Chapter 310 Whatever You Want (2)
When Chu Hengkong woke up, it was just daylight and the rain had stopped long ago.
Traveling with Velvet had its advantages, one of which was the constant flow of fights. Over the past three years, his martial arts skills had improved, and he could now sense movement even in his sleep. He knew the corridor was empty, and the next room was vacant, as planned. He also knew Velvet was still asleep, clinging to his arm tightly.
Chu Hengkong had always lived an upright life, and there weren't many things he regretted, and this was one of them. Ever since her business trip to Ohio, Velvet had developed a terrible habit of needing him to stay asleep during thunderstorms, or else simply staying up until the rain stopped.
At first he thought it was nothing, nothing more than taking care of the timid girl. But as they grew up, things were no longer as simple as before.
Velvet would soon be fifteen, and he was already sixteen, an age that would have been ripe for marriage and careers in ancient times. He could tease her about her figure verbally, but the sensations of her body told him everything that had changed. She was no longer a girl.
It is natural to have some accidents at this age, and one day he may really lose control, so he even started reading Buddhist scriptures recently.
Occasionally, he would let his imagination run wild. Wouldn't Velvet know? Could such a clever girl really not care about this? She had never cared about joking about this sort of thing before...
But those thoughts would soon dissipate naturally, because he knew the real reason. Velvet trusted him without reservation, and she had never been on guard against him. She relied on him and was attached to him, and she sought security in him.
In the girl's heart, Chu Hengkong is probably the man who can become her father.
He really should have a good talk with Velvet.
About an hour later, Velvet woke up. She looked at him sleepily for a moment, loosened her arms, which had been numbed by his embrace, and slid to the other side of the bed.
"Sorry. Good morning."
"If you keep going like this, just book a king-size bed room for your next business trip."
"don't want."
"Can you say 'no' even on a rainy day?" Chu Hengkong said helplessly, "Velbert, I'm serious. You'll be 15 in two months. Even though you said so many angry words last night, sooner or later you'll fall in love, get married, and have children... You'll have your own family and your own lover. It's... inappropriate for you to hang out with me like this."
Velvet’s eyes were like a woodpecker staring at an iron tree.
Chu Hengkong was frightened by her stare: "So you'd better keep your distance from me... What are you doing?"
Velvet raised her head and bumped into him hard, hurting herself and then hugged his arm tightly.
"You're up too early. I need to sleep in a little longer."
It's getting harder and harder to raise a child. Chu Hengkong was dejected.
·
After returning to New York, Chu Hengkong walked her back to the family building as usual. He put on the courier vest he had left at the front desk and rode his motorcycle to the pizza shop. This was his "reward" for his trip to Egypt, where Velvet had noticed he was envious of the local modified motorcycles.
"Sorry, boss," Secretary Alita knocked on the office door. "No offense, but the new employees have been talking about 'Why does the deputy always spend his free time delivering food?'"
Alita's experience surpassed her years; she was one of the few female gangsters who had lived to be 40 and above, with a happy family and children. Velvet turned her chair and gazed out the window at the busy streets.
"Perhaps the master of the family doesn't have the ability to keep him by his side."
"Boss, allow me to say a few words." Alita's face became kind. "It seems to me that you and he have the same characteristic. You both want to clearly separate your work and private lives, but in your two worlds, they are one and the same."
“I know.” Velvet nodded. “Go ahead and report.”
Alita closed the door. She didn't take any documents with her because her boss didn't allow any important information to be left behind.
"During my conversations with the Baiyue Chu Clan, the information I learned is largely consistent with your account. The deputy was adopted by the former Chu Clan head, Chu Tongchen, at the age of seven. At 11, he duelled with Chu Tongchen and won. He later followed him to the United States and witnessed Chu Tongchen's duel with the former head of the Ivanlenko Clan, Leonid. He subsequently refused to return to the Chu Clan and began living alone in New York."
“What was the outcome of that duel?” Velvet asked.
"Both family heads perished together," Alita said. "I didn't ask for details, but judging by their actions... it must have been a close combat, a fight to the death with cold weapons."
"How did he react at that time?"
Alita pursed her lips. She thought of the terrified eyes of the Chu family, as if she was recalling a bloody evil ghost.
"They only heard... that the deputy applauded and cheered for their adoptive father until the death fight was over."
“Not surprising.” Velvet seemed to have expected this. “Before, before we met the Chu family.”
"Before being adopted, the deputy lived in a local social welfare home. He had a clean background, a standard public institution, with no trace of a blood alliance. There had been no unusual incidents in the city for nearly thirty years, so we can basically rule out any special factors." Alita said, "I talked to the old employees of the welfare home, and they were very impressed with the deputy... The deputy had no interaction with the other children."
“No communication?” Velvet frowned.
"Yes, it's not that the relationship is bad, it's that there's no communication." Alita nodded. "He spends most of his time reading and playing with toys. When he speaks, he only communicates with the staff at the orphanage. But he's not excluded because most of the children are afraid of him."
It's normal. Young children also have the instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm. They know what danger is... So it seems that Chu Hengkong understood his differences from a very young age. I'm afraid he didn't think the children around him were "the same" as him. In his mind, only adult employees were qualified to communicate with him.
"Talk about books and toys."
"The deputy liked Legos and small transforming toys. He also liked four-wheel drive cars, but the orphanage only had one at the time," Alita replied. "Later, he stopped playing with toys and started playing the GBA. No one knows where he got it from."
Velvet thought of the foreign customs and said, "That game console should be confiscated."
"Yeah, but..." Alita shrugged, "The deputy took it back the next day. The staff didn't try a second time because they thought it would make the deputy angry... To be honest, I think they were afraid of the deputy, too."
Velvet easily pieced together Chu Hengkong's childhood: a naturally strong, fearless child, whose exceptional intelligence and learning ability absorbed information around him like breathing. Barring any unexpected events, he would have continued to grow recklessly until he met Chu Tongchen. From then on, he received an education, learned martial arts, and also learned self-control... He became a chivalrous child...
No, Velvet thought. It was still just the surface. She had never touched the deepest level.
"What books did he read as a child?"
"Some local pirated comics and martial arts novels," Alita added. "Mainly Jin Yong's. 'The greatest heroes serve their country and their people.'"
Velvet seemed to have grasped something. She suddenly asked, "What kind of person is Chu Tongchen?"
Alita was stunned for a moment. This question was beyond the scope of her investigation. She racked her brains to recall her communication with the Chu family.
"I think he's a very strange person," Alita blurted out. "As you know, although the Baiyue Chu clan isn't directly affiliated with the Blood Alliance, they also have considerable influence within it. They've always been on the front lines against aliens, and have produced many well-known assassins.
But this influence was cut short after Chu Tongchen took over. Although he was a skilled martial artist, he did not allow any of his family members to practice martial arts. He forced his children to go into business, become civil servants, and join the army. Over the course of decades, he gradually shifted the family's influence from the inside to the outside..."
"He is the only one still living in the inner world?"
"Yes." Alita nodded. "That's why even his family thought he was extremely strange. He lived in a world where martial arts could be most useful, but he had a kind of... extreme pessimism about martial arts. He often told his family that it was meaningless."
Velvet stopped asking questions, and Alita retreated to the door, knowing that her boss was thinking at this moment.
Meaning. Chu Hengkong wasn't as pessimistic as his adoptive father, but he also liked the word. He always hoped that every move he made would have meaning... Therefore, he never interfered with her work arrangements. Instead, he appreciated this kind of morbid and extreme life...
Chu Tongchen's pessimism stems from his discovery of his own meaninglessness. Chu Hengkong's stagnation must be due to the same reason.
But what, exactly, was the purpose of their search? There had always been plenty of places on Earth where martial arts could be put to good use. Chu Tongchen wasn't the head of the Blood Alliance, unaware of the secrets, and therefore had no reason to sink into deep pessimism. Was he worried about his place in contemporary society? Did they believe that careers like actors or athletes degraded martial arts? Perhaps that was part of the equation, but it didn't seem to be the whole story...
——People’s circumstances are ultimately constrained by the environment. Living in the 21st century, no matter how good a fighter you are, it is no different.
She suddenly remembered what Chu Hengkong had said in the rental house a few years ago. In the 21st century, this was the most common thing.
What if he lived in the 11th century? Or even the 1st century? In that era, what kind of person would Chu Hengkong become?
"Any other information about Chu Tongchen." She became more and more anxious as she thought about it. "Any information."
Alita was a little flustered: "He has a very good relationship with his deputy. He doesn't read much, but he would take his deputy to watch operas and read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"..."
"Give me a copy. The Chinese version. As soon as possible."
Alita left in a hurry. Ten minutes later, a Chinese book with yellow covers on both sides was placed on her desk.
Velvet flipped open the first volume hastily and saw the ninth chapter of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Lü Bu, having fallen into a trap, made a bold statement to Wang Yun:
——A real man is born between heaven and earth, how can he be depressed and inferior to others for long!
She felt a little flustered for some reason, and hurriedly skipped over this paragraph and turned to another long section of the book. This time she was turning to the Battle of Red Cliffs, where Kan Ze was ordered by Sun Quan to present a false letter of surrender, and said generously:
—A true man who cannot achieve great things in life is no better than decaying like grass and trees!
Velvet closed the book, her heart chilled.
She finally understood.
(End of this chapter)
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