Chapter 25: A Calm and Peaceful Day
Guan Ling cried until she was tired, and then fell asleep lightly in her mother's arms.
When she woke up again, she was already lying on the bed, covered with a quilt.
It was still the old and dilapidated apartment, but the small room actually made one feel at ease.
"Are you awake?" Guan Caizi sat aside and tidied things up, smiling at her daughter as if they had survived a disaster.
"Mom," Guan Ling's nose felt sour. She rubbed her eyes hard and asked, "The person who brought me back, where is he?"
"I… didn't see him." Guan Caizi choked on her words for a moment.
"…"
"But I am grateful to him. If it weren't for him, both my daughter and I wouldn't have been safe." Guan Caizi lightly touched her daughter's cheek.
"Hmm."
"But precisely because of this, we can't cause him any more trouble." Guan Caizi said softly. "Ling, we have to move out."
"Move out, but where are we moving to?" Guan Ling asked subconsciously. The apartment's rent was cheap, and they only had a place to stay thanks to the kind-hearted landlord.
"I don't know, but we should move out. If we continue to stay here, the gangsters will eventually find us." Guan Caizi looked at the briefcase by her side. "As for the money, you don't have to worry about it."
"But, but…" Guan Ling thought she would feel happy to leave this sad place, but her first reaction was to resist, "I still have to go to school here. I'm almost graduated, and I can't find a job elsewhere…"
"These are not problems." Guan Caizi said softly. "As long as we, mother and daughter, are safe and sound, these difficulties will eventually be overcome."
Guan Ling lowered her head and grabbed the blanket.
Guan Caizi knows her daughter too well. She is gentle on the outside but strong on the inside, stubborn and obstinate.
"Maybe," she said. "When you grow up a little more and become a young lady, you can come back."
"When I grow up, can I come back?" Guan Ling grabbed her mother's arm and asked seriously.
"After you grow up, you will become even more beautiful than your mother. You will become a mature and beautiful lady with more grace and elegance. At that time, no one will recognize you. You will also be able to choose where you want to stay in the future." Guan Caizi gently advised her daughter, even though she knew that growing up often meant fewer choices and a predetermined future.
She could only say this, giving her daughter a beautiful expectation.
Guan Ling let go of her hand, murmuring gently in agreement.
"Mom, I have decided… I want to learn the language of the Ming Country."
"There is still half a year left, I must pass the exam and get into Far East University. Once I am enrolled in Far East University, everything will be secure."
"Let's live in the Ming Country in the future!"
Guan Caizi smiled gently, nodded slightly, thinking that perhaps going to a foreign country is not a bad thing either.
After all, there is nothing worth reminiscing here anymore.
Mother and daughter tacitly avoided mentioning that person's name, treating him as if he had disappeared completely and no longer existed.
However, at this moment Guan Caizi was not aware that expecting for the future was actually very dangerous.
'The future will be better' is inevitable for children, but for those with mature minds, it is not just an expectation, it is more like setting a target that one must reach.
Once reality doesn't correspond to the ideal as it is envisioned, this vacuum will create a huge psychological gap.
She knew that Guan Ling was very excellent, so these expectations were not difficult to achieve, but she didn't notice the thoughts hidden in her daughter's gaze.
'Far East University', 'the Ming Country', at first it may not seem like a big deal, but is she expecting nothing more than to live in a safer place?
Of course not.
Guan Ling gazed at the peaceful city outside the window. She closed her eyes and longed for the warmth and gentleness she had felt up close, along with the soothing sound of a heartbeat.
Ah, I really want to grow up earlier.
…
The Sanada Group office.
Clank, clank, clank!
As if a house demolition team had swept through the room, leaving it in complete disarray.
Sanada Ryoichi held the cracked telephone receiver, emitting a ferocious aura that made people stay away from within a dozen meters.
"More than a dozen members of the core group, including the leader and his followers, have all been disabled?"
"Would you like to hear what you're saying to yourself!"
"What is this you're doing with me! Playing! Joking! Ah!"
Sanada Ryoichi on the other end of the phone was raging, his face twisted and gnashing his teeth.
"Yes, it's true…Leader, currently many of our brothers are in the hospital, getting ready for surgery. They are asking us to bear the surgery costs, otherwise the operation will be stopped."
"Why the hell…don't you go to the small clinic!"
"The injury is too severe, even the small clinic dares not accept it!"
"Isn't there still a black clinic!"
"There, they suggested that we should just wait for people to die and then sell off their organs and tissues…"
"Damn it!" Sanada Ryoichi kicked over the stool and vented out, shouting, "How much do they want over there!"
"Ten people, I'm afraid it will cost several million…"
Sanada Ryoichi couldn't help but want to smash the phone.
He can afford this money, but it hurts him to his core.
"Go find Yamazaki and have him figure out a way to withdraw this portion of the expenses from the accounts of those real estate companies!"
"We tried to reach Mr. Yamazaki, but we couldn't get in touch with him."
"What does that mean?!"
"Mr. Yamazaki was with Tsuyoshi Waku earlier, but we couldn't see him on site. He may have been arrested, and I'm afraid…"
"Ah! Damn it!"
Sanada Ryoichi crushed the telephone set and roared in impotent fury, sweat soaking through his back.
After venting his anger for ten minutes, he opened the safe, retrieved a suitcase, and reluctantly took out five million yen in personal savings and threw it to the henchmen downstairs, asking them to hurry to the hospital.
In this underworld business, one must value righteousness. If one doesn't save their subordinates, who would be willing to work with them? However, these people have already been rendered useless, and he cannot ensure their livelihood for too long. More importantly, the Sanada Group is now badly wounded, and the news would only make matters worse.
"Yamazaki, disappeared… scumbags like him who fall into someone else's hands never end well. Let's assume he's dead." Sanada Ryoichi gritted his teeth and fell into deep thought. "If a dozen people were all taken down at once, this would certainly be a major blow… Perhaps before long, I will be targeted too. I need to find a way to protect myself and also safeguard the Sanada Group. Should I reach out to those old fogies in the Kanto Federation?"
He shook his head. "No, they won't let go so easily. When the Sanada Group rose to power, they didn't say anything, but if we fall, who knows what they'll say…"
The Kanto Federation's disadvantage lies in the complicated interests of various factions, and the power struggle often occurs within the group. The Kanto Federation doesn't want to provoke such a terrifying opponent too.
After much deliberation, he picked up the broken telephone receiver with difficulty and dialed a phone number.
…
When Bai Wei returned home, it was already pitch-dark inside and he felt a glimmer of joy, thinking that his younger sister hadn't come back yet.
As a result, he casually turned on the bedroom light, and a pair of pitch-black eyes glanced at him faintly.
Feeling a chill down his back, Bai Wei forced a dry laugh and said in a pale voice, "Hey, little sister, you're here. Why didn't you turn on the lights?" It felt like he had been caught red-handed and scolded for secretly surfing the internet at home.
"I arrived home before it was dark, but my elder brother, you weren't there, and I waited until it got dark."
"I…" Bai Wei changed the subject. "Wow, this chicken soup smells amazing, and all the dishes are served. Why don't we start eating?"
"But! Elder brother, you weren't home!" she repeated, with a hint of gritted teeth.
"Sorry!" Bai Wei bent down and apologized.
"I am not angry," Yagyū Simozi turned her head, "but you have to tell me in detail what you did."
"I went out for some exercise," Bai Wei simplified. "I encountered some crazy dogs, saved someone, and incidentally burned a hornet nest."
Yagyū Simozi frowned and whispered, "Are you still a child, elder brother? You're over twenty years old. I have already told you that it's very dangerous outside."
"It was quite dangerous," Bai Wei shuddered. "Look, those dogs even tore my clothes apart."
"Did I mention anything about the dogs?" Yagyū Simozi slammed the table. "Elder brother, sit down!"
Bai Wei sat at the table, and was pointed and directed by his younger sister for more than ten minutes.
She counted all his dark history and bad habits from the age of fifteen until now.
"Also, now that we're back home, isn't there something you need to tell me?" Yagyū Simozi grabbed hold of the young man's face.
"Sorry?"
"An apology won't cut it, I'm angry! Also, that's not the sentence!" She shook her head vigorously.
"…I'm back."
After hearing the words, she finally released her grip. "Welcome home," she said.
Opening the steaming hot rice pot, although she still felt a little uncomfortable, her mood greatly improved.
"Let's have dinner."
Tonight at the Yagyū residence, it was still a peaceful night.
