Inch of Radiance Vol 2 Chapter 3.1

Book 2 Chapter 3.1 – a.s.sa.s.sin Organization

Li Yang walked towards Taibai Restaurant. Of course, he wasn’t going because he saw Tian Gang, but rather because he caught a whiff of a familiar alcohol scent — Erguotou’s scent.

“It’s been such a long time since I drank Erguotou. I never would have thought that there would be a restaurant right across from my new villa that carries Erguotuo. In the future, my days will be much more comfortable, and no longer will I have to drink those foreign vodkas.” The smile on Li Yang’s face widened.

“Old Jack, let that unfortunate Californian banker wait an hour, if he cannot wait then just let him leave!” Between the villa and Erguotou, Li Yang chose Erguotou.

Old Jack immediately revealed a strange expression, and he was confused and in disbelief. No matter how much the money-worshiping Old Jack thought about it, he could not understand why Li Yang would care so little about such a cheap villa…

Taibai Restaurant on Manhattan’s 57th street could not be considered eye-catching. Compared to other similar restaurants, Taibai Restaurant’s size was only roughly a third of those more luxurious restaurants. Taibai restaurant was only two stories tall, and the interior decorations appeared to be exceedingly close to those in ancient eastern China. It seemed as if it was a restaurant from ancient China, and although the restaurant wasn’t that large, there were still quite a few customers. There were many Chinese people here, of course, but the majority were foreigners who enjoyed chinese culture. The atmosphere here was auspicious and peaceful, and the walls were filled with an ancient ink fragrance. Upon walking in, Li Yang immediately took a liking to this restaurant.

A mellow flute melody played within the restaurant, and an elderly chinese man was playing it. In front of the elder was a bottle of wine, and he leisurely played the instrument…

Li Yang directly walked up to the second floor and walked into a private room. A waiter on the second floor walked over, and upon seeing Li Yang, the waiter spoke in Mandarin. “Sir, are you Chinese?”

“Yes, that’s right. I smelled the fragrance of Erguotou from far away. Today, I still have matters to attend to, so give me three bottles first!” Li Yang smiled as he spoke, and upon seeing another Chinese individual outside of China, he still felt rather amiable, especially within this old-fashioned restaurant.

Upon hearing Li Yang speak in fluent Mandarin, the waiter’s smile immediately brightened and said, “Sir, please wait for a moment, the Erguotou will be delivered at once. I have one more question, did sir arrive from China?”

Li Yang’s mood today was rather excellent, and lightly nodded his head.

The waiter’s was smiling from ear to ear as he quickly exited the private room. After a short while, a middle aged man wearing a traditional chinese jacket walked over with three bottles of Erguotou in his hands.

“Haha, young brother came from China, it really makes me extremely happy. It has already been a long time since I met another Chinese person that came from China. This is quite embarra.s.sing, I was too excited and forgot my manners. Let me introduce myself first, I am this restaurant’s owner Ge Pu!” While speaking, the middle aged man placed the three bottles of Erguotou on top of the table.

Li Yang grabbed a bottle of Erguotou and said, “This is Manhattan’s 57th street, and typically, tour guides would advise tourists to steer clear from this area. In addition, most of the Chinese people would be in Chinatown, so it’s normal for this area to lack Chinese people, moreover Chinese people that came from China. Boss Ge, you are really quite courageous to establish a restaurant on 57th street, it really is something worth admiring.”

Ge Pu shook his head and laughed. “I also understand that this area is a bit dangerous, however, as long as we are careful, there still wouldn’t be many problems.”

Li Yang took a whiff of the Erguotou’s alcoholic scent, and suddenly gulped down half of the bottle. A fierce wave of scorching heat rushed through his mind, and Li Yang once again thought back to his days training in the research inst.i.tute…

During that period of roughly a year, Li Yang trained like crazy. He used training to numb himself, and sweat dripped down from him like rain. However, the moment he stopped training, he would not be able to stop himself from thinking about Xue, so he used strong alcohol to befuddle himself. However, using the alcohol to make himself stop worrying only made the worrying worse. Was this is the so-called when the heart aches, one is not drunk, but when the heart does not ache, one is drunk?

Li Yang hasn’t been drunk since, and each time a wave of this strong liquor went down his chest, the more the alcohol would burn within his chest and spark the longing within his heart.

Li Yang stood up in frustration, and turned his body around before standing by the private room’s window. While looking at the people entering and leaving, Li Yang suddenly chanted softly, “Long I stand on a high-rise in the gentle breeze, saddened is spring everywhere I see, the sky is vast yet overcast, all round is bleak. In the remains of the day, in the hazy light the green of gra.s.s dims, against a rail I lean, yet who can through my quiescence my melancholy read. I’d rather pretend to be a giddy eccentric looking to get tipsy, when there is wine, singing follows, yet bland would be such imposed recreation. Becoming loose are my clothes yet I regret not, for I languish and suffer for her willingly.”

TL: Whoever translated this here is a lifesaver. I could not understand the poem at all :’(

The lyrics to the Melody of b.u.t.terflies Chasing Flowers made the longing within Li Yang’s heart even stronger.

“Becoming loose are my clothes yet I regret not, for I languish and suffer for her willingly,” muttered Li Yang. Following that, he laughed three times, and dumped the remaining half bottle of alcohol into his mouth. The laugh just now might have just been Li Yang choking or painful coughing. He began to loudly cough, coughs that caused pain within the lungs…

“Haha…” When Li Yang stopped coughing, he once again began to laugh loudly. He picked up the other two bottles of Erguotou, and casually asked Ge Pu, “How much are these?”

Ge Pu looked at Li Yang with a complicated expression and said, “Thirty dollars, however today is the first time I’m meeting little brother, so just consider it my gift. Little brother, don’t blame this old brother for saying this, but this old brother is already forty something and also originated from China. To live a good life, you have to put your past behind you. Otherwise, to live an entire life of pain is simply not worth it.”

Li Yang took out a hundred dollar bill and place it on the table. He glanced over at Ge Pu before shaking his head and leaving the restaurant. While leaving, Li Yang had a strange smile on his face, a smile that seemed to reveal bitterness and frustration…

After signing the contract, Li Yang immediately began to live within his new villa.

“My dear Mu Yi, is this Erguotou really that great? Why didn’t you even look at the contract when you were signing it, and instead drank the entire time while speaking chinese?” Old Jack seemed to be extremely suspicious as he looked at Li Yang.

Li Yang merely laughed, and made Old Jack feel that understanding him might be more difficult than for Li Yang to obtain a Golden Dan.

“Old Jack, I’ve already signed the contract with you a couple days ago. You are already my agent, so have you taken care of the matters regarding my ident.i.ty in the Underground Boxing Arena yet? I want to take a look at the underground world’s headquarters and see what its like!” Li Yang finally spoke out his true objective.

Why did Li Yang go to New York? Why didn’t he go directly to England?

Holy Forest Group’s wealth was indeed great, and if Li Yang directly went to the headquarters of the Holy Forest Group, he most likely wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything. Although his brother Li Shuo offered to use the influence of the Hong Mercenaries, Li Shuo was merely a district supervisor, and haven’t truly reached the higher levels of the Hong Mercenaries. To truly use the Hong Mercenaries’ strength to deal with this matters, this was impossible at least for now.

Only by entering the underground world and by becoming a member of this underground world could he use the strength of the underground world to defeat Holy Forest Group. Even if he couldn’t make Holy Forest Group fall apart, he could at the very least make the Lin family live in constant panic. Moreover, to destroy the Lin family while it was under panic, only that would truly vent out Li Yang’s anger.  However, entering the underground world wasn’t that easy, and become a boxer within the underground world was the easiest way.

Li Yang currently had two matters to take care of. First was to exterminate the Holy Forest Group, and to exterminate the Lin family. The second was to cultivate and reach the Tribulation stage as soon as possible so that he could find Jiang Xue.

To exterminate the Lin family, he had to at the very least have powerful strength. The heart of the underground world in New York was a great place, and here, he could become friends with many influential parties as well as obtain the most up to date intelligence. In addition, only in this place would Li Yang’s strength be like ‘a fish back in water’.

As for cultivation, only by fighting powerful experts could he improve faster. Looking for powerful experts? The underground headquarters obviously had the most experts!

Currently, what Li Yang had to do was to make the Lin family live in dread. At the same time, Li Yang had to improve his own strength as quickly as possible! Holy Forest Group was light, and Li Yang was darkness; Li Yang had a plan for everything, and right now, the first step of his plan began…