As the words left his mouth, Erniu suddenly clamped his mouth shut.
Ye Chen’s brow furrowed slightly as well.
Because he heard a wave of indescribable noises coming from inside the house—the voice of a woman!
"Ye Chen, sit here and watch TV for a moment. I'll go whip up a few dishes for you."
After his expression flickered through several changes, Erniu pulled Ye Chen over to a chair by the restaurant entrance, turned on the television, deliberately cranked up the volume, and then trudged off to the kitchen to cook with a gloomy look on his face.
Ye Chen, however, wore a dark and menacing expression.
The restaurant was not large. Four tables stood outside, along with a television beneath a makeshift canopy roof...
The indoor space was also used for dining, with another four tables; the kitchen was on the left, and the right side must have been the living quarters!
That wave of indescribable sounds just now had come from the right.
Ye Chen sat in the chair. Even though the television was blaring, he could still hear that woman's voice!
The voice was utterly uninhibited, vaguely carrying snatches of conversation: "Erniu's back? I heard the cooking noises!" "Never mind him, so what if he's back? A total spineless loser!" "Let's keep going. When we're tired in a bit, we'll make Erniu cook us something!" "Hahaha, you're really ruthless."...
Listening to these sounds, Ye Chen's face grew colder and colder.
*No wonder there has always been a dull, lifeless look in Erniu's eyes.*
*Put any other man through this kind of torture, and he would have been crushed!*
Crack!
In a fit of fury, Ye Chen inadvertently crushed the remote control in his grip.
"Xiao Ye, I made a stir-fried pork dish, and there's a plate of peanuts here too. Pick at these while I go prep a couple more dishes, and then we'll get properly wasted together!"
At that moment, Erniu brought out two plates and set them on the table. He was naturally terrible at putting on a facade, and right now his expression looked thoroughly strained—he was clearly fighting to suppress a wave of fury while desperately hoping Ye Chen hadn't heard those noises earlier.
"Alright!"
Looking at Erniu's nearly despairing expression, Ye Chen chose not to expose him.
He chose to endure it instead.
However, Ye Chen had already made up his mind that he was going to intervene in this matter!!
Another ten minutes passed. The house had grown quiet, and Erniu emerged once more, carrying a plate of braised fish and a vegetable stir-fry.
He placed the plates on the table, poured himself a cup of liquor, and downed it in one gulp. "It's scorching in the kitchen. When I was cooking the braised fish just now, the fumes had my eyes streaming. Xiao Ye, come on, let's have a drink. You cheated death and survived—I'm genuinely happy from the bottom of my heart!"
"Alright, let's have a drink!"
Ye Chen picked up the bottle, poured a cup for Erniu first, and then filled his own.
"Xiao Ye, try my cooking... Don't just drink, have a piece of meat," Erniu said.
Ye Chen didn't reply because he heard the two people from the room on the right walking out one after another.
"Eat what meat!"
A shrewish voice rang out: "Day in and day out, instead of working hard around the house, you go off to Nanshan to worship dead people! Wasting a family chicken for nothing! And why are you hitting the booze already? It'll be dinnertime soon, customers will be coming to eat, and you aren't even rushing to the kitchen to prep the food!"
"Also, Brother Zhang and I are hungry. Go to the kitchen and whip us up something good! Brother Zhang... take a seat first, I'll go get you a bottle of good wine..."
Chapter 34: Wrath! ! !
He stared fixedly at the woman before him, gritting his teeth as he said, "This is my friend, Xiao Ye!"
"A friend?"
The woman gave Ye Chen a once-over, and seeing that he wore no designer labels and sported no watch, a heavy trace of disdain instantly crept into her eyes. "He isn't here for a free meal, is he? Even friends have to pay their tab!"
"You—!!"
The veins bulged violently on Erniu's forehead from rage, yet he still lacked the nerve to rush over and slap her across the face.
His eyes bloodshot, he glared at the woman and demanded, "What about Boss Zhang? He's eaten here so many times—why hasn't he ever paid?"
The Boss Zhang in Erniu's words was precisely the man who had emerged from the room alongside Li Cuihua. At that moment, he was lounging leisurely in a chair, watching the show unfold with a toothpick dangling from his lips.
"Who says Brother Zhang hasn't paid? Take a look at what this is!"
As she spoke, Li Cuihua fished several crimson bills from her pocket and declared, "This money right here is Brother Zhang's meal money. If it weren't for Brother Zhang's generosity, where would you have gotten the money for your mother's medical care? She would have died of her illness long ago!"
"The money for my mom's medical treatment came from my own earnings, and this restaurant brings in one to two hundred yuan every single day!"
Erniu retorted loudly, "All that money is with you! Every time I try to get medicine for my mom... you refuse to give it to me!"
"Don't wives need to be supported? I married you, and you aren't going to give me money to live on?"
Hands on her hips, Li Cuihua pointed straight at Erniu and cursed, "Fine! If you think I spend too much, let's just get a divorce! Once we're divorced, I won't take your money anymore, and we can wash our hands of each other once and for all!!"
At the mention of divorce, Erniu instantly wilted. After staring at Li Cuihua for a few seconds, he finally stammered, "I—I was wrong, okay? I'll go make you guys food right now!!"
With that, Erniu slumped his shoulders and started dragging his feet toward the kitchen.
Right then, Erniu wished he could simply drop dead... especially with Xiao Ye standing right beside him. Erniu had no idea if Xiao Ye would look down on him.
"Brother Zhang, let me pour you a glass of wine."
Seeing Erniu obediently go off to cook, Li Cuihua hurled a "useless piece of trash" curse at his back, then threw herself straight into Boss Zhang's arms and cooed, "You've got to keep this ox in line, otherwise he won't behave. Come on, drink up."
"Hahahaha."
Boss Zhang laughed heartily, his hands wandering restlessly over Li Cuihua's body.
Listening to their arrogant remarks and the way they cursed at Erniu, Ye Chen could no longer hold back.
He stood up, walked right up to Li Cuihua, and asked coldly, "Are you Erniu's wife?"
"So what if I am? None of your damn business, psycho!" Li Cuihua snapped with a scowl.
Ignoring her, Ye Chen turned his gaze to Boss Zhang and demanded, "Did you know she's already married? She has a husband."
"Oh? Judging by your look, you're here to play the hero and seek justice for that ox?"
Boss Zhang tilted his head back, sitting in his chair with an arrogant swagger. "Who the hell do you think you are? I'll fuck whoever I damn well please—now get lost, you piece of shit!!"
With that, Boss Zhang viciously spat his toothpick straight at Ye Chen's face.
Ye Chen tilted his head slightly to dodge the incoming toothpick, then suddenly reached out, yanked two pairs of disposable chopsticks from the holder, and slammed them down onto the table with a sharp crack!!
"Ah—!!!"
In an instant, a blood-curdling, agonizing scream erupted from Boss Zhang's mouth.
Yet Ye Chen didn't let him off, pulling out another pair of chopsticks and driving them savagely into the table...
"Ah—!!!"
Chapter 34: Wrath! ! !
Boss Zhang let out yet another shriek, nearly passing out from the sheer pain.
For Ye Chen had pinned both of his hands directly to the tabletop with the chopsticks. Those flimsy wooden chopsticks, which would normally snap with the slightest bend, were acting like two razor-sharp iron blades, effortlessly piercing straight through Boss Zhang's palms and two centimeters deep into the wooden table.
Thud! Thud!
Fresh blood continuously dripped down the chopsticks onto the concrete floor. At that sight, Li Cuihua was scared out of her wits, freezing completely.
After wailing for a few moments, Boss Zhang panted heavily, sucking in ragged breaths. Just as he was about to unleash a torrent of abuse, Ye Chen pulled out two more chopsticks and warned, "Shut your mouth. Utter one more useless word, and I'll nail your skull to this table."
At those words, Boss Zhang's entire body trembled. He clamped his teeth together hard, not daring to make a single sound. He could instinctively feel that Ye Chen was not joking.
"What's going on?"
Hearing the commotion, Erniu rushed out from the kitchen in a panic.
When he saw the scene before him, he was struck dumb with shock: "Xiao Ye, what are you doing, Xiao Ye?! You need to run! Boss Zhang's older brother is Zhang Long—hurry up and get out of here!"
"Erniu, this is the kind of friend you make? Is he—is he trying to get us all killed?"
Seeing Erniu appear, Li Cuihua scrambled to her feet and hid behind Erniu, screeching, "Is this the kind of human trash you hang out with? Drive him away right now, hurry!"
"Xiao Ye isn't human trash."
Erniu forced himself to explain, "He's my best friend!"
"If you want to die, don't drag me down with you! He hurt Brother Zhang, and Zhang Long won't let this slide! He—he runs with a rough crowd outside, let's see what you do then!"
"I..."
Erniu gritted his teeth and declared, "Anyway, I won't betray Xiao Ye! Xiao Ye, run away!!"
"Erniu."
At last, Ye Chen spoke up. "For the sake of a woman like this, are you content to let yourself be tortured like this?"
"Hoo...!!"
Ye Chen let out a long breath, as if expelling all the pent-up frustration in his chest. Staring fixedly at Erniu, he said, "A real man need never worry about finding a wife. She clearly doesn't care about you at all, and she even brings other men into your home..."
"I—I, I, I!!"
A few sentences from Ye Chen completely broke Erniu down. The nearly thirty-year-old man instantly clutched his head and squatted down onto the ground.
"I—I... Xiao Ye, I'm furious too!! But I'm useless, and I want a divorce just as badly as anyone. But my mom is sick, and she won't let me get a divorce... She's terribly ill, and nobody knows if she has a few months left! My mom's greatest wish is to live long enough to hold a grandson in her arms... I—I want a divorce too, but I don't have the money to marry another wife."
"If we get a divorce now, my mom will literally drop dead from anger. I—I have no choice, Xiao Ye!!"
Erniu squatted on the ground and wept bitterly. "I'm useless, I'm a coward, I deserve to be cuckolded, I might as well be dead!!"
The surrounding villagers were all stunned. At first, a few people had merely come for a meal, but with such a massive commotion, a large crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle.
Many people in the village were already aware of the affair between Li Cuihua and Boss Zhang, and most of them deeply sympathized with Erniu.
Watching Erniu's heart-rending despair now, everyone's eyes carried a hint of unbearable pity.
"Useless trash!"
Yet Li Cuihua merely spat out those two cold words.
Slap!
Before the echo of those two words had even faded, Ye Chen backhanded her across the face. Before Li Cuihua could even register what was happening, she was sent flying by a tremendous force.
After spinning several times in the air, she crashed heavily onto the ground. Taking a look at a face that had once possessed a modicum of good looks, it was now swollen as large as a pig's head... With that single slap, Ye Chen had completely disfigured her.
Chapter 35: Auntie Niu
By now, he understood that there was no love left between Erniu and Li Cuihua—only hatred!
And the reason Erniu groveled before Li Cuihua and dared not divorce her was because Erniu's mother had fallen gravely ill and could not endure any further shocks... Furthermore, Erniu's mother was desperately yearning to hold a grandson.
These crushing pressures had piled on all at once, utterly breaking a penniless, powerless man like Erniu.
"Don't worry, I can cure Auntie's illness!"
"As for a wife, Erniu, don't you worry—I will definitely find you a wife a thousand times, ten thousand times better than Li Cuihua!"
After sending Li Cuihua flying with a slap, Ye Chen walked over and helped Erniu to his feet.
"Xiao Ye, you don't have to comfort me... My mom has coronary heart disease. How could you possibly cure that?"
Erniu gritted his teeth, wiped away the tears on his face, and said, "As for a wife, I've given up all hope. Right now, I just want to keep my mom alive!"
He assumed Ye Chen was simply saying these things to comfort him.
"Erniu, have you grown a pair of bear's guts?! You actually dared to find someone to beat me up—I, I'm going to fight you to the death!"
Li Cuihua had already struggled to her feet. When she realized she had been permanently disfigured, she completely lost her mind... The woman rushed into the kitchen, grabbed a boning knife, and charged straight at Erniu and Ye Chen.
"Vicious bitch!"
A blaze of fury ignited in Ye Chen's eyes. Not only had Li Cuihua cheated on Erniu and humiliated him right to his face by making him cook for her lover, but after being disciplined, she actually had the gall to try and stab Erniu with a knife.
Right then and there, a killing intent rose in Ye Chen's heart!
As the sect master of the Kunlun Sect, he had cultivated a ruthless decisiveness over the past few years regarding matters of life and death. For a vicious shrew like Li Cuihua, he only needed to flick a finger to reduce her to ashes.
Just as he was about to make a move, he saw Erniu suddenly lunge forward.
With a swift yank, he stripped the boning knife from Li Cuihua's grip, grabbed her collar with frantic desperation, and roared, "I said it before—Xiao Ye is my friend! You—you cuckolded me, you insulted my friend, and today, I! I! I'm divorcing you!"
"Divorce me then! Divorce me and let that half-dead mother of yours drop dead from the shock! Erniu, you bastard, do you even have a clue how much debt you've racked up yourself? Go ahead, divorce me! Once you divorce me, you can stay a bachelor for the rest of your life, unable to find a wife, and drive your mother to her grave—that would be just fantastic..."
Li Cuihua screamed with uninhibited viciousness, her temperament thoroughly shrewish.
Slap!
However, Erniu didn't tolerate Li Cuihua this time; instead, he lashed out and struck her hard across the face.
"You dare hit me?" Li Cuihua was instantly shocked.
Erniu gritted his teeth in silence. After that first blow, he followed up with a backhand strike, continuing to slap her until she broke down crying and began begging for mercy. Only then did Erniu loosen his grip.
Thud!
With that, Li Cuihua collapsed onto the ground like a pile of mud, glaring viciously at Erniu and Ye Chen as if plotting her revenge.
*Heh...*
Catching the look in Li Cuihua's eyes, Ye Chen flicked his finger, sending an invisible, naked-to-the-eye burst of primordial energy straight into Li Cuihua's brain.
In that very instant, Li Cuihua's pupils dilated sharply, and her entire body went blank as she passed out cold.
Chapter 35: Auntie Niu
Seeing Li Cuihua faint, the surrounding onlookers didn't think much of it, assuming she had simply been knocked out by Erniu's slaps... None of them knew that Ye Chen's tiny, casual maneuver had instantly turned Li Cuihua into an idiot.
Meanwhile, blood was still continuously streaming from Boss Zhang's hands, yet he sat rigidly in his chair, not daring to move an inch or even let out a cry of pain.
Because the dominance Ye Chen displayed was simply too overwhelming, and even that foolish Erniu had been driven to a state of madness.
Boss Zhang was terrified that if he uttered one extra word, he'd end up beaten into a pig's head just like Li Cuihua... Though having his hands pierced through was already miserable enough, Li Cuihua had it far worse—her face was beaten entirely out of shape, bleeding from her nose and mouth, beyond any medical salvation. For the rest of her life, she was destined to remain a facially paralyzed invalid with grotesque features.
"Let's go, I'll accompany you to check on Auntie."
Having dealt with Li Cuihua, Ye Chen gently patted Erniu's shoulder and spoke.
"No... let's not!"
Though Erniu was slow-witted, he wasn't a complete fool. Pointing at Boss Zhang, he said, "Xiao Ye, his older brother is a very dangerous man. You should leave—this has nothing to do with you."
"Never mind him."
Ye Chen swept a glance at Boss Zhang and ignored him entirely... Knowing that scum like this would inevitably return to exact revenge on Erniu, Ye Chen deliberately intended to play a long game to catch a bigger fish.
With that, Ye Chen patted Erniu's shoulder again. "Say no more. Take me to see Auntie... Don't you trust me?"
"No, no, no."
Seeing Ye Chen's solemn expression, Erniu didn't dare argue further. He could only nod and prepare to lead Ye Chen home.
Deep down, however, Erniu didn't truly believe Ye Chen knew how to treat coronary heart disease... As he recalled, what was it Ye Chen had studied back in school? Business management or something? It certainly wasn't medicine...
Though his mind was clouded with confusion, Erniu didn't dwell on it. When they were kids, Ye Chen had spent plenty of time playing at Erniu's house, and Auntie Niu had always been very fond of him. Bringing him along might at least cheer his mother up.
Walking along the path, as they neared the front gate, Erniu suddenly spoke up: "Xiao Ye, whatever happened at the restaurant just now... please don't mention it to my mom."
"Alright, I won't say a word," Ye Chen replied.
Hearing this, Erniu's expression finally eased up a bit. He pushed open the courtyard door and ushered Ye Chen inside.
"Mom, look who's here!" Erniu shouted loudly the moment they stepped into the courtyard.
"Who is it?" A weak voice soon floated out from the house.
"Auntie Niu..."
Hearing that aged voice, Ye Chen felt a sudden pang of sourness in his nose. When he was little, he frequently brought his younger sister to play at Erniu's place.
Times were tough back then, but whenever he and little Mumu visited, Auntie Niu would roast sweet potatoes for them right inside the stove. The largest and sweetest one always went to Mumu, followed by Ye Chen, while Erniu invariably ended up with the smallest.
"It's me, Auntie Niu."
Stepping into the room, Ye Chen caught sight of an elderly woman with hair as white as snow. Gaunt and skeletal, she looked like a woman of seventy, frail and utterly devoid of strength.
Yet Auntie Niu was barely in her fifties this year; due to a lifetime of farm labor, her health had always been robust.
Noticing the drastic change in Auntie Niu, and recalling Erniu's transformation as well, Ye Chen's brow furrowed heavily. It was clear that this mother and son had suffered immensely over the years.
"Y-You are..." Auntie Niu's dull, lifeless eyes stared at Ye Chen for a long while before she stammered, "Xiao Ye? You're Xiao Ye—did you bring Mumu along to play at our house?"
At those words, Erniu's expression shifted drastically. "Xiao Ye, my mom ran a fever last night, and her head is still all fuzzy. P-Please don't take her words to heart..."
Chapter 36: Killing Intent
"Didn't Mumu come?"
After asking that question, Auntie Niu suddenly froze, then slapped her own forehead hard and muttered, "I forgot, I forgot all about it... Little Mumu, she died... She died a miserable death, and old Su too... Xiao Ye, you've come back to life, so why didn't you drag little Mumu back out of the netherworld with you?"
"Mom, what are you talking about!"
"Xiao Ye didn't come back to life—he never died in the first place!"
"Besides, once people die, they're gone; there's no netherworld... All that stuff about rising from the dead is just made up on TV."
Fearing his mother would keep talking and upset Ye Chen, Erniu hurriedly interrupted, "Mom, Xiao Ye came to see you... How are you feeling? Are you still in pain?"
"Oh." Auntie Niu nodded blankly. "I'm much better. Why isn't Cuihua here? Is she busy down at the restaurant? Since Xiao Ye is here, you should introduce Cuihua to him."
"Ah..." Hearing his mother bring up Li Cuihua, Erniu's expression turned unnatural once more.