For Skye, being the queen of the Inhumans was not important at all. She had no desire for power, at least not now.
If Jiaying's goal was to become the queen of the Inhumans, Skye could understand that.
If Jiaying had been open with her and told her this directly, she would even be willing to help Jiaying reach this dream with all her power.
Because for her, the word "mother" meant a lot—much more important than power or status.
But Jiaying did not do this.
For some unknown reason—maybe distrust or something else—this past week, Jiaying had clearly been holding back from her.
She was not stupid. How could she not feel it?
Like Raina said before, she actually knew about many things deep down. She just did not want to face them.
These past few days, she had been in this state of lying to herself, not wanting to wake up.
Without doubt, Skye was very smart.
As a top hacker, she might lack some social skills, but she was definitely not dumb.
She could not have missed these things.
Raina's warning just broke the false image of a loving mother-daughter relationship that she had created for herself.
Both Jiaying's holding back and her coldness after Skye got her powers clearly showed Jiaying's true nature.
She just did not want to face it. It was not that she really did not understand.
As for what Raina just mentioned about Jiaying's possible future plans for her, that was the last straw that completely broke her heart.
But Raina's prediction and her decision to switch sides gave Skye an idea—she wanted to make Jiaying regret it!
Regret her poor judgment!
Of course, she did not want to hurt Jiaying, because that was still her mother. She could not turn against family because of this.
But she wanted to teach Jiaying a lesson. Just like many children want to prove themselves to their parents, she wanted to use her actions to show that Jiaying was short-sighted!
When this thought came to her mind, her attitude changed.
Raina's harsh words did not sound so painful anymore.
Of course, for now, she could not completely trust Raina yet. So she was not planning to let Raina know about the agency's business so quickly.
Especially about Raymond.
But she probably did not know that Raina had already met Raymond, even before she did…
–
Honolulu, is Hawaii's capital and the headquarters of the North American Hongmen.
"This is too much!"
In a meeting room in a villa area in Honolulu, a Chinese old man slammed the table hard!
"When this stupid Hell's Angels wanted to come in, I said we should not back down, not back down!"
"One step back means backing down forever!"
"You said I was being too worried and making a big deal out of nothing. What about now?"
"They are already at our door!"
The Chinese old man was spitting as he spoke, getting angrier and angrier!
His name was Li Yuanlong. He was one of the oldest senior members of North American Hongmen and a real high-ranking leader with power, much higher than people like Ren who was just a local leader.
Above him was only the "Dragon Head"—the leader of North American Hongmen.
He was so angry because he got the latest news from Ren in Washington—that the Washington branch might have been secretly attacked by Hell's Angels.
When Hell's Angels first came to North America, all the major cities had already been divided up completely.
In other words, no matter where Hell's Angels wanted to set up, they had to take someone else's territory.
Some territories were taken by real fighting. Because of this, Hell's Angels made deadly enemies with many local North American gangs and could never make peace.
But some territories were gotten through talks and deals, including with North American Hongmen.
These gangs that were willing to talk and make deals basically did not want to fight with Hell's Angels.
Simply put, they were scared and did not want trouble.
When North American Hongmen made this decision back then, there was a lot of pushback from inside. This senior member Li Yuanlong was the loudest voice against it.
He was totally against talking with Hell's Angels!
If Hell's Angels wanted to take territory, then bring it on. North American Hongmen was not weak either.
But his voice was not the main one inside North American Hongmen, and he was not the boss who could make the final call.
Most of the other senior members supported keeping peace, thinking that fighting was not needed.
The final result was that the minority followed the majority. They chose to give up some territory to Hell's Angels, and Hell's Angels had to pay North American Hongmen some money back.
At first glance, nobody lost anything, but anyone could see that North American Hongmen backed down.
For a gang, territory and strength usually go hand in hand.
When Hell's Angels first came in, they did not choose to take Kingpin's territory.
Because they knew clearly that they could not mess with Kingpin.
So they could only pick on some easy targets.
North American Hongmen was one of the easy targets they picked, and it was indeed soft enough—they gave up without even fighting.
Li Yuanlong had always been upset about this. He even ended friendships with some old friends because of it.
Now there was trouble again, just like he expected!
This time, Hell's Angels did not even give them a heads up. They just secretly attacked their people. This was like stepping all over them!
It would be weird if Li Yuenlong did not get angry now.
"Li, please calm down. We are still not sure what really happened... Ren already looked into it, but this case involves people with powers. Maybe there is some misunderstanding?" another senior member said.
"Misunderstanding? Do you even believe that yourself?" Li Yuanlong said coldly. "That little fat guy Ren Yan might seem lazy and soft most of the time, but he never messes up when it really matters..."
"If he was not like that, he could not be the head of the Washington branch. You and I both know this."
"Since he dared to send this report directly to us, it proves he is very sure this thing is connected to Hell's Angels. And you tell me it's a misunderstanding?"
At the end, Li Yuanlong slammed the table hard again to show his anger.
This senior member just wanted to calm things down, but after Li Yuanlong pushed back so hard, he got upset too. He said angrily, "I was just stating a fact. Why are you yelling at me? If you are so tough, go destroy them yourself!"
"If you guys had not been so weak back then, we would not have all these problems now. What's wrong with me yelling at you? I want to hit you too!" Li Yuanlong said furiously.
"Come on then, who is afraid of who?!" That senior member rolled up his sleeves, acting like he was ready to fight.
"Okay, everyone..." The speaker was a middle-aged Chinese man sitting in the main seat. He wore pure white practice clothes and seemed scholarly and calm.
He was Chen Shengfu, the 'Dragon Head' of North American Hongmen!
Even though he was not as old as these senior members and did not have as much experience as them, when he spoke, the room immediately became quiet.
Even Li Yuanlong with his bad temper did not argue back.
"Elder Ma also has a point. We need to find out more about what really happened before we can make a conclusion," Chen Shengfu said calmly. "For big things like this that might cause conflict, it's better to be careful."
The Elder Ma he mentioned was the senior member who argued with Li Yuanlong. His name was Ma Chonghao. He did not have as much experience as Li Yuanlong, but he was also a very senior member.
"Dragon Head, we can't..."
Li Yuanlong wanted to argue, but Chen Shengfu raised his hand to stop him.
"Elder Li, don't rush to argue with me. I haven't finished talking yet." Chen Shengfu paused, then continued: "The backing down back then was indeed not well thought out. I am also responsible for this. I hope Elder Li can forgive me."
"If this incident is really confirmed to be connected to Hell's Angels, then there is nothing more to say. Hongmen will take revenge at any cost!"
When Chen Shengfu said this, many senior members' faces changed!
Because this was basically a war declaration, and the kind where they would fight to the death.
In the past thirty years, even though North American Hongmen had conflicts with other gangs, they never really fought anyone head-on.
Compromise and backing down had become this gang's way of surviving.
If they really declared war on Hell's Angels, it would bring huge losses that no one could predict.
Many senior members felt unsure about this and spoke up to advise: "Dragon Head... please think again!"
Chen Shengfu waved his hand and said coldly:
"Hongmen can compromise temporarily, but if we don't even care about our brothers' deaths, then there is no need to exist. We might as well just break up!"
"This is a bottom line issue. There is nothing to discuss!"
After saying this, Chen Shengfu looked at Li Yuanlong on his left again. "I will leave this matter to you, Elder Li. I will talk to the Worship Hall. Please find out the truth as soon as possible."
"Yes sir!"
Li Yuanlong saluted and accepted the order.
Outside Washington airport.
Ren was warmly welcoming the visitors from headquarters. "Elder Li, why did you come personally?"
"This matter is very serious. The Dragon Head has temporarily given me full authority. Of course I had to come." Li Yuanlong patted Ren's shoulder and smiled.
While talking, he introduced the people who came with him to Ren. "These are all guest advisors from the Worship Hall. They came to help investigate this matter. You must treat them well and not be rude."
"Definitely, definitely!" Ren kept nodding.
But these advisors did not seem to care much. Or rather, they did not care about Ren's attitude at all. They just said impatiently: "Skip the small talk. Just take us directly to the place where it happened."
Ren's smile froze a bit, but he quickly recovered and said with a smile: "Yes, please follow me."