Nansheng Private Kitchen.
After receiving the phone call, the middle-aged man's expression grew increasingly grim. He looked at the person sitting across from him, forcing a polite smile. "Thank you for gracing us with your presence today, Director Jiang. We will consider the terms you mentioned, but something has come up with my brother, and I need to handle it. Please excuse me."
The stunning and exceptionally poised woman sitting opposite him said nothing, merely giving a slight nod.
In an instant, everyone cleared out. The secretary asked, "Director Jiang, what should we..."
"Let's go back."
***
Jinchuan and the others were waiting for the people the drunkard had called.
Running away was useless in a situation like this; the only way out was to face it.
When four or five men walked briskly toward them, Red Hair began to feel a twinge of fear.
Until now, he had only ever bullied kids his own age—when had he ever seen a scene like this?
"Brother, you're finally here! I almost got beaten to death!"
The drunkard hurried over to the middle-aged man, who was not wearing a suit.
The middle-aged man's face was expressionless, but he radiated pure rage.
Seeing the bruises and swelling all over the drunkard's face, the man's expression turned as dark as thunder.
Stiding past the drunkard and right up to the group, he asked in a deep voice, "Who did this?"
No one answered. The middle-aged man's gaze swept over them with a chilling sharpness. "Which of you did it?"
Even Jinchuan struggled to withstand that kind of imposing pressure, let alone Red Hair, who was already trembling with fright.
This was the aura that came from real-world experience.
Age alone could never truly make a person mature.
Still, as a rich kid who had seen his share of the world, Jinchuan took a breath and said, "Mister, there might be some misunderstanding here."
"What misunderstanding?"
At those words, the middle-aged man directed the full weight of his pressure onto Jinchuan. The look in his eyes and the sheer force of his presence made Jinchuan feel as though he were standing before his own father.
Jinchuan exhaled and said, "Your brother just pissed all over my friend's car, so we beat him up."
The middle-aged man turned back to look at the drunkard. "Is that true?"
The drunkard was aching all over, but in front of this man, he didn't dare make a peep. He could only nod and mutter, "I couldn't hold it anymore, and there wasn't a restroom around, so..."
"Go buy water and wash the car."
"Ah, but I—"
"Go."
A single, casual glance was enough to terrify the drunkard into silence. Ignoring his aching body, he scrambled off to buy water.
Seeing the drunkard actually washing his car, Red Hair assumed the man was intimidated by Jinchuan, and his arrogance instantly returned.
"Right here, right here! It's all pee! Wash it properly!"
Jinchuan thought Red Hair truly had rocks in his head, completely incapable of reading the room. Didn't the idiot realize this was only the beginning?
Once the car was washed, Red Hair happily prepared to leave, but a single remark from the middle-aged man stopped him dead in his tracks.
"All right, the car is clean. Now let's talk about the beating."
The man walked up to Red Hair and said in a low voice, "Do you want to lose a hand or a leg?"
The brief sentence startled Red Hair out of his wits.
"What?"
Red Hair froze, feeling the chilling threat of death for the very first time.
The middle-aged man repeated, "Do you want to lose a hand or a leg?"
"Lose a hand or a leg? What are you talking about?"
Panicked and shaking all over, Red Hair hurriedly tried to pull rank. "My dad is with the Hongyang Street Police Station! If you dare hit me, you won't get away with it."
The middle-aged man let out a cold chuckle. "The district public security bureau chief is a friend of mine. How about this: I'll break one of your hands to teach you a lesson, and consider it a favor to your old man for disciplining you."
The district bureau chief was his friend? He had run into a heavyweight...
Red Hair was terrified beyond measure. He never imagined that beating up a random drunkard would lead to someone with such massive connections.
His own old man had to bow and scrape just seeing the precinct captain, let alone the district chief. At that moment, he felt like crying.
Seeing the man's two bodyguards rush forward to grab him, Red Hair frantically cried out for help.
"No! Save me! Save me, Brother Chuan, save me! I don't want to lose my hand! Help me!"
Red Hair shrieked at the top of his lungs, his previous arrogance entirely gone.
Jinchuan furrowed his brow, weighing whether or not to step in, while Chu Xu softly remarked, "That's a bit much. Beating him up was enough—why go as far as breaking a hand?"
Even though he wasn't fond of Red Hair either, that punishment was simply too extreme.
Besides, Red Hair was someone Jinchuan had brought along; if the kid really went home missing a hand, it wouldn't look good.
Wu Jiamin and Shen Qing hid behind them. Shen Qing was too terrified to even speak.
Wu Jiamin was holding up slightly better, but she was still shaking with fear.
"Look..." Jinchuan said in a deep voice, "Mister, how about you skip breaking his hand? A beating is enough."
The middle-aged man shook his head.
"Your brother didn't get any broken bones, so don't break his either," Jinchuan frowned.
"Kid, you don't carry that much weight," the middle-aged man replied.
After several failed attempts to negotiate, Jinchuan lost his patience. He stepped in front of Red Hair, stared at the middle-aged man, and said coldly, "And what if I say no?"
Red Hair grabbed onto the lifeline desperately, crying and begging without stop.
The middle-aged man frowned, thinking that since this kid hadn't been scared off, he must have some backing of his own.
He immediately asked, "Fine. Who is your father?"
Jinchuan answered firmly, "Hongxiang Industrial Park."
The middle-aged man raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected the kid to actually have some background, but he had no business ties with them anyway.
Was there any need to give face?
If someone else had been beaten, he might have let it slide as a courtesy, but the one who got beaten was his own younger brother. That was a favor he could not grant.
After a moment of thought, the middle-aged man reached his conclusion, shook his head, and said, "If your father were here, I might show him some respect, but you don't cut it."
There was no way he was going to make his old man come over for a trivial matter like this—he'd get chewed out to death.
If Chu Xu were the one getting beaten up, he might let his dad come, but not Red Hair.
Jinchuan sighed, signaling that he couldn't resolve the situation. Chu Xu just shrugged, completely unbothered.
His background wasn't even as good as Jinchuan's, and besides, he wasn't the one getting beaten.
"Brother Chuan, call your uncle to save me! I don't want to lose my hand! Brother Chuan, I'm begging you, Brother Chuan!"
Red Hair had long since abandoned all pride, weeping and wailing uncontrollably. Understandable, really—faced with such a threat, how many people could actually keep their wits about them?
Jinchuan shook his head. "He's out of town on business and won't be back until next week."
Hearing this, Red Hair lost all hope and turned back to beg the middle-aged man for mercy.
Not wanting to watch the spectacle, Jinchuan and and Chu Xu turned their backs and lit up cigarettes.
Everyone else present was paralyzed with terror.
They were barely twenty years old and had seen too little of the world; naturally, they couldn't handle this.
They kept thinking: isn't this the kind of plot you only see in TV dramas? How could it actually happen in real life?
In the distance, a white Bentley drove up.
The front-seat passenger looked ahead and saw a crowd blocking the way. "Director Jiang, it looks like there's a fight up ahead."
In the back seat, the stunning woman didn't even lift her head, continuing to read through her documents. "Ignore it."
"Drive around."
Wang Doudou instructed the driver, but as she glanced outside, she thought she recognized someone. Looking closer, she realized it really was him!
She hurriedly said, "Director Jiang, that looks like Young Master Chu!"
Jiang Mu paused, rolled down the back window, and took a look. Sure enough, the young man casually smoking and chatting with the others was none other than Chu Xu.
Her expression immediately soured. He had turned down her dinner invitation just to stand around smoking.
Very well! Splendid!
Her anger flared instantly!
"Get out of the car!"
Jiang Mu shoved the door open and strode over. The moment Wang Doudou heard her voice, she knew Director Jiang was angry again, and she couldn't help a silent sigh of resignation.
The Director Jiang she knew in the past would never act like this. Could love really make someone lose their mind?
Two bodyguards stepped out from the Audi A6 trailing behind, hurriedly breaking into a trot to catch up with Jiang Mu.
Jiang Mu rarely brought bodyguards along unless she was heading out for business negotiations.