Starting from Zero

Chapter 24

Prev List Next

Book 3, Chapter 24
Retrieval

    "Son! How did it go?" Fatherasked the second he picked up my call.

    "The plane took off!"

    "You didn"t stop her?"

     "I was toolate!"

     "In that case..." Father paused for asecond. "Don"t worry. Go to the reserve runway and wait there!"



     On the plane, Rose"s family are looking out from thewindow, except Rose, weeping. A handsome looking middle-aged man anda showy woman are sitting beside her--Rose"s father and stepmother.

    "Darling! How much will that old man give us?"Asked the woman.

    The male gave her a stern look. "We aren"t sellingour daughter! Why don"t we just go live with her? We"re her parents, of coursewe can stay!"

    "Yes you"re right! Now you mentioned it, wecould just live with our dear daughter. The old man will surely treat hisrelatives-in-law nicely, right?"

    But the pilot"s announcement interrupted their shamelessdiscussion.

    "Attention, dear pa.s.sengers. The ground services just notifiedus that there may be a potential technical issue on the plane. To ensure yoursafety, we have decided to return to the airport and commence a full check overthe plane. After landing, please follow the attendants and transfer to anotherplane we"ve prepared for you. We"re sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused, and we sincerelyhope that you have a smooth travel. "

    "What?? Return?" The man complained, "We will be late!"

    One of the attendants comforted him politely: "Pleasedo not worry. We will be using our latest model, which is faster than thecurrent one. You may even arrive about 10 minutes earlier."

     "Really? Wonderful then!"

    ————————————————————————————————————

    On the other hand, I"m already waiting at the departuregate of the reserve runway. This runway also provides services for medium and small sizedprivate charter flights, it got some nice equipment. I looked through the hugeanti-shock windows which also serve as telescopes and watched as the plane madea U-turn and headed back towards the airport.

   When the pa.s.sengers are moving out, I anxiously searchedfor Rose among the crowd. And soon I saw her, almost getting dragged by a pairof middle aged couple.

    "Rose!" I shouted out loud.

    "Ziri?"

    All three of them looked at me inshock. Then Rose managed to shake herself free from the grips and ran towardsme. Of course, I opened my arms and accepted her in.

    "I thought we"d never see each other!" Itried to hug her tight to give her more comfort.

    She just cried, and trembled. She doesn"t need to say anything, I can understand all.

     b.u.t.terfly gaveus a warm smile upon seeing such a scene. Rose"s parents, on the other hand, werenot impressed. Her father recovered and stormed towards us.

"Soyou"re that Ziri?" He pulled Rose away and punched at me. "You looking fortrouble?"

Of course he didn"t hit me, because Big K alreadystepped in. Big K may not be smart, but that muscle and reflexes of him are waybeyond any human standard. I"ve received special treatment and supplement fromvery young but I"m sure that"s still no match for Big K--we"re limited by ourhuman gene, he isn"t.

    Big K caught the gentleman"s fist and gave it a "light"squeeze, then Rose"s father knelt down out of pain, who released his other hand onRose and tried to pry open Big K"s vice-grip.

    "Arrhhhhh! Do-do you know who I am??" He bluffed while still trembling out of pain. "I"m an official j.a.panese resident!"He tried to take out his j.a.panese pa.s.sport he just bought from the authorities.

    Big K really wouldn"t care about that. The only thing heknows is that Rose"s father is an enemy. He squeezed harder. Rose"s father justfainted.

    "I know you"re orphans, you all have a poor liferight? Leave us alone, I can give you money!" Rose"sstepmother tried to persuade us. "What do you say?"

Well money is the least of my concerns. As forb.u.t.terfly and Big K...no one would ever pay them better than my dad, I guess. It"sfunny how she actually believes we"re orphans. That must be from Rose. ObviouslyRose told them about what she knew about me.

Too bad those information was nowhere even near accurate.

If they had known who I am, they would not set up thisplan at all. If things didn"t end like this, I may have decided to just paythem a sum to free Rose (though it doesn"t look good in some way). Now I"m not goingto give them any chance since they"ve gone too far.

I signaled Big K torelease Rose"s father, walked up myself, then lifted him off the ground by the collar with only one hand.

"I"ll only warn you once: I"mtaking Rose with me and you"d better not do anything stupid. That j.a.panpa.s.sport you just bought won"t help you, any pa.s.sport won"t help you for that matter. Even if you a the president of someplace I can still make you disappear from this world anytime I like, you hear me?"

I threw him out towards a row of seats, knocking them over.

    "Nowbeat it! Don"t let me see your face again within this land!"

    I picked up Rose in a princess embrace and walked towards the exit (she"s still trying to take in thesituation). I made that sceneon purpose, for this is what my father told me--The best way to prevent someonefrom revenging on yourself is to completely destroy his courage in the firstplace.

     Rose still didn"trecover from her shock when our car left the airport.

    "Are you ok? Or, areyou scared? I was violent. You won"t mind what I did to your fatherright?"

    She shook her head. "I loved it! You know what, Ialways thought you are a strange guy. You looked...girl-like. I never thoughtyou had that in you! That was awesome!"

    "You don"t say?" I laugh. "Awesome, Ilove that word."

    "Oh right, where did you steal this car?"

    "*Cough--*"

I nearly crashed my car into themedian block, if not for the computer which helped me correct my course.

    "Steal?? Thisis MY car."

    "Huh really?" I see disbelief all over herface. "I know the government provides orphans with necessities for studyingand living. But I never heard they provide cars too. You look no older than me.I don"t think you have the money to buy this stuff."

    "...Bah-hahahaha! I can"t hold it anymore!"b.u.t.terfly, who is sitting at the back, broke out her laughter. "Since whendid the young master of Sai Family became an orphan? Hey Sairin, did you createthat lie just to win her sympathy?"

    "Sai family?" Rosed looked back at b.u.t.terfly."Which Sai family?"

    "Well you don"t see this family name very often doyou? The one that runs Dragon Fate Corporation, you know it right?"

    "Dragon Fate? That very number two largest corporation in the world?"

    "Of course. Dragon Fate is registered trademark. It"sillegal to use a duplicate anyway."

    "But--You--You"re--You"re--" She pointed atme and stuttered.

    "Calm it alright?"

    "You liedto me? If my parents had known this they would never send me to j.a.pan."

    "I didn"t lie. You said that orphan part first."

    "Why didn"tyou explain then?"

    "Well I couldn"t! You were like a talkingmachinegun!"

    Rose didn"tprotest, which means she knew how she really looked back there.

    "Where arewe going to now?"

    "My mother"s mansion. My parents want to see you. Badly."

    "Don"t tell me-- Stop the car!"

    "For what?"

"Ican"t just go like this! Give me some time to prepare!"

    "Don"t worry, it"s not a beauty contest. They justneed to have a meeting with you in person, really."

    "But-butthis is embarra.s.sing!"

    "No sweat. I got you. You gonna meet yourfuture parents sooner or later. Besides you look good!"

    "Wait! I didn"t say I"m actually marrying you."

    I slowed down the car. "You"re not? Then let mesend you back."

    "You-- Ugh!" Rose humphed.

    I drove into mother"s mansion yard while laughing."Just come with me, dear Rose!"

    "Youngmaster, we"ve done our work, so we"ll leave here." b.u.t.terfly dragged Big Kaway while bidding farewell.

    "Alright. Use my car. Just park it in front ofsector 9 when you"re done. See you two later!"

We both entered the mansion.Rose hid behind my back and looked around the place nervously.

Prev List Next