Chapter 127.2: A Beginning and an End Part 2
Clearly intending to turn his frustration into appetite, after sitting down, Tom didn’t stop eating. It was like a starving ghost had taken possession of him. In no time, he single-handedly wiped out two refrigerators’ worth of food. If the cold storage hadn’t had enough stock, everyone would have been forced to order takeout for the next few days.
But he was relatively easygoing. Before long, he had already gotten familiar with everyone. Holding a bottle of alcohol and gulping it down nonstop, whenever he talked about his past experiences, he became animated and expressive. Battles in the Central Lands, deep incursions into the Empire, prison breaks in the Federation—all of it sounded impressively real given the detailed descriptions. Even though the names clearly sounded fake, at least the experience felt genuine.
Dirty work or hard work, he had done it all. In his words, this kind of protection job was basically a vacation.
After all, these days, money was hard to earn without connections. For large groups of mercenaries, it was even harder. If you didn’t care about dying, you could at least make enough money to fund your funeral, but sometimes the real skill was figuring out how to stay alive long enough to actually get paid.
Guarding an oil field, a job so lucrative, would be fought over like crazy even within the regular military. The outside freelancers wouldn’t even have a chance. Not even the scraps picked off the wall would be left for them.
Most of the time, large mercenary groups were the ones taking the worst beatings, suffering the harshest setbacks, and earning the least amount of money. After all, in today’s world, in Central Lands alone, an eleven- or twelve-year-old kid with a scavenged submachine gun could already take on jobs. In the usual sense, killing and arson had almost no professional barriers or entry thresholds. If you wouldn’t do it, plenty of people would.
No wonder Silan and the other knights had treasured Young Master Lou so much. A job with high pay and little hassle was simply too damn rare. Landing a stable, long-term client you could rely on was enough to feed an entire knight order for decades. Even if Silan had to die, he couldn’t let anything happen to Young Master Lou. Otherwise, after the boss died, the other knights would tear him apart.
Unlike Silan’s formal Central Lands military background where they took side jobs, Tom was a lone operator. People like him usually called themselves wandering knights. To put it simply, they were street drifters within the mercenary groups, or, in the eyes of the Empire and Federation, roaming criminals, which were bottom-tier in the hierarchy of the entire mercenary world.
Out here, whether you had real skills came second. The main traits were dirty hands, thick skin, a black heart, and fast legs.
Tom claimed his family had been loyal followers of Swarm for generations, and that his ancestors had once been prominent, even maintaining their own knight order, but by his generation the family had fallen into decline. The tragic past was best left unspoken.
“When my ancestors served under the Eternal Dynasty, my great-great-great-grandfather was appointed Grand Marshal! That was proper nobility, you know!”
When boasting about his lineage, Tom spoke with such exaggerated flair that even the simple-minded Blondie looked on in admiration, going “ohh, ohh” in awe. Only Ji Jue couldn’t bear to correct him; after all, the Eternal Empire had a cabinet system, and there had never been any position called “Grand Marshal.”
After they finished getting acquainted, Mr. Lin came over again, accompanied by an assistant pushing a trolley.
“These are the items you requested. Please check if they’re sufficient.”
Placed first in front of Tom were several heavy leather cases. When opened, they revealed rows of swords and blades, all gleaming coldly, sharp and imposing, with spirit matter flowing faintly through them.
While not to the level of granting blessings, the materials were solid, and the craftsmanship was meticulous. They were clearly proper alchemical works and of no low grade.
Aside from Tom, everyone else received their own share as well. The blond man received a necklace set with a ruby as large as a pigeon’s egg. Its etheric fluctuations were wild and intense, clearly meant to enhance abilities. A Yi received two crystal prisms. When light refracted through them, it scattered into countless dazzling shards of brilliance.
An Ran was given a full box of alchemically treated daggers, clearly custom-made for throwing. The material was far superior to the cheap iron blades he had been using before.
When it came to Ji Jue, however, there was nothing. Mr. Lin simply took him down to the underground garage and pushed open a long-sealed door, revealing the space beyond.
“As far as I know, Ember practitioners usually need some auxiliary support. Do you think these are enough?”
Ji Jue stared, dumbfounded. “Huh?”
Beyond the door was a fully stocked collection of equipment: furnaces, liquefaction reactors, probes, engraving stations, and all kinds of standard processing tools. Everything was right there. And all of it was nearly new, carefully maintained and calibrated. Once tuned, they were even more usable than brand-new equipment.
Aside from the absence of high-end core systems like a workshop core or an ether furnace, it was basically a fully functional, albeit modest, workshop. If Professor Ye or Mr. Ball were here, they would have scoffed and asked, “What garbage is this? Don’t insult me.”
But the one standing here was Ji Jue.
For someone who had nothing, this was perfect. His level didn’t require anything more advanced anyway, so giving him high-end gear would just be a waste. These were more than enough. Not to mention, everything was already stocked with properly matched materials.
“After this is over, you won’t need any of it anymore,” Mr. Lin said quietly beside his ear. “If it’s convenient, just help dispose of it.”
“Huh?” Ji Jue still hadn’t processed what he was seeing. His mind once again went blank.
A business card slipped into his pocket.
“Also, during this period, if you have any other needs, just call this number and give the instructions. As long as it’s something commonly available on the market, there shouldn’t be any problem.”
“Ah, well... that’s a bit...” Ji Jue half-heartedly tried to refuse, then reluctantly stuffed the card into his pocket.
“Anything else you’d like us to handle?” Mr. Lin asked with a smile. “I’ll try my best to arrange everything for you.”
Ji Jue turned back to look at him. “Isn’t this a bit too generous? I’m not a professional. I’m just here as a kind of mascot for the boss. If I can’t win, I’ll run. Please don’t expect too much from me.”
Mr. Lin shook his head firmly. “Those guys are Mr. Chen’s employees. You are Yubo’s friend. Naturally, you are different.”
Ji Jue sighed.
He turned and closed the door. In the silence behind it, after a moment of thought, he still couldn’t help asking, “With arrangements this thorough, shouldn’t all of this be prioritized for Mr. Chen instead?”
“There are other arrangements for the boss. Moreover, his condition is unknown, and the future is uncertain. According to his prior instructions, Yubo’s safety comes first,” Mr. Lin answered without hesitation.
Ji Jue shook his head. “What’s the point of all this?”
“Yubo is the boss’s only family, his younger brother. What else could there be to gain from that?”
“And you?”
Since he had already said it out loud, Ji Jue didn’t bother being polite. Especially after everything he had seen today, it all felt too strange. On the surface, it seemed reasonable, but there was always something subtly off, something that defied logic.
Whether it was the meeting that looked like reassurance but functioned like a breakup, or this excessively generous preparation, it made him start questioning Mr. Lin’s intentions.
“Chen Xingzhou is lying in the hospital, and no one knows if he will survive. Chen Yubo is indecisive, lacking strategy, only thinking about how to feed his cats once his money runs out. So what about you, Mr. Lin? As a follower of White Deer, don’t you have any other thoughts at a time like this?”
Mr. Lin finally stopped smiling. Or rather, when the gentle façade faded away, what remained was his true expression: cold, calm, and unwavering. Those pitch-black eyes looked at Ji Jue for a long time. Then, the corner of his mouth seemed to curl slightly.
“Rest assured, Mr. Ji. I watched Yubo grow up. I never married, never had children. He’s like my nephew. I would never harm him. As for you, I understand you don’t want to be involved with the Wasteland Assembly. I can also guarantee that once this period passes and Yubo is safe, you will not have any trouble either. Even if this old body of mine can’t hold on, I will not drag unrelated people into trouble.”
It sounded reasonable, and even perhaps sincere. Perhaps it wasn’t, but Ji Jue didn’t really care. The moment he chose to get involved in Chen Yubo’s mess, he had already prepared for the consequences.
Worst case, he’d just pack up and disappear back into his workshop and never come out again. Lei Yaoxing? No matter how powerful you are, what can you do to me? Come bite me in North Mount District? That’s what having two hotshots backing you up feels like. That’s why I’m confident. Get it?
“Then what about you?” Ji Jue asked. “I...”
After a brief silence, Mr. Lin gave a self-mocking smile. “I’ve slogged away for half my life. I’m getting old, got no ambitions or dreams left to speak of. The bosses I’ve followed, adding them all up, there’ve been eight or nine, if not eleven or twelve. Not a single one had a good ending. That’s just how the White Deer Path is. One night you rise to fame, the next you’re a corpse on the street. If I really had to say, I just want a proper beginning and a proper end.”
Ji Jue said nothing more, watching as Mr. Lin walked away. Only much later did he smack his forehead, finally realizing, damn, looks like the case is solved! Was Chen Xingzhou done in by you?
***
“I’ve noticed something. People who get involved with you usually don’t end well.”
That afternoon, at another remote dock outside Cliff City, Mr. Lin, who had been waiting for a long time, leaned against his car as he smoked. At last, he saw a car stop in the distance, and a gaunt old man stepped out.
The moment they met, the man launched straight into a complaint at Mr. Lin. His hair was completely white, and he yawned, as if he hadn’t slept in ages. His eyes were bloodshot, and there was still blood stuck in his unwashed hair.
“Making a bit of damn money off you people is seriously troublesome. At my age, still working this long... Chen Xingzhou still has a breath left in him, but I almost got taken out by him instead.”
The old man staggered as he walked, like he was dizzy, needing to brace himself against the wall every couple of steps. “I’ve done everything I can. If anything else happens, don’t blame me. I’m not the King of Hell, I don’t control the Book of Life and Death.”
“Doctor, thank you for your hard work. Here’s the agreed payment, doubled.” Mr. Lin gestured for the subordinate behind him to bring over the payment, then pointed at the plain, unremarkable boat behind them. “Everything’s arranged. You can reach Tide City tonight.”
The old man counted the money in the case. “Even though a doctor shouldn’t say this, I’ve got no damn medical ethics anyway, so just bear with it. Using that vial of panacea[1] on him was a waste. That stuff can keep a high-level Chosen One alive with a single shot. Using it on an ordinary person like him is a total fucking waste.
“With his level of recovery, even with the ‘hospital’s’ tech, he won’t survive the aftereffects. Even if he does make it, he’ll just be left in a vegetative state. Hell knows when he’ll wake up. I really don’t get what you’re after.”
“As long as he’s alive, that’s enough.” Mr. Lin smiled, completely at ease. “If he’s alive, there’s a future.”
The old man froze, unable to understand. “You’ve got that much confidence in him?”
Mr. Lin lit a cigarette and exhaled a thin wisp of smoke. “It’s not me. It’s he who believes in himself. He once told me a person’s life has to be held in their own hands. No one gets to take it away. Now the chance to prove it has come.”
He paused, staring at the vast city across the blue sea in the distance. “Let’s see if he can do it.”
1. A panacea refers to any supposed remedy claimed to cure all diseases or solve all problems. The term originates from Greek mythology, where Panacea (or Panakeia) was the goddess of universal healing. ☜
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