at any time."

"Dad, I know." Zhou Yun smiled gently and nodded.

Behind Zhou Yun, the dozen or so men in black suits who had been guarding the old street with stern expressions suddenly stepped forward in unison.

They stood straight, bowed ninety degrees to Zhou Yun, and their voices were as loud as thunder:

"Young Master, have a safe journey!"

Under their gaze, Zhou Yun endured the goosebumps from embarrassment, got into the car, and slowly drove away under the escort of heavy guards.

Watching the car disappear around the corner, the gentleness in Zhou Tianhao's eyes slowly faded, and he turned around and walked back into the fruit shop.

He looked at the few men in suits remaining in the shop and spoke calmly:

"Prepare yourselves, let's set off too."

The men in suits looked at each other, and the leader asked in a low voice:

"Boss, where are we going?"

Zhou Tianhao brushed the dust off his hands, looked into the distance, and said calmly:

"The Forbidden City."

...

The Forbidden City, this imperial city that had witnessed hundreds of years of the Great Han Nation's ups and downs, was now bustling with noise and excitement.

There were already many tourists here, but since the news of the "Royal Palace Congress is about to be held" spread, the number of tourists and citizens here had shown explosive growth.

Even on the night before the congress, hundreds or thousands of people were already camping out on the roads around the Forbidden City square, holding quilts and wrapped in military coats.

Looking around, it was densely packed with people setting up camp.

In addition to the local citizens of the Great Han Nation, one could also see a large number of foreign media reporters in the crowd, carrying cameras and looking anxious.

Most of them had come upon hearing the news, wanting to obtain first-hand information about the Great Han Nation's Royal Palace Congress as soon as possible, in order to spy on the future strategic direction of the Great Han Nation in the City Lord World.

At the various gates of the Forbidden City, soldiers of the Great Han Nation were also in position early.

They wore crisp military uniforms, held steel rifles, stood guard in formation with live ammunition, and were fully alert.

Every checkpoint and every entrance had undergone extremely rigorous screening.

The cold atmosphere and the murderous aura made people have no doubt that at this moment, even if a mosquito wanted to fly in, it would be blasted into slag by their concentrated fire!

...

Time passed extremely quickly, and in the blink of an eye, the day of the congress arrived.

That morning, the perimeter of the Forbidden City square was packed so tightly that not even water could trickle through.

To ensure absolute safety and the solemnity of the ritual, the military had cleared the area covered by the square in advance, and even the surrounding major traffic arteries had been completely blocked.

Today was destined to be a special day recorded in the history of the Great Han Nation.

Seven o'clock in the morning sharp.

A black Hongqi sedan slowly drove onto the wide main road outside the Forbidden City.

Media reporters who had been waiting for a long time on both sides, upon seeing a vehicle enter, immediately acted like sharks that had smelled blood. The camera flashes flickered frantically with "papapapa" sounds, forming a blinding curtain of light, and the surrounding crowd also erupted in bursts of low exclamations.

"Look! It's here, it's here, it's here!!"

"It's the license plate number of the Duke Nangong family! Duke Nangong's representative has arrived!"

"Is it starting already? So exciting! My heart is beating so fast!!"

...

Before the discussions of the people had died down, the second car slowly drove in.

It was also a license plate of a special Rank.

After identification by the professional media present, it was confirmed again that this was also the vehicle of a Duke's representative.

As time passed, one luxury car after another drove onto the main road, the interval between them extremely precise, obviously having been calculated precisely.

And among the princes and dukes, the Ranks were distinct.

The Rank of Duke is lower than that of a Prince, so their representatives would naturally appear first.

By the time the sixteen Duke representatives had finished entering one by one, the emotions on both sides of the road had been pushed to a peak.

Because next, it was the turn of the Prince representatives.

When the first vehicle representing a Prince's seat drove in, the cheers and the frequency of camera flashes on the scene directly doubled, deafening.

In the Great Han Nation, although Dukes are noble, including the newly promoted Zhou Yun, there are seventeen of them.

But as for Princes, there are only four in the entire Great Han Nation!

Given the Great Han Nation's huge population base, this ratio was exaggerated to the extreme!

Every Prince is a towering pillar that supports the national destiny of the Great Han Nation.

At least for now, in the hearts of ordinary citizens and low-to-mid-level Lords, the four Princes are the true core and future of the Great Han Nation.

"One..."

"Two..."

"Three..."

The surrounding crowd counted silently in their hearts.

However, just as everyone was eagerly looking forward to the appearance of the fourth Prince representative's vehicle, a black Hongqi sedan with the license plate "88888888" abruptly drove into everyone's line of sight.

The moment they saw this license plate, the noise on both sides of the entire main road seemed to have been pressed with a mute button, instantly becoming quiet for a second.

"88888888"...

This number is unique in the entire country.

Anyone who has paid attention to the high-level meetings of the Great Han Nation knows that this license plate is the exclusive vehicle used only when the Royal Palace Congress receives the most core and most noble key figures.

And the most prominent core figure of this meeting, without a doubt, was only one person.

The seventeenth Duke of the Great Han Nation, Duke Zhou, Zhou Yun!