Settling Personal Grudges

For the next half month or so, Shi Junyi was run ragged with company matters, leaving before dawn and returning after dark.

Jiang Qiao spent all day at the training grounds. Not only had his marksmanship improved by the day, but he had also begun underwater combat training.

He could not swim. Choking on water alone had nearly cost him half his life, and when he ran to Shi Junyi in the middle of the night for comfort, he found no one there.

It left him in an extremely irritable state of mind.

"Are you insane?" Sang Ye's shoulder blade had nearly been dislocated after Jiang Qiao stomped down with a split kick in the fighting arena.

"You fucking snitched on me!" Jiang Qiao cursed.

Sang Ye froze at first, a flicker of unease rapidly passing through his heart. He quickly calmed down again. He had not made a move yet, much less exposed himself. No one could possibly know he was undercover.

But that brief hesitation was enough for Jiang Qiao to lock his throat again, violently flip him over, and slam him into the ground.

Sang Ye had no idea what was going on. "What did I snitch about?!"

"You know damn well!"

"I don't! Spell it out!"

Jiang Qiao punched him squarely in the right cheek. "I fucking said a few words to the young master, and you went and tattled!"

Another punch followed. "And you fucking followed me!"

Then another. "And you fucking timed me with a stopwatch!"

Early that morning, Shi Junyi had gone to the airport with Shi Xiao'an. Their destination had been kept secret before departure, and until they landed, no one aside from the relevant personnel knew where he had gone.

He had not taken a single one of his own men with him. They had all been given the day off.

At that moment, Chen Sheng stood beside the fighting ring, listening to Jiang Qiao curse indirectly at someone while watching his fists continuously pound into Sang Ye's face. His eyelids twitched wildly.

Jiang Qiao had become notorious in the fighting arena lately. Aside from the few people around Shi Xiao'an and Su Min, including Zhao Xu, he had never gone after anyone.

Pretty much everyone else had suffered at his hands.

A hero's origins did not matter. Every one of these bodyguards had their own past, and anyone selected to enter the Shi family estate undoubtedly possessed exceptional abilities.

None of them were useless pretty faces.

But there were very few like Jiang Qiao, who had been treated as a money-making machine since he could remember.

After being honed through inhumane methods, he had spent years growing up in the ring, fighting for his life every day without regard for rain or shine.

Besides, Jiang Qiao truly had exceptional talent for fighting. At present, not a single person in the Shi family's fighting arena dared claim they could definitely overpower him.

On top of that, Jiang Qiao had been sexually frustrated and in a bad mood these past two days. Before Sang Ye stepped into the ring today, he had merely bumped into Jiang Qiao on purpose, but that was enough to hit the muzzle of the gun.

Jiang Qiao immediately pinned Sang Ye's original opponent in place, cut in line, and vaulted into the ring.

Listening to Jiang Qiao's accusations, Sang Ye had no idea when he had ever done any of those things.

The sudden, undeserved disaster left him completely stunned.

It was not until an unfamiliar white coach at the fighting arena pulled Jiang Qiao off him that he got the chance to turn his head and spit out blood mixed with half a molar. He lay there for a long while before finally climbing up and leaving the ring.

"Jiang Qiao, settling personal grudges. One thousand push-ups!" The coach grabbed Jiang Qiao by the collar and shouted.

The Shi family's bodyguards had rules. For several explicitly prohibited offenses, coaches had the authority to punish those who violated the rules according to regulations.

But Jiang Qiao remembered that [settling personal grudges] was not among those offenses.

Besides, they were in the fighting arena. Sang Ye could have admitted defeat if he could not win. He himself had stubbornly refused to cry surrender, so what the hell was this coach going on about?

Jiang Qiao leaned back slightly, frowned, and pressed down on the man's wrist, removing his hand from his collar.

"Now?"

"Now." The coach glared angrily at Jiang Qiao.

First, Jiang Qiao was not a soldier. If he obediently accepted discipline, he would not be Jiang Qiao.

Second, Sang Ye had originally been a poisonous snake lurking at Shi Junyi's side.

Although he had yet to make a move, once he began waiting for an opportunity to act, Shi Junyi's life would be at risk.

Jiang Qiao looked at the white coach and felt that he was protecting Sang Ye. With a mentality of rather killing the wrong person than letting one go, he had already classified this man as Sang Ye's accomplice.

He tilted his head and curled his lips. "Want to make a bet?"

The coach stared at Jiang Qiao. "What trick are you trying to pull?"

Jiang Qiao wiped the sweat from his forehead and said teasingly, "Let's see whether I can beat you flat. If you win, I'll do two thousand push-ups right here."

"If you lose..."

He met the coach's gaze. His peach-blossom eyes curved beautifully as he enunciated each word. "Get the fuck out of the Shi family."

Any man would find it hard to swallow that provocation in front of so many people.

Much less a superior being publicly humiliated by a subordinate.

At those words, the coach immediately took off his jacket and tossed it out of the ring, exposing his knotted, powerful arm muscles. He assumed a standard fighting stance and beckoned to Jiang Qiao.

"Come!"

One look at his stance told Jiang Qiao that this man had either served in the military or was a professional in a related field.

Those were exactly the kind of people he feared least.

A flurry of wild punches could kill an old master. Someone like Jiang Qiao, who had fought in underground rings, did not play by the rules at all.

He retreated, using the high elasticity of the ring ropes to launch himself forward. He leaped, spun, and delivered a roundhouse kick straight into the coach's side of the face.

He was so fast that no one had time to react.

Who opened a match by immediately using their ultimate move?

The coach took Jiang Qiao's kick before he could even show what he was capable of. Only his extremely steady footing kept him from collapsing right at the start.

He reacted quickly without panicking. Taking advantage of Jiang Qiao's unsteady footing just after landing, he threw a punch.

Jiang Qiao could not dodge in time. He turned sideways and took it head-on, pain shooting through his arm.

The two exchanged blows, both holding back anger, striking harder and more ruthlessly than the other.

Every onlooker had their heart in their throat.

A former mercenary instructor who had fought Jiang Qiao in the ring once before also came over, craning his neck as he stood beside Chen Sheng.

"Brother Dong, what do you think?" Chen Sheng asked, stroking his chin.

His scouting and marksmanship were top-notch, but close combat was his weak point. He knew he could not last three exchanges against Jiang Qiao.

Da Dong clicked his tongue. "Tsk, tsk. That kid's improved again in such a short time. With that vicious streak of his, that idiot's in for a beating."

Chen Sheng tipped his chin toward the white coach, then shot Da Dong a questioning look.

He was asking whether the man belonged to Su Min's side.

The white coach had not been there long, and Chen Sheng had only visited the fighting arena a limited number of times. Without Shi Junyi's orders, he had not paid much attention to these matters.

Da Dong gave a slight nod, confirming Chen Sheng's guess.

In the brief instant their gazes met, the wager in the ring had already entered its final stage.

Using an extremely complex, tricky, and unconventional hold, Jiang Qiao locked the white coach firmly to the mat.

His left arm choked the man's neck. The force he was using was evident from the bulging veins on his own forehead and the coach's face, which had already turned the color of pig liver.

The coach could not move. After struggling fruitlessly for ten seconds, he finally made the gesture of surrender before his breathing was completely cut off.

Jiang Qiao released him and leaned against the ring ropes. He touched the cheekbone that had been accidentally struck, then spat the bloody froth from his mouth.

As though he could not feel the injuries on his own body, he looked at the white coach lying on the ground and smiled with wild, arrogant abandon.

"Get lost, idiot."