Chapter 37
Editor: Princess
Ning Shen looked down at the person in his arms who had completely lost consciousness.
This was an exquisitely beautiful face that made it difficult for anyone to look away once they had seen it. His mind recalled the flash of amazement that had crossed this person’s face upon seeing him. His heart, which had never stirred since that person’s death, now rippled with the slightest movement.
The hand around the waist unconsciously tightened. He raised his hand to tentatively caress the fair face before him when suddenly another hand gripped his wrist firmly, with such force that it seemed ready to snap his wrist.
Ning Shen frowned and turned to look at the newcomer. Seeing it was Mo Shaoheng, his frown deepened.
Mo Shaoheng released his grip expressionlessly and pulled Qin Huanxi from Ning Shen’s embrace. Though his movements appeared swift, the force he used was extremely gentle. He lifted Qin Huanxi in his arms and left the restroom without looking back.
Ning Shen stood stunned for a moment, then suddenly turned around, wanting to follow. A figure stepped forward and blocked him. He frowned: “Get out of the way!”
He Jingyi pushed his glasses impassively, the corners of his mouth forming a cold, hard curve. His tone brooked no refusal: “Thank you for your assistance, President Ning. Young Master Qin is Young Master Mo’s tutor. President Mo will take good care of Young Master Qin, so there’s no need to trouble President Ning.”
Ning Shen looked at He Jingyi’s cold face, clenched his fists forcefully, snorted coldly, and turned to leave.
He Jingyi watched Ning Shen’s retreating figure, the corner of his lips curved, then he followed.
Fu Zecheng’s face immediately turned grim when he received the news. He hurried over with his butler and happened to encounter the expressionless Mo Shaoheng carrying Qin Huanxi toward him. He stopped in his tracks, but his gaze fell on the unconscious Qin Huanxi’s face.
He saw that Qin Huanxi was breathing steadily with a peaceful expression. It looks like he was unharmed.
He secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t that he feared anything, but now wasn’t the time to become enemies with Mo Shaoheng.
Moreover, Qin Huanxi wasn’t an ordinary wealthy young master. Offending both the Mo and Qin families consecutively at his own banquet was something he wouldn’t be foolish enough to do. However, this incident was indeed his miscalculation.
“I apologize. I will personally investigate tonight’s incident and give Young Master Qin an explanation.” Fu Zecheng said to Mo Shaoheng. “I’ll have the butler arrange for a family doctor to come immediately.”
“That won’t be necessary.” Mo Shaoheng said coldly. “You should pray that this matter hasn’t reached Old Master Qin’s ears.”
Fu Zecheng felt somewhat annoyed, but since Qin Huanxi had met such an accident at his banquet, he was indeed in the wrong. He could only temporarily suppress his irritation and say calmly: “President Mo needn’t worry. Tomorrow I will personally visit Old Master Qin.”
Mo Shaoheng glanced at him indifferently and walked past him carrying Qin Huanxi.
Fu Zecheng watched Mo Shaoheng’s departing figure, turned back and said coldly to his butler: “Find that man surnamed Shui for me.”
“Yes, sir!” The butler accepted the order and immediately instructed his subordinates to search for the man, while he himself followed Fu Zecheng into the lounge.
Fu Zecheng sat on the sofa and rubbed his temples: “What exactly happened?”
The butler thought for a moment and explained tonight’s events in detail.
Fu Zecheng paused in his temple-rubbing: “Who did you say bumped into Su Yang?”
“It was the third young master of the Zhan family, Zhan Shuoming. This should just be a coincidence. When Miss Mo handed the wine to Young Master Qin, Miss Su had just gone to the lounge to touch up her makeup. It’s just that later the incident of Miss Su’s dress being stained happened to occur, which drew Miss Mo and Li Junyan away.” The butler explained every detail.
Fu Zecheng tapped the sofa armrest with his fingertips and stroked his chin: “I was wondering who it could be that would make someone as shrewd as Qin Huanxi let down his guard and fail to see through such clumsy tactics. Ha, so that’s how it is. He trusts Mo Shanshan and Su Yang quite deeply. For someone like him, ordinary people simply can’t touch him. They can only target the people around him.”
The butler lowered his head in agreement: “Yes…”
Just then, there was a knock at the door. Fu Zecheng raised his chin toward the butler.
The butler immediately went to open the door. The person who entered was Brother Shui.
Brother Shui walked up to Fu Zecheng with a wooden expression: “Master Fu, you wanted to see me?”
Fu Zecheng leaned back into the sofa, crossed his legs, and looked at Brother Shui: “What did I tell you before? Do you think my words don’t carry enough weight, or do you think I’ll go back on what I promised you? Or perhaps you thought you could take someone away right under Mo Shaoheng’s nose?”
Brother Shui’s tense face finally showed cracks. He frowned in confusion: “I don’t understand what Master Fu is saying.”
“Don’t understand?” Fu Zecheng laughed instead of getting angry. “Are you saying that Qin Huanxi’s incident at my banquet has nothing to do with you? Could it be that I, Fu Zecheng, was stupid enough to sabotage my own banquet and let the most important guest have an accident at the event?”
Hearing this, Brother Shui finally caught the key information in Fu Zecheng’s words.
At this moment, he felt no vengeful satisfaction from Qin Huanxi’s misfortune. Instead, he felt heavy-hearted, knowing almost without investigation who had done this.
After their cargo was seized by Su Wentian’s men, several brothers had been locked up. The remaining few were all brothers who had gone through life and death with him.
After the plan to kidnap Su Yang failed, he hadn’t hidden from his remaining brothers the fact that he had been injured by Qin Huanxi. Later, when Fu Zecheng sent people to find them in the alley, they had been working for Fu Zecheng during this time. Today at this banquet, he and his brothers had also participated.
However, they hadn’t attended as guests, but had disguised themselves as waiter-bodyguards to prevent any unexpected incidents at the banquet.
Brother Shui didn’t blame his subordinates for acting on their own initiative impulsively. After all, the whole affair had started because of him. The brothers who followed him had always regarded him as their leader. Even if he could temporarily swallow his pride for the current situation, his brothers wouldn’t just stand by and watch him be humiliated without doing anything.
At this moment, there were sounds of commotion and arguing outside the lounge. Brother Shui recognized two of the voices as his subordinates, and his heart filled with anxiety. He stepped forward: “Master Fu, this whole matter started because of me. I will give you an explanation. Please be magnanimous and don’t make things difficult for them.”
Fu Zecheng chuckled: “You’re quite loyal, but unfortunately, the person you need to explain to isn’t me. As for why Mo Shaoheng let you go last time, I think Brother Shui, being a smart man, should already understand the reason. Now your people have touched Qin Huanxi right in front of Mo Shaoheng. Tell me, who should receive this explanation?”
Brother Shui kept his head down in silence, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. The gloom in his eyes grew darker, and his hatred for Su Wentian deepened another layer.
If not for Su Wentian, how would he, Brother Shui, have fallen to such a state? Having been wronged, he could only endure it silently, keeping his grievances bottled up without being able to vent. Now even his brothers had to suffer humiliation along with him.
“Master Fu, this matter has nothing to do with Brother Shui. We two brothers acted on our own. If you want to punish someone, punish us two brothers.” At this moment, two men dressed as waiters rushed in and stood in front of Brother Shui, lowering their heads to plead with Fu Zecheng.
Fu Zecheng sat on the sofa, switched the position of his crossed legs, accepted the teacup the butler offered timely, took a sip, and said slowly: “Tell me about your original plan.”
The two men exchanged glances. One of them stepped forward: “We… we just wanted to teach Qin Huanxi a lesson…”
“A lesson?” Fu Zecheng seemed to find this an amusing term and chuckled several times. “And then what?”
The two men were clearly startled by Fu Zecheng’s laughter and neither spoke for a moment. They weren’t unaware of what was important and what wasn’t, but earlier at the banquet, when they saw Qin Huanxi and Su Yang dancing with great enthusiasm while all the guests looked at them with envious eyes, they could no longer suppress the anger in their hearts.
Brother Shui had been made so miserable by these people, and they had finally managed to make something of themselves, yet these so-called young masters and ladies always acted superior, trampling on their dignity at will. Brother Shui’s arm had been crippled by him, yet he acted as if nothing had happened, attending banquets with great fanfare and dancing gracefully with Su Wentian’s daughter.
They had immediately formed a plan to give Qin Huanxi a taste of his own medicine.
However, they weren’t fools either. They knew that Qin Huanxi wasn’t the naive wealthy young master he appeared to be on the surface – his methods and scheming were quite vicious. If they acted directly, they would certainly alert him and draw his attention, so they thought of targeting the people around Qin Huanxi.
Mo Shanshan was undoubtedly the best choice. They had heard of Qin Huanxi’s reputation before. This had nothing to do with cultural refinement or personal cultivation, but rather because they moved in such circles and needed to have some understanding of T City’s great families. Originally, they thought someone like Qin Huanxi was far removed from their world and not someone they wanted to approach.
After Brother Shui was injured by Qin Huanxi, they had also investigated him and learned that Qin Huanxi had become the Mo family young master’s tutor. They knew that Qin Huanxi and Mo Shanshan had a good relationship and trusted her greatly. Moreover, Mo Shanshan was just an innocent young lady from a prominent family, making her easy to target. They had indeed succeeded.
They had originally planned to quietly take Qin Huanxi to Su Wentian’s lounge once he was alone. Tonight they were waiters at the banquet, which made it more convenient for them to act.
When they saw Qin Huanxi go to the restroom, they guessed it was almost time for the drug to take effect. Worried that following him immediately might be discovered by Qin Huanxi, they deliberately waited two more minutes before going to the restroom. They thought Qin Huanxi would realize something was wrong with his body in the restroom and wouldn’t be able to leave immediately, so they could take him away before Mo Shaoheng arrived.
Who knew that when they got to the restroom, they saw Ning Shen entering before them. At that moment, they knew their efforts had been in vain. Although they were extremely unwilling and wanted to rush in regardless and kidnap Qin Huanxi, compared to their desire for revenge against Qin Huanxi, they dared not provoke the unpredictable Ning Shen.
“Finished talking?” Fu Zecheng seemed to have listened with great interest. He handed the teacup to his butler and looked at the two men: “Very exciting story. After drugging Qin Huanxi and taking him to Su Wentian’s lounge, what did you want to do? Make Su Wentian and Mo Shaoheng turn against each other? You wanted to kill two birds with one stone? You couldn’t really think that with such petty tricks, you could fool both Su Wentian and Mo Shaoheng?”
Hearing this, the two men opened their mouths and instinctively turned to look at Brother Shui. Seeing that Brother Shui only maintained his silence with a grim face, they suddenly felt a wave of fear. At the time, they had only been provoked by Qin Huanxi and Su Yang and had lost their heads momentarily. They had started acting almost as soon as they thought of this plan, without considering at all whether Su Wentian and Mo Shaoheng would become angry with each other as they wished.
Now that Fu Zecheng had pointed it out, they suddenly realized that what they had done couldn’t even be called a plan. If Ning Shen hadn’t suddenly appeared and they had actually gone through with it, they would probably have faced the wrath of both Mo Shaoheng and Su Wentian. Su Wentian naturally wouldn’t want to provoke Mo Shaoheng and would definitely investigate thoroughly.
“After saying so much, I’m quite curious about something. In your hearts, what exactly is Qin Huanxi’s identity? Is he someone you can manipulate at will?” Fu Zecheng asked, propping up his chin. “Since you know Qin Huanxi isn’t easy to deal with and chose to target the people around him, have you considered that you’ve already alerted the enemy? After Qin Huanxi suffered such a great loss today, do you think he’ll silently swallow this setback and let it go? Think carefully about how your Brother Shui was defeated by him in the first place.”
The two men simultaneously caught their breath and clenched their hands into fists.
“I already instructed you before. I have my reasons for hosting this banquet, and I clearly told you not to touch Qin Huanxi. You were quite brave, thinking of yourselves as avenging superheroes, ruining all my plans…”
“Master Fu, we’re sorry!” Seeing Fu Zecheng’s smile disappear, the two men knelt on the ground almost reflexively.
Seeing this, Brother Shui clenched his fists, closed his eyes and slowly opened them again, then slowly knelt before Fu Zecheng: “Master Fu, I’m sorry. It’s my fault for not managing them properly. I hope you can forgive them this once. As for Qin Huanxi, I will… I will personally go to apologize.”
“Go in person?” Fu Zecheng scoffed. “I always thought Brother Shui was a smart man. It seems I overestimated you. Do you think you still have a chance to see Qin Huanxi? In what capacity would you go to see him? Should I have someone carry your corpse to see him? I think that shot Qin Huanxi fired didn’t cripple your arm. It crippled your brain!”
After saying this, Fu Zecheng waved his hand dismissively, no longer paying attention to the three people kneeling before him.
The butler immediately understood and had someone take the three men away. He turned back and asked softly: “Sir, are you really going to see Old Master Qin tomorrow?”
Fu Zecheng sighed: “The incident happened on my territory. Both emotionally and logically, I should make this trip. Originally, I thought that man surnamed Shui was a smart person, a useful talent who valued loyalty to his brothers. I didn’t expect him to be so incompetent. Indeed, some people, no matter how well you dress them up, simply can’t rise to the occasion if they’re not meant for it. Forget it. Let him take his people and leave. There’s no need to have anyone follow them. I think Qin Huanxi and Mo Shaoheng will understand my meaning.”
“Yes, sir!” The butler respectfully accepted the order.
“You go down first. Don’t let word of tonight’s events leak out. Have Shun Fei keep a close eye on things at the banquet.” Fu Zecheng stood up as he spoke. “I’m going to see Ning Shen.”
“Yes, sir!”