Zhou Youlan grabbed Lao Gui by the collar and hoisted him up. “This is the second time. If you guys truly have no intention of getting along peacefully, then get lost!”
Lao Gui also reined in his mocking smile. Though he was a full head shorter than Zhou Youlan, he lifted his chin with an overbearing, aggressive air. “Whether I leave or stay, is that for you to decide?”
“Do you think I can’t handle you?” Zhou Youlan increased the pressure of his grip, tightening it until Lao Gui began to struggle for breath.
Amid the standoff, Lao Gui drew the short blade from his person.
Big Mac’s expression shifted, and he rushed forward. “Just try touching a single hair of my brother’s!”
“Ha!” Lao Gui wore a disdainful expression as he slapped away Zhou Youlan’s hand clutching his collar. “The Zhou family of today is long past what it was decades ago. Who even knows whose surname it truly bears anymore? All day long, you put on airs, posing as some ancient, noble aristocratic family with a millennium of heritage, using your family background and status to put on a front and lecture me.”
“The Zhou family’s ancestors were renowned prime ministers and scholar-officials of the Great Qi Dynasty a thousand years ago! How dare you insult our family’s reputation? Have you got a death wish?” Big Mac shouted at the top of his lungs in furious protest.
Upon hearing “Great Qi,” Wei Yan suddenly whipped his head around.
Lao Gui tapped Zhou Youlan’s chin with his short blade. Though Zhou Youlan irritably batted it away, Lao Gui remained utterly arrogant. “In my eyes, you aren’t worth a damn. Stop putting on big young master airs to lecture people.”
“Out here, I have a hundred ways to make you die without a sound, never to walk out of this place again.”
Lao Gui raised an eyebrow at Zhou Youlan in provocation. Big Mac couldn’t bear to see Zhou Youlan take such abuse; he raised his hand and threw a punch straight at Lao Gui. But Lao Gui was no pushover either. He dodged the punch, countered by pulling out his short blade, and slashed right toward their faces.
Zhou Youlan hurriedly yanked Big Mac back, throwing himself forward to block them instead. Just as the blade tip was about to graze his face, a bamboo arrow pierced through the air, grazing Lao Gui’s arm and knocking the knife straight down into the water.
Lao Gui hissed in pain, clutching the wound that had been torn open to the flesh, and turned his head around with a glare of bitter hatred.
It was Wei Yan again!
Seeing that arrow embed itself firmly right beside Wang Ren’s foot, with blood still staining the edge of the bamboo sliver, Zhou Youlan felt a surge of lingering terror.
Wei Yan strode forward through the water. His drenched clothes clung to his frame, outlining his broad shoulders and narrow waist, while the muscles in his arms highlighted his lean, powerful build. Water droplets rolled down his face, making the small mole between his eyebrows look even more seductively crimson.
He arrived in front of Zhou Youlan, shielding Zhou Youlan and the others behind him.
“Damn it!” Lao Gui gritted his teeth, consumed with hatred. “You bastard, you’re hopelessly addicted to poking your nose into other people’s business! Have you got a death wish too? What the hell does me dealing with him have to do with you?”
Having been threatened once before by Wei Yan pressing a knife to his neck, Lao Gui had been harboring a grudge ever since. He never expected Wei Yan to meddle multiple times today, even drawing blood from him.
Wei Yan lowered his gaze slightly, looking down at Lao Gui with cold indifference as he spoke in a frigid tone, “If you dare touch him, go ahead and try.”
Lao Gui gripped his short blade and lunged toward Wei Yan’s neck. Abandoning all restraint, he struck with lethal intent. Although his fingers had been injured by Wei Yan earlier, his movements remained vicious and swift, completely different from the posture he had used against Zhou Youlan just moments ago. This time, he was determined to deal Wei Yan a ruthless, fatal blow, evidently having developed a genuine, deep-seated hatred for him.
Seeing the near-manic fury in Lao Gui’s eyes, Zhou Youlan’s heart sank. Brawling and shouting arguments was one thing, but escalating to lethal violence with weapons was entirely unacceptable.
He wanted to pull Wei Yan back to prevent the situation from deteriorating further, but before he could make a move, Wei Yan reversed his bow, lifting it to forcefully deflect Lao Gui’s knife-wielding wrist, while simultaneously pivoting the branch end to whip Lao Gui across the face.
Lao Gui’s head rang from the blow, and a red welt instantly bloomed across his cheek where he had been struck.
Before Lao Gui could even recover, Wei Yan slipped the bowstring over Lao Gui’s neck, twisting the branch-made bow body around in a full circle. The bowstring locked firmly around Lao Gui’s head, leaving him nowhere to hide.
Everyone thought Wei Yan was merely trying to intimidate him, but then he forced Lao Gui down into the water, violently yanking the bow back behind him. The sudden tension caused Lao Gui’s eyes to bulge wide, and his neck and face instantly flushed with an unnatural, congested crimson.
Lao Gui thrashed about in a near-death struggle, churning the water into violent waves. With a cold and gloomy expression, Wei Yan slowly cast a sideways glance toward Wang Ren on the bank, while refusing to slacken his grip an inch, instead pulling it tighter and tighter.
“Big brother…”
Lao Gui’s voice grew so hoarse it was almost gone. Unable to break free, his eyes began to roll back into his head, leaving him to desperately turn his head toward Wang Ren for help.
The onlookers watched in terrified astonishment, entirely forgetting to intervene, or perhaps simply paralyzed by fright at the sight of Wei Yan.
Seeing his comrade suffer such humiliation at Wei Yan’s hands, Ah Hu grew anxious and wanted to step in, but Wang Ren beat him to it.
Wang Ren hurled his dagger directly at the bowstring locked around Lao Gui’s neck. But before the blade could sever the cord, Wei Yan exerted a sudden, brutal burst of force, dragging Lao Gui down into the river like a helpless chick as the bowstring snapped.
Gasping for a lungful of air, Lao Gui instinctively sucked in a greedy breath, only to choke on the river water, gagging and suffocating as though he might drown at any second.
The rest of the group held their breath, none of them daring to make a single move.
Only Ah Hu jumped into the water, timely hauling Lao Gui back to the bank and presenting him to Wang Ren, before quickly diving back in to retrieve the knives and blades they had dropped.
With Wang Ren on the bank and Wei Yan in the water, Wang Ren technically held the higher vantage point, yet Wei Yan’s upward, icy glare carried an even more overbearing arrogance.
A bowstring woven from vines could only withstand so much tension, a fact both Wang Ren and Wei Yan understood.
Yet Wei Yan’s actions served as a clear warning: stop provoking him repeatedly, because he possessed the capability to ensure they never got another chance to offend or cross him again.
Wang Ren naturally understood this as well. But suddenly, he discovered another fascinating detail.
When people witness animals or fellow humans on the brink of death, feelings of pity and cowardice usually arise spontaneously, amplified infinitely during the process. Even among heavily trained killers, very few could maintain such absolute calmness of emotion while choking someone’s neck and counting down their final moments.
There was a reek of blood about Wei Yan that none of these other good-for-nothings possessed, a scent identical to their own.
Wei Yan was definitely no ordinary person.
“If you dare touch another hair on his head, the next thing to snap will be your necks.”
Wei Yan remained expressionless and aloof, yet no one dared to suspect his warning was an empty threat.
If there was a next time, he would truly kill.
Hearing Wei Yan’s warning, a sudden smirk broke across Wang Ren’s gloomy face.
“Oh?” Wang Ren drew out the tail end of his syllable with deep, hidden meaning. “Well, that certainly gives me something to look forward to.”
Wei Yan’s detached yet vicious ruthlessness was truly striking. He was very much like a stunning, carnivorous flower in the forest, one whose mere mention filled people with dread, cold and alluring yet steeped in danger, stirring an uncontrollable desire to conquer him.
He liked it so much.