First-Class Lawyer

Chapter 129 - Yves (ii)

Joe rubbed a hand over his face. "Where should I start... Gu?"

He glanced at Gu Yan, then shook his head, saying, "Forget it. I don't remember what I've gone on about to you and what I've mentioned. I usually just blab about whatever is on my mind. You must be aware that my and the Manson family are old friends, right?"

"Naturally," Yan Suizhi nodded. "Very few in the alliance wouldn't know that. If even 30% of what the press says constitutes the truth, then... your families have been on good terms for three generations now?"

Joe said, "It's three generations if you exclude mine, maybe 3.5 if you count my rough relationship with George Manson. My great-grandfather's generation knocked it off when they got their start in the raw metals industry, riding on the boom created by the Alliance Military's equipment upgrades."

Interstellar piracy was rampant during that age, further exacerbated by some planet clusters having falling outs. The conflict and warfare never ceased for a century, consuming and heightening demand for resources. Joe's great-grandfather worked together with his younger brother to become the family on the up and up, known to all as the Yves brothers.

During the decade when conflict was at its peak, they'd not only supplied raw materials, but also used their private orbital route in times of emergency to transport weapons and equipment to De Carma's tactical battlefronts, making considerable contributions to the alliance's war efforts.

The Yves brothers were shuttling back and forth between the battlefronts, essentially passing their days with their heads in their hands, which unavoidably put their lives in danger.

"They said that my great-grandfather was a stickler for morals and justice, a very forthright person led by his emotions, whilst his younger brother was particularly shrewd and smooth, with lots of ideas. They had close shaves twice, nearly getting blown to smithereens on the Helan to De Carma route. It's like fate; the same band of vagabonds saved them both times." Joe had probably heard this many times over when growing up; every line flowed smoothly off his tongue.

Due to the devastation to some planets during that chaotic period of war, the affected people didn't have fixed homes, frequently attempting to migrate elsewhere. Among them were those who couldn't find a place to settle, yet also had an appetite for adventure. They became known as 'vagabonds' that wandered between the galaxies, scavenging for supplies from the remnants of war. Besides the fact that they were always on the move, it was actually quite a good living.

The leader of the band of vagabonds who saved the Yves brothers twice was Manson's great-grandfather.

"Speaking of which, I just remembered. The tabloids seem to call the Mansons' great-grandfather by his full name, right?" On the exercise bike, Joe's pace slowed as he carefully recalled it.

Gu wasn't someone who had a hobby of reading the gossips in tabloids. Though he would passively learn some of its contents when meeting people from its industry for work, what he knew was limited.

Similarly, Yan Suizhi also didn't have this hobby. However, due to the affair with his parents, he'd developed the habit of scanning every article, regardless of its nature.

The two of them gave it a thought. "It seems so. Does he go by another name?"

Joe nodded. "I was born too late to have met him, but my sister did when she was young. According to Ms Eunice's gossip, she used to frequently stay at our great-grandfather's for about a week each time in her childhood. By then, he was already too old to move around freely and he wasn't completely cogent in his head; he would confuse his memories a bit. She heard the old man vaguely refer to Mansons' great-grandfather as Old K of Clubs twice. Eunice and I guessed that this was the nickname he went under when still a vagabond."