Book 3 Chapter 2.4 - Gray
"Su?" Sally still had some memory of the individual with this name. In reality, those who have seen Su would find that it wasn't that easy to forget him.
"Alright, I admit that Su is a good person and quite handsome as well." Sally eventually acknowledged Li Gaolei's choice with some difficulty. She knew quite well that the violation of a subordinate's lifetime contract was punishment from the Trials Division.
Li Gaolei released a breath of relief, and then he blew a whistle before carrying Sally on his shoulder. He then laughed loudly before walking towards the city outskirts. "Let's go, Sally! Uncle will bring you to a good place. Tonight, uncle will treat you to a great meal!"
Sally didn't seem to be as happy as Li Gaolei thought she was, but the sprinting Li Gaolei didn't seem to notice anything. Li seemed to have detected something, her pretty brows frowning slightly.
In terms of livelihoods, Dragon City's residents could be considered to be living under warm sunlight, while the wilderness was eternal darkness. There wasn't just a simple dividing line between this light and darkness. There was still an expansive gray area.
All types of companies, organizations, and families were established around Dragon City. Hundreds of thousands of people lived in the regions around Dragon City. Due to the strict restrictions on who could enter and leave Dragon City, the number of people who could enter Dragon City wasn't that large. This also meant that even though Dragon City was vast, the entertainment inside wasn't particularly attractive. After all, they were all people with identity and status, so who would willingly entertain others?
As a result, in the gray area at the border of Dragon City were several streets with all types of bars, evening shows, taverns, and low cost inns. One could find all the entertainment they could wish for in this place. Even if they were someone as important as a dragonrider, for example some officer, they would still often appear in this place.
The place Li Gaolei brought Sally to was a gray street, because only in the gray street could one eat some food from the wilderness. The most violent street that was also well known for sex was also commonly referred to as ghost street.
Unlike the crazily eating and drinking people around them, Li Gaolei, Li, and Sally ate quite slowly and seriously. This drew quite a bit of disdainful eyes. In the eyes of Dragon City residents, this type of eating was referred to as 'wilderness table manners', meaning that only those born in the barbaric wilderness would clean their plates so cleanly. In fact, this type of speaking was extremely accurate, because for most surviving in the wilderness, coldness and hunger were inherent memories, so they all attached great importance towards food.
Perhaps Li Gaolei and Li didn't know the derogatory term 'wilderness table manners', but Sally knew. However, even if all three of them knew about this term, none of them would worry much about it and they continued to eat the same way while chatting in low voices from time to time. In the wilderness, food was the most sacred thing and deserved the highest level of respect.
In the eyes of others in this tavern, the three individuals' actions were extremely unsightly. The alcohol running through their blood made a few irritable individuals directly treat this as provocation.
Someone finally walked over and heavily stabbed a military dagger onto the table in front of Li Gaolei. While spewing out a thick alcoholic odor, he shouted, "Hey! Dogs from the wilderness, get lost! Don't infect me with some of your strange diseases! Oh, these two chicks aren't bad. You two can stay behind."
Li Gaolei laughed. His mood was quite good, so he didn't want to fight, nor did he want to find trouble for Su. Of course, if he wished to, this half-drunk fellow would immediately lose his life. Just when he was about to say something, Li was already staring at this drunkard and coldly said, "We did come from the wilderness, but we are also dragonrider subordinates."
The drunkard was first astonished, but then he laughed again. "Subordinates? We have quite a few subordinates here. Some of private first class dragonriders, others even of second lieutenants! What rank is the dragonrider you go to bed with? Don't tell me it's just a private!"
A lazy yet somewhat arrogant voice sounded from the other side of the tavern. "Hey, little girl over there, you don't look too bad. If your owner is just a private, then you might as well follow me. Either way, I am a private first class."
"My leader is a lieutenant commander." Li's sentence immediately made the surrounding individuals quiet down.
Even inside Dragon City, lieutenant commanders were not characters that could be easily offended. Provoking a subordinate was not much different from provoking the lieutenant commander himself. Li was quite satisfied with the current situation. They had Sally with them tonight, and she didn't want things to become too great. If it was any other time, that sentence alone would have immediately caused Li to break a row of that drunkard's ribs.
Then, due to some kind of womanly arrogance, Li then added, "He's Su."
A wave of silence swept through this restaurant. Then, ripples emerged. A somewhat ambiguous smile appeared on some people's faces, and the atmosphere gradually became a bit strange.
"Su? Is it that fellow that crawled his way up by dressing himself up like a woman?" A voice suddenly rose from an unknown direction.
"I heard that he is a wild dog that crawled out from the wilderness. No wonder his subordinates are dogs from the wilderness too!" This sentence immediately raised laughter from quite a few individuals.
The drunkard that was standing by the table originally felt some fear, but the crowd's rowdiness gave him endless confidence. He opened his drunk eyes with difficulty and gave Li and Sally's faces a look. Then, his eyes suddenly lit up, and then he pointed at Sally before crying out, "I recognize you! Aren't you that…"
No one was able to hear the second part of that sentence, because Li had already stepped up. She grabbed the short blade inserted into the table in front of Li Gaolei with one go, and with a clench, she bare handedly squished the edge of the short blade into scrap metal! Li's face that was clenching the scrap metal immediately flew over, smashing down on the drunkard's mouth with a speed that he could not react to at all!
Even though Li's build looked somewhat weak and fragile, the power produced by four levels of abilities was extremely frightening. The drunkard spat out a mouthful of spittle that carried some teeth with it as well, and his stout and strong body that was over a hundred kilograms in weight flew outwards, passing four or five tables before heavily landing on the other wall of the restaurant. The ceiling was shaken until dust continuously descended, and cracks even appeared on the walls!
Only when the drunkard went soft on the ground without showing any reaction did everyone cry out in surprise. Then, a complete struggle immediately broke.
Due to his pretty exterior, wilderness background, and relationship to Persephone, Su became a celebrity in Dragon City in a short period of time. However, most people didn't feel any respect towards him and definitely wouldn't evaluate him seriously. Su's bloody battle against the Fabregas family's armed force and his dazzling military accomplishments after becoming a dragonrider had all been selectively ignored, and they viewed his rapid rise in military rank completely as a misuse of Persephone's private authority.
Su's forceful methods were known only to the Fabregas family's members, as well as a small portion of people who had the authority to see Maria's corpse. Due to various reasons, they naturally wouldn't proclaim this sort of stuff too publicly. That was why most people refused to admit that their jealousy affected their decision making and stubbornly believed that Su was as weak as a woman. Of course, his subordinates would be just as weak and easy to bully.
That was why the men in the restaurant were all fired up and swarmed over together.