Chapter 998: A Simple Bowl of Noodles

Watching the baldie’s car disappear around a bend in the road, Luke finally let go of Elena’s earlobe. “Okay, let’s go.”

Elena was lost. “Huh?”

Luke said, “You don’t know anything about what happened tonight. Don’t tell anyone.”

Elena: “Huh?”

Luke drove the car and said, “The gunshots just now were probably fired by people who do dirty work. Do you know what that is?”

Elena thought about the movies she had watched. “Bad guys who kill people to keep them quiet?”

Luke nodded. “More or less. But they and the people who were attacked have their own rules. Unless it’s necessary, they won’t cross paths with ordinary people. It’s safest for you to ignore them.”

After a brief silence, Elena suddenly reached out and covered his hand. “Do you often face people and situations like this?”

Pondering for a moment, Luke shook his head. “Most of the time, I’m just a bystander in the police department. I usually call SWAT to deal with strong people like these.”

Elena chuckled. “You’re lying to me again.”

She wasn’t as naive as Margaret. She thought about what Luke had done when he heard the gunshots; that wasn’t something a regular detective could do.

He was calm and composed, and could even joke a little. If he hadn’t experienced something like this before, he wouldn’t be so relaxed.

She even felt that Luke had only called the New Jersey police because he was with her.

Luke didn’t want to be photographed for her own safety, so why would he take any risks when she was with him?

Thinking that, she couldn’t help but hold his hand tightly.

Sensing the change in her mood, Luke didn’t say anything. He simply smiled and squeezed her hand in response.

The Ford disappeared into the night.

…

At nine in the morning on the 24th, Luke took a shower and gave Elena, who was still asleep, a deep kiss of farewell, and got a dazed response.

Elena had slept late last night, and Luke had woken her up for “coffee” again at dawn.

She had asked for it herself.

When she returned last night, she said that she had new inspiration. Since school was quiet during the holidays, she had stayed up to paint, and had plenty of time to sleep during the break.

Covering her with the blanket, Luke left Paland Academy.

He also dropped off the Ford Explorer rental, took the subway, and then drove back to his villa in New Jersey.

When he got home, he asked, “Little Snail, did you find out who those people from last night are? Especially the two main targets.”

He had already transmitted the video footage from the drones to Little Snail last night and instructed it to run a check.

“Sir, the first villa belongs to John West. This is the ID of the first target, but some of his identity documents seem to be fake, so his identity is suspicious,” Little Snail immediately explained. “As for seven of the twelve attackers in the villa, NYPD intelligence indicates that they belong to the Russian gang, the Tarasov family.”

Luke hummed in response.

The Tarasov family was an extremely famous Russian gang that was even more ruthless than regular gangs. However, their territory didn’t include the Clinton area, and he hadn’t had any dealings with them.

“What about the second target?” he asked.

“That house belongs to Frank Moses. This is the ID of the second target. His identity documents are complete, but a portion of it also appears to have been manufactured, using far more sophisticated means. His identity is also suspicious. Of the fifteen attackers, ten have military service records, three are active, and five belong to an American security company that has long-term overseas contracts for various military operations.”

Luke sneered. “Mercenaries?”

Calling them military contractors was putting it nicely. Frankly speaking, they were mercenaries or battlefield hyenas who often did the dirty work for certain American agencies.

“The possibility is over 85%, sir,” said Little Snail.

“Give these two targets regular surveillance status. Let me know if you have any further information.” Listening up to this point, Luke wasn’t too interested.

He didn’t plan to get involved in these two matters for now. He would investigate them again in the future, and if either party could offer him experience and credit points, he didn’t mind accepting them.

He should first spend Christmas peacefully.

After washing his hands, he entered the kitchen and took out the ingredients that needed to be roasted or cured. Putting them into the kitchen appliances, he set the time, then started making breakfast for himself.

After thinking for a moment, he decided to just have a simple bowl of noodles and some ordinary twice cooked pork.

Selina had never been very interested in noodles, and would only eat spaghetti every now and then.

She also couldn’t appreciate Sichuan cuisine like green peppers and twice cooked pork, and Luke couldn’t be bothered to make it just for himself.

He was on his own today, but there would be a big dinner tonight. He finally remembered the noodles and twice cooked pork which he hadn’t had in a long time.

He searched the fridge and found a box of frozen prawns, a pair of Alaskan king crab claws, a slab of pork belly, and two chicken legs. These were the main ingredients.

Next were green peppers, mushrooms, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and vegetables.

After the pork belly was cooked, he cut it into large and thin slices. It didn’t need too much oil since he would stir-fry it in its own oil, before frying it with green peppers.

It could be said that there were countless cooking methods and ingredients in classic Sichuan cuisine, but its true essence lay in the details and the control of the fire.

The same ingredients cooked by a chef and a regular cook were completely different.

Luke’s dish was slightly better than what one could get in Sichuan.

The prawns and crab claws were then fried to a beautiful red color.

The chicken drumsticks were cooked and then shredded into thin strips.

After pouring a kilo of frozen noodles into a pot of boiling water, he chopped the tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms, and stir-fried them with oil and garlic. He then turned off the fire.

At that moment, the noodles were almost done. He scooped them out and poured them into a bowl.

He put the bright red prawns, white and tender crab meat, chicken strips, cucumber slices, and vegetables on the surface, before he poured the stir-fried tomato onion and mushroom mix over them.

It was a simple bowl of noodles and ordinary twice cooked pork.

A quick breakfast was done!

Selina, who felt nothing for noodles, wasn’t here, and neither was the bottomless pit that was the dog head. Luke could enjoy this simple breakfast.

Suddenly, as if he had thought of something, he took out a lemon and cut it open, before he squeezed the lemon juice evenly on the prawns and crab claws in his bowl.

The bowl of noodles was mostly a beautiful red, dotted with green ingredients.

The plate of twice cooked pork on the side had green peppers paired with slightly charred yellow meat.

The colors complemented each other perfectly!