Ch 114 – Brother In A Foreign Land
Waiting for Lei Yu to return to the lobby, the girls finally understood what he his words meant.
“Handsome guy, exactly how much money do you have? You’ve just arrived and you bought such a cool car, it must have cost a lot right?”
“Ha ha, I just bought this… weren’t you two going somewhere? How do we get there? I’m still new to the roads in the U.S.” Said Lei Yu with a smile.
“Xin Er, want to go look for your older brother?” Asked the girl as she nudged Xin Er.
“Eh? Oh! I don’t know the specific name of the place, but it’s straight ahead, I only know the general direction.” Xin Er just recovered from her fantasizing before replying.
Lei Yu smiled. “This tour guide is not bad, she only knows the location but doesn’t know the name of it… rarely seen, really a sight rarely seen¹.”
Lei Yu drove his car inside the city and made many turns before finally arriving at Xin Er’s so called destination. This place was considered a historic street and the pedestrians on this street were obviously much less than other places.
There are big differences between Western and Eastern architecture but they each have their own characteristic and flair. Lei Yu and group arrived at a building that used to be white but due to the age of time, it had long become yellow in color. They walked to the side of the building and went through a small gate.
Going up to the fourth floor, Lei Yu slightly wrinkled his eyebrows but did not say anything. Knocking on a dark red wooden door, a guy about twenty something years of age with a weird appearance opened the door. One look and you can tell he was a Tenglong person because he had features that made one proud.
“Brother!” Xin Er jumped forward and hugged this person.
“You silly girl, now you visit your brother? Have you been well-behaved lately?” Smiled the guy while looking at Lei Yu’s direction without any unusual expressions. Perhaps he thought that Lei Yu was a colleague of Xin Er’s. As for the other girl, he apparently knew her since he didn’t show any signs of being a stranger towards.
Lei Yu also showed a smile on his face when he was actually a little surprised, but he didn’t show that on his face and did not say anything either.
They were politely welcomed into the apartment. Carefully observing, Lei Yu felt even more curious. The furnishings inside the apartment were rather simple, only a few chairs and a dining table, and they were all covered in dust. With Lei Yu’s amazing eyesight, he found that the cups on top of the table also had a thin layer of dust on them. It appears the reason was due to not being used for a long time.
Xin Er’s brother went to a plastic bag on a chair near the kitchen. “Have a drink, I just bought these.”
Lei Yu looked very casual but in reality, he had already a.n.a.lyzed the whole situation inside the apartment. There originally was no reason for him to do so but once he saw a cow’s skull hanging on the wall as a decorative piece, he felt that Xin Er’s brother was not simple. He was absolutely not your average person.
Putting down his drink, Lei Yu said with a smile: “I’m sorry but I still have things to do and will be leaving first, you two siblings have a nice chat. If there’s a need, Xin Er can just call me and I will pick her up.”
“Ah? Okay, that’s fine then.” The two girls were kind of reluctant but Lei Yu really had nothing to do here so they couldn’t just force him to stay around right?
“I’m sorry, it’s my neglect. My name is Hu Jiong and it’s really nice to have met you.” Hu Jiong reached out and shook hands with Lei Yu.
“Lei Yu.”
After Lei Yu left, Hu Jiong was slightly dazed. “Brother, what’s going on with you?”
“Is he a colleague of your company?”
“Nope, he’s a pa.s.senger we met on the plane. But he’s a really nice person and even treated all of us to dinner.” As Xin Er was saying this, her face started becoming red. The girl on the side giggled but didn’t say anything.
He wasn’t too concerned about the situation. Since his sister had come, the older brother naturally had to do the honors of being the host and treat them at a nearby restaurant for a meal.
Lei Yu drove his car down the street to an inconspicuous place and sat quietly inside, waiting for something. The moon gradually rose up. With the moonlight, Lei Yu saw the trio emerge from a restaurant.
“Honk! Honk!”
Lei Yu pressed the car’s horn a few times making the trio turn around. Lei Yu stylishly got out of the car and saw the two beauties with their eyes wide in surprise.
“How come you didn’t leave?” Xin Er asked in surprise.
“I just happened to come back after finishing my errands so I can drive you two. What, you don’t want me to?”
“Of course we do. Brother, then we’re gonna…”
“Then hurry back, don’t you have to go on the return flight tomorrow?” Hu Jiong said nonchalantly.
Bidding farewell to her brother and promising she will see him next time; the three drove off from Hu Jiong’s place.
“Xin Er, what does your brother do for a living?” Lei Yu seemingly asked in a casual way.
“I don’t know, my brother never mentioned it. But he does go to work somewhere around here.”
“How long has he been in the U.S.?”
“For several years now. He has returned home twice but usually rushes back to the U.S. I really don’t know why he’s always so busy every day.” Xin Er was somewhat complaining how she rarely sees her brother. Even if she sometimes flies to the U.S. for work, it’s not definite that she would be able to see him because he’s usually disappeared off somewhere.
“Okay, you two go up and rest up, I still have some things to do and will be going out.” Without realizing it, Lei Yu had already driven them to the front of the hotel. The two girls reluctantly walked into the hotel but would keep looking back at Lei Yu. They knew they would be leaving tomorrow so they wanted some extra looks at the rich, considerate and handsome guy. Looks like they don’t have such good fortune to land him in their arms.
Watching the two enter the hotel, Lei Yu turned the car around. His goal was the residence of Hu Jiong who he had just left from.
“Bzzt, bzzt!”
The doorbell gave off a weird sound. Opening the door, Hu Jiong was somewhat surprised. “Lei Yu? Why are you…?”
Lei Yu smiled. “Can I chat with you for a bit?”
Thinking for a short time, he fully opened the door and Lei Yu went inside.
“I’m very curious about your real ident.i.ty. Oh, don’t worry; I don’t have any malicious intent. When it comes to dealing with my fellow Tenglong citizens, I’m usually very polite.” Lei Yu said this while playing with the ring on his finger while smiling at Hu Jiong.
“Who are you? Why are you curious about my ident.i.ty? Did you intentionally come with Xin Er today?” Hu Jiong was highly vigilant while he watched Lei Yu with a frown.
“No, this whole thing was a coincidence. But my curiosity was piqued after meeting you so I came back. I am looking for a person and he’s really important to me. I heard from Xin Er that you’ve been in the U.S. for a long time so I was hoping I’d find some clues through you.” Lei Yu said so openly without any nonsense since this was his style of doing things.
“What do you want to know about?”
“I want to know any information related to mutants.” Lei Yu’s eyes were staring at Hu Jiong in front of him, his deep profound eyes not giving anything away. The atmosphere in the room seemed to have frozen as the two did not say anything while staring at each other.
A short while later, Hu Jiong smiled. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, really? As a bounty hunter, would they not have any information on mutants? That’s just too much of a joke.” Lei Yu wasn’t looking at Hu Jiong anymore. He stood up and walked towards the wall with a cow skull hanging on it, carefully observing it in detail. “I don’t think this is a cow’s skull, this should be a human skull after it transformed right?”
When Lei Yu arrived in this apartment with Xin Er, he already felt this skull didn’t really belong to the cattle species; this was due to the residual essence that was detected by Lei Yu. He also knew about a habit about bounty hunters. They were similar to ordinary people who went hunting in the mountains; they liked to hang their prize on the wall as a show of glory. But bounty hunters could not be so reckless as to start hanging human-like heads on the walls, so Hu Jiong chose to hang mutants that changed with cow features as his decoration.
Hu Jiong breathed in a cool breath of air. With his extraordinary strength, he quickly recovered from the surprise. “It’s my turn to be curious towards your ident.i.ty… You’re right, I’m a bounty hunter. And I’m the only bounty hunter here with a Tenglong country nationality. So can you tell me who you are?”
“I’ll get straight to the point, we don’t fight amongst fellow citizens and we were never enemies to begin with.” Pausing a bit, Lei Yu then continued: “You should know who I am… many people call me the young master.”
Hu Jiong looked like he turned into a stone statue as he stared at Lei Yu in a daze, not saying a single word.
————————-
¹ – Lei Yu’s sarcastic remark, to rarely meet a person like this.