This time, instead of taking the hit passively, Ye Huan used both hands to precisely grab Lin Xi's wrists. With a slight exertion, he pulled her into his embrace and planted a fierce kiss right on her lips.
"Ugh..."
Lin Xi broke free from Ye Huan, ran aside, squatted on the ground, and vomited up her entire breakfast.
Seeing this, Ye Huan felt immensely satisfied!
"You bastard Ye, you—you just wait..."
After vomiting, Lin Xi pointed angrily at Ye Huan with a threat, then got into her car and drove away.
Ye Huan: "..."
"Haha, go run to the company yourself!"
From the receding car came Lin Xi's loud laughter.
Ye Huan curled his lip. This girl was quite a piece of work. Why on earth would he run? Couldn't he just take a taxi?
Just then, the Water and Fire Judges, who had been protecting Ye Huan from the shadows, pulled up beside him in a car.
"Master, please get in!"
Sitting in the front passenger seat, the red-haired Fire Judge quickly stepped out, opened the rear door, and said respectfully.
Ye Huan had originally intended to hail a cab, but remembering that he had some questions for the Water and Fire Judges, he got into the car.
Once inside, he asked:
"Has the hacker confessed?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the Water and Fire Judges instantly grew tense.
Sitting in the front passenger seat, the red-haired Fire Judge said:
"Master, we are sorry. When Black and White Impermanence went to capture the hacker, they grew careless and let the hacker bite into the poison capsule hidden in his molar, committing suicide!"
"Oh?"
Ye Huan narrowed his eyes.
"Just what kind of entity is it that directed the hacker to breach Lin's Group, making it worth the hacker's life to keep the secret?"
The blue-haired Water Judge, who was driving, spoke up:
"Master, Black and White Impermanence asked us to relay a message to you: they are willing to accept any punishment for their stupidity."
Ye Huan shook his head. "This isn't your fault. I was the one who underestimated the enemy."
He had long guessed that Lin's Group had run into serious trouble, which was why Lin Tai had been willing to cash in a promise from years ago to force him into marrying Lin Xi and becoming a live-in son-in-law of the Lin Family.
He simply hadn't expected the enemies facing Lin's Group to be this formidable.
The Water and Fire Judges inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
They had half-expected Ye Huan to severely punish Black and White Impermanence. After all, this new master was the Underworld King who had once slashed the previous master of Hell Gate to death with a single blade—a figure whose name struck terror across the globe with his brutal slaughters.
To their surprise, not only did Ye Huan let Black and White Impermanence off without punishment, but he even took the blame upon himself.
Based on this alone, the Water and Fire Judges felt that Ye Huan was far more humane than the previous master of Hell Gate.
"Did you bring the hacker's phone?" Ye Huan asked.
"We brought it!"
The Fire Judge hurriedly handed a cell phone and a laptop over to Ye Huan.
Taking them, Ye Huan effortlessly cracked the phone's security in just twenty minutes.
Yet, not a single piece of useful information was found inside; the contact list was completely empty.
Instead, he found quite a few adult movies—some domestic, some from Fusang, some from Paocai Country, and some from Europe and America.
Without missing a beat, Ye Huan forwarded every single one of those movies to Lin Xi.
"Bitch, sooner or later I'm going to finish you off with my own hands..."
Driving along, Lin Xi used a wet wipe to frantically scrub her mouth, rubbing it until it felt raw.
Suddenly, her phone rang.
She picked it up and saw that Ye Huan had sent a large batch of videos. Puzzling over them, she tapped on one, and an explosive, moving image immediately materialized before her eyes, filling the car with sounds unfit for children.
"You jerk, Ye!"
Lin Xi roared in fury, but she saved the short video anyway!
...
When Ye Huan arrived at Lin's Group and attempted to enter the Lin Building, he was stopped by a security guard.
"Hold it right there, you..."
The guard blocked Ye Huan's path, preparing to demand his identity, but the moment he caught sight of Ye Huan's face, a conditioned reflex made him instinctively cover his crotch.
"You—you, what are you doing here?"
This security guard was none other than one of the fifteen bodyguards Lin Xi had brought to the airport yesterday—the one who had taken a boot to the groin from Ye Huan.
"I'm here to report for work. Starting today, I'm a proud and noble security guard at Lin's Group, just like you!" Ye Huan said with a smile.
The guard was completely dumbfounded. Just yesterday, the CEO had been screaming about beating this guy to death—how on earth did he end up getting hired into the company today?
"What? Not happy to see me?" Ye Huan asked.
*Like hell I dare be unhappy...* The guard offered a ingratiating smile. "Welcome, welcome!"
Ye Huan nodded with satisfaction. "Take me to complete my onboarding."
*We're both just guards, what are you acting like a boss for? Why should I listen to you?* The guard grumbled inwardly, but smiled brightly as he said:
"Alright, alright! Please follow me!"
Following the guard, Ye Huan walked straight to the elevator banks, only to find Lin Qingyun waiting there as well.
Lin Qingyun looked an absolute mess; the scratches left by Lin Canglan the previous night were still visible across his face and neck.
"What is your pig-slaughtering ass doing at Lin's Group again?"
Spotting Ye Huan, Lin Qingyun instantly flew into a rage.
If there was one person in this world Lin Qingyun hated above all others, it was definitely Ye Huan. In Lin Qingyun's eyes, had Ye Huan not resolved the hacking crisis, he wouldn't have lost the wager, and he certainly wouldn't have been demoted to captain of the security team.
"Starting today, I'm an employee of Lin's Group too!"
Ye Huan said expressionlessly, though inwardly he debated whether or not to expose Lin Qingyun's sterility issue right then and there.
"That bitch Lin Xi actually assigned you to the company!"
Gritting his teeth with hatred, Lin Qingyun demanded:
"Which department did she put you in? What's your job?"
Ye Huan made no secret of it. "The security department. I'm a guard!"
"A guard?"
Lin Qingyun froze for a second, then burst out laughing.
"I was just trying to figure out how to get back at you, and Lin Xi went and delivered you right into my hands. You pig-slaughtering jerk, just you wait—I'll make you thoroughly understand the consequences of offending me!"
With that, he turned to the guard standing beside Ye Huan and ordered:
"Pass the word down. In half an hour, I want every single security guard gathered in the training room."
"Got it, got it!" The guard bolted away at a dead sprint.
Giving Ye Huan's shoulder a playful, mocking pat, Lin Qingyun said:
"As soon as you finish your onboarding, get yourself to the training room too. That's where I'll make you realize the true cost of crossing me."
Ye Huan looked at Lin Qingyun as if viewing an absolute moron, wondering how someone as formidable as Elder Lin could have sired such a mental defective.
Just then, the elevator doors opened. Ye Huan and Lin Qingyun stepped inside together, exchanging no further words as they headed to their respective floors to complete their onboarding.
Chapter 34: Beating Up My Boss On My First Day
By the time Ye Huan finished his onboarding and arrived at the training room, Lin Qingyun and the entire security force had been waiting for a long time.
"Well, well, you actually had the guts to show up! I thought you'd gotten so scared you fell down a toilet and couldn't climb back out!"
Seeing Ye Huan arrive, Lin Qingyun sneered with mock politeness.
"Captain Lin gave orders for all the guards to assemble in the training room, how could I dare not come?"
Ye Huan shot right back without a shred of politeness.
The title "Captain Lin" sent Lin Qingyun into a fit of fury. He strode right up to Ye Huan, grabbed him by the collar, and hissed in a cold voice:
"You pig-slaughtering piece of trash, do you have any idea that you're courting death?"
*Courting death!*
A flash of cold light crossed Ye Huan's eyes, and with a single slap, he sent Lin Qingyun sprawling to the floor.
That scene left the gathered guards completely dumbfounded!
A newly hired rookie guard beats up the captain on his very first day?
And this particular captain wasn't just anyone—he was the chairman's eldest son, the CEO's uncle, and the former vice president and board member!
Was this rookie trying to get himself fired before his first shift even ended?
The fifteen guards who had taken boots to the groin from Ye Huan yesterday exchanged uneasy glances. Miraculously, this guy had offended the CEO and still managed to pass the interview to become a guard at Lin's Group.
And now, on day one, he actually had the audacity to beat up the captain, who happened to be the CEO's uncle.
"Y-you... how dare you hit me?!"
It took Lin Qingyun a moment on the floor to process what had happened. Enraged, he scrambled back up and swung a wild slap at Ye Huan's face. "I'm going to beat you to death!"
*Bang!*
Ye Huan drove a kick straight into Lin Qingyun's chest, sending him flying backward.
"Cough, cough..."
Flying through the air for seven or eight meters, Lin Qingyun crashed down flat on his back, clutching his chest and coughing violently from the pain.
Recovering his wits, he pushed himself up into a sitting position and roared at the guards:
"Are you all blind or something?! Didn't you see him hit me? Go get him! All of you, rush him, beat him to a pulp!"
The guards quickly snapped out of their stupor and swarmed toward Ye Huan like a tidal wave.
Right at the front of the charge were the fifteen guards who had been kicked by Ye Huan yesterday. At this moment, they felt a surge of sweet anticipation for impending revenge.
Yesterday, the fifteen of them couldn't beat Ye Huan, but today there were sixty of them. Surely they could take him down.
"Well, I've got nothing better to do. I might as well test the quality of Lin's Group's security force on Lin Xi's behalf!"
Ye Huan limbered up his limbs and stepped forward to meet the charging guards.
This time, he didn't opt for instant one-hit knockouts; that wouldn't give him an accurate gauge of the guards' actual combat abilities.
Instead, he chose to counter move by move.
After exchanging blows for a short while, however, he realized that this bunch of thugs was throwing nothing more than wild, uncoordinated haymakers, having never learned a single fundamental of actual combat.
"How does a company as large as Lin's Group end up hiring such trash for security?"
Puzzled, Ye Huan decided to stop holding back and began dealing out heavy blows.
Every single guard he struck dropped to the floor, wailing and completely unable to stand back up.
"Th-this pig-slaughtering bastard... is he really this strong?"
Watching Ye Huan effortlessly lay out all sixty bodyguards without breaking a sweat, Lin Qingyun sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
"Captain Lin, it's your turn now!"
Stepping toward Lin Qingyun step by step, Ye Huan said with a cold smirk.
"Y-y-you... stay away from me..."
Scrambling backward while still on the ground, Lin Qingyun jumped up and tried to run.
Ye Huan sprinted after him, leaped into the air, and planted a kick squarely on Lin Qingyun's backside, sending him face-first into the floor in a classic dog-eating-shit posture.
"You pig-slaughtering..."
Srawling on the floor, Lin Qingyun roared in sheer frustration:
"I am the young master of the Lin Family! I'm the chairman's eldest son, the CEO's uncle, a board member of Lin's Group, and the captain of the security team! I'm your direct superior, your boss! And you actually had the nerve to hit me? That is blatant insubordination!"
Reaching down with his left hand, Ye Huan grabbed Lin Qingyun by the collar, hauled him straight up into the air, and cracked another brutal slap across his face.
"Lin Canglan and Li Meiya curse me and pull every trick in the book to work against me, yet I let them slide because, nominally at least, they're my parents-in-law," Ye Huan said coldly. "What kind of stray dog do you think you are, trying to make an enemy of me?"
With that, he delivered yet another slap!
Having been beaten into submission, Lin Qingyun was too terrified to speak further; he finally realized his status meant nothing to Ye Huan.
"Why aren't you talking? Weren't you acting so high and mighty just a second ago? Go on, say something! Curse me!" Ye Huan said coldly.
Lin Qingyun didn't dare reply. He kept his mouth shut.
*Slap!*
Ye Huan hit him again.
"Speak!"
Still, Lin Qingyun stayed silent.
*Slap!*
Another solid blow from Ye Huan.
"If you don't speak up, I'll just keep right on slapping you until you do!"
Lin Qingyun felt ready to explode from pure rage. With a ferocious expression and teeth clenched so hard they nearly shattered, he glared hatefully at Ye Huan before squeezing out a single sentence:
"I—I'm going to go report you to the chairman..."
The sixty guards groaning on the floor were utterly stunned. The dignified young master of the Lin Family was actually going to run crying to the chairman over a newly hired rookie guard?
"Go on then. I'll be right here waiting for you to come back with the chairman's imperial decree."
Ye Huan let go of Lin Qingyun's collar.
"You just wait!"
Fuming with rage, Lin Qingyun stormed off.
Left alone with the wailing guards on the floor, Ye Huan, having nothing better to do, proceeded to beat each and every one of them up all over again.
Just as he finished, Lin Canglan arrived accompanied by Lin Tai.
"Dad, it was him! That pig-slaughtering bastard beat me up and took down all the guards too! If you don't fire him today, you're going to break the hearts of every single security guard in this company!"
Pointing directly at Ye Huan, Lin Qingyun lodged his complaint with Lin Tai.
Stepping right up to Ye Huan, Lin Tai asked:
"Anything to say for yourself?"
"I injured all these guards. They won't be able to get out of bed for ten days to a half month, so you should give them some severance pay and send them home. I'll find a fresh batch of security personnel for Lin's Group," Ye Huan replied.
"Very well!"
Lin Tai agreed without hesitation, turned around, and walked away!
Lin Qingyun: "???"
The sixty guards: "???"
*What is going on here?*
Lin Qingyun and the sixty guards felt their brains buzzing in absolute confusion!
Especially Lin Qingyun—he had brought Lin Tai here specifically to deal with Ye Huan, yet with a single sentence from Ye Huan, Lin Tai had agreed to fire every single one of the guards!
Even Ye Huan was momentarily taken aback; he had merely tossed the suggestion out casually, never expecting Lin Tai to agree so readily!
Of course, there was something Ye Huan didn't know.
Lin's Group was a family enterprise, and internal relationships among employees were immensely complicated.
Take those sixty guards, for instance: every single one of them was a relative, friend, or a friend of a relative of someone within the Lin Family. They possessed zero qualifications for security work and were purely here to leech off Lin's Group's high salaries.
Lin Tai had long wanted to clean out these corporate parasites but had never found a suitable pretext.
Using the excuse of Ye Huan beating them all up provided the perfect opportunity to completely excise the tumor.
"Immediately select sixty men from Hell Gate and send them to apply as security guards at Lin's Group."
Pulling out his phone, Ye Huan sent a text message to the Water and Fire Judges. Then, turning his gaze to Lin Qingyun, he asked:
"So, Captain, what am I supposed to do now?"
"Go eat shit!" Lin Qingyun roared.
*Slap!*
Ye Huan gave Lin Qingyun another smack across the face, then changed into a security uniform, headed down to the first-floor lobby, pulled up a chair, ordered takeout, and bought two pounds of melon seeds.
Setting himself up right outside the entrance of the Lin Building, he crossed his legs, cracked melon seeds, and basked in the sunlight.
This security gig wasn't half bad after all!
Chapter 35: The Supreme Ruler of the Security Department
Hell Gate's operational efficiency was astounding. In a mere two hours, the sixty men requested by Ye Huan were assembled and, with Lin Tai's assistance, successfully onboarded at Lin's Group.
As the captain of the security department, Lin Qingyun promptly summoned the sixty new guards to the training room.
"Let me introduce myself. My name is Lin Qingyun, and I am your captain. Furthermore, I am the chairman's eldest son, the CEO's uncle, the former vice president, a member of the board of directors, and a shareholder of Lin's Group."
At this point, he deliberately paused, expecting to see looks of astonishment on the faces of the sixty guards.
To his disappointment, however, nothing of the sort happened.
The sixty guards stood rigidly in formation, staring straight ahead with blank, expressionless faces, as if they hadn't heard a single word he uttered.
"Ahem..."
Coughing awkwardly, Lin Qingyun pressed on:
"I've made my background public to let you know that as long as you follow my orders and do whatever I tell you to do, I guarantee that your benefits and compensation will be the absolute best of any department in the entire company."
With that, he stood in silence, waiting for expressions of excitement to break out across their faces.
Once again, he was met with disappointment.
The sixty guards looked like they had all suffered facial paralysis; not a single ripple of emotion crossed their faces, nor was there the slightest fluctuation in their eyes.
"Alright, I'll now assign your duties..."
Frowning in frustration, Lin Qingyun quickly doled out assignments to each guard and announced:
"Assignments are complete. Everyone report to your respective posts!"
The sixty guards stood firmly in place, unmoving.
Lin Qingyun blinked. "I told you to report to your posts. Did you not hear me?"
None of the guards answered, nor did any of them move an inch.
Lin Qingyun: "???"
"A security department meeting, and nobody bothered to call me?"
Just then, cracking melon seeds between his teeth, Ye Huan strolled into the room.
*Swish!*
All sixty guards turned their heads in unison, moving with such synchronized precision they looked like a detachment of regular troops. Wherever Ye Huan walked, their gazes followed.
To his utter astonishment, Lin Qingyun noticed that the way the sixty guards looked at Ye Huan was entirely different—their eyes burned with intense reverence and absolute obedience.
"Aren't you supposed to be guarding the front doors? What are you wandering in here for?" Lin Qingyun barked.
He wanted to throw his weight around in front of the new recruits, letting them know that in the security department, he was second to none.
"Everyone, back to your posts."
Ignoring Lin Qingyun entirely, Ye Huan spat out a melon seed shell.
"Yes!"
The sixty guards shouted in unison and promptly marched out of the training room.
Lin Qingyun stood there completely frozen.
He had talked himself hoarse and gotten zero response from the sixty men, yet a single sentence from Ye Huan had sent them moving instantly!
Had he just been effectively sidelined by Ye Huan?
"You pig-slaughtering jerk, who gave you the authority to command the security force?!"
Glare fixed on Ye Huan, Lin Qingyun demanded an explanation.
"Captain Lin, starting today, just consider yourself holding an honorary title here. Collect your monthly paycheck and leave everything else alone. Of course, even if you wanted to, you couldn't manage anything, because nobody's listening to you anyway."
Dropping those casual words, Ye Huan cracked another melon seed, sauntered out with a lazy, lordly swagger, and left the room.
Fuming with helpless rage, Lin Qingyun felt that being demoted to the security department was already a supreme humiliation; but coming here only to find his authority usurped by a rookie who had started today made it an insult upon an insult.
Yet, furious as he was, there was literally nothing he could do to Ye Huan. Talk about infuriating!
After leaving the training room, Ye Huan strolled along, cracking melon seeds, until he reached the floor housing the CEO's office.
Passing right by the office doors, he paused to consider whether he should drop in for a bit of fun.
Just then, the secretary stepped out of the CEO's office.
Ye Huan's eyes lit up.
"Well, now, not bad looking at all!"
Without missing a beat, he gave the secretary's backside a sharp smack.
"What are you doing?!"
Startled and mortified, the secretary whipped around, red with anger.
"There was a mosquito right on your backside, so I killed it for you. No need to thank me—righting wrongs and lending a helping hand is my personal creed!" Ye Huan said with a completely straight face.
The secretary was utterly defeated by Ye Huan's shamelessness; she had never in her life encountered someone acting like a scoundrel with such absolute confidence.
Just as she was about to explode, Lin Xi emerged from the office. Seeing Ye Huan standing there, she froze for a fraction of a second before asking with a mocking curl of her lip:
"What? Did my dear uncle give you a hard time on your first day, so you came running up here to file a complaint?"
Secretly, the secretary was shocked. In all her time at the company, she had never once heard the CEO use that tone or expression with anyone.
She couldn't help thinking that this guard's identity must be extraordinary; otherwise, he would never dare wander onto this floor, nor would he ever warrant such a reaction from the CEO.