Chapter 732: Madman Ye’s History

Will rubbed his eyes and peered ahead. The streets were as bustling as ever, with nothing out of the ordinary. Yet Feng Ye was still staring blankly, his eyes fixed in place, unmoving, like a wooden statue.

"Boss, what are you looking at?"

Will looked up at the sky again. It was completely clear, not even a single peculiar cloud in sight. ’Is the Boss sleepwalking in broad daylight?’

Feng Ye ignored him, staring blankly into the distance until whatever he was watching had completely vanished. Only then did he pull his gaze back. Hearing Will’s voice, he snapped, "Nothing."

With that, he strode on ahead. Will scratched the back of his head. ’Weird. If it was nothing, why stare for so long? He doesn’t even look at women that intently.’

"Boss, what does your old friend do?"

Seeing Feng Ye remain silent and the atmosphere grow heavy, Will decided to make small talk. He had only just found out his boss had friends here in Tristone—and very close old friends at that. He’d never heard the Boss mention them before.

Will had been with Feng Ye for nearly ten years now. Back then, he was just a dirt-poor punk who never knew where his next meal was coming from. With an elderly mother and younger siblings to support, and no real skills to speak of, he had become a petty thief.

But you could say he was a thief with a code of honor. He never stole from the elderly or the poor, and if he saw someone being robbed or bullied, he would even step in to help. As a result, his income was unstable, and he often struggled to put food on the table. However, it also helped him befriend a group of other poor folks and make a small name for himself.

Feng Ye had approached him directly, saying he needed an underling for odd jobs—the kind who wasn’t afraid of hardship or death. Will was broke as a joke back then and had nothing to lose, so he immediately agreed to work for the free-spending Feng Ye.

In the early days, Feng Ye wasn’t as formidable as he was now. He handled the "shipments" himself, taking a fishing boat to the "other side" in the dead of night. They’d often run into patrol boats and could even encounter sharks. In short, they were constantly risking life and limb. Later, he took in Ace, who was another penniless nobody just like Will. On top of the life-threatening smuggling runs, they also had to fight others for turf.

The boss back then wasn’t Feng Ye; it was some other guy. That fellow was vicious and cruel, a man who’d drawn blood. But Feng Ye was even more ruthless. He took the man down in under three rounds. Feng Ye only took the boss’s life, though; he spared all the other underlings and even gave them severance pay. From that day forward, the territory in the south belonged to Feng Ye.

Later on, as more and more people came to work for the Boss, he, Ace, and the Boss himself no longer had to personally go on runs. Life naturally got easier. Both Will and Ace got married and had children, but the Boss remained a bachelor.

Will was curious about Feng Ye’s past, but he never pried. He suspected the Boss hadn’t been an ordinary man. The Boss seemed much more peaceful these days; the Boss from ten years ago was the truly terrifying one. Back then, you could smell the stench of blood on him even after he’d showered. Will guessed he must have come off the battlefield. But as for where Feng Ye’s hometown was or if he had any family, Will was completely in the dark.

Will’s question sent Feng Ye spiraling down into his memories. Exploding shells, agonized groans, desperate screams, air thick with the smell of blood... It all came rushing back like a flood tide. The bustling street before him vanished, replaced by the very things he had worked so hard to forget.

The aura around Feng Ye changed in an instant. Though he was standing in a crowd, he seemed sealed off from it, as if on the other side of a glass pane, completely out of sync with the world around him. A sudden chill ran down Will’s spine. He slapped himself in regret. ’Why’d I have to open my big mouth!’