Chosen: Beyond Fate

The trip home only took half an hour. Horsey was simply too efficient.

Actually, it would’ve only taken five minutes. The problem was that they’d spent over twenty minutes messing around in the middle of the trip, as in order to reassure Lu Ling about Horsey’s mobility and safety, Ji Jue had decided to personally give her a demonstration.

“Look, there’s a traffic cop up ahead. Let’s overtake his car!”

“Look, now I’ll honk at him.”

“Look, he’s getting mad, he’s getting mad!”

Amid the rain and flowing traffic, Horsey darted nimbly through the rush-hour gridlock, weaving back and forth with ease. Every now and then it would even show off the drifting and razor-sharp cornering techniques it had learned from Mr. Kunpeng earlier.

With casual ease, it shook off all the vehicles chasing behind them and disappeared into the maze-like alleys of North Mount District, turning into a terrifying urban legend much like that little scooter that had once blasted down the highway at over 200 kilometers per hour late at night.

When the vehicle finally came to a stop, the youngest sibling was the first to jump out. He failed to steady himself, collapsed on the ground, and threw up.

Nearby, Lu Ling was still clutching the seatbelt for dear life, her eyes brimming with tears. Clutching Ji Jue’s arm, she pleaded humbly, “Ji Jue, if you ever go out committing crimes, please, please remember to remove the ad for Mainland Auto Shop from the side of the vehicle first.”

Ji Jue patted her shoulder and comforted her earnestly. “Relax. As long as I drive fast enough, nobody will be able to see it clearly.”

With rain pouring down this heavily, people being able to make out the vehicle model at all was already impressive enough.

Surveillance cameras? Every camera in the entire city works for me! What are you gonna use to fight me?

“Our whole family is made of law-abiding citizens!” Lu Ling sighed weakly, wiping away tears.

“Right, right, exactly. If anyone asks, that’s what you should say!” Ji Jue nodded approvingly. “Lu Feng is a peace lover, and I’m a studious student. We all have a bright future ahead of us!”

Lu Ling was utterly speechless.

Just then, a small van pulled over nearby. Lu Feng poked his head out and examined Ji Jue’s new ride. “Oh? Got a new vehicle? You even put the ad for the shop on it.”

Upon hearing that, Horsey grumpily spun its tires, splashing water right into his face. Luckily, Lu Feng dodged in time.

By now, Lu Feng was long used to the bizarre nonsense surrounding Ji Jue. He gave the vehicle a couple of pats and clicked his tongue. “Why’d you only put ads on one side? Might as well stick them on both!”

Lu Ling’s fists clenched so hard they were practically trembling. “Lu Feng!”

“You could even put our security company’s ads on there too! Make ’em extra big, saves us advertising costs!”

Laughing mischievously, Lu Feng skillfully dodged Lu Ling’s punches while unloading bags of groceries. Then he turned back to his own van and carried down two more bags. They were, without exception, full of cauliflower, the very sight of which made the third child and the youngest turn pale. The youngest immediately burst into loud sobs.

Even Lu Ling snapped. “Cauliflower again?!”

“Oh, people from a farming facility gave them to me while I was installing surveillance cameras there. It’s free, so I ain’t complaining! Besides, doesn’t it taste pretty good? It’s 100% natural, too. Apparently, they don’t even spray pesticides on them.”

“Then you eat it! Make Ji Jue eat it too!”

“How is this my fault?!” Ji Jue cried out in shock.

“Consider yourself unlucky!” Still fuming, Lu Ling carried the groceries upstairs.

Under the warm glow of the lights that had just been switched on, familiar sounds soon drifted out from the kitchen. The little house, quiet only moments ago, was lively once again.

The moment Mrs. Lu saw that they’d brought back so much cauliflower again, she flew into a rage and pointed at Lu Feng before unleashing a torrent of scolding. The two young men immediately tucked their heads and fled to the balcony to escape the noise.

After changing out of his work clothes, Lu Feng sprawled onto a reclining chair in big shorts and a tank top, smoking a cigarette while casually scratching his foot.

“Man, nothing beats the chairs at home. Layla’s such a cheapskate. The company’s making plenty of money already, but she still won’t buy even a couple recliners. Everyone’s still sitting on plastic stools.”

Ji Jue leaned against the railing and laughed. “Looks like the company’s got plenty going on after opening up. You’ve gotten busy too. Even Lu Ling said you’ve been less annoying lately.”

“Busy my ass!” Lu Feng rolled his eyes. “I’m just running around doing random crap all day. I’m getting bossed around by Layla to serve tea and water like some damn waiter.”

After what happened last time, and after thinking it over for a long while, Lu Feng had ultimately failed to resist Layla’s enthusiastic invitation and joined the security company formed by retired veterans. Thanks to his past qualifications, plus Ji Jue’s backing, he’d received a twenty percent gratuitous share, making him one of the shareholders.

All Ji Jue had to do was drop by every so often to service and tune up their equipment, and occasionally play the part of a mystic by “blessing” the gear lined up waiting for him.

Even so, half of that twenty percent could practically be considered his. That was just how powerful the “craftsman” title was. Even an apprentice’s name carried weight. To be fair, Ji Jue was only willing to associate himself with a new, small company like theirs because of their old friendship.

Besides, this kind of arrangement was mutually beneficial. After retiring from the military, Lu Feng had completely cut ties with his former connections. He’d never contacted any of his old acquaintances again and practically vanished from their world entirely. Still, Layla had still managed to gather a group of old comrades and build the company into something substantial. She clearly had real capability when it came to pulling strings.

Among the shareholders of the security company was the Cliff City Retired Soldiers’ Association. Even if it was only a symbolic one percent stake, that still meant the Retired Soldiers’ Association was endorsing the security company, as if they were saying, These are our own people.

That alone was enough for this newly established company to secure a permanent seat at various industry-related conferences across Cliff City and even all of Haizhou every year.

In Cliff City alone, there were thousands upon thousands of club-type organizations. Even Young Master Chen’s sports car club counted among them. But if you actually compared the two, that lousy sports car club wouldn’t even begin to measure up to the Retired Soldiers’ Association.

Just within Cliff City, the association had over sixty thousand registered members, all of them retired Federation military personnel. Its membership covered every branch imaginable, from army transport soldiers to airship maintenance crews, with ranks ranging from ordinary infantry grunts all the way up to colonels stationed at the Haizhou military base. There was even a retired general listed as an honorary member recuperating in retirement.

The sponsors providing long-term financial support behind the scenes were outright military-industrial corporations under Universal Heavy Industries.

Officially, the Retired Soldiers’ Association was merely a mutual-aid association for retired soldiers that helped with employment, psychological treatment, and rehabilitation for disabled veterans. But in reality, everyone knew it was basically the military’s civilian front.

Most of the time it kept an incredibly low profile, almost like it didn't exist. But if you somehow got on its bad side? Even the governor would get nervous. You'd be sleeping with one eye open, wondering if someone was about to climb onto the roof across the street. Seriously, who in their right mind would go pick a fight with these guys?

With this “one of our own” certification, the company now at least had the qualifications to take outsourced contracts from the military department in the future. They’d finally earned a seat at the table.

Sure, maybe it was only a tiny folding table next to the main banquet table where they got leftovers, but there were still countless people outside who weren’t even qualified to enter the private room and could only squat in the hallway waiting for scraps.

Everyone was just trying to make money. Nothing shameful about that.

Unfortunately, their qualifications were still not good enough, and the company was too small. Altogether, the entire firm only had a little over forty people and seventy to eighty firearms.

They couldn’t compete with the giant corporations for big jobs. For now, they could only wait for opportunities involving lower-risk work, like armed transport or security assignments. Most of the time, they could only rely on the security company’s routine business to make money.

“I’m running around all day long just installing surveillance cameras for people,” Lu Feng complained. “I spent the entire day driving all over Cliff City installing more than forty of them. Other than a few bags of cauliflower, I didn’t even get a sip of water. I’d honestly rather stay home fixing cars.”

“At least you’re not freeloading off your parents anymore!” Ji Jue laughed. “Mrs. Lu can brag with pride now too that her son runs a company and is a big boss. Give it a few years and if business really takes off, everyone at home will have to call you President Lu.”

“Oh, fuck off!” Lu Feng rolled his eyes and glanced over at Ji Jue. “When we opened a few days ago, Chen Xingzhou’s younger brother even sent over a flower basket. That’s when I found out who that little fatty’s older brother was. You’ve really been stirring up some big shit without making a sound, haven’t you? I heard the leadership changed hands recently. You got involved in that?”

“A little bit.”

“Oh, sounds like you were pretty involved.”

Lu Feng instantly understood what Ji Jue meant. He knew Ji Jue too well. The bastard was used to keeping a low profile and avoiding attention. If something was a ten out of ten in seriousness, he’d call it a seven. If it was a seven, he’d downgrade it to a three. And if it was only a three, he’d just wave it off, saying it had nothing to do with him.

“How have you been feeling lately?” Ji Jue asked, suddenly changing the topic.

Lu Feng looked slightly startled, then flexed his well-developed biceps to show off. “I eat well, sleep well, everything’s great. What are you worried about?”

“That’s good.”

Ji Jue reached over and lifted the hair behind his neck, inspecting the metal structure hidden beneath it. It was thumb-sized and almost impossible to notice, as though it had grown together with his flesh and blood. It was the spinal interface for a powered exosuit.

Nothing seemed wrong. He quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

According to Lu Feng, when he rose from mere cannon fodder in the infantry all the way up to the airborne battalion, he had undergone surgical modifications to operate specialized powered exosuits.

Even after retiring and having many of the components removed, interfaces still remained along his spine and inside his brain. In a sense, Lu Feng was now considered half state property. He was required to live within areas designated by the military department and had to report in every month.

Because of that surgery, large portions of his memory had become blurry as well. Many memories related to key operations had been sealed away, and he couldn’t recall them no matter how hard he tried. Out of four years of service, he only clearly remembered about two and a half.

Ji Jue had quietly examined the interface and found that the restriction placed on the neural core was not actually very tight. It was more like a lead weight on an electronic scale, serving only as a warning.

But that warning alone was enough. As long as the thing remained in place, it wasn’t much of a problem. Removing it, however, was when things truly became deadly. Now that Lu Feng had retired and bid farewell to his old life, why keep getting tangled up in the past? What was in the past should stay in the past.

Amid the increasingly heavy sound of rainfall, Ji Jue asked curiously, “Feng, when you think back on the past now, do you feel any regrets?”

“I don’t know.” Lu Feng thought for a moment, then shrugged. “That’s a sudden question. I can’t really answer on the spot. It probably doesn’t matter anymore, right? If you really want to show some brotherly concern, don’t just talk. Hook me up with more jobs, Ji the great philanthropist! ”

Ji Jue laughed. “Alright then, boss!”

“Get lost!” Lu Feng laughed too and kicked at him, though he missed.

“Xiaogou! Ji Jue! Where’d you two run off to?!” Mrs. Lu shouted from inside the house as she knocked on the side of a pot. “Dinner’s ready!”

“Coming, coming!” Ji Jue’s eyes lit up, and he rubbed his hands together eagerly before heading back inside. Only Lu Feng remained outside, smoking amid the sound of rain. The cigarette ember flickered brightly, then dimmed. He sighed.

Regrets? When he thought about the past, of course he was full of fucking regrets! He hated being used as a tool, hated killing innocent people. He hated those wars that held neither justice nor any kind of future.

From the bottom of his heart, these thoughts should have made him sick with disgust. That should have been the only truth, with no other possibility.

It was just a nightmare. That was what he told himself over and over again. And yet, he could never figure out why he was smiling whenever he woke up from those nightmares.

“Fuck you.” He didn’t know who exactly he was cursing.

“Lu Feng, hurry up!” Lu Ling urged from inside. “Bring the dishes in!”

“Alright, alright, I’m coming! Stop rushing me!” Lu Feng flicked his hand, tossing the tiny spark of resentment at his fingertips into the rainwater before turning and walking away.

The fierce wind roared past, and lightning flashed. Rolling lightning spread through the clouds, carried by the storm winds far beyond Cliff City. As the waves crashed into the shore, dazzling headlights lit up one after another along a crude roadway. Through the torrential rain and mud, an armored convoy thundered forward.