Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

But tempted as he was, Liu Baoqiang was still relatively clear-headed. He knew that once he did anything with this woman, if Liu Ting found out, she would break up with him one hundred percent.

With this thought, Liu Baoqiang hurriedly pushed Zhao Xiaoyan away and fled in a sorry state toward the bathroom. Once inside, ignoring Zhao Xiaoyan's pursuing calls behind him, he locked the door from within. Then he turned on the cold water of the shower and began letting it pour over his head. Watching Liu Baoqiang's actions, Yang Ce could not help but smile. It seemed Liu Baoqiang was quite an interesting fellow after all. But Yang Ce also felt lucky on his behalf—this Wei Jin's nerve was not quite big enough. If he had been like Wang Lin and simply used knockout drugs, Liu Baoqiang would have had no escape.

To be continued.

922. Steal a Chicken Only to Lose the Rice

922. Steal a Chicken Only to Lose the Rice. Thinking of what was about to happen over there, Wei Jin was suddenly full of vigor, and his drinking became hearty and unrestrained. He grandly promised to take care of many of his classmates' job prospects after graduation.

"Eat, drink, and be merry, everyone!" Wei Jin raised his glass with a flourish and bellowed at the top of his voice. He was excited inside, and so his excitement spilled out into his voice.

"Merry, merry!" A whole pack of fools who wanted favors from Wei Jin raised their glasses at the same time and echoed him in sycophantic chorus.

"Keep it down, you noisy bastards!" At a table not far off, a big fellow was in the middle of offering his own toast when the "merry merry" from over here cut him off. Irritated at once, he cursed in their direction.

Although the resort belonged to Wei Jin's cousin, it could hardly shut down for the sake of Wei Jin's class reunion, so there were plenty of other guests in the dining hall. Wei Jin's table had been so loud that the people over there had grown annoyed.

Wei Jin frowned, feeling he had lost some face—but when he looked up, he saw that every man at that table was broad-shouldered and thick-necked, and one of them had a long scar slashed across his face, fearsome to look at and plainly not someone to cross. Afraid he could not afford to offend them, Wei Jin had no choice but to swallow his temper. Who knew whether the fellow was a triad member or not?

Hong Kai had been stewing in his seat for a long while. When Yang Ce called him a lunatic earlier, he had taken it to heart and kept looking for a chance to put Yang Ce in his place, but no chance had come. Then, watching Wei Jin toast Liu Baoqiang, Hong Kai was suddenly struck by inspiration.

It just so happened that Wei Jin had been cursed out, and the mood at the table had gone cold. Hong Kai seized the moment to rise, carried his glass over beside Chen Shutang and Yan, and said, "Mengyan, it's been so long. Old classmate—let me drink to you."

Chen Shutang had not expected Hong Kai to come over and toast her of his own accord, but he was already standing there with his glass and had invoked the bond of old classmates, so she could hardly refuse. Even so, she said, "I don't drink."

"Then drink juice instead of liquor—it's the same. It's the gesture that counts; whether it's alcohol doesn't really matter," Hong Kai said earnestly.

"All right, then." Chen Shutang picked up the Huiyuan juice in front of her, rose to her feet, and clinked glasses lightly with Hong Kai.

Hong Kai drained his in one gulp; Chen Shutang only sipped, letting the juice touch her lips before setting it back down. It was no more than a token gesture—she did not even have the heart to finish her juice with him.

Naturally, Hong Kai saw all of this, but he did not much mind. Back in middle school, when he had pursued Chen Shutang, he had known his share of cold shoulders; he was used to it by now.

After finishing that glass, Hong Kai did not leave at once. The fellow simply poured himself another, then raised it again and said to Yang Ce, "Brother, no friendship without a fight. I was in the wrong before—took the joke a bit too far. Let me drink to you."

Yang Ce was far too sharp to be the naive young man he once was; his ability to read faces had reached its peak. Hong Kai's expression might have looked sincere, but in Yang Ce's eyes it was pitifully clumsy.

Yang Ce smiled and raised the glass before him. "Fine. No friendship without a fight."

Their glasses touched lightly, then each drew back. Yang Ce had just brought his glass to his lips when the accident happened.

Hong Kai lurched forward as if he had lost his footing, and the glass in his hand swung out toward Yang Ce—a full glass of clear liquor looked ready to splash into Yang Ce's face.

But who was Yang Ce, and how quick were his reflexes? Besides, he had long since sensed that this fellow's intentions were impure, that he had not come to toast in good faith, and so he had kept his guard up the whole time. Seeing Hong Kai fling the liquor at him now, Yang Ce shifted sharply to the right, and Hong Kai's glass splashed into empty air.

The turn had come so fast that everyone present except Yang Ce was caught off guard; only after Yang Ce dodged did they burst out in cries of shock.

Hong Kai was baffled. How had the fellow dodged? He had calculated so precisely—there should have been no slip-up—and yet Yang Ce had somehow evaded it.

He was still fuming when a furious roar erupted: "You little punk, you motherless bastard, you dare pour liquor on this lord's head?"

At that curse, people finally noticed: Hong Kai's glass, having missed Yang Ce entirely, had emptied itself over the back of the head of a guest at the table behind Yang Ce, and was now dripping in a steady trickle down inside his collar. And that man was none other than the scar-faced brute Wei Jin had been wary of earlier.

Hong Kai froze. Before he could react, a fist the size of a bushel basket smashed into his face, and stars burst before his eyes—a free private viewing of a meteor shower.

The scar-faced man was not yet satisfied. Spotting the opened bottle of Huiyuan juice near Yang Ce's hand, he snatched it up and poured it straight down over Hong Kai's head, cursing as he poured: "You little whelp, tired of living, are you? You dare throw liquor on your lord? Just watch—today your lord's going to beat you to death!"

When the bottle was emptied, the scar-faced man flung the empty aside, seized Hong Kai by the hair with one hand, and swung his other arm in wide arcs across Hong Kai's face, pounding him until he was black and blue and blood bubbled from his nose—and still the scar-faced man would not stop.

Wei Jin saw that this could not go on. At this rate, the man would beat Hong Kai straight into the hospital. So he hurried over—but he dared not provoke these men either, and could only offer placating words: "Big brother, my friend here didn't do it on purpose."

"Damn you, I was sitting clear across the room and he still hit me with it—and you tell me it wasn't on purpose?" The scar-faced man might have looked like a hulking brute, but he was no fool. He glared and jabbed a finger at Wei Jin: "Are you trying to cover for him?"

Wei Jin was scared out of his wits and did not dare meet the scar-faced man's eyes. "Big brother, I'm not lying to you. Just now—just now, my friend here really did mean to throw the liquor at him, but this fellow dodged to the side, and so it ended up on your head. It's not really my friend's fault—it's all this punk's doing."

As he spoke, Wei Jin pointed at Yang Ce. Since Hong Kai had been beaten on Yang Ce's account, he was certainly not about to pass up such a fine chance to shift the blame onto Yang Ce.

"Oh?" The scar-faced man turned and looked at Yang Ce, a smile on his lips that did not reach his eyes. "So you share some of the responsibility too, do you?"

Yang Ce did not even glance at the brute—did not so much as turn his head—and went on sitting there at his ease.