"Heroes from Liangshan?" Liu Baoqiang found it hard to believe. "They're not the underworld, are they? Did you bring all these people here?" After a long moment, Liu Baoqiang finally caught on—it seemed these men must all have been summoned by Yang Ce.

Of course Yang Ce would not admit in front of Chen Shutang that he had any ties to the underworld, much less tell them that the men before them were triad members. Hearing Liu Baoqiang's words, Yang Ce said, "Of course not. These are all bodyguards I hired from a security company. When their employer is in danger, naturally they come running."

With that one sentence, Yang Ce turned the underworld identity of Zhang Penbai and the others into righteous men protecting their employer's safety. Liu Baoqiang naturally had no doubts, and especially after guessing that Yang Ce's family must be very wealthy, he found it all the more a matter of course. Rich people hiring bodyguards—that seemed only natural.

Chen Shutang had genuinely wanted to question Yang Ce about where he had found these men who looked so plainly like they were not good people, but after hearing Yang Ce's explanation, she set her mind at ease. Bodyguards naturally had fierce looks; otherwise they could not serve to intimidate others.

Just as they were speaking, Zhang Penbai spotted Yang Ce too, and ran over to him in a few quick strides. "Brother Yang, I'm not late, am I?"

"No, Wei Jin's men haven't arrived yet. You all wait here for them a while. We're heading off first—hold them off for me." In front of Chen Shutang, Yang Ce certainly could not say something like "beat them to death," but he gave Zhang Penbai a wink, trusting he would understand his meaning.

"Don't worry, Brother Yang. Leave it to me." How could Zhang Penbai fail to understand Yang Ce's meaning? He replied with full comprehension. This hard-won second chance at rising in the ranks had taught Zhang Penbai all the more to read people's faces.

"Good, then we'll be going." Yang Ce nodded, then took Chen Shutang by the hand and, without further discussion, walked her toward the car. Yang Ce was afraid Wei Jin's men might arrive too quickly and let Chen Shutang witness a bloody scene.

Liu Baoqiang had not wanted to linger in the first place—after all, if Yang Ce's bodyguards could not hold off the men Wei Jin had called, that would be disastrous.

Liu Baoqiang knew all about Wei Jin's background: his father was the boss of a real estate company, with a band of henchmen who were practically underworld types, running roughshod over everyone, and especially vicious in a fight.

Zhou Xiaoming had received a call from Wei Jin, telling him to bring men and rush to the Xianren Resort as fast as possible to help him deal with a few fellows. Ordinarily, by rights, Zhou Xiaoming should not have acted rashly at this stage, but there was no help for it—the call had come from Wei Jin, Wei Zong's only son, so Zhou Xiaoming could not simply ignore it.

Moreover, Zhou Xiaoming was a man who liked to scheme his way upward. He knew that Wei Dekang doted on his son especially, so as long as he kept Wei Jin happy, he need not worry about failing to win Wei Dekang's favor in the future, and could use that to climb another rung. And so, without time to think it over, Zhou Xiaoming brought Zheng Lüzi, Niu Xiaobo, and a whole crowd of underlings and rushed in a flurry to the Xianren Resort.

Zhou Xiaoming had already been stewing with anger back at the hotpot restaurant, having spent tens of thousands of yuan for nothing, and his heart ached over it. This was also why he had agreed to Wei Jin's request without the slightest hesitation.

From what he knew of Wei Jin, the young master was never stingy with the people who did things for him, so on this trip he could pocket at least eight or ten thousand—not a lot, perhaps, but at least it would make up for part of his loss.

Zhou Xiaoming drove his Hyundai business van at the head of the convoy, followed by a Golden Dragon coach. The men on the coach were all workers from the demolition company, every one of them an expert at bullying ordinary folk.

Unlike Zhang Penbai, though, Zhou Xiaoming did not have the nerve to swap out his license plates at will; he could only drive by the book and follow the traffic rules, which was why he arrived more than ten minutes later than Zhang Penbai and his men.

By that time, Yang Ce and the others had long since gone far away down the road descending from West Star Mountain.

Zhang Penbai saw a Hyundai van slowly approaching with a Golden Dragon coach behind it, and roughly guessed that these might be the men that Wei Jin fellow had called in.

So Zhang Penbai waved his hand and headed straight for the Hyundai van.

Zhou Xiaoming got out of the car and, before he could even figure out what was going on, saw a crowd of people closing in on him. He was instantly alarmed, unable to tell where these people had come from.

"You're the one that Wei Jin fellow sent for?" Zhang Penbai asked, looking at Zhou Xiaoming.

"I—who are you people?" Zhou Xiaoming did not dare answer Zhang Penbai directly, and instead asked in return.

Seeing Zhou Xiaoming's hesitation, Zhang Penbai had no doubts. He waved his hand and said to his brothers, "That's him. Beat him!"

"What about the car in back?" Zhang Penbai had brought far too many men. The words had barely left his mouth when the ones in front had already surrounded Zhou Xiaoming and were raining punches and kicks on him, while the brothers behind who could not squeeze forward to show off their skills turned their attention to the Golden Dragon coach behind.

"Beat them too!" Zhang Penbai nodded and said.

And so a great crowd of men, in a mighty swarm, before the people on the Golden Dragon coach could even react to what was happening, dragged them out one by one and gave them a ferocious beating, pounding them until they could not even recognize themselves.

This bunch only knew how to bully kind-hearted relocated households and ordinary folk; up against men like Zhang Penbai's, they were nothing but a pack of cowards, squealing and shrieking under the blows with no ability to fight back at all.

Zhang Penbai's crew were old hands at fighting to begin with, and after systematic training at the security company they were all the more swift and orderly. One group would finish beating and the next would step up to continue; after a full rotation, the men on the ground were breathing more out than in.

Of course, Zhang Penbai would not beat anyone to death—at most half to death. Still, for this bunch, recovering would be difficult; without a year or half a year, they could forget about standing up again.

Zhou Xiaoming in particular had all four limbs broken, in even worse shape than Ma Fengzi before him. Zheng Lüzi and Niu Xiaobo, who had come with him, fared no better: one had every rib broken, and half the scalp of the other had been torn off by someone or other.

Zhang Penbai had always upheld the company's philosophy of "swift resolution." In under ten minutes the fight was over, and then they left a ground full of half-dead wretches behind, got in their cars, and roared away.

Shortly after Yang Ce left, those classmates who were on good terms with Wei Jin hurriedly fetched the waiters. When the waiters saw that Young Master Wei had been beaten, they immediately called Sui Yuemin.

When Sui Yuemin heard that Wei Jin had been beaten, he was startled at once and rushed over in a flurry with his men. Seeing Wei Jin lying in a pool of blood, he cried out in alarm, "Who did this? Where is he?"

"It was that Yang Ce—Chen Shutang's boyfriend!" everyone chimed in.

Yang Ce? Sui Yuemin was stunned, and then it came to him: Yang Ce was the man at the dinner table just now whom even Brother Long had shown respect to. He was instantly dumbfounded.