“Hey, Ya Ge (Mute Brother).”
Lin Xun stepped out of the elevator with one arm in a sling. The few men guarding the hallway immediately stopped chatting and greeted him.
Lin Xun nodded in response.
He was a mute. Five years ago, he shot to fame after knocking out his opponent in a single punch. Among those hustling the streets of the Lower District, hardly anyone was unfamiliar with the title “Ya Ge,” though very few had actually met him in person. Even if they did, they would find it hard to connect him with that formidable fighter known as “Ya Ge.”
Because he had a beautiful face.
Beautiful and strikingly refined, yet not delicate to the point of blurring gender lines.
—This kind of person looked more like a decorative vase than a weapon.
Of course, a single fight with him was all it took to realize just how lethal stereotypes could be. Spending more time around him would land him straight into the “do not mess with” category.
The private room door was tightly shut. Lin Xun stopped at the entrance without going inside. The junior lackey handing him a cigarette chimed in, “The person hasn’t arrived yet.”
Lin Xun lowered his head and bit down on the cigarette, though he had no intention of smoking it. Holding down the lackey’s hand as he reached for a lighter, Lin Xun turned and stood to the side of the door.
“Ge, didn’t the boss tell you to recover from your injury? Why did you still come today?” the lackey asked warmly. “I know a master who’s incredible at massage and bone-setting. Once you get the stitches out of your arm, you should go give it a try. Guaranteed to feel great.”
Lin Xun shook his head and glanced down at his phone screen.
The digital clock ticked right to 20:00, and the elevator doors opened once more with a ding. Several bodyguards stepped out first, splitting left and right to clear the path, instantly making the hallway feel heavy and cramped.
Lin Xun straightened up slightly, pressing his back tight against the wall.
The glow from his phone illuminated his face, reflecting two small, gloomy flecks of light in his eyes. Taking the cigarette out of his mouth, he stared intently at the tall figure at the center of the security detail.
The hallway was short—just a few paces—and the man passed right in front of him, flanked by the swarm of bodyguards, walking straight into the room without casting a glance to either side.
“Tsk, as expected of the young master of the Huo family. Look at that grand entrance…”
The lackey curled his lip and handed Lin Xun a Beretta pistol—fully loaded and fitted with a suppressor. “Ge, let’s head in too.”
Lin Xun took the gun, his palm damp with sweat, the cigarette long since squeezed out of shape.
Closing his eyes for two seconds to catch his composure, he tucked the gun behind his waist, pushed open the door, and walked inside.
The private room was large, carpeted with thick rugging. Lin Xun stood in an inconspicuous corner by the door.
From his vantage point, every movement and gesture of Huo Tingxiao was within his line of sight. Lin Xun stared at him without blinking—like a dutiful enemy.
Huo Tingxiao had been overseas for the past few years, keeping an extremely low profile. Lin Xun hadn’t been able to dig up a single scrap of information on him, not even a single photograph.
Compared to his high school days, the youthful air between the man’s brows had faded, replaced by a sharp edge. Just sitting there in silence, he exerted an imposing aura impossible to ignore.
A more mature, commanding Huo Tingxiao left Lin Xun feeling nervous and unfamiliar.
Though in the strictest sense, they were strangers to begin with.
If Scorpion’s container hadn’t been detained at the port this time, Lin Xun likely wouldn’t have had another chance in his lifetime to look at him from so close.
“President Huo, it’s far too difficult to get a face-to-face meeting with you. Ten days—I’ve waited a full ten days for you.” Scorpion puffed on a cigar in his hand, exhaling smoke as he teased, “Would the Alliance Chairman have to take a queue number from your secretary just to see you?”
“My apologies, I just returned and have been tied up with many matters.” Huo Tingxiao smiled, declining the cigar offered by the waiter.
“I know you’re a busy man with big affairs to handle, President Huo. Taking control of your cousin’s shipping company the moment you got back was no small move. Though your Huo family’s internal strife is none of my business, when gods clash, it shouldn’t affect us regular folk from doing business, right?” Scorpion offered a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
Huo Tingxiao smiled faintly, remaining silent.
“That batch of seafood of mine has been detained at the port and delayed from going to sea. Even with the cold storage running daily, it’s about to rot. Do me a favor, President Huo, and let my goods through tonight,” Scorpion held up three fingers. “This amount—consider it a welcome gift from your big brother here, how about it?”
Huo Tingxiao gave a faint smile: “How could I possibly accept?”
Scorpion added another finger.
Huo Tingxiao still noncommittally neither agreed nor declined.
Having his face slapped repeatedly, Scorpion’s tone darkened: “President Huo, I assumed you came to this meeting with every intention of talking real business.”
“Naturally.”
Huo Tingxiao nodded, and the assistant standing beside him immediately laid several documents on the table, sliding them over to Scorpion.
Scorpion glanced at the documents: “What is the meaning of this?”
“Huo Xu has stepped down from all his positions. The few entertainment venues he ran in partnership with you are suspended for reform starting today. I want all of your shares—at a fair price that won’t leave you empty-handed,” Huo Tingxiao said. “As for your detained batch of seafood, I will pay out the liquidated damages according to the shipping contract.”
Scorpion’s hand froze, a large chunk of ash falling off his cigar.
He sneered: “First stripping Huo Xu of his actual power, and now wanting me out of the game—can you really digest all that?”
Huo Tingxiao replied gently: “No need to trouble yourself with worry.”
The assistant brought forward a signing pen; clearly, there was no room for compromise.
Scorpion had forced plenty of unfair deals on others before, but this was the very first time he had been forced to drink at gunpoint like this.
He slowly exhaled a puff of smoke and said, “President Huo, I sincerely wanted to make you my friend, but you’re backing me into a corner. Isn’t that a bit unreasonable?”
“You have it wrong.”
Huo Tingxiao sat with his hands folded in front of him, his posture relaxed, his tone equally casual.
“If I wanted to back you into a corner, the ones sitting here tonight would be the Alliance Police Department and the Drug Administration. The business your entertainment venues are running behind closed doors, and the stuff hidden inside the guts of that detained seafood—Heaven knows, Earth knows, you know, and I know.”
“Are you threatening me?!” Scorpion’s face twisted in rage as he threw his cigar aside.
Men on both sides drew their guns, and the tension spiked to a flashpoint.
Huo Tingxiao smiled without a word, steady as a mountain, as though he weren’t the one currently being pointed at by several gun barrels.
In contrast, Lin Xun, standing a few paces away, was nervous to the point of almost forgetting to breathe.
He gripped his gun handle tight, his throat bobbing with difficulty.
With everyone currently staring at the lounge area, no one should notice where his gun barrel was aimed. If he blew Scorpion’s head off right now, would Huo Tingxiao be able to escape safely?
Just as he was caught in hesitation, Huo Tingxiao, sitting at the very center of the storm, abruptly turned his head and looked over.
A casual, understated glance.
His eyes swept over him and pulled back without lingering, so fast it was as if it had never happened—leaving no way to decipher the emotions or thoughts behind it. Yet that single glance still caused Lin Xun’s heart rate to spike, his scalp going numb.
He subconsciously lowered his head, catching sight of a stray lock of silver-gray hair falling in front of his eyes. Only then did he remember that he had already taken off his glasses, grown his hair out, and bleached it, making his image completely different from his student days.
Huo Tingxiao shouldn’t be able to recognize him.
A person who had never been remembered carried no risk of being recognized.
Lin Xun composed himself, warning himself to stay absolutely calm.
A standoff was a psychological game; whoever showed their hand first was bound to lose.
Scorpion’s leverage was firmly detained at the Huo family dock. No matter how angry he was, he could only swallow it for now.
He raised his hand and slapped away the gun held by the lackey beside him, finding a way out of the confrontation for himself: “What are you doing! What are you all doing! We’re having a proper talk here and you give me a scare like that—put them away right now!”
With that, he ran a hand through his slick, greasy hair and looked back at Huo Tingxiao.
“I can sign, but I want an extra twenty percent for damages.”
He crossed his legs, the thuggish aura of someone who had spent years hustling in the Lower District fully on display: “I have so many brothers under me to feed—I can’t just leave them out in the cold, right?”
Huo Tingxiao agreed without hesitation, signing a check on the spot.
Scorpion sneered: “Young Master Huo, you sure are generous, signing checks so casually… Did I ask for too little?”
The corners of Huo Tingxiao’s lips curved upward slightly, and the signing pen was passed to Scorpion by his assistant.
After signing the share transfer agreement, Scorpion flicked the check in his hand with his finger, offering a fake, polite invitation for a drink. Huo Tingxiao declined with a couple of brief words, rising to take his leave.
Lin Xun, standing closest to the door with his injured arm in a sling, opened the door to the private room for him with one hand.
As their shoulders brushed once again, Lin Xun heard the man say to him, “Thank you.”
The voice was gentle—a casual word of thanks born purely out of breeding and manners. Lin Xun knew very well that it contained no extra meaning, nor would Huo Tingxiao give him a second look because of it, yet his mood still brightened for a brief moment over those two simple words.
Lin Xun held the door handle, quietly watching the man walk down the hallway and step into the elevator.
Beside him, his assistant was softly reporting matters. Huo Tingxiao listened with a calm expression, betraying no emotion. A second before the elevator doors closed, he suddenly raised his eyes and looked over.
Lin Xun was still standing at the entrance of the private room, staring in the direction of the elevator with an expressionless face. His slightly long hair was bleached to a faint silver-gray, his left arm wrapped in bandages and slung across his chest. He looked thoroughly gloomy, despondent, and devoid of vitality.
Their eyes briefly met, only to be severed the very next second by the elevator doors.
The metallic sheen of the elevator doors reflected Huo Tingxiao’s face.
His assistant, Ding Jun, handed a tablet to him: “These are the drug test results just received. The contraband Scorpion hid in the seafood cold chain tested positive for Epsilon.”
After scanning the test report, a chill gathered in the depths of Huo Tingxiao’s eyes: “Keep an eye on him. Now that his supply chain is broken, the person behind him is bound to make a move.”
“Understood,” Assistant Ding put away the tablet. “That batch of seafood has already been reported to the Alliance Police Department. Director Han said he would help investigate the source and flow of the drug. He also wanted to invite you for a game of golf and asked about your schedule.”
“Decline it.”
Huo Tingxiao got into the car, leaning back in his seat as he loosened his tie. After closing his eyes to rest for a moment, he spoke again: “The one beside Scorpion…”
Ding Jun saw him point toward his hair and immediately understood: “His name is Lin Xun. He’s been working for Scorpion for the past two years, handling tasks like debt collection and payment pressing.”
“Last name Lin?”
“Yes,” Ding Jun couldn’t quite gauge the intent behind Huo Tingxiao suddenly bringing up this person. “Do you need me to check his background?”
“No need.”
Huo Tingxiao closed his eyes again, his voice fading down: “Unimportant.”
[1]【Author’s Note】
Long time no see~
Character personalities be like:
Gong: (Smiling gently) May I give you corporal punishment?
Shou: (Ears bright red) It can hurt a little more.
If this … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3064760_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3064760_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
References[+]
【Author’s Note】
Long time no see~
Character personalities be like:
Gong: (Smiling gently) May I give you corporal punishment?
Shou: (Ears bright red) It can hurt a little more.
If this isn’t your cup of tea, feel free to drop the story early to cut your losses.
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