Free Web NovelChapter 111: Chapter 111: The Meeting
Jiang Che ignored Xiong Jie; he just felt that Uncle Xiong’s state was really off.
Toward everyone else, including Feihu.
He always sensed Uncle Xiong’s disdain.
Zhou Ang didn’t follow behind; he’d already gone back to Tuantuan. Right now, Tuantuan was joking with Zhou Ang’s mother. When she saw him return, Zhou Ang’s mother was the first to greet him.
"Benefactor, you’re back."
Tuantuan also jumped out of her arms and burrowed into Jiang Che’s embrace.
"Daddy, Tuantuan missed you." She rubbed herself hard against Jiang Che’s shoulder, but her eyes looked past him to glance at Xiahou Zhi leaving dejectedly behind them.
"Benefactor, I have a request that may come off as impolite." While she spoke, Zhou Ang’s mother brought Zhou Ang over.
Jiang Che hadn’t had a chance to ask before Zhou Ang suddenly dropped to his knees with a thud.
"Please, take me with you. I want to get stronger too. I want to have the power to protect my mom." When that shadow attacked earlier, he was truly terrified.
"I won’t drag you down. If it’s dangerous, just abandon me." Zhou Ang hung his head. His mom stood by, looking down with a bittersweet smile.
She’d always wanted her child not to get involved with danger, but what just happened made her realize some things simply can’t be avoided.
"You’re still just an ordinary person. At the very least, you’d need to clear an S-rank dungeon to keep pace with us." Xiong Jie frowned and spoke up first.
"Do you know what S-rank dungeons mean?" Xiong Jie gestured outside. "There was a team just now who wanted Jiang Che to join, but when their captain heard Jiang Che’s starting level was Tier Five Peak, and that mine was Tier Two Peak, he got scared off right away."
"That captain survived dozens of dungeons and has Tier Four strength, and even so he didn’t dare ask Jiang Che to join. So why do you think you could get into our group?" Xiong Jie looked down his nose.
He also felt that his own mentality had changed, but he thought it was normal.
The strong shouldn’t mix with the weak. Otherwise, you’ll only get dragged down.
He only accepted Feihu into their organization because Feihu was truly strong. Even as a normal person, the guy was confident and capable enough to have cleared at least one A-rank dungeon.
"I’m sorry, I’m sorry." Zhou Ang’s mother pulled her son back. After Xiong Jie’s words, she, too, felt they might have been presumptuous.
She’d simply thought to have her son learn some skills from them and hadn’t expected they’d see her son as a burden.
Jiang Che looked at Xiong Jie. Is this the way Uncle Xiong wants to teach him about life?
He didn’t really like this approach.
Besides, when danger struck, Auntie had risked her life upstairs to keep warning them.
Even if the wraith couldn’t actually threaten him, they didn’t know that. Still, they tried hard to warn them.
"Daddy, why do you look upset?" Tuantuan was the first to notice Jiang Che’s low spirits.
"I just think... some of Uncle Xiong’s methods—I don’t really like them. Are these things I have to learn too?" he mumbled quietly.
When she saw him frown, Tuantuan’s eyes curved with a smile. She’d just read a different emotion from Xiong Jie, called arrogance.
But when he looked at her, he was all respect and deference.
She saw these two faces and felt a bit annoyed, but didn’t really care otherwise.
Now that Jiang Che didn’t like it, she immediately grinned, "Daddy doesn’t have to learn from him. Uncle Xiong is just around to teach you some basic things, but if you have your own ideas, just go with what you think is right!"
"I like you being yourself, Daddy. I don’t want you to be somebody else." She let Jiang Che pick her up with one arm, and Tuantuan wrapped her arms around his neck. The Jiang Che she liked was always the most genuine one.
"Then from now on, Zhou Ang will come with us." Jiang Che nodded. "If we go into a dungeon, I’ll do everything I can to keep him safe."
"Are you crazy? Do you even understand your own situation?" Xiong Jie stared in disbelief as soon as Jiang Che agreed.
You really don’t know your own circumstances?
A wraith is always around you, and you want people to see you getting along nicely with a wraith?
Zhou Ang hung his head, but when he looked up at Jiang Che, a wave of warmth rose in his heart.
"I don’t know what my strength will be like in the future, but no matter what happens, I’ll firmly stand by your side." Zhou Ang knew humanity was bound to split into all kinds of factions.
What he could promise was, if other factions tried to recruit him in future, he wouldn’t join them.
At this thought, he couldn’t help smiling a little.
Reading novels and watching TV, there were always all those stories about life-changing mentors and debts of gratitude, but he’d always thought, in today’s society, those were pretty much meaningless.
On TV, henchmen would die for their bosses, and he never believed that could ever happen to a modern person—let alone to himself.
But when Jiang Che ignored Xiong Jie’s warning and decided to bring him along, for the first time, he felt the urge to be loyal.
He squashed that feeling—talking about loyalty and higher ideals felt way too fake.
"Daddy, he really wants to follow you." Tuantuan looked at Zhou Ang with some confusion, because she felt Zhou Ang’s heart was even more sincere than Xiong Jie’s.
At this, she frowned in thought. Maybe having one more person by Daddy’s side isn’t a bad thing.
This Uncle Xiong, in her eyes, had way too many thoughts, and sometimes Daddy didn’t agree with his ways either. So maybe having someone else around was the best solution.
Thinking about it, she quickly contacted her mother.
The people around Daddy, they had to be carefully considered—not controlled, but they never stopped him making friends.
"Let him take him along. No need to interfere," Ding Ning was in a meeting, but after hearing from Tuantuan, she agreed after some thought.
She only controlled Xiong Jie because his mind was too complicated.
But for Jiang Che’s growth, she believed that whether he made friends or fell out with them, these were all things everyone had to experience in life.
She didn’t want Jiang Che to become a canary caged up by herself. She genuinely hoped he could make friends of his own.
For instance, Zhou Ang.
Besides, the future didn’t look too optimistic either.
"Our Lord, do you mind telling us what exactly you’re thinking? You’re the first one to let humans escape from an SSS-rank dungeon, aren’t you?" A voice interrupted Ding Ning’s thoughts.
She looked up at the speaker at the round table. All the Lords were here for this meeting. "So what? Isn’t a slip-up or two normal?"
"A slip-up? You let humans escape, an SSS-rank dungeon, and you call that a slip-up?"
Ding Ning wasn’t polite either. "So, you want to hold me responsible?"
