The man in the room was stunned when Zhang Tie suddenly rushed out. The dozen or so slaps left the man spitting blood and disoriented. The woman next to him was also stunned. Barry and Doug rushed in.
After slapping the man, Zhang Tie shoved him to the ground. The man screamed, but as soon as he saw the Norman Empire lieutenant's uniform Zhang Tie was wearing, his voice choked, and his scream stopped abruptly. He stared at Zhang Tie with eyes full of fear. He didn't know why a Norman Empire officer had suddenly appeared in his house.
Over there, Barry and Doug already knew Shavin's mother. The two whispered something in Shavin's mother's ear, and Shavin's mother glanced at Zhang Tie with some worry before nodding, wiping away her tears, and leaving.
Doug then closed the door again.
Shavin's bastard stepfather was a gruff, balding man in his fifties with a stubble beard. He was both crude and sleazy. Just looking at his shifty, rat-like eyes when he looked at people was enough to make you want to beat him up.
The guy lying on the ground looked at the three young men who were approaching him with ill intentions and screamed in terror.
"You... what do you want... Doug, Barry, I know you... what do you want?"
"Fuck you!" In a fit of rage Doug kicked the guy in the stomach, and the sleazy man lying on the ground screamed again.
Barry and Doug were both filled with rage. They had both heard what the man had said, and they simply couldn't believe that such a bastard existed in the world; he was worse than an animal. They could only imagine what kind of life their good brother Shavin had been living in this house all these years.
Barry and Doug went up and gave the man another beating, leaving him only able to groan on the ground.
"I... I'm going to sue you!"
The man said this while humming.
Hearing this from the man, Zhang Tie smiled.
" Barry, Doug, stop! If you keep hitting him, you'll kill him. It's too easy to kill this scum who's hostile to the Empire, this rioter who dared to attack Imperial officials. I'd love to see him hanged on the gallows; it'll look quite a sight!"
The man stared at Zhang Tie in horror, "You... what did you say!"
Zhang Tie completely ignored him and looked at Barry instead, "Did you all just hear how this person cursed the Norman Empire and the Iron Horn Legion from his home?"
Based on the tacit understanding among the brothers, as soon as Zhang Tie said that, Barry knew what Zhang Tie was going to do.
"This guy was calling the Norman Empire bastards and saying the entire Iron Horn Legion should be hanged!" Barry immediately branded the man on the ground with a crime punishable by immediate beheading. After speaking, Barry nudged the stunned Doug with his elbow. Doug snapped out of his daze and nodded hastily. "Yes, yes, I heard him say that too!"
Zhang Tie sighed. "Sigh. I originally came here just to catch up with my classmate, but I never expected to find someone who harbors such an enemy of the Norman Empire. Out of a sense of duty as a Norman officer, I rushed in. As soon as this man saw me, he started attacking me. I had no choice but to take him down!"
"I... I didn't attack you!" The man lying on the ground was terrified.
Zhang Tie squatted down in front of him, grabbed one of his hands in front of Barry and Doug, swatted it lightly on his chest like swatting a mosquito, then released the man's hand, stood up, and asked Barry, "Did you see this man attack me?"
"We saw it! We all saw that man punch you!" Barry immediately chimed in.
"Then, I'll stay here and watch him. We can't let him get away. You two go outside and find a squad of the Norman Empire soldiers. Tell them I've captured a saboteur who's hostile to the Empire, and have them come and arrest him!" Zhang Tie said, taking out his officer's ID from his pocket. "Take my ID. As long as they see this ID, those soldiers will come with you. Black Flame City won't be at peace until this treacherous person is hanged! And this guy dared to attack a Norman Empire officer; he's the most heinous of all..."
The moment Barry took the officer's certificate from Zhang Tie, the man lying on the ground collapsed. By this point, even the most foolish person knew that Zhang Tie and his men were trying to kill him. For a nobody living at the bottom of Black Flame City, killing someone like him was as easy as stepping on a bug, given Zhang Tie's military uniform. It was a simple matter of a word. Even if Zhang Tie killed him now, no one would utter a word.
The only thing this man couldn't understand was why a young Norman officer had suddenly come to his house, since he had never offended anyone from the Norman Empire, let alone an officer.
Seeing Barry take the Zhang Tie certificate and about to leave, the man lying on the ground mustered all his strength, grabbed Barry's leg, and burst into tears, " Barry... Barry... spare my life! I know I was wrong! I'm Shavin's father! Did you want to kill your friend's father? I'm just a pathetic wretch and a nobody! Please let me go! I'll do whatever you want me to do..."
Looking at the man kneeling on the ground, hugging Barry's leg and crying, even Zhang Tie felt sorry for Shavin. Having such a bastard stepfather, it would be better to just dig a hole and bury him.
At this moment, Barry really had the urge to completely destroy this man. It was a disgrace that his brother had such a scumbag stepfather. He looked at Zhang Tie, Zhang Tie sighed and shook his head.
Unable to bear the sight of this man's pathetic state, Zhang Tie grabbed him by the collar and lifted him off the ground like a tattered sack, then threw him onto a bed in the room.
The man looked at Zhang Tie and kept shrinking into the bed, filled with fear of Zhang Tie.
Do you know who I am?
The man shook his head!
"My name is Zhang Tie, an officer in the Iron-Blood Battalion of the 39th Division the Iron Horn Legion. I'm Shavin's brother. I heard you wanted to kill Shavin, so I came. I wanted to see who dared to treat my brother like that!"
The man looked at Zhang Tie with eyes as if he had seen a ghost. He never expected that Shavin, whom he could beat and scold at home, would have such a brother.
"I... I..." Looking at Zhang Tie's icy gaze, the man had something stuck in his throat and couldn't say it.
Do you know why you're still alive?
The man swallowed hard and continued shaking his head.
"Because of Shavin, I'm keeping you alive, do you understand? No matter what, no matter how much you deserve to die, you're Shavin's stepfather, so I'm letting you live. If you lose that identity, I'll make you wish you were dead the moment you die, do you understand?"
The man nodded.
"Are you still planning to go to the Military Control Committee to sue Shavin?"
The man nodded, then realized his mistake and quickly shook his head.
When Zhang Tie, Barry, and Doug emerged from the cluttered and cramped house, Shavin's mother was outside, holding her two children and looking at them with a worried expression. Years of hardship at the bottom of society had made Shavin's mother, who was not actually that old, look old and haggard. There was also a noticeable bruise and a handprint on her face.
Looking at the state of Shavin's house and the wooden door he had kicked down, Zhang Tie sighed inwardly. He took out five gold coins from his pocket and quietly slipped them into Shavin's mother's hand.
As Zhang Tie and his group were about to leave the " Brick Building," Shavin's mother chased after them, tears streaming down her face. "If you see Shavin, tell him not to worry about me. I can't separate myself from this family anymore. I'm not a good mother. I'm sorry for him; I couldn't give him a warm home. He's given so much to this family over the years and suffered so much. Tell him not to come back. He's grown up now and can pursue his own life..."
"We still haven't found Shavin!" Barry said, scratching his head.
"I know where he is, Barry. When you see him, give him this. It's something his biological father left him. He'll understand!" Shavin's mother said, reaching out and tearing open the hem of her clothes. From the torn cotton fabric, she pulled out a gold ring that wasn't particularly exquisite, with the initials of Shavin's surname engraved on the face.
It wasn't until the afternoon that Barry, Doug, Zhang Tie, Light, Sista, and Baghdad from the Brotherhood finally found Shavin.
Shavin wasn't in the city, but in a cemetery outside. He sat silently by his father's grave all night. When the crowd arrived, Shavin raised his head. There were still some scars on Shavin face, but he smiled at everyone.
Everyone felt that Shavin seemed to have matured overnight!
Pain is a catalyst for a man's maturity!
Zhang Tie spent the entire day with a few brothers from the Brotherhood. After dinner, they drank in a private room from morning till night, until they were all completely drunk before they dispersed.
Shavin put on his father's ring and said he wouldn't go home anymore. He would work outside to earn money and support himself. When he had enough money, he would bring his mother out of that house. Shavin refused all the help his brothers offered him. He said that if he got used to their help now, he was afraid they wouldn't be able to be brothers anymore. Then Shavin cried, and everyone fell silent and started drinking.
The weapons that everyone brought back from the trial had already been sold by Barry, who made a small profit, less than eight gold coins in total. In the past month, the prices of various ordinary weapons in Black Flame City had been dropping, which puzzled everyone. They couldn't understand why the prices of these ordinary weapons would fall when war was approaching.
Zhang Tie vaguely guessed at the reason—one of the signs of the coming of chaos is that ordinary weapons used for killing begin to become cheaper. Meanwhile, the prices of high-end resources, whether crystals or food, things that allow people to survive, begin to rise sharply. The prices of high-end weapons are also rising.
Zhang Tie mentioned at this time that he might soon leave Black Flame City to join the war in Karur.
Faced with the thunderous wheels of time, all the teenagers were bewildered. So they continued drinking, talking about school, about Teacher Daina, about the Tree House during the trials, about the lightning that struck Zhang Tie, and then about what would happen to the others if someone died in the future...
When talking about Teacher Daina, Zhang Tie said that he was the only one who had never masturbated while thinking about Teacher Daina's appearance, and no one believed him!
The boys laughed, roared, and then cried...
While everyone was drinking merrily, Zhang Tie's Norman Empire lieutenant uniform was stripped off, even his trousers were pulled down. The men in the private room took turns stripping off their own clothes to try it on, saying they wanted to experience the prestige of an imperial lieutenant.
Finally, that Sista, dressed in Zhang Tie's lieutenant's uniform, jumped onto the table and started doing a striptease, wiggling his hips like those slutty women. Everyone vomited...
Perhaps it was because of the Little Tree, but Zhang Tie was still a little dizzy when he parted ways with Barry and the others. Just a few minutes later, Zhang Tie felt himself sweating profusely with the smell of alcohol, and his mind immediately cleared up.
At this time, Black Flame City was already dimly lit.
Once his mind cleared, Zhang Tie understood Alice almost instantly. He immediately understood what Alice was yearning for and what she was worried about. Shavin's experience made him realize what a terrible man meant to a family. The tears and sadness in Alice's eyes that day flashed through Zhang Tie's mind. By the time Zhang Tie came to his senses, he found himself standing downstairs at Alice's house.
The lights were on in Alice's house. Zhang Tie could faintly hear Alice talking to someone inside; it seemed to be Alice's mother...
Zhang Tie stood downstairs at Alice's house for almost a full hour, every moment since he met Alice flowing through Zhang Tie mind.
Alice had begun to develop genuine feelings for her, which is why she chose to leave. When Alice hadn't developed feelings for him, the two of them could be together without any restraint.
One cares, the other doesn't. That's why they have such different attitudes.
Life, sometimes, is just that messed up!
Zhang Tie wanted to go upstairs and knock on Alice's door several times, but he held back each time. He didn't know what he could say to Alice at that moment, or what promises he could make to Alice. He didn't want to hurt Alice, just as Alice had chosen to silently endure rather than hurt herself that day...
Even the slightest bit!
Alice is actually a good girl!
Zhang Tie ultimately chose to turn and leave!
On his way home, Zhang Tie noticed that the atmosphere in Black Flame City was much more somber today. There were significantly more Imperial soldiers on duty in the streets. As he passed the train station, a large number of military vehicles and ambulances drove out of the station and headed to various parts of Black Flame City. At first, Zhang Tie was a little puzzled, but when Zhang Tie passed a hospital in Black Flame City and saw many military vehicles and ambulances parked at the entrance, with people constantly carrying wounded people out of the vehicles and into the hospital, Zhang Tie went over to investigate.
"Halt..." The soldiers over there saw someone approaching and immediately shouted to stop Zhang Tie. Only when Zhang Tie walked into the light and saw his uniform did the soldiers quickly salute Zhang Tie.
The person in charge here is just a sergeant and a small squad of soldiers.
"Sergeant, where did these wounded soldiers come from?"
"These wounded soldiers were just brought in from Karur. The skirmishes between the frontline troops and the Radiant Feather have intensified in the past few days, and the number of casualties is increasing. The field hospitals at the front are already overflowing, so we're using trains to transport some of the seriously wounded to the rear for treatment and recuperation..."
The latest news made Zhang Tie's heart sink slightly. It seemed that the situation in Karur was deteriorating faster than he had imagined. The Norman Empire and the Sun God Dynasty were both increasing their activities in the Karur region, which meant that the Iron-Blood Battalion might have to leave Black Flame City and head to Karur sooner.
Zhang Tie wasn't a warmonger, so this news wasn't exactly good news for him. The rapidly evolving situation gave Zhang Tie an increasingly strong sense of urgency.
With a somewhat heavy heart, Zhang Tie returned to his apartment on Monet Avenue. A four-wheeled carriage was parked outside—a popular mode of transportation in this era, as it was less cumbersome than a car. Moreover, the carriage was the typical rental carriage found most often in Black Flame City, so Zhang Tie didn't pay it any mind.
Just as Zhang Tie started to take out his keys to open the door, the four beautiful girls from the Rose Society — Angel, Shawa, Susan, Fiona— whom he had met at the hospital, stepped down from the carriage.
The four girls were all dressed up beautifully today. They were all wearing thick shawls, and Zhang Tie couldn't see what was under Zhang Tie, but Zhang Tie at least tell that their hairstyles and makeup were very exquisite and looked like they had been carefully styled.
As soon as the four girls got off the carriage, it drove away. The driver turned around and stared at Zhang Tie Tieji with an envious look that all men understood.
"Did you come to see me?" Zhang Tie asked, looking at the four girls standing in front of him. Zhang Tie felt that these four girls seemed to have been waiting for him for some time.
"We've been waiting for you here for two hours. As a gentleman, aren't you going to invite us in?" Angel, with her long blonde hair, said in a seductive tone.
Zhang Tie smiled, scratched his head, and the four girls followed Zhang Tie into the Zhang Tie building...