The old man knew that when Little Fatty missed him, he would cry and secretly wipe his tears.
When Tang Fei missed him, he would mock, sneer, and curse fiercely...
The deeper the longing, the fiercer the curse.
This was a guy who never easily showed his feelings, seeming cold-blooded but actually quite adorable.
Little Fatty could freely express his emotions, but as the elder brother, he could not.
He needed to be mature, calm, ice-cold, sinister, and always ready for a contest...
Yet, missing someone was just missing them.
They were friends who shared everything, family who lived together day and night, father and son closer than blood relatives...
How could he not miss them too?
After Tang Fei vented his emotions, the old man cautiously glanced at him and said, "Are we okay now?"
"We have a problem," Tang Fei stared fiercely at the old man and said, "If you can’t give me a reasonable explanation, I’ll have Little Fatty smash your dog head with Skull Hammer... I believe Little Fatty would be very happy to do so."
The old man looked at Lu Zhiyong and suggested, "Come to your courtyard for a visit."
"Okay," Lu Zhiyong agreed, leading the way.
As they prepared to leave, those rats and Red Bees that had been ’frozen’ just moments ago all came to life, swarming out like a receding tide and disappeared into the vast mountains in an instant.
Tang Fei watched with hidden alarm, thinking about the enormous wealth and advanced technological capability it must take to maintain such a mechanized army.
Such a mountain, such an array, perhaps not even the Empire’s army of a hundred thousand could conquer...
Even if it eventually did, the casualties would be massive.
No wonder the Royal Family always feared the nine major families, if the other eight had resources like the Gongshu Family, wouldn’t the Phoenix Royal Family be living in constant unease?
Thinking of how he had already offended the Shen Family and Qin Family of the nine major families, Tang Fei regretted it deeply and felt waves of fear.
If these behemoths truly set their hearts on killing him, he really wouldn’t have any power to resist...
He would have to ask Phoenix to intervene, invite Shen Qingping and Qin Jianyi to dine, toast and be merry, and personally promise to forgive all their provocations and humiliations, no longer taking their past mistakes to heart...
Even if they couldn’t be friends, there was no need for endless fighting, right?
Arriving at Lu Zhiyong’s courtyard, the old man said, "Give us the secret room, I want to have a heart-to-heart talk with him."
"Sure," Lu Zhiyong readily agreed.
Although he was curious about what the elder brother wanted to discuss with Tang Fei, if the elder brother did not want him to listen, he could only stand guard at the door.
The old man led Tang Fei into the secret room with practiced ease and then shut and locked the thick soundproof door. It seemed the brothers often discussed matters here.
The old man invited Tang Fei to sit down and waited on him very obsequiously, offering to peel fruit for him and pour him tea.
Tang Fei neither ate his peeled fruit nor drank his tea. He just sat there quietly, his attitude very clear.
If you can’t give me an explanation, I’ll give you one in a little bit.
Helpless, the old man heaved a heavy sigh and said, "Actually, I have my own compelling reasons..."
"Go on, I’m listening. I really want to hear just how compelled you’ve been..."
"Twenty years ago, I fell for a girl. She was the Emperor’s most beloved daughter, the august Princess of the Empire..."
That story sounded a bit familiar.
"She was so gentle and smart, so elegant and graceful. She was high above, like the bright moon in the sky. And I... was just an ordinary Mechanic, who had nothing but good looks... The distance between us was just too far too wide..."
The old man glanced at Tang Fei and said, "The Royal Family disagreed with our relationship, tried every means to separate us, but no hardship or peril could extinguish the fire of love between us..."
"I slept with the girl, got her pregnant, and when the Emperor found out, he was furious, wanting me to be cut into a thousand pieces...."
"To avoid implicating my beloved Princess and the unborn child in her womb... I had no choice but to assume a new identity and escape alone to that distant Old Land... You already know what happened after that..."
Tang Fei looked at the old man and asked, "Is this the hardship you were forced into?"
"Yes," the old man nodded earnestly, "Is it moving? Do you feel the pain and frustration I’m bearing? We fell in love with the Princess, but is it our fault? No, what does love have to do with age, borders, gender, identity, or number of people?"
Tang Fei stood up, his face expressionless, "I’m leaving."
"Wait, wait, wait..." The old man pushed Tang Fei back onto the couch, "I have another story, one more thing to tell..."
The old man’s expression grew solemn, he pondered for a moment, and then, through gritted teeth, he said, "You know, I used to be the Mechanic genius of the Gongshu Family, famous at a young age, and the focus of the industry’s attention, also the one being intensely cultivated by the family... Everyone was clear that, if nothing went wrong, I would be the next Family Head of the Gongshu Family..."
"But the unexpected hit me, one day, I suddenly couldn’t produce any work, not even the most ordinary wooden bird... I made one, destroyed one, made another, destroyed another... The younger generation in my family looked down on me, called me a fool, a waste, and some even questioned whether all the works I made in the past were plagiarized, suggesting they were bought and made by someone else..."
The story sounded all too familiar.
"The elders in the family kept trying to undermine me, devalue me, wanting to strip away my right to inherit the position of Family Head... What’s worse, the girl I liked... We had grown up together from childhood, and she actually took the initiative to come to my door wanting to break off our engagement..."
"Breaking off an engagement, what a heavy blow to a man? My pride, my dignity, as well as my hopes and dreams for the future... all shattered... I ran away, cowardly escaping to the Old Land... I couldn’t face everything on New Star, and could only scrape by in an unfamiliar place..."
The old man covered his face, his voice beginning to choke.
Tang Fei stared at the old man’s head, "If there’s no third story, I’ll go."
"Don’t, don’t, don’t..." The old man clung to Tang Fei’s arm, "How can you go? It’s not easy for us to meet, we should at least share a meal together... Don’t you like to drink? I have good liquor here, Qinghua Fen that’s hundreds of years old..."
"No thanks." Tang Fei looked into the old man’s eyes, "I have to go back and cook for Little Fatty."
"I can have someone bring Little Fatty over, so we can all gather? Doesn’t Little Fatty like to eat meat? I’ll get someone to bring over a wild goat... you should try the goats from Lu Ban Mountain, they have red skin, the meat is tender and succulent, absolutely unrivaled..."
Tang Fei shook his head, "No need. I’ll tell Little Fatty you’re still alive, and doing well..."
Having said that, Tang Fei got up and left.
"Tang Fei..." the old man called out.
Tang Fei turned to look at the old man, his voice solemn, "When I saw Si Yu, when she asked me if I knew about ’the useless heart,’ when I saw her demonstrating skills that were very similar to the Mechanic knowledge you taught me... my heart was filled with doubt, wondering if there was some connection between you two..."
"I took the initiative to approach her time and again, testing her, even going so far as to follow her... I thought that if you were on New Star, I would definitely find you. Because you are... a family member to me and Little Fatty, our closest kin..."
"We didn’t know what had happened to you, but I thought, no matter what... we would stand by you, face it together, solve it together..."
"I even thought maybe you had offended the Gongshu Family, stole their technology, or offended some powerful person... If that were really the case, perhaps asking Phoenix to intervene might help you regain your freedom... I still have some money left, if that doesn’t work, we could give it all as compensation..."
"I don’t know if you were the first person I saw when I opened my eyes, but ever since I could remember, the person moving busily in front of me was you..."
"You fed me, bathed me, patched my shoes, sewed my clothes... Actually, you didn’t know how to sew, you pricked your hand many times, later you started doing work for others, or exchanged snacks for shoes and clothes..."
"When I got older, you took me hunting, taught me to find caves, recognize wild beasts, told me about each Mutant Beast’s characteristics, how to make a kill with a single blow... It was you who taught me hand in hand to make my first trap, and it was you who sharpened my first Dog Leg Knife..."
"All the things I have experienced are closely related to you... I called you master, you refused. You said you never really taught me anything..."
"You wanted me and Little Fatty to call you godfather, Little Fatty did, but I never did... The reason I didn’t, isn’t because I was unwilling, but because I felt..."
"I felt..." Tang Fei’s head drooped, unwilling to meet the old man’s gaze, "that you aren’t my godfather, but someone far more important than that title..."
"After Little Fatty and I arrived at New Star, every delicious thing we ate, we wished you were there, every place we went, we wished you were there, even the big bed we slept in, Little Fatty would say how great it would be if you were there... We both agreed, when we got the chance, we would go back to the Old Land to find you, this time we would bring you to New Star no matter what..."
"Because apart from you, we have no other family..."
"We consider you family, but you... you’ve always been avoiding us..."
"If this will cause you trouble, we can stay out of contact..."
The old man sat back down on the couch, drained the tea in his cup, then drank the tea poured for Tang Fei as well, before finally turning to Tang Fei, "I have a third story... do you want to hear it?"