Ruan Chen gripped the water glass tightly in her hand, quietly watching the tea leaves floating on the surface of the water—those were Su Ze's favorite.
Su Tan took a document out of his bag and handed it to Ruan Chen.
It's a photocopy.
The cover and contents were all photocopied by the Su family, presumably because they dared not bring the original.
Ruan Chen counted her breaths for a while to make sure her heartbeat had calmed down, then put down the cup in her hand and picked up the thick letter.
She didn't open it right away; she first glanced at the date on the postmark, which was five years ago.
Ruan Chen felt a strange sense of relief; the complex emotions she had felt earlier vanished instantly. She lightly tapped the date with her fingertip, glanced at Su Tan, and asked, "Five years ago?"
Su Tan began, “It happened five years ago. If you were on Liuli Island then, you should remember. Your uncle was seriously injured and had to be rescued. After he was saved, his prognosis was not good, and his injuries kept worsening. You were too young then, so I think he chose to entrust this family business to me.”
Ruan Chen knew about this matter. She was well aware of everything that happened after Su Ze came to Liuli Island, but Su Ze never mentioned to her how he came to Liuli Island or why he never wanted to return to China.
Ruan Chen didn't press the matter.
Five years ago, she wasn't on the island either. Su Ze didn't even know where she was, so naturally he wouldn't have thought of adding Ruan Chen's name to the family business.
She opened the envelope, and inside was indeed Su Ze's handwriting. Ruan Chen could even tell from the lines that Su Ze was in very poor condition at the time; his handwriting was weak and feeble, and he had almost forced himself to finish writing the letter.
"Ah Tan, seeing this letter is like seeing you in person... Ah Rao has lost all hope in me and probably no longer wants to acknowledge me as his brother. After careful consideration, the only person I can entrust with my life is you, Ah Tan..."
Ruan Chen's eyes reddened.
At that time, his mother was still alive, and he was struggling to survive in the perpetually corrupt slums of Meicheng, wondering every day when he would die and rot there.
My current life is something I never dared to imagine back then, but... I lost my mother.
Her gaze shifted downwards. "Back then, A-Rao's birth mother died young, and her father passed away not long after. A-Rao was all alone, with only me, her brother, to rely on. The Su family wouldn't accept her, so I had no choice but to take her away, leaving you, A-Tan, all alone..."
Ruan Chen looked up at Su Tan, her expression softening slightly, and asked, "What should I call you?"
She could see Su Ze's guilt towards Su Tan and the feelings between the two.
Su Tan must be very important to her.
“I am his youngest cousin, you should call me aunt,” Su Tan’s eyes reddened. “My brother has always been good to me since I was little. We were very close in the Su family. Everyone laughed at me for being his shadow. But then he left without a word to me. In the years that followed, we only met once and only glanced at each other.”
Ruan Chen thought to herself that Su Tan was certainly very important to Su Ze, otherwise he wouldn't have written such a thick letter to her when he was at his last gasp.
She turned a page of the letter and continued reading, "I know you also pity A-Rao, and forgive your brother for having to choose her. Even without me, the Su family has many relatives who love you, but A-Rao has nothing without me..."
"Firstly, A-Rao resents me. I only wish that if you, A-Tan, have the ability, you could take care of her. If you really can't, that's fine too. Just live your own life well... Secondly, A-Rao is kind-hearted and too easily deceived. I also blame myself for not teaching her the wickedness of human nature over the years. A-Rao can't hold onto this business... But I know that you, A-Tan, may seem gentle, but you are actually the most decisive..."
"If you successfully take over, please remember my original intention for staying on the island of wandering, and don't let my hard work go to waste..."
The following documents were compiled by Su Ze and shown to Su Tan, detailing Blood Skull's businesses, the distribution of its business network, and other gang information.
Ruan Chen quickly browsed through the information. Compared to five years ago, Blood Skull had expanded by more than double, and the business network was also very different from what it was back then. So there was no need to worry about the Su family using this information to cause any trouble.
According to the notarized documents left by Su Ze in the letter, as long as he dies, Su Tan can use these notarized documents to transfer the properties mentioned by Su Ze in the letter to his own name.
There are some minor troubles.
Ruan Chen put the letter away and asked Su Tan for his opinion, "Shall we go out for a walk?"
She wanted to talk to Su Tan alone.
She had just categorized Su Tan as part of the opposing camp, but after reading Su Ze's letter from back then, she realized she should change her attitude towards Su Tan.
The older man immediately intervened, "Ah Tan, this is Liuli Island. If something happens to you here, the Su family can't help you! You are the sole heir to Su Ze's assets, you should know your place!"
His tone was stern.
Su Ying muttered to herself, "Who knows if they have some ulterior motives, knowing that Su Ze left his assets to Su Tan, and want to do something to Su Tan."
Although Su Tan had shown some apprehension towards this man earlier, she clearly did not intend to obey his orders. She stood up and naturally took Ruan Chen's arm, saying, "Come on, let's go out for a walk. I'd like to see where my brother has lived all these years."
As she stood up, she casually picked up the letter she had just shown Ruan Chen with her other hand, and the two left side by side.
Ruan Chen led her for a walk along the river, while Tian Lang and his men followed at a distance.
The scenery on Liuli Island was quite nice in the afternoon. Although the climate here is hot and humid all year round, this was the time of year when the temperature on Liuli Island was most suitable, and the vegetation along the river was lush and green.
Su Tan asked, "What's the name of this river?"
"The River of Flowing Gold".
Su Tan was a little surprised, "You've always had this name?"
“Su Ze changed it later. The locals used to call this river the Big River. It’s the only river on the whole island.” Ruan Chen continued the conversation, “I have some old photos here. They show the locals worshipping their gods in this river. The environment was terrible. The water was blackish-green, and there were swarms of mosquitoes. People bathed and fetched water upstream, and the downstream was full of garbage. Animal carcasses floated on the river.”
With her hands in her pockets, Ruan Chen tiptoed carefully along the barely visible pebble path through the vegetation. "So the first thing Su Ze did was to establish a clean water circulation system. The mortality rate here dropped immediately, and villages no longer fought over water."
At this point, Ruan Chen seemed to remember something funny and burst into laughter, saying, "I stayed in a village down there for a few days, and they changed all the village's statues to have Su Ze's face on them. It was so funny, it almost killed me."
But Su Tan didn't laugh.
Standing by the River of Flowing Gold, she said in a low voice with deep sigh, "Indeed, a person like my brother is destined to do something extraordinary no matter where he is."
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