Chapter 23: Who Is Brandon Steele?

"Alright," Song Zhilan said visibly uncomfortable, "not here, it's kinda personal."

So the two followed her, all the way to the dorm room Feng Biao had spent his first night in. Upon stepping in Feng Biao saw that Liu Wei's side of the room had posters and such from media Feng Biao couldn't recognize.

"I guess I'll start from the beginning," Song Zhilan said pulling out the whiteboard once again.

"To make a long story short, Brandon's dad President Steele was informed that the children, born from a union between me and Brandon, would have an extremely high chance of being Primordial Marked."

"I'm not at liberty to discuss the terms of the marriage, but it's lucrative," said Song Zhilan clearly embarrassed.

"Do you like him?" Feng Biao asked.

"It's complicated. Brandon is really nice, sweet even, but he's complicated, and that makes our relationship complicated," Song Zhilan said now with her hands resting on her head, "to be honest one of the reasons I joined the HCF through normal routes was so that I would have more time."

"More time?" a slightly distressed Liu Wei asked.

"More time to think about what I want to do in life. Since I joined the HCF the Steele family is keeping quiet about the whole marriage until I pass boot camp. If I joined as a Primordial Marked and went through the normal channels for that my stay here would have been accelerated."

"Ok, that's interesting, but Song Zhilan I need to know how I can be sure I won't find out I'm being reassigned if we continue talking," Feng Biao said in a tone he thought could mask the rude nature of the question.

"Sorry for boring you with you know, my life story," Song Zhilan said snapping back at him.

"Sorry, my bad," Feng Biao apologized.

Seeing that he was genuine Song Zhilan continued. "I already told Brandon, no more moving people away."

"And what did he say?" Feng Biao said.

"He said he wasn't responsible for those previous transfers, and that I was free to stop any future ones."

"Do you believe him?" Feng Biao said while scratching his cheek.

"Yeah, Brandon wouldn't lie about something like that. Although I'm sure he was aware of those transfers," Song Zhilan said while nodding.

"Sounds pretty open and shut," Feng Biao said now a bit more comfortable.

"Not really," Liu Wei interjected.

"Liu Wei is right, Brandon is reasonable, but not every member of the Steele family is," Song Zhilan said before sighing and continuing. "Feng Biao has anything inconvenienced you lately? Something only somebody higher up could dictate?"

Thinking back only two incidents came to mind. The most recent, his "punishment", the fight with Song Zhilan had been brought on by his own actions. It didn't feel unfair. The only thing that seemed odd was that other thing.

"Most of my Merits were used up to purchase liquor for my Rank Up Quest. The only thing is I didn't ask for that."

"It tends to start like that, then it escalates," Song Zhilan said now frowning.

"So who is responsible?" Feng Biao said now slightly irritated he had to deal with unseen threats again.

"I'm not really sure. Do you know how many children President Steele has?" Song Zhilan said while scribbling something on her whiteboard.

"No clue," Feng Biao replied flatly.

"427 according to my PDS, that's today's count," Song Zhilan said now focused on her drawing.

"Excuse me?" Feng Biao said a bit stunned.

"Those are just the ones officially counted as being his children. A ton more are disowned because they either never develop a Mark or fail the family in some way. My guess is one of them is making people who get near me go away, harassing them beforehand so they get a hint."

"Why would they do that?" Feng Biao said confused.

"Probably attempting to curry favor with Brandon," Song Zhilan said she lifted up the whiteboard.

Depicted on it was a crude circular face of a man with a beard. Below him were 5 stick-figure faces. And below them were an assortment of stick figures. The entire thing was arranged like a pyramid with the man, who had "President Steele" written next to him, at the top.

"So here's how it goes. President Steele is old, really old, but he's a high-ranking Marked so that's fine. Anyways, he's had a ton of children over the years."

"Now some of those children are considered as potential successors if anything were to ever happen to him. They're called the 5 Scions, and that's an official designation."

"Basically President Steele has all his kids competing with each other in a system with rankings. The top 5 ranked are the 5 Scions, and yeah, Brandon is one of them. If this mystery Steele can gain the favor of Brandon moving up the rankings wouldn't be an issue."

"Can't you just ask Brandon if he knows who is behind this?"

Song Zhilan winced, then replied, "I could, but as I said Brandon is complicated. Predictable in some aspects despite that."

"I've never met the guy so I wouldn't know," Feng Biao said shrugging his shoulders.

"What I mean is that if I ask him for something he'll ask for something in return," Song Zhilan said as she put down the whiteboard.

"Have you tried?" Feng Biao asked, which earned him a dirty look from Liu Wei.

"Yes actually, multiple times. The issue is his price this time is that he wants me to enroll in the Primordial Marked program the HCF has. Which would speed up my time in boot camp tremendously."

"Not ideal," Feng Biao replied.

"No, not ideal at all. I'd rather just confront the problem this time than let it continue on. If you notice anything screwy going on tell me, I'll fix it. Hopefully whoever is behind all this gets frustrated and slips up revealing themself, or quits."

"So why haven't you done this before?" Feng Biao asked quizzically.

"Done what?" Song Zhilan replied.

"Stood up to this invisible Steele." Feng Biao said, earning another dirty stare from Liu Wei.

"My marriage was arranged before I even developed my Mark. I wasn't sure if I was going to get a bad Partial Divinity or one at all. I just wasn't in a position to stand up to the Steele family, or the HCF."

"I see, sorry for doubting you," Feng Biao said now feeling a lot more comfortable with his decision.

"Now, can we please move on and talk about other things," Song Zhilan said clearly tired from talking about the Steele family.

"Sure, but first, can I get some pudding?" Feng Biao said rubbing his stomach.

Which earned him the dirtiest look Liu Wei had ever managed in his life.