Chapter 24

After deciding on this matter, Zhu Yi and Zhu Minghui took a few brothers out for a meal, then went to the bathhouse they controlled for a bath, and called a girl to give them a full service. Zhu Yi suddenly had the urge to play some pool, so they gathered a dozen or so people and headed to a game hall nearby to play pool.

In the game hall, which was filled with cigarette smoke, over a dozen young men were playing pool with their cues, while another twenty or so were sitting inside, playing gambling machines and arcade games. Zhu Minghui, who didn't particularly like playing pool, was still hugging a girl on the sofa, rubbing her.

At this moment, a man dressed in a suit, with a lean and fit physique, tanned skin, and a face and demeanor that didn't quite look Chinese, walked into the game hall. He scanned the crowd, and when he saw Zhu Yi, who was aiming with his cue, he slightly narrowed his eyes, then silently turned around and closed the door of the game hall.

Next, the man in the suit walked over to Zhu Yi, who was leaning over the pool table, aiming with his cue. This game hall was usually frequented by the local thugs, and the man in the suit was clearly a stranger, with a completely different aura and appearance, not the type who would hang around such a seedy place.

Zhu Yi, an old hand in the game, raised his eyebrows as the young man approached him, and took a shot with his cue, but unfortunately, it was a bit off and didn't go into the pocket.

"Are you Zhu Yi?" the man in the suit asked with interest.

"Who are you, and what do you want with me?" Zhu Yi raised an eyebrow, unsure of the man's background. However, the dozen or so brothers around him had already gathered.

The man in the suit paid no attention to the young men with pool cues surrounding him. His eyes, as dark as the deepest night sky, devoid of any light, exuded a dangerous and life-ignoring aura. He stared at Zhu Yi like a dangerous beast in the dark night.

Not only Zhu Yi, but even the thugs who weren't being stared at felt a chill run down their spines. It was as if their instincts were warning them to stay as far away from this man as possible, the farther the better.

"You guys are quite lucky. Boss said it's best not to make too much trouble in this country. So, I'll try... not to kill all of you."

The man's voice was soft, with a somewhat stiff accent, but it felt as if he was speaking directly into everyone's ear, sending a chill down their spines. His words were accompanied by a bone-chilling and eerie sense of terror.

However, in the underworld, the most important thing is courage. The level of courage fluctuates based on the number of people on each side. There were now over thirty brothers in the game hall, and even if it were Jackie Chan or Jet Li, they would still respond with a single word: fight.

"Go to hell, you damn show-off! You think you can come alone and wreck Zhu's place? You're asking for it!" A tattooed thug with a bare chest raised his pool cue and swung it at the man's forehead.

The man in the suit didn't even flinch. He spun his left palm and suddenly slapped the pool table.

"Bang!" The thug with the pool cue's head snapped back, his neck bending in a way that made everyone shudder. He didn't even make a sound before collapsing.

With the man's casual slap, a resin ball that had already rolled into the pocket on the opposite side of the table shot out like a bullet, shattering the thug's entire jawbone with its force.

"Is this some kind of long-distance attack? This isn't a Huang Feihong movie! Who the hell is this guy!" Zhu Yi, who had been in the game for a long time, quickly reacted, stepping back and having his brothers protect him while shouting for his top enforcer.

"Ming... Minghui! There's an expert wrecking our place!"

From the distant sofa, Chen Minghui pushed away the woman in his arms, let out a strange cry, and pulled out an iron hook and a pair of scissors from his pocket. Like a tiger out of the gate, he leaped several meters and charged at the man in the suit, ready to use his "unlimited fighting technique."

"Bang!" After only two steps, Chen Minghui was suddenly thrown back as if hit by a car, his feet scraping the ground as he slid backward, landing right back on the sofa where he had been sitting with the woman.

The red-stick enforcer, now lying on the leather sofa, hung his head limply, his body trembling uncontrollably, and he vomited blood mixed with small pieces of flesh.

A pool ball had spiraled into his abdomen, apparently shattering his intestines, liver, and stomach. The woman he had brought along fainted, her eyes rolling back in fear.

The two moves the man in the suit had shown were so astonishing that the surrounding brothers were stunned. They usually relied on their blood and impulse in fights, but they had never seen such effortless and terrifying skills.

"Oh, I guess pool isn't played like this? I prefer baseball; I'm a pitcher, so I'm used to throwing."

The man in the suit picked up another hard resin ball and played with it, speaking calmly to Zhu Yi, who was already sweating. With a slight pressure from his three fingers, the ball burst into powder.

"Too bad there's no jukebox here." The man's tone was mocking, but it carried an indescribable menace. He glanced at the terrified gang members, even making a joke about a Michael Jackson MTV.

Just a few seconds later, the man in the suit whistled the classic tune from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and left the game hall, leaving behind a group of severely injured gang members.

He took out a "V998" mobile phone, which had been released last month, dialed a few numbers, and put it to his ear. "Boss. The scum who messed with 'Little Princess' have been dealt with."

A few blocks away, in a common Audi car parked outside the residential complex where Li Pu and Chen Xian lived, Di Tianda, after listening to the report from "The Flayer," handed the phone to another direct subordinate.

Whether as the "Snake" in the underworld or as the super-rich and golden bachelor Gal Phoenix in high society, his direct entry into China would have caused significant attention. About three days ago, he entered this Eastern country through special channels, which had a deep connection with him.

During these three days, he secretly observed Chen Xian from a distance, as well as the Chinese boy who was always with her. He even cautiously observed Chen Tianxin, now known as Chen Xin, a few times.

A single-parent family filled with happiness, simple and pure... In a sense, this was the life Tianxin wanted. Di Tianda habitually flicked his fingers, and the air vibrated, forming a small vortex of wind between his fingers.

"If I disturb them now, Tianxin will certainly dislike me even more. Hmm... I need to find a way to prevent her from wanting to kill me as soon as she sees me..." Di Tianda rubbed his temples, rarely smiling bitterly, but in these three days, he had probably smiled bitterly more than in the past three years combined.

The next day, Li Pu and Chen Xian went to school as usual. However, when they left the school gate after classes, they noticed a subtle change.

Among the parents who usually stood in groups, pushing bicycles or driving cars to pick up their children, stood a white man as handsome as Jude Law or Leonardo DiCaprio, the dream lovers of girls at the end of the 20th century.

The white man was dressed in simple American-style casual clothes, with no luxury car, and he didn't stand out. His eyes were calm, his skin smooth like jade, and he exuded an Eastern charm.

Almost all the female parents and female students who were leaving the school couldn't help but sneak glances at the foreign man, and some of the bolder ones even gave him fiery looks. A young female teacher in her twenties mustered the courage to walk up to him and asked in English, "Sir, hello. Are you waiting for a student?"

"Yes." Gal Phoenix, the white man with the Chinese name Di Tianda, gave the female teacher a smile that almost made her heart race and her breathing quicken, then answered in Chinese with a slight Beijing accent, "I'm waiting for my little angel... Oh, there she is."

Di Tianda's gaze met Chen Xian's, who was walking out of the school gate with Li Pu, chatting and laughing.

The carefree girl suddenly froze, her clear, dark purple eyes staring straight at Di Tianda.

The man with the same eye color as hers, deep like the sea, exuded an indescribable emotion as he gazed at her.

"...Dad?" Chen Xian murmured a word. A word that she had fantasized about countless times and was filled with complex emotions.

"Eh? What!" Li Pu, of course, also saw Di Tianda and looked back and forth between Chen Xian and him.

"Just from the first glance, you recognized me instinctively." Di Tianda was somewhat pleased; indeed, she was his and Tianxin's child.

Suddenly, Chen Xian took two steps back, grabbed the boy's hand, and turned to run.

"Run!" The girl pulled Li Pu and shouted urgently. Li Pu didn't understand why Xiao Xian wanted to run away upon seeing her father, but he followed her, even taking the lead to skillfully weave through the crowd of students, trying to use the crowd to escape.

"Her first reaction upon seeing me was to run... That's a bit of a blow." Di Tianda watched the pair of childhood friends run away, a curious expression on his face. "She made a quick judgment, and the boy's actions were勉强也算合格."

In less than two minutes, Li Pu had pulled Chen Xian into a winding alley of old houses, trying to shake off Di Tianda.

When they reached the end of the alley, a cement wall about two meters high blocked their way. Li Pu leaped up and grabbed the edge of the wall with one hand, then reached down to help Chen Xian. With a bit of effort, he pulled her up.

After climbing over the wall, they found themselves in an old factory area. Rusty brown mixing machines and cement buckets were surrounded by stubborn weeds growing in the sandy ground.

Apart from the occasional sound of cars in the distance, it was quiet, as if they were in another world.

"Xiao Xian, is that your dad? Didn't you say you've never seen your dad since you were born?" Li Pu couldn't help but ask Chen Xian, "Why did you want to run away when you saw him?"

"It's definitely him, no doubt." Chen Xian shook her head, "Mom never told me why we separated from Dad. But I can feel that Dad must have done something that Mom couldn't accept. You know Mom's past must be very complicated and dangerous..."

The boy and girl jumped from one cylindrical cement bucket to another, each about a meter high, until they reached a row of brick houses. Just by climbing over this house, they could reach the other side of the street and walk a few hundred meters to their neighborhood.

As long as they saw Mom and told her about Dad, everything would be revealed. Chen Xian was nervous but also a bit excited.

This time, Li Pu didn't need to help. Chen Xian stood on her tiptoes on the edge of a cement bucket and easily climbed onto the roof—don't be fooled by her seemingly delicate appearance; she had been jumping around with Li Pu since elementary school and was more athletic than many boys.

"Hey~ Shoo, I'm up." As she pulled herself onto the roof, some dust stuck to her face, but she wiped it off with the back of her hand without much care.

But she soon noticed that Li Pu was standing with his fists clenched, his body tense, facing away from her. In front of him, the white man had already arrived, standing with his hands behind his back, waiting for them calmly.