Chapter 1386: The Ro Family, Visiting from Afar
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Cheyenne could not let Xia Fan leave, but she still did what she could within the scope of her authority to arrange better care for Xia Fan, allowing him to stay in the dormitories prepared for their staff.
The work hours in the Special Bureau were erratic, so the station had plenty of temporary accommodations. The moment an investigator or staff found themselves unable to return home, they were allowed to rest in the dormitories. After all, they were the organization that wielded the greatest authority in the Union, so while the dormitories of the Special Bureau were incomparable to those of a luxury hotel, they did provide first-cla.s.s facilities, with beds that were soft and comfortable.
—
*knock knock knock*
In the middle of the night, Cheyenne was awoken by Xia Fan knocking at her room’s door. She was very responsible, and she had not returned home for several days straight.
!!
She saw Xia Fan holding a thick stack of books in hand, smiling as he asked Cheyenne, “Sorry for bothering you when it’s so late. I’m done with the books, so do you mind lending me some more?”
Cheyenne was startled, asking somewhat incredulously, “Those are the seven volumes of the comprehensive history of the Starcloud Union. You actually read them all in three days? That’s well over seven thousand pages! I would need at least a year to read them all!”
Xia Fan shrugged, “It’s not just seven thousand pages. If I haven’t remembered it wrongly, this set of books has a total of eight thousand, six hundred and thirty-nine pages, if you include the introduction and appendices. It’s not like I have anything else to do anyway, so I read these a little faster.”
Cheyenne eyed Xia Fan like she was seeing a monster, “A little faster? It’s practically the efficiency of an automatic reader! Come to think of it, can you really remember everything since you read them so quickly?”
“No way,” Xia Fan shook his head repeatedly.
Cheyenne sighed, thinking to herself, ‘Sure enough, this boy must not be that interested in history. All he did was flip them through and found them boring, so he came over to ask for new reading material.’
That was when she heard Xia Fan continue, “I only remember like ninety-seven percent of it.”
*Cough*
Cheyenne nearly coughed out blood. Three days to finish reading eight thousand, six hundred and thirty nine pages, and remembering 97% of it? Was this boy still human?
Cheyenne simply could not believe it, so she randomly asked him a few questions, only for Xia Fan to give her the textbook’s own response.
Cheyenne was only satisfied after that, turning to look at her own room and telling him, “Because this is just a temporary accommodation, I don’t really have many interesting books here, aside from that set. All that’s left are books pertaining to legal, as well as other professional books related to the Special Bureau, investigative references and the like.”
“That’s fine,” Xia Fan nodded. “It’s not like I can do anything else while being locked up here, and I can’t even connect to the internet. The training that I was originally doing had to be put on hold too, so all I can do is stay in my room and repeatedly do the Startip Mantra. I might as well read, so I can at least learn something.”
Cheyenne felt a bit sorry for Xia Fan after hearing what he said. He was clearly very decent, but he had to wait till the people from the upper echelons of the Union came and investigated him. Meanwhile, she could not be of much help to him because the influence that the Ro Family wielded was simply too great. She had no idea if they would end up taking out their anger on him!
“Alright, I’ll go get some new books for you,” Cheyenne said to Xia Fan. “Be patient a little while. The Ro Family will be arriving the day after tomorrow. They are coming all the way from the capital planet of the Union to Brenia, and that’s very far away.”
…
It was soon the early morning of the day after. There was a very somber atmosphere that hung over everyone in the Special Bureau on this day.
The minute it pa.s.sed nine in the morning, Chief Jerry, accompanied by several men dressed in black, entered the station with a serious look on his face. The chief himself had personally headed to the airport to receive their guest, which went to show just how distinguished this person from the Rohan Clan was.
Cheyenne and Xia Fan were waiting in the interrogation room together. Upon seeing the chief opening the door and the person from the Ro Clan with him, Cheyenne asked in great surprise, “How did the chief return so soon? Didn’t you say you’d be heading to the hospital to identify the body first?”
That was when the accompanying morose elder with a white beard answered, “The man is already dead, and we’ll be retrieving the body immediately later. He’ll be brought back to the clan cemetery and be laid to rest, but right now, we are interested in finding out just who killed the murderer.”
Cheyenne took a step back and gestured to Xia Fan. “I see. He is called Xia Fan. He a.s.sisted the Special Bureau in locating the killer, and was also the one who killed him off.
“As someone who witnessed it first hand, I dare guarantee that it was all thanks to Xia Fan that the Special Bureau managed to crack the case so quickly. Plus, he killed the murderer solely out of self-defense. After all, the enemy was of a much higher rank than him, and Xia Fan really had no other choice back then.”
The white-haired elder’s sharp eyes glanced at Cheyenne. “You’re being very protective of him, but I would like to hear him speak for himself.”
‘Just because you’re from the Ro Family, do you think you can act so high and mighty?!’ Cheyenne was feeling disgruntled deep down, but upon seeing that the chief was practically pleading at her with his eyes, she held back and did not actually say anything.
Waving a hand, the elder asked the people that followed him everywhere to leave; Cheyenne and Chief Jerry were no exception.
Helpless, Cheyenne excited the room and went to the window. She watched the elder representing the elder from the Ro Family ask Xia Fan several questions, and he answered each and every one of them with a smile. Because she could not hear them, Cheyenne had no way of knowing if the elder was satisfied with his replies.
The questioning lasted longer than expected. It continued for more than two hours, when finally the elder waved his hand, indicating that everyone could enter.
“I will guarantee with my name that Xia Fan is a good person, so there’s no need to send him to a concentration camp. He won’t do any harm to the Union, and would instead be a great help to it!” Cheyenne crossed her heart and puffed out her chest, addressing the elder from the Ro Family.
“Who said I was going to send him to a concentration camp?” the elder asked back.
Cheyenne was speechless. Her mouth hung agape in shock.
The elder spoke with a straight face, “We of the Inferno Rohan Clan are known for our strictness, and we don’t enjoy joking around with anything.
“However, perhaps it is because of how strict we are that everyone forgot our other creed: The Rohan Clan have always been people who ensure our vengeance will be repaid, and kindness would be met with kindness.”
Standing up, the elder from the Ro Family bowed deeply to Xia Fan and said, “I am Rotenkai. On behalf of the Inferno Rohan Clan, I thank our benefactor!”
This was the distinguished Inferno Rohan Clan! Rotenkai’s actions left Chief Jerry and Cheyenne absolutely stunned!
Instead it was Xia Fan who acted neither humbly or arrogantly, chuckling as he helped Rotenkai upright, “Granda Tenkai, you’d be embarra.s.sing me for saying that. I’ll be frank; ever since I was young, my grandparents all taught me to be a good person that could shoulder the heavens. That was why if I were to ever get into a similar situation in the future, I still will not hesitate to act. It doesn’t matter if their family is with your clan or not.”
Actually, Xia Fan had only told a half-truth. While those grandparents of his did hope that Xia Fan would become a good person, they themselves were not good people themselves. They were a bunch of scoundrels notorious throughout the universe, and there was no end to the list of crimes and bad deeds they had done.
But after they were trapped under the skydome, the experience made those scoundrels see the error of their ways. Had it not been because of their greed in the first place, perhaps they would not have been subjected to their lonely fate, which was why they refused to let Xia Fan go down the same path they had, even if it meant their deaths.
The scoundrels treated Xia Fan as their own flesh and blood, and in this world, no matter how evil parents were, they also held the hope that their own child would be able to make something out of themselves. That was nothing but human nature.
Chief Jerry and Cheyenne were absolutely stunned. How did Xia Fan end up calling this elder Grandpa Tenkai so quickly? It sounded as if they had quite the bond, and were even rather close to each other.
Rotenkai patted Xia Fan heavily on his shoulder, “Well said, well said indeed! Justice should not discriminate. Whether it is someone from the Inferno Rohan Clan or not, it is only right for people to pursue justice for the deceased!”
Turning around, Rotenkai said to Jerry, “As an important organization that specifically deals with the offenses made by special ability criminals, it would be great if the Special Bureau was also filled with young men with such a strong sense of justice, like Xia Fan!”
Jerry stammered in a soft voice, “Ah, Elder Ro, you might not be aware, but Xia Fan comes from an unverified background, and has no identification. Forget the Special Bureau; I’m afraid he might not even have an easy time getting past the investigation as an unknown super ability user!”
“Who says his ident.i.ty is unverified?” Rotenkai exploded in anger. “Hasn’t Xia Fan said that he had been living in the mountains with several elders, who were tragically killed recently, which was what made him leave and return to society?
“See with your own eyes! He’s just barely sixteen, yet he’s already a beastmaster, a skilled doctor, and someone who possesses the speed special ability. Had he not been nurtured by these extraordinary experts since young, could he be so skilled?!”
“Xia Fan, what rank are you at now?
“I just reached Primary Star Base Rank,” Xia Fan replied with a smile.
Rotenkai looked at Jerry again, “You heard it yourself, Primary Star Base Rank!”
“You couldn’t possibly be unaware of the saying that the speed special ability is the hardest special ability to cultivate, right? Xia Fan is just sixteen, yet he has already reached Primary Star Base Rank! Those grandpas of his must be foreign experts, no doubt!
“Perhaps they had discovered since young that Xia Fan was someone with amazing potential, and that was why they made the forceful decision to bring him deep into the mountains and undergo intensive training. Just look at his physique. Have you ever seen anyone that managed to cultivate such a powerful physique at the young age of sixteen?!”
The people inside the interrogation room were wide-eyed right now. How could Xia Fan’s body not be well-developed, given that he had subsisted on a diet of Grade Nine energy crystals…
In any case, Rotenkai really liked Xia Fan, and guessed that his grandparents were all foreign experts who had raised Xia Fan in the secluded mountains, all for the sake of him becoming someone outstanding in the future!
“Your grandparents, how did they pa.s.s?” Rotenkai had a preconceived notion that the men who had raised Xia Fan must surely be no small fries, which was why he had addressed them so respectfully.
If Rotenkai were to learn that the grandparents Xia Fan had been referring to were actually just a bunch of scoundrels, the elderly man might just find himself speechless to the point he was left breathless.They were a group of bad people, yet they distinctly hoped that their own child would be a good person. Such a situation was simply inconceivable!
Upon recalling his grandparents, Xia Fan’s eye could not help but turn a little red. But he did not cry, and instead continued to smile, “It’s because enemies came looking for revenge, and for my sake, they staked their lives to hold the enemy back, buying enough time for me to escape.”
Rotenkai immediately felt his heart soften, and let out a pained sigh with Xia Fan.
As for Xia Fan’s smile, Rotenkai understood it was a young man’s show of fort.i.tude. Even though his kin had died, Xia Fan still smiled against adversity. Without even realizing it, Rotenkai found himself becoming even more fond of Xia Fan.
Strange things happened every day, and today was nothing special.
In any case, it felt as if Rotenkai and Xia Fan were fated to meet and get along very well with each other.
“How about this,” Rotenkai said after some thought. “I’ll deal with Xia Fan’s ident.i.ty. As for what happens from now onward, just let him stay in the Brenia branch to get some experience doing fieldwork. By the time the official examination for the Special Bureau opens up, let him register and become an official investigator.”
‘F*ck! So this is another way of doing things?!’ Chief Jeff and Cheyenne mentally gasped in astonishment at the same time.