Chapter 80: That Vigilante A is Much Nicer to Talk to!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Three days after that, Qiao Anping personally signed Zheng Dao’s release and watched as the man left the Sky Gardens with Vigilante A from his office above.
Then, he dialed a number.
“Old Man Xu, Vigilante A just left the premises. He left satisfied, and we personally vetted Zheng Dao. He’s innocent.”
“Mm, that’s good. Just like what I previously mentioned, Old Bai’s betrayal has caused us to lose 1 of the 7 major deterrent powers within the Truth Department. Now, we’re needed to get someone to personally defend us against him. We’re left with 5 mobile units now. Fortunately, Vigilante A appeared out of nowhere, and forced Old Bai into hiding under the ground. He doesn’t even dare to move an inch now! We no longer need to mobilize one of us to deal with him specifically. We must unite this force that is available to us.”
“I did what you intended me to do. Some hiccups just happened along the way.”
“What hiccups? Anping, I’ve never worried about your operations. You know how Vigilante A operates like the back of your hand, so why is there still a problem?”
“Ah, it happened like this…” Qiao Anping reported his eating spree, and subsequently the loss of a good number of special ingredients to the man.
“I will replace what is lost, but since some of the ingredients and herbs cannot be bought with money, I will be sure to reflect on that.”
“Reflect on what? That’s a good thing!”
Qiao Anping was confused. “How could that be a good thing?”
“Since this True Dragon is a foodie, he’ll definitely want to eat these again, right? He would only be satisfied by the special ingredients that only we have. If that’s the case, do you think he’ll leave us be if we face another critical situation that he can handle in the future? Would he just leave us in the dirt?”
“You really are farsighted”
“Don’t flatter me, you’re still responsible for this. You still need to work on your adaptability to the situation. You won’t need to replace all of our losses, just replacing a third will do. We’ll stop the noise then. Those ingredients were supposed to have a greater use, but we still profited from the networking we gained with a True Dragon. We might see it this way, but there’s no guarantee others will, too.
Qiao Anping hung up the phone. He did not seem displeased, but sighed nonetheless with an air of dejection.
“This hero is near perfect, but alas, he’s not a human. With the appetite of a dragon, we wouldn’t be able to afford to share a table with him in this lifetime. We can forget about drinking with him too. That’s a shame.”
“Alright, uncle, with an appetite like his, we, the Qiao Family, would not be able to withstand it no matter how rich we are. Grandfather Xu has only asked you to pay a third of the total losses to shut people up, it’s still a 70 million bill, you know” Qiao Zijiang protested coquettishly.
Qiao Anping barked out a laugh, “Alright, alright, I know I’ve tripped over myself and troubled you a bunch, Zijiang. Nevertheless, you’re still the Zhuge in the Qiao Family, and quietly boasted that your intelligence is higher than both me and Zishan combined, you still lose to us when it comes to the lavishness.”
Qiao Zijiang spat a mouthful of blood, “Yeah yeah, you’re going to lavish our family bankrupt sooner or later.”
Qiao Anping lectured on. “Don’t be fed up just yet. Your grandfather told me before he passed that money is but a resource, and we’ll get everything we needed if we have the right friends. But contrast, you could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but with a single fly in the ointment, you might lose all you have in a single night. If we manage to get into Vigilante A’s good books, we, the Qiao Family would not need to worry about anything for thousands of years to come!”
Qiao Zijiang didn’t have an argument against that. Even though her uncle’s generosity and friendliness were the few reasons that got him the position as the Vice President of the Institute for Special Training, the main point was still his ability to discern which friends to make.
Indeed, Vigilante A was a True Dragon, and would be able to live for thousands of years to come. By his personality, it was basically impossible for the hero to stand by and watch if a fatal disaster were to befall the family.
Qiao Zijiang nodded. “That’s true. Still, how were you so sure he was someone that we should befriend?”
She had always been curious about this. Even though this uncle of hers looked so absolutely heroic that his aura could reach the clouds, the ones that he had actually kept by his side were all righteous. None of them were there just to inflate the numbers.
It was just like how her uncle had once told her that he could not see through that Elder Ancestor of the Bai Family, even if he behaved amicably before everything happened. The man would seem to be the most magnanimous person on Earth, her uncle would still tell her that he could not tell how the man aligned, if he was good or evil. He even told her brother and herself to not associate themselves with him as much as possible! However, that could only be used as a personal guideline when choosing a friend. It cannot be used as a verdict to the other person in question.
She relied entirely on her intelligence and sharp wit to analyze, in detail, the personality of the people around her, and subsequently choose who to associate with. How had her uncle managed to achieve such accuracy?
Qiao Anping barked out another laugh. “I knew you would be confused. I certainly don’t have a brain like yours, Zijiang. I deduced that Vigilante A was worthy of befriending because of how he said he never forced that cook Fang Ning to make him his meals despite how much of a glutton he was at the dinner. He would never lie about something like this, it was a dead giveaway.”
Qiao Zijiang was befuddled, “Still, just one point like this would only tell that he was not a person that would bully the weak. How are you so sure that he would be a person that the Qiao Family could rely on for millennia to come?”
Qiao Anping smiled, “His cultivation is of the Relentless Path, you know.”
Qiao Zijiang looked even more confused. “Since you knew that he was a person cultivating the Relentless Path, why would you still remain your stance? When I heard about the Relentless Path or something from brother the last time, it seemed that he might be the kind of person that would disown his whole family.”
Qiao Anping went over to pat Qiao Zijiang’s shoulders as he heard what she said. He comforted, “Why are you so afraid? Others might fear him, but for us, the Qiao’s, we wouldn’t need to. The Relentless Path is not something to be afraid of; the stars don’t turn out of emotion either, are they things to be afraid of? No! That’s because they have their own set of laws they abide. When we apply these laws to sentient beings, they become our principles. It’s exactly because Vigilante A is cultivating the Relentless Path that his principles are as unchanging as the laws of the universe. He would never succumb to external influence.”
“His principles are simple; to bully the weak, and to persecute the evil. Naturally, you can’t use this to intentionally rile him up. Thus, as long as we follow what was dictated by our ancestors to stave from evil and only do what is righteous. As long as we never scheme against others, we would not rub shoulders with Vigilante A. Instead, we’ll have gotten ourselves a strong ally.”
Qiao Zijiang chuckled, “So this is how you deduced all this. I need to remember that I’m talking to you, uncle, a man whose cultivating talent was so high that you became one of the 7 major forces in the Truth Department despite being just over 40 years old. Your niece, however intelligent she may be, would never attain such a height.
Qiao Anping laughed, satisfied, “Haha, you’re not bad either, Zijiang. Even though you still have a long way to go if we were to put you beside Zishan, you don’t need to worry about the Qiao Family’s cultivation; just leave that to both me and Zishan, and you’re better off developing yourself in other areas instead. There’s no point risking yourself like this. Why don’t you transfer and become an instructor instead? We’re facing some manpower shortages after we’ve expanded our recruitment drives. That, instead, would be much more imperative.”
Qiao Zijiang felt a sense of dread at those words; this uncle of hers was definitely going to discuss of the matter of her staying at home again. She immediately diverted the conversation. “Alright, we’ve concluded the issues of Vigilante A. What about the other powerful figures? Let’s take this opportunity for you to explain them to me, uncle.”
Qiao Anping’s face became collected once again when she spoke of this. He sighed after a while, “The others, huh? Getting along with them will not be as easy as Vigilante A. From Vigilante A’s past activities, it was evident that he only knew how to kill criminals to earn a living after he had his meals. He never schemed, and had no intentions of taking over the world. He’s also a lone wolf, and if you met him and spoke casually with him, he probably wouldn’t take offense either.”
Qiao Zijiang nodded, “Yes. This has been a known fact for a while. If not, everyone would not have been so at ease when he was roaming loose with his powers.”
Qiao Anping added solemnly, “The other powerful individuals would instead, be much more difficult to deal with. Here, let me briefly name a few we have in the Truth Department…”
