The trip ho took only half an hour, very simple and quick.
Actually, it could have been done in five minutes, but there was a twenty-minute delay in between—Ji Jue decided to give Erniu a special demonstration to ease her mind about Xiao Niuma's maneuverability and safety.
"Look, there's a traffic cop ahead... Let's go overtake his car!"
...
"Look, I'm going to honk the horn again."
...
"Look, he's getting anxious, he's getting anxious!"
...
Along the way, through the rain and flow of cars, Xiao Niuma nimbly wove through the peak hour traffic, occasionally showing off the drifting and knife-like cornering Ji Jue had learned from Brother Kun Peng a few days earlier.
Casually, he shook off all the vehicles chasing behind him and disappeared into the complex alleys of the Northern Mountain District, turning into a terrifying legend much like a little sheep that had hurtled down the highway at two hundred in the dead of night.
When the car stopped, the youngest jumped out first, didn't land steady, and fell to the ground, vomiting imdiately, while Lu Ling, clutching the seatbelt and not letting go, was already teary-eyed.
She begged Ji Jue, pulling on him miserably, "Second brother, if you're going to commit cris in the future, please rember to remove the big advertisent for Lu's Auto Repair Shop from the car, I beg you."
Ji Jue patted her shoulder, comforting her with heartfelt words, "Don't worry, as long as I drive fast enough, nobody will be able to see clearly."
With such heavy rain, it's already not bad if soone can make out the car model.
As for the caras?
All the city's caras are under my control! What do you have to compete with ?
"We're all law-abiding citizens!" Lu Ling wiped her tears, sighing with a sense of powerlessness.
"Right, right, right, exactly, if anyone asks you, just say that!" Ji Jue nodded in approval, "Big brother loves peace, second brother loves to study, we all have a bright future!"
Lu Ling was beyond words.
But then, a small van pulled up alongside, with Lu Feng poking his head out from inside, sizing up Ji Jue's new ride, "Hey? Got a new car? How co there's advertising on it too?"
Xiao Niuma, upon hearing this, discontentedly rotated its wheels and splashed him with water, fortunately, Lu Feng dodged quickly.
Lu Feng was already used to the extraordinary things around Ji Jue and, after patting the car body, he clicked his tongue in amazent, "Why only advertise on one side? Put it on the other side as well!"
"Big brother!" Lu Ling's fists were clenched.
"You can also stick our security company's ad on there, make sure it's big, that way you won't even need to advertise!"
Lu Feng dodged Erniu's punches with playful skill, carried the groceries down, and then took another two bags from his own car, all of them the cauliflower that terrified the third and the youngest, making the youngest burst into tears as well.
"Why is it cauliflower again?!" Lu Ling couldn't stand it either.
"Hey, it was a gift from a planting base where I was installing caras, it'd be a waste not to take it, and besides, it tastes pretty good! Pure natural ecology, they say they don't even spray pesticides on it."
"You finish it yourself! And make second brother eat it too!"
"What's that got to do with !" Ji Jue was horrified.
"Your misfortune!"
Huffing and puffing, Lu Ling carried the groceries upstairs.
Underneath the self-activated warm lights, familiar noises soon filled the kitchen, and the previously quiet little building once more buzzed with activity.
As Lu Ma saw the heap of cauliflower that was brought back, she furiously pointed at Lu Feng and lectured him rcilessly. Afterward, the two of them shrank back and ran to the balcony to escape the chaos.
After changing out of his work clothes, Lu Feng, dressed only in boxers and a tank top, slumped into the recliner, smoking and skillfully picking at his feet. "Ah, nothing beats the comfort of your own chair.
That miser Laila makes so much money but can't bear to buy even two proper chairs. Now, everyone's still sitting on plastic stools."
"It looks like the company's been busy since it opened."
Ji Jue leaned against the railing and smiled, "You've gotten busy too. Even Erniu says you're not as annoying lately."
"Busy my ass!"
Lu Feng rolled his eyes, "All day long, I do nothing but run around, following Laila's orders to serve tea and water, just like a waiter."
After the last incident, and after much consideration, Lu Feng ultimately couldn't resist Laila's heartfelt invitation and joined the veterans' security company.
With his own credentials and with Ji Jue's support, he directly secured a twenty percent stake in the company, becoming a shareholder.
All Ji Jue had to do was go there every now and then to help maintain the equipnt and occasionally play the role of a mystic master, blessing the queue of objects with good luck.
With that, half of that twenty percent stake could be considered his.
The craftsman's brand was that strong, even if you were just an apprentice. To be fair, the re fact that Ji Jue was willing to associate with such a newly started company was already a favor based on past connections.
Besides, it was a mutually beneficial arrangent.
Although Lu Feng had cleanly severed his military connections after his discharge, not staying in touch and having virtually vanished from his old acquaintances' lives, the fact that Laila could pull together such a frawork, forging channels and connections, demonstrated she was no slouch—within the security company's stock composition was an investnt from the Cliff City veterans club.
Even if it was only a symbolic one percent, that was the veteran club endorsing the security company's heritage.
—[These are our own people].
This alone was enough for the newly established company to firmly secure a seat at various relevant conferences in Cliff City and even throughout Hai Province every year.
In Cliff City, there are thousands of club-like organizations—not to ntion thousands—like Chen Xingzhou's sports car club. But if you were to weigh them, his lousy sports car club wouldn't even compare to a single hair from the veteran club.
Just in Cliff City alone, there were over sixty thousand registered mbers, all Federation ex-servicen, covering every branch of the military from army logistics to flying airship crews. The ranks ranged from lowly privates to Hai Province's military base colonels, and there was even a retired general listed for recuperation. And the constant financial support ca from Huan Yu Heavy Industry's many military-qualified enterprises.
Nominalistically, the veteran club was just a place for retired servicen to assist each other with employnt, psychological treatnt, and disabled care, but in reality, who the hell doesn't know it's a military front operating among civilians!
Even though it's usually low-key and unobtrusive, if you really piss them off, even the Governor would probably get the jitters, dreaming that soone might climb up on the roof opposite his house... What do you gain from provoking them unnecessarily?
With this endorsent of "one of our own," the company would henceforth have the privilege to take subcontracted work directly from military departnts, effectively earning a place at the table.
It doesn't matter if it's just a folding table next to the main one, scraping leftovers; how many people out there, without the qualifications to enter the dining room, are squatting in the corridor waiting for food?
Everyone's in it to make money; there's no sha in that.
It's just a pity that with too little experience and too small a size—with the company being just over forty people strong and having seventy or eighty guns—big jobs can't be snatched from the large firms; we can only wait for opportunities, maybe picking up so lower-risk security or ard escort work.
On regular days, the company could only rely on its daily security services to make so money.
"Every day is hustle and bustle, just installing caras for others," Lu Feng complained. "I ran all over Cliff City today, set up more than forty, and besides a few bags of cauliflower, I didn't even get a sip of water. I'd be better off fixing cars at ho."
"At least you're not living off your parents anymore!" Ji Jue laughed. "Lu Ma can brag about you when talking to others, saying her son owns a company now and might beco big business in the future. You might even have to address each other by your titles at ho."
"Go to hell!" Lu Feng rolled his eyes and glanced over. "During the grand opening the other day, Chen Xingzhou's brother even sent a basket of flowers, that's when I found out that little fatty had such a brother.
You've done such a big thing without making a sound, huh?"
He suddenly asked, "I heard there was a change in the power brokers recently, did you get involved?"
"Just a little."
"Oh, that sounds like quite a bit to ."
Lu Feng instantly understood; did he not know Ji Jue, this sly dog? Always low-profile, rarely in the lilight—claiming seventy percent as a hundred, thirty percent as seventy, and nothing at all if it was rely thirty percent.
"How have you been feeling lately?" Ji Jue abruptly changed the topic, asking without warning.
Lu Feng's expression froze montarily, then he flaunted his well-built biceps. "I can eat and sleep well, everything tastes good, and I sleep like a baby. What's there to worry about?"
"That's good, then."
Ji Jue reached out and tugged at the hair on the back of Lu Feng's neck, inspecting the tal structure covered by his hair—about the size of a thumb, seemingly fused with the flesh, inconspicuous.
That was the spinal interface for the Power Armor.
No issues.
He breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.
According to Lu Feng, from being a recruit to joining the Parachute Battalion, he had once undergone augntation surgery to be compatible with special Power Armor.
Even after retiring and having many components removed, his spine and brain still had interfaces left...
In so sense, Lu Feng was now considered half state property, having to live within the areas demarcated by the military and report in every month.
And due to that surgery, his mory was also quite foggy, many key operation mories had been locked away, unrecallable. In four years, he only had mories of two and a half.
However, Ji Jue had secretly checked, and that lock regarding the Heart Core wasn't very tight; it was more like a lead weight on an electronic scale, serving as a warning.
But just that warning was enough.
This thing wasn't much of a problem while it was there; it was only really deadly when removed.
Now that Lu Feng had retired, he had left his past behind; why linger on it?
Let the past stay in the past.
From the increasingly heavy rain, Ji Jue curiously asked, "Feng, thinking back on the past, do you feel any regrets?"
"I don't know."
Lu Feng thought for a mont, shrugged. "All of a sudden like this, I can't make sense of it... But there's no point in thinking about these things, right? If you genuinely want to care for a brother, don't just talk; get more jobs in the future, Ji the Good Samaritan!"
Ji Jue laughed. "Sure thing, Boss Lu!"
"Go to hell!"
Lu Feng also laughed, throwing a playful kick that missed.
"Da Gou, Xiao Ji, where are you guys!"
Lu Ma's shouts ca from the house, banging the side of the pot, "Dinner!"
"Coming, coming!!!"
Ji Jue's eyes lit up, and he hurried back, rubbing his hands.
Leaving Lu Feng to smoke alone amidst the rain sounds.
The light from his cigarette flickering.
Quietly, he sighed...
Regrets?
Thinking back now, of course, it's all fucking regrets!
He detested being used as a tool, detested killing the innocent, detested those wars with no future or justice to speak of. From the bottom of his heart, he wanted to retch—that was the only possibility, there were no others.
Those were nightmares.
He told himself this, not just once.
But he couldn't answer...
Why, when he woke up from the nightmares, was he smiling?
"Fuck it all."
He sighed and cursed to himself.
But he didn't know who exactly to curse.
"Big brother, hurry up!"
Lu Ling's urging voice ca from inside: "Bring out the dishes!"
"Alright, alright, I'm coming, stop nagging!"
Lu Feng flicked away the last bit of exasperated fire at his fingertip into the rain and turned to leave.
The wind howled past.
Lightning flashed.
A vast thunder echoed from the clouds, carried by the storm winds beyond Cliff City.
From the roaring Tide Sound, on the simple highway, series of dazzling lights ca on.
The armored convoy approached, through the pouring rain and mud.
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