Weakness

This way of thinking was very practical. Any problem that money could solve was no problem at all.

Of course, that depended on Sun Chuanshan being in the wrong and feeling guilty, making him willing to bleed heavily to pay for his actions.

Now that what he had done had been exposed, there was no way he could avoid paying a price.

Sun Chuanshan understood this perfectly well.

That was why he wanted to settle the matter flawlessly through compensation.

At worst, he could borrow another sum from the Black Gold Organization, or rob it from someone else. In any case, it was better than facing this young man before him, who seemed harmless to man and beast alike.

Meng Zhao parted his lips in a faint smile. His eyes gleamed as a trace of pale violet flashed through them. Shaking his head, he said,

"Young Master Sun, I came here in all sincerity to discuss this matter with you. I spoke kindly, yet you refused to listen and chose to brush Meng off like this.

"Fine. It seems that unless I use a few methods, Young Master Sun will not speak the truth."

As he spoke, Meng Zhao casually stretched out a hand, as naturally as if he were greeting a friend. Yet he seized Sun Chuanshan by the throat, fingers closing around his larynx as veins bulged across the back of his hand.

A string of Buddhist prayer beads circled his wrist, something that ought to have symbolized compassion. Yet what he did was exceptionally brutal, carrying the sense of a bodhisattva's heart coupled with thunderbolt methods.

After Meng Zhao seized Sun Chuanshan, pleading and earnest entreaty appeared in the latter's eyes, begging to be spared.

Meng Zhao's expression did not change. There was not a trace of reluctance or pity.

The force in his hand gradually increased, filling Sun Chuanshan with the suffocating sensation of imminent death. His hands clawed and flailed, his feet struggled desperately, kicking the table until it thudded and rattled.

Yet no matter what he did, he could not break free from Meng Zhao's pale, slender hand, white as a woman's.

Before the girls of Spring Welcome Pavilion who poured drinks and laughed along with the patrons, Sun Chuanshan was weak and helpless.

And now, before Meng Zhao, Sun Chuanshan was just as weak and easily bullied.

Without the protection of his family background or any retainers by his side, this so-called young master of the Sun Family was no different from an ordinary person. If his throat was crushed or he was suffocated for too long, he would die all the same.

Meng Zhao calmly watched as tears and snot streamed across Sun Chuanshan's flushed face in his grasp. A thrill of violence spread through his heart. Holding another person's life and death in one's palm truly was an exhilarating thing.

But Meng Zhao knew Sun Chuanshan could not be killed—not by him, at least.

Thus, just when Sun Chuanshan believed his life was forfeit and sank into despair, Meng Zhao abruptly released him.

Sun Chuanshan's chest heaved and shuddered violently like a bellows being worked, gulping down oxygen in huge breaths. His tear-streaked eyes were filled with the joy and relief of surviving.

Having never experienced suffocation, he had never known that freely breathing air could be such a wonderful thing.

"Young Master Sun, Meng's temper is not very good. This is merely a small warning.

"If you still refuse to cooperate, next time I will not let you off so easily."

Before Meng Zhao had even finished speaking, Sun Chuanshan, sprawled before the table and gasping desperately, was once again filled with terror.

This time, he no longer dared to assume that his status would make Meng Zhao wary, nor could he guarantee his own safety. So he immediately yielded.

"I surrender, Young Master Meng. Whatever you say goes. Ask anything you wish; I will tell you everything I know, without holding back a word."

From any angle, Sun Chuanshan was not a person of unyielding character, one who would rather die than submit. Faced with threats of death again and again, he no longer dared to conceal anything.

A smile bloomed once more on Meng Zhao's face. He refilled the cup before Sun Chuanshan and said,

"I want to know everything—about how you sent people to loot my estate, and how you sent people to attack me.

"Rest assured. I merely want to understand some of the truth. I will not do anything to you."

That was indeed the truth. If he had truly intended to act against Sun Chuanshan, he would not have come personally today.

Seeing this, Sun Chuanshan abandoned all hope of luck. With a bitter face, trembling and quaking, he recounted the entire affair from beginning to end.

In truth, it was largely as Meng Zhao and Lü Zhong had guessed.

Sun Chuanshan had been short of money because of his gambling habit, and he owed the Black Gold Organization a huge sum of silver, which had left him terrified.

Then, stirred up by Bai Yang, the traitorous guard, he had risked everything for the money and conceived evil intentions.

As for those men, they were a covert armed force of the Sun Family. They were currently under the command of a cousin with whom he had a good relationship. Only after paying a certain price had he been able to borrow them and pull off this job.

As for the attack on Meng Zhao, Sun Chuanshan had mainly been carried away by how smoothly things had gone. He had thought of kidnapping Meng Zhao and extorting another sum from him.

That was why the group at noon had wanted to capture Meng Zhao rather than kill him.

Meng Zhao inwardly thought, Just as expected. This fool only watched his head and forgot his ass—he would help count the money even after being sold off.

Then he asked what he most wanted to know.

"Where is Bai Yang now? And where are the men you sent? Tell me, and I will not make things difficult for you."

Sun Chuanshan hesitated upon hearing this.

"Well... after that night, Bai Yang took a sum of money and disappeared.

"I do not know where he went.

"As for those men, they are all under my cousin. They informed me today that the job had failed, then returned.

"If you want to find them, you will have to find my cousin.

"But he is different from me. He is extremely talented in martial arts and highly valued by Grandfather.

"If anything happens to him, the Sun Family will certainly not let the matter rest."

After all that, Sun Chuanshan had only given him this answer, leaving Meng Zhao deeply disappointed. His gaze grew increasingly cold.

"Is that all? That is not what I wanted to hear.

"I will ask you one last time. Where is Bai Yang? Where are those men? Tell me, and I will find them myself.

"I will handle the rest on my own. It has nothing to do with you."

The reason Meng Zhao was so eager to find Bai Yang and those men was to determine whose hands the Earth Spirit Pearl was currently in.

Although Bai Yang was the more likely possibility, he could not rule out the chance that those thieves had conveniently pocketed it.

This time, Sun Chuanshan was truly out of options. After thinking for a moment, he rose from his chair, then dropped to both knees with a thud before Meng Zhao and begged,

"Young Master Meng, Lord Meng, Grandfather Meng.

"I truly do not know! Even if you force me to death, I still cannot find them now.

"To put it plainly, we merely took a few things from you and killed a few people. We were not much of a threat to you personally. Why must you wipe us out to the last?"

Sun Chuanshan's real dilemma was not Bai Yang. Whether that man lived or died had nothing to do with him.

What he feared was that something would happen to the men he had borrowed from his cousin.

After all, in his eyes, Meng Zhao had become infinitely close to a great demon king—there was nothing he would not dare to do, and he was viciously underhanded.

If this matter grew too large and his family learned of what he had done, then this time, even if he did not die, he would be as good as dead.