Reborn: Super God of War - Chapter 36

Chapter 36: The Rich Brothers
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Zhang Shu was taken aback, along with Wei Lu. The spectators widened their mouth in shock as time seemed to come to a halt.
“Dong—”
Until Brother Ben fainted again and started vomiting white foam from his mouth, did someone start to shriek loudly at the top of their voices.
“Hurry, call for an ambulance!”
“Send him to the hospital! Attendant, are you an idiot!? Call the ambulance!”
Everyone hurriedly lifted Brother Ben out of the room. Those who knew Brother Ben looked at Lin Jie with scared looks on their faces.
“Cousin, you…” Zhang Shu looked at the numbers on the punching machine before swallowing the saliva stuck in his throat.
Lin Jie coldly look at the numbers before him and his spirits were suddenly raised. He clenched his fist as his loose clothes tightened instantly! He came to the strength-testing kick machine and raised his right foot like a released arrow, instantly causing what sounded like a sonic boom. 1
Bam! 500kg! 1
“Records Broken!”
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Lin Jie delivered a barrage of kicks at the machine like he was in a frenzy. The sound of metal meeting flesh sounded like a symphony orchestra, to which Zhang Shu could only cover his ears and look at the machine suffer the incessant blows from Lin Jie.
“Bzz!”
The testing apparatus was sent flying as it constantly droned on the ground, “Records Broken. Records Broken.”
Wei Lu covered her mouth, and her chest rose and fell rapidly from what she witnessed a while ago. She simply couldn’t believe what she had seen, and her heart beat fast despite the numerous deep breaths she had taken in to calm herself down.
Was that really the Lin Jie she knew? The one who was such a wimp?
After venting all of his frustration, Lin Jie felt bolder and more reckless. He stared at Zhang Shu coldly. “Let’s go, we should return home now.”
“Yes… yes.” Zhang Shu followed Lin Jie out of the room hurriedly.
“Bill, please.”
Wei Lu inhaled deeply, took out a membership card and curved up her lips in a smile which she thought was the most seductive. She said in a sweet voice, “Brother Jie, just take these tidbits as a small gesture from me. Will you be interested in having dinner together with me at the Rose Heavens tonight?” 1
Zhang Shu’s eyes almost popped out in envy. Who didn’t know what services Rose Heavens offered? It was a place where couples could have dinner and then spend the night over for free. In essence, it was a famous place for couples to make out! That fellow had not only shown off in front of everyone, but now he had even gotten the chance to make out with a pretty girl. Comparing their fates this night, Zhang Shu’s small pride bubble was burst, and he felt like a loser. 1
Lin Jie looked interestedly at the face which he was smitten with once, smiled politely, and pinched Wei Lu’s smooth face with two fingers. Wei Lu tried to keep the ‘captivating’ smile on her face and thought she was dazzling Lin Jie with the lovingly looks she showed him. But as time passed, she felt as if his hands were metal claws clamping down on her face…
“Ouch, it’s painful, let go!” Wei Lu screamed loudly. 1
When Lin Jie finally let go, her face was swollen, and her lips were bruised. Lin Jie took up the membership card and left without turning back. 2
——
Lin Jie had his hands kept in the pockets of his trousers, while he remained silent on his way home. Zhang Shu followed behind.
“Cousin… my classmate is looking for me,” Zhang Shu finally could not stand the heavy air between the two of them and made an attempt to run away from this scary cousin.
Lin Jie couldn’t help but laugh. “What? So you finally had enough of bragging in front of my sister?”
“Hehe, heh, heh.” Zhang Shu laughed dryly, waved the mobile phone in his hands and proceeded to leave.
“What’s the hurry?” Lin Jie pulled on Zhang Shu’s clothes, took out the mobile phone in his pocket and deleted his mum’s and Xiaoxue’s contacts from the phone.
“Don’t ever appear in front of me again from today onwards. Don’t try to find out news about Xiaoxue, or else, you will end up like that thug.” 1
When he released his hold, Zhang Shu fell down to the ground with a loud thud. He picked himself up and quickly got away.
Elder Cousin Zhang Shu was a thorough pedophile! He used to loiter outside the high schools and made use of his status as an overseas returnee, and a second-hand Benz -which was bought from only God knew where- to cheat young, pretty girls to get into his car, on the excuse that he would drive them home. On the journey, he would sweet-talk them into having sex with him. 5
His main motive for this trip was Lin Xiaoxue.
However, Lin Jie guessed most probably he would be scared of doing such misdeeds for the time being, especially after his threats today.
The summer nights after the college entrance examinations were filled with laughter and utmost happiness at being freed from studying for many people. Lin Jie couldn’t help but smile a little as he felt the hot breeze brushed past his cheeks. Thinking back, what had once been the place where he had sworn never to return to, was now the only sanctuary in his memories.
“Jie.”
Zheng Ziliang was holding a big watermelon by the roadside and grinning widely without a care about his own image. There was a watermelon stall in front of him. Several greedy kids were eyeing the watermelons, and so he took out one, sliced it open and distributed the pieces to with the kids.
His Rolls-Royce was parked in one of the small alleyways just beside the stall.
“Giving a helping hand again?” Lin Jie squatted down, took up a piece of watermelon and started munching on it. He looked around and laughed. “I guess the other stall owners are blaming you for interrupting their businesses.”
Zheng Ziliang gave a wave of his hands. “Well, they can concentrate on doing their business, while I concentrate on being my Lei Feng1.”
Zheng Ziliang came from a wealthy family—his family’s level of wealth had reached the point where it could comfortably last him for his whole life even if he indulged in an extravagant lifestyle. He also had two extreme sides of personality; extremely kind and extremely overbearing. One moment, he could be so kind as to give away all the money he had to poor people or some patients with leukemia, who were desperately trying to raise funds to cure their illness. The next, if people tried to behave rudely to him, he would have no qualms in employing tens of hatchet men and then ordering them to lift up those insolent fellows and bump their groins against a roughly-barked tree. 6
In Lin Jie’s previous life, Zheng Ziliang had not achieved a lot in the game. That had a lot to do with him being distracted and doing all sorts of good deeds. 1
At that moment, a little girl with two pigtails and wearing a piece of old and tattered short-sleeved floral shirt came up to him. “Uncle, can you give me something to eat? I am so hungry.”
Zheng Ziliang agreed and even chose one of the biggest watermelons he had for her. However, it was too heavy for the little girl, so he asked Lin Jie to look after the stall while he carried the watermelon to the girl’s house.
It took him near to three hours before he was finally back. He only returned when Lin Jie was about to finish off a whole watermelon. He had given parts of it away to passersby too. 1
“Hop in!” Zheng Ziliang drove his Rolls-Royce over to fetch Lin Jie and left amidst the astonished stares of the nearby stall owners.
“Selling watermelons when he actually drives in such an expensive car? Is he crazy!?”
“He’s not selling, just giving them away!”
“Aish, I have no more business anyway. These watermelons I have will most probably be spoiled by tomorrow. Forget it, I will just give them away to people.”
——————
The Rolls-Royce stopped in front of a 4-star hotel. Zheng Ziliang dragged Lin Jie down the car, booked a private dining room and started ordering tons of dishes. He took several bottles of red wine and downed them all at a go.
Lin Jie raised his brows. He sipped a mouthful of the red wine—the rich sweetness of the wine hinted that this wine would most probably cost around a few thousand dollars per bottle. He shook his head and commented, “Hey, you should get beer if you want to get drunk. It’s cheaper, and you can drink more of it.” 1
“I am just pretending to get drunk to enjoy the ambiance. Who would really enjoy getting drunk, vomiting and then losing all consciousness!” Zheng Ziliang glared at Lin Jie. He drank another mouthful of the red wine and sighed heavily. “That little girl lives with her old granny, who is paralyzed. Her father has run away, while her mother is sick and stays in the hospital. All this while, she had been making a living from picking up any litter she could find from the streets, then selling them off to buy a few buns so that she and her granny will not starve to their deaths…”
Lin Jie kept silent. These types of tragedies were happening all around the world. 3
No one could be spared from noticing such events happening. It was either they had trained themselves to become hard-hearted, or else they had intentionally avoided the pitiful in the first place.
“I wanted to help them, but…” Zheng Ziliang gulped down another mouthful of the red wine. Even if that was high-class red wine, one could get drunk by drinking non-stop like what Zheng Ziliang was doing now. He had already begun to feel dizzy. “But I also feel so guilty, for I had only been able to help people using the money my parents gave me! I can’t believe I have actually even resorted to this kind of tactics…”
“F*ck it, I also want to earn money, but…”
“F*ck…”
Zheng Ziliang was drunk, which was obvious by all the vulgarities he was spewing at Lin Jie now. Lin Jie poured white vinegar silently into his wine glass, stared at the table full of food in front of them, and shook his head in resignation.
Lin Jie and Zheng Ziliang had known each other due to a misunderstanding. Once, the philanthropic Zheng Ziliang was carrying loads of money to save the poor but was robbed of all his money by robbers who had been eyeing him and following him around secretly. They had even stripped him of the expensive clothes he was wearing. At that time, Lin Jie had met the beggar-like Zheng Ziliang, given him his own shirt and even treated him to a meal. He had given the pocket money he had saved up, just tens of dollars, to Zheng Ziliang so he could have the money to go home.
To Lin Jie, he had just thought he had met some gullible fellow who had been cheated of his money at some internet cafe while playing truant.
Who would have predicted that he and Zheng Ziliang would become table mates the first day they had reported to their high school?
Come to think of it, that whole encounter did seem a lot like the ‘friends’ version of ‘Cinderella.’
“Damn it!” Zheng Ziliang downed the white vinegar in his wine glass and spat it out. He was definitely sober now.
“I have an idea if you want to earn money,” Lin Jie leaned against the back of his chair, “how’s your progress in The New Age?”
Zheng Ziliang replied him nonchalantly, “Oh, that game? I am at Level 3 now.”
“This game can help you earn money.”
“True or not?”
Lin Jie took out his mobile phone, logged in to the bank account which was linked to his game account and showed a figure to Zheng Ziliang: $4,800.
“This…” Zheng Ziliang wiped his face, “is this what you earned from the past half month?”
“Yes. I earned it with my bare hands, and I am not messing with you now,” said Lin Jie seriously. “You concentrate on leveling up first, there will be opportunities to earn money half a month later.”
Zheng Ziliang pondered for a while and took out his own mobile phone.
“What are you doing?” asked Lin Jie quizzically.
“Oh, I am asking for some money from my parents. Since you said there will be opportunities for me to earn money by playing the game, then it will definitely work! But I should have some initial capital, shouldn’t I?” Zheng Ziliang was talking to himself now. “How about $50,000? Is that too little though?”
Lin Jie spurted out the wine he was drinking.
Who would have predicted that a rich hunk like Zheng Zilang would become best friends with him?
“Rich guy, let’s be friends.” Lin Jie laughed sarcastically.
“We are friends already,” answered Zheng Ziliang seriously.
“Then… Rich guy, will you be my son then?”
“Scram.”