Chapter 77: Chapter 77 Wu Xiaojun, When Did I Become a Big Shot in the Jianghu?
The three of them left.
Feng Tiantian, fuming, stamped her foot and turned back to the private room. All her meticulous planning had come to nothing; how could she possibly accept that? She whispered something in Hua Peng’s ear, causing his face to flush and then turn pale.
He shot to his feet, saying irritably, "I want to see who the hell has the nerve to steal the woman I’ve set my sights on."
The lackeys who had come with him also stood up, chiming in.
"Who messed with our Young Master Hua?"
"Let’s go take care of him, brothers."
The noisy crowd stormed out. The invited classmates they left behind could only look at each other in confusion. Then, following the lead of a few others, they quietly snuck away. These were street matters, not something they should get involved in. As students, they wanted nothing to do with such trouble.
「In the Yunjing Building’s first-floor lobby.」
A large round table in the center was packed with burly men. They’d clearly had a bit too much to drink; feeling hot all over, some were even shirtless despite the winter cold. They were shouting and yelling as they played drinking games, making a terrible racket. As a result, a large empty circle had formed around them, as no one else dared to sit nearby.
"Xiaojun, you’re doing well for yourself now, eh? Hanging a Porsche key from your waist. Where’d you strike it rich?"
The man seated at the head of the table was none other than Wu Xiaoli’s "dear little brother," Wu Xiaojun. Today, he was the one treating everyone. He was celebrating sending his ex-fiancée and her family, who had been blackmailing him, to prison. He had also gotten his car and money back. The carefree and willful Wu Xiaojun had returned.
"Heh heh... just a small business, nothing worth mentioning. Brothers, let me toast you all again. Eat and drink your fill today!"
He dodged the question. Of course, he wasn’t going to say, ’I have a good sister who bleeds people dry and a new rich, foolish brother-in-law,’ could he? That was out of the question.
His fair-weather friends were getting annoyed. We all promised to be dirt-poor together, but you secretly got rich on your own? How could we be happy for you?
They had all met while working down south and had now gathered again to work in Shanghai City. One could call it a shitty twist of fate, twice over. Now that he had money, he didn’t seem inclined to help out his poor friends. Unable to voice their frustrations openly, they channeled their resentment into the drinks. One after another, they tacitly ganged up on him, trying to get him drunk.
As a former bunkmate from the factory, Yang Wei, nicknamed ’Yang Si’, was naturally the most envious of the bunch. He watched as a large group of people stormed down from a private room on the second floor. The leader was dressed to the nines and looked like he was worth a fortune. Yang Si’s eyes darted around, and he slyly stuck out a leg, tripping the man and sending him face-planting into the floor.
"OUCH!" Hua Peng cried out, clutching his bleeding nose as he lay on the ground. It was a hard fall, a painful, intimate encounter between his nose and the floor.
"Young Master Hua, are you okay?" his lackeys cried, rushing over to help him up. A quick-witted one immediately pulled out tissues to stanch the bleeding.
"Young Master Hua, what happened?" someone asked.
"Someone stuck out their leg and tripped me," Hua Peng said furiously, glaring at the table of men. He was trying to find who had done it on purpose.
"Who was it? Who would do something so despicable?" his lackeys fumed with righteous indignation.
"Tsk! You weren’t watching where you were going. You fell and now you’re trying to blame us?" Yang Si shot back, preemptively shifting the blame. "Brothers, are these kids still on their mother’s milk? Is such a tiny scratch really worth crying about? You’d better hurry and take your boy to the hospital. If you’re too slow, the wound might just heal on its own."
The table of men erupted in laughter. Yang Si was a cunning troublemaker, a master at provoking people.
Hua Peng’s face flushed with rage. He had never been so humiliated. Goddamn it!
But as he took three steps forward, he realized he was alone. The men who were always spouting chivalrous oaths about going through hell and high water for him were cowering behind. His face burned even redder.
"Young Master Hua, a moment of patience prevents a world of trouble. Take a step back, and you’ll find a better way," Feng Tiantian said, appearing at the perfect time to stop him. Before him stood a wall of brawny men. Attacking them would be suicide.
Thankfully, someone had given him a way out. Despite the ferocious look on his face, his heart was pounding. He was used to being arrogant and impulsive, but he wasn’t an idiot. He knew better than to pick a fight he was guaranteed to lose. The smart play was to swallow his pride for now, call for backup later, and get his revenge then.
"Consider yourselves lucky. We have business to attend to, or this wouldn’t be over today," he snarled, making a strategic retreat after his token threat.
"Who said you could leave?" a mocking voice called out from behind him just as he turned. It was that annoying Yang Si again. "Our Brother Jun is treating us tonight, trying to show us a good time, and you’ve completely ruined the mood. Now, Brother Jun is very unhappy. What are you going to do about it?"
He was putting on a great show of borrowing authority. Wu Xiaojun, the supposed source of this authority, was still sitting there with a foolish, drunken smile, his eyes glazed over. The other men also began to jeer, creating the impression that their "Brother Jun" was a figure of great importance.
"What do you people want?" Hua Peng demanded, his patience wearing thin.
Yang Si’s beady eyes scanned the group and landed on Feng Tiantian. He swaggered over and reached out a lecherous hand. "This girl’s not bad. Give her to our Brother Jun to play with as compensation."
"Fuck off!"
Feng Tiantian was no pushover. Her temper flared, and she snatched a wine bottle from a nearby table and smashed it over Yang Si’s head.
CRACK!
It was hard to tell if the sound was the bottle shattering or Yang Si’s skull cracking.
"AGH!" he howled, clutching his head as he crumpled to the ground in pain. It was obviously a nasty hit. A moment later, blood began to seep through his fingers. "He’s trying to kill me!" he shrieked when he saw the blood on his hands.
The table of burly men instantly swarmed them. Feng Tiantian knew she was in deep trouble and turned to run, but someone grabbed a fistful of her hair and started beating her relentlessly. It was Yang Si, getting his revenge.
She was smart, though. As she was being hit, she maneuvered the scuffle toward Hua Peng and his group, trying to drag them all into it to take some of the heat off herself.
Her plan worked.
Hua Peng was dragged into the fray, taking a punch to the face. A full-blown melee erupted. In the chaos, a few more of the smarter lackeys slipped away. Those who remained saw no escape and were forced to fight back. It was hopeless, like ants trying to shake a tree. They were completely outmatched.
Soon, Hua Peng’s entire group was lying on the floor.
"Brother Jun, what’s the call?" Yang Si asked, grinding his foot into Hua Peng’s face as he looked toward Wu Xiaojun.
The shout jolted Wu Xiaojun, and he finally started to sober up. He stared at the scene before him, a series of questions echoing in his mind.
What the hell happened? You guys got into a fight, so why are you asking me what to do? When did I become some underworld boss?
His "brothers" were all looking at him expectantly, leaving him utterly baffled.
Bystanders called the police, who arrived quickly. Wu Xiaojun was soon sporting a pair of silver bracelets. A prison sentence awaited him.
One had to wonder if he would feel any regret while hunched over a sewing machine, thinking back to the day he invited his "poor friends" over just to show off. The price of flexing, it turned out, was a little steep.