Chapter 486: Chapter 309: Who is Naturally a Bloodthirsty Monster?

Tang Fei arrived home to find Little Fatty sprawled across the table, devouring noodles with egg that the household robot had made.

Seeing Tang Fei return, Little Fatty, mouth stuffed with long strands of noodles, asked with a surprised face, “Bro, you’re back?”

“Mhmm,” Tang Fei nodded.

“Off for the day?”

“I resigned.”

“Resigned?” Little Fatty’s eyes widened even further.

His brother worked this job tirelessly, leaving early and returning late every day, sometimes not coming home for several days at a time.

How could he just quit on the spot?

Tang Fei didn’t answer Little Fatty’s question, instead seeing the plate of fried noodles on the table, he asked, “Is this all you’re eating?”

The convenience of the household robot cooking was one thing, but the dishes it prepared lacked a certain homemade taste, something Little Fatty never really enjoyed.

But he wasn’t picky.

Being able to eat one’s fill on the Old Land was already a blessing from heaven—who was he to be fussy?

“Mhmm,” Little Fatty nodded, a simple, honest smile on his face: “I thought you weren’t coming back, so I just grabbed something quick.”

“You wait, I’ll cook,” Tang Fei said.

Reluctantly glancing at the fried noodles on the table, Little Fatty said, “Go ahead, bro, I can still eat…”

Wasting food was shameful, and Little Fatty never wasted.

Tang Fei paused, then patted his shoulder, saying, “Okay, then eat slowly, I’ll make you a few dishes.”

“Thanks, bro.” Little Fatty’s face lit up with gratitude. “Bro, make some more meat.”

“No problem,” Tang Fei agreed. “What? The mistress didn’t give you meat at school?”

“She did, the mistress knows I love meat, she makes it for me every meal.” Little Fatty sheepishly said with a blissful expression: “But that was several hours ago… I haven’t had any meat for dinner.”

As Tang Fei began to take the meat out from the fridge, he teased with a smile, “Other people crave meat if they haven’t had it all day, you crave it if you haven’t had it for a single meal.”

“Hehehe, can’t help being big, can I? The mistress said I should eat more meat, the more meat I eat, the more energy I have for training.”

“Right, how’s your training going? Have you managed to stop the waterfall yet?”

“It’s a bit early for that, bro. The master told me to find the feel, but I don’t know what that feels like yet…”

“Didn’t the Great Grandmaster demonstrate it for you last time?”

“The Great Grandmaster’s demonstration proved to me that it’s achievable. But, how to actually achieve it, I still need to figure out for myself. The master said these things take time and can’t be rushed, bit by bit. Even an iron rod can be ground down to a needle… I believe I can do it.”

“Mhmm, I believe in you too,” Tang Fei reassured.

He knew Little Fatty’s path in cultivation was unique, completely different from their own.

It was tough to speak of breaking through barriers with brute force, and even tougher to accomplish.

For Little Fatty had neither a learning target to follow, nor a predefined path of cultivation, nor the accumulative experiences of many predecessors.

He had to explore step by step on his own, and forge a path not taken by others before.

There is no path in this world until someone walks it, and the more who walk it, the more it becomes a path.

But the one who walks it first is exceptionally brave.

Whether it’s out of laziness, or to save time and shorten the journey.

While the brothers chatted, Tang Fei deftly whipped up a few dishes.

Braised pork ribs, pan-seared moonlight fish, devil’s chili stir-fried beef bits, and a tomato and egg drop soup—Tang Fei’s culinary skills had notably improved, each dish looking tantalizingly aromatic and delicious.

Little Fatty, eyeing the food eagerly, asked, “Bro, good food goes with good wine, how about a drink? It’s been a long time since we’ve sat down and had a drink together.”

Tang Fei shook his head, saying, “Not drinking today, I might need to step out later.”

“Going out again?”

“Yeah,” Tang Fei nodded. “Let’s eat.”

He didn’t explain anything to Little Fatty, always feeling the adult world was too filthy, whereas Little Fatty’s mindset remained the purest and simplest.

While he couldn’t do the same, he envied it.

If possible, he wished Little Fatty could stay that simple and happy forever.

“Alrighty!”

Little Fatty immediately embarked on his second round of feasting for the evening.

Tang Fei joined Little Fatty for a few bites, then stood up and headed to his room upstairs.

He retrieved the old-fashioned phone hidden in the closet, performed some password operations, and then finally dialed the sole phone number stored in it.

The call was quickly answered.

But there was no sound from the other end, a testament to the old man’s caution.

He would not make a sound until he heard Tang Fei’s voice.

“Old man, I’ve resigned,” Tang Fei said.

The old man wasn’t actually old, being two years younger than Tang Fei’s father, Tang Li.

After returning to New Star, Tang Fei saw the old man’s elders again…

He called Lu Yu “old man,” so what should he call his own dear Grandpa?

However, years of habit had taken hold, and he didn’t feel the need to change anything.

“Old man” was a jest, but also a term of respect.

It was a symbol, and even more so, an expression of emotion.

The old man grasped Tang Fei’s intent in an instant and, after a moment’s thought, asked, “Is it not too soon for a palace coup?”

He knew that Tang Fei wouldn’t consider resigning unless they had plotted something, and unless the Royal Family and the nine major families had entered a life-or-death struggle.

You couldn’t drive him away even if you tried…

Only amid the Empire’s internal turmoil could they seize the chance for revenge, to pull the Zhong Family down from their position.

Without unrest inside, their hope for revenge was incredibly slim.

Tang Fei’s resignation at this time was merely a display of an “attitude”.

An attitude of great fear for one’s life.

An attitude of great anger.

An attitude of hoping to be seen as “one of us”…

“If we don’t force the issue now, it just looks too hypocritical, especially since you’ve involved the Yu Family. With such a big crocodile, I’m afraid I can’t handle it,” Tang Fei said gravely.

The old man fell silent again.

After a while, he asked, “How do you know I did it?”

“Isn’t it too coincidental? I was just investigating the Lu Family, and suddenly the Yu Family gets dragged into it…”

“The hideout of the fleeing assassin was Yu Bainian’s house, and three months before the shooting, Glory Logistics under Yu Bainian had made payments to KK company… Yu Bainian was devastated when he heard, saying that even if he were a fool, he wouldn’t do something so amateurish.”

“He could have done it more elegantly, cleaner, and left no handles to grab onto. But this time, it was too rough, like someone deliberately left threads for us to pull…”

“If it were just these few incidents, I couldn’t be sure it was you. After all, it’s common for other forces to fan the flames behind the scenes when the Royal Family is dealing with the Lu Family.”

“But Glory Logistics had made payments to KK company three months in advance, at a time when I hadn’t joined the Monitoring Bureau yet, and Yan Wenli hadn’t passed the Lu Family case onto me.”

“Three months ago, who could have anticipated the situation today? Others might not know you exist, but I do. Only someone who has been watching the movements of all the forces from the background would take precautions and make their move first.”

“Besides, you were the one who strongly recommended me for a position in the Monitoring Bureau, for this moment, right? So when I saw those bodies, I knew it was you.”

“Smart,” the old man praised, “I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me. Look how well we, father and son, work together…”

“But people died,” Tang Fei said in a somber tone. “Wang Chao died, Shen Yan lost an arm… They…”

The old man interrupted Tang Fei with an indisputable tone, “Everyone will die, I will die, and so will you. I’ve said that if needed, you can chop off my head at any time. To hesitate for even a second is to disrespect me.”

“I can sacrifice even myself, let alone others? After all, what we’re dealing with is a matter of life or death…”

“Many more will die in the future. Including ourselves, as well as friends and relatives around us…”

“If you remain as merciful as you were today, then I have to reassess the feasibility of our plan and the chances of success for our revenge.”

“They’re innocent, they have family and friends too… We could have avoided this…”

“Avoid? No, no, no, every step is inevitable, and every drop of blood spilled is worth it. If they don’t make sacrifices, don’t lose arms, where does your anger come from? How else would the Monitoring Bureau unite against the Lu Family with a common hatred?”

“Do you know why no one came out to plead for the Lu Family this time? Do you know why the Lu Family has been retreating step by step? Because even the Lu Family themselves feel ‘guilty’… Whether or not the shooting was done by the Lu Family, everyone thinks it was.”

“That’s enough. The trend is such that no one dares to break the status quo lightly. All you need to do is go with the flow, and you can easily topple Lu Yunhang. Without the gesture of Lu Yunhang’s surrender, why would they believe in you?”

“And all we have to do… is just borrow a head, an arm, what’s the big deal?”

“Before you do these things, could you discuss them with me?”

“If I had discussed it with you, would you have agreed to my actions?” the old man asked. “Would you have agreed to the sacrifice of your colleagues? Originally, those two were supposed to be sacrificed together…”

“…”

“The more who die, the deeper the hatred between the Lu Family and the Monitoring Bureau, and the irreconcilability with the Royal Family. Only then will they see the situation clearly.”

“Compromise only leads to a dead end. To resist is the only chance for survival.”

“I feel uncomfortable with what you’ve done.”

“In the past… I was like you…” the old man said softly, his mood seeming a bit down. “I didn’t like killing, didn’t like bloodshed…”

“I only watched comedies in movies and novels, family joys, stories where lovers get married, tales of family reunions… Who is born a bloodthirsty monster?”

“But that way, we can’t get revenge.”