The Rise Of A Porter

"Just to make sure that I understood what you said, you\'re telling me, that you saw what you because of the winds, right?" Arnold asked Bai Tao a final time because it was possible for that to happen as absurd as his story was.

"Yes, big brother. That\'s what I\'ve been trying to explain to this fair woman but she just doesn\'t want to-"

"Even if that is the case you should apologies to her because it is the gentlemanly thing to do, don\'t you think?" Arnold said in a serious tone, after all, as funny as this man was, it did not dismiss the fact that he should apologise to Alice.

"I-I\'ll do that right away b-brother." Bai Tao turned around to face Alice before bowing his head in front of her, "Please sister, can you find it  in your heart to forgive this naive creature?"

\'Bruh... what\'s with the cringe? Is this a Chinese novel or something?\' Arnold thought before massaging his temple.

He did not want to say it, but in the decade he had been living in the United States, he didn\'t miss China for the major part. Mostly because he didn\'t have the time to do so as he was busy busting his bu*t off to provide for Nicole\'s treatment while working as a porter.

But now that he was back, he knew he did not miss the place in the least. Simply because there wasn\'t anything for him to miss about it. The place was nothing more than a sad memory for him and if hadn\'t been for his hatred and disgust towards his uncle and his family, he would never come back to this place.

"It\'s alright. I apologise as well for overreacting a bit." Alice apologised back to Bai Tao before sticking back to Arnold\'s side.

"Alright then, with that out of the way," Arnold fetched the beast crystal from his pocket and handed it to Bai Tao, "Take this. It\'s the crystal left behind by the boss. Go and sell it and leave the city with your mother and cousin for a while or leave the country altogether if feasible. I can tell without a shred of doubt that, once Yu Zhung finds out what happened here, he\'ll be coming after you and your family. So you better get away before that happens."

"Brother I can\'t take this. It belongs to you." Bai Tao quickly handed it back to Arnold and prepared to leave, however, Arnold stopped him.

"You\'re correct. The crystal belongs to me and that\'s why I\'m giving it to you. But I\'m not giving it to you for your sake, but for your mother\'s and sister\'s." Arnold patted the man on his shoulders before placing the crystals in Bai Tao\'s hands, "Also, give me your contact details so that I can contact you once everything is over and you guys can move back to your place." 

Bai Tao\'s eyes got all watery. He couldn\'t believe such a selfless man existed in such a cruel world. Not only the man saved him from the bandits but he was also gaving him the best treasure that one could get from a dungeon all so he and his family could stay safe. And funnily, he didn\'t even know who the man was.

Little did he know Arnold was only letting him go because he was still thinking about how he would use him afterwards. He wasn\'t doing a charity as Bai Tao thought, but an investment that would give him rewards later.

"But what about you? Yu Zhung might come after you as well!"

"Don\'t worry about me. I\'m more than capable of handling myself. After all, Yu Zhung would not be the first SS ranked warrior I\'ve encountered." Arnold smiled before turning around to leave.

"Brother I-"

"Don\'t you dare throw something cringe at me!" Arnold warned the guy before laughing when he saw the guy\'s sad expression. 

"Hehe, alright I won\'t do it, since big brother has helped me so much." Bai Tao wiped away his tears and gave Arnold his contact information as he had requested, "But at least tell me your name so I can remember who my benefactor was and maybe someday repay your kindness." 

"The name\'s Arnold Ling. I hope we can meet again some other day and under better circumstances."

"That name sounds familiar... are you famous or something? After witnessing your strength, it won\'t be a surprise even if you are."

"Who knows? I\'d like to think myself as just your run of the mill warrior." Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "Now leave before it\'s too late."

"Yes and thank you once again."

Alice and Arnold kept looking at Bai Tao till he slowly faded away from their vision. 

"What do we do now?" Alice asked Arnold once they were left alone.

"Now we lure the hyenas out." Arnold had just the plan to put a final nail into his uncle\'s coffin.

***

A couple of hours later...

Zing was pis*ed. For reasons only gods know, he did not get to play with Ruyi as she never came to his office and when he tried to contact his guild members to kill off that basta*d Bai Tao, even they weren\'t responding to him anymore. He was confused, frustrated and enraged. Nothing he had planned for the day came to fruition.

It was then his phone suddenly rang. He checked the caller ID and sure enough, it was the team leader Jin Rong.

"About time you called suckers!" Zing picked up the phone and was about to give Jin the scolding of his lifetime but was interrupted before he could even say a word.

"They are dead."

That\'s all the person on the other side of the call said before disconnecting from the call.

"Hello? HELLO! JIN RONG!?" Zing yelled in desperation. He tried to call Jin Rong again, only to be told that the number was no longer operational, "This is bad... Yu Zhung will kill everyone if something happened to his brother-in-law... what do I do... what do I do... what do I do..."

Zing collapsed on his chair. His arms covering his head. He was screwed... badly. If he thought his day going was bad till now, it just got a whole lot worse.