Jinghai Airport.
A passenger jet touched down slowly. Once the jet bridge was connected, the passengers filed off under the flight attendants' guidance.
The moment Ye Bei set foot on the ground, he closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. He had been away for seven years. Even the air of his hometown had haunted his dreams.
The arrivals hall was crowded. A woman walked beside him with a child in a basket on her back. The baby looked less than a year old, with a runny nose and fingers it was happily sucking.
Ye Bei did not know either of them. What caught his attention was the object the woman held in her arms.
A black cloth covered a square box. It was probably an urn, nothing unusual in itself, except for the glimpse of red showing beneath the black cloth.
"Move! Out of the way!"
Shouts came from behind them.
A group strode toward them, surrounding a young man in sunglasses. Pedestrians were shoved aside. Anger flashed in their eyes, but no one dared say a word.
"Are you blind? Get out of the way!" A bodyguard gave the woman a violent shove.
She stumbled and fell. The baby on her back began bawling in fright. The urn hit the floor, and the black cloth fell away, revealing the red fabric beneath. More precisely, it was a banner embroidered with a golden dragon's head.
"Ptooey! What rotten luck!"
The man in sunglasses glanced at the urn in disgust and spat toward the woman. His phlegm landed squarely on the urn.
The woman looked up at him, then hurriedly lowered her head. Biting her lip, she wiped it clean with her sleeve and carefully checked every side. Only after confirming it was undamaged did she breathe out, set down the basket, and soothe her baby.
"Stop!"
The sharp command was quiet, but it seethed with anger.
The group halted. The man tugged his sunglasses down and glanced back. "Are you talking to me?"
"You. Cover that urn and pick it up." Ye Bei pointed at him, his tone leaving no room for argument.
The people around them lowered their heads and hurried away, casting worried glances at him.
After seven years away, Ye Bei naturally did not recognize the man in sunglasses. Everyone else did.
He was Zhou Yu, the eldest son of the chairman of Jinghai's Zhou Group and the future heir to the Zhou family.
In Jinghai, even the other prominent families hesitated to offend the Zhous, let alone ordinary people. That was especially true of this arrogant, domineering young heir. Yet this stranger seemed determined to provoke him without the slightest idea what he was up against.
"What the fuck did you say?" A bodyguard charged out and threw a punch at Ye Bei. He clearly had some training.
No one in Jinghai dared speak to his young master that way.
Seeing the bodyguard attack, the passersby watched coldly, with mocking smiles.
Before playing the hero, a man ought to know his limits. Going up against the Zhou family was like throwing an egg against a rock. He was asking for it.
The fist whistled toward him. Ye Bei did not budge. He merely raised his right hand and brought it down.
Thud!
The bodyguard never even saw how he struck. He flew more than ten meters backward and slammed into the floor of the passageway, where he lay motionless, blood spilling from his mouth with every breath.
The onlookers froze, their mouths falling open. They could not believe what they had just seen.
Terror filled Zhou Yu's eyes. He knew exactly how capable his family's bodyguards were. Every one of them had passed a rigorous selection process and could normally handle seven or eight men alone.
"You... Who are you?" Zhou Yu trembled. This man was terrifying. His bodyguard had not stood a chance.
Ye Bei ignored him. With a solemn expression, he bent down, carefully draped the banner back over the urn, straightened it, and returned it to the woman with both hands.
He knew what it meant for an urn to be covered with a banner. And he knew the emblem on that banner better than anyone.
He had lost count of the times he had personally handed such an urn to a soldier's family. Their heartbroken cries still rang in his ears.
Every one of those men had been his parents' support, his wife's beloved, and his children's hero.
Countless brave men had fallen for their country, buying today's peace with their blood and their lives. Every one of them was a hero who deserved to be remembered.
Yet now, scum like this dared humiliate one of them.
"Do you know whose ashes these are?" Ye Bei stepped forward, his presence commanding, his sharply defined face as if carved from stone.
"Whose? Just some dead man's, aren't they?" Zhou Yu curled his lip in contempt.
Ye Bei's gaze grew colder. "He was a soldier on the frontier. He gave his life defending China's soil. He was a hero who protected its people. You have no right to insult him. I'll give you one chance. Get on your knees and kowtow three times in apology."
The woman stared, then quickly waved her hand. "No, no, there's no need." She lowered her voice. "Thank you, young man, but you can't afford to offend him. Please, just go."
She had lived in Jinghai for years and knew exactly who this young master of the Zhou family was. Offending him meant never knowing peace again.
"Me? Kowtow to him? Is he worthy of that?" Zhou Yu looked scornful. He had never knelt to anyone in his life, much less knocked his head against the ground.
So what if the man had been a border soldier? So what if he was a hero? He was dead. The Zhou family's power had long since taught Zhou Yu that he could do whatever he pleased.
The Zhou family had indeed become a force in Jinghai in recent years. But in Ye Bei's eyes, they were nothing more than a pack of clowns.
"In that case..."
A terrifying aura erupted from Ye Bei, thick with killing intent and the despair of a bottomless abyss. The people around him felt their hearts seize. Breathing became difficult.
"You... You wouldn't dare touch me!" Zhou Yu could feel the bloodlust radiating from him. Frightened now, he forced himself to keep talking. "Nobody in Jinghai dares touch me. The Zhou family isn't someone you can—"
Thud!
Before he finished, he could no longer breathe. Something clamped around his neck like an iron lock, and his feet left the floor.
The bodyguards blanched. None of them had even seen Ye Bei move. A moment ago, he had been more than ten meters away. How could anyone be that fast?
They exchanged looks, hesitating to approach.
His speed alone had terrified them.
Against someone so much stronger, charging in would be idiocy. It would be suicide. Their monthly wages were nowhere near enough to buy their lives for the Zhou family.
"Mmph... Mmph..."
Zhou Yu's face turned scarlet, veins bulging as his legs thrashed. Only muffled sounds escaped his mouth.
"Get over there and kowtow!" Ye Bei flung him aside by the neck.
Zhou Yu sailed more than ten meters like a helpless chick and landed on his stomach, coughing violently. Never in his life had he come so close to death. Now he was truly afraid.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" He dropped to both knees and banged his forehead against the floor before the urn in the woman's arms.
The woman backed away two steps, stunned and at a loss.
The onlookers were just as dumbfounded. The young heir of Jinghai's Zhou family had been forced to kneel and kowtow!
People pulled out their phones. This was huge news. It would get a huge number of views, and in the age of social media, views meant money.
"Who dares?!"
The furious roar rang with authority.
Dozens of men in matching clothes immediately filled the passageway. At their head stood an upright, white-haired old man, his face dark with rage.
This was Zhou Bosong, head of Jinghai's Zhou family. He had been waiting outside arrivals to pick up his grandson when a bodyguard called for help, and he had rushed over.
Someone in Jinghai actually dared bully a member of his family. They were courting death.
As the Zhous blocked the passageway, the onlookers retreated, afraid of being caught up in the trouble.
Even so, the family's bodyguards brutally snatched their phones away.
Crack!
Crack! Crack!
Without a word, they smashed the phones against the floor.
His grandson being beaten was a humiliation. If word got out, how could he ever hold his head up before the other major families?
The crowd stared at the shattered phones, but not one person dared resist. They could only lower their heads and swallow their anger.
They all knew that if they fought back, losing a phone would be the least of their problems.
"Grandpa!" Zhou Yu sobbed.
The sight of his grandfather reduced the young man in his twenties to a blubbering mess. Tears and snot streamed down his face as he crawled toward Zhou Bosong.
"Did I say you could leave?" Ye Bei asked sharply, sweeping a piercing gaze over Zhou Yu.
Zhou Yu looked at Ye Bei, then at his grandfather. "Grandpa, save me! Kill him! Hurry up and kill him!"
"Boy, you've got courage. Unfortunately, you've crossed someone you should never have crossed." Zhou Bosong's gaze turned icy. He flicked two fingers, and the dozens of bodyguards behind him surged forward.
Ye Bei remained unmoved. "Aren't you going to ask what happened?"
"What happened?" Zhou Bosong sneered. "Do I owe an ant an explanation?"
"All you need to know is that you've offended the Zhou family. Today, you die! Take him!"