"Young master, the eldest young lady said to hurry up to the third floor to see her as soon as you arrived!"
As soon as Leader Zhao returned to the Drunken Immortal Tower, the waiter waiting at the door told him to go to the third floor. He thought nothing of it and went straight upstairs.
But the sight that greeted him on the third floor gave him a tremendous fright.
Every waiter and attendant in the entire restaurant had been gathered on the third floor, bustling back and forth with platters of food. Business was booming.
"Sis, business is booming! Tsk, tsk, and you're serving nothing but top-quality dishes. Which rich family came here to get fleeced?"
Leader Zhao walked curiously over to a beautiful woman and asked her. She was his eldest sister, Zhao Fengrou, a heroine whose strength was no weaker than his.
"I'm the one getting fleeced!"
Before Zhao Fengrou could answer, a middle-aged man sitting beside her spoke up, his face looking rather grim.
"Sun... father-in-law, it's you!"
Only then did Leader Zhao notice the middle-aged man. His expression changed as well; he clearly recognized him.
It was his father-in-law in name, Sun De, the proprietor of the Sun Commercial Firm!
"Dachui, the attendants said you brought that boy here?"
Zhao Fengrou pointed at Wang Hao, who was still stuffing himself with food and drink. Her expression was hostile, and her fair, delicate hands were clenched tightly, as if she could hardly resist slapping her foolish younger brother.
That was right. Dachui was Leader Zhao's name; his full name was Zhao Dachui.
Because it sounded so vulgar, he had never revealed his real name at the stronghold.
"How did he end up eating all this? Didn't I tell Uncle Wang to serve him only the cheapest steamed bread?"
Following the direction his sister pointed, Zhao Dachui's face immediately turned green. Before she could speak again, he darted forward, slapped the table in front of Wang Hao, and said in a low voice, "What are you doing, boy?"
"Leader, you're finally here! Please save me, I really can't eat another bite!"
To his surprise, Wang Hao ducked behind him as if he had seen his savior. Before Zhao Dachui could figure out what was going on, a longsword was laid against his neck.
"Drink! Keep drinking with me! If I haven't drunk to my heart's content, urp... don't even think about leaving!"
The handsome young man let out a drunken belch and shouted that he wanted to keep drinking.
"Ruonan?"
Seeing the other person at the table, Zhao Dachui was once again dumbfounded. This was his fiancée, the apple of the Sun Commercial Firm's eye, Sun Ruonan.
She was a heroine considerably stronger than he was.
His face grim, Zhao Dachui pushed aside the longsword in Sun Ruonan's hand, grabbed her wrist, and circulated his internal force to expel the alcohol from her body.
As soon as the alcohol left her body, Sun Ruonan sobered up. She was taken aback when Zhao Dachui was the first person she saw, then threw herself into his arms and cried, "Brother Zhao, you finally came to find me!"
Sun Ruonan hugged him so fiercely that even Wang Hao could hear the groaning of bones. Zhao Dachui's face turned as white as a sheet in an instant, and he was in too much pain to speak.
Wang Hao paid no attention to that, however. As if avoiding a snake or scorpion, he immediately took a big step back to put some distance between himself and Zhao Dachui. Waves of nausea swept over him, and he nearly threw up the food and wine he had just consumed.
Two grown men embracing was simply too disgusting.
He had never imagined that Leader Zhao, who often went out drinking with courtesans, was also such a beast that he went for both men and women!
"Little sister-in-law, you'd better let him go first, or you'll be a widow in a moment!"
Zhao Fengrou could no longer stand watching and stepped forward to intervene. At last, she could somewhat understand why her younger brother had fled the wedding back then.
With such a violent wife, one careless moment might get him squeezed to death someday.
There was something strange about this sister-in-law of hers. She truly had been born with divine strength; at three years old, she already possessed the strength of a grown man. As she grew older, that divine strength grew more and more terrifying.
After she began cultivating internal arts, the growth of her strength became even more unstoppable.
Back then, when the two had met through their parents' matchmaking, she had nearly crushed one of Zhao Dachui's arms. Then, on the night before the wedding, Zhao Dachui had pulled a disappearing act and only now returned.
"Ah? I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"
Only then did Zhao Ruonan notice something was wrong with her husband. She hurriedly let him go and apologized repeatedly. Seeing Brother Zhao's pale face, she was so anxious she was almost in tears.
"Don't... don't move. I threw out my back!"
Before Zhao Ruonan could help him sit down, Zhao Dachui raised a hand to stop her, his face pale. He held his aching lower back with the other hand, his face twisted in pain.
With a wife like that, how could he not have fled the wedding?
If he really got intimate with such a wife on their wedding night, she might get excited and snap his waist between her legs.
Sun De, who had been looking grim and was about to question him, also felt deeply awkward at the sight. As her father, he naturally knew what his daughter was like, but knowing that was one thing; he was determined to see this marriage through.
After all, he had finally found such a sucker. If he didn't hurry and marry off this troublesome daughter, when would he?
After quite a while, Zhao Dachui finally recovered enough to sit down on a stool. He glanced at Wang Hao and Sun Ruonan, who had her head lowered, and asked in a low voice, "What exactly happened between you two?"
"I... I saw that Brother Zhao still hadn't come back to find me, and I felt so miserable that I came here to drink. As for what happened afterward, I don't remember very clearly."
Clutching the corner of her clothes, Sun Ruonan explained aggrievedly.
"That's it? You, tell me!"
Raising an eyebrow, Zhao Dachui turned to Wang Hao, signaling for him to explain.
"I saw this bro... sister-in-law drinking alone to drown her sorrows, and I thought drinking like that would harm her health. So I came over and kindly drank all the wine on the table, and ate the dishes too, so they wouldn't go to waste.
"But who would have thought sister-in-law wouldn't let me leave? She held a sword to my neck and forced me to drink with her, and that's how it came to this. Look, the sword wound on my neck happened then."
Wang Hao gave a very honest explanation. It was all true, without the slightest embellishment. As he spoke, he pointed out the wound on his neck to Leader Zhao.
He had already guessed that this young man-no, this person disguised as a man-had an unusual relationship with the Drunken Immortal Tower, and perhaps even with Leader Zhao. So he had been preparing to pass the blame and let the villain complain first... no, seek help while sticking to the facts.
But he had never imagined that the girl disguised as a man would turn out to be Leader Zhao's woman. Looking closely now, he realized that the girl merely had somewhat heroic features, and it was those, combined with her men's clothes and magnetic voice, that had kept him from noticing.
He had landed his immediate superior's woman in trouble. No matter how he looked at it, this would be hard to deal with!
"I never should have left you here!"
Zhao Dachui covered his face in frustration. He really wanted to slap himself.
Strictly speaking, neither side was at fault in this mess. The only thing to blame was the wine!
"Sis, can we just forget about this?"
Zhao Dachui finally turned to his sister, Zhao Fengrou, hoping she would be understanding.
"I'd like to forget about it too, but what about today's bill of 110,000 taels?"
Zhao Fengrou folded her arms and stared coldly at her younger brother.
Originally, for Sun Ruonan's sake as her sister-in-law, she hadn't wanted to pursue the matter. But the sum this time was simply too large; even at cost, it came to tens of thousands of taels.
If she really let it go, the Drunken Immortal Tower wouldn't have to shut down, but its cash flow would certainly be very tight. That was a risk she didn't want to take.
"What? 110,000 taels? Even your best banquet costs only 1,000 taels a table. No matter how much he can eat, he couldn't possibly have eaten 110,000 taels' worth in one sitting! Sis, I'm your own brother. You can't fleece me!"
Zhao Dachui was given a tremendous fright. He had thought a few thousand taels would be enough at most, but instead it had come to the enormous sum of 110,000 taels.
Had he been eating dragon liver and phoenix marrow?
"My best banquet is indeed priced at 1,000 taels a table, but he ate a full eighty-seven tables' worth. Add in the Drunken Immortal Brew he drank, and the total comes to 110,000 taels. I've already knocked off the remainder."
With that, Zhao Fengrou tossed the account book to Zhao Dachui. "Here's the account book. Look for yourself."
Zhao Dachui didn't even look at it. He knew his sister would never lie to him about something like this, so it had to be true.
Since the problem didn't lie with his sister, then it had to be...
He suddenly turned to look at the innocent-faced Wang Hao and asked bitterly, "How did you eat so much?"
"I discovered today that my appetite has grown again. Besides, the portions here are too small. They're gone before you can eat your fill."
Wang Hao rubbed his hands together in embarrassment and gave an innocent explanation.
"Stop trying to pull the wool over my eyes! Pile up eighty-seven tables' worth of food and it would be several times your size. How could your stomach possibly hold that much?"
Zhao Dachui didn't believe a word of it. He knew the Drunken Immortal Tower's top banquet very well. Although the portions of each dish were indeed a little small, each table had a full 108 dishes.
No matter how much Wang Hao could eat, he couldn't possibly have eaten that much in one sitting. There had to be something strange going on.
"I went to the latrine a few times in between!"
Wang Hao gave a very honest, if brief, answer that left Zhao Dachui speechless.
Was this the kind of damned problem a few trips to the latrine could solve?
"Girl of the Zhao family, since Ruonan promised to let him eat his fill, I'll cover this bill. Here are banknotes for 110,000 taels; keep them safe. I'll be taking him with me!"
Sun De finally stepped in. With great largesse, he took eleven banknotes worth 10,000 taels each from his sleeve and handed them to Zhao Fengrou, then waved to the two guards behind him.
The two guards understood and immediately stepped forward, hoisted Zhao Dachui between them, and carried him outside.
Zhao Dachui was their family's live-in son-in-law to begin with, so of course he had to go home with them.
"Hey! You can't do this! You can't!"
Zhao Dachui wanted to resist, but the back he had just thrown out throbbed with pain, leaving him unable to muster any strength. In the end, he could only let them take him away. Before leaving, he finally called to his sister, "Sis, hurry and take that boy to the Blood Wind Hall! Father's still waiting there!"
"Be gentle! If you hurt Brother Zhao, I'll make you pay."
Sun Ruonan hurried after them and carefully supported Zhao Dachui.
"Girl of the Zhao family, I won't stay any longer. Give my regards to Brother Zhao while you're at it!"
Sun De called out to Zhao Fengrou, then rose and took his leave as well, though his face kept twitching.
Although he was a famous wealthy merchant in the capital, paying 110,000 taels for a meal in one go still hurt.
But his own daughter had caused this mess!
As her father, he had to shoulder the blame whether he wanted to or not!