North American Detective: I am Proficient in All Kinds of Gun Quick Draws-Chapter 645 - 358 Follow-up 1, Family and Friends_1
「Three months later.」
On a large cruise ship, Dean held Niel, who was snoring softly in his embrace, enjoying the caress of the gentle sea breeze. Since he had received the honor of being named the North American Great Detective, Dean had put everything aside. After establishing the pharmaceutical company's framework, Dean and Niel received the blessings of relatives and friends. They chose to marry and embarked on a journey around the world. More than two months had now passed. In two more days, they planned to return.
One reason was the pharmaceutical company; many collaborative projects required Niel's signature. This was to capture the global market as quickly as possible and to find a cure for Little Mike sooner. After the medication was developed, Brian invited global agents and the largest pharmaceutical companies. They were to directly enter agency partnerships and initiate technological exchanges and communications. With the most advanced research equipment and more cutting-edge knowledge, Little Mike had already made some significant discoveries. At the very least, he could temporarily stabilize his gradually deteriorating body.
Another reason was that Niel was pregnant. Indeed, after Niel became pregnant, Dean's powerful spiritual perception immediately sensed the blood connection. Although his child was probably still in the fertilized egg stage, Dean dared not take it lightly. In fact, he felt more nervous now than when he had dozens of guns pointed at him.
At present, he had a family. He had a wife. He had a reputation. As for money, it would likely be just a number in the future. Each of these things warmed his soul like the morning sun, slowly dispelling the coldness and darkness within him. Sometimes Dean would wake from a dream wondering if he was still dreaming. A concept known as responsibility also began to slowly change the once self-centered Dean, distancing him from the man he used to be.
A year later, Dean's daughter was born. Dean gave her two names: Audrey Lee and Li Tuantuan. This was because the little one, at birth, not only lacked the common wrinkled appearance of newborns but was also pink, chubby, and cute, resembling a little meatball. She cried loudly too—clearly inheriting Dean's remarkable physique. Unfortunately, perhaps due to Dean's overly strong constitution, the survival rate of his and Niel's fertilized eggs was far lower than that of normal people. In the following years, Dean's desire to expand his family did not materialize. However, his family and companions all found new paths in life.
His younger brother, Thompson, graduated from university and founded a technology company. Following Dean's advice, he focused on smartphones, artificial intelligence, and similar fields, achieving notable success. He was currently working on a social networking site, preparing to build an ecosystem with funding provided by his elder brother, Dean.
His younger sister, Sinclair, had also grown into a beautiful young woman. She had a strong desire to perform. So, Brian contacted the Italian faction in Hollywood. He ensured Sinclair had steady resources from her debut. Within a few years, she became a rising film star recognized globally. There were also some scoundrels who thought about leveraging the casting couch. The person would hint at it in the morning, and by afternoon, their body would be in a cement mixer, sleeping with the fishes.
What troubled Dean the most was his eldest brother, Beck. The guy lived too freely, rejected Dean's help, and continued to wander. However, according to their uncle, Beck might have found true love in England—with a mother and daughter. Dean didn't want to even mention that messy relationship. It was simply a disgrace to the family honor.
As for his mother, Sheila, she was also getting older. Once her children—Dean and his siblings—were independent, each with their own careers and families, she invited some close friends. Using the gold card Dean gave her, she traveled around the world. She would occasionally return to dote on her granddaughter, living quite a carefree life.
Dean didn't have many friends. Ross, leveraging the pharmaceutical company, finally gained standing in his family and married his girlfriend. Life was going well for him. And the guy was incredibly lucky: two children in three years, a boy and a girl. This made Dean quite envious. So when Ross wanted to arrange a marriage between his son and Dean's daughter, Dean feigned happiness. Secretly, however, he instructed his own daughter—whose intelligence and physique far exceeded her peers—to make Ross's son wail and nearly traumatize the little boy.
Little Mike's situation, however, was somewhat dire. In fact, in recent years, apart from network technology, other fields had begun to move past the explosive growth phase of the technology boom. Although Little Mike possessed a genius-level IQ, he couldn't create something from nothing. As he grew older, he became completely immobile, relying on a very advanced neural connector to communicate with the outside world. This device was actually the precursor to a brain-computer interface. Without a major breakthrough in biotechnology, Little Mike placed his last hope on the recently emerging fields of artificial intelligence and mechanical bodies. With Dean's participation, he achieved many key research breakthroughs.
Dean sometimes wondered. If Little Mike could have a normal body, perhaps he would lead the world in a cyberpunk direction. Perhaps this was just a case of gaining something and losing something else. As for Dean himself? He'd rather not think about it. He had long discovered that while he could easily learn a new field of knowledge, he couldn't emulate Little Mike. Little Mike had a talent for using existing knowledge to deduce new technologies and directions. The two were simply not on the same level.
As for his colleagues, under Dean's influence, everyone was doing quite well.
Lawrence, the rugged, steely tough guy from Texas, finally married his colleague Phoebe, and they had a son. He became much more stable and, last year, was promoted to captain in the detective bureau, a leadership position of sorts. Having a son was Lawrence's proudest achievement. After that, he would often send Dean pictures of his son. That was the only area where he could one-up Dean.
Damn it! Dean thought. I can't exactly give birth myself, can I? There's no competing with that. Besides, his daughter was adorable—pretty, intelligent, and with an incredibly strong constitution. He figured she could probably walk Lawrence's son like a dog in the future.
Harry, the single dad, had finally found true love again. His new partner didn't mind him having a daughter; in fact, she quite admired Harry's family-oriented character. Such acceptance was truly rare in the lower-income African American community. But Harry could no longer be considered part of society's lower rungs. He resigned and opened his own detective agency, leveraging Dean's and Lawrence's connections. He made quite a name for himself in Los Angeles, achieving a successful career.
Then there were the remaining few, like Robert. Dean didn't let them down either. Those who were competent were mostly promoted. As for those who weren't capable or lacked ambition, Dean had simply placed them in his own company, where they could live comfortably without much effort. His former secretary, Daisy, was one such example. She became Niel's personal assistant. Her monthly salary was tens of thousands of US dollars, pretty much the ceiling for an average person.
The only thing that rendered Dean speechless was Daisy. That woman ultimately cheated on her partner. It happened not long after Dean himself got married; Daisy then found a gentle-natured woman and married her. For a while after that, Niel looked at Dean differently. She suspected Daisy had only come out of the closet because Dean had provoked it somehow, and that he had callously loved and then abandoned Daisy. Dean, unjustly accused, was furious but didn't dare provoke Niel, who held a high status in the family now that she was a mother. Yes, since the birth of his daughter, Dean had transformed from a reformed playboy into a devoted family man, even showing signs of being henpecked. Perhaps this is the destiny of most men. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞
Apart from these colleagues, there were other interesting developments.
There was Eve, the highly calculating and ambitious former female captain who had sent Dean's predecessor undercover, an event that led to Dean's own transmigration. She and Dean had engaged in some adult transactions in the past, but that was over. Eve was a smart woman. She knew that once Dean became the famed detective of North America, no matter what he did, he was destined to be someone she could only look up to from afar. So, she cleverly used their past connection to gain some assistance. Now, she was running for Mayor of Los Angeles. She had greater ambitions.
Another old acquaintance of Dean's, his former boss Monet, was less fortunate. He had been aligned with Saul, the former mayor of Los Angeles. Saul, after publicly copulating with a sow on global television, went mad. Saul's family, too, was attacked by opportunistic jackals of all sizes—tearing at their flesh and drinking their blood—and never recovered. Monet, a minor figure without his patron, naturally had to make way for newcomers. But he took it well, opting for a leisurely sinecure for his retirement. He spent his days fishing and hunting, having entered retirement early.
Then there was Old Hunter. Old Hunter, ultimately, did not make it to retirement. On the night of the Los Angeles riots, he attempted to protect his family. This man, who had lived a cowardly life for years, exchanged gunfire with home invaders and fell just before his retirement. The uncertainty of life is the normal state of affairs for most people.
「Ten years after the Los Angeles riots,」
Brian looked at Little Mike on the hospital bed, clinging to life, a flash of sorrow in his eyes. Now an adult, but barely five feet tall, Little Mike was reduced to skin and bones. Even with the support of the world's most advanced medical care, this quiet comrade who had always helped him had, at most, less than a month to live.
If it really comes to this, I can only try that method, Dean sighed internally. Surrounded by the warmth of family and friends, he was no longer the selfish person he once was. If there was truly no other way, he would have to attempt a blood transfusion for Little Mike using the special culture fluid cultivated from his own body.
「Back at home,」
Dean, feeling down, was about to head to the backyard shooting range to let off some steam. However, the bodyguard who watched over the mansion handed him a letter. "Mr. Dean, this letter was received today," the bodyguard said. "The person who delivered it claims to know the whereabouts of your mentor, Anthony. We've scanned the letter's contents and can confirm it's safe."
"Mentor Anthony!"
Dean was startled. He hadn't expected to hear news about him after all this time, especially since he had been diligently monitoring Anthony's family and developments in Britain.
Who could have sent this letter?
