Jiang Zhaoting's gaze followed her retreating figure, a hint of worry surfacing in his eyes.
He beckoned to a nearby waiter.
"Young Master."
Jiang Zhaoting: "Tell security to stand by."
On the other side, Jiang Shanhuan followed Tao Zhuolin to the largest sofa on the west side of the banquet hall.
The man sat slantwise in the center of the sofa, legs crossed, one hand resting on the back of the sofa, the other on his lap, fiddling with a lighter.
What a poser.
"President Ethan, the Second Miss of the Jiang family has come to apologize to you." Tao Zhuolin leaned in close to Ethan, speaking in a fawning tone.
Jiang Shanhuan stood behind him with her arms crossed, looking every bit the boss.
Hearing this, Ethan's lips curved slightly upward, and he lifted his eyelids to look at Jiang Shanhuan.
And that look—it gave him quite a fright.
This woman's eyes—how were they completely different from before? They even gave him a familiar feeling.
He couldn't help but furrow his brows, sizing up Jiang Shanhuan from head to toe, a faint wariness showing in his eyes.
But when his gaze fell on Tao Zhuolin, the latter mistook it for displeasure.
Tao Zhuolin's anger flared instantly, thinking Jiang Shanhuan was being completely oblivious.
He took a step back and tugged at Jiang Shanhuan's hand, but she dodged him.
"Xiaohuan, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and apologize to President Ethan." He shot Jiang Shanhuan a meaningful look as he spoke.
Seeing that Jiang Shanhuan remained unmoved, he leaned close to her ear and whispered, "As long as you placate Ethan, I'll immediately announce to the public that you're my girlfriend."
Jiang Shanhuan was internally clapping so hard her palms were about to break.
She had never seen someone so utterly shameless.
She took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the urge to tear this noob apart, and smiled. "Alright, I'll apologize to President Ethan right now."
Tao Zhuolin sneered inwardly. Sure enough, just a cheap whore.
Turning his head, he spoke to Ethan with sycophantic charm, "President Ethan, I'll leave Jiang Shanhuan to you to deal with."
With that, he pushed Jiang Shanhuan forward, and she tumbled right in front of Ethan.
The moment their eyes met, Ethan had the urge to flee.
Similar. Too similar. Really too similar.
If he hadn't seen the boss's corpse with his own eyes, he would have suspected that the person before him was his former boss—the undisputed number one of the international Mercenary Group, the King of Mercenaries who had swept through twenty-one war zones with a single gun—Shanxiao.
Jiang Shanhuan took the opportunity to fall into Ethan's arms, drawing gasps from those around them.
But Jiang Shanhuan acted as if she hadn't heard, leaning close to Ethan's ear and speaking slowly in a breathy voice, "Long time no see, little Sangsang."
Not far away, Jiang Zhaoting's eyes darkened, an icy aura radiating from him.
"Bang—" He set his wine glass down heavily, preparing to apprehend Jiang Shanhuan.
But in the next second, something happened that no one had anticipated.
Ethan pushed Jiang Shanhuan away, shot to his feet, and stared at her with a face full of terror, as if what stood before him was not a person but a malicious ghost that had crawled up from hell.
"You you you you you…"
Jiang Shanhuan didn't take offense at his rudeness. Instead, she settled herself on the sofa, a smile playing at the corners of her lips.
The people around were baffled by Ethan's reaction. "What's going on? The way President Ethan looks at Jiang Shanhuan is like he's looking at a ghost."
No—Shanxiao wasn't a malicious ghost. She was a black-hearted King of Hell, a hundred thousand times more terrifying than any ghost.
"Could it be that Jiang Shanhuan traumatized him? That seems unlikely—Jiang Shanhuan is just a weak woman. Could she really do something like that?"
She's not formidable? She can tear ghosts apart with her bare hands, and you call her a weak woman?
Tao Zhuolin was also curious about Ethan's reaction. "President Ethan?"
"What's wrong? Did she offend you?"
Hearing this, Jiang Shanhuan raised an eyebrow and gave a faint, ambiguous smile. "President Ethan, have I offended you?"
"No!" Ethan's shout nearly shook the heavens. "It's me who has offended—Miss Jiang, it's my fault."
As the most loyal lackey of Shanxiao, Ethan's ability to read the room was beyond ordinary.
"Then… then what about our cooperation?" Tao Zhuolin didn't understand why Ethan's attitude had changed so drastically, but he knew this was the perfect moment to discuss business.
"Cooperation? Oh… cooperation…" Ethan instinctively glanced at Jiang Shanhuan.
Jiang Shanhuan curled her lips in a cold smirk, then turned and made a funny face at Jiang Zhaoting, who was watching the commotion.
Ethan understood.
He looked at Tao Zhuolin, his face filled with disdain, and gave him a thorough once-over from head to toe.
"What standing do you have to partner with the Gordon Group?"
Ethan mentally noted Tao Zhuolin's offense. If it weren't for him, would he have crossed his boss?
Another wave of gasps rippled through the crowd. "What? The Gordon Group is backing out?"
"Wasn't the deal already settled? Why did the Gordon Group suddenly change their mind?"
"Maybe they realized the Tao family isn't capable enough and feared the risk, so they backed out."
"The Tao family was already biting the bullet this time. I heard Tao Zhuolin took out loans worth hundreds of billions from the bank for this project. Now, heh…"
"No wonder the Tao family has been falling behind the Jiang family all these years. Tao Zhuolin gets ground into the dirt by Jiang Zhaoting. It's not that the enemy is too strong—it's that he's useless."
"A deal that was already in hand can slip away. If that's not incompetence, what is?"
"If I were the old master of the Tao family, I'd probably die of rage."
The murmurs from the crowd rose and fell, each word like a knife stabbing into Tao Zhuolin's heart.
He refused to accept it.
He stepped forward toward Ethan, forcing a smile. "President Ethan, is there some misunderstanding here?"
"Is it that Jiang Shanhuan hasn't satisfied you? Don't be polite with her. As long as you're appeased, she's yours to deal with however you see fit."
Jiang Shanhuan couldn't help but roll her eyes.
If you're uneducated, you can learn. If you're ugly, you can get surgery. But being shameless—there's truly no cure for that.
He wasn't even pretending anymore, daring to say such things in front of so many people.
Even Ethan couldn't help but take another look at Tao Zhuolin, his eyes filled with admiration.
He was the first man who dared to say such things to Shanxiao.
Brave, indeed.
"President Ethan?"
Before Ethan could respond, Tao Zhuolin's words were cut off by another voice.
"Has President Tao taken too many pills, that he can't tell whose territory this is?"
"When did it become your place to decide what happens to the Jiang family?"
Jiang Zhaoting's voice carried an overwhelming pressure, reducing even Ethan to a mere bystander.
Tao Zhuolin closed his eyes and took a deep breath, clenching his fists. When he opened them, he glared viciously at Jiang Zhaoting. "It's you. You set me up."
Jiang Zhaoting's expression didn't change. "Set you up?"
His tone was dripping with contempt, his expression saying that scheming against you would lower my standards.
Seeing the tension between the two escalate to a breaking point, the crowd braced themselves to intervene at any moment.
But Ethan had already sidled up to Jiang Shanhuan. "Boss, they're about to throw down." He said in a low voice while offering her a drink.
Jiang Shanhuan raised an eyebrow, quite pleased with his thoughtfulness.
Meanwhile, the whispered voices around had pushed Tao Zhuolin's anger to its breaking point.
Seeing Jiang Zhaoting's detestable face, he didn't even think—he swung his fist right at Jiang Zhaoting's face.
The crowd gasped, all stepping back.
The security guards were just about to rush in and intervene, but someone beat them to it and took Tao Zhuolin down.
"Whoa—" The onlookers drew in a sharp breath.
Jiang Shanhuan clapped her hands, looking down at Tao Zhuolin, who had been taken to the ground. "You think you're worthy of raising a hand against my brother?"
All of this happened in a single second.
No one had seen how Jiang Shanhuan managed to block in front of Jiang Zhaoting in that one second—and take down a man who was bigger than her.
Jiang Zhaoting was also very surprised, his gaze fixed intently on Jiang Shanhuan's back.
Only Ethan, who was watching the show, quietly shook his head. "Tsk, the boss's skills have regressed."