"Don't call me Brother Zhao... call me Brother Fa..." Zhao Fafa said, his voice trembling, tears of pain spilling from his eyes.

"All right... Brother Fa, what's wrong with you..." Sun Xiaoxing thought to himself, how could he still be hung up on what to call him at a time like this? I was only anxious, and out of habit I called him Brother Zhao.

"Beat... beat him..." Zhao Fafa had never dreamed that Wei Zhao would strike first. Pointing at Wei Zhao, he slurred out the command.

"Beat him!" Sun Xiaoxing caught the words clearly, sprang to his feet, and barked the order at his men.

Sun Xiaoxing's underlings had long been primed and ready to move; it was just that Wei Zhao's sudden wounding of Zhao Fafa left them somewhat at a loss.

Still, Sun Xiaoxing himself would not lift a finger - he was no good at fighting. He had only ever gone into this business to gather underlings by riding on Zhao Fafa's money offensive, which bought him a handful of followers.

Swish, swish, swish - several crab legs went flying, burying themselves in the faces of the underlings who were stepping forward to punish Wei Zhao, punching clean through their skin.

The face is one of the most nerve-dense regions of the body; when Wei Zhao's crab legs struck home, they ran those men through with agony, and they bellowed like the dying.

"Wow, hubby Wei, you're amazing!" Feng Xiaoxiao shrieked, thrilled. "Though you really ought to aim for their eyeballs!"

"Huh?" The men, writhing in torment, had meant to rip the crab legs out and then beat Wei Zhao to a pulp - but Feng Xiaoxiao's words froze them on the spot, and cold sweat broke out over them instantly.

Aim for the eyeballs? That would blind them outright! Before, pain had addled their brains and they had thought of nothing; but now it came back to them in a rush - Wei Zhao's aim was lethally good. The crab shell earlier had flown straight into Zhao Fafa's mouth, and these crab legs, tossed out as casually as anything, had never once missed. Every single leg hit its mark.

So the underlings calmed down in an instant. These men thought nothing of brawling and bullying the weak in their daily lives - but that did not mean they were not afraid of getting hurt, and this was no ordinary injury. This meant losing an eye.

A crab leg driven into an eye would certainly blind it, no ifs, ands, or buts about it - not a shred of luck to be had.

"Good point. Then let's aim for the eyeballs." So saying, Wei Zhao picked up a few more crab legs from the table.

"Run!" The man in the lead faltered at once and spun to flee. He was the closest one to Wei Zhao; if Wei Zhao hurled a crab leg, the first one would almost certainly go sailing into his eyeball.

With the first deserter, the rest lost heart in a heartbeat. Those little thugs whose faces had been pierced by crab legs ran faster than one another, and in the blink of an eye they had vanished beyond the door of the private room, gone without a trace...

True, they had taken Zhao Fafa's money - but taking money to eat and drink and carouse, to frighten the odd weakling now and then, was one thing. Being sent to their deaths or stabbed up was quite another. Nobody was a fool; if they didn't run now, when on earth would they?

And so, in a single instant, only Zhao Fafa, Sun Xiaoxing, and Wu Liuqi were left in the private room.

Sun Xiaoxing's face was a mask of ugliness. He had never imagined that these sworn brothers of his would prove so faithless - in the blink of an eye they had all cleared out. How was he supposed to face Zhao Fafa now?

By now the crab shell had been pried from Zhao Fafa's face. He sat there with blood covering every feature of it, though nothing that threatened his life.

Fear flickered across Zhao Fafa's face. This was the first time he had ever come off the loser since crowning himself one of the Songshan Four Young Masters. In the past, every threat he made had gone off without a hitch; he barely had to open his mouth before people wet themselves and fled. A man like Wei Zhao was the very first he had ever laid eyes on.

"Wu Liuqi, is this what your investigation turned up? How can Wei Zhao be this formidable?" Zhao Fafa felt like weeping. Had he known Wei Zhao was this ruthless, he would never have set his sights on him - but he had already swallowed the loss, and the grudge could not go unavenged.

"Brother Fa, at school Wei Zhao is only dangerous in one-on-one fights. I never heard that he uses hidden weapons..." Wu Liuqi's face was pinched. Wei Zhao's reputation at school was indeed thunderous, but all of it was single combat. Black Panther, Zhong Yongliang, and Zou Ruoming had all taken a beating - but how was Wu Liuqi to know what went on behind closed doors?

He did not even understand the rank divisions of the Yellow-tier experts, let alone the clashes that had passed between Wei Zhao and Zhong Yongliang and Zou Ruoming in the dark. All he had ever seen was the surface - and now he found he had misjudged his man.

"Wei Zhao, I admit you're one step ahead of me. But mountains don't turn, rivers do - this isn't over!" Knowing full well he could not settle the score today, Zhao Fafa spat out a vicious parting shot and started to get to his feet.

In his view, Wei Zhao wouldn't dare do anything to him. He had backers of his own; would Wei Zhao really kill him in front of an audience?

"Hold on - settle the bill first," Wei Zhao said mildly, seeming never to have had any intention of keeping Zhao Fafa here.

"Settle the bill? Wei Zhao, don't push a man too far!" Zhao Fafa's face went cold, and he shot Wei Zhao a look of venomous hatred. He had not the slightest intention of paying; the very concept had never once existed in his dictionary. In his mind, refraining from making trouble for Wei Zhao today was already generous enough - and they wanted him to foot the bill?

"Push you? Did I? Seems to me you're the one who invited me to dinner." Wei Zhao picked up a crab shell and regarded Zhao Fafa with a smile that was not quite a smile.

"Hubby Wei, are you going to throw that crab shell again? Good - this time throw it at his butt!" Feng Xiaoxiao said.

Zhao Fafa's face darkened on the spot. He had never imagined Feng Xiaoxiao could be so wicked as to come up with such a nasty trick - and glancing at the crab shell in Wei Zhao's hand, he genuinely feared Wei Zhao might let it fly if his mood turned.

"Fine! I'll pay!" Zhao Fafa ground his teeth. Today, he had decided to swallow it. But there would be other days.

Enduring the pain in his mouth, Zhao Fafa had Sun Xiaoxing summon the waiter, settled the bill by swiping his card right in front of Wei Zhao, then snorted and swept out of the private room.

As he left, Zhao Fafa swore silently to himself that today's humiliation would be repaid a hundredfold. He had powerful backing, and to that distant cousin of his - his great patron - this Wei Zhao was nothing but trash. Every last young master in Songshan City had to show that cousin face.

At the thought of this, Zhao Fafa's chest finally unclenched. In his eyes, Wei Zhao was already a man at his mercy.

"Brother Fa, are you all right?" Sun Xiaoxing asked carefully, watching the blood that would not stop trickling from the corner of Zhao Fafa's mouth.