Chapter 56: New Life
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“Ye, I mean, the black coat is a cool idea but it’s not cool especially after you got flour all over it.”
“Hey Ye, you can’t get customers with that long face you put on! It scares them away!”
“Ugh, Ye, what do you think you are doing with the chopping board? No, you are disassembling it! Gosh! Could you spare our chairs some mercy? We need those to work!”
“Aww man!”
…
This hectic scenario had reoccurred a few times yet Grandpa Qian had hardly blamed Ye Chong, instead he smiled and continuously encouraged him to keep the young man going.
Practice certainly makes perfect. As time went by, Ye Chong’s noodle-making skills dramatically improved. The texture of the noodles got better and better. He was able to utilize his fearsome strength constructively to create the most springy noodle in a place that had earned compliments from almost every customer that came to the shop. In addition, Grandpa Qian’s smile and constant motivation were eventually able to melt the ice between him and Ye Chong as the indifference in his expression faded away. He had changed so much that he would sometimes take the initiative to head out and get more customers. On some occasions, the elderly would take Ye Chong along for a shopping day as he would also introduce some of his old friends to the boy.
Their relationship progressed as they had grown fond of each other. It somehow became a habit later to have the boy by his side whenever he was heading out. Ye Chong had gotten used to such a lovely life. There was no stress. He didn’t have to stay outrageously alert at all times and found the long-lost comfort in it. His life might be mundane but he was happy with it.
However, Ye Chong’s training was not put on hold because of living in tranquility. Ever since the breakthrough he had made in his marble training back at Black Cove, controlling more than 10 marbles at once was no more of an issue for him, in fact, he picked up fairly quickly after that. Surprisingly, he had managed to control up to 13 marbles by then. His daily fitness training was carried on vigorously under Mu’s guidance. It was as if he was born for such style of training. His strength rose sharply yet his muscle remained the same size ever. And this would be the whole point! The increase in strength would ought to lead to an increase in muscle size. It is unavoidable for any ordinary person. Thus, when muscle strength reaches saturation point, the body muscle would be at its largest too. This would radically reduce the overall movement and agility of your body in the long run. Hence, it became an issue on how one should boost one’s strength without influencing one’s body size. Vitality might be one’s source of velocity, it still doesn’t necessarily mean that one would possess velocity after obtaining vitality. This could be clearly justified by the dexterity problem a bulkier body would cause.
To remedy such issue, the group in Black Cove committed the use of silver liquid as a form of simulation to inhibit muscle growth at last, while combining the ancient martial arts.
It might be an ongoing issue for anyone who sought both strength and speed but it was non-existent to Ye Chong himself. The reason being no matter how hard he had trained and how much his strength had improved, his body would always remain the way it was from the beginning. Hence, Mu,intrigued as he was, mapped out a gruesome or even forbidding training course for this boy with such a unique talent.
While Ye Chong was taking his brutal training like a man, Mu seemed stuck in the virtual world, for whatever unspoken reason it was. He was rather mysterious of his whereabout.
It was quite fortunate for Ye Chong that his noodle business got better and better. Imagine the vast expenditure that mainly revolved around Mu’s resupply of energy monthly without any form of proper income. To top that off, it also costs another fortune to fill Ye Chong’s bottomless appetite. He might have to put up the shutters and be in debt anytime soon if his noodles were not selling like hot cakes.
Though the days lapsed in hustles and bustles, Ye Chong was feeling absolutely content!
On the other hand, the punks appeared to have run for their lives after Ye Chong demonstrated his terrifying force. They seemed to have disbanded the gang, like animals in a forest fire. No one since then had ever dared threat to lay claim the gang’s monthly protection fee from the poor residents, which was quite costly too.
…
Sun Xuelin and Shew, her cousin, were rotting at home. The parents were out. But what about food? Both of them had barely any experience in cooking their own meals before. They were both troubled.
“Shewie, why don’t we have some noodles at Grandpa Qian’s shop? His noodles aren’t bad you know?” Suggested Xuelin.
“Noodles?” Shew frowned and seemed to not like the idea, “Are you sure? But… We don’t seem to have other choice…”
They went to Grandpa Qian’s shop. “Welcome!” Right after they stepped into the shop, Grandpa Qian greeted them as he chuckled, “Xuelin my girl, it’s been a while since you had my noodles here. What made you come here today out of a sudden?”
“Hahaha…” She laughed along, “Oh well, it can’t be helped. My parents are not at home today. We could only come here instead. Oh by the way…” She dragged Shew to the front of him, “This is my sister, Shew. I usually call her Shewie.”
“Such a posh lady! Xuelin, I guess she can’t be your sister, can she? With such posh making a striking contrast to your nature! Hahaha, alright, what would you like to have today? The usual course for my tough girl? What about you, my gentle lady?” Shew was uncontrollably blushing as he complimented.
Sun Xuelin replied, “Yeah, the same for me. Shewie, what do you want to have?”
“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!”