The private room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Everyone was dumbfounded. Li Jie had actually been slapped in the face?!
Li Jie covered his cheek and said grimly, "Bro, go easy on me. We might run into each other again someday. Your methods are a little out of line—"
SMACK!
Before he could finish, Wang Long swung another slap. "Who the hell is your bro? Do you think you're worthy?"
Li Jie was completely stunned. He laughed through his rage. "Fine. Very fine. Just you wait!"
He took out his phone and dialed his uncle's number.
Zhu Fang said smugly, "You're all finished. The owner of the Mingyue Tea House is a very important person, and Young Master Li's uncle is the manager here. If you apologize to Young Master Li and the rest of us now, it's not too late!"
"Oh?"
Wang Long and the old man exchanged a look, both smiling strangely.
Finally showing a bit of interest, Wang Long said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes, "Alright, have him come."
"Uncle Li will get here and destroy you all!" Song Qin bellowed.
Li Zhengnan arrived quickly.
When he saw the chaos in the room, especially his nephew's face, which was swollen like a pig's head, his expression hardened with anger. Just as he was about to ask what happened, he saw Wang Long and the white-haired old man and froze.
"Uncle Li, you have to get revenge for us!" Song Qin and the others cried out tearfully, as if clutching a lifeline.
"Uncle." Li Jie looked up, his eyes bloodshot.
However, facing their expectant gazes, Li Zhengnan's body swayed as if he were about to collapse. "Eighth Master," he said, his voice trembling, "why are you here…"
Li Zhengnan was a shrewd man. He instantly understood that his nephew and his classmates had started a conflict with Eighth Master. He was hopping mad. These bastards! That's the boss's honored guest! Do you morons have a death wish?!
Eighth Master? Who's that? Everyone was bewildered.
The anger on Li Jie's face vanished, and the fog of alcohol cleared from his mind. There weren't many people his uncle would address as "Eighth Master." A name flashed through his mind, and he gasped, "You're Old Jiang Ba from Liu City! The one who deals in the business of the dead!"
Old Jiang Ba. The underworld kingpin of Liu City.
Although Liu City was small, it was filled with businesses dealing in coffins, spirit money, and funeral wreaths, and Old Jiang Ba was the master of them all. Daring and aggressive in his youth, he had united every shop in Liu City within ten years before expanding his reach to the neighboring cities of Hangcheng and East Sea. As the eighth child in his family, he was respectfully known as Eighth Master!
He was treacherous, cunning, and utterly ruthless.
Rumor had it he once nailed a competitor's entire family of nine into coffins while they were still alive. He became the bogeyman parents used to scare their children to sleep.
In the Jiangnan area, there was even a saying—if you provoked Eighth Master, you shouldn't resist. Just write your will and wait to die, lest you drag your parents, wife, and children down with you. As for your cremation and burial? You wouldn't even have to worry about it. Everything would be arranged for you perfectly.
It was no wonder Wang Long sneered at the Li Family of East Sea. The Li Family's total assets were maybe ten or twenty million at most, while Eighth Master's assets had exceeded a hundred million ten years ago. He was the sky of Liu City!
Now, Eighth Master's net worth had surely more than doubled.
But Li Jie couldn't understand why such a powerful figure, whose influence reached the heavens, would appear at the Mingyue Tea House.
The old man called Eighth Master squinted, saying nothing.
The bodyguard, Wang Long, snorted coldly. "Li Zhengnan, your nephew has some nerve. His friend bumped into the boss in the restroom, and just now, he had the gall to call the boss a 'dead old man.'"
"Well," Old Jiang Ba drawled, cracking a smile, "I only do business with the dead. The living have no fear of me, it seems."
The sight of those yellowed teeth made Li Jie's blood run cold. Realizing his catastrophic mistake, he felt as if he'd been plunged into an icy abyss.
Li Zhengnan, who understood the veiled threat, turned green. "Eighth Master, Brother Wang, this must be a misunderstanding…"
"What, are you going to take the fall for your nephew?" Wang Long stared at him.
Li Zhengnan stammered, unable to form a single word. Finally, his knees buckled and he knelt. He pressed his forehead to the marble floor and said with a trembling voice, "I beg you, Eighth Master, please spare my nephew's life. He's the only male heir to the Li Family. As for the others… do with them as you please. Live or die, it's your decision."
"…"
The room fell into a deathly hush. The sight of their greatest protector kneeling and begging for mercy was a knife that stabbed deep into the hearts of Li Jie, Song Qin, and the others.
"What do you think would be a fitting resolution for everyone involved?" Old Jiang Ba asked, his gaze bypassing Li Zhengnan to land on Li Jie.
He knew that his every word and action could plunge the Li Family into irreversible ruin.
Without a hint of hesitation, he said, "Song Qin will kneel and apologize. Zhu Fang will slap herself a hundred times."
As he spoke those words, what was left of his pride and dignity was trampled underfoot by Eighth Master. But he had no other choice.
Eighth Master. He was a man Li Jie could never afford to offend in his entire lifetime.
"Young Master Li, what are you saying? Didn't you say you could handle anything?" Song Qin, still muddled from the alcohol, couldn't grasp the situation.
"Shut up! Do you have a death wish?" Li Jie seethed. "After offending Eighth Master, we'll be lucky just to get out of this alive. If you don't kneel and apologize right now, don't blame me for not saving you!"
Song Qin jolted, the alcohol vanishing from his system. Seeing Li Zhengnan prostrated on the floor, he shamelessly dropped to his knees and began knocking his head on the floor with sickening thuds.
"I'm sorry, Eighth Master! I'm so sorry! Please spare me…"
After a moment of silence, Zhu Fang also began to slap her own face.
"Harder," Wang Long said coldly.
Though pain brought tears to her eyes, Zhu Fang could only put more force into it, viciously striking her own face again and again.
The atmosphere in the private room was heavy and oppressive. The high-spirited youths from moments before were now trembling, barely daring to breathe.
The only sound was the constant CRUNCH, CRUNCH of someone eating sunflower seeds.
The sound was jarring.
So much so that both Wang Long and Old Jiang Ba arched their eyebrows and looked over.
"Stop eating!" Ruan Tang's heart leaped into her throat, and she pinched Xu Lai.
He seemed to finally notice. "Oh, don't mind me. You all carry on. I'm just watching the show."
Watching the show!
Old Jiang Ba's lips curved into a smile, but his eyes didn't. "Young man, are you trying to provoke me?"
Ruan Tang's scalp tingled. She had seen for herself how ruthless and domineering Eighth Master could be!
She quickly bowed in apology. "I'm so sorry, Eighth Master. Xu Lai meant no disrespect."
Old Jiang Ba said nothing, scrutinizing Ruan Tang for a long moment before finally laughing. "You're more sensible than your friend. Have him apologize, and I won't make things difficult for you."
"Yes, yes, of course," Ruan Tang nodded repeatedly. "Xu Lai, hurry and apologize to Eighth Master."
With his hands clasped behind his back, Xu Lai said, "Is he even worthy?"
"…"
The private room fell utterly silent.
Everyone thought they had misheard.
Old Jiang Ba's smile faded, replaced by an icy chill in his voice. "I gave you a chance to save face, but you refused it. Wang Long, teach this kid a lesson."
"Yes, Boss."
"Xu Lai, do you have any idea what you're saying?!" Ruan Tang cried out anxiously.
Xu Yaoyao added worriedly, "Xu Lai, hurry up and beg Eighth Master for forgiveness!"
"It should be him begging me…" Xu Lai's eyes were as deep as a river of stars. "…to spare him."