Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

Taking on a crowd single-handed was no great feat for Yang Ce, but taking on a crowd while keeping everyone around him unharmed—that was no simple matter. Even Fang Tian himself, were he here, would have struggled to cover them all.

Now it was simply a question of whose people arrived first. Still, Yang Minlan had not the slightest worry about Bao Lin's efficiency—the man was hot-tempered by nature, and for a matter concerning Yang Juehuan he would react at once.

"Yang Ce, don't get cocky. Once my men get here, you'll be crying too late." Wei Jin had roughly gauged that Yang Juehuan was no ordinary fighter; he had no wish to clash head-on, and everything could wait until his people arrived.

Yang Xu Tang heard Wei Jin's words and burst out laughing—loud, uproarious laughter, as though he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

"You—what are you laughing at? You're finished in a minute!" Wei Jin was baffled by Yang Ce's behavior.

"I'm saying you're a fool," Yang Hengye said only after he had finished laughing. "Waiting for your men is fine and good—but before they get here, I'll give you a beating first."

"D-don't you do anything crazy—or you'll die a horrible death soon enough!" Wei Jin was suddenly frightened, his voice trembling. He was beginning to regret provoking Yang Ce with words before his own men had arrived.

"Heh." Yang Ce grinned, baring a row of gleaming white teeth. "If I don't do anything crazy now, are you planning to let me off later?"

Yang Cenbin's words dripped with such sarcasm that Wei Jin immediately dropped his head. Indeed—even if Yang Yongjin did go wild, would he himself let him off? Obviously not.

Seeing Wei Jin silent, Yang Ce gave a cold laugh. "So, you think one of us is a bigger fool than the other? I'd like to see just how horribly I'm supposed to die."

Wei Jin's expression shifted. He had seen the power of Yang Ce's kick clearly enough—Zou Ruoguang, big as he was, had been sent flying four or five meters by Yang Puqi's foot. If that landed on him, the outcome was easy to imagine. "You—you—"

"You what?" Yang Puqi glared. "I'm supposed to wait around for your men to gang up on me—better I beat you down first."

Yang Ce's reason for dealing with Wei Jin first was his fear that in the chaos to come, Wei Jin might pull some dirty trick on Chen Shutang or Liu Ting. So what Yang Ce had to do now was strangle any move the enemy might make right in the cradle.

Yang Puqi reached out and, under Wei Jin's terrified gaze, seized him by the hair and slammed him with all his strength into the door panel of the room.

With a tremendous bang, Wei Jin's entire face was covered in blood—impossible to tell whether it flowed from his nose or his forehead. He let out a shriek, clutched his head, and began rolling on the ground.

A mild concussion was probably unavoidable. Yang Cenbin had still shown mercy; had he used his full strength, the man would have been a vegetable if not dead outright—his skull might even have burst on the spot.

Seeing how ferocious Yang Ce was, Zou Ruoguang shrank trembling into the corner, the crotch of his trousers soaked through—he had clearly lost control of himself.

Liu Baoqiang stared at Yang Ce in astonishment, never imagining that the young master Yang could be so violent. A few wrong words, and he had left Wei Jin bleeding from the head, rolling endlessly on the floor and wailing without pause.

"Stop your wailing!" Yang Minlan gave Wei Jin a vicious kick. Sure enough, Wei Jin fell silent—he had simply passed out cold.

"Let's go." Yang Yongjin cast a contemptuous glance at the terror-stricken Zou Ruoguang, then spoke to Chen Shutang and Liu Baoqiang.

By now Liu Baoqiang had come to his senses too. Right—the other side had called in men. If not now, when? He quickly grabbed Liu Ting's hand and followed Yang Ce out of the room.

Zou Ruoguang was unwilling to let it go, yet he dared not voice the slightest complaint. He feared Yang Ce might turn back and give him a taste of what Wei Jin had gotten.

Earlier, Wei Jin had shut the room's door, so the classmates gathered outside had no idea what had happened within. Now, as Yang Puqi pulled the door open, they all craned to look inside—and were startled to see Wei Jin lying motionless on the floor, not knowing whether he was alive or dead.

But when they saw Yang Ce stride out with murder written across his face, these people were no fools. Though they all belonged to the faction that curried favor with Wei Jin, not one of them was about to step forward on his behalf now.

Come on—Wei Jin was already down, and nobody wanted to be the second. Who would be that stupid? So they all kept their silence and let Yang Ce and the others walk away.

But the four had barely reached the entrance of the resort when they saw a dense, dark mass of men surging toward them, murderous intent rolling off them, each clutching a long object wrapped in cloth—impossible to tell what it was.

Liu Baoqiang was startled on the spot. "Damn—Wei Jin's men are here!"

He had scarcely finished speaking when a burly man at the head of the crowd over there brandished his long object and bellowed, "I never thought I, Penbai, would be back!"

To be continued.

926. They Are Heroes of Liangshan

926. They Are Heroes of Liangshan. The moment Bao Lin received Yang Juehuan's text, he began assembling his men. The boss's safety was under threat—how could Bao Lin not be anxious? But Yang Ce had specifically instructed in the message that Bao Lin himself should not go.

After all, Bao Lin was now the head of a security company, a man of some standing in society. Better to keep his distance from this sort of rough-and-tumble business.

Still, staying out of it did not mean the job could be done sloppily. Bao Lin immediately summoned several of his most capable subordinates and asked them who would be best suited to handle the matter.

Then, prompted by one of his men, Bao Lin remembered a fellow named Zhang Penbai—a man who had come out of the Xianren Resort. He had been kicked out by the resort's owner for botching a job, and in his gloom had joined the Mingyang Security Company. He was doing well enough now, rising steadily—a figure capable of shouldering real responsibility.

He was the perfect choice. Zhang Penbai knew that stretch of terrain well, and he had a personal grudge against the Xianren Resort besides. At the thought, Bao Lin immediately phoned Zhang Penbai, who, upon receiving the order, lost no time in gathering his men and racing toward the Xianren Resort.

The better one did in the company, the higher one's position, the more one knew—and when Zhang Penbai learned that even Bao Lin held Yang Ce in awe, he secretly counted himself lucky. He had crossed Yang Ce once and was still alive and well to this day.

So when Zhang Penbai learned that this time it was Yang Ce who needed help, he hurried a squad of seasoned men straight to the Xianren Resort. The car's plates had long since been swapped for the fake ones used on jobs, so running lights and driving against traffic the whole way, he actually arrived a little ahead of Wei Jin's men.

Yang Ce was taken aback at first to see the crowd—he had not expected Wei Jin's people to arrive so fast. But once he made out the man at the head, he relaxed, and hearing Zhang Penbai's shout, he found it rather amusing. Why did it sound like something out of a tale of heroes storming a bandit's lair?

"Relax—these aren't Wei Jin's men," Yang Ce said, clapping Liu Baoqiang on the shoulder with a smile.

"That's them?" Only after hearing that these were not Wei Jin's men did Liu Baoqiang let his guard down, though he was still puzzled—how did Yang Ce know? And besides, such a gang of murderous-looking men could not help but make anyone uneasy.

"Heh, they're a band of heroes from Liangshan. When they learned Wei Jin's people were coming after us, they hurried over to help," Yang Ce said.