Chapter 1 The American Space

Danny Elo, the security captain of "American Space," had his feet propped up on the console, leaning back in his swivel chair, fast asleep.

Just then, the door behind him was pushed open, the bang startling him awake from his sweet dream. As he turned to scold whichever clueless idiot it was, he saw the casino manager, Jean-Pierre.

As if springs had been installed in his butt, he leaped out of the chair.

"Nice moves." Manager Pierre patted the ramrod straight security captain, a smile that didn't reach his eyes on his face. Elo wasn't stupid enough to think the manager was praising him. He knew the manager wasn't happy about him sleeping on the job. Just yesterday, the manager had told everyone to be on their toes because a big shot was coming, and they couldn't afford any trouble at the casino.

"Let me see area thirteen," Pierre said, plopping down in the chair Elo had just vacated, pointing to the "wall of televisions" made up of a dozen or so monitors.

Immediately, a security guard brought up area thirteen on all the monitor screens.

There, a war was raging, and a group of people were having a grand old time beating each other up.

Pierre turned his head to look at Danny Elo, his expression unpleasant. Clearly, the manager knew there was trouble, but the security captain didn't… a dereliction of duty.

"Uh… I'll take some men to handle it right away…" Elo knew he was doomed if he stayed in the security room any longer. To redeem himself, he decided to lead the team himself.

Fights were common in casinos. This was considered a relatively easy conflict to handle, so Elo usually sent his men while he continued to sleep in the security room.

After saying that, he called over a few burly, mean-looking men in black suits and strode out the door with them.

Fueled by the anger of being caught slacking off by his boss, he was going to make those clueless bastards who dared to make trouble in "American Space" suffer!

The boss of "American Space" had connections in both the legitimate and criminal worlds. What was beating up a few people on his own turf?

After Danny Elo left with his men, Pierre turned back to the monitor screen, thinking the matter was as good as resolved. He hoped this would be settled before the young boss arrived. Otherwise, he would lose face if the young boss saw this.

Having put enough pressure on Danny Elo, he was confident the security captain knew how to handle it.

He leisurely sat in front of the monitors, waiting for the show to begin.

Soon, the menacing Danny Elo and his men appeared on the monitor screen and quickly grabbed someone.

Efficient…

Pierre was praising him in his heart when the monitor showed the face of the person being grabbed. He leaped out of the chair, his face full of shock and disbelief.

Then… he turned and ran out, not even noticing that he had knocked over the chair.

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Chen Yingxiong and Cabreala were in the thick of the fight, and Cabreala's brother was also busily beating a dog in the water. He had been pushed around by those bodyguards earlier, and now he finally had a chance to get revenge.

Just then, a group of men in black suits rushed in, and the onlookers automatically made way for them.

The leader rushed to the edge of the fray and grabbed the man who had selflessly helped Chen Yingxiong.

"You dare to make trouble here, you don't want to live anymore!"

It had to be said that Chen Yingxiong had a natural talent for fighting. While beating up the fat man and his bodyguards, he didn't forget to pay attention to others. When he saw his companion being grabbed, he quickly abandoned the bodyguard he had nearly beaten to death and pounced on the man in black—he thought they were more bodyguards coming to help.

It must be said that Danny Elo didn't become security captain by flattery alone.

Instinctively sensing danger, he released the person he was holding and quickly stepped back, dodging Chen Yingxiong's flying kick.

Chen Yingxiong was a little surprised that his kick missed—judging from the earlier skirmishes, the bodyguards were all useless. Other than being big, they weren't tough at all and were just there to look intimidating.

So Chen Yingxiong hadn't considered the possibility of missing.

Looks like he had met his match.

Cabreala also noticed the situation. Just from the opponent's sidestep, she knew he was the real deal. So she warned Chen Yingxiong, "He's good."

"I know!" Chen Yingxiong looked eager to try. Since learning a few moves from Cabreala, he hadn't had a suitable sparring partner. Wasn't this a good opportunity?

Just as he was about to pounce again, a middle-aged man of average height suddenly rushed into the crowd.

"Stop fighting!"

It was Manager Pierre.

He stopped, panting, his face flushed, and his hair disheveled. He had run all the way here… How could he not be anxious? If something happened to the young boss, if he were injured by his own men, he could forget about being a manager!

For Danny Elo and the others, Pierre's shout was very timely—although Elo didn't know it yet.

But for the fat man's group, the shout had obviously come too late—they were all lying on the ground in disarray…

The fat man who had started the fight had passed out. Chen Yingxiong had beaten him the worst.

If he didn't have so much fat to cushion the blows, he probably would have been dead.

Chen Yingxiong was unhappy that someone had come to shout and stop the fight, spoiling his fun. "Who are you? Here to collect the fat man's corpse? You'll have to wait a bit."

Before Pierre could answer, the man Chen Yingxiong had saved—actually, Chen Yingxiong might have saved the security captain and his men—straightened out his wrinkled clothes, patted his head to make sure his hair wasn't messed up, then tossed his head in a showy way. After all that, he turned to Pierre and said, "Pierre, your people arrived at the wrong time!"

Pierre looked much older than him, but he lowered his head and obediently took the scolding. "Yes, yes, they were late…"

"No, they were too early. I wasn't done fighting yet. Forget it…" The man kicked a bodyguard groaning on the ground, frowning. "Call an ambulance and drag them all out. What if the blood scares the customers?"

Pierre thought to himself, *Isn't this bloody scene all your doing…* But he still said obediently, "Yes, yes, yes!" Then he turned to the stunned security captain, Danny Elo, and said with a stern face, "What are you waiting for? Do it!"

Elo understood—he had heard that a big shot was coming, and it seemed this man was him. He quickly told his men to drag the fat man and his bodyguards out and call the hospital. After that, it was no longer his problem.

Serving this man well was the top priority now.

The man suddenly seemed to remember something and waved his hand to stop them. "Wait a minute." He asked Pierre, "Pierre, do you have fifty thousand euros?"

Pierre was taken aback and wanted to nod, but who carries fifty thousand euros in cash with them?

"No, boss…"

"Uh." The man thought for a moment. "Have the front desk give him fifty thousand, and count it as a loan from me." He pointed to the fat man who had fainted on the ground. "No matter what, we can't owe people money. We're in business, and we value our reputation the most. What's his is his, not a penny less. As for medical expenses, we won't pay for those. He asked for this beating himself."

"Yes, yes, yes, whatever the boss says…" Pierre nodded like a chicken pecking at rice. He didn't know what to feel in his heart…

※※※

Sitting in the lavishly decorated VIP room, Chen Yingxiong was quite surprised. He hadn't expected the person he had fought alongside to be the owner of this casino… He, Cabreala, and Cabreala's brother, Antonini Cabreala, were arranged to rest in this VIP room.

The boss had gone to handle things. Someone had called the police, and the police and ambulances had arrived together. Seeing the bloody scene, they naturally wanted to know what was going on. As the owner of the casino, he had to deal with it.

Christine Cabreala sat on the sofa, looking embarrassed.

She was embarrassed because she had made a fool of herself in front of Chen Yingxiong—she hadn't realized it when she was caught up in the fight, but now that she was sitting in this magnificent VIP room, she felt awkward thinking about the other side of her that Hero had seen.

What made it even more awkward was that Chen Yingxiong was looking at her with a grin, as if he had seen a good show.

"Is he really your brother?" Chen Yingxiong asked Cabreala.

"Of course! Who else would he be!" Perhaps siblings really did understand each other. Sensing his sister's embarrassment, Antonini jumped out to help her out, looking dissatisfied with Chen Yingxiong's question, not at all like the pitiful boy who had been beaten to a pulp by those strong men earlier.

Chen Yingxiong grinned at him, not angry, and turned to look at his female bodyguard. "You don't seem to have ever told me about your family, have you?"

"There's nothing to tell." Cabreala returned to her expressionless way of speaking. "Thank you for earlier…"

Antonini jumped out again. "If you're really a hero, then you must be rich, right? If you're rich, can you help us out? We're poor…"

"Shut up! Antonini!" Cabreala suddenly shouted angrily at her brother.

It was obvious that the younger brother was afraid of his older sister. After being shouted at by Cabreala, he immediately shrank back and sat down, but he still muttered, "What's wrong with that… Since he's so rich, he can just take some out and give it as charity…"

Chen Yingxiong was amused by this little rascal. To be able to make the usually calm and aloof Christine Cabreala so agitated, she must really care about her family…

This kid, who dared to ask him for money so directly, was a typical example of the children on the streets of Naples. Due to family or other reasons, they didn't receive a good education and wandered around on the streets all day, picking up bad habits like petty theft… Poor, cunning, enthusiastic, and lacking a sense of shame.

He had seen many such children in Naples over the past year.

Once, he was passing through a highway toll booth. Cabreala paid the toll, and the barrier lifted. He saw a hand reaching out from the side of the toll booth—it was a Neapolitan child sitting on the barrier between two lanes. His freckled face was pressed against the wall of the toll booth, and his outstretched hand hoped to receive the change that Cabreala had just received.

Cabreala ignored him, as if she hadn't seen it, took the change from the toll booth attendant, and drove on. Chen Yingxiong, who was seeing this scene for the first time, was quite surprised. After the car started, he kept turning his head to look back… He thought the kid's idea was both ingenious and stupid. Ingenious in that he had thought of such a way to make money, and stupid because… how much money could you get from other people's leftovers in a day?

In this closed VIP room, the more Chen Yingxiong smiled, the more embarrassed and even annoyed Christine Cabreala became.

All along, she had felt that she was a self-respecting, equal person in front of Chen Yingxiong, but tonight's events had shattered her self-righteous pride. Chen Yingxiong knew she had a disobedient brother, knew that this brother had come to gamble and lost fifty thousand euros, and even knew that she had been publicly humiliated because she couldn't pay back the money…

Christine Cabreala always kept a straight face in front of Chen Yingxiong, speaking to him in the simplest terms, because only in this way did she feel she had dignity and pride. Yes, she wasn't as rich as Chen Yingxiong, and her family was poor, but she believed that her abilities were no worse than Chen Yingxiong's in any way.

A guy who couldn't even cook or wash his own clothes earned hundreds of times more than her annual salary just because he could play soccer. Why?

Sometimes, such unwilling questions would arise in the depths of her heart.

Although her brother's words were true, asking Chen Yingxiong for money like this was no different from a beggar kneeling on the ground asking for alms.

With Cabreala's pride, how could she accept such charity?

So she loudly scolded her brother.

But Chen Yingxiong's smile only made her feel more ashamed.

She stood up abruptly. "Is there anything else? Then we'll leave first. Thank you for what happened today."

After saying that, she ignored Chen Yingxiong, grabbed her brother, and walked straight out the door.

Chen Yingxiong hadn't expected that she would suddenly change her expression and leave without a word, even though he hadn't said anything. For a moment, he didn't react. By the time Cabreala had walked out, he remembered that he should have kept them. He ran to the door, but the floor below was full of people. How could he find Christine Cabreala and her brother?

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ps, Four chapters are finished today. Where are everyone's monthly votes?