HL 64

Ye Qiaozi was dumbfounded, and her eyes immediately reddened.

A scorching wave of fury surged straight to Xu Nanxiao’s brain, his reason instantly incinerated by those filthy words. Without a word, he stepped forward, clenched his fist, and sent a sharp, piercing punch hurtling toward the thug’s face.

However, the fist didn’t land on the thug—it was forcefully seized mid-air by Ying Yusheng, who had moved beside him.

The two stood locked in opposition, Ying Yusheng’s body half-shielded between Xu Nanxiao and the thug as he warned in a low voice: “Nanxiao, you can’t throw a punch.”

Suddenly, Mu Yuanyuan’s crying erupted beside them. Xu Nanxiao looked at her and, in a daze, realized that everyone around was staring at him, pointing and whispering.

He was already wearing the label of a murderer; if he beat up this thug in broad daylight now, it would only cement his identity as a violent brute. If his reputation went down the drain, that was one thing—but who would ever dare come to the shop for repairs again?

More importantly, if he injured someone, the manager would have leverage over them, putting them at a severe disadvantage in future negotiations with the company—and that would hurt Ye Qiaozi!

Xu Nanxiao suddenly recalled what his coach had told him back when he first started training in boxing—

He’d said that in this world, there are often times when your fists are powerless.

At this moment, Xu Nanxiao seemed to grasp the deeper meaning of those words. At last, he let his arm fall limply.

Seeing that Xu Nanxiao was no longer acting impulsively, Ying Yusheng slowly released his hold on him. But the next second, Ying Yusheng suddenly spun around and drove a fierce punch straight into the thug’s smug, grinning face.

Caught completely off guard, the thug was sent flying a full meter by Ying Yusheng’s astonishing brute force. Clutching his bleeding nose, he writhed on the ground, howling in pain.

Amid the stunned silence of the entire street, Ying Yusheng turned to look at Xu Nanxiao and said with a reassuring smile:

“Let me handle it instead.”

Ye Qiaozi would never have imagined that Ying Yusheng, who looked so gentle and scholarly, could fight so ferociously.

He didn’t waste any motion; his strikes went straight for the most effective targets. It wasn’t the wild flailing of street brawling—it looked more like trained combat technique.

After a few dull thuds of impact, the thug and his lackey were thoroughly beaten into submission—one was clutching his ribs and gasping for air, while the other lay on the ground retching up mouthful after mouthful of sour fluid. The air was filled with their pitiful groans, which sounded especially chilling.

Soon, the police arrived after receiving the report.

Ying Yusheng had anticipated this and showed no panic, calmly cooperating as he got into the police car. The two thugs, on the other hand, had to be carried in—they were too weak in the legs to even stand.

Outside the police station, Ye Qiaozi paced anxiously. No matter what, Ying Yusheng had gone in there for their sake. If anything serious happened to him, they’d never be able to live with themselves.

Yet, within just a few hours, Ying Yusheng walked back out.

Seeing how worried the three of them looked, he even spoke gently to reassure them: “It’s all taken care of.”

“How did it end up being handled?” Liu Zhuo asked quickly.

“I’m fine. Those two are being detained for fifteen days.”

“Wait—you’re the one who threw punches, and you’re fine, but the two who got beaten up are the ones being detained?”

“No serious injuries were caused, and they insisted on not pressing charges against me. Their detention isn’t related to the beating—it’s because they caused a scene at the police station.”

“Why wouldn’t they press charges? Why would they cause a scene at the police station? Are they out of their minds?!”

Ying Yusheng blinked. “Heh, I don’t know.”

The three of them were completely baffled, but Xu Nanxiao, standing nearby, knew exactly why. Although Ying Yusheng had stepped in to help them, the ease with which he could manipulate others’ behavior still sent a chill down his spine.

“Oh, your hand is scraped!” Ye Qiaozi grabbed Ying Yusheng’s arm.

Ying Yusheng looked down. The skin over his knuckles had been broken—apparently from accidentally hitting the thug’s tooth. The wound had bled quite a bit but was now covered with a thin layer of scab.

Ye Qiaozi said, “Come over to the shop later; I’ll disinfect it for you.”

“It’s fine, no need to troub—”

“Ying Yusheng.” Xu Nanxiao suddenly spoke.

Ying Yusheng seemed not to have expected Xu Nanxiao to care about him. He paused for a moment, then immediately turned to look at Xu Nanxiao. His gaze instantly softened, clinging mournfully to Xu Nanxiao’s face.

Xu Nanxiao asked, “This whole thing with the shop acquisition—can you fix it?”

Ying Yusheng froze. The spark of life that had just flickered in his eyes suddenly went out. He lowered his head and gave a strange, pained smile, as if he had a toothache.

“Can you?” Xu Nanxiao repeated.

Even Ye Qiaozi couldn’t bear to watch and reluctantly muttered under her breath: “Xu Ge, don’t—”

“Yes.” When Ying Yusheng looked up again, his composed, unflappable demeanor was back. He curved his brows and eyes and asked meaningfully, “I can help you. But what can you do for me in return?”

“…I’ve got nothing to my name. What do you want?”

Ying Yusheng held Xu Nanxiao’s gaze. “Spend one day with me, and I’ll help you.”

Xu Nanxiao twitched the corner of his mouth, gritted his teeth, and the veins from his neck to his jaw bulged faintly.

“No!” Ye Qiaozi shouted.

They were all adults—everyone understood exactly what Ying Yusheng meant. The shop was indeed more important to her than her own life, but to keep it by pimping out her own worker—she could never owe such a huge debt.

Besides, Ying Yusheng was just a small tutoring center teacher—what could he possibly do? “Fix it”? He couldn’t fix a damn thing.

“Fine.” Xu Nanxiao said with his hands in his pockets.

Liu Zhuo quickly grabbed him. “Nanxiao, did you not get what he meant? He means—”

Xu Nanxiao impatiently brushed him off. “I’ve slept with more people than you’ve jerked off to. You don’t need to explain it to me.”

Ying Yusheng’s gaze darkened.

But in the end, he only said, with measured gentleness: “When do we start?”

“After you get it done. Who knows if you’re lying to me? You can’t spit out a single truthful word from that dog mouth of yours.”

“I promise you,” Ying Yusheng said helplessly. “I won’t lie to you again.”

After Xu Nanxiao made the deal with Ying Yusheng, the developer never sent anyone over again.

Not only that, but just a week later, the manager personally paid them a visit and told Ye Qiaozi that their street had been saved. The developer had decided to build fewer buildings and would no longer forcibly demolish this plot of land.

Ye Qiaozi noticed that the manager’s head was wrapped in layers of bandages and his eyes were swollen, so she asked curiously: “What happened to you…”

The manager smiled wryly and waved his hand. “Ms. Ye, if you’d told me earlier that you knew a high-up official, I’d never have done those suicidal things. Here’s a little token of apology—please accept it.”

As for the credit for saving the commercial street, the manager tactfully attributed it to Xu Nanxiao. Upon hearing the news, the neighbors were overjoyed, and their opinion of Xu Nanxiao actually rose instead of falling.

Afterward, the crew was still bewildered, wondering just how much influence Ying Yusheng had. Did the developer’s boss have a kid in his tutoring class or something?

“He’s Ying Baiying’s biological son,” Xu Nanxiao said.

“Who’s Ying Baiying?”

Xu Nanxiao couldn’t be bothered to explain further and went back to his workstation. “Look it up yourselves.”

Liu Zhuo and Liang Sihua actually pulled out their phones and started searching. Suddenly, they started screaming like baboons, yelling “Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit”!

Ye Qiaozi didn’t want to deal with them. She trotted over to Xu Nanxiao, crouched down, and rested her head on his lap. “Are you really going to… do that with him? Please don’t. I—I don’t want this.”

“Otherwise, what other way do you have to keep the shop?”

“None, but—”

“You should be thankful that this skin of mine still has some value right now. If this happened a few years from now, once the young master’s gotten tired of me, we’d all be packing our bags and leaving,” Xu Nanxiao said. “Don’t overthink it. Just think of it as paying back the favor for giving me a job back then. Besides, if the shop’s gone, where would I go?”

“That’s true, but—”

Xu Nanxiao cut her off and raised an eyebrow. “Tch. Instead of all this nagging, you’d be better off giving me a raise.”

Ye Qiaozi smiled wryly, but still joked, “Alright, I’ll add a thousand to your monthly salary. Just don’t tell those two guys.”

The day to fulfill the promise finally came. Xu Nanxiao had assumed Ying Yusheng would pick some cheap motel in town, get it over with, and leave.

Instead, Ying Yusheng showed up in the morning to pick him up in a car, saying he was taking him to the city.

“What’s your angle?” Xu Nanxiao frowned. “Is there no hotel in town good enough for your tastes?”

“We agreed on one full day. Let’s spend it slowly together,” Ying Yusheng said with curved brows and eyes.

It was just one day, no matter how you sliced it.

Xu Nanxiao couldn’t be bothered to argue and got into the car with a sour face. Ying Yusheng hadn’t brought any of his fancy cars to this town—he was driving a white Volkswagen, the kind no one would even glance at on the road.

“What, did you go broke too?” Xu Nanxiao scoffed.

Ying Yusheng simply said, “When in Rome.”

The car stopped at the largest mall in the city center.

“Hungry? Let’s eat first. There’s a movie in the afternoon.” Ying Yusheng parked the car, turned to look at him, and his voice was as gentle as if he were coaxing someone.

Xu Nanxiao thought to himself, How thorough—dining, entertainment, and sleeping, making full use of every minute.

The Western restaurant required reservations and offered a quiet private room. The dishes were exquisite, the prices steep. After leaving Beijing, Xu Nanxiao hadn’t had a meal this decent in a long time. It tasted good, but the person sitting across from him ruined his appetite.

A waiter stepped forward and asked if they could bring out the main course now.

“Yes, both his steak and mine should be medium rare. No black olives in his salad. And make his pasta a bit firmer.”

Xu Nanxiao’s hand, holding his oyster fork, suddenly stopped.

“Very well, sir. Noted.” With that, the waiter turned and headed to the kitchen.

Back when they used to eat out together, Ying Yusheng always remembered his preferences and would inform the waiter in advance when ordering.

So this time, Ying Yusheng had still done it out of habit.

Xu Nanxiao said nothing, only clenched his jaw and gripped his knife and fork tighter. He hated how Ying Yusheng insisted on reenacting the past even now.