Wang Gang could no longer bear the immense pressure. Terrified, he opened his mouth to confess the truth, but Xu Kai suddenly cut him off.
"What can you do besides scare people?"
Smack!
Yet the moment Xu Kai spoke, a heavy slap sent him flying through the air, three bloody teeth instantly spraying outward.
"Stupid dog, interrupting over and over again. Did you really think you were someone just because I ignored you?"
Chapter 11: Tremble, Tremble to Your Heart's Content! (Part 2)
Smack!
With that single slap, the entire hall fell dead silent. Everyone's eyes widened to the point of splitting.
That was the young master of the Xu Family!
A lunatic!
This kept boy supported by Ye Qingcheng was an absolute, through-and-through lunatic!
Gu Anqi hurriedly rushed over to help Xu Kai up, then turned and roared at Luyun, "You're done for! Ye Qingcheng is done for too! Everyone in your Qingcheng Group is utterly, completely finished!"
She felt profoundly grateful that she had severed ties with Qingcheng Group in time; otherwise, she surely would have been dragged to her death by this madman Luyun.
Gu Anqi's roar sent a chill through the hearts of every employee in Qingcheng Group.
That was true!
With a single slap, Qingcheng Group had just been wiped out. As regular employees, they could hardly hope to escape the fury of the Xu Family.
At this thought, the looks they cast toward Luyun instantly filled with boundless hatred.
This damned kept boy—living off a woman was one thing, but why did he have to drag Qingcheng Group down? Why did he have to ruin them all?
"You bastard! I want you dead! I want all of you to die right here!"
A monstrous hatred surged through Xu Kai.
His teeth had been knocked out, his glasses smashed, and his dignity trampled into the dust. If he didn't destroy Luyun today, how could he ever quench this hatred?
Everyone in Qingcheng Group was trembling. Terror had completely devoured their reason.
Yet Luyun, the root cause of this disaster, merely wore a clueless expression and said, "I'll give you time to make your phone calls. Call as many people as you want—I'll be right here waiting for you to kill me."
Thud!
The staff of Qingcheng Group felt a wave of suffocation wash over them.
Someone immediately cried out in panic, "Young Master Xu, I am officially leaving Qingcheng Group right now! This matter truly has nothing to do with me!"
"Too late! Once I finish off this bastard, you'll be next!"
A dead end!
A thorough, absolute dead end!
They had no choice now but to channel all their fury toward Luyun. If glares could kill, he would already be riddled with thousands of holes.
Behind the scenes, the backstage staff hurriedly woke Ye Qingcheng and said anxiously, "President Ye, a massive disaster has happened!"
Upon hearing the staff's brief summary, the color instantly drained from Ye Qingcheng's pretty face.
Stumbling and tripping, she rushed back into the conference hall.
"Young Master Xu, I'm sorry! I am so sorry! I never expected things would turn out like this..."
"Hmph, now you know to call me Young Master Xu? Now you know how to apologize? Weren't you so arrogant before? Didn't you love putting on an attitude with me? Go on, show me that arrogance again, you bitch!"
Smack!
Xu Kai was slapped flying once more, losing several more teeth in the process.
"Watch your mouth!" Luyun said coldly.
However.
The next second.
Smack!
Another slap rang out.
Yet the one who took the blow this time was Luyun.
Luyun was stunned. He could easily have dodged it, but he chose not to, because the person who struck him was Sister Qingcheng.
"Luyun, have you lost your mind?!"
Ye Qingcheng's heart ached with bitter grief.
If she hadn't been driven to absolute desperation, how could she ever bear to hit Luyun? But the situation had simply blown up far too big this time!
Ye Qingcheng slapped him for Luyun's own good; she didn't want him escalating things any further.
Boom!
Right at that moment, the doors of the conference room were kicked open violently. A dozen burly bodyguards in black rushed in aggressively, led by a middle-aged man.
"Xu Guobin, your son has been beaten! What are you waiting for, go avenge him!"
Crying out, Xu Kai crawled toward the middle-aged man, his speech already whistling through the gaps in his teeth.
Seeing his son beaten to such a miserable state, Xu Guobin felt a surge of volcanic fury. "Who the fuck did this?! Get your ass over here right now and beg for your life!"
"I did it. I'll take sole responsibility for whatever comes of it."
Luyun was about to speak when a slender figure suddenly stepped out in front of him.
It was Ye Qingcheng.
She was preparing to bear all the blame and consequences for Luyun.
"You did it?"
Xu Guobin's pupils constricted. Naturally, he didn't believe a mere woman could reduce Xu Kai to such a state.
Seeing this, the hearts of the Qingcheng Group employees grew completely cold. Even at a time like this, President Ye was still shielding this kept boy.
At that moment, Gu Anqi stepped forward and said, "It wasn't her. It was that kept boy standing behind her."
Snort!
In an instant, Xu Guobin's gaze, brimming with infinite fury, bypassed Ye Qingcheng and locked onto Luyun behind her.
Gu Anqi sneered, "Free-loader king, you were acting pretty tough just now. Why have you turned into such a cowardly dog now, only hiding behind a woman?"
"Gu Anqi, shut your mouth!" Ye Qingcheng barked coldly.
"Heh, Ye Qingcheng, I'm no longer an employee of Qingcheng Group. You have no right to order me around."
"You..."
Before Ye Qingcheng could say more, a warm, sturdy hand gently pressed down on her slender shoulder.
"Sister, a person should be responsible for their own actions. I can handle this," Luyun said, stepping forward.
Ye Qingcheng wanted to ask how on earth he planned to handle it, but the moment she saw Luyun's back, the words stuck in her throat.
Luyun's back wasn't especially broad, but for some reason, at that moment it gave Ye Qingcheng an inexplicable sense of security.
Especially his calm and collected tone—it sounded as though he truly had the situation completely under control.
And yet, the Xu Family was so immensely powerful...
By now, Luyun had already walked up to Xu Guobin and said indifferently, "I beat that stupid dog of your Xu Family. Is there a problem?"
Is there a problem?
As soon as those words left his mouth, not just Xu Guobin, but everyone in the massive conference hall froze in disbelief.
You beat someone else's son to a pulp, and you still have the audacity to stand there and ask if there's a problem?
Even more absurdly, Luyun was calling the man's son a stupid dog right to Xu Guobin's face!
How on earth did he dare?!
A thick, suffocating smell of gunpowder instantly blanketed the sprawling conference hall.
Gu Anqi, Jiang Tao, Guo Hui, and the others watched with cold detachment, quietly waiting for Luyun to court his own death.
Thank goodness they had aligned themselves with Young Master Xu early on. If they had stayed at Qingcheng Group, they would surely have been dragged down to their deaths by this kept boy.
"You! Little! Bastard! You've got guts! Tear him to pieces!"
Finally, following Xu Guobin's teeth-gritting roar, the conflict erupted completely. The dozen black-clad bodyguards behind him swarmed forward all at once.
"Ah!!"
Screams rang out across the venue as media reporters scrambled frantically into corners, terrified of getting caught in the crossfire.
Yet, in stark contrast to their panic, Luyun remained completely light and breezy, casually spitting out a single command:
"Get lost!"
Instantly, all the bodyguards shuddered violently. Their minds went blank for a fraction of a second, and by the time they snapped back to reality, they had already been effortlessly knocked flat onto the floor.
"You... a bunch of trash! Fight back, will you?!"
Xu Guobin roared in fury. In his eyes, these bodyguards looked as though they were putting on a coordinated act with Luyun, refusing to fight back at all.
Suddenly, a flicker of shock crept into Xu Guobin's eyes, for in that brief span of time, Luyun had already walked right up to him.
Chapter 12: Tremble, Tremble to Your Heart's Content! (Part 3)
"Xu Guobin, in your eyes, I, Luyun, might look like someone you can easily crush. But how could you possibly know that in my eyes, your Xu Family is no different from a nest of ants?"
Luyun stopped right in front of Xu Guobin and spoke softly.
Thud!
Xu Guobin instinctively recoiled a step, his lower back slamming hard against the corner of a desk, sending a jolt of sharp pain through his frame.
What an absolute humiliation!
As the head of the dignified Xu Family, he had actually been frightened into retreating by a mere young man's words.
"I... I admit you can fight! But no matter how well you can fight, you're still just one person. Don't tell me you think you can take on my entire Xu Family?!"
Pulling himself together, Xu Guobin let out a furious, defensive roar.
The stunned onlookers around them suddenly snapped out of their daze as well.
Witnessing Luyun's incredible martial prowess just moments ago had completely scrambled their brains.
Taking on a dozen bodyguards single-handedly and walking away without a single scratch—was this even real life and not an action movie?
Shocked as they were, however, they entirely agreed with Xu Guobin's sentiment.
No matter how strong Luyun was, he was still just one man. Even if he could handle a dozen bodyguards, could he handle a hundred?
Calling the Xu Family a nest of ants? Utterly, boundary-pushing arrogance!
Clack, clack!
Right at that moment, the crisp sound of leather shoes echoed across the floor. A middle-aged man tailored in a sharp business suit pushed open the door and strode in.
The moment they laid eyes on the suit-clad man, everyone in the room shivered involuntarily.
"Sun Tianlei, what are you doing here..."
Xu Guobin's pupils constricted as well.
Suddenly, realization seemed to dawn on him, and he barked angrily, "Ah, I was wondering where this brat got the nerve to act so arrogant! So it was your Sun Family backing him all along!"
The Sun Family and the Xu Family were both top-tier tycoons in Jiangcheng, their overall influence roughly on par with one another.
And this Sun Tianlei was none other than the current head of the Sun Family.
"So that's how it is. On the surface, this looked like a personal conflict between Luyun and the Xu Family, but it's actually a showdown between two of Jiangcheng's top heavyweight clans. Brilliant!"
The media reporters shared Xu Guobin's train of thought, all assuming Sun Tianlei was Luyun's ultimate backer.
Yet Sun Tianlei merely swept a puzzled glance across the room and asked, "What are you all talking about?"
Backing whom?
Sun Tianlei had no idea what they meant; he had come today on a specific mission.
Ignoring the crowd entirely, Sun Tianlei strode up to Ye Qingcheng, raised his voice, and announced, "Sun Tianlei of the Sun Family, acting on the orders of the Prince of Nanjiang, presents Qingcheng Group with an order contract worth one billion!"
Boom!
In a split second, the pupils of everyone present dilated in a massive psychological earthquake.
The Prince of Nanjiang!
A one-billion-dollar contract!
This was sheer insanity!
And before anyone could recover from that shock, yet another elderly man dressed in traditional Tang attire stepped into the conference hall.
"Tang Mingyuan of the Tang Family, acting on the orders of the Prince of Nanjiang, presents Qingcheng Group with an order contract worth one billion!"
Another heavyweight Jiangcheng clan!
The Prince of Nanjiang again!
Another one-billion-dollar contract!
What the hell was going on here?!
Yet this was far from over. Following Tang Mingyuan, several more figures walked in—every single one of them a towering, thunderous name in Jiangcheng.
"Lin Le'an of the Lin Family, acting on the orders of the Prince of Nanjiang, presents Qingcheng Group with an order contract worth one billion!"
"Wu Chenghua of the Wu family, acting on the orders of the Prince of Nanjiang, presents Qingcheng Group with an order contract worth one billion!"
"Yao Weiping of the Yao Family, acting on the orders of the Prince of Nanjiang, presents Qingcheng Group with an order contract worth one billion!"
"..."
Time and time again, the nerves of everyone present grew completely numb, right up until the final person stepped through the doors.
"Lei Ao, the Prince of Nanjiang, presents Qingcheng Group with an order contract worth five billion!"
Five billion!
And delivered by...
The Prince of Nanjiang in person!
Even though their nerves had already been numbed by shock, the crowd still couldn't help but widen their eyes all over again.
They were losing their minds—every single one of them.
Nearly half of Jiangcheng's ruling aristocratic families had gathered right here inside this office building's conference hall. If word of this leaked out, it would cause a seismic tremor across the entire city!
They desperately wanted to know what on earth was happening!
Ye Qingcheng was stunned.
Every single person in Qingcheng Group was stunned.
These illustrious family clans were entities they could only look up to in the past. Yet now, they were lining up one after another to deliver massive order contracts right to their doorstep.
One billion!
Five billion!
By securing these orders, Qingcheng Group would instantly leap from a struggling company that could barely dream of going public straight into Jiangcheng's absolute elite tier.
Qingcheng Group was about to soar straight into the clouds!
Ye Qingcheng's chest heaved violently as she murmured, "The... Prince of Nanjiang? What on earth is going on here?"
She voiced the exact question burning in the minds of everyone in the room.
However, Lei Ao, the Prince of Nanjiang, simply smiled and said, "President Ye needn't ask any further. These are just a small token of our sincerity; please feel free to accept them."
With that, his gaze drifted toward a certain spot in the room, though he quickly pulled his eyes away.
That subtle movement was caught by Ye Qingcheng. She followed the Prince of Nanjiang's line of sight, and her delicate body suddenly trembled.
It was Luyun!
It was her most cherished younger brother, Little Luyun!
The Prince of Nanjiang must have brought these massive orders because of Little Luyun.
Ye Qingcheng's eyes grew moist.
No wonder—no wonder Little Luyun had maintained such a calm, unbothered expression from the very beginning. He had known all along that the Prince of Nanjiang was coming.
And yet she had actually gone ahead and slapped him across the face.
A heavy wave of guilt filled Ye Qingcheng's heart.
"Prince of Nanjiang, have you lost your mind?! And you too, Sun Tianlei, Tang Mingyuan... Have all of you gone completely insane?!"
Xu Guobin refused to believe what his eyes were seeing, or perhaps, he simply didn't dare to believe it.
While the Prince of Nanjiang was indeed formidable, he was still far from holding the authority to order around all the major clans like this.
Why, then, would these powerful figures willingly and cheerfully deliver astronomical contracts to Qingcheng Group?
Xu Guobin simply couldn't wrap his head around it!
At that moment, the Prince of Nanjiang let out a cold huff. "Xu Guobin, perhaps we should step outside and have a word."
No one knew what was said between them. They only knew that when Xu Guobin returned, his entire body was trembling, and the fierce rage on his face had been entirely replaced by sheer terror.
"I... I'll beat you to death, you unfilial beast!"
Seizing a chair, Xu Guobin went completely mad, smashing it down onto Xu Kai over and over again with all his might until the chair shattered into pieces, and until Xu Kai passed out cold.
A chill ran through the hearts of everyone watching.
They always said a vicious tiger wouldn't eat its own cubs, but looking at Xu Guobin, he was clearly trying to beat his son to death.
How could they possibly comprehend the terror gripping Xu Guobin? Just outside, the Prince of Nanjiang had told him that the man standing behind Ye Qingcheng was none other than Divine Lord Yuntian.
That was Divine Lord Yuntian!
If he didn't beat Xu Kai half to death today, the next target for total annihilation would be the Xu Family itself.
How could Xu Guobin not be terrified?
Moreover, although the Prince of Nanjiang hadn't explicitly uttered Divine Lord Yuntian's name, Xu Guobin already had a strong suspicion. That person was most likely Luyun himself.
He finally grasped what Luyun had meant earlier when he said that in his eyes, the Xu Family was no different from a nest of ants.
Forget the Xu Family—even the top-tier tycoons of the Capital were nothing more than ants in the eyes of Divine Lord Yuntian.
"May I speak now?"
At that moment, Luyun spoke up quietly, instantly drawing every gaze back to him.
The entire hall was so silent that you could hear a pin drop.
"I said earlier that all of you owe Sister Qingcheng an apology. Can you kneel now?"
Chapter 13: August the Fifteenth, A Heavy Tribute Delivered
Thud!
The moment Luyun's voice trailed off, Xu Guobin was the first to drop to his knees.
Even though he hadn't been present when these media outlets were slandering Ye Qingcheng, he was terrified!
The wrath of Divine Lord Yuntian was something a tiny, insignificant clan like the Xu Family could never withstand. He had to use every possible means right now to secure Divine Lord Yuntian's forgiveness.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
When the head of the Xu Family had already knelt, how could the surrounding media reporters dare to remain standing? One after another, they dropped heavily to the floor.
The visual impact of this scene was enough to shatter anyone's worldview.
Luyun walked over to Wang Gang and said coldly, "Don't you have anything to say?"
"I... I'll confess! Everything I said before was a lie! Xu Kai said he would help me pay off my gambling debts..."
Wang Gang spilled every single detail, clearing the air completely. His voice was trembling, his body was shaking, and his soul seemed trapped in an endless shudder.
Sharing in his torment was Xu Guobin.
Every single time Wang Gang uttered Xu Kai's name, Xu Guobin would viciously slap himself across the face, wishing in his heart that he could hack Xu Kai into a thousand pieces.
Meanwhile, Jiang Tao crawled on his knees toward Ye Qingcheng, tears streaming down his face as he wailed, "President Ye, I was wrong! Please, I beg you to give me another chance. I still have a wife and children to feed back home..."
"Didn't you say you wouldn't eat food handed out in contempt?" Ye Qingcheng sneered coldly.
"I..."
Words could not begin to describe the depths of Jiang Tao's regret.
Ye Qingcheng then shifted her gaze to Gu Anqi and Guo Hui. "Since the two of you were so determined to leave Qingcheng Group, I won't try to stop you. I wish you both a brilliant future."
Puff!
The two of them nearly vomited blood from sheer frustration.
Offending Ye Qingcheng today was tantamount to offending the Prince of Nanjiang. In this region of Nanjiang, what company would ever dare to hire them now?
That parting wish of a "brilliant future" was dripping with the most venomous irony imaginable.
...
After a series of twists and turns, the new product launch event finally came to a close.
Every single media reporter kept tight-lipped about the events of the day, and not a single soul dared to publish any reports on what had transpired.
As for the promotional issues concerning Qingcheng Group's new products...
With tens of billions in orders from the Prince of Nanjiang and the major elite families, was there even any need for advertising?
Meanwhile, on the top floor of the Qingcheng Building.
Lei Ao, the Prince of Nanjiang, stood with his back bent in extreme humility, addressing the young man before him. "Your Lordship the Divine Lord, are you satisfied with the arrangements I made today?"
Luyun nodded. "Not bad. The scale was big enough; worth a commendation."
Hearing this, a look of delighted joy bloomed across Lei Ao's face. There was not a shred of the formidable Prince of Nanjiang left to be seen—he looked precisely like a student who had scored a hundred on an exam and received praise from his teacher.
Lei Ao basked in his own pride for a moment before quickly reigning in his expression. "Your Lordship the Divine Lord, as for Liren Group..."
"There is no need for them to exist anymore."
If Liren Group had played by market rules and competed fairly, Luyun couldn't be bothered to interfere. But since they had resorted to despicable underhanded tactics, he was sorry.
Liren Group had to vanish.
You couldn't blame Luyun for leaving them no way out; Liren Group had provoked him first. If he hadn't been present today, he shuddered to think what kind of fate would have awaited Sister Qingcheng.
Lei Ao said gravely, "Understood. I will immediately notify the heads of those families to impose a comprehensive blockade on Liren Group."
Shortly after.