Chapter 1253: Twenty Over Years Ago
During this time, the gang leader thrived in the stock market and had defeated many opponents. With the exception of Cheng Yaojin who appeared out of nowhere yesterday[1], he did not even face any decent resistance from anyone. This made him very depressed.
It was like playing a game. There must be evenly matched opponents for the game to be fun. If it was just one side crushing the other, it would not be possible to fully appreciate the game.
“Forget it, I doubt I’ll be able to find an opponent now. I’ll just go take a walk.” The leader thought to himself and went out. He got into his red-brown Jaguar and headed in the direction of Shencheng.
The small city where the leader was located was not too far from Shencheng. It was about thirty minutes away by car. He entered Shencheng but did not go to any of the entertainment venues. He simply followed the main road all the way to the city center. On the way, he hummed and muttered to himself, “Come to think of it, I haven’t been to the orphanage for a long time. Hehe, I wonder what happened to the little guy I sent there years ago. Actually…”
As he said that, he touched the scar on his cheek and smiled. “The scar that the little guy’s parents left me was really memorable.”
With that thought, the scene of yesteryear appeared once again in the gang leader’s mind…
It happened more than twenty years ago.
At that time, he and his sworn brother Hong Haoming left the army together. The two had a good relationship. They started a business together and made a fortune together. At that time, his family was just an ordinary household with total assets in the tens of thousands. Their total assets came up to 100,000 yuan. In the small city where he lived at the time, he was considered mildly affluent.
Unfortunately, the two of them had differing opinions with regard to their future development.
His brother Hong Haoming wanted to grow his business steadily, slowly developing, rising up level by level. The leader, however, wanted to take advantage of his youth and do something big and exciting while he could.
Originally, there was nothing wrong with both their thinkings. Hong Haoming wanted to go slow and steady while the gang leader wanted to advance bravely. There was nothing wrong with either of their intentions, and it was no big deal if both did whatever they wanted to. However, it was a pity that the leader was too aggressive. During one of his business trips to Beijing, he met an American named Ebert.
Actually, getting to know a foreigner at that time was something to be proud of. The leader did not think much of it then. But later, Hong Haoming accidentally discovered the true identity of Ebert. This was when something terrible happened.
That was because Ebert was an American special agent, an industrial spy!
That day, in the leader’s house…
“Brother, this cannot continue. That man is a special agent! If you continue associating with him, they will think you are a spy and arrest you!” Hong Haoming sat in front of the leader, trying to convince him. “Stop while you still can. The brother I know will not betray his country!”
“What do you know? This is an opportunity! An opportunity, you understand?!” The leader refused to back down. “He already promised to support me with one million US Dollars! One million US Dollars! Do you know how much that is?! We won’t be able to earn that much money in our entire life!”
“Aren’t you afraid of burning yourself with that money?!” Hong Haoming shouted. “There’s no such thing as free money in this world! He might want you to do something horrible for him in the future! You cannot continue like this! You must not!”
“I don’t need you meddling in my business!” The leader shouted. “Just take care of your own business. I will settle my own problems. I’m tired, you should go home first!”
“Brother, you!” Seeing that the leader had already made his decision, Hong Haoming sighed helplessly and shook his head. Before he left, he said, “Brother, I cannot let you sink deeper. I’ll report Ebert now! We’re not in need of money anymore, why must you be so ambitious?”
“You!” The gang leader was immediately anxious. If Ebert’s identity was revealed, his one million US Dollars…
At night.
“Haoming, open the door. It’s me.” The leader had secretly brought two people with him and knocked on Hong Haoming’s door.” Let’s talk more. You haven’t left yet, right?”
“Brother, have you come around to it?” Hong Haoming was overjoyed when he heard the leader’s voice and he opened the door without a second thought. However, what he saw was not the leader’s smiling face, but a cold blade…
“Brother, you… you’re too cruel…” Hong Haoming watched the sharp knife stab into his heart, and his eyes turned to stare blankly at the gang leader. “Why…” Hong Haoming grabbed the gang leader’s face fiercely, bruising him. “Why are you doing this… you’re my elder brother…”
“Brother, take it as a debt I owe you for this lifetime.” The leader looked at the slowly crumpling Hong Haoming and shook his head. “I’m so sorry, I must have that one million US dollars. So… let’s be brothers again in our next lives.”
That night, a large fire burned Hong Haoming’s house to ashes.
Twenty minutes later, the leader appeared in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of the County Hospital.
“Sister-in-law, I just got the news.” The gang leader explained grimly to Hong Haoming’s wife. “Brother Haoming was cooking for you at home when the LPG tank exploded. The house caught fire and Brother Haoming… is gone…”
“Wh… what?!” Hong Haoming’s wife burst into tears. “Haoming…”
After her exclamation, there was a sudden sharp pain in her lower abdomen. “Ah… it hurts! I…”
She was about to give birth! The leader was stunned. Soon the nurses pushed Hong Haoming’s wife into the delivery room. After a full hour, a nurse ran out sweating and shouted, “Who is Lan Xiangqin’s family member?”
“I am.” the leader stepped forward. “What happened to my sister-in-law?!”
“The mother’s mental state is unstable and that has resulted in problems during labor. Do you want to save the mother or the baby?” the nurse asked anxiously.
Save the mother or the baby? The gang leader was worried that what he had done would be exposed in the future. Now that his sister-in-law Lan Xiangqin was having a difficult birth, it would solve a lot of his troubles. Immediately pretending to be sad, he gritted his teeth and asked, “Is there a higher chance of saving the mother or the baby?”
The nurse: “We can try to save the baby. We don’t have much confidence in saving the mother though.”
“Save the baby, then! My brother’s lineage cannot be broken!” the leader cried decisively.
And so it was that Hong Haoming and his wife both died on the same day, leaving only a newborn child.
Looking at the little child sleeping peacefully in the swaddle, the leader sighed softly. “Brother Haoming, I have done you wrong. I will not kill your child, at least you will still have a descendant…”
It was then that the gang leader sent the child to the Shencheng Orphanage…
“If the child is alive, he should be in his twenties?” The leader looked at the scenery outside the window and muttered, “I wonder how is Brother Haoming’s descendant. Sigh, speaking of which, I was the one who killed my brother and his wife all those years ago. Somehow, I feel I owe the kid something. Forget it, if he’s still there, I will give him a few tens of thousands. That would count as having done my part as an uncle.”
…
On the other side, in a villa located in the Water Creek residential area where Hong Dali and others were.
Everyone was sighing because of the stock market. At this time, Gu Feifei had come downstairs. As she walked, she said, “Dali, I think there’s something wrong with the stock market today. We’ve liquidated everything and made just a little, about 10 billion yuan.”
When they heard Gu Feifei’s words, everyone’s mouths gaped open.
Ten billion was considered a small profit?!
“Oh, it’s just so-so.” Hong Dali sniffled. “Alright, everyone, don’t be so depressed. Let’s go out for a walk today. I want to visit the orphanage.”
Shencheng Orphanage was where Hong Dali grew up. Speaking of which, he had been back in this world for such a long time, but he had yet to visit the orphanage.
It was not that he had forgotten. Rather, it was mainly because his thoughts had been complicated. He didn’t know how he should face Grandma Wu who had taken care of him then. At that time, he was still really young. The orphanage didn’t know where he had come from, only that an uncle had sent him there. The uncle left no message, only that his surname was Hong. No one knew what his parents’ names were.
“Dali is going to the orphanage?” At this moment, Tang Muxin and Li Nianwei had also packed up and come over. Tang Muxin whispered to Li Nianwei, “Sister Nianwei, do you think Dali grew up in that orphanage? Then…”
“Most likely.” Li Nianwei nodded. “I checked the Internet. It seems that there was indeed a man named Hong Dali who died in a car accident in order to save two children. He grew up in an orphanage. And now Dali says he wants to visit an orphanage…”
“Eh, seems like it’s true.” Tang Muxin pursed her lips. “Dali is really kind-hearted. Getting into an accident to save two children, most ordinary people are not capable of doing something like that.”
“Young Master has always been a kind person.” Li Nianwei smiled. Her expression when she looked at Hong Dali was extremely tender. “For so long, even after two lifetimes, Young Master’s heart is still as kind as ever. Hehe.”
“That’s why he’s so likable.” Tang Muxin smiled. “I should be nicer to him in the future. Good people deserve to be treated well.”
So, everyone packed up and got ready to leave. Hong Dali sat in his Knight XV, and Han Songyang and the others followed in a long row. They were all driving luxury cars such as Land Rover, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Koenigsegg, Aston Martin, etc.
Along the way, many passers-by saw such a fleet and wondered. “Is there an auto show somewhere? So many luxury cars, they’re so cool!” “Yeah, we usually don’t see them around much, but there are so many today…”
The group of cars continued on their way slowly and half an hour later, Han Songyang stopped and smiled. “Okay, we’re here.”
[1] Used to describe a situation where someone shows up unexpectedly and disrupts a plan.
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