Brandon had always been all brawn and no brains. Ever since he was convinced that Cherry could transform from a boy into a girl, he had admired her very much.
Added to this, the fact that Justin had really showed up and backed her up after she said that she was Justin’s child the other time, he had never doubted anything that Cherry said ever again.
Thus, he nodded and said, “Yes, they are very close! She can get Mr. Quinn to teach us martial arts!”
He made a few fighting gestures and even let out a few hey’s and ha’s as he did so, making the little fellow look exceptionally simple and innocent. He said, “I’m going to be a hero in the pugilistic world in the future! Who knows, I may even be able to master flying! And become someone invincible that can fly through the air and burrow through the ground! Right, Mia?”
Mia was very supportive. Her big round eyes were very bright on her pointed little face. She clapped vigorously and said, “Yes!”
Brandon patted his little chest and said, “I will take care of you in the future!”
“Okie-Dokie!”
Jimmy, who was lying on the bed, “…”
After the two left, Mrs. Hoffman came to watch over him in the evening.
Mrs. Hoffman looked obviously rather flustered. Her emotions were very unstable, and she looked very haggard.
They were at their wits’ end.
The Hoffmans had already mobilized all of their resources to look for Big Sister, but they couldn’t find any clues about her at all!
This was simply too bizarre. After all, among New York’s underworld forces, the Hoffmans had always been considered one that had developed pretty well. It was impossible for a clan to keep a piece of information so securely hidden by themselves.
After all, some of their men were also part of the Quinn School of Martial Arts. Among the wealthy families, take the Smiths for example—they basically didn’t have any secrets. Even for a family as big and successful as the Hunts, there was no information that could be kept such a secret that no one could find out anything about it at all; unless they did it like how Mr. Hunt protected his son and kept information about him a secret to the extent that he didn’t allow anyone to visit.
However, it was as if Big Sister was no different from the air itself.
This was totally impossible!
This was only achievable if all the families had joined hands to protect her!
Little Jimmy’s voice pulled his mother, whose imagination was running wild, back to reality. He said, “Mommy, are you trying to get in contact with the Quinn School of Martial Arts? Cherry knows Mr. Quinn. You can ask her if she can help!”
Mrs. Hoffman, “?”
She felt as if she was hearing things. “What?”
Jimmy said, “It’s true. Brandon said so. Cherry can help them get into the Quinn School of Martial Arts, and she is on very good terms with Mr. Quinn. She calls him Grandpa Quinn!”
Mrs. Hoffman, “!!”
She subconsciously asked, “Where did you hear such nonsense from? You…”
However, it suddenly occurred to her that it was exactly because she hadn’t trusted Nora’s evaluation the other time that she ended up causing a delay in treatment of Jimmy’s condition, which had almost resulted in her son’s death.
She took back what she was about to say and frowned instead. She patted Jimmy’s hand and said, “Alright, I’ll ask them about it later.”
Seeing that she was finally listening to what he was trying to tell her, Jimmy nodded. “Okay.”
Jimmy had already more or less recovered and would be discharged in another two days. He was still going on and on about it before he fell asleep. “Cherry will be taking Brandon and the others to the Quinn School of Martial Arts during the weekend. Mommy, I wanna go too. Can I?”
“You can do anything you want as long as you recover. Go to sleep now.”
“Okay.”
Mrs. Hoffman waited until Jimmy fell asleep before she finally got up. After thinking about it, she decided to call Jordan. She said, “I think Ms. Smith may be acquainted with the Quinn School of Martial Arts.”
Jordan was surprised. “Why do you say that?”
Mrs. Hoffman relayed Jimmy’s words to him. Then, she said, “I don’t know if Cherry is just bragging or if what she says is true… Sigh, why are children nowadays so hard to deal with? It’s so hard to guess what they are thinking!”
Jordan burst into laughter. “Do you actually believe what a five-year-old says? Hahaha! Have you forgotten how Jimmy came home after school one day and said that there was a big tiger in the school and that he was afraid of being eaten, just so he could avoid going to classes when he first went to the kindergarten?”
Mrs. Hoffman, “…”
Jordan then went on and said, “There was even a kid who said that he knew the leaders of the country, but in the end, after asking his parents about it, it turned out that he knew them through the TV.”
Mrs. Hoffman, “…”
“You mustn’t just believe everything a kid says. If Ms. Smith is on close terms with the Quinn School of Martial Arts, would Paul have dared to bully her?”
Mrs. Hoffman was dumbfounded. “Are they bullying her again? Did you help her out? Ms. Smith is Jimmy’s savior, you know!”
Jordan laughed and replied, “Do you even need to ask? That Winston fellow kidnapped Ms. Smith’s fiancé to threaten her into signing a racing agreement for their club, but ended up being beaten up by Ms. Smith and Mr. Hunt. An explosion happened after that and he died. Paul even went to the Quinn School of Martial Arts because of this!”
An anxious Mrs. Hoffman asked, “What happened after that?”
“Well, it just so happened that Mr. Hunt was in the Quinn School of Martial Arts at that time. Mr. Quinn likely showed Mr. Hunt some courtesy. After all, Paul was the guilty one in the first place. Our men found out that Paul left the sect with bruises on his face, so he probably got beaten up.”
Mrs. Hoffman became excited at once. “What cathartic news! When you look at it that way, Mr. Quinn isn’t an unreasonable person, either!”
“Yes, everyone in the pugilistic world sings praises of Mr. Quinn. I reckon he isn’t aware of what’s happening among people at the lower rungs. The problem now, though, is that he already stopped taking care of things many years ago, so it’s a mammoth task for us to even talk to him. We still have to look for Big Sister, regardless.”
Mrs. Hoffman frowned. “How about I ask Ms. Smith about it? It doesn’t hurt to ask anyway.”
Jordan fell silent for a moment before he said, “Let’s wait for a while more. Didn’t Jimmy say he’s going to the Quinn School of Martial Arts this weekend? It’s not too late to ask after we confirm that Cherry can really bring the children into the sect to learn martial arts! If we ask Ms. Smith about it now, won’t it put her in a spot if she isn’t actually acquainted with the Quinn School of Martial Arts?”
“… Alright, then.”
—
The weekend soon arrived.
As Cherry had made a promise to the children, Pete had no choice but to bite the bullet and take the few children to the Quinn School of Martial Arts.
They gathered at the kindergarten entrance first. However, only four people turned up at the meeting time: Brandon, Mia, Seth, and little Jimmy who had just recovered from a serious illness.
Brandon called a classmate that had promised to come. “Why aren’t you here yet? We’re waiting for you!”
The classmate replied, “… My mom said that Cherry is lying. The Quinn School of Martial Arts isn’t that easy to enter, and they have never done any recruitment for training classes! I’m not going to go there just to be left out in the cold!”
Brandon didn’t insist. He said, “It’s just as well that you don’t come, then. This way, there’ll be one fewer person that Mr. Quinn has to teach, and he’ll be able to give me more guidance!”
He called another kid after he hung up. The kid gave him the same reply: “My dad says that Cherry is faking it. There’s no way we can get into the Quinn School of Martial Arts. I’m not gonna go anymore!”