Man Man's Dilemma

She, Old Man's granddaughter, never moved her gaze from the disappearing Liao Yun. Her brightened eyes grew dim, like losing something important, something which might regret it someday.

Liao Yun came and she was gone in no time, akin to a breezing wind. No one knew when it came, and it was gone when everyone realized. Bringing along a tempest, but the sun shone the brightest when it passed by.

There was nothing she could do. nothing at all.

Seeing the state of her granddaughter, the longing gaze which was contained, Old Man sighed and was stressed in his mind.

[Heck! I know that person, our saviour is strong and cool, but can you not fall in love with her? She is your fellow woman, you know?]

Old Man didn't know whether he should say it or not. But seeing the fain sorrow in her granddaughter's gaze, he refrained from saying it and comforted instead, "Don't be sad. If there is a meeting, there is a goodbye. It is only by a chance-"

"Grandpa. . ." The granddaughter pouted, but she didn't move her gaze at all. But her dispirited voice was enough to tell Old Man that she was sad, as if losing something important, losing the warmth in her chest.

"Sigh, Man Man. Hear it until it is finished. If there is a meeting, then there will always be a goodbye. And when there is a goodbye, there will be another meeting. It may be only by a chance, but it is also a fate. No need to be sad, just be prepared for another encounter in the future." A bloodied old man had a gentle gaze as he consoled his granddaughter. "If you live well, eat well, sleep well, someday, it is very possible for you to meet that person again.

[When they meet again in the future, they will befriend each other. FRIEND! NOT SOME LOVER OR SOMETHING SIMILAR!]

". . . Un. You are right, grandpa."

[We will meet again. . . Someday. . .]

[But, who knows when it will come? A year? Ten years? No one knows. Or perhaps, this will be their last meeting]

[Thanks for being my prince, I will never forget you. No matter what.]

[Goodbye, my first love.] There was a tinge of blush on her cheeks along with her smile, but only for a moment.

Retracting her gaze, Man Man had a helplessly bitter smile on her face. But as she saw her grandpa, his bloodied figure which was standing beside her, she shrieked in surprise. "G- grandpa, what happen to you? Don't stand up, your body is hurting!"

Man Man remembered every torture from the Lin Family's people. In fact, she believed that her grandfather dangerous condition, thus she was surprised seeing her grandfather stood and talked as if nothing happened at him.

It was Old Man's turn to have the bitter smile. "Your grandpa is already fine. Earlier, there is a little fairy chanting something for your grandpa."

"Chanting? But, is there something uncomfortable, grandpa? Aren't those Lin Family's thugs torturing you, grandpa? How can you be healed in this short time? It is weird!"

Man Man looked up and down. Except for the bloodied shirt, there was nothing wrong with her grandpa. It was as if the earlier wound that came from the Lin Family's thugs were all lie, all was her imagination. But she knew that everything was real, very very real.

With that kind of wound, even she herself was not sure whether her grandfather was able to have full recovery or not. Especially, with her old bone and limited recovery rate, unlike the young people.

But even so, Old Man had recovered.

She was happy for Old Man's recovery, she was very grateful, but it was something mysterious, out of her comprehension. Something that was very baffling.

She went closer to check her grandfather's body. Even though the blood on the shirt had dried already, there was no wound at all.

All disappeared, as if nothing had happened.

Old Man understood what crossed her granddaughter's mind, thus he laughed heartily, "A little fairy makes a miracle in front of your grandfather, for your grandfather. She said something like, 'Pain, pain, go away!' a few times. And indeed, your grandfather felt comfortable after that little fairy chanted it, ha ha ha. . ."

Even though Man Man didn't believe what her grandfather said, there was nothing she could do. Her grandfather was fine, and she herself was fine. they were saved, but not their place. Staring at the broken shop in front of her, Man Man was filled with melancholy as she said, "Grandpa. What should we do now?"

Seeing the laid down bodies of the Lin Family's thugs, Old Man understood that no matter what, they would probably be hunted by the Lin Family itself. The Lin Family wouldn't let go of any small grievance without any revenge, hence staying here was the worst idea.

"Sigh, you stupid kid." Old Man ruffled the hair of her granddaughter with a loving smile and continued, "If your grandpa loses his shop, your grandpa will only build another one. If your grandpa is being chased by bad people, your grandpa will just run away. Why care about something like this? I am fine, you are fine, all is good. Right?"

As various memories flashed while Man Man was staring at the broken shop, she grabbed her grandfather's hand.

It was their place, but now they had to leave it. She might be able to do it, but. . .

". . . Can we do it?"

Man Man peeked at her grandfather. She understood how many sacrifices that her grandfather made for this shop. It was not a cheap price, but all sweats and blood were all poured toward this shop. It was their home.

With this place was destroyed, both of them had nowhere to go. They had nothing except each other.

"Ho ho ho, why can't we? As long as you, my little girl is here, there is nothing impossible." Old Man took the first initiative to leave this place.

If he said that he didn't feel anything about it, it was a lie. It was his most important place, not something to be thrown so easily like a piece of crap. And when this place was being destroyed, he felt as if piece after piece of his body was cut. It was unbearable, but there was nothing he could do. He just wished for one thing, the only thing that he couldn't compromise and wouldn't be compromised no matter what.

Her granddaughter's safety.

As long as she was with him, Old Man would be able to build the second or even the third shop.

But, there was one thing that they had to do. Not dragging any more time, Old Man went inside the broken shop.

"Wha- Grandpa!" Man Man was surprised, thinking that her grandfather couldn't let go of their destroyed shop. "E- even if you cannot forget our shop, but it doesn't mean that you can commit suicide! We can build another one, Grandpa! Grandpa!"

It didn't take a long time for Old Man to come out from the broken shop, but his face was not so good - full of dust and dirt.

"Girl, can you not curse your grandpa like that?" Old Man didn't know whether he should laugh or cry when he heard Man Man's voice.

He only came inside to retrieve something, not to kill himself. Why would he kill himself when he was saved? It would be a stupid act, and he was not that stupid.

"But, you just go like that." Man Man removed her awkward expression with a smile.

Old Man understood what was in her granddaughter's mind, thus he didn't rebuke her.

"Okay. Let's go, we can't stay in here anymore."

"Un."

As the pair of grandfather and granddaughter left that place, no one really realized it as they were still dazzled by Liao Yun's feat. But they had a tacit understanding. Leaving this place as soon as possible, or else they also would receive the Lin Family's wrath.

"Hey, grandpa. Where will we go now?"

"Sigh. Leave first and think later.

". . . Don't be hard on your old bone, grandpa."

"Hahaha, your grandpa still has a long life, a mere old bone is not enough to stop me."

"Fine. Stop your boasting. By the way, why did you went inside the shop? Don't tell me that you have some secret savings?"

"No."

"Che. Then, what did you take?"

"Here."

". . . Thanks, grandpa."

"Nah. It is an important thing for us, right."

". . .Un."

With an old illustration of her parents in her hands, Man Man regained her spirit and genuine smile.

"Let's go."

…

"I have returned." A cold voice resounded in Mingyue's head. But even if it was cold, there was a trace of excitement in her tone.

"Welcome back, Xiao Jing. How about it?"

"Un. All done. After killing all the spies, some of them was impersonated by me. And like what you asked, I threw the blame toward the Red Rage Bear Mercenary."

"Good work. You should rest now."

". . . Un."

With that, a faint shadow moved toward Mingyue's body and became a cat-shaped mark on her body.

Even though Mingyue didn't have any hand when Liao Yun was having fun, er, fighting the Lin Family's people, Xiao Jing moved from behind the scene.

Making a little mess for the laid down intelligence network.

Don't look down at the intelligence network. For a big family like the Lin Family, having spies everywhere was the norm. Not only the Lin Family, but also the people from the City Governor and grunts of the Red Rage Bear Mercenary.

Black Iron City was their turf, thus it was not weird for them to have their own intelligence network. And what Mingyue did was breaking part of the network along with feeding the false information.

Remember, it was almost impossible to fully break the intelligence network, unless there was a massacre in the Black Iron City, which was something that Mingyue wouldn't do.

Creating a disturbance was enough.

The first thing Mingyue had Xiao Jing did was killing almost all the nearby spies. Killing all the spies would make the Lin Family, the Red Rage Bear Mercenary, and the City Governor careful. Rather than removing Liao Yun and Fu Tao's presence completely from the intelligence report, it was better to make them be wary of each other. And in that way, they would increase their vigilance toward each other while their wariness toward Fu Tao and Liao Yun would become very minimum.

No one would think that newcomers would make a big trouble like this, right?

And to add a little thrill, Mingyue asked Xiao Jing to impersonate some of the already-died spies and made Red Rage Bear Mercenary became the main scapegoat.

While City Governor was always wary with the Lin Family and the Red Rage Bear Mercenary, the Lin Family was a little different.

The Lin Family had been enjoying the long-prestige of their family, thus they looked down on the current City Governor and some kind of upstart Red Rage Bear Mercenary. Lin Family would rather take a waiting-stance and let the City Governor and the Red Rage Bear Mercenary destroy each other. Even if both City Governor and Red Rage Bear Mercenary weren't destroyed, both would be weakened, and the Lin Family would only clean them up. And with that, the Lin Family would take over the City Governor's position and become the only hegemony in the Black Iron City.

And by adding this gunpowder, the Lin Family would be dragged in this chaos and the position of the three pillars would be balanced, or perhaps the Red Rage Bear Mercenary would be alienated.

But of course, all of it was only a little speculation.

Mingyue didn't like the Red Rage Bear Mercenary's overbearing and the Lin Family's Lin Huangshu. Screwing both of them wouldn't hurt her in any way, right?

Even though she had no comment for the City Governor at this time, she couldn't possibly spare the spies from the City Governor lest it would attract the Red Rage Bear Mercenary and the Lin Family' suspicion.

And all in all, staying at the Black Iron City was not a good choice. Especially, for these few days onward.

And this timing coincided with Liao Yun's wilfulness.

…