Chapter 159

Countless eyes looked over; Luo Qi stood there in a daze as the man questioned Du Zhengyi viciously, waving the dagger in his hand with great agitation.

The sharp dagger flashed before his eyes, heading straight for Du Zhengyi, and Luo Qi reached out to block it involuntarily. In truth, given the man's state, it was unlikely he would actually attack Du Zhengyi, and Du Zhengyi was fully capable of handling such a situation. But with his mind in a mess thinking about the man's accusations, Luo Qi saw the shadow of the dagger flash and subconsciously blocked it for Du Zhengyi.

His hand collided with the man's knife-wielding hand, causing his own wrist to ache; he had nearly grazed the blade. Although the Obsidian knife would shatter if dropped, it was somewhat like a human ceramic knife, and the edge was still worth noting. The only reason Luo Qi's hand did not bleed was that another, more powerful hand had reached over from above, gripping the man's hand firmly and blocking the momentum of the blade.

"Kid, your name is Dai Wei, right? If you really want to take revenge on Du Zhengyi, write him a letter through the Public Post Station and then arrange a duel in a place not protected by a ceasefire agreement. Don't hide here and curse him; your brother was a pervert, that is not Du Zhengyi's fault."

Comparing the size and height of that hand, Luo Qi intuitively felt this was a man as tall as a god, and he looked up with some awe. A man of advanced age, nearing his twilight years, stood beside them; he must have been very burly in his youth, and even though his muscle tissue was not as developed as before, he still possessed the silhouette of a strong man.

There were many wrinkles on his face, deeply carved by the long years of a Mage. One of his eyes was full of murky white, completely blind. In the other, remaining eye, Luo Qi saw a gloomy sky.

The man named Dai Wei bared his teeth in a smile, looking like a dog barking. "Why would I go duel with a God of War from the Qionglin? I choose the civilized way of dialogue; I am discussing with him to see if he is actually human and if he still has any humanity."

"Stop talking, Xiao Wei," the woman in the black trench coat standing beside them whispered. "Let's go, stay away from them."

"Is that so?" The old man did not let go of his wrist. "But I am a Barbarian, and I am now uncivilizedly demanding you get lost, because I want to have a chat with Du Zhengyi."

Dai Wei did not want to move, but the old man gripped his wrist and exerted a sudden force, nearly snapping his arm, and his entire body was dragged away by the old man.

Luo Qi watched this scene in surprise; he noticed that the woman wrapped in the black trench coat did not scream or beg, she only turned her head and glared viciously at the two of them. She left in a hurry, grabbing her boyfriend who had been flung away by the old man's sheer muscular strength, and forcibly pulled him out the door.

Luo Qi turned to gaze at the gloomy old man, as if fighting had made him a bit happier; he sat down heavily in the seat opposite where Dai Wei had just been sitting. "Mages always rely too much on Magic to strengthen their power."

"Why are you here?" Du Zhengyi asked.

Luo Qi immediately turned to look at Du Zhengyi; there was a rare familiarity in Du Zhengyi's tone, which was very strange.

The man ignored Du Zhengyi's words, and seeing that he did not introduce him, he turned to Luo Qi to introduce himself. "My name is Wan Pei, who are you?"

Luo Qi came back to his senses. "My name is Li Mao."

"Li Mao?" Wan Pei frowned and said, "What kind of accent is that?"

"He is speaking standard Mandarin; his name is Li Mao, the Li Mao from 'Li Mao replaces the Prince', understand?" Du Zhengyi said bluntly.

Wan Pei laughed out loud instead. "Interesting, the first time I've seen someone so interesting by your side."

Luo Qi opened his mouth in surprise, and before he could speak, Wan Pei roared in a booming voice, "Bring three glasses of Jinbo Wine, and some food!"

In the blink of an eye, three glasses of wine appeared on their table, along with two small plates; one plate was filled with fruit, and the other plate contained edamame. Luo Qi did not know what to say; his cat, however, was not picky at all and darted out excitedly, wanting to share some food.

"I work here as security," Wan Pei said, his gaze falling back onto Du Zhengyi, looking him up and down. "You've lost weight again."

Luo Qi was peeling edamame and trembled at the sound, the bean in his hand dropping into the wine.

What made Luo Qi drop even more beans was that Du Zhengyi had no resistant reaction, and even his aura had converged quite a bit. One had to know that even Mahjong couldn't get such good treatment from Du Zhengyi.

"I'm fine. Why are you working here? You should have saved up quite a few credit points, right? If you encounter any problems, I can help you; I still have plenty of credit points I can't spend," Du Zhengyi said.

Luo Qi heard genuine concern in his words, and for some reason, he felt a bit uneasy inside. He didn't know if it was because these recent experiences had given him strange hints, but he always felt that Du Zhengyi had no friends and no family, and only he, this shameless hanger-on, could walk to Du Zhengyi's side. So, to some extent, the high-and-mighty First War God of the Qionglin was entirely his, and now an old man had popped up, acting like Du Zhengyi's elder.

"I'm not short on money," Wan Pei said straightforwardly. "I just like the work here. Working underground, far away from the Qionglin, there is only one job every day—if someone starts a fight, beat them up and throw them out; I like this kind of simple work."

"I like your job too," Luo Qi said involuntarily. "Are you hiring an assistant?"

Wan Pei laughed out loud, then turned his head back to look at Luo Qi with that one good eye. "I like you. You are completely different from Du Zhengyi; he was a bit precocious from the age of eight, and he was never likable since he was a child."

Luo Qi laughed; he hadn't yet met anyone who would talk about Du Zhengyi in this tone, especially about Du Zhengyi's childhood. "What was my brother like when he was little?"

"A gloomy child, always unhappy, calculating everyone. He didn't need friends, and no other children wanted to play with him because he was smarter than everyone else," Wan Pei said, without any regard for Du Zhengyi, and Du Zhengyi truly did not interrupt him.

Luo Qi glanced at Du Zhengyi and saw a soft expression on his face; Luo Qi thought that was the closest expression to filial affection Du Zhengyi could show. Even in front of Pei Shu, Du Zhengyi was a bit high-and-mighty. The current Du Zhengyi could almost be said to be a bit like a cat.

"I didn't expect," Wan Pei revealed a gentle smile, a loving expression appearing on his face that was more accustomed to gloom and rage, making Luo Qi feel a rare warmth. He continued, looking lovingly at Du Zhengyi, "I didn't expect you to find a girlfriend; I had always been a bit worried that you would choose the path of growing old in solitude at such a young age."

"What?" Du Zhengyi exclaimed. It was more than an exclamation; to Luo Qi's ears, it was practically a scream.

"Hahahaha." Luo Qi laughed loudly, satisfied as he appreciated the effect of his prank; he had been waiting for this moment for two hours.

"What did you say?" Du Zhengyi shouted, startled, his gaze shifting back and forth between Wan Pei and Luo Qi.

Wan Pei also looked at him in surprise, then looked at Luo Qi. "She..."

"Ah, the weakness of the Chinese language, it's always so difficult to distinguish gender from the third-person pronoun," Luo Qi said with a grin.

Du Zhengyi asked his old captain in astonishment, "What did you see him as?"

Luo Qi was laughing so hard his stomach was starting to hurt, and he decided to be kind and tell Du Zhengyi himself. "Do you remember Ata?"