As Never Was

Chapter 6

The thing that Charles would like to know the most in the world, was how Shao Long managed to maintain a young look even when he was his 30s. Do not get him wrong. It wasn't that he himself looked old. Dare he say he was actually quite popular with the ladies at that age still, but not even he could maintain the same youthful look the same way Shao Long did. Must be that damn sparrow's nest though.

The second thing he'd like to know most was who was responsible for several strange occurrences throughout his life.

One of them was how Shao Long was murdered.

Second was how Shao Long's father was.

Of course, some of the things weren't completely related to Shao Long, partially because not everyday of his life was filled with thinking about the Chinese, because he was the President of the USA, but point was among all those cases he'd very much like to know about, one particular detail that caught his attention was how they were all most likely done by the same person, or at least a group of people.

It became obscure at some point, whether the target of such occurrences was him or Shao Long, since in most cases it definitely put both of them in a great disadvantage. Like Xi Yuze's death. To be honest, naturally the person who suffered most during the tragedy was Shao Long, there was little doubt in that part, but for Charles, that was when everything went to shit. Even for him. Especially for him.

He'd had reasons to believe that this invisible enemy of his was here in the Academy.

But for the longest time, the first strange occurrence didn't happen until Charles was president, which was at least half a dozen years from now. The best thing he could do as he was, was to observe.

Well, observe and have fun that is.

"I want to buy this property." Shao Long stated, firmer than stone, when he once again, deliberately this time, landed on the East restroom.

It was extremely hard for Charles to hold back a laugh, but he managed. Somehow.

The game had officially started, and true to his name, Shao Long owned more than half of the properties on the board in just another three rounds. While it sounded absurb, considering they all barely had their beginner's money, beginner's properties and most of them didn't have any proper strategy, but if there's a person among them that could do it, it would be Shao Long and Shao Long alone.

Plus, another thing that the Chinese did that surprised all of them was that Shao Long asked for loans from the bank.

Okay yeah, that was probably how he bought so many properties, and to everyone's eyes, that had got to be one of the dumbest things one could do in a game like monoply. Mainly because their banker set a rate of interest so high it made them grimace, down to Alex. In the first place, there were no rules about loans, and traditionally speaking, loans do not exist in Monoply. But who the hell cared about tradition when they used real money in the first place? There was nothing traditional about this piece of board anyway.