Chapter 18
"By the way, you are now the leader of the Howling Knights?" Rong Yuan asked after Bai Le finished his recollections.
Bai Le was gritting his teeth when he suddenly heard Rong Yuan's voice. He quickly changed to a stiff smile: "I'm ashamed to say that I'm actually the acting leader. The real leader is still my father... but he has retired for seven or eight years."
"Oh..." Rong Yuan looked at Bai Le with a distorted expression, and felt a bit of sympathy for the pirate leader who had fought with him several times - he had supported him behind the scenes for at least seven or eight years, but his heir still looked like he was out of his mind. The old man must have been worried about this.
Bai Le was frightened by Rong Yuan's look. He didn't know what this guy was plotting against him. He said hurriedly, "I wonder what your plans are next? If you don't have a place to stay, I'll have my men arrange it for you."
——So you should leave quickly, even if it means losing money to avoid disaster. As long as you can get rid of this plague god, you can even let Bai Le give him his house.
"Oh?" Rong Yuan looked around, "Didn't you originally plan to rent this house to me?"
"Oh, yes, haha, haha." Bai Lelei... He originally intended to use this prop to get closer to Brother Master, but he didn't expect that the person who came in was the one he least wanted to see in his life. However, he still had to pretend to be willing and said, "No need to rent it, this place will be yours from now on, I... I'll ask them to pack up my things."
Bai Le was frustrated and was about to pack up and leave, but Rong Yuan said, "No hurry, sit down and talk."
——【What are you talking about? What else is there to say? Either we fight! Or we break up! Why are you being so fussy? I have been by your side for eight years! Eight years! In these eight years, when have you ever spoken to me properly? It’s too late to talk now! I tell you, you ignored me in the past, but today I will make you out of your league! Thank you! I won’t date you! Goodbye!】
Bai Le roared madly in his heart, but he turned around, moved a small stool and sat down, put his hands on his knees, and said obediently, "Do you have any other instructions?"
Rong Yuan gave him an unfathomable look, which made Bai Le tremble all over, and then he asked, "How much do you know about the human trafficking on Prison Star?"
"Huh?" Bai Le was dumbfounded: "There's still human trafficking here? Who are they selling it to?"
Rong Yuan narrowed his eyes and stared at Bai Le to make sure he was not lying. He sighed and said, "You haven't heard of Paradise City either?"
Bai Le blinked his eyes, and after a long pause he said hesitantly: "...Well, isn't there only this city on Prison Star?"
Although they were enemies (as he thought), Bai Le's trust in Rong Yuan was unparalleled. He knew that since Rong Yuan said so, there must be such a city, but he had never heard of it. So... who was the person who had lived here for nearly a hundred years?
"Forget it, go back."
Rong Yuan leaned back and waved his hand to let him leave. Bai Le was puzzled, but he had been eager to leave. He jumped up like a rabbit and walked quickly to the door. Just as he was about to open the door, he heard Rong Yuan's voice behind him: "Go back and tell your father that I want to meet him if I have time."
"ah?"
So on the way back, Bai Le kept thinking hard about what posture he could use to stop his father more effectively if he wanted to continue fighting with Rong Yuan.
——I can’t beat him, Dad! I couldn’t beat him a hundred years ago, but now he’s even scarier!
Following their boss's wave, the tough guys all left. Mia and the others looked at each other, then reluctantly walked into the house. They saw Rong Yuan sitting on the sofa, holding a cup of cold tea, frowning and thinking about something.
"Sir, is there any trouble?" Mia asked timidly.
"Trouble? Not at the moment." Rong Yuan put down his teacup and said, "You can stay here for now, and we'll talk about other things later. Also..." He glanced at everyone and said in a more serious tone, "Don't mention the matter of Paradise City to anyone else."
Everyone looked at each other and nodded, "Oh."
"knew."
"clear."
Rong Yuan nodded and waved his hand to let them choose their own rooms. When everyone went upstairs one by one, his eyes seemed to pass by someone's back inadvertently, as if thinking about something.
——Paradise City was the name Babaru mentioned before they separated, but even he only knew the name. At the same time, their boss inadvertently sighed: "What kind of hell is Red Prison Star? That is the real hell."
Because of this sentence, Rong Yuan decided that as long as that place existed, he would find it.
Bai Xiang arrived faster than anyone expected.
On the way back, Bai Le met his father who was walking towards him with big strides. He approached him hesitantly, but before he could say anything, Bai Xiang interrupted him with a wave of his hand, saying, "Let's go meet that old friend."
"Dad, you already know?" Bai Le followed Bai Xiang with a worried look on his face, nagging: "Why do you want to bring so many people? You don't want to fight, do you? Dad, I tell you, you are not the same as you were back then, your hair and beard are all white, why are you still so impulsive? Besides, we are all in this kind of place, as the saying goes, people with the same suffering sympathize with each other, and what, we share the same hatred and enemies! We are all comrades in the same trench, so let's not talk about the past, okay? Listen to me, go back and calm down first, calm down before coming back, okay?"
Judging from his appearance, he almost stopped in front of Bai Xiang, reached out and patted his head and said "good boy", but Bai Xiang ignored this silly son, walked quickly to the bottom of the two-story building, and then stopped, looking at the closed door, frowning tightly. After a while, he reached out and patted his silly son's head, pushed him aside, and said: "Don't worry, I'm not here to settle old scores. Be good and go play."
Actually, Bai Le is already over 120 years old. In Landia where the average age is 300, he can be considered a young and middle-aged man. But in Bai Xiang's eyes, he is no different from a three-year-old child. Even at this moment, he has countless burdens in his heart, but the tone he speaks to his son is still full of love.
Bai Le was relieved to hear that he was not here to cause trouble for Rong Yuan. He nodded and stood aside, saying, "Then Dad, I'll wait for you here. No matter what you talk about, you must stay calm!"
——Bai Le didn't realize that in his subconscious, he trusted Rong Yuan more than his own dear father. So he was only worried that his hot-tempered father would get into trouble with Rong Yuan, but he didn't think about what Rong Yuan, who was stronger, would do to his father.
Bai Xiang understood what was said, rolled his eyes helplessly, and walked towards the door of the small building.
“Squeak—”
The door opened, and Bai Xiang subconsciously straightened his collar. The tough guys A, B, C, D and others who served as background figures behind him also became nervous involuntarily.
Zhihuo came out of the door and stretched her body to the sky, showing her sexy and graceful figure. Then she put down her hands, opened her eyes, and saw a group of men who didn't look like good people staring at her. The white-haired old man in the front looked like he wanted to eat someone.
"Ah!" Zhihuo was startled and shrank back suddenly, and the door slammed shut with a bang.
Bai Xiang: ...
Bai Xiang raised his hand with a dark face and was about to knock on the door, but the door suddenly opened again. The beautiful woman cautiously stuck her head out and asked, "Um...Excuse me, are you Mr. Bai?"
"I am." Bai Xiang said stiffly.
Zhihuo pushed the door open, stepped aside and said, "Please come in... Please take a seat first. Mr. Rong said that if you come, go upstairs and call him."
"No need." Bai Xiang stood up straight. He was two heads taller than Zhi Huo. He looked down at Zhi Huo like an iron tower and said, "Where is Rong Yuan? I'll go see him directly."
Zhihuo wanted to stick to her position so that Rongyuan would look at her differently. However, she couldn't resist the aura of the star pirate leader who had been killing for more than two hundred years. She hesitated for two seconds with dignity, and then confessed under Bai Xiang's gaze: "Second floor, first room on the left."
Rong Yuan is in the study.
The concept of "study" has already undergone a huge change in Landia. After all, in this era where any information exchange can be completed on the Star Network, books have of course already been fully digitized. People can read any book they want with a palm-sized display screen , so there is no need for a special room to store books. Including in schools, libraries and other places where knowledge is disseminated and imparted, there is no paper book to be seen. Only in museums and the collection rooms of some private collectors can one or two extremely precious books from ancient times be seen. Therefore, "study" is equivalent to "meditation room" or "studio" for most Landia people. Some people even specially decorate a room similar to the study room in ancient times to show off.
But the shelves in this study are filled with real books.
Not many, only a dozen or so in total.
The paper is thin and fragile, slightly yellow, and some of it has black spots. It is obvious that the production process and raw materials are not the most suitable. Perhaps the people here used some plant roots, animal fur and a small amount of silk fabrics, and it was made after a long period of exploration. After all, the papermaking technology has long since declined and disappeared along with paper books.
All the books were handwritten. Paper was so precious here that there was no need to use machines to print in large quantities. The contents of the books had nothing to do with romance, love, hate, or even science and technology. There was only one thing in them - history.
From the founding of Landia to the recent years, these ten or so thin books recorded typical events and characters over tens of thousands of years. Naturally, a lot of content was missing. The events in recent years should have been learned from the new prisoners, and there were many errors and biases. But even so, the preciousness of these books was beyond doubt.
"Isn't it strange?" A voice came from behind, with sarcasm and self-mockery: "In a place with so much garbage, there would be something like this."
"If the people of Prison Star are trash, then they must be the most dangerous trash in Landia." Rong Yuan turned around, looked at him, and said, "Long time no see, Boss Bai."
"It's you." Bai Xiang's face was filled with shock that he could not hide. "This is impossible! More than a hundred years have passed, why haven't you changed at all?"
