Chapter 258: Sizer? That’s A Good Family
Guan Feng, Genya and Gen Liao were all peers. When Guan Feng was still young, he was as famous as royal descendants such as the likes of Gen Liao.
Gen Liao was the main reason Guan Feng came to dislike the Gen Family. In fact, they had loathed each other since young. In Guan Feng’s eyes, Gen Liao was an uncouth human being who wore a nobleman’s hat but acted like a dumb bloke. In Gen Liao’s eyes, Guan Feng was a priggish hypocrite that disgusted him.
Both men were at the prime of their youth when they were studying in the affiliated schools, and every two or three days they would pick a fight with one another. Guan Feng never cared that Gen Liao was royalty, not to mention their backgrounds had much lesser hold in affiliated schools. This was a place where individual strength spoke the loudest.
Gen Liao’s physique was much better than Guan Feng’s. However, Guan Feng had made his name since a very early time. He was famous for his studies and shooting skills in the entire school, and he was the one who proposed the “PTS Project” when most other nobles were busy chasing skirts and/or racing cars. Even the RAS had acknowledged that the PTS Project was a project with potential, turning him into a news headline for a time. Both the military and the RAS had also sent him their invitation ahead of time.
Back then, Gen Liao was the one “dumb bloke” who dared to punch Guan Feng in the face despite his reputation, and Guan Feng had undoubtedly suffered quite a bit of punishment by his hands. However, the tables were turned when the first PTS finally came into existence. Since then, the two rivals started engaging each other in serious competition, scheming and slandering one another at every turn. At the beginning, there was Genya to act as mediator since he was the good guy who never offended either party. But after Genya went missing, their relationship worsened to the point where it looked like they would stay as enemies forever.
There were a lot of noble descendants who bullied Guan Feng — a non-noble — as well, but unfortunately for them Guan Feng’s talent was just too monstrous. Most of them ceased their attacks over time, and after Guan Feng was appointed as the royal prince’s shooting instructor even the backbiters had learned to shut their mouths. This was especially true after the prince Guan Feng taught had become the emperor — all those dissatisfactions would just have to rot in their own stomachs.
Of course, there were plenty of nobles who disliked Guan Feng, especially those few whom Guan Feng had put a gun to their head and yell in their faces. Why else would there be so many people fanning the flames every time something happened to him? However, no one was ever able to shake Guan Feng’s status and influence in the empire.
These days, Guan Feng was the shooting instructor of many princes of emperors and kings, and a renowned scholar in the RAS. Gen Liao, his long time rival was literally the only one who dared to denounce Guan Feng openly. It was how the entire Mist Bodhisattva Empire came to learn of their feud.
However, it would seem that their relationship wasn’t as bad as it seemed on the surface. Cillin could sense Genya’s familiarity with the duo as he spoke about them.
“To tell you the truth, there is one other reason why Guan Feng is so disliked: his looks.” Genya smiled. “Guan Feng was extremely popular back then. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that a lot of noble ladies had fallen for him at first sight, so you probably understand why most of Guan Feng’s enemies are made up of males. Even better, Guan Feng still looks as young as ever, while the rest of us are clearly aging.”
While Genya was talking, Gen Xingming was massaging his shoulders like a proper henchman, absorbing embarrassing stories about his grandfather with great intent. He nodded in agreement when Genya gave his assessment about Guan Feng. Guan Feng didn’t just have a handsome face, his looks barely changed even though he was technically an old man already. Who wouldn’t be jealous of him!
Genya was sitting on a wooden chair beside the tree and talking about the past with a kind smile on his face. Everything Genya said was a precious memory to him, and he was very willing to share them with these juniors.
The chair he sat on was made of the wood of a thousand-year old Fuji tree. Quality wise, it was a lot better than the rocking chair he used to sit on back at Planet Brown Earth. In Gen Liao’s words, this chair could prolong one’s life and delay aging, which was what Genya’s body needed right now.
A similar scene, two different locations.
Meanwhile, Cillin was massaging Genya’s legs. His master was old, and he had been comatose for an extremely long time. It would take a while before he could recover in full.
Wheeze lazily rolled the egg next to Genya’s rocking chair before sitting on top of it lazily. From time to time, it would swayed its tail, flicked its ears and listened to Genya’s story and the fishes swimming inside the pond.
Cillin had been staying in this courtyard for the past few days. During this period, Guan Feng showed up to meet with the old friend he hadn’t seen for many years before leaving after approximately half a day’s time. He didn’t tell Cillin to return to the school. Instead, he tossed a couple of reference books and textbooks into Cillin’s hands and told him to read them all before the upcoming basic exams arrived. As his student, Cillin wasn’t allowed to flunk a course ever.
Currently, Guan Feng was busy with the development of PTS S. Unlike other project researchers, Guan Feng had the habit of thinking on his lonesome when researching stuff. It meant that he had no time to spare for Cillin, and that his student had to rely on himself until the PTS S was officially created.
“If you do poorly in the exam don’t expect me to beg Teacher Chen for your sake, get it? It is beneath me. Also, if you fail the exam you may commit suicide.”
Guan Feng’s smile was exceptionally kind when he said this, so kind that Gen Xingming hid himself behind Genya’s back. Thank goodness I’m from AF3, or I’ll be suffering just like Cillin.
No distant relatives had come over to visit Genya. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to visit him — apparently, Genya’s one word could sway Gen Liao’s mind, so that made him even more influential than the future king, Gen Xingchen. Who wouldn’t want to hang onto such a thick* thigh? — in fact, some of them had tried to obtain permission under the pretty pretense of visiting their “elder”, or performing their “filial” duty, upon hearing Genya’s return.
*or thicc, whatever your preference is. In Chinese, “thick thigh” or “big thigh” means that someone’s an influential person, the kind you want to cling onto or seek help from.
But Gen Liao waved his hands once and said, “Cut the crap!”
Everyone stopped trying after that.
Genya was a hole in the Gen Family’s social network. Many of his friends were long gone, and he would rather not to inject himself into his juniors’ social circles. It would be best if he stayed away from random guests since he was recuperating, not to mention that he preferred the silence anyway.
That being said, he didn’t want Cillin to stay by his side all the time. A youngster should look and act like a youngster. Cillin had always been excessively quiet and logical since young, and personally Genya would’ve preferred to see him act more like Gen Xingming. In the past Genya was weak and alone, so if Cillin had caused trouble he might not have been able to protect him. But he had returned to his home, and he was no longer powerless. That was why he wanted Cillin to get out, cause some trouble and enjoy a bit of fun like Gen Xingming.
Today, Gen Xingming came over to hide in Genya’s place again after causing some sort of trouble. Not long after, Bel and Ulaganuo showed up and talked about leaving and enjoying life elsewhere since the semester exams were over. All three of them barely made it past the safety line, but a pass was a pass. Who cares about marks as long as they passed, right? Anyway, they planned to get out of the capital and celebrate their success, which came with the side benefit of helping Gen Xingming escape his father’s punishment. After all, he couldn’t hide in Genya’s place forever. Forget his father, he would be pissing off his grandfather if he kept this up and be punished even harder.
Genya told Cillin to follow them after learning of their plans. Cillin agreed since he had more or less gone through all the reading materials Guan Feng gave him already. This bit of workload was nothing for a person with good memory.
As a show of support, Genya gave Cillin a large sum of money and told him to spend and play to his heart’s content. He even gave Gen Xingming some “pocket money” too, causing both Bel and Ulaganuo to goggle at their friend. If only they had a relative like this!
“Grandpa two, you truly are my grandpa!” Gen Xingming accepted the money and smiled so brightly that his eyes had narrowed into one straight line.
Genya knocked Gen Xingming once in the head while smiling. “You grandpa will split your butt if he learns about this.”
Gen Xingming winked back. “We should keep this a secret from him then!”
While the group was discussing where they should hold their celebration, Kenancy, the girl known as “King Kong” who was also Bel’s sister, came over.
Kenancy didn’t act out of order during the visit, and she brought a few tonics for Genya too. She even brought over a bunch of fishes for Wheeze, although most of them were for ornamental purposes. After learning that there was a fish pond here, Kenancy worked hard to acquire a few rare species that looked extremely pleasing to the eye. They were the type of ornamental fishes many upper class nobles loved to keep around the house.
Unfortunately, Kenancy made a small mistake: what would Wheeze need good-looking fish for? The important thing here was taste, not aesthetic. So it was heart wrenching for Kenancy when she put the fishes into the pond, only for Wheeze to swallowed one of these precious fishes immediately before showering her with a look of disdain. After that, the girl immediately contacted someone and told them to deliver over a couple types of fishes as soon as possible.
Currently, Kenancy had nothing to do in school, especially since lecture courses were as ineligible as heavenly books to her. After learning that Bel and Ulaganuo had gone to Genya’s place to meet with Gen Xingming, she immediately figured out that they were planning another escape. So she joined their ranks by force and refused to return home no matter what Bel said. In her opinion AF3 was dull as hell, and she couldn’t always go to AF1 to play with King Kong and the other animals. In that case, she might as well follow them and relieve her boredom elsewhere.
“I’m so going to get lectured if they hear about this!” Bel was extremely reluctant to accept Kenancy because their mother had always blamed him for Kenancy’s “maldevelopment” when he was in fact, completely innocent.
“They won’t. I’ll send them a report later,” Kenancy said indifferently.
Bel’s lips curled downwards. What was the point of the report when he was was going to become a scapegoat either way?
“Ah! Right!” Kenancy suddenly slapped her hands together in excitement as if she had just recalled something. “Let’s go to Naimi’s place. I want a custom-made flying car and I heard that his family just launched a new model. I’m going to get one and try it out myself!”
“Did Naimi run away too?” Gen Xingming asked.
“Of course he did. He ran away the second semester exams are over without even waiting for the results to come out. I suspect that he’s hiding something from us!” Kenancy replied.
Ulaganuo nodded in agreement. “You’re right, he should be punished. How dare he keep all the good stuff to himself. Where’s the friendship?”
Gen Xingming knew that Cillin didn’t know who Naimi was, so he gave him a brief introduction. Naimi was a member of the Sizer Family and about the same age as Gen Xingming. He also studied at AF3, but unlike the rest of them Naimi spent far, far more time being away from class than in class.
“The Sizer Family?” Genya took a while to recall the name. “You mean that family who’s famous for making flying cars, right? That’s a good family.”
“Heh, grandpa two, I’ll tell them about your praise. I’m sure they’ll be so happy they could fly,” Gen Xingming said.
“Boot licker!” Kenancy muttered.
“Still better than those who can’t even boot lick correctly.” Gen Xingming was referring to her failed attempt to please Wheeze.
Genya waved his hands before they could start arguing with each other. “Alright alright, listen here. I have a task for you two.” Genya turned to look at Cillin. “Do join them and get a custom made flying car for yourself, will you? And don’t forget to drive it occasionally after you bring it back here. No youngster should go without a flying car, not to mention that the Sizer Family’s flying cars are pretty impressive.”
Although Genya made it sound like he was asking Bel and Kenancy to help Cillin with his order, their real function was to back Cillin up. Cillin wasn’t a noble, and the Sizer Family was a pretty influential noble family. Genya was worried for Cillin’s sake because nobles were used to looking down on all non-nobles.
They might be fops, but they weren’t stupid. Everyone here understood what Genya really meant.
“Don’t worry, grandpa two! Cillin is my brother, and anyone who dares to bully him will suffer my wrath!” Gen Xingming declared.
“Yeah, don’t worry. Who would dare do such a thing while we’re around!” Ulaganuo echoed his sentiment.
Bel had an odd look on his face, however. “Actually, you might be underestimating Cillin a little, uncle. We are be the ones who’ll probably be borrowing Cillin’s face later.”
“Eh? What do you mean?” Genya asked curiously.
And so Bel told him about his experience at the twenty third star region.
Genya didn’t recognize Fleka because the latter hadn’t yet existed when he drifted into another galaxy. But after listening to Bel’s explanation, he figured out that Fleka was an incredibly important member in the Sizer Family’s design team, if not the very backbone of their business. His words mattered a lot when an important decision was made.
Genya’s worries decreased significantly after he heard this. He was very happy that Cillin was able to make the acquaintance of such important people too.
A person’s influence wasn’t just made up of their individual strength. The connections they made mattered a lot too. At first, Genya was worried that Cillin would suffer in this department because of taciturn his nature. However, his disciple turned out to be far more capable than he initially imagined. It was a revelation that gratified Genya a lot; a feeling that was akin to watching his own children growing into adulthood nicely. The abandoned baby in the forest had grown up to become a formidable person, and he was very happy and very proud of him.
“Good, that’s good…” Genya vented his emotions for a bit before continuing, “Cillin, the ring on your finger represents me. If there comes a time you need to use it, use it.”
The leaf was the symbol of the Gen Family, and the ring around Cillin’s thumb was in no way inferior to Gen Xingming’s wristband. Genya wanted Cillin to know that he had the backing of the Gen Family and the Fuji royal family, and that he was in no way inferior to the nobles.
The group of youth immediately departed once their mind had been made. But before they left, Cillin was troubled by a certain gray cat.
Earlier, the person Kenancy contacted had sent over a school of fishes that was completely different from the ornamental fishes from earlier. These fishes were born tough, and practical to use. Many of these fishes had sharp teeth, and some even carried poison in their bodies, but they should all be very tasty once they were properly processed.
Wheeze stared wide-eyed at the fishes swimming happily inside the pond while salivating non-stop.
Now this is what you call a food supply! This is how you enjoy life!
The gray cat couldn’t wait to jump into the pond and engage all these fishes in close contact, but Cillin caught it by the scruff of its neck and had a chat with it.
At first, Wheeze was planning to join Cillin and the gang on their fun, but its mind was changed the second it saw all these fishes. Now, all it wanted to do was to protect this fish pond and continue persuading Genya to fill it to the brim. Once that was done, it should invite its friends at AF1 for a gathering…
Cillin couldn’t help but feel worried when he learned that Wheeze had changed its mind. He knew that it was cooking some schemes in its mind the second he read the frequency at which it was swaying its tail.
“It’s fine, Cillin. I can use a companion anyway,” Genya said.
Cillin stopped objecting since Genya had given his word, but that didn’t stop him from holding Wheeze by its ear and lecturing it on a whole bunch of stuff. Cillin knew its capabilities too well — if the gray cat so wished, it could be a troublemaker on par with the Three Dissolute Musketeers over there, if not better.
“I got it I got it, do I look like one of those dumb felines to you?” Wheeze promised.
Yes you do! Cillin wisely thought the retort in his own mind instead of voicing it out loud.
After everything was said and done, Cillin, Gen Xingming and everyone else left the capital for the Sizer Family’s headquarters.
Meanwhile, after circling the fish pond a couple of times and spending a moment in thought, Wheeze quietly skipped towards Genya and jumped onto his thighs. After snuggling itself into a comfortable position, Wheeze spoke up sweetly, “Oh, master grandpa two.”
If Cillin was here he would be sweating goosebumps.
Genya was resting on his rocking chair with his eyes shut. Upon hearing Wheeze’s call, he opened his eyes, met its expectant eyes with a smile and scratched it under the chin, “What’s wrong?”
“Let’s eat fish everyday, master grandpa two.”
“Why not.”
“I want a full fish course, I want fish burgers, and I want…” Wheeze counted down on its paws the menus it had been saving in its mind as its eyes grew brighter and brighter. Genya was extremely amused by its reaction.
“Of course, of course. I’ll tell them to prepare everything.”
“Hehe. Oh right, we need to replenish the fish pond constantly, don’t you agree? After all, it’ll be empty once everything is eaten.”
Observe how smoothly the word “we” came out of its mouth!
“No problem, I’ll speak with them. Just tell me which type of fish you want, and I’ll ask the men to bring them in.”
Wheeze’s smile was so wide it nearly touched the ear. It rubbed its head against Genya’s hand and said, “You truly are my grandpa!”
Genya: “...”
Genya was just about to say something when it suddenly caught a bit of movement from the corner of his eyes. At first he wasn’t sure, but when it happened again he knew his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him.
“That egg moved.”
“Hmm?” Wheeze didn’t react immediately because it was absorbed in its wonderful delusions.
“That egg.” Genya pointed at the sea beast egg that had been neglected for a long time. “It just moved on its own.”