Chapter 9 Score To Settle

• Liu Hu climbed up from the ground, and came to me with the steel pipe again. But he was too afraid to come too close to me, and only yelled and taunted from a distance, “Zhang Chao, know your place and let Boss go!”
• I shot a glare at him with my eyes reddened with anger, then spat through my gritted teeth, “Liu Hu, we will settle our score later, slowly.”
• Of course, I wouldn’t actually hurt him too badly. The emblem that I once wore on my shoulder won’t allow me to disgrace myself so. Though discharged, I was once a proud member of the country’s military forces. I was the sword and shield of the country, defender of the people. My training and my pride wouldn’t allow myself to stoop down to their level.
• But Chen Yuzhou, he was humiliated in front of Lin Fang today. Hearing Liu Hu, he assumed that I would be too afraid to actually hurt him, so he crossed his heart and taunted back at me, trying desperately to scrape up and regain whatever little dignity that he thought he had.
• “If you dare touch me, even a finger, I’m make sure that you’ll have no place to stay in the entire Tong City. And you can forget about even walking out of this Night Wolves KTV alive tonight.”
• I said nothing, and let go of his shirt. Chen Yuzhou took it as a sign of fear and submission, and gloated in presumed triumph. Straightening his shirt collar, he began to speak, “Now, you filthy little...”
• Before he could continue, I absently took a bottle with my hand, and brought it down crushing onto his head. Chen Yuzhou hadn’t expected this at all, and he froze in fear. I missed him by a little on purpose, the bottle didn’t hit him, but was smashed and shattered into pieces on the wall above his head. His legs wobbled as he slumped back down into his seat, and a wetness and stench began spreading from between his legs.
• “Aaahhhgh!” A moment later, Chen Yuzhou screamed. It was a nice a long scream. After he came to, he began feeling his head with his hands. Feeling no pain and blood, he finally realized that I was only scaring him, but it was too late. He had lost all dignity that he brought with him today.
• Patting my hands together a few times, I looked around. All who met my eyes took a step back, men and women alike.
• “Alright, I’m done. I’ll be leaving now. Hey, relax, you guys probably won’t ever see me again, so long as you don’t come looking for me for trouble that is. Really, since we do live in two different worlds after all. Right, Chu Xiaoxiao?” I smiled at her.
• Chu Xiaoxiao was terrified, through and through. Sure, they may have acted tough and rough before, but those had been almost play fights in comparison to what just happened.
• I was about to say something to her, but Lin Fang tugged at my sleeve, “Don’t, don’t be mean to Xiaoxiao.”
• At once, I softened my attitude. Instead, I gave Chu Xiaoxiao a little wink, “That company of your that you’re starting up, don’t bother with it anymore. Junran won’t agree to work with you. Lin Fang, let’s go.”
• When we left the room, Lin Fang completely couldn’t understand what had just happened. She worried and fussed, “You’re really in trouble this time. Quick, get out of here as quickly as we can, I know Chen Yuzhou, he won’t let you off that easily for this. Quick, you get out of here, and I’ll go back and see if I can ask Xiaoxiao to do something about this. She is my best friend after all.”
• I was going to tell her to not worry about me, that he won’t even be able to touch a hair on my head no matter how many of those wimps he gathered. But, looking at her worrying over me, a warm feeling rose inside of me, and I couldn’t help but tease her a little more.
• “If they hit me, remember to tell Manager Lu about it and ask him for a day off for me.” I said, jokingly.
• Lin Fang was panicking so much that she stomped her little feet on the ground, “I was really worried! And here you're still not taking this seriously!?”
• Something caught my attention, and I listened intently for a while. Then I quickly put my arms around Lin Fang’s waist and turned off around a corner into another walkway. Not knowing what's going on, she looked at me questioningly.
• I asked her, “Are you and Chu Xiaoxiao really friends with each other? Are you sure that it wasn't just one sided wishful thinking on your part?”
• “Of course we are. She really is a good person, though I guess sometimes she does have an odd way of showing it.”
• I sighed and gave her a cold laugh, “Well, let’s see if it's true.”
• “Let's see if what's true?”
• As soon as she asked her question, coming around from a corner in front of us came a handful of people, probably six or seven people, or maybe even more behind them. They blocked the walkway altogether, obviously targeting the two of us, especially me.
• I pulled Lin Fang behind me and shielded her from their sight, “So, who do you people answer to? Chu Xiaoxiao or Chen Yuzhou?”
• The one in the lead had a short trimmed head, with a long and gaudy dragon tattooed onto his right arm all the way up to the top of his shoulder. His lips curled into a cruel smile, baring his yellowed buck teeth, “Our brother Zhou sends his regards.”
• I sighed again, a little relieved, “Looks like you're right about Chu Xiaoxiao, she was indeed your friend.”
• If they had been from Chu Xiaoxiao, it’d be a sad thing indeed. After all, what kind of friend would send their regards through a bunch of menacing thugs?
• Lin Fang was terrified, she said, almost in tears, “There's so many of them, let’s call the police.”
• I replied her, “Wait, let me have a little chat with them.”
• “Chat!?” Tears formed at the corner of Lin Fang’s eyes as she fumbled on her phone to dial 110. I held my hand over hers, stopping her with a shake of my head, and smiled at her. Then, turning my head to look at them, I called out, “So, you're here to enjoy the party and a few drinks, or are you on business?”
• Though I could tell already that they're definitely watchers, or bouncers for the Night Wolves. Every pub or club have a few of these types around, in case that something... unpleasant should happen.
• The buck teeth carried a heavy iron bar in one hand, and looked at me with his chin lifted up so high that I could see eight into his nostrils, “Causing troubles here in my Night Wolves are you? Taking us for a bunch of fools?”
• “So on business it is then.”
• Behind us, the sounds of footsteps grew louder. And as expected, taking a glance over my shoulder, I saw Chen Yuzhou and Liu Hu supporting each other and coming towards our direction. Though in his other hand, Chen Yuzhou held a little pillow against the general area of his crotch, covering the damp spot.
• Coming up from behind, Liu Hu called out to the group of men in front of us, “Big bro Lon, this is the guy! He is the one that has been trashing your place, don’t let him get away!”
• I looked at Lon squarely in the eyes, “Since this is your turf, you must have Han Kun’s number. My name is Zhang Chao. Why don’t you give him a call before you start dealing with us? Look, I’m saying this for your own good. A little call won’t take up too much of your time anyway.”
• Liu Hu cursed, “You sly bastard, wasting our time with another one of your tricks again!?”
• But this was enough to arouse the buck teeth’s suspicions. He mumbled, “You, how do you know our boss’s name?”
• Chen Yuzhou already fell silent as it began to dawn on him what had happened, but Liu Hu was completely oblivious. He said, “Big bro Lon, don’t listen to him, teach this little twerp a lesson for us! My boss here said that he will take any responsibility if anything happens.”
• But the buck teeth obviously wasn’t so easily fooled, “I guess I could at least spare the time for a little call.” With that, he dialed Han Kun’s number, “Kun, bro, it’s me, Little Lon. Yes, I’m here. There’s some punk here, causing a ruckus and trashing this place, said his name was Zhang something. Yes, Zhang Chao, that’s what he said his name is. He actually had the gall to tell us to bother you... yes, yes... alright, sorry, I apologize, I... yes, of course, Kun. ”
• Hanging up the call, the buck teeth stared at us hard, face as green and sour as lime and eyes as sharp as knives.
• Lin Fang was beyond terrified and lost. Throughout all of this, her hands never left my shirt sleeve.
• Some of his men asked the buck teeth what was happening, and he stared him down without saying another word. Satisfied, he turned around and walked towards me steadily.
• “So, Zhang Chao, that’s what you’re called?”
• I nodded.
• Seeing the stern expression on the buck teeth’s face, Liu Hu ran up to us from behind us and pointed at me, “Big bro Lon, give this dog a whipping!”
• As soon as he finished speaking, the buck teeth turned around, and then back around again, whipping his hand into a slap... across Liu Hu’s face. It was loud and heavy, and the sheer force of the strike made Liu Hu spun around in a full circle on the spot.
• Feeling completely lost at what happened, Chen Yuzhou turned around and disappeared into the onlooking crowd, making good of his escape.
• I didn’t stop him. It wasn’t like I was really going to hit him anyway. Besides, I already made him pee his pants. This alone would stick with him for a long time in his circle of rich friends.
• “Lon? Big bro Lon...?” Liu Hu put his hands over where Lon had struck him. The buck teeth walked in closer, and gave him another slap.
• Not waiting for Liu Hu to respond, the buck teeth continued slapping him around, whipping him silly like a spinning top.
• The buck teeth yelled at him, “You bunch of useless ingrates! You dare to raise troubles on my grounds? You have a death wish or something!?”