Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

Chapter 593: The Long Night

"Is it still cold?"

He moved a chair over and sat facing Evelyn, placing the girl's feet on his lap and wrapping them in a wool blanket. He said this was the closest he could get to the fire, and it would quickly warm her feet.

The firelight from the fireplace illuminated her face, giving it a blush that spread all the way to her ears.

As if sensing something, the girl deliberately turned her face away, avoiding his gaze.

"What's wrong?" Zhang Renfeng was puzzled. He carefully observed Evelyn's expression but couldn't see anything amiss. "Why are you turning your face away?"

"I got up in such a rush, I didn't put on makeup..."

"I thought it was something else." Zhang Renfeng waved his hand irritably. "It's a good thing you weren't wearing makeup, otherwise, dressed like that, you would have caught a cold sitting in front of the dressing table for a while."

He took Evelyn's pale hands in his, and in comparison, his hands were a size larger than the girl's, as if forged from hard stone, warm and strong. Evelyn quickly turned her head, looking at him with some surprise, then bit her lip, as if surprised that he could make such physical contact so naturally.

"...Hands are alright, rubbing them together will warm them up faster." Zhang Renfeng took her soft, delicate fingers in his hand and gently stroked the back of her hand with the least amount of force he could imagine, saying, "What's wrong? Why did you have to come to me in the middle of the night?"

“Once it’s light, you’ll have so many things to take care of,” Evelyn complained somewhat discontentedly, “and you’ll have even less time to see me.”

"That's true." Zhang Renfeng nodded. "Then tell me, what do you need me for?"

"..."

Evelyn's eyes turned mournful, like an innocent fawn lying by the roadside, wounded by thorns. She forcefully pulled her hands away from Zhang Renfeng's grasp, intending to express her displeasure by sitting upright in accordance with aristocratic etiquette. But then she realized her feet were still resting on his thighs, and her spirits immediately deflated, her cheeks flushing even more.

"Just now... this afternoon, when you were assigning tasks to everyone, I was sitting down there too. Did you see me?"

"Nonsense." Zhang Renfeng couldn't help but laugh and joked, "How could I not see you sitting down there?"

"You promised me before that even if we did different things, I should still be one of you. So, why..."

Evelyn's shoulders trembled slightly. On stage, her voice, capable of stirring countless hearts, overflowed with her own emotions for the first time: "Why did you assign tasks to everyone else, but leave me aside? Don't you want me anymore?"

……

Zhang Renfeng smiled.

Once again, with a gentle yet firm gesture, he took her hand.

"Here we go again, you...you always do this. Don't hold my hand all the time. I'm talking to you about serious business..." Evelyn's momentum suddenly weakened, and she mumbled weakly, but she didn't pull her hand away again.

Zhang Renfeng asked with a smile, "So how do you plan to help me?"

“Please don’t look at me like I’m a little girl!” Evelyn straightened her back and said defiantly, “I’m already 17 years old, a successful and mature woman. Many big cities have sent me invitations to perform in their theaters. I can earn a lot of money from a big performance.”

“I am still a descendant of the Dietersdorf family, a surname that carries considerable influence among the old aristocrats of the South. Your company… well, it’s not really a company, is it? What I mean is, since you don’t need to manage the specifics, I, with my aristocratic title, could easily be your representative. Why bother asking Mr. Kraken for help?”

Evelyn rarely spoke so much at once. After venting everything that had been weighing on her heart, the fuel that had sustained her emotions seemed to be running out. The trembling in her shoulders gradually subsided, and her expression became less agitated, even showing some regret.

Her head hung low, avoiding Zhang Renfeng's eyes, and she murmured, "I'm sorry, I... I shouldn't have been so harsh on you, I, I just..."

"I have no home anymore, I don't want to..."

Zhang Renfeng gently put his arm around her shoulder.

Like a magical spell, the dark clouds hanging over her shoulders dissipated in an instant.

"You will always be my family."

To reassure him, Zhang Renfeng deliberately paused on a few important words before saying, "That's precisely why you can't have this position, understand?"

"Indeed, you have an excellent background and are the daughter of an old aristocratic family, but your public identity is that of an outstanding theatrical performer. Every smile and gesture you make on stage can be featured in the local newspapers. You yourself have said that you can earn a very generous fee for each performance."

"Reputation, social status, and wealth can all be easily obtained from the industry you are in now. What reason do you have to suddenly turn your guns around and throw yourself into a completely unfamiliar field like timber? It may be fine now, but later, when the business grows bigger, this abnormal phenomenon will arouse the vigilance of the enemy in the north, and they will send people to investigate you!"

"I think I said this during the day as well. This position is not a sure thing and there are certain risks involved. This is not an exaggeration at all."

Zhang Renfeng paused for a moment, seemingly to give the girl time to think.

"Kraken made his fortune in the snake oil business. He leveraged the celebrity effect of Hong Zhong to quickly sell his brand of snake oil."

“Looking across the country, whether in the south or the north, the market for snake oil is only so big, and it has long been divided up by others. If he wants more money, he can only invest in other projects. After careful consideration, he chose the timber business – this logic is reasonable and self-consistent.”

"After a series of subsequent considerations, Igor and I finally decided that he would be our 'puppet'. Do you understand what I mean?"

……

"Sorry……"

Evelyn lowered her head slightly, her face showing some guilt, a hint of tears welling up in her eyes, her delicate eyebrows furrowing as she said remorsefully, "I was so inconsiderate, bothering you with something like this... I... I'm a bad girl..."

"Don't say that." Zhang Renfeng patted the back of her hand and comforted her. "Didn't you help me send messages during the Lagras campaign? If it weren't for you, the military supplies and provisions from the rear wouldn't have been delivered so quickly. It's all thanks to you."

“But it’s such a small thing… just delivering a message, it doesn’t matter who I send it to…” Evelyn muttered. “I also want to do more and more things for you, like Alana and Mei.”

“Everyone has their own talents, what they are good at and what they are not good at, and you can’t force that,” Zhang Renfeng said softly. “Xiao Mei is particularly bright, and Alana can break the lock of any big bank’s vault in almost ten seconds, but they can’t do what you do and put the money in their pockets safely through a series of performances.”

"Just do your own thing, and that's enough."

Chapter 594: Can you lift up your destiny?

“Thank you for taking the time to talk to me about this.” Evelyn nodded slightly to him, hesitated for a moment, then quickly pulled her feet off his thighs and placed them on the floor. “It’s so late, you should get some rest…”

"Don't bother. It's so late at night and cold outside. If you go back and forth barefoot, you might catch a cold."

Zhang Renfeng waved his hand and said, "Stop making a fuss, just sleep in my bed tonight."

……

"???"

The shocking truth came too suddenly. If this were a comic book, three bold black question marks would surely appear on Evelyn's forehead at this moment.

"Sleep, sleep, sleep...sleep in your bed?" She jumped back as if she had been kicked by a spark, almost knocking over the chair.

"What else?" Zhang Renfeng was amused by her. "You're going to sleep on the carpet?"

“But, Mr. Hongzhong, isn’t this a bit…too much…” Evelyn twisted the hem of her plain white ramie robe tightly, her voice almost inaudible. “I didn’t prepare in advance. I mean…I came here dressed like this. You…you’ll find it boring, won’t you? I want to go back first…to change into the dancer Salome’s clothes…”

“Salome…” Zhang Renfeng vaguely remembered hearing the word somewhere before, and after thinking about it, he remembered it, but he was still confused. “Isn’t that your costume? This isn’t going on stage, why are you wearing that?”

“I think that would be… a little… a bit stimulating, but if you like pajamas…” Evelyn’s speech seemed to be having some problems; it was a bit difficult for her to finish a sentence. “I have no objection!”

"Of course." Zhang Renfeng nodded. "If you don't wear pajamas to sleep, what do you wear?"

"Okay... I understand!" With a tone of resignation, Evelyn said this, then suddenly touched her left cheek with her right hand, as if she had frozen in place.

"What are you doing?" Zhang Renfeng asked curiously.

“This is what my mother taught me… The first few times, I was so nervous before going on stage that I almost threw up. She told me that many performing artists, even those who become masters, are inevitably nervous before facing an audience. In such situations, you have to set up a ‘forced relaxation’ action for yourself. Through training, you associate this action with a relaxed and pleasant mood, which is a kind of hypnosis or suggestion.”

"call……"

Evelyn took a deep breath and exhaled. "For me, touching my left cheek with my right hand is a gesture that helps me calm down quickly, calmly, calmly... my mind becomes still..."

……

"Okay." She opened her eyes again, her demeanor indeed changing abruptly. "I'm ready."

"Oh...oh, calming down before bed is quite good." Zhang Renfeng was stunned, thinking to himself that as expected of a family of performers, this method seems to work quite well.

"Then go to sleep." He pointed to the bed not far away. "Cover yourself up well, especially your feet, don't catch a cold, okay?"

……

In an instant, the room fell into an eerie silence, with only the crackling of the fire in the stove.

Evelyn vaguely guessed what was going on, but she couldn't believe it and refused to admit it. She gritted her teeth and held on for a long time before asking tremblingly, "Then... what about you?"

"Me? Of course I'll find another room. There are plenty of empty rooms here anyway, I'll just find a new one to make do for the night." Zhang Renfeng shook her head with a smile, "You little rascal, what are you thinking, you..."

Recalling his somewhat nonsensical words, Zhang Renfeng's expression finally stiffened, becoming somewhat embarrassed. "Evelyn... I didn't mean that, I..."

"Waaah... I'm so sorry—!!"

Evelyn rushed onto his bed, threw herself on him, wrapped herself in the blanket like a silkworm, and squeezed it tightly between her legs, screaming, "It's all my fault, I misunderstood you! Please leave!"

No wonder she reacted so strongly; the thin veil of secrecy, whether visible or hidden, was finally pierced at this moment.

The two of them vaguely understood where the boundaries between them lay.

……

"Please...please wait a moment..."

The volume of those words was almost lip-reading, a completely unconscious inner monologue from the young girl. Anyone else in that situation would probably have simply walked out.

Unfortunately, Old Zhang was no ordinary person; to his ears, it was no different from speaking directly next to his ear.

He didn't respond verbally, but stopped, turned around, and looked at the girl sleeping in his bed.

"There's one more thing, I forgot to ask earlier, could you... could you..."

……

Since things have come to this, what is there that can't be said?

Zhang Renfeng sighed softly, "Ask away."

"【Sanyuan Timber Company】, you chose this name, didn't you?" Evelyn asked softly, "What does it mean?"

"Huh?" Zhang Renfeng was somewhat surprised. "You want to ask about that?"

“Hmm. I don’t know why, but I’m particularly interested in this.” Evelyn nodded. “It’s like… I don’t know how to explain it to you, but the first time I heard this name, I felt strange, as if the two words came alive and kept jumping in front of me.”

"No matter the reason, I want to get to the bottom of this."

“Heh…” Zhang Renfeng chuckled, walked back from the doorway, sat back in his chair, leaned against the backrest, and looked at the blazing fire. “No one ever asked me. Igor told me to decide for myself, so I chose this name.”

“Evelyn, your brother Theonado Dietersdorf might actually be able to see the future. Has he made any predictions about you?”

"Huh?" Evelyn sat up in bed. "Why, why are you suddenly mentioning my brother..."

“My brother did make some money with this gimmick, but wasn’t that hysteria?” Evelyn recalled her brother’s appearance, but found that his face was no longer so clear in her memory. All that remained was a neat, sharp black suit and those solemn antlers. “Even in the hysteria, my brother never mentioned me.”

"If I had to say, he told my father—'The bloodline of Dietersdorf will not be severed; it will be passed down to future generations in an even stronger form…'"

She touched her lower abdomen, her tone complicated, "If this prophecy comes true, it means I'll at least have one child."

“Perhaps you will have it when you are a little older.” Zhang Renfeng smiled and spread his hands, sighing, “My master… left me a prophecy.”

He said I am... happy when I see red, sad when I see white, and die when I see green.

"What do you mean?" Evelyn asked, puzzled.

"Ha, I don't know either. That's how prophecies are. They give you a glimmer of hope, but don't let you fully understand it, just keeping you hanging on like that." His gaze shifted back and forth between the burning firewood, the blazing fire, and the rising flames, as he murmured, "I ask myself, can I lift a cauldron weighing a thousand pounds?"

"But can I lift up my destiny?"

Chapter 595: The Drunken Girl

"What's wrong with everyone tonight? Why isn't anyone sleeping? Are they all having a bad night's sleep?"

As Zhang Renfeng stepped out of his room, hoping to find a quiet place to spend the night, he saw a figure pacing back and forth in the hall.

He even crouched on the stairs and observed for a while. Compared to Evelyn, at least this girl didn't come out completely naked. In other words, after the meeting, she probably didn't sleep at all, or perhaps she dressed up again and wandered around the hall.

Regardless of the reason, what's been building up in her heart is definitely not a spur-of-the-moment decision.

"?!" Xiaomei was startled by the sudden voice. After recognizing the source of the voice, she subconsciously shrank her shoulders, as if she had been caught doing something bad at home. "Mr. Hongzhong, you... it's so late, you're still not resting?"

"I'd like to think that Evelyn, she..."

Halfway through his speech, a subtle aroma wafted into his nostrils, captivating his senses.

"Boom!"

Zhang Renfeng frowned, then vaulted over the railing and jumped straight down from the second floor, landing in front of Xiaomei. He quickly leaned in, bringing his nose close to the girl's face, and sniffed her intently. Xiaomei tried to back away, but he grabbed her shoulder. Although he didn't use much force, it was enough to immobilize her. She instinctively hid what she was holding behind her back.

"you've been drinking?"

After confirming what the smell was, Zhang Renfeng released the girl's shoulder and looked at her seriously. "What's in your hand? Show it to me."

Xiaomei bit her lip and stubbornly turned her gaze away. "It's...it's nothing, right? Mr. Mike, Mr. Callaway, Mr. Ego...all the men in the gang drink, and you drink too. What's wrong with that?"

It is difficult for ordinary people to resist the environment. They will naturally be influenced by the environment they live in.

Compared to ordinary gangs, the atmosphere of the Red Center Gang was almost unbelievably good, but it certainly wasn't like an ordinary family either. Alana was fine; she was born in Scarface Village and was already used to it. But Xiaomei, having grown up there, had picked up many things she didn't know.

“I should have told you before that you can only drink some low-alcohol sweet wine, and not too much. Alcohol is addictive.” Zhang Renfeng held out his hand to her, saying in an unyielding tone, “Let me see.”