The voices of several people discussing in the restaurant grew louder and louder, as if no one else was around, with no intention of avoiding being overheard.
During this time, there were already quite a few people dining, and most of the tables were occupied.
Their voices were neither too loud nor too soft, drawing frequent glances from those seated nearby.
It was clear that they were quite close to Ye Fei’s table.
Upon hearing her own name, Ye Fei looked over—only a fish tank separated them.
At the round table over there sat three men and two women, all in their early twenties. Just from their attire, it was obvious they came from well-off families.
“Boss, those people are from families with business ties to the Ye family. The woman in the red dress sitting in the middle is called Fang Zhizi, and she seems to be on very good terms with Ye Yanqiu,” Jing Chu explained to Ye Fei.
Before entering the Ye family, he had thoroughly investigated Ye Yanqiu’s social connections.
“The guy with the crew cut next to her is Sun Ye, and the one in the blue shirt is Lin Mu.”
The reason Jing Chu remembered these people was simple—they all seemed to be close friends of Ye Yanqiu, often seen together.
The voices from that table grew even louder, and their words became increasingly harsh.
“Now that Ye Qingyuan is in charge of the Ye family, if the Zhi family really wants to choose a daughter-in-law, shouldn’t they pick his daughter? Instead of choosing well-educated young ladies like Ye Yanxia or Ye Yanqiu, they’d rather pick a beggar who’s been wandering outside for so many years?”
As she spoke, Fang Zhizi flicked her wavy hair over her shoulder, her gaze boldly fixed on the girl in the wheelchair across from her.
The provocation was unmistakable.
“A cripple in a wheelchair really has no self-awareness. Someone like her should have starved to death outside long ago. Now that she’s finally returned to the Ye family, she should keep her head down and live meekly. How dare she stand out and steal the spotlight? Isn’t she afraid of having her hands broken one day?”
Jing Chu, with his fiery temper, was about to rush over when someone stopped him.
“Take it easy. Why are you still so impatient?” Chu Xi said casually, taking a sip of red wine.
“Boss, let me go tear their mouths apart,” Jing Chu said to Ye Fei.
How dare they insult his boss like that? He had to go over and strangle them.
Ye Fei fiddled with her phone and glanced at him. “You must never give others a reason to criticize you. I’ve taught you for so long, yet you’re still so impulsive.”
Hearing her words, Jing Chu patiently waited by her side.
Seeing her remain unmoved, the people at the other table grew even louder, almost as if they were openly mocking her.
It seemed they were certain she wouldn’t dare do anything.
Fang Zhizi took out her phone, recorded a video of the scene, and sent it out, signaling the others to continue.
“Hey, have you heard?” the person next to Sun Ye leaned in and said, “I heard that Ye Qingcheng’s death back then was suspicious. Many people suspect he didn’t die by accident but was killed by his own brother.”
“Really? Then shouldn’t Ye Fei run for her life? If her own uncle could kill her father, would he really be willing to share the wealth he seized with her? A cripple in a wheelchair might just be killed off at any moment…”
In wealthy families, any bond can shatter in the face of profit.
Back when Ye Qingcheng died at the peak of his success, it was enough to fill Jiangcheng with endless gossip.
Although his death was ruled an accident, it was quickly followed by Ye Qingyuan taking control of the Ye Group’s headquarters.
Ye Qingcheng’s wife fled, his daughter went missing, and all his nominal heirs vanished.
Thus, this case became one that the upper circles of Jiangcheng society refused to speak of.
Who would have thought that after so many years, at this critical moment, Ye Qingcheng’s daughter would actually return.
This was bound to stir up quite a commotion.
“But how did I hear that Ye Qingcheng was killed by his own wife?”
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone—whether eavesdropping or not—was shocked.
Fang Zhizi glanced at the person opposite her, who remained motionless. Confidently, she sent a message to Ye Yanqiu over there.
She had said it all along—a disabled girl raised in the countryside, who had never seen the world, could only endure even if someone trampled all over her.
“What’s the story behind that?”
“Ye Qingcheng’s death was suspicious back then. I heard his wife had someone on the side, so she killed him. Didn’t she run away afterward…”
“What a promiscuous woman. Like mother, like daughter—this Ye Fei doesn’t seem like an easy one either.”
“With a face like that and being disabled, who knows how she survived these fifteen years outside. She’s probably nothing but a whore.”
Their words grew increasingly harsh and offensive.
Most people in this world are much the same—if the wound isn’t on their own body, they’ll never feel the pain.
Sun Ye flicked his cigarette ash with a smile and spoke leisurely, “If I were her, I wouldn’t have come back. Never mind whether Ye Qingyuan would try to kill her—even if she returned, she’d have to live under someone else’s roof and beg for a living. How shameful…”
The person across from him laughed but quickly stopped. Following his stunned gaze, Sun Ye turned to look.
A boy with silver-streaked hair swung a baseball bat mercilessly and brought it down hard.
“I’ve put up with you all long enough! If I don’t break one hand for each of you today, I’ll write my surname Jing backward!”
In an instant, glasses shattered, people scrambled and screamed, and those sarcastic, cutting remarks turned into panicked cries for help.
The few who had been speaking earlier were knocked to the ground by Jing Chu in just a few moves, and even the security guards who came to restore order were not spared.
Seeing this, Chu Xi scoffed. Jing Chu had genuinely crawled out from a pile of corpses—how could these pampered, privileged second-generation heirs compare?
“Weren’t you just saying we should endure for a bit?” Chu Xi looked at the person sipping juice.
Ye Fei stirred the fruit pulp at the bottom of her cup with a straw. “When did I ever say to endure?”
Chu Xi gave her a thumbs-up. She had truly never seen this ancestor back down from a fight.
This was someone who repaid every slight—never one to swallow insults.
Jing Chu slammed Sun Ye to the ground with a single swing of his bat. A few men rushed forward but were kicked away before they could even lay a hand on him.
“Ah!!! Call the police, call the police!!” Sun Ye screamed, clutching his bloodied forehead.
The screams from across the room continued unabated, and the thick scent of blood had already drifted over to their side.
The onlooking diners nearby dared not step forward; some had already quietly distanced themselves from this trouble spot.
Fang Zhizi had retreated farthest, though Jing Chu wouldn’t strike a woman, such a scene was still overwhelming.
She was accidentally injured by a fallen companion, both hands firmly pressed onto shattered glass, bleeding profusely.
She screamed in agony on the ground, yet no one dared to come and pull her up.
Before she could struggle to rise, she was knocked back down by someone collapsing onto her, utterly disgraced.
After Jing Chu had knocked everyone down, he slammed the baseball bat heavily onto the ground.
“A bunch of weaklings pretending to be tough, you dare to speak nonsense right in front of the boss.”
If the boss hadn’t said to spare their lives, he would have killed these people.
Chu Xi pushed Ye Fei leisurely over, looking at the devastation before her and the people convulsing on the ground, she sighed.
“You brat, you hit them a bit too hard.”
Sun Ye’s position was closest to Ye Fei. He struggled to lift his head, and the person on the wheelchair only glanced down at him.
The person on the wheelchair clearly wore a smile.
Yet within those bright eyes, there unmistakably surged hidden currents.