Chapter 2687 - 2749: Beating You Isn’t the Goal

When it came to dealing with a bunch of peasants, Cai Shaoqiang didn’t take it seriously at all. Zhu the Seventh and his guys might not be big shots in the Dragon Gang, but they weren’t small fry either. If they couldn’t even handle something this simple, all those years mixing in the scene would’ve been for nothing.

As for spending money, that was part of building connections, and besides, Song Shuang over there would cough up even more cash. Too bad Cai Shaoqiang was still thinking too small. He never even considered that the Yang Family wasn’t what it used to be. No, even back then the Yang Family wasn’t someone others could bully easily. With Skinny Monkey around, no one in the area could push the Yang Family around. These few days, trouble hit the Yang Family, and Li Yifei and the others were sitting in town. Don’t say a bunch of thugs—even if God himself showed up, he might not be able to get past Li Yifei.

Estimating the time, Cai Shaoqiang picked up his phone, frowned—Zhu the Seventh and his lot still hadn’t replied. Didn’t those guys head over ages ago? On the way Zhu the Seventh had even called him, saying it would be done soon. Yet now two hours had gone by and still no news.

"Just rough them up a bit and that’s it, don’t really beat someone to death. If it blows up, it’ll look bad." Cai Shaoqiang muttered to himself. As he spoke, he heard the door opening outside. A lewd grin crept onto his face—he figured Song Shuang had arrived, so he shouted, "You damned bitch, showing up this late, watch how your master punishes you!"

Talking, he’d already stood up from the bathtub, grabbed a towel and roughly wiped himself a few times, wrapped it around his waist and headed out.

In the split second he pulled the door open, the smile on Cai Shaoqiang’s face froze—because the person coming in wasn’t Song Shuang, and wasn’t any of his mistresses either, but a few burly men. One of them was even about two meters tall. He himself was just over one-seventy—couldn’t be called short, but facing a guy that size, his instincts kicked in and he retreated two steps.

Once he reacted, Cai Shaoqiang tensed his arm, ready to slam the bathroom door shut. A few big men suddenly barging into his hotel room, and with those vicious looks on their faces, how could he not know something was wrong? He didn’t know exactly what had happened, but... he had to hide first. Even calling the cops would take some time.

Too bad his move was spotted. Just as Cai Shaoqiang exerted force, he saw a huge foot already swinging in, smashing straight into his lower abdomen. His whole body flew backward and crashed right into the bathtub. The tub’s quality was pretty good; it didn’t break. But the impact on Cai Shaoqiang wasn’t light at all. The men who’d come in didn’t give a damn how badly he’d fallen—as long as he wasn’t dead yet, that was fine.

The ones who came in were none other than Dumb Guy and the others. They’d originally been following Song Shuang and hadn’t planned to make a move yet, since they still weren’t sure whose kid was in Song Shuang’s stomach. But when Li Yifei called and they learned the Underworld punks who went to smash up the Yang Family were hired by Cai Shaoqiang, they immediately decided to act. Fuck, those scumbags really thought they were God—doing that kind of shit and not only not afraid, still dreaming of revenge. So Dumb Guy and the others used a trick, intercepted Song Shuang, overtook her car and headed to Lai’s Hotel, found Cai Shaoqiang’s room, opened the door and walked in.

Cai Shaoqiang was practically living here long-term, so the room had some professional gear added. The Flying Hawk Squad members, even if they hadn’t used this stuff before, only needed one glance to know what those tools were for. The room reeked of debauchery, which only fueled their anger. Dumb Guy’s kick was full strength. Cai Shaoqiang curled up in the tub, which was still full of water, the drain not pulled. He gulped down several mouthfuls of water, struggled out, collapsed on the floor and started retching, his abdomen cramping from the pain.

Before he could spit out much, Cai Shaoqiang felt his neck tighten—someone’s big hand had grabbed him and hoisted him up by brute force. Cai Shaoqiang weighed at least a hundred forty, fifty jin, yet he was lifted like a chick. That alone showed how strong Dumb Guy was.

Among the retired soldiers, some hadn’t really kept up training, but Dumb Guy not only had worked out regularly in the army, he still hit the gym three or four days a week, focusing on heavy lifting. Naturally his body was still extremely powerful.

Hoisting Cai Shaoqiang up, before he could react, a fist slammed in, punching straight into his solar plexus. Cai Shaoqiang felt like his heart had been shocked by electricity, jolting sharply, his consciousness going fuzzy for a few seconds...

After taking a beating, Cai Shaoqiang lay there naked, only a bath towel loosely covering his key parts. He was pinned onto the sofa. As guys with a Flying Hawk Squad background, they had a whole system for beating people: either leave very obvious external injuries that actually don’t hurt too much, or make it hurt like hell while leaving barely any visible damage. Right now it was the latter. The pain had Cai Shaoqiang baring his teeth, but his mind was painfully clear. He saw the group of big men in the room—all of them staring at him with cold, predatory eyes, like they’d tear him apart any second.

Still, Cai Shaoqiang had seen some of the world. He didn’t struggle—he screamed when he was hit, but didn’t move, letting them lay into him. He knew he’d run into hard cases; if he tried to fight back, he’d only suffer more. Same now—he didn’t resist. Gritting his teeth, he spoke in a low voice: "I don’t know how I offended you gentlemen, but I’m willing to compensate, to apologize!"

"Did anyone say you could talk?" Zhang Tianxing crossed his arms, head tilted slightly, looking at him with a cold face. Cai Shaoqiang drew a breath, forced a smile and said, "Sorry, I really can’t think of how I’ve offended anyone, so that’s why I said that. But since you’ve come looking for me, it must be my fault. You’ve already beaten me, but things still need a solution, right? Don’t you agree?"

"Thump!" The reply Cai Shaoqiang got was a kick right to the pit of his stomach. He grunted once and couldn’t make a sound after that. It took a full minute before he finally gagged, dry heaving painfully, but nothing came up—because back in the bedroom, he’d already vomited everything he could.

This time, Cai Shaoqiang didn’t dare speak carelessly. He was somewhat scared of the beating now. All these years mixing in society, he’d seen some ruthless types. Backed by a family with money and power, those people had treated him fairly politely, so he’d never really suffered. Today it was all being paid back at once. This round of beating had knocked out every bit of confidence he had.

The others weren’t in a hurry either. Zheng Mingrui and the rest rummaged through the room, finding a pile of sex toys. It was obvious this bastard thought with his dick—using his money to run wild.

"Was it you who sent people to smash up the Yang Family?" Zhang Tianxing asked.

Hiss! The moment Cai Shaoqiang heard that question, he instantly understood the crux of it. He’d been secretly racking his brains just now, thinking it might’ve been trouble from some woman he played with. Turns out it was this... Though now that he thought about it, he had caused plenty of trouble by sleeping around—whose wife got fucked and the husband wouldn’t be furious? The parents of those young girls wouldn’t just sit there either. But money and power could smooth over a lot.

Once he heard it was about the Yang Family, a look of sudden realization flashed across Cai Shaoqiang’s face, followed by shock. He had just hired people to go smash them, and the other side tracked him down this fast and came straight for him? Cai Shaoqiang’s eyes darted as he tried to think, and then he thought of Song Shuang. That bitch still hadn’t come, and she’d gone to the Yang Family this morning. It was her who sold him out!

"I... it was Song Shuang, she begged me, I..." Cai Shaoqiang immediately tried to dump the blame on Song Shuang. But as soon as he said her name, he noticed the men in front of him suddenly flare with anger. That woke him up a bit!

They’d come for the Yang Family incident, so they were people on the Yang Family’s side. They hadn’t mentioned Song Shuang at all, but he brought her up himself at this moment. With the situation like this, with his guilty conscience, and given those things were actually true, Cai Shaoqiang realized where the real problem lay.

"Keep talking." Zheng Mingrui lifted his chin, a uniquely shaped military dagger flipping between his fingers, leaving streaks of afterimages. Cai Shaoqiang swallowed down blood, feeling like if he said one more word, that knife would fly straight at him.

Whether or not Song Shuang had sold him out didn’t matter anymore. What mattered was how to get through this alive.

"So you’re not talking? Cai Shaoqiang, local, parents are..." Zhang Tianxing recited his info, speaking slowly. The more he said, the more frightened Cai Shaoqiang became—they knew too much. This wasn’t the kind of intel you could pull in a short time. Could it be they’d had their eyes on him for a while already? Not just possible—most likely. And he had let Song Shuang goad him, stupidly hiring punks to smash up the Yang Family. Wasn’t that just throwing himself under the gun?

Thinking of that, Cai Shaoqiang forced himself to calm down and said in a low voice, "This... this was my fault. What I did was out of line. I’m willing to take punishment—whatever amount of money you want, I’ll pay!"

"Pay money? With you?" Zheng Mingrui sneered. "Haha, Cai Shaoqiang, you really think you’re somebody, huh? Let me be straight with you—we didn’t come here for your money. We came to beat you. As long as we enjoy the beating, that’s enough!"

Zhang Tianxing added, "Just beating you isn’t enough. You put a green hat on my brother. If you just die, it’s too easy. We can only pay you back tooth for tooth."

Tooth for tooth? Cai Shaoqiang instinctively took it to mean they wanted to do that kind of thing to him, but he quickly heard Zhang Tianxing continue: "All your assets, your parents’ corruption, every crime committed by your relatives, and of course, Song Shuang and her family—none of them get to walk away clean. ’Sin doesn’t extend to the family’ is bullshit. Any family that can raise two scumbags like you won’t be any better. Your parents are criminals too!"

"You... how dare you!" Cai Shaoqiang’s eyes bulged, a trickle of blood running down his forehead, making his expression look twisted. But his presence was still weak, because the men across from him were even more vicious, more reckless.

"Why wouldn’t we dare? Don’t believe it? Just watch what happens next. It won’t take long. Oh right, and that bullshit Dragon Gang you hired—rounding up a bunch of punks and terrorizing the neighborhood—organizations like that don’t get to exist either."