Chapter 1625: Chapter 1927: The Zhu Family’s Predicament (1)
"Why not? You’re the only man around me, who else am I supposed to vent on if not you?"
"Alright, alright, guess I’m just unlucky. How about this, I’ll take you out for a drink, okay? Booze solves sorrows and helps let off steam."
Zhu Qing turned her head away, pouting, "Not going, that’s something you men do, I’m not interested."
Ling Chen asked helplessly, "Then what do you want to do?"
"You help me teach him a lesson." Zhu Qing pointed out of the car window, and saw Lin Ziyang coming out of a fancy restaurant, about to get in his car. Ling Chen rubbed his nose, smiling wryly, "Aren’t you asking me to offend someone?"
"With the Zhu Family backing you up, what are you afraid of? We’ve known each other for so long, I’ve never seen you this cowardly before. Is it because I’m not your woman, so you won’t stick up for me?"
"That’s not it, you’re my friend, if I can, I would definitely help you vent." Ling Chen said, "But I’m just a guest right now, using your Zhu Family’s name to do bad things doesn’t seem right."
"Forget it, I knew you wouldn’t have the guts."
Hearing this, Ling Chen had no choice but to open the car door and stride towards Lin Ziyang’s sports car. Just kidding, was he that cowardly? Seeing Ling Chen walking quickly, Zhu Qing’s expression changed slightly, originally she just wanted to act up a bit, who knew Ling Chen would actually go cause trouble for Lin Ziyang.
Oh no!
Lin Ziyang’s identity is not simple, if Ling Chen really beat him up, it would still be her who gets blamed in the end. Thinking of this, she hurriedly drove the car in front of Ling Chen and called him back.
"You’re really my dear aunt, wasn’t it you who told me to teach him a lesson just now? Why are you stopping me now?"
"I was just saying it casually, who knew you would actually take action. Lin Ziyang’s identity is not ordinary, if he gets hurt, I can’t explain it over here at the Zhu Family."
Ling Chen asked with interest, "What’s his background?"
"Their Lin Family is a marriage partner of the Zhu Family."
"Marriage partner?" Ling Chen was startled, he had only heard of business partners before, this was the first time he heard of a marriage partner, shouldn’t it be described as a ’marriage relationship’? Seeing Ling Chen’s face full of confusion, Zhu Qing seemed to know what he was thinking, said, "You didn’t hear wrong, it’s a marriage partner."
"What does this marriage partner mean?"
Zhu Qing explained, "The Zhu Family needs to pass on the next generation, internal marriage is not possible, they must combine with outsiders. However, if Zhu Family members are allowed to freely fall in love and marry, it will only lead to the dispersal of the Zhu Family bloodline, so the Zhu Family must ensure the bloodline doesn’t get lost and stays concentrated, only this way can the Zhu Family thrive and the bloodline continue. The Lin Family is also a prominent family in Dengzhou City, hundreds of years ago, when the Zhu Family settled in this place, the Lin Family was already a well-known big family, primarily in business. The two families have dealt with each other for hundreds of years, and have a good relationship. Later, the Zhu Family saw that the Lin Family had many members, and thus conceived the idea of marrying into them, the Zhu Family men only marry Lin Family women, the Zhu Family women only marry Lin Family men. As long as it’s a Zhu Family man’s offspring, whether male or female, they must become an assassin."
"What if they don’t like it?" Ling Chen asked, "Do you have to accept the other party?"
Zhu Qing nodded and said, "In a big family, you must obey the rules. Men are fine, mostly it’s the women. Of course, if you don’t like Lin Family people, you can choose to divorce after marriage and having children, and then return to the Zhu Family, this kind of thing is very common in the Zhu Family, Lin Family men are also willing, as long as there are offspring, their task is complete, they can find another woman they like and spend the rest of their lives, what the Zhu Family cares about is just their own bloodline."
Ling Chen rubbed his nose and said, "If that’s the case, aren’t you guys marrying close relatives by your generation?"
"You’re overthinking it." Zhu Qing said calmly, "I just said, the Lin Family is a big family, with many collateral bloodlines. Moreover, before marriage, a background check will be done on both sides, so there’s no need to worry about such things."
"So, the person Lin Ziyang was interested in back then was you?"
"Yes, but I don’t like him. When my father went out to perform a mission back then, he had an accident, and my mother died of childbirth difficulties when I was born. It was my uncle who raised me single-handedly, I’m very close to him, he even treats me as his own. So, when the Family Head wanted to betroth me to Lin Ziyang, it was only because my uncle pleaded that the matter was not discussed. However, the Family Head decided to change his mind partly because I was still young. After a few more years, I will definitely have to choose a Lin Family man to marry, that’s an inviolable family rule."
"Why must you marry a Lin Family man?" Ling Chen furrowed his brow and said, "Isn’t this rule too unfeeling, doesn’t your Family Head ever consider the feelings of your own people?"
"Because the Zhu Family must rely on the Lin Family’s assistance in some matters." Zhu Qing sighed, "The Zhu Family also has its difficulties, although the Zhu Family is an assassin family with countless masters, in the current society, to survive and develop, simply having a large number of people is useless, there must be ample financial resources to back it up. Unfortunately, the Zhu Family is obsessed with cultivating excellent assassins and hasn’t considered the way to survive in the future. Until the Zhu Family’s accumulated wealth over many years slowly ran out, they realized this serious problem."
Upon hearing this, Ling Chen was surprised, somewhat incredulous, "Could it be that the Zhu Family is short of money? That’s impossible, your Zhu Family charges hefty fees for missions, how could you lack money?"
To be honest, Ling Chen really found it hard to believe. Back then, his transactions with the Zhu Family alone amounted to billions of US Dollars, and if you add other income, the Zhu Family at least had a hundred billion US Dollars in assets. Even with so many people to support, it wouldn’t cost that much money.
"You should know, the Zhu Family’s services are basically lifelong, even if there are short-term ones, they last ten or twenty years. Also, the Zhu Family’s services are a one-time fee, like you, you have so many assassins trained by the Zhu Family protecting you, serving you, the families behind these people all need the Zhu Family to take care of for life. Of course, spending on these people alone isn’t too much, but think about how many Inner Sect Disciples and Outer Sect Disciples the Zhu Family has, there are thousands of families the Zhu Family needs to support. Besides those families’ expenses, the Zhu Family also has to develop, expand personnel, every one requires money."
Ling Chen thought carefully, Zhu Qing’s words were indeed correct, even if the Zhu Family had hundreds of billions of US Dollars in assets, it couldn’t withstand such expenditures.
"Then why don’t you guys invest? Nowadays, there are many fields where money can beget more money."
