Taoist priest goes to America

Ides' parents were members of a large military and political family in Virginia; her father served in the state legislature for fifteen years, and her mother was a district attorney.

The entire family pinned their hopes on the eldest son, Ischus. All resources, connections, educational investment, and political legacy were poured into him.

Ides received only enough money to get by, not enough to do anything.

His father once told him, "You are the backup plan. If something happens to your brother one day, you will step in. Until then, don't embarrass me."

So he lost his ambition and spent all his time playing computer games.

While Ishs was studying law at an Ivy League school, Ides was playing computer games at home. When Ishs inherited his family's political legacy and married into a real estate family on New York's Upper East Side, Ides was playing computer games in a villa in rural Virginia.

The parents devoted themselves entirely to their successful older brother and rarely even came back to visit him in the countryside.

During his adolescence, due to long-term neglect and suppression of his self by his parents, he developed masochistic tendencies and a perverse personality.

He started by torturing small animals on rural farms. His favorite thing to do was to strangle the baby animals and grind them into feed for their mothers.

Because of his adolescent turmoil, he often abused the Filipino maids and black serfs in his household, beating them severely for the smallest things.

At its worst, he would even take a hunting rifle to the forest to attack people, mainly illegal immigrants, undocumented workers, and people without status. No one would call the police even if they died.

Every day when he does these perverse things, he wears a white, ceramic-looking rabbit head mask, inspired by a horror game.

Ischus discovered his brother's affair. Instead of reporting it or stopping it, he took over the management of his brother's "business."

He helped Ides build a more secure network, taught him how to destroy evidence, and taught him how to bribe the police to avoid being exposed.

After Isis did these things, Ides became her brother's complete puppet. Every expenditure required her brother's approval, and every decision required his nod.

He lived in his brother's villa, used his brother's credit card, and even his butler, Isya, was an informant placed by his brother.

He thought he had saved up his own secret stash of money, deposited in an account known only to him, accumulating it little by little, behind his brother's back, for over a decade. That money was the only thing that truly belonged to him.

Ang Lee opened his eyes and withdrew his hand from Isya's forehead. He straightened up and looked at Ides, who was curled up on the ground.

"Your brother won't let you spend money," Ang Lee said. "You have to ask him for every penny you spend, and he has to approve it before you can spend it."

Ides' face twitched.

"You've been saving up your secret stash of money for over a decade, hidden in an account you thought only you knew about." Li An looked at him with a smile.

Ides' eyes bulged even more, and his lips began to tremble again.

Then, Ides witnessed a scene that enraged him and that he would never forget.

With his face completely gone and bleeding profusely, Isya turned and walked into the room, took out a tablet computer, turned it on, and began entering the password.

"That's... my tablet!" Edelston sensed something was wrong and struggled on the floor like a pupa.

Ides, the brother who ran away, is the real rabbit-faced one. Ides is just a puppet pushed to the forefront, a substitute used to draw fire and take bullets for her brother.

Ischius gave him money, a house, women, everything, and he gave it all willingly. Not because he was loyal, but because he was selfish.

He doesn't care who's in power behind the scenes, as long as he has money to spend and can play the games he wants in this villa, he doesn't care if he's a puppet or not.

Ang Lee opened his eyes and went through Isya's memories in his mind. Ides's bank account, investment account, and game platform password were all stored in Isya's mind.

Isya is the housekeeper of this villa and the manager of all of Ides's finances. He knows the passwords for every account, the login credentials for every game, and how much money Ides keeps in which virtual wallet.

When Ang Lee opened Ides' bank account, a string of numbers appeared on the screen—the wealth accumulated over more than a decade. Ang Lee didn't count how many zeros there were; he didn't care. He divided the money in the account into several parts and entered them in one by one.

Since we can't torture him physically, let's try to torment him mentally.

"NAACP Legal Defense Fund," Li An said as he typed, "is used to fight racial discrimination cases."

Lying on the ground, Ides heard the word and let out a sob.

“The Southern Poverty Law Center,” Ang Lee continued, “monitors white supremacist organizations like yours.”

Ides felt as if countless invisible needles were piercing her heart, and she rolled on the ground in pain, clutching her chest.

"UnDocuBlackNetwork," Ang Lee uttered the next name, "a Black immigrant support organization."

"No! You can't take my money and donate it to black people! You can't donate it to black people! You can't donate it to those damn black people!!!!" Ides shouted excitedly, ignoring his rotting left foot, and crawled toward Ang Lee.

"Stop Discrimination Against Asian Americans" is a donation to a public interest lawsuit against Chinese and Asian Americans.

Ides had barely climbed a few steps when Doyle pinned him down, rendering him unable to move.

The Latin American Citizens' Union is a dedicated Latino civil rights organization.

The "Immigration Legal Aid Center" represents undocumented immigrants in court.

Ides burst into tears, her face streaked with snot and tears.

The Detroit Justice Center specializes in handling cases of police brutality.

Each time Ang Lee read out a name, the page on the tablet screen would change, each time displaying "Donation successful. Thank you for your generosity."

His voice echoed in the basement, like reading a supermarket shopping list.

Ides lay on the ground, feeling a pure, soul-deep pain.

Every penny he had painstakingly saved over the past decade, every donation he had begged from his brother, had flowed through his fingers and into the hands of those he loathed most.

Ang Lee paused for a moment, took two more puffs of his Marlboro, put the cigarette in his mouth, and continued operating the tablet.

Ides's bank account was empty. Ang Lee opened a gaming platform. A familiar interface popped up on the screen—Pokémon: Vermilion/Purple. The account avatar was a doll wearing a rabbit mask, and the playtime showed over three thousand hours.

Ang Lee clicked on the "Pokémon HOME" cloud storage. Rows of boxes popped up on the screen, each containing a different Pokémon.

Shiny starter Pokémon, Shiny Legendary Pokémon, Mew, Celebi, and Jirachi—those rare individuals that require cross-generational transfer or limited-time events—are neatly arranged in the box. In one corner, six Pokémon are lined up together, the result of Ides's dozen or so hours of effort in configuring them.

Li An grinned maliciously. They had just finished talking about that, and this was just about to begin.