Do your parents know?

Yuan Qirui's face nearly turned green. He hadn't expected Yan Ningke to actually ask him for the money.

"Yan Ningke, have you lost your mind?"

"Yep."

Yan Ningke nodded without hesitation.

Yuan Qirui choked, his expression ugly.

"Pfft!"

The others had long since noticed their argument.

The man sitting comfortably in the center of the couch had an arm draped over his female companion's shoulders. He looked at Yan Ningke with mocking eyes. "Think you've found yourself a ladder to heaven, so now you're too good for your fellow brothers in misery?"

A blond beside him played along. "Oh? What ladder to heaven? Why not put in a good word for your brothers, Young Master Yan? That's not very decent of you!"

Jeers rose all around them.

Yan Ningke didn't spare them a glance. He stubbornly pulled up his payment QR code and shoved it in front of Yuan Qirui's face.

"Hurry up. I'm busy."

Hearing Second Young Master Ren speak, Yuan Qirui seized the opportunity. "Yan Ningke, didn't you hear Second Young Master talking to you?"

"Oh, don't!"

The man in the center of the couch lounged idly. "He belongs to that Young Master Shao now. How would I dare show off in front of Young Master Yan? You give me too much credit!"

"Well, well, what powerful patron has Young Master Yan landed? Let your brothers hear all about it!"

Another man, who had been sitting silently at the edge, smiled contemptuously. "That exiled disabled fellow from the Shao family. Eldest Young Master Shao, of course."

"Pfft, Shao the Cripple! Now that's impressive."

The blond cackled.

Yuan Qirui's previously dark expression changed instantly. He looked Yan Ningke up and down with mocking eyes. "I was wondering why Young Master Yan was so confident. Turns out he thinks he has someone backing him."

"That's hilarious. With a cripple backing you, aren't you afraid you'll end up crippled too? Hahaha!"

The people on the couch slapped the table and roared with laughter, as though they'd heard some great joke.

Yan Ningke turned his head, his gaze settling on Second Young Master Ren in the center of the couch. He stared at him unblinkingly.

This so-called Second Young Master Ren was the chief culprit who had often bullied the original owner of this body.

As luck would have it, every time things reached their worst and the original owner had nowhere to turn for help, the male lead, Shao Yang, would descend from the heavens and rescue him from his plight.

And so the original owner had come to regard Shao Yang as his savior all the more.

In reality, although Shao Yang hadn't actively told Second Young Master Ren and the others to bully him, he had been more than willing to play the good guy who cleaned up afterward.

Step by step, he had made the original owner willing to go through fire and water for him.

"What? Angry? Or do you think I'm wrong?"

Second Young Master Ren grinned disdainfully at Yan Ningke.

He was brimming with malice.

His family wasn't too badly off. They ranked in the third tier of wealthy families, so it was normal for them to know a few things.

The gossip the adults didn't care about was earth-shattering news among their crowd.

Ever since receiving the news that morning, Second Young Master Ren had been thinking about how to ridicule and toy with Yan Ningke.

Why did he want to do that?

No particular reason. It was just fun.

Yan Ningke smiled. He put his phone away in his pants pocket.

"Yan Ningke, you really will do anything to climb the ladder. You couldn't get Second Young Master Shao, so you went running to serve that cripple. What a cheap slut!"

Yuan Qirui's face twisted as he kept hurling insults.

"So? Can that cripple still get it up? Can that thing of his still satisfy you-aaaah!"

Everything changed in an instant.

Yan Ningke twisted Yuan Qirui's left hand and slammed him down against the table.

He picked up the shot glasses full of liquor from the table and poured them into his mouth, one after another.

"First, you owe me money. Paying your debts is only right!"

"Second, if you can't pay, get on your knees, kowtow, and beg me to let you off!"

"Third, his legs are disabled. Your brain is!"

Second Young Master Ren and his crowd were dumbfounded.

None of them had expected a little lackey who had always bowed and scraped to suddenly lash out.

With his face pressed against the table, Yuan Qirui wanted to curse, but couldn't get his mouth free.

"Yan... gulp... you fucking idi... gulp!"

Even after emptying more than a dozen shot glasses into him, Yan Ningke still hadn't vented his anger. He grabbed a bottle from the table and poured it hard over his face.

"When I treat you like a human being, could you at least act the part? You just have to throw my decency back in my face! If you don't have a mirror at home, at least piss a puddle and look at yourself!"

"You're not even as good as this bunch of dumbasses. How dare you throw your weight around? Your brain's smaller than a melon seed, and you think you're fit to even mention Shao Ke?"

Yuan Qirui glared at Yan Ningke, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.

"What are you staring at? I'm helping you, you know? With a mouth that filthy, if I don't clean it out for you, you won't even know what killed you!"

The commotion drew the attention of everyone nearby. The music somehow stopped too, and everyone was looking their way.

Second Young Master Ren finally came to his senses and sprang to his feet. "Yan Ningke! Do you have a fucking death wish?"

The bottle was tossed onto the marble tabletop. It clattered off the edge and shattered on the floor with a crash.

The sound was piercing.

Yan Ningke released him and stepped back twice, keeping a safe distance.

His eyes were calm, as though he hadn't been the one to cause such a scene.

"Second Young Master Ren, do your parents know how arrogant you are?"

His fingers ached from gripping Yuan Qirui, and Yan Ningke flexed them. "Allow me to remind you: that cripple you're talking about has the surname Shao!"

The Shao family stood at the very top of the wealthy elite.

Even if Shao Ke had been abandoned, they wouldn't let this trash openly humiliate him.

A flicker of fear crossed Second Young Master Ren's eyes.

He wasn't afraid of Shao Ke. He was afraid of his family's punishment.

The younger generation could be foolish and gossip behind closed doors, but if things blew up, the Shao family would have to save face.

The others began to feel uneasy too.

Yuan Qirui was still sprawled on the floor coughing. He had only just recovered enough to start cursing when he was hauled up by the collar again.

"If I don't get a transfer notification by eight tomorrow morning, you can wait for a court summons."

Yan Ningke crouched down and leaned close. "Oh, right. That video you threatened me with-if I really cared, would I still be making you pay me back?"

Coughing violently, Yuan Qirui stared viciously at Yan Ningke's straight back, and a sudden flicker of fear passed through him.

He didn't know why, but the way Yan Ningke had looked at him just now had felt utterly unfamiliar.

As though he had become someone else.

Yan Ningke walked away without a care, and no one stopped him.

For one, he hadn't disrupted the peace; for another, he hadn't caused any chaos.

Everyone simply watched as he left the bar, perfectly composed.

"Tsk, Ke, that little housekeeper of yours is pretty protective of you."

Si Yanzhuo gave Shao Ke a meaningful look.

Wen Shaoyu looked a little puzzled. "That's the housekeeper? Didn't you say Shao Yang sent him?"

Shao Ke's gaze rested on the exit. He said nothing, leaving his thoughts unreadable.

Si Yanzhuo glanced at his friend and sighed. "Sometimes, what you see and hear isn't necessarily the so-called truth."

Outside the bar, Yan Ningke, who had just trounced everyone, let out a long breath.

"That scared the baby out of me!"

He patted his chest in lingering fright.

Heaven knew how terrified he had been the whole way out as he forced himself to stay calm.

He had been an orphan in his previous life, constantly roaming streets and alleys. There was no way he hadn't picked up some fighting skills.

He had never trained properly. He had merely sweet-talked an instructor into teaching him a few moves while working at a taekwondo school.

He could catch one person off guard and subdue them. Any more, and he was sure to give himself away.

Yan Ningke was immensely grateful that this bunch of rich kids weren't too bright. Otherwise, he would have been done for today.