Zhou Lixing instantly put on an animated expression. He raised his thumb and exclaimed, as if injected with adrenaline, “The Mighty General’s golden spear never falters in his battle against two women! Impressive, impressive.” As he spoke, he stood up and unobtrusively gave up his seat. “Come, come, rest a bit and fight again later.”
The Zhao family held great power, and everyone in the room rushed to flatter and echo him, their praise and fawning flying in unison.
Qin Mu glanced at Shen Liu. The man drank a sip of wine without revealing any emotion.
Zhao Jinchuan very much enjoyed being the centre of attention. His gaze swept lazily around the room. When it landed on Shen Liu, the smile on his face faded. He narrowed his eyes slightly and slapped the girl’s butt. “Go up and perform something to liven things up for everyone.”
The two girls had kept their heads lowered in shame since they came in. At this moment, they exchanged a look, revealing panic and helplessness. They were members of a girl group with a bit of fame, introduced by a familiar senior ‘sister’ to accompany guests for the first time. Originally, being noticed by Zhao Jinchuan made them feel rather pleased. Who would have thought it would turn into a three-way? And this Zhao guy, high on drugs, had been extremely rough, never caring about their feelings, treating them like toys to be tossed around as he pleased. It hurt terribly. Afterwards, he mocked them, saying that since they wanted to be idols, they needed to learn how to show their bodies, and did not allow them to wear clothes. That on its own was already humiliating enough, but in the end, they had come of their own accord, and the Zhao family’s power was right there, so they had no choice but to swallow their resentment.
Yet now he wanted them to perform naked in front of so many people. This truly treated them as if they were not human.
The short-haired girl spoke in a strained, tiny voice, pleading, “Young Master Chuan, my body is not feeling very well, could we… rest a little?”
Zhao Jinchuan tilted his head, as if he had not heard clearly. “What did you say?”
She awkwardly moved a bit closer, covering her private parts with her hand and forcing a smile. “Could we rest for a while and accompany you again later?”
He stared at her, his voice dragging lazily. “Ah, tired, are you?”
The girl watched his expression and carefully nodded.
“Sure, why not?” Zhao Jinchuan casually shook his bathrobe, rolled up his right sleeve, and picked up a bottle of liquor from the coffee table.
A dull ‘thud’ sounded. The short-haired girl collapsed sideways, fresh blood seeping from her forehead. The long-haired girl beside her screamed in fright, her face turning deathly pale as she fell to the floor.
The change happened without warning, shocking everyone.
Everyone present froze.
Qin Mu had never expected Zhao Jinchuan to suddenly shoot a girl this brutally. His entire body tensed instantly. Just as he was about to stand up and stop him, someone held him down.
Shen Liu placed his hand on his shoulder, appearing to embrace him, but in fact exerting force. His voice was low. “Do not move.”
Qin Mu turned his face to stare at him, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief.
Shen Liu’s gaze calmly faced forward. His whole figure was shrouded in shadow beneath the lights, looking like a distant sculpture, indifferent and cold-blooded.
Only he himself knew that it was him escaping.
He could not meet Qin Mu’s eyes.
For years, Shen Liu had crawled through the mud, filthy from head to toe, and even his heart was black. He never thought of himself as any sort of decent person, nor did he care how others saw him. Only Qin Mu… that gaze to him was like a blade pressed to his throat, able to make him lose his composure, abandon his purpose, surrender without resistance.
Here, Qin Mu was like an isolated island, and he was the fisherman wandering the sea, watching that island from afar but not daring to take even one step onto it.
“Still tired, hmm?” Zhao Jinchuan’s voice was gentle enough to raise goosebumps, but his movements were vicious and violent. One hand gripped the girl’s neck, while the other lifted the bottle and smashed it against her body. His expression was unusually excited, a ferocious light in his eyes. The girl screamed with tearing agony. Her face was covered in blood, the flesh at the corner of her eye split open, one side of her cheek sunken inward. Her cheekbone had shattered.
When Zhao Jinchuan released her, she used what little strength she had left to crawl toward the door, only to be kicked to the ground.
“Aren’t you tired? Today, I’ll make sure you get plenty of rest.”
“I was wrong… Young Master Chuan… please spare me, I beg you…” Her voice trembled violently, weak and desperate.
Zhao Jinchuan kicked her hard in the abdomen, then, still unsatisfied, delivered two more to her ribcage. After that, he grabbed her hair like one would a chicken, dragging her upright. Under the pressure of his strength, she could not resist or evade at all. She screamed in pain and, in her panic, grabbed onto the leg of another hostess, crying, “Help me, help me… please…” The hostess recoiled in fright, pulling her leg back without saying a word.
No one moved. It was as if everyone’s face wore a pale mask, hiding their indifference or fear. They knew Zhao Jinchuan was committing violence. Yet to these distinguished guests, no matter how much disgust or contempt they felt inside, there was no need to stand up and intervene. After all, it was just a trivial matter. To offend the Zhao family for a woman who sold herself for fame, whose name they could not even remember, was not worth it.
Conscience had retreated before self-interest, and silence had become the most lavish praise for the abuser.
Qin Mu felt cold. It was as if ice had formed inside his chest, and even his body trembled uncontrollably.
At this moment, he seemed to have returned to that cold disciplinary room, in front of the window with iron bars. The distant cry of that young boy travelled across time and overlapped with this girl’s screams. The forgotten fear, pain, and despair tightened around his throat like the hand gripping the girl’s neck, choking him, leaving him unable to breathe.
Shen Liu sensed something was wrong and turned his face.
He saw those blood-red eyes.
In shock, he loosened his grip, and the person bolted out like a leopard.
The next second, Zhao Jinchuan took a solid punch to the face and was slammed hard onto the floor.
Everyone was stunned, the room erupting into gasps of shock.
Shen Liu’s breath paused for two seconds. He lowered his raised arm and closed his eyes briefly.
He could not stop it.
Qin Mu was already consumed by fury. He moved fast, and his aim was precise, pinning Zhao Jinchuan down and striking his face again and again. His fists did not only fall on a bully who preyed upon the weak, but also on the murderer of Teacher Xiao. Rage shattered his reason. Each blow was heavier than the last. When people finally pulled him back, Zhao Jinchuan’s nose and lips were bleeding, his face bruised and swelling, his head spinning so badly he could not even stand.
“What the hell…” Zhou Lixing sobered instantly, eyes wide, cursing halfway before remembering that this reckless man was one of Shen Liu’s people. He forcibly swallowed the rest of the words and turned to Shen Liu. “What is this?”
“fvck…” Zhao Jinchuan was helped up. He took a long while to recover from the dizziness, then glared viciously at Qin Mu. “You have guts. You actually laid hands on me. If I don’t make sure you die here today, I won’t be surnamed Zhao.”
“You should be surnamed Beast.” Several people restrained Qin Mu, yet he did not struggle. His expression was blank as he spoke. “Only animals hit women.”
This sentence made everyone’s heart tremble. Zhao Jinchuan was an illegitimate child, and before he was allowed into the Zhao family, he had followed his mother’s surname for a period. This was his greatest taboo. Once, a hostess had called his surname wrong, and ended up blinded in her right eye. Yet today this man dared to run his head straight into the barrel of the gun. He must have been tired of living.
“I’ll kill you!” Zhao Jinchuan, dishevelled and furious, suddenly shoved aside the people supporting him. He grabbed a wine bottle and lunged toward Qin Mu. But just as he stepped forward, the coffee table beside him seemed to sprout legs and slide sideways to block his path. The bottle and glasses crashed to the floor with a loud, shattering noise.
The man who caused the commotion lowered his leg, sitting steadily on the sofa with his hands resting lightly. His gaze swept over the people restraining Qin Mu, and he said lightly, “Let go.”
The tone was commanding, carrying a chilling coldness.
They all released him at the same time.
“Ha.” Zhao Jinchuan shifted his gaze from Qin Mu to Shen Liu. “I wondered who had the guts. So someone is backing him.”
“He is someone I brought. He disrupted everyone’s fun tonight, truly my apologies.” Shen Liu spoke at an unhurried pace. “It is his first time coming to a place like this. He has no worldly experience. He did not know Young Master Zhao had such unique tastes, and got carried away. I will take him back later and discipline him properly.” The words sounded proper and polite, as if he were apologising, but the tone was perfunctory. If examined closely, that ‘apology’ was not even directed at Zhao Jinchuan. It carried no sincerity at all.
“Hey, just a misunderstanding.” The host, Zhou Lixing, hurried to smooth things over. “Jinchuan, this guy came for the first time, didn’t know it was you. Just an accident, just an accident…” The Shen and Zhao families had always been at odds, fighting for power. The Zhou family stayed on the sidelines and did not want to get involved. But the final winner between the two was still uncertain. He could not afford to offend either side. Something like this happening in his place, he only wished to settle it quickly.
Zhao Jinchuan wiped the blood at the corner of his mouth. His face was dark. “You think one apology settles this?”
Shen Liu raised his eyebrows and looked at him, asking coldly, “Otherwise?”
“I said he’s not leaving this room tonight.” Zhao Jinchuan’s eyes gleamed with killing intent.
Shen Liu’s lips curved slightly, as if he had heard a joke. His smile was provocative and mocking. “Do you get to decide that?”
Zhao Jinchuan’s expression changed.
Shen Liu had always been low-key for years, rarely showing off. He kept it somewhat polite, no matter who he met. Whenever the Zhao family was involved, he always stepped aside gracefully and never caused trouble. Yet today, he stood firm in direct confrontation.
For him?
Zhao Jinchuan looked carefully at the man who had hit him, his pupils contracting.
“…Everyone is just here to have fun, let’s not get angry over this.” Zhou Lixing felt like his head was splitting, believing himself to be nothing but a big unlucky fool caught between monsters. Zhao Jinchuan was notoriously difficult, and Shen Liu was no gentler. Every major move the Shen family had made in recent years had traces of him. Not only that, Shen Liu had also supported many juniors and branch members, becoming the core of the next generation. If these two monsters really fought, would his small establishment be left standing? He wished he had passed out with a cigarette earlier. He scrambled to mediate. “Go, go carry the girl out. Hurry and call someone to check on Jinchuan’s face.” Then he moved to support Zhao Jinchuan. “Jinchuan, sit, calm down, give me some face. Look…”
“Who do you think you are?” Zhao Jinchuan slapped his hand away in disgust. His tone was vicious. “Me coming here today was already giving you face. And you dare join up with Shen and try to screw me? Take a piss and look at yourself. Do you think you deserve to call me brother?”
Zhou Lixing’s forced smile collapsed.
“This sounded really familiar.” Shen Liu spoke slowly. “Your Zhao brothers seem to say this a lot.” When he insulted people, he liked to do it in a roundabout way, yet every word stabbed right into the heart, precise and ruthless.
Zhao Jinchuan’s face went dark. “Shen Liu, you think I can’t deal with you, is that it?”
Shen Liu could not be bothered to bicker with someone like him and stood up to leave.
“Maybe I can’t deal with you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t deal with him.” Zhao Jinchuan laughed behind him, voice shaded with poison. “I just recognized him. Isn’t he that lawyer who kept chasing after me? What was the surname again, Qin? I heard he was your first love. No wonder you’d go to so much trouble to protect him. How touching.” His gaze fixed on Qin Mu like a serpent. “Lawyer Qin, does the law say debts should accrue interest? Next time you fall into my hands, it won’t just be losing a finger. I don’t like riding men, but my dogs aren’t picky. As long as there’s a hole to use, they’ll enjoy themselves. I’m sure you’ll let them have plenty of fun.”
Qin Mu did not respond to him. He only lightly dr4p3d the bathrobe in his hands over the injured girl. The girl seemed faintly conscious and looked at him from the bloody mess of her face.
Shen Liu stopped walking.
He stood in silence, his eyes carrying a cold, clear light under the lamp. It was as if a wicked god had slowly opened its eyes in the darkness, and a storm of violent, overwhelming hostility surged through his entire being. His voice was icy, “Zhao Jinchuan, you think far too highly of yourself.”
A sudden sense of unease rose in Qin Mu. Shen Liu wrapped his arm around him and guided him out.
As they passed by Zhou Lixing, Shen Liu patted his shoulder. Zhou Lixing only nodded and said nothing. Behind them, Zhao Jinchuan shouted arrogantly, “We’ll see.”
The two of them got into the car together. Shen Liu seemed to have something important to handle and had been on the phone the whole time. When he finally paused to drink some water, Qin Mu spoke quietly, “I’m sorry.”
Shen Liu screwed the bottle cap back on. “What are you apologizing for?”
“I disrupted your plan and caused trouble for you.”
“You knew it would cause trouble, but you still couldn’t hold back.”
Qin Mu paused, then answered, “The girl would have died.”
Shen Liu let out a small laugh. “So you are apologising to me for doing something right?”
“I don’t think saving her was wrong. But the consequences of my actions shouldn’t fall on you. That is what I need to apologise for.”
“You are not apologising because I bore the consequences. You are apologising because before you even acted, you already assumed I would bear the consequences for you. What you feel guilty about is using me.” Shen Liu was like a demon who could pry open the human heart, easily digging out the hidden desires buried deep within.
Qin Mu fell silent, the tips of his ears turning red.
He was in the wrong, and he acknowledged it.
“Qin Mu.” Shen Liu spoke slowly. “In your value system, that girl’s life was placed first. In mine, the original plan was placed first. That was why I stopped you at the start. But regardless of what the original plan was, my reason for doing everything was only to…complete my deal with you.” In the brief pause, it felt as if he changed what he meant to say. “I have walked all the way here with this blackened heart so that I would no longer be under anyone’s control. Offending Zhao Jinchuan is nothing. I don’t mind you using me in this way. I am very willing.”
Qin Mu felt as if his chest had been stuffed with cotton, soft yet heavy, suffocating him so much he could not speak. He stared at Shen Liu for a moment, then looked away.
They sat in silence when the driver suddenly shouted, “Careful!” Before either of them could react, the force of a sharp turn threw both of them to one side. The edge of the car scr4p3d along the guardrail with a harsh screech of metal. Fortunately, the driver reacted quickly and, with a tail-swing manoeuvre, narrowly avoided the car that had suddenly tried to ram them. Only the rear of the vehicle was dented. The driver muttered “Someone is blocking us” while stepping hard on the accelerator and turning down a side road.
When Qin Mu recovered, he realised he had instinctively wrapped his arms tightly around Shen Liu, shielding him.
It had been a reflex in the face of danger, without thought and without hesitation. Precisely because of that, it was even more embarrassing.
He let go, grabbed the handle, and asked, “What do we do?”
“Put your seatbelt on.” Shen Liu said with a faint smile amid the violent jolt of the car. “If we die together, does that count as dying for love?”
Qin Mu: “…”
At a time like this, this man could still joke around. He really wanted to sew that crow’s mouth shut.
Qin Mu had never ridden a roller coaster before, and this time he truly experienced what it felt like to fly. He was flung around until he was dizzy and seeing stars, nearly to the point of throwing up. When the car rushed the wrong way into a one-way lane, several black Jeep Wranglers sped past them. After that, the speed slowed down, and a few Mercedes from their side closed in around them.
“Are we safe now?” Qin Mu asked, pressing down the churning in his stomach.
“Mm.” Shen Liu knew he was uncomfortable, so he twisted open the bottle cap and handed the water over. “Drink a little.”
Qin Mu took it and drank two mouthfuls, caught his breath, then noticed Shen Liu making a phone call as if nothing had happened. He couldn’t help thinking: Why was he so calm? Was he already expecting this, or… was he simply used to dealing with situations like this?
On the other end, someone seemed to be reporting something. Shen Liu listened quietly, without any expression on his face. In the end, he just said, “Take care of his family,” and hung up.
“That was Zhao Jinchuan’s people who rammed us?” Qin Mu couldn’t help asking.
“Mm.”
“Madman.” He frowned. “What are you going to do about it?”
“Tit for tat.”
His answer was brief. Qin Mu knew it was not convenient to ask in detail, so he changed the subject. “What were you originally planning to talk to him about today?”
“To apologise and ask him to let you off.” Shen Liu saw the strange look on Qin Mu’s face and couldn’t help but laugh. “I was planning to use that as an excuse to give him the land in Rongcheng. He’s unfamiliar with real estate and is currently fighting for equity. If he has a buyer lined up, he’ll be able to cash out quickly. The person I planted at his side would alter the land documents, fabricate a special contract, then incite a large number of relocated villagers to stir up trouble. That way, I could justifiably pin him with the charge of illegally reselling land-use rights, and while I was at it, dig up his old dirt from above.”
Qin Mu stayed silent for a moment, then said, “So now…”
“I’ve switched to another plan.” Shen Liu’s gaze grew cold. “Someone like him isn’t worth the time and effort it would take to toy with him.” The car came to a stop. He reached out to smooth Qin Mu’s hair. “We’re home. Get out.”
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