Nobody dares to mess around here!
Ye Tian muttered, but the old man responded, "That won’t do. I need to add one more condition to finalize the deal."
Ye Tian jumped on the spot, pointing at the old man and said loudly, "Old man, don’t push your luck! I didn’t come to you to be bossed around, I have others who can help too. I came to you to give your granddaughter face, don’t get greedy. I, Ye Tian, am a man of pride. My patience has its limits, let me tell you, a man can be killed but not insulted. Push me too far, and I’ll even fight myself! I’ll give you one more chance, think it over properly, if you remain stubborn, I won’t be polite..."
Ye Tian rambled on, but the old man remained unmoved, quietly watching him, even taking a moment to sip some tea from his teapot. When Ye Tian stopped speaking, the old man finally asked, "Are you done?"
"Alright then. Go do whatever you need to and come back tonight. I’ll have tasks arranged for you."
Ye Tian felt dizzy and cursed the old man’s ancestors in his mind.
"Can’t you just agree quickly?"
"Who made you so impressive? Did you know Dragon Team is about to disband? You are the lingering problem that hasn’t been resolved. If you don’t die, who will? I advise you, better flee the country. It’s safer abroad. Then become a U.S. citizen or something, then they’ll have to think twice before touching you."
"No need. If I wanted to escape, I would’ve done it already. You don’t need to worry about me. I came back specifically to cause them trouble. Old man, stop pretending to be a good guy. Just command me, and as long as you can cure my wife and take care of that father and son, I’ll be eternally grateful. Deal?"
The old man pondered for a moment, "Since we have the same enemy, let’s collaborate and see..."
"Let’s talk about that later."
"Do you have a plan?" asked the old man.
"What plan can I have? Just fight it out. So, let’s settle it this way, sort out my issues first, then we can deal with yours."
The old man silently nodded and said, "But first, you need to pick someone up for me."
Ye Tian rolled his eyes, "Your granddaughter, not mine. I’m not going."
"If you don’t go, I won’t help."
"Pfft, so petty. I was just saying that, and you took it seriously. Where is she?"
"Her plane arrives at six in the evening. Just meet her and then come here."
"Got it." Ye Tian turned to He Ku behind him, "You stay here with grandpa for a few days. Once I’m done, your dad will be out, and then we can leave together."
He Ku nodded, not saying a word.
As Ye Tian left the King Mansion, he didn’t feel any more relaxed for having found a safe place for He Ku. The old man had already said, the enemy had started to move. If those at the motel were his men, then who were the three policemen who sent him there? Enemy’s men? That doesn’t seem right. If they really were, why would they let him go? Could it be a test to see if the old man would find him for cooperation? That doesn’t make sense either. He had been to the King Mansion several times already, and it was hard not to be noticed. Whose men were they then? Forget it, now that there’s at least something to do, that counts as a not-so-small support.
He called a taxi to head to the airport to pick someone up.
On the way, Ye Tian felt the mood to take a closer look at the city for the first time. The Imperial Capital, favored by many Emperors, so glamorous, with skyscrapers that seemed to touch the clouds, wide and smooth highways, and decent green spaces—though it also had its fair share of smog, which people criticized, but no city is without drawbacks. Even if Beiping had countless flaws, more people would still flock here, attracted not by the beauty, but by the allure of the word "Capital."
Ye Tian reflected on his half-month life in the Imperial Capital, realizing he had done nothing but argue, fight, and desperately escape.
What a life. Ye Tian smirked bitterly.
"Big brother, what are you thinking about?"
The driver, a middle-aged woman with an outgoing personality evident in her eyes, was navigating through traffic.
The light was red ahead, and peak hour was about to start.
Hearing the driver’s question, Ye Tian casually replied, "Nothing much, just feeling a bit sleepy."
"Hehe, want one?" The driver offered him a cigarette, which surprised him, but he waved his hand to decline, "Do you mind if I smoke?"
Ye Tian shook his head, indicating he didn’t mind.
"If you minded, I’d still smoke. If you were a woman, I might reconsider, but a man? Never mind."
An interesting person.
"Saw you laughing kinda sadly just now. Something on your mind?"
"Yeah, a little. But it’s all minor stuff. Nothing serious."
The driver took a drag of her cigarette, glanced at the crossroads ahead with 60 more seconds of red light, pulled the handbrake, and leaned back in her seat, "Hmm, good, that’s the way to think. Life is a lifetime, how can you not have some worries? Actually, life is like cooking a dish, you need to add all kinds of spices: sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and spicy. Every mouthful is hard to perfect. Each person is like a pot, and life is the seasoning, whatever it wants to add, it will add, whether you like it or not. Some people just give up, let the dish burn. But some people are stubborn, you want me to eat bad, I insist on making a good dish. In the end, hehe, that’s why, this life, needs all kinds of experiences, otherwise how can you dare say you’ve lived a lifetime?"
Life is a pot, and experiences are the seasonings. It was the first time he’d heard it put that way.
"Everyone has hurdles, it’s inevitable. Just get over them. If you can’t, don’t just lie there without trying. If you can’t get through one way, try another route, there might be an opening somewhere else. Don’t you think?"
Ye Tian nodded, "Yes, that makes sense."
"Hehe," the driver extended her hand outside the window, pausing to flick the cigarette ash, with thirty seconds left on the red light, "A lot of people just don’t understand this. I once drove a college student, a young man. Can you believe it, such a healthy young man always looking down at his phone. I thought maybe there was something important. Turns out, he was shaking his phone for a WeChat shake during a red light, and I glanced over, wondering if it’s possible to shake up someone. I asked him, can you really get a connection like that, why keep shaking? He said, ’Auntie, this place is close to the terminal, I’m trying to see if I can shake up a flight attendant or something.’"