The moment Qin Kun caught sight of the newcomer, his face lit up with obsequious flattery as he hurried forward like a drowning man grasping at a straw. "Sir, you're here!"
The man was none other than Qiao Yu, the Third Young Master of the Qiao Family, and the dissolute scion the Qin Family had long wanted Qin Ruyan to marry.
Ignoring Qin Kun entirely, Qiao Yu sauntered into the grand hall, his gaze sweeping unceremoniously over Qin Ruyan’s exquisite face and graceful figure.
A flash of greed crossed his eyes before he finally shifted his attention to Lin Feng, his look filled with condescending scrutiny.
"You're the one called Lin Feng?" Qiao Yu looked Lin Feng up and down, curling his lip. "You don't look like much, but you certainly talk big."
He walked right up to Lin Feng and said in a tone of charity, "Three hundred million. I can give it to you. But there's a condition."
He extended a single finger, practically poking it against the bridge of Lin Feng's nose. "Take the money, right now, immediately, and vanish from Haicheng. Never show your face in front of Ruyan again. Can you do that?"
All eyes focused on Lin Feng once more.
Qin Ruyan’s heart leaped into her throat. She bit down hard on her lower lip, torn between a desperate hope that Lin Feng would accept—finally freeing her from this absurd situation—and a nameless sense of resentment.
Qin Kuang narrowed his eyes, eager to see how this arrogant young man would choose.
Amidst the looks of anticipation, contempt, and appraisal from everyone present, Lin Feng’s reaction once again caught everyone completely off guard.
"Deal," he said, uttering the single word cleanly and without a moment's hesitation. "When does the money hit the account?"
That matter-of-fact attitude, so eager to collect the cash, caused the air in the entire hall to stall once more.
Qiao Yu froze.
Qin Kun froze.
Even Qin Ruyan froze.
They had imagined that Lin Feng might try to bargain, or put on airs of false pride, or perhaps even lose his mind from the sheer weight of such a massive sum. Not one of them had ever expected him to agree with such crisp, eager impatience!
After a brief, stunned silence, Qiao Yu suddenly burst into a harsh, raucous laugh, rocking back and forth until tears nearly welled in his eyes.
"Hahahaha! What an idiot! A born fool!"
He pointed straight at Lin Feng, no longer bothering to conceal the mockery and disdain on his face. "You actually believed it? A bumpkin from the sticks like you deserves three hundred million? You probably haven't even laid eyes on three million in your entire life!"
His expression twisted instantly into something ferocious, his voice turning icy. "I'll give you three seconds to crawl out of here like a dog! Otherwise, I don't mind turning you from someone who just woke up from a coma into a genuine corpse!"
"That's right!" Qin Kun recovered his wits and immediately chimed in, riding on Qiao Yu's coattails to roar abuse. "Did you hear that, loser? Young Master Qiao told you to get lost! Don't soil the Qin Family's floors!"
Qin Kuang let out a cold snort, his aged face etched with disgust as he barked an order at the bodyguards beside him. "What are you standing around for? Throw this good-for-nothing trash out of my sight!"
"Yes!" Four burly Qin Family bodyguards instantly flashed fierce expressions, cracking their knuckles as they closed in on Lin Feng.
"No!" Qin Ruyan’s face drained of color as she instinctively tried to rush forward and stop them. "Grandfather, you can't do this!"
Before she could take a single step, however, Qin Kuang's stern voice cut her off. "Pull her back! Make her take a good, hard look at the kind of garbage she brought home!"
Two maidservants immediately stepped forward, grabbing Qin Ruyan by either arm and holding her fast, rendering all her struggling utterly useless.
Seeing that the four bodyguards had already surrounded Lin Feng, their massive, iron-like fists whistling through the air as they prepared to smash into him—
At that very critical moment, Lin Feng moved.
His figure seemed to leave a residual afterimage right where he stood, moving with a speed that dazzled the eye!
*Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!* Four dull impacts rang out almost simultaneously!
Immediately following were four crisp, loud cracks of shattering bone and piercing screams of agony!
Those four aggressive bodyguards were thrown backward as if they had collided head-on with a speeding truck. They flew off even faster than they had charged in, crashing heavily to the ground where they clutched their contorted, deformed arms and legs, wailing and rolling around in pure torment as they instantly lost all ability to fight.
The entire process was like a rotting tree snapping in a gale—over in barely a second!
The hall plunged once more into a dead, suffocating silence.
Everyone stood as if paralyzed by an immobilization spell, the arrogant grins and looks of contempt frozen permanently on their faces.
Qin Kun’s mouth hung wide open, his eyeballs nearly popping from their sockets.
The savage smirk on Qiao Yu’s face froze, replaced instantly by an imperceptible trace of panic.
Qin Kuang’s hand gripped the armrest of his grand master's chair so tightly that the veins on the back of his hand bulged.
Qin Ruyan, still held by the maids, stopped struggling, her beautiful eyes filled with unbelievable shock.
Amidst the horrified gazes of the crowd, Lin Feng acted as though he had just performed some trivial, negligible chore.
He brushed some non-existent dust off his clothes, then stepped forward, strolling as leisurely as a man taking a walk in a garden toward Qin Kun, whose legs had already turned to jelly.
"What do you want?" Qin Kun’s voice trembled as he put on a brave front and barked, "Let me tell you, don't try anything funny! This is the Qin Family!"
"Just now, who was it that said they were going to break my legs?" Lin Feng stopped right in front of him, a playful smile playing on his lips—a smile that, to Qin Kun, looked far more terrifying than any devil's.
Before the echo of his voice had even faded, Lin Feng raised his foot with lightning speed!
*Crack!*
An agonizing sound of bone snapping echoed through the hall!
"Aah—!"
Qin Kun let out a shriek like a slaughtered pig, clutching his left lower leg as he collapsed straight to the floor. That leg was twisted at a gruesome angle, the stark white shards of bone even tearing through his trousers and protruding into the open air.
The excruciating pain drained the color from his face in an instant, sweat pouring off him as he convulsed wildly on the ground.
That kick had been ruthless, decisive, and entirely devoid of mercy!
The temperature in the entire hall seemed to drop several degrees.
Without sparing Qin Kun another glance, Lin Feng turned around and cast his gaze upon the petrified Qiao Yu.
Qiao Yu felt a chill shoot straight from the soles of his feet to his crown. He instinctively took a step back, only to find that his legs felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead.
The next second, a blur crossed his vision.
The man he had viewed as a mere ant had appeared right before him like a ghost!
A cold, immensely strong hand clamped like iron tongs around his throat with absolute precision!
A suffocating sensation struck him instantly. Qiao Yu’s feet left the floor entirely as Lin Feng lifted him high into the air with a single hand clamped around his neck!
Qiao Yu’s face turned a purplish-liver color. His hands beat frantically against Lin Feng’s arm, and his legs kicked weakly in empty air, completely incapable of shaking that hand by even a fraction of a millimeter.
He felt as though his neck could be snapped at any second!
Lin Feng brought him close, looking into his bulging eyes, which were wide with terror and oxygen deprivation. A cold curve touched the corner of Lin Feng’s mouth as he spoke right into his ear, his tone as gentle as a lover's whisper:
"Third Young Master of the Qiao Family, right?"
"Just now... what was it you said you were going to turn me into?"