Chapter 56: New Life (2/2)
“Umm… Sis…” She whispered, “I’ll have the same as yours then!”
The elderly chuckled again, “That would be two bowls of beef noodles alright! Ye, two beef noodles for the ladies here!” Grandpa Qian shouted towards the kitchen and a voice that was not loud but clear came responding afterwards, “Got it!”
“What?” Xuelin staggered a little, “Grandpa, you got an assistant already? When was this? Why did I never know about this?”
He answered pleasingly, “He’s not an assistant. Ye is a distant relative of mine. Well you know how an elderly like me would need a companion sometimes. Living alone was such a tough chore for me. So I called him here!” Grandpa Qian had repeated these lines countless times to countless customers whenever Ye Chong was mentioned. Somehow at some point, he felt that he had been telling the truth all this while as Ye Chong really felt like a part of his family.
A moment later, Ye Chong exited the kitchen with two bowls of steaming beef noodles on the tray. Even though his expression still appeared a bit bland, people could see the fickled joy on his face sometimes. He walked to the table of the ladies, laid his noodles in front of them, “Enjoy!”, and dashed back to the kitchen after that.
Xuelin had a taste and was as amazed as before, “Wow! This is still very great!” She praised on, “Grandpa, these noodles were better than the one you made! The texture was too good!” Grandpa Qian looked proud as he responded, “It certainly is. Ye has standard in his cooking! Anyone would have complimented too after tasting his dishes!” He smiled broadly, as if he’s the one being praised.
The amazement continued as Xuelin saw the extremely thin slices of beef on top the noodles, “This is very good treatment! The slicing skill is impeccable!” Oh how joyful the old man was, he smiled with eyes narrowing into a slit, “Ye, my boy! You heard that? The customer praised your skills!”
“Oh why thank you!” Ye Chong replied and shook his head. Grandpa was always such a messenger. He just has to reiterate the compliments to me right after the customer. Man, wouldn’t he get fed up of this? Ye Chong thought so, yet he smiled for a brief moment. The corners of his lips somehow raised themselves. He sniggered as he proceeded with rolling the dough before him.
As he rolled on, he spoke in his mind, “Mu, what are you doing?”
It took a while for Mu to come up with a reply, “I am currently engaged in something right now. Just keep the dough rolling!” His voice trailed off. He seemed to have vanished right after his reply.
Ye Chong wondered what Mu had been doing in the virtual world these days. He thought maybe he should get online again someday. It’s been a while since his last NRS training. I wonder if those elders at Aurora were doing great all these while…
He kneaded the dough energetically.
…
Glancing at the report in his hand, he lighted a cigar… the smoke of confusion wafted through the atmosphere as Brother Fei tried to figure out the situation.
According to the outcome of Zi’s latest scouting, only Grandpa Qian’s shop had a newcomer and everyone who had eaten at his place informed that the newcomer happened to be his distant relative of his who pleaded him for a living and also happened to have great cooking skills.
Hopefully he wasn’t the culprit of my men’s death… or else…
He breathed heavy as he worried. His room was veiled by the smoke of his ponders. Things could hardly be seen.
Leng San stood upright in silence, as his eyes wavered upon the corpses before him. The menacing face of his had not much of an expression, other than the growing grimness in his eyes. He tried to hold his eyes but he couldn’t hold it in any longer, when his sight landed upon the corpse in the middle. The stern face of his shattered. His cheeks were trembling as misery took over his face. He couldn’t hide it. He stared at this particular corpse. Tears overflowed his eyes and they streamed silently down his face, landing on the floor like an atomic bomb to his heart.
The corpse… was his brother, his own brother. He had been trying his best to keep the identity of his brother in secret all along, for he wouldn’t want his brother to be affected as he was well-aware that he could be dead anytime, anywhere in the future since he had created too many enemies over the course of time. So his brother was disguised as a simple underling of the gang. Unquestionably it was a successful disguise and his brother had remained unharmed all these years.
But then… The corpse placed in front of him being actually his brother… he could not believe every part of this, especially when his brother was killed by having his throat crushed with bare hands. How could this not be heartbreaking to Leng San? How could this not be depressing enough to shatter his soul?
It was rare to have men with such immense strength in this place. There’s no way he could not find this man out! If he ever found that man, he’s going to break all his bones and grind him into dust! He would make sure that man would be in torment forever! Leng San gravely promised, gritting his teeth.
The crew outside were finding their boss strange today. For some reason, the usual frigidity on his face went missing after seeing the corpse in the morgue. And he had shut himself inside ever since. It had been so long yet he never seemed to be coming out anytime soon.
Did something happen to our leader? The few remaining men of his wereworried.
Shush! The door opened and Leng San came out with a pair of reddened eyes. His voice was coarse as he mumbled, “Go! Go and find that man!”