118. Old Man Han Still Clings to a Faint Hope

Baohua Mountain, "Little Star Farmhouse."

Whoosh!

Taking a deep slurp of noodles, Han Zitong turned his head and asked curiously, "How do you have these skills? Since when do Southerners know how to make hand-pulled noodles?"

"I’ve considered getting certified as a Chinese pastry chef."

Snap!

With a flick of his wrist, Li Jie cut a section of dough directly into the pot. On the cutting board lay plenty of garlic leaves, scallion bits, and cilantro.

There was also a large basin of mutton—water-boiled mutton. The sheep had been slaughtered not long ago.

"You don't eat cilantro?"

"I'm only nineteen, why would I eat cilantro?"

"..."

Han Zitong continued to slurp his noodles, then took a bite of a garlic clove from a small dish and sighed helplessly, "Damn it, this is life."

"What the hell are you sighing about? Your wife and kids aren't dead, you’ve got a few million in savings, and you’ve got a house. What do you have to complain about? Being a dog for a wealthy family is a position many people would kill to have."

The water-boiled mutton was for Han Zitong; Li Jie was eating roasted lamb chops.

There were also "tomahawk lamb chops" with the tenderloin still attached.

Whoosh!

Han Zitong drank some broth, grabbed a handful of cilantro, and seeing there was still sheep tripe left, he said, "Blanch that tripe and slice it up. I’ll have it like spicy tripe."

"You're quite particular."

Li Jie put down the half-eaten lamb chop, a bone still dangling from his mouth, grabbed the kitchen knife from the board, and chopped away with a rapid *thwack-thwack-thwack*. He tossed the pieces into a colander, blanched them quickly, and threw them into a mixing bowl.

"You want chili, right?"

"Add plenty of chili."

Han Zitong, still gnawing on garlic, saw Li Jie hacking away and scolded, "I told you to blanch it whole and then slice it, why did you slice it first?"

"What do you know? How long ago was this sheep slaughtered? You think it’s been aged overnight?"

He poured it into a bowl and set it in front of Han Zitong. "It’s good with sesame paste too, I recommend you try it."

"Get lost."

Han Zitong only wanted the cilantro. He smashed three whole garlic cloves with his palm, stirred them into the bowl with his chopsticks, and took a mouthful of tripe strips.

It was very crisp, and there was no gamey smell; the only thing lacking was the quality of the chili.

"This chili is a bit subpar."

"Use your head. I'm in Jiangdong; do you really think I can find good chili here?"

"I know a shop, you go and buy..."

"You’re a captive, and you’re already getting high and mighty? Do you want me to find you a pretty girl, too?"

"..."

Han Zitong didn't want to talk. When the subject of women came up, he sighed, "My wife is probably going to remarry."

"Well, no kidding. She was living in constant fear because of you. Now that you're an A-level wanted criminal and the Yang family has pinned all the blame on you, who knows? They’re probably listening in on every call you make to her. From a self-preservation standpoint, she’ll sell the assets, change her name, and marry some honest man."

Li Jie sat cross-legged on the sofa, gnawing on a lamb chop. Once he finished, he waved the rib at Han Zitong and laughed, "Old Man Han, one day your son will call another man 'dad,' and all the money and wealth you saved will be enjoyed by someone else. Hahahaha..."

"You bastard..."

"Hey, isn't it frustrating? And you can't even beat me. I could give you a gun and you still wouldn't win. Isn't that infuriating? I even find myself infuriating—I’m such a jerk. Hahahaha..."

"..."

Han Zitong felt that Li Jie was a complete and utter monster. There was even a record of Li Jie pacing around him for seventy-two hours straight, tinkering with some "Li-style T-800 individual exoskeleton."

The exoskeleton wasn't the point—that wasn't anything special. Without high-end motors, hydraulic transmission could work, and the battery life was decent too.

The point was... this guy could go seventy-two hours without sleeping!

Is this even human?

"Are you even from Earth?"

Han Zitong had asked this question more times than he could count.

"I told you I am. If I get shot, I’ll die. I don't have automatic regeneration, I can't regrow limbs, and I certainly can't come back from the dead."

He placed a lamb chop on a plate, felt it was missing something, and squirted some ketchup on it, making a playful "Here you go!" sound as he did.

Han Zitong’s blood pressure spiked just watching him. "You’re eating lamb chops with ketchup?!"

"I told you, I’m only nineteen. What’s wrong with a teenager eating ketchup? It’s youthful."

"I’m going to throw up."

"Next time, I’ll show you how to eat dumplings with ketchup."

"..."

Li Jie quickly finished one piece, picked up another, and said, "You said earlier that the 'Individual 500' combat mode requires a special reaction enhancer, right?"

"Yes, it was originally for space operations. You need high reaction speeds, and in a zero-gravity environment, it maximizes physical potential. That’s why the cryo-therapy pods are on the space station; the healing effect is twenty-four times faster than on the ground. Ground testing has never really been successful. When I retired, it required long-term serum matching, and the military bio-centers never found out why. So now it all depends on screening total soldier compatibility. It’s the same abroad; there’s no good solution yet."

"Didn't they ever try making a low-end version for sports stars?"

"How do you know they haven't?"

"Oh..."

Li Jie paused for a moment and then said, "I was being superficial."

"It's just that there aren't many pharmaceutical companies that can access this, and very few sports stars can afford the cost. It hasn't truly entered the civilian market yet."

The well-informed Han Zitong pointed at Li Jie with his chopsticks meaningfully. "And the most important point: there isn't enough motivation to push it."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..."

"..."

After finishing his lamb chops, Boss Li started eating greens to cleanse his palate—a "cucumber, wood ear, dried bean curd, and carrot salad," and he shared a bit with Han Zitong.

"You make a pretty good cucumber salad."

"I’ve got the skills."

When Han Zitong was full and satisfied, they watched TV for a while. Once the news ended, he finally asked, "When are you going to kill me?"

"Why would I kill you? I don't like killing people."

"..."

"Take the 'Hero Bridge' incident on Gongyuan Street, for example. Even if you argue until the end of time, that was just self-defense, right?"

"You're a damn lunatic."

There was no communicating with him. Han Zitong knew very well that this bastard had a broken brain.

Of course, that didn't matter anymore. He was just trying to survive one day at a time. He wouldn't betray the Yang family; after all, he had taken their money, and he wasn't the only one who had served them loyally. His father had been loyal to them too.

The Yang family paid well and offered great benefits. Not everyone in the family was just a pawn; some went into politics, some into business, and others into research.

Han Zitong’s sons, for instance, attended "elite schools" and received an elite education. Getting into any university in the country wasn't hard for them, provided they weren't mentally deficient. If needed, a single recommendation letter could secure them a direct path from bachelor's to doctorate.

So, Han Zitong wouldn't betray the Yang family. He’d had a good life for years, and aside from the rigorous training, he had no complaints.

Just as the lunatic Li said, being a dog for the Yang family... the number of people who wanted that job could fill the entire Luoyang Palace.

Still, he wanted to know why he was being kept alive.

"If you won't kill me and you can't make me turn against the Yang family, aren't you just wasting your time?"

"What a moron. Do you think it’s that hard for me to take down the Yang family? I could just kill a Yang every day; it’s not difficult. Look at how I nailed Yang Ying to a 'cross.' What could the Yang family do? They were so anxious they were pissing blood and could only stare in frustration. If that old geezer Yang Renshou is willing to give me a billion or two to settle this, I'll let it slide. I’m a big man; I don't hold grudges against a brat like Yang Er."

"And what if the Big Boss doesn't settle?"

"This year, once I film a few more 'revenge thrillers,' I’ll just go and hack him to death in the street."

Li Jie turned to look at the stunned Han Zitong. "I'm talking about Yang Renshou, Yang Ying's father."

"..."

"I’ve checked around locally. The 'Daxing Consortium' has, at most, five or six thousand private guards. If I kill one every second, it wouldn't even take two hours to wipe them all out."

"Do you have any idea what you're saying?"

"Don't believe me? Just wait and see."

Li Jie was completely unbothered. This wasn't over, and it was so much fun—a top-tier wealthy family, arrogant and untouchable, trembling under the threat of a single man.

No wonder ancient emperors wanted to recruit great warriors the moment they saw them. How could they not? What if the warrior decided to become an assassin?

Imagine them on the road to Mount Tai, riding a thousand-mile horse, wielding a long spear, charging through and skewering someone in one blow, then riding off gracefully even after being hit by a dozen arrows, acting like nothing happened.

That’s the life.

"Also, the Yang family doesn't believe a 'one-man army' like me exists. They’re still wondering if some underground organization is holding a grudge against them. If you were an old hand like me, would you believe in a mysterious criminal group, or would you believe one guy could take on a hundred?"

"..."

Han Zitong had to admit that even with Li Jie right in front of him, he still didn't believe Li Jie was acting alone. Behind this guy, there had to be a massive organization; otherwise, he couldn't support his logistics.

Intelligence gathering alone required a huge organizational system. One man? If it was just one man, Han Zitong would rip his own head off and kick it like a ball.

"How do you collect intelligence on the Han family?"

"See, you still don't believe me. If I told you I mobilized the masses, would you believe me?"

"..."

"There's no point talking to someone who’s a dog for these wealthy families."

Li Jie waved his hand, too lazy to explain to Han Zitong. It was impossible to explain.

If "Brother Bi" hadn't died, he probably would have strapped on a suicide vest himself if Li Jie had asked him to blow up the Kaihuang Hot Spring Resort in Luzhou.

To be human—I’m so excited!

Boss Li sat for a while, then stood up and said, "Take my advice: don't think about running back to the Han family to see if there's any hope for your future. Keep watching the news. I suspect reports will come out in the next couple of days."

The follow-up reports on Yang Ying being turned into a "cross" differed from the truth. Yang Ying was mentally unstable now—not yet insane, but undergoing "psychological intervention." He kept saying it was Li Jie, but the entire Yang family didn't believe him.

The Yang family’s investigation was focused on a technology leak from years ago, assuming an underground organization was retaliating, and that Li Jie was just caught in the middle.

Because the "Individual 500" left in the "Emperor Suite" of the Xu Zhou Kaihuang Hot Spring Resort was still in "Combat Mode" when the police found it.

What was the difference between a normal person using "Combat Mode" and suicide?

Of course, Yang Renshou wasn't losing his mind because his second son was being driven crazy. It was because the Supreme Council was demanding to know how the "Individual 500" ended up in the "Emperor Suite" of the Xu Zhou Kaihuang Hot Spring Resort.

And since it was the prototype "CS-EV500," that made it an even bigger issue.

Even if the Ministry of Defense’s partners had been hiding things and conducting secret research, as long as it wasn't public, it didn't exist; as long as it wasn't discovered, it still didn't exist.

Now that it was exposed, sorry, you have to provide a reasonable explanation.

If you can't, then I'm sorry—getting kicked off the Ministry of Defense partnership list is just the appetizer. The real nightmare is yet to come.

In this situation, you expect the Yang family to secretly let Han Zitong go?

Go to hell. Why didn't you just blow yourself up with the "Individual 500"?

Han Zitong didn't understand this yet because he hadn't seen the news that would make it clear—news like Yang Renshou appearing before the Supreme Council to play the humble servant.

Han Zitong, still holding onto his delusions, had unrealistic fantasies about the Yang family, both in terms of personal connections and their actual power.

But Boss Li was different. Whether he had the "system" or not, he held one philosophy: nothing lasts forever.

As the old saying goes, the bones of the nobility are trampled on the streets.

It’s just like that.