Dragon Clan: I am Lu Mingfei, the Intelligence Strategist, the God of Concepts!

Chapter 247 Appetizer
This Rolls-Royce is the standard model.

The back seat has only two light pink soft seats, and the space in the middle is replaced by an automatic cabinet with mahogany decoration.

It's hard to imagine that Elizabeth Laurent would choose girlish colors for her decorations.

However, it seems that no matter how strong or weak a girl's appearance is, she is likely to have a girlish heart hidden beneath. Lu Mingfei thought to himself that his first visit to Su Xiaoqiang's bedroom was quite unexpected.

"Would you like something to drink?" Elizabeth asked.

She seemed quite calm and natural about Angers' sudden departure, showing no sign of being surprised, or perhaps Angers had told her something beforehand.

After the 'Time Zero' domain ended, she only stood there stunned for a short while.
She then invited Lu Mingfei to get into her car alone.

Lu Mingfei had no reason to refuse.

After all, in a sense, Angers' nonsense has some merit, and it would be good to gain the support of a school board member outside of the incident... Of course, selling one's body is out of the question, and it's obvious that he doesn't need to do that.

"No need, it's only a short drive," Lu Mingfei declined.

"Ok."

Elizabeth looked directly into Lu Mingfei's eyes, then asked, "Would you mind if we talked for a bit alone?"

Lu Mingfei paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "Of course."

Elizabeth nodded slightly and gave a wink to the driver's seat. The A-class mixed-race driver, who was also her bodyguard, did not hesitate at all and skillfully lowered the custom-made partition in the car, separating the driver's seat from the back seat. At the same time, the shadow curtain of the car window opened, blocking the view of the people on the street.

So that's what it meant to have a private chat.

Lu Mingfei was somewhat surprised.
This screen has excellent sound insulation, making it suitable for concealing secrets that cannot be heard by the driver. The screen also has alchemical patterns, somewhere between an alchemical creation and a scientific creation, which can block various forms of external detection.

In other words, he and the duchess of the Laurent family are now completely isolated in this cramped space of less than 2 square meters.

Duchess Laurent's decision could be described as somewhat 'reckless,' after all, she and Lu Mingfei did not know each other. She was a non-combat A-class hybrid, while Lu Mingfei was an S-class hybrid officially recognized by Angers.

Whether for her own safety or to avoid suspicion, she shouldn't have made such a decision, but she still chose to separate the two before officially starting the conversation, and the driver did so without any hesitation.

The back seat fell silent instantly, with only the slight push-back sensation from the seatback indicating that the vehicle had started moving. Lu Mingfei made no attempt to avoid meeting Elizabeth's gaze—her light blue eyes, painted with black eyeliner and with an icy undertone.

Elizabeth was also observing him.

Observing her up close, from an artistic perspective, the girl is indeed very beautiful. For a moment, Lu Mingfei seemed to see a resemblance to Mai Shude in her. The two are roughly equal in style, temperament, and appearance; they both wear heavy and domineering makeup, exuding a queen-like aura.

The difference is that one has a Western face and the other has an Eastern face; one is noble and imposing, the other is alluring and captivating.

A moment later, Lu Mingfei turned his gaze away, a polite gesture for a boy. However, he could still smell the unique fragrance emanating from the girl in the narrow space. If Angers were here, he might be able to accurately identify the details of the top and base notes, but unfortunately, Lu Mingfei had no knowledge of such things.

There's an embedded LCD screen on the back of the front seat, displaying something similar to the red and green lines on a stock exchange chart. I don't quite understand it, but it looks familiar. Now she looks like a potato chip girl again...

A combination of Potato Chip Girl and Mai Shuu?

Lu Mingfei had a rough idea of ​​what he was about to face.

"Let's get down to business, Ms. Laurent."

He broke the silence between them by speaking first, his tone calm and gentle.

“First of all, I want to apologize to you,” Elizabeth said with a smile.

"why?"

"Because I lied to you just now; Charlotte didn't praise you as a fine boy."

Elizabeth said calmly:
"Of course, please don't misunderstand. Charlotte is an excellent noblewoman. She would never do something like talking badly about someone behind their back. In fact, the truth is that she didn't mention you to me."

Lu Mingfei stared in astonishment.

Looking into the other person's gentle eyes, he roughly realized what was going on, and found it somewhat amusing.

"Because she didn't want to speak ill of others behind their backs, but she didn't bring me up either, does that mean she was dissatisfied with me during that meeting in Europe?"

Elizabeth smiled without saying a word.

Lu Mingfei sighed: "Okay, but I'm serious, Charlotte is indeed a very cute girl."

“Then I thank you on her behalf,” Elizabeth said with a smile.

"Actually, I initially thought that Angers would nominate a young lion who was even more arrogant than himself. I was already prepared to dislike you before I even met you, because young people are always arrogant."

"now what?"

“In me the tiger sniffs the rose,” Elizabeth recited a line of English poetry.

This quote comes from "To Me, Past, Present and Future" by British poet Siegfried Sassoon.

Lu Mingfei remained noncommittal: "But you're a young person too."

"So in the past I was arrogant and dismissive of everyone. If I hadn't been like that, I would have suffered a great loss at the board meeting."

"If you're not proud, you'll attract provocation and contempt?" Lu Mingfei raised an eyebrow.

“Perhaps it will be even worse. Like in the jungle, showing weakness means being hunted down. If you are not strong enough, you will be swallowed up without even leaving bones.” Elizabeth’s voice was soft. “Perhaps it is due to cultural differences. I have read your information. You are Chinese. Chinese people value modesty and humility. They are like tigers crouching on the mountain, lying still and not moving. But the Secret Party is essentially a European Secret Party. Most people here are flamboyant, and they must be flamboyant.”

"Is this a reminder?" Lu Mingfei asked.

“If you want to think that way, that’s fine. I said the same thing to Charlotte when she first represented Gottingen at the conference.”

"Well... thank you," Lu Mingfei said slowly.

"You're welcome," Elizabeth smiled.

"I think you didn't just want to say that."

Lu Mingfei pointed to the partitions and curtains around him.

If it was a well-intentioned reminder, there was no need to go to such lengths. It wouldn't matter if the driver overheard it, although she always felt that the other party seemed to have misunderstood her. Perhaps Angers hadn't explained what she was going to do next clearly.

However, this doesn't preclude accepting this well-intentioned opening, since the atmosphere and relationship are indeed not as unfamiliar as they were at the beginning.

"Okay, let's get down to business."

Elizabeth said, "Why did you suddenly decide to take action against the Gattuso family? To what extent do you intend to go—remove them from the board of trustees, or wipe them out completely? How did you convince Frost?"

Sure enough, we've gotten to the point.

Such a direct series of three questions also means that Lu Mingfei completely misunderstood Elizabeth.

The other party was not as ignorant as Lu Mingfei imagined.
On the contrary, Angers trusted this ally and had already taken strong precautions in advance.

"What's your opinion?" Lu Mingfei asked in return.

“I need to know whose side I’m on at tomorrow’s meeting,” she replied.

Lu Mingfei slowly leaned back in the soft chair and took a breath.

"Help me, help Angers, and help everyone," he said.

"So that's how you persuaded Frost?" Elizabeth asked.

“You can understand it that way,” Lu Mingfei said.

“Angers wouldn’t propose such a motion, so I guess you persuaded him. Of course, I don’t want to use words like ‘incite’ or ‘instigate,’ even though I really want to say it that way,” Elizabeth said calmly.

But you've already said it... Lu Mingfei shrugged.

Elizabeth is clearly a smart person. It's easy to communicate with smart people; they can make connections, they know their limits, and they can stop digging too deep in places they shouldn't.

This is certainly a good thing; otherwise, Lu Mingfei would be unsure whether he should reveal the Gattuso family's secret to Elizabeth in order to bind her to this cause.

After all, some secrets in the world have a 'polluting' effect.

Once the secret becomes known to too many people, the risk of premature detonation of the pollution increases significantly.
This is a problem that Angers has been considering for a long time.

Lu Mingfei now agrees with this.

Just like the Painted Skin Ghost in the movie, once too many people know the truth, they will reveal more and more flaws to the ghost, and things will soon reach an irreversible point.

But now, when it comes to Angers, Elizabeth seems less 'smart'.

It wasn't unexpected, after all, she wasn't even willing to hide this 'secret'. Everyone knew it, and perhaps only Angers was kept in the dark, or pretended not to know.

“How much do you know about Frost Gattuso?” Elizabeth asked.

“The Gattuso family’s representative, one of the temporary school board members, also wields considerable power within the school board.”

"What about his identity within Gattuso?"

Lu Mingfei replied, "The acting head of the family, the real head of the family and school board member, is Pompeii Gattuso. Frost is just Pompeii's younger brother. Because Pompeii Gattuso is always wandering and unruly, he has been in charge of all the affairs of the Gattuso family for many years."

“In that case, you should know that even if you persuade Frost, Pompeii can call a halt at any time,” Elizabeth said softly.

"of course."

Lu Mingfei said.

"But I expect him to come out and call a halt."

As soon as she finished speaking, Elizabeth frowned and silently activated the 'Spirit of Strategies' in her mind.

To be honest, she was stunned when Angers mentioned his plan to take action against the Gattuso family over an encrypted phone call that day. This was completely contrary to Angers' usual style. Normally, it would be more like Gattuso would take action against Angers, after all, the old man's annual expense reports were so shocking.

It's hard not to think that there are treacherous villains offering slanderous advice behind the scenes, and now it's obvious who those villains are.

But Lu Mingfei's reaction and the information he provided once again shattered her expectations.

The old man and this young man... are they actually serious?
"Could you tell me the real reason behind this?" Elizabeth finally couldn't help but ask.

The Spirit of Words and Strategies possesses strong logical reasoning abilities, but even with such abilities, it cannot unravel the fantastical truth with extremely limited information.

“You are someone Angers trusts, so in principle I can tell you,” Lu Mingfei said.

Elizabeth waited quietly for what was to come.

Sure enough, Lu Mingfei continued, "But for the sake of the bigger picture, and for your own sake, I suggest you don't delve into it further for now..."

"Just believe and do it?"

"Yes."

Lu Mingfei admitted, "Of course, if you really want to know, I can tell you now. After all, we are allies, and we have to give each other some trust."

Elizabeth leaned back slightly, and a slight ripple appeared in her cold eyes beneath the black eyeliner, as if she were seriously considering Lu Mingfei's words.

Lu Mingfei didn't rush him. He had been keeping track of the time since getting in the car. The drive from the town gate to the Splendid Hotel was about ten minutes, and that was their destination. Eight minutes had already passed. A moment later, Elizabeth skillfully concealed the complex emotions in her eyes, reverting to the dignified and aloof demeanor of the head of the Laurent family, just as she had when they first met.

"Alright, then I trust the decisions of our 'ally'."

Elizabeth bit down hard on the word.

"But my personal advice is not to underestimate your enemies, nor to overestimate your allies. Before the dust settles, I hope you don't expect to gain too much from the Laurent family in advance."

"Then what is the truth?"

"There are countless truths in this world, some beneficial, some harmful, and some insignificant. My thirst for knowledge has not reached the point where I must explore everything."

Elizabeth repeated, "I trust the decisions of our allies."

Lu Mingfei nodded slightly.

"I understand."

He finally understood what Elizabeth meant.

The Laurent family may offer assistance if things go smoothly, but don't expect them to go all the way with them. This means that if things don't go so well, Elizabeth might abstain from voting this time, acting as an outsider.

Besides the votes for and against, the Board of Trustees also has the concept of 'abstention votes,' which she did not tell Angers, but instead told Lu Mingfei face to face.

These two guys...

Lu Mingfei suddenly felt a headache coming on.
He seemed to understand why Angers was rushing even for just a few minutes, leaving early.

A moment of silence,

"Thank you, Ms. Elizabeth,"

Lu Mingfei said, "However, besides this board meeting, I also want to establish some superficial connections with the Laurent family."

Elizabeth's delicate brows furrowed, and she looked directly into Lu Mingfei's eyes as she asked:

What is the link?

"I've heard that the Laurent family is the true leader in the European mining industry; perhaps we can have some exchanges in the mining business..."

Lu Mingfei shrugged and said:
"I mean if you can support a mining company across the ocean, I can offer help in other areas."

"?"

Elizabeth's black veil covering her face visibly trembled slightly.

……

The car door opened from the outside, and a pair of white gloves rested on the leather door frame, waiting for their distinguished owner and guests to alight.

"Here we are."

Elizabeth cast her last glance at Lu Mingfei's calm face. "I'm sorry I couldn't give you the answer you were hoping for, but I sincerely hope you get what you want."

“I understand.” Lu Mingfei watched as the girl bowed slightly as she stepped out of the car, her gold high heels making a crisp sound on the marble floor.

At that moment, Lu Mingfei's rear car door opened from the outside.

"How did the chat go?"

Angers appeared beside the car, looking at him with a smile.

"Just as you imagined," Lu Mingfei said irritably as he bent down to get out of the car.

“What I thought?” Angers’ expression froze for a moment.

"Shouldn't you have known this already? Elizabeth Laurent is a smart, beautiful, and sometimes even cute girl on the surface, but she is already mature inside. She knows what real interests are and how to get everything she wants."

"Uh……"

Angers paused noticeably, glanced at the girl's graceful retreating figure, and tentatively said:
"It seems your conversation...didn't go very well?"

"Stop pretending. Don't you know whether things are going smoothly or not?"

Lu Mingfei rolled his eyes at him: "Otherwise, why did you run away in advance and make me your shield?"

"Fortunately, she didn't try to blackmail anyone, and even voluntarily gave up some of her benefits."

Lu Mingfei was not surprised by Elizabeth's true attitude. After all, she represented the entire Laurent family, a business empire with millions of people. As a mature woman who still harbored great ambitions for power, she would not be easily swayed by emotions and clearly did not want to get involved in this mess.

Angers, who probably also cared about this 'younger generation' of the Laurent family, did not intend to use the other party to manipulate his special mindset, so he chose to let Lu Mingfei talk to Elizabeth.

Even when they got out of the car just now, it was as if the two of them didn't see each other at all.

Fortunately, the final result wasn't too bad. Although Laurent didn't firmly commit to this scheme, he was at least nominally on their side and was willing to unconditionally agree to Lu Mingfei's small 'link' proposal.

Compared to the Oliveira family, Laurent is truly at the height of his power in Europe. By leveraging the mining business of the Su Group, the two sides have forged a closer relationship, laying the foundation for further cooperation in the future.

"As long as there is something to gain."

Angers gave an awkward smile. He felt that Lu Mingfei had probably misunderstood something, but there seemed to be no point in arguing at this point.

"The bad news is that things aren't going too well on my end either."

……

Contrary to Lu Mingfei's expectations, Angers did not completely desert.

However, he was indeed more suited to the title of "quick shooter" than anyone else. He had already met with the people from the four founding families and was not at the Splendid Hotel.

Angers was an old man who lived to be 130 years old; most of the elders were his contemporaries.

Unlike the Board of Trustees, which is new and young, the Council of Elders is a product of history. They dislike 'openness' and would never choose a touristy location like Portofino if they were making the decision.

At least deep within the church, in the Iron and Stone House, surrounded by alchemical patterns and transformed into a fortress, one can avoid attacks from pure-blooded dragons or hostile hybrid forces.

"A cup of black coffee with triple caffeine, please!"

As Angers passed through the port, they spotted four elderly men with white hair on the terrace of a cruise ship. They were dressed in black formal attire, wearing top hats, with gold-chained pocket watches tucked into their vests, and holding pipes. They were sitting around an open-air café with a panoramic view, chatting quietly.

Funerals, dragons, power, and so on...

Angers had very sensitive ears and easily discerned the key words from the slowed-down notes in the air, then decisively darted into the cabin.

The four of them were clearly prepared for his arrival.

"At your age, why are you still drinking this kind of beverage? Don't you want to live too long?"

Beowulf said coldly that Angers is now the real power holder in the Secret Service and the Academy, but when it comes to family history, the elders still consider themselves superior.

"So I'm thinking of adding some whiskey."

Angers smiled and took Beowulf's wine jug.

"The principal is still as theatrical as ever. Didn't you study drama at Cambridge?" St. George teased.

“Mr. St. George, are you alluding to my romantic escapades in the drama club? It seems you’ve done some research on me.”

"The headmaster is just telling us in this way that we are old guys who have been abandoned by the times, while he is still very trendy, can still drink black coffee with three times the caffeine concentration of whiskey, and ride in cars and dance with young female students," Sigurd said, seemingly trying to smooth things over.

"Is dancing and riding in a car something to brag about?" Beowulf sneered. "Is it because our knees are so old that we can't walk without crutches?"

Sigurd shook his head: "My dear friend, you've missed the point. The point isn't dancing, but that young girls are willing to dance with you. Angers is the youngest among us, and he's handsome and dashing, but I bet Miss Vera wouldn't want to dance with you, would she?"

Beowulf, with his disheveled hair resembling a lion, was speechless. Vera was his great-granddaughter, something Sigurd had only mentioned casually, but he truly felt as if an arrow had struck his knee.

“Alright everyone, the headmaster isn’t the kind of person who spends his time on socializing. At least compared to Miss Elizabeth, we old folks would only annoy him,” Cadmus said.

Angers smiled and said, "I'd like to get straight to the point: why did you choose to come out at this time?"

"Did someone extend an invitation to you?"

"Does Principal Angers think we have no right to interfere with the board of directors?" Beowulf said coldly.

"No, it's just that the timing surprised me."

Angers shrugged. "To be honest, if I were you, I should have been studying how to reclaim the power that rightfully belongs to us in the new world order half a century ago."

“I really like the word ‘belongs to,’” Beowulf said.
The others quieted down; there was no doubt that the elder families were now on the same side.

"Unfortunately, it's too late now."

Angers took a sip of his black coffee mixed with alcohol, and his brows visibly furrowed.

"Modern society is an era that values ​​contributions and achievements. You can't wait until everything is fully ripe before you pick the fruit."

"Fully mature?"

"Yes, Kassel College is on the right track, and 99% of dragon-related incidents worldwide are being handled properly. In today's information explosion, a single New York Times article contains more information than a person in the 17th century received in a lifetime, yet even so, no rumors of dragons have surfaced."

Angers said, "If you're trying to intimidate someone with achievements from hundreds or thousands of years ago, I suggest you forget about it."

"You forgot to mention another achievement: the Secret Party has been suffering repeated defeats under the Orthodox invasion. The opponent is constantly expanding with a large number of powerful but seemingly low-cost alchemical creations. Not to mention other continents, just in the core European region alone, they have already lost more than 13% of their 'resource lands', and this is in less than a year."

Beowulf said in a low voice, "The proper handling of 99% of dragon incidents is not solely due to the efforts of the Kassel College Executive Department, and their contribution will become increasingly smaller in the future."

"That's called strategic depth."

The other party had clearly come prepared and done thorough research, but Angers shrugged, completely unconcerned.
"If the orthodox forces want to rise, you can't completely stop them, nor can you stop them."

"A minor skirmish?" Beowulf raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, it’s just a small-scale operation.” Ang Zhe nodded.

"Then take a look at this."

Beowulf pulled a stack of documents from under the table. “Sometimes I wonder if Principal Angers, you’ve forgotten your original intention of slaying the dragon and have become intoxicated by the gentle embrace of academia, actually saying something like ‘the time is ripe’.”

“The myth of Nidhogg has never been broken. The four kings are returning. How can the time be ripe? Yet you choose to slack off at this time, and are even willing to give up the power and authority that you should have held.”

Beowulf stared intently at Angers with chilling eyes.

"Do you really think those Deadpools and crippled guys count as dragons? What makes you so smug?"

"Before the four great monarchs."

Angers looked down at the documents on the table and quickly flipped through the titles:
"2005-2008 Yangtze River Basin Survey Report", "Bronze City Relics Profile Analysis Map"
Preliminary Exploration Results and Data Measurement of Dragon Nests...

The Annihilation Plan of the King of Bronze and Fire.

(End of this chapter)