Chapter 36: A Twist – The Mysterious Man

He ran and ran until his little legs finally gave out; the car he had been chasing had disappeared completely from his sights by this time.

Ran Feng Ge collapsed onto the street, his breaths harsh and heavy as new tears took over the old ones on his face, his voice strained and tired from calling “Mummy” “Gege” – and yet he received nothing in return.

Snow had started to fall, Ran Feng Ge huddled where he was with the bag still in his arms as loud sobs finally escaped from his mouth.

He was still missing a large portion of his memories, and this was still a foreign place to him, he may have spent the last few months in Los Angeles, but this was New York. He was only an eight year old little boy who had just been abandoned by his own mummy and brother. The pain of being abandoned on top of the fear of being left alone was too much for him at this moment.

After crying for a while, Ran Feng Ge could not help but feel cold before he realized that he was now covered in a layer of snow, he quickly stood up and brushed the snow off, beating his legs slightly to try and get the blood flow back into them before making his way slowly back to the hotel.

He still had that little hope in his heart that perhaps there had been an emergency; that was why mummy and gege had to leave him behind for the moment. He must not move from that spot because he knew that if they came back to find him, that would be the first place they would look for him. The only thing he could do now was to return to the hotel and wait patiently for mummy and gege to return for him.

All of this did not escape the sights of a hidden figure.

Right from the moment Mistress An schemed to make Ran Feng Ge get out of the car, until the moment Ran Feng Ge was running with all his might after the family car, all the way until Ran Feng Ge had stopped sobbing as he gathered the luggage in his arms to return to the last spot he had been together with his gege and Mistress An – the entrance of the hotel. A simple spark of hope still shone brightly from his swollen eyes as he watched the direction in which his family’s car had disappeared off into.

Ah… It was obvious to the one hidden that this little boy’s family had abandoned him.

However, throughout the whole dilemma, this little boy had shown himself to be a very intelligent and witty little man even under stress, his adorable looks and bright eyes did not show any signs of arrogance or misbehavior – so how was it that someone could harden their hearts to abandon such a child and to use such an underhanded and cruel method to destroy his innocence when it would have been so much easier to have lost him in a sea of people instead.

If no one wanted this child, then taking him for himself wouldn’t be a problem. This little child was an unpolished gem; he would get along very well with the other two rascals back home.

His family’s two little rascals, one was interested in weaponry research and martial arts training and hated anything to do with studies; while the other would shut herself up in the library to read through all the different worlds’ histories, gossip magazines and absolutely hated anything related to physical exercise.

What a headache-inducing duo he had there!

The figure that was hiding climbed up the Big Ben clock that was directly opposite Ran Feng Ge and placed himself conspicuously on the number “6” and continued to observe little Ran Feng Ge from afar.

One adult and one child, silently waiting for different things in the blizzard. One was waiting for his beloved family to turnaround and comeback for him; the other was just waiting to collect a new precious jewel.

Time ticked by slowly, one hour, two hours… Very soon the entire ground was covered by a thick layer of snow.

The slight glimmer of hope slowly diminished with each tick from the clock, he had been seated in the cold and the snow for so long now, he had lost his ability to feel but his mind was resonantly clear on one thing: he had been abandoned and they were never going to come back for him!

Although he was not too sure why he had been abandoned, Ran Feng Ge was still able to make a few guesses; he deduced that he was in fact not that woman’s biological child because he could never feel any motherly emotions from her at all.

As for his daddy and his gege, they did treat him very well and very honestly, but what good was that? They could not even protect him when he was abandoned, so Ran Feng Ge decided that he didn’t need them as family anymore!

With his thoughts made up, Ran Feng Ge made up his mind to stop waiting for them; he flipped open the luggage and found clothes, food and money. It seems that that woman had long planned for this. However, it was a good thing that he at least still had these in his possession, if that woman had been even crueler and left him empty handed, he would have been forced to become a beggar – but in an unfamiliar country, even being a beggar would be difficult.

Wiping the tears off his face, Ran Feng Ge rubbed at his frozen cheeks to try and get more blood back into his face, slowly but surely, he repacked the luggage before him and started to drag it behind him as he walked away.

The man who had never left his spot during those hours Ran Feng Ge had stayed in the snow, finally made his move as well. Seeing the change of attitude in the young child – the hopefulness changing into hopelessness, hopelessness turning into understanding, and understanding morphing into determination – who finally stood back up to walk away.

The man quickly jumped off the Big Ben clock, his legs making use of the nearby power cables to lighten the fall, landing firmly on the snow-covered ground. It was only then that he raised his arm to retract the wire he had attached from his wrist to the Big Ben clock.

The man quickly turned in the direction the little boy had disappeared to and started his chase.

Although he kept telling himself he had to be brave, at the end of the day, Ran Feng Ge was all but a child of eight years, he was still feeling very miserable inside, and although he forced himself to keep walking, he was unable to stop his mind from thinking.

As he kept trudging on in the snow, he soon realized that his path was being blocked by a figure. If he tried to walk left, the figure before him would go right and block him. If he tried to go right, the figure before him would go left and block him as well. Ran Feng Ge finally raised his head up to look at the figure before him.

A very handsome looking face was staring right back at Ran Feng Ge, unfiltered emotions of not giving a damn about the world and a pair of indomitable eyes stared back at him.

Ran Feng Ge looked at him defensively, this man had appeared suddenly out of nowhere, and was determined to block his path, could this person be part of the human trafficking world?

Once this thought entered his brain, Ran Feng Ge could not help himself but to stumble backwards a few steps, his brain going into overdrive as he quickly tried to come up with an escape plan should this man turn out to be a bad person.

A teasing smile formed on the lips of the man before Ran Feng Ge as he watched the little boy struggle before him: “Little rascal, do you want to come with me?

Ran Feng Ge quickly shook his head as though his life depended on it, rejecting the man as soon as he opened his mouth: “No! I don’t know you!”

As soon as he was finished, Ran Feng Ge quickly turned around and started to drag his luggage in the direction he had come from.

Lo and behold, the moment Ran Feng Ge turned around, the weird man was once again standing before him with a smile on his face. The speed at which he moved was very off-putting.

Ran Feng Ge could not stop himself from retreating again; throwing out a warning in what he presumed was a dangerous voice as he quickly got into a defensive stance: “Don’t come near me!”

The man took in Ran Feng Ge’s defensive stance and could not stop the surprise and elation from showing on his face – Ah! Interesting. Looks like I did find a very precious jewel!

The man started to walk towards Ran Feng Ge, a bemused smile on his face as he tried his best to hide it. Ran Feng Ge could not help but feel like this man was a very unfathomable being.

With each step the man took, and the closer he got, Ran Feng Ge could not help the fear from bubbling up within him, he had already long since tossed his luggage to the side in order to have more space in case he had to defend himself.

”Do not come near me! Keep coming closer and you’ll be sorry for it!”

He was small in stature, and so all he could do best was attack from a low position, this was very precarious and success rate was not high, but he knew he had to give it a try if not he would be captured by this weird man.

He was pitiful enough, he could not risk having his freedom taken away from him as well!

The man before him dodged Ran Feng Ge’s attacks easily; this infuriated Ran Feng Ge and made him aim his next attack towards the man’s legs.

The man was very quick on his feet, even before Ran Feng Ge was close enough to even touch the hem of his clothes; the man had already dodged clear of the attack. Ran Feng Ge was in no hurry to chase the man and decided to retreat quickly before he could be caught up in the man’s next attack.

The man could not help but feel surprised at the actions of the little child before him, this kid must belong to one of the elites, if not why would he have such good judgement.

In actuality, the only reason why Ran Feng Ge had such a keen sense was all due to Su Yi Mo. When Ran Feng Ge had been living in the Su estate, Su Yi Mo would pester him every day to exchange moves or train together. Even if Ran Feng Ge had been really bad at fighting, training every day would naturally make him better. And to be fair, Ran Feng Ge’s base in martial arts had been better than Su Yi Mo’s to begin with thanks to the rigorous training he had received as a child from his uncles and grandfather.

However, the Ran Feng Ge in this moment did not even know why he was so familiar with all these fighting stances or theories; he could only assume that he just had an innate talent for it. It did not escape his eyes that the man before him was not even trying and all he was doing was teasing him; the man did not appear to want to injure him at all.

After exchanging a few moves, Ran Feng Ge was so tired he couldn’t stop himself from huffing and puffing. The man before him raised both his arms in surrender to indicate that he wasn’t going to play with Ran Feng Ge any longer. Ran Feng Ge slowly lowered his arms that had been in front of him and rolled his shoulders tiredly, he didn’t understand what this man wanted, but he really did force Ran Feng Ge to go all out – god was he tired!

The man got down to a squat and looked straight at Ran Feng Ge: “Little rascal, do you or do you not want to come with me? I’m not a bad guy, but naturally, I’m not a good guy either. But I do know a lot of things; do you want to learn from me?

“”What do you know?” Ran Feng Ge replied lazily, although he had zero interest in learning from this man.

“Hmm… What do I know?” The man laughed, the tone of his voice teasing, making Ran Feng Ge annoyed.

Ran Feng Ge turned around and walked towards the luggage he had tossed aside earlier in order to finally leave.

The man quickly blocked him once again and laughed: “I’m a master of disguise!”

“Disguise?” Ran Feng Ge’s little eyebrows shot up to indicate he didn’t understand.

The man before him took out a medicinal bottle and applied some of it on the edges of his face, before long, the man ripped off the layer of skin from his face. This frightened Ran Feng Ge so much that he stumbled backwards only to trip over his own legs and him ending up in a fall with his butt sinking into the snow. The man with a whole new face before him laughed out loud: “You are way too adorable! Haha! I’ve really found a gem!”

Hearing the laughter, Ran Feng Ge quickly used this time to observe the man’s original face: he had slightly better looking features; a five o’clock shadow covered his chin making the man look a little more masculine, a little more rugged.

The rugged masculine man however was currently laughing himself into stitches; he had no regard for his looks and was currently rolling around the snow laughing out loudly as he pointed at the currently getting wet in the snow Ran Feng Ge.

People who were walking by couldn’t help but glance at the man laughing like a maniac and the little boy staring at said maniac. All they could do were shake their heads while muttering crazy fellow under their breaths.

Ran Feng Ge was no longer as afraid as he was at first, he stood up gingerly and made his way to the man. He reached out and grabbed onto the mask the man had in his hand and looked at it carefully – he was now very, very intrigued with the man and his amazing ability!

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Translator: Jypoonie
Proofreaders: Lyrick