"I advise you to stay out of this."
Tang Fugui's chest heaved with fury as he roared, "He's my son!"
Jiang Youtian spoke in a baffled tone. "I just don't understand. Jiang Fan isn't related to you by blood at all. Why are you so protective of him?"
"I told you! He's my son!!!" Tang Fugui clenched his fists so tightly that veins bulged, showing just how furious he was.
"Move!" Tang Fugui shoved Jiang Youtian aside, only to seize Jiang Youtian hard by the wrist the next second.
How could an ordinary man like him stand against Jiang Youtian, an early-stage martial apprentice? No matter how he struggled, he couldn't break free.
Watching Jiang Hongyuan and the others bully Jiang Fan, Tang Fugui was as frantic as an ant on a hot pan.
"Let go! Jiang Youtian, let go of me!!"
Jiang Youtian lowered his voice. "Old man, you'd better stay still, or I'll beat you!"
Tang Fugui's eyes went wide and round. It took him a long while to find his voice. "You-you said what? You're going to-going to hit me?"
"So what if I hit you?" Jiang Youtian admitted it openly, then threatened, "I'm telling you, if my dad, mom, and sisters weren't here, and I didn't want to leave them with the impression of me beating my biological father, I would've hit you already."
"You! I! I-" Tang Fugui struggled for a long time without managing a single complete sentence. As he looked at Jiang Youtian, the disbelief in his eyes gradually turned to anger, then profound disappointment, and finally the look one gave a stranger.
Jiang Hongyuan and her three sisters were still tearing at Jiang Fan, looking so venomous that they seemed to want to devour him alive, skin him, and rip him to pieces.
Jiang Fan clenched his fists, the chill in his eyes already frozen three feet deep.
"Get the hell away from me!" He suddenly unleashed his strength, flinging all four sisters away in an instant.
One slammed into a utility pole, one crashed into a trash can, one landed flat on her back with her limbs in the air, and one flew into the landscaped strip.
"Ow, it hurts... my face... my ass..." For a moment, groans filled the air.
Seeing this, Xue Ping, who had been hiding inside the villa without coming out, ran outside, shouting as she went.
"Jiang Fan, how can you be so heartless! They're your own sisters! How could you treat them like this?"
Faced with the accusations of his biological mother, Xue Ping, Jiang Fan only replied coldly, "Sisters? Heh. Just a pack of rabid dogs."
Hearing this, Jiang Hongyuan and her three sisters all glared at Jiang Fan, gnashing their teeth.
Xue Ping's eyes were also filled with disbelief and disappointment.
Jiang Qifeng was even more indignant. "To say something so utterly disrespectful-you really are the little beast I called you!"
Facing those angry or disappointed gazes and hearing those vile words, Jiang Fan remained unmoved, his emotions not rippling in the slightest.
Because he was used to it.
Tang Fugui, who had witnessed everything, was deeply shaken, and his heart ached terribly for Jiang Fan.
At that moment, he finally understood why Jiang Fan would rather die than return to this family.
"Xiao Fan, let's go home."
Hearing those words, Jiang Fan felt a faint ache in his heart. He smiled, warmth filling his heart as a warm wetness gradually welled up in his eyes.
"Mm, okay."
The two turned to leave.
"Stop!" Jiang Qifeng bellowed.
"What do you take the Jiang Family for? Somewhere you can come and go as you please? I'm telling you, this isn't a place where you can run wild! You think you can just leave after hitting people? Guards!"
At his words, seven or eight bodyguards rushed out and surrounded Jiang Fan and Tang Fugui.
Tang Fugui looked around anxiously. His own life wasn't worth much; if they beat him, so be it. But not Jiang Fan. He still had to apply for the martial track. Nothing could happen to him.
Just then, Jiang Fan's voice rang out, calm as still water. "Dad, don't worry. Everything will be fine."
How could everything be fine? Tang Fugui knew Jiang Fan was no longer the same as before, but he had only just become an early phase martial apprentice. His strength was limited.
Besides, there were so many of them. Two fists couldn't fend off four hands. Xiao Fan would definitely get the worst of it if he fought them.
If he were injured or crippled, his martial examination would go completely down the drain.
At that thought, a resolute expression appeared on Tang Fugui's face.
"Xiao Fan, I'll find a way to hold them off. Run!"
Jiang Fan could tell that Tang Fugui was prepared to face certain death to win him a sliver of a chance at survival.
"Want to run? Think it'll be that easy?" Jiang Qifeng smiled coldly, then swept his hand. "All of you, get them! Beat them hard! Especially Jiang Fan-break his legs!"
His words had barely fallen, and the bodyguards had yet to act, when the sound of a police car approached from the distance.
Everyone's attention was immediately drawn toward it.
Soon, a police car pulled up and stopped outside the Jiang Family's gates.
Two bodyguards in matching uniforms got out. One looked about forty, while the other looked very young, in his late twenties at most.
These two were none other than Old Wu and Xiao Qian, the constables who had previously investigated the theft at Chen Wenhua's home.
"Who called the police?"
At those words, the members of the Jiang Family exchanged looks.
Jiang Fan silently raised his hand. "I did."
Hearing this, everyone in the Jiang Family glared at Jiang Fan with astonishment and hatred.
Tang Fugui opened his mouth. "Xiao Fan, you called the police?"
Jiang Fan nodded. "I called ahead when I was on my way here."
Only then did Tang Fugui belatedly understand Jiang Fan's earlier words. No wonder Jiang Fan had said everything would be fine. He had made preparations in advance.
Old Wu walked up to Jiang Fan and saw injuries all over the boy's face and body: scratches, bites, and red, swollen bruises from hard pinches. Against the boy's fair skin, they looked shockingly gruesome.
He could hardly imagine what sort of violence this young child had suffered before he arrived.
He had a child of his own. Though his daughter was only five, far younger than Jiang Fan, he was a parent too. Seeing someone else's child suffer so much inevitably made his heart ache.
"Who hit you?"
Jiang Fan looked toward Jiang Hongyuan and the others. Following his gaze, Old Wu saw Jiang Qifeng and his family gnashing their teeth.
In fact, when they arrived just now, they had seen that group of bodyguards in sunglasses about to attack Jiang Fan.
"Why did you attack him?"
Faced with the constable's question, Jiang Hongyuan was the first to step forward. Pointing at Jiang Fan, she shouted shrilly, "It was this little beast, Jiang Fan! First he disrespected my dad, then he attacked us! It's him! He's the one guilty of every unforgivable evil! Hurry up and arrest him! Let him rot in prison!"
Jiang Chengyuan and the others all pointed at Jiang Fan too.
"That's right, it was him! Arrest him!"
"Arrest him! Put him through some harsh reform!"