(Note: there was a Chapter 45 before this one. Did everyone see it? This silly author messed up the chapter posting time...)
"Hua Jian? Do you know who he is? How dare you hit him? Cui Zhao, Cui Zhao, are you okay?"
Shu Yao's shrill fussing immediately made Hua Jian's temples throb.
"Shut the fuck up!"
Shu Yao's eyes widened in disbelief!
A mere young bartender dared to act this arrogantly just because he had latched onto Bo Lin!
"Hua Jian, you've crossed Cui Zhao. You're dead!"
"Keep running your mouth and I'll cut your tongue out!"
Hua Jian crouched to check on Xie Zhiyan. "Third Brother, Xie Zhiyan, don't sleep. Open your eyes and look at me."
Xie Zhiyan actually woke at his call. "You, you..."
"Looks like you won't die."
Hua Jian sank to the floor, shaken by lingering fear, only to notice that Xie Zhiyan was already trying to move his eyes around to find Shu Yao.
He really might as well have died.
[Xie Zhiyan really is one of the biggest fucking idiots in the world. Cui Zhao beat you half to death, and Shu Yao didn't even try to stop him. I hit Cui Zhao to save you, but Shu Yao was worried I'd beat Cui Zhao to death instead.]
[Fucking idiot, Xie Zhiyan! Cui Zhao is ruthless and twisted. He ruins the families of every single one of Shu Yao's pursuers.]
[Poor Xie Zhiwei and Xie Zhitan. Such promising young men, yet because of Xie Zhiyan, Cui Zhao targets them and trips them up behind the scenes countless times.]
[Sigh. His family will fall apart because of him, and Xie Zhiyan, the one who started it all, will be tortured to death in a psychiatric hospital. I suppose that's fate.]
Xie Zhiyan had never taken Hua Jian's words to heart, but for some reason, this time it felt as though a piece of the hard stone inside his heart had shattered.
When he had been beaten just now, he had been utterly powerless to fight back.
Afraid Shu Yao would look down on him, he had even stolen a few glances at him.
Shu Yao had not looked at him once.
"Boo-hoo... Brother, it hurts so much."
Xie Zhiyan suddenly began to sob like a child.
Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside.
A group of men dressed in black suddenly barged in, and Hua Jian's expression changed.
Faint tattoos were visible on their exposed skin. They radiated menace, their bulging muscles seeming ready to burst through their clothes.
Bo Lin looked displeased and lowered his head to send a message.
"Boss! Boss, are you okay?"
The men in black were Cui Zhao's henchmen.
"Who hit our boss? Got a death wish? Do you know who our boss is? Fucking tell us who did it! I'll kill him!"
"Talk! If you don't, we'll smash this whole place!"
Shu Yao's voice was cold and sinister. "He hit Cui Zhao."
His finger pointed straight at Hua Jian.
All the hurt bottled up inside Xie Zhiyan burst its banks at that moment, and he squeezed his eyes shut.
"Who the hell do you think you are, causing trouble in my establishment and threatening to smash it? I'm Bo Lin."
Shu Yao's expression turned ugly. How could this be? This place belonged to Bo Lin?
"President Bo, everyone's here," Cui Peng said gravely as he came in.
"Where are the police and the ambulance? They should both be two streets away."
"What? They called the police?"
"Second Brother, what do we do?"
Humiliated and furious, the man leading them strode forward to teach Bo Lin a lesson.
Startled, Cui Peng immediately moved to shield Bo Lin.
But someone else moved faster. The slender art teacher, Hua Jian, grabbed a chair and swung it straight into the man.
Bo Lin stared intently at him, something dark flashing in his eyes.
The blow left the man dazed.
"Fuck them! Let's take them on!"
Hua Jian kicked the door hard. "See that courtyard? Dozens of bodyguards are waiting for you out there. Let's see how you take them on! The police will be here in two minutes. Not a single fucking one of you is getting away, including Cui Zhao!"
The men backed down again. They all had crimes hanging over their heads. Fighting and making trouble were fine, but faced with the police, they lost their nerve.
Before they could recover, police sirens and an ambulance siren sounded together.
Hua Jian let out a soft breath.
Only then did he remember Bo Lin. "Sorry for making such a mess of your place. I'll pay for anything that's damaged."
"Your hand's cut!" Bo Lin pressed his lips together and took his right hand.
A splinter from the broken chair had scraped it.
Hua Jian had not even noticed, but with Bo Lin cradling his hand so carefully, the cut suddenly felt numb and swollen.
He shuddered and abruptly pulled his hand away.
"It's fine, it's fine. A man's wounds are medals of victory."
As soon as he said it, Hua Jian's eyes widened, and he wailed inwardly: [What the fuck was that cringeworthy line I just said?!]
Bo Lin flexed his fingers and withdrew his hand naturally. "When we get to the hospital, make sure you ask a nurse to bandage it properly."
"No need to bother. It'll heal in a couple of days." Hua Jian glanced down at it, unconcerned.
Bo Lin frowned. "Your hands are so beautiful. What if it leaves a scar? Besides, you paint. Your hands are your second life. The next time something like this happens, you don't need to be the first one charging in."
"Then who should be?"
Bo Lin blurted out, "I..."
"Everyone, move aside! Who called the police? Where's the injured person?"
Hua Jian immediately looked outside and called loudly, "I called! The victim's here!"
Hua Jian accompanied Xie Zhiyan to the hospital and signed the surgery consent form as his family member.
Before long, the Xie family arrived.
Xie Zhiwei, Xie Zhitan, Madam Hua, and Xie Father had all come.
Hua Jian stood up. "Uncle Xie, Mom, Eldest Brother, Second..."
Smack!
"Aunt Hua, what are you doing?"
"Aunt Hua, Xiao Jian saved Zhi Yan today. Why are you hitting him?"
"Rouying, what are you doing? Oh, honestly!"
Madam Hua glared viciously at the boy before her. The beautiful boy merged with the man in her memory.
Beautiful and bewitching. Wherever he appeared, people would fight over him.
"Hua Jian, all those years I spent raising you were wasted! You went to a bar to do that sleazy job selling drinks, getting men to buy bottles for you. How can you be so cheap?"
"Aunt Hua, you've gone too far. Xiao Jian has a perfectly respectable job!"
Xie Zhitan's expression darkened. He stepped forward and pulled Hua Jian aside.
Madam Hua had not held back at all with that slap.
A clear red handprint now marked Hua Jian's fair face.
"Are you okay?" He frowned as he studied Hua Jian, growing increasingly displeased with Madam Hua.
As a mother, she was appallingly harsh toward her own child.
Hua Jian had been quiet and cautious for so many years. Now that he had finally become a little livelier, Madam Hua was resorting to her old ways again.
"I'm fine, Second Brother." Hua Jian kept his eyes half lowered. "Third Brother was having dinner with Shu Yao when Cui Zhao ran into them. Cui Zhao is Cui Chengming's godson and has some underworld connections."
"I happened to be eating next door when they started fighting, so I called the police and an ambulance."
As he spoke, he looked at Xie Zhiwei. "Eldest Brother, be careful. Cui Zhao takes revenge over the slightest offense, and he has all sorts of shady connections."
"Your hand..."
"It's nothing," Hua Jian said, unconcerned. "They're still waiting for me to give a statement at the Police Station, so I'll go now."
With that, he said goodbye to Xie Father and strode away.
As for Madam Hua, her son had not spared her a single glance the entire time.
Her expression darkened as she sank onto a bench.
Before you continue