Chapter Ninety-Four: The Red Scorpion Benefactor

Chapter Ninety-Four: The Benefactor of Red Scorpion

By the time Liu Sheng ended the call, Liu Tianyi was practically shouting, “Dad! How could you bring such a dangerous man here?”

Red Scorpion only gave a faint smile and showed no reaction.

Liu Sheng had never expected his hopeless son to amount to much in the underworld, so he could not be bothered to explain. “Tianyi, listen to me. Red Scorpion is only a year older than you, yet he is already one of the top experts in the underworld. And you? You still cannot even glimpse the doorway. Hmph. It is truly embarrassing to say it aloud.”

“Please don’t be angry, Brother Liu. Not everyone is born with the kind of body that can break through the limits of the human body,” Red Scorpion said softly.

Red Scorpion was quite curious about Liu Sheng. Before Liu Sheng had saved him yesterday, he had no idea that Hedong City was home to a genuine underworld powerholder. It was only through their conversation that he learned Liu Sheng did not want to spend his life holed up in Hedong City. It was only because his son had absolutely no potential to become a master that he had no choice but to settle in this small city.

With Liu Sheng’s strength, there was no way he could establish himself in a metropolis full of experts like the capital region, Shenjiang, or the Suzhou-Hangzhou area.

In terms of strength, Liu Sheng was also a second-rate expert, but he had only managed to break through in his fifties, so he had already reached his peak. Under him were only a few third-rate fighters, all of them stationed in different places. He had long hoped his son would one day suddenly awaken, but his son showed no sign of enlightenment at all.

Originally, Liu Sheng had already been preparing to give up on plotting a path for himself and his son in the underworld. Then, yesterday, a major incident broke out in the hotel rooms of the dining wing. When he went to take a look, he found that the three famous bosses of Hedong City had been wiped out. At that moment, he knew it had to be the work of an expert.

Just after he left that private room, Red Scorpion appeared. Although Liu Sheng was not a man of extraordinary talent, his sixth sense told him this person was extremely dangerous.

So last night, Liu Sheng had followed Red Scorpion from a distance. Although he was no match for him, years of experience allowed him to remain unnoticed.

That was why he had seen everything clearly last night when Red Scorpion killed Ma Pinghai and was defeated by Xu Yun.

Liu Sheng had not expected both Red Scorpion and Fox Lord to appear in Hedong City at the same time, and he had never imagined that there would be a young man he simply could not recognize, who had actually beaten Red Scorpion.

In the end, the old fox Liu Sheng still chose to save Red Scorpion. He knew this man was the hope of the Liu family. If he could gain Red Scorpion’s help, then within his lifetime he might be able to secure a foothold for his son in the underworld.

Liu Sheng had heard the story of how Feng Thousand Years, with the aid of the violent Fox Lord, had achieved the feat of unifying the Suzhou-Hangzhou domain. So he believed that if he could obtain Red Scorpion’s help, he too could carve out a name for himself and build a considerable power base.

Before this, no one in Hedong City had ever dared do anything to Liu Sheng. Even the three bosses of Hedong treated him with great courtesy. Although Liu Sheng did not look like the sort of notorious figure those three were, in truth no one in all of Hedong City dared disregard his face, including Jin Biao and the others.

If he could now gain Red Scorpion’s support as well, then he could step beyond Hedong City entirely and reach out directly to Jibei City and Jinnan City. It was even possible that, bit by bit, he could take control of Jiangbei Province as a whole. At the thought that he might still have one more chance to fight for greatness in his lifetime, Liu Sheng felt as though youth itself had returned to him.

But he overlooked one thing: Red Scorpion was by no means as grateful and loyal as the violent Fox Lord. Of course, that was a matter for later.

For now, Red Scorpion kept calling him Brother Liu, and he was genuinely grateful for Liu Sheng’s life-saving kindness. After all, if Liu Sheng had not risked his life to take him away yesterday, he would have been ninety-nine percent certain to die beneath Yuanyan’s sword.

“Brother Red Scorpion, I want my son to acknowledge you as his master!” Liu Sheng said. Since his son was already here, he might as well go all the way and bring Red Scorpion into the family. That would also help his future plans.

Liu Tianyi froze. “Me? Dad, what are you joking about? I’m not cut out for that at all!”

“Kneel!” Liu Sheng glared at his son. “Serve tea and pay your respects as a disciple!”

How could Liu Tianyi possibly bear to take someone almost his own age as his master? Wasn’t that the same as slapping himself in the face? Besides, long ago he had already given up on becoming an expert. He was indeed astonished that his father, at such an age, could still cultivate layered strength and open up the meridians throughout his body, but he simply did not have that talent.

“If I could become an expert, I would have done it already, Dad... I can’t break through the limits of the human body, so what talk is there of becoming a master...” Liu Tianyi did not want to agree.

Red Scorpion smiled faintly. “If you want to become an expert and break through the limits of the human body, the first stage of merely glimpsing the doorway is quite easy to achieve.”

“Easy for you to say,” Liu Tianyi said, unconvinced.

Red Scorpion smiled a little more. “The first step to becoming an expert is to temper the muscles, bones, skin, and sinews, and to master the techniques with skill. At that point, your palm can shatter stone and split wood. If you want to reach that, I can help you.”

Liu Sheng felt a surge of delight. He knew that if a first-rate expert was willing to help open a person’s meridians, then it was no great difficulty for an ordinary person to break through the limits of the human body and become a third-rate expert. His son had always had a decent physical foundation, so as long as Red Scorpion was willing to help, the boy would surely be able to enter the ranks of experts.

“You can help me?” Liu Tianyi was still completely bewildered. He clearly did not dare believe it. “Fine. If you can help me, I’ll worship you as my master. From now on, you’ll be my second father, and I’ll listen to whatever you say!”

That was exactly the effect Liu Sheng wanted.

Red Scorpion nodded. “Good. Tonight I’ll adjust my meridians and recover my internal energy. Tomorrow I can help you open the meridians throughout your body.”

“Tomorrow?” Liu Tianyi sounded a little unconcerned.

“If I cannot make you enter the ranks of experts tomorrow, you can take me to the police station and exchange me for the bounty,” Red Scorpion said lightly.

Liu Sheng suddenly got to his feet and struck out, hitting his son behind the knees. Liu Tianyi’s legs hit the floor with a thud, and this opportunity had to be seized. After all, Liu Sheng was a second-rate expert who had already glimpsed the doorway, so he naturally understood the meaning behind Red Scorpion’s words. He was agreeing to take the boy in and help him open his meridians.

Though Liu Tianyi was somewhat unwilling, in the end he chose to obey his father’s arrangement. If this man really could help him become an expert, then how could that be a bad thing? At the very least, from now on, if anyone dared fight him for a woman, he would be able to crush them with ease.

At the thought of the guy who had been so close to Su Xiaoran today, Liu Tianyi was filled with dark resentment. If he became an expert, the first person he would go after was that fellow. He would make sure the man understood who he could not afford to provoke.

“Tianyi pays respects to Master!” Biting down hard on his teeth and hardening his heart, Liu Tianyi knelt and bowed, then held out a cup of clear tea with both hands. “Please have some tea, Master.”

Red Scorpion smiled faintly. “Get up.”

He had agreed to help Liu Sheng’s son open his meridians, and that meant the debt of lifesaving kindness had been repaid as well. So if Liu Sheng hoped to have him under his thumb for the rest of his life, that was absolutely impossible.

To do this much already counted as repaying kindness with the utmost sincerity. Red Scorpion was not some great saint, and naturally he would not do good deeds for everything and everyone. After all, helping an ordinary person open his meridians and become someone who had only just glimpsed the doorway required the expenditure of a considerable amount of internal energy.

The injuries he had suffered yesterday could not possibly recover in a short time, so he still needed Liu Sheng to shelter him for a while. That was one reason he had agreed to help Liu Tianyi open his meridians. Trading some internal energy for a period of peace was certainly worth it.

“My unworthy son will be in Brother Red Scorpion’s care from now on,” Liu Sheng said, calculating everything neatly in his heart, though he had no idea that Red Scorpion was not the sort of man someone like him could ever keep in hand.

Red Scorpion gave a soft smile. He understood the subtext in Liu Sheng’s words. Nothing more than the belief that he had saved Liu Sheng’s life. But that was not reason enough for Red Scorpion to willingly stay beneath him. He was a man who intended to do great things with the Green Ghost...

...

A medicinal meal left Su Xiaoran full of praise. She had truly never imagined that a man could possess such excellent cooking skills. “Guoguo, your teacher is so envious of you. You get to eat such delicious food every day.”

Guoguo shook her head helplessly. “Yes, which is why it makes it impossible for me to lose weight. Sigh... From now on, I’d better control myself as much as possible. If I’m really hungry, I’ll just eat papaya. I absolutely have to resist overeating, or I’ll turn into a little fatty and that would be terrible.”

“Why papaya?” Su Xiaoran blinked. Could a child really know that much?

She had seriously underestimated Guoguo. Guoguo shot her a glare. “Of course I have to eat papaya. You have to start shaping your figure from childhood. What if I grow up and end up with a flat chest? My goal is at least to surpass Sister Wan’er.”

“I really want to sew your mouth shut,” Qin Wan’er said with a sigh. She was completely an innocent bystander and still got hit. She really could not understand why the topic kept dragging her in. This little thing was truly hateful. “Xiaoran, when you’re at school you must be strict with her!”

Su Xiaoran could not hold back and nearly burst into tears from laughter. How could you be strict with such a little demon child? Who could bear it?

“I’m already excellent, so I don’t need strict discipline to be self-motivated,” Guoguo said with great smugness.

After eating, Su Xiaoran helped clean up at the medicinal restaurant for a while. Ruan Qingshuang felt very embarrassed, but Qin Wan’er was not at all polite, ordering her to wipe tables for a while and then to clean up bowls and chopsticks.

Once the medicinal restaurant had passed the lunch rush, it was time for Guoguo to go to school.

“Coach Xu, can I keep practicing with you on the way? Will you help me again?” Su Xiaoran asked proactively.

“Sure,” Xu Yun said, of course more than willing.

Guoguo secretly dragged Ruan Qingshuang to one side and said in a low voice, “Mom, it looks like Dad is very popular. You really have to work hard. Right now there’s Sister Wan’er in front and Teacher Su behind. Dad is a man after all, and such temptation is hard to resist.”

Ruan Qingshuang rolled her eyes. She knew this little thing had not been holding back anything good. “Just focus on school properly. Stop running wild with your imagination every day. Adults’ matters are not for children to meddle in.”

“Sigh, Mom, I’m only thinking of you,” Guoguo said with a pout, annoyed. “Anyway, I don’t want any other dad.”

Ruan Qingshuang did not know whether to laugh or cry. She really had no way of dealing with this girl.

Xu Yun simply scooped Guoguo up in a princess carry. “If you want anything, tell your godfather. But only after school this afternoon. Let’s go!”

The red Golf drove off with the three of them inside. With Xu Yun giving directions from the side, Su Xiaoran no longer felt nervous while driving. It felt wonderful. Quietly, she made up her mind: in order to get rid of the label of traffic menace as soon as possible and become a road expert, she would get up every morning and take a small detour to pick Guoguo up for school. Of course, she would also bring along Coach Xu along the way...

What a fine plan, killing more than one bird with one stone.

P.S. I slept beautifully at home yesterday, and today I spent the whole day writing. Tonight at midnight I’ll first drop a big chapter of ten thousand words, and tomorrow during the day I’ll keep going strong. If you’ve got flowers or votes in your hands, throw them my way, hehe.