But this was his territory, and he had five or six hired “bodyguards” around him. What the hell was there to be afraid of?
Xue Bao Tian cocked his head and barked, “Are you fuckers dead or something? Need an energy drink before you can get going? Hold him down and strip him!”
“You!” He pointed at the woman whose face was caked in white powder. “Get over here. Fuck him!”
Women who worked the nightlife scene were experts at reading a situation. The tall, powerfully built man with half his face covered in blood was clearly not someone who would meekly submit to humiliation. She glanced at the money on the table with obvious regret. “Boss, I’m not feeling well today, so I’m afraid I can’t take this job. I’ll head home first.”
Before she had even finished speaking, the other women scrambled to invent excuses of their own and leave.
Watching them flee in disarray, Xue Bao Tian cursed, “Fuck, do any of you have professional ethics? It’s one in the fucking morning and you’re going home to supervise your kid’s homework? What did you give birth to, an owl?!”
The villa door slowly closed. With a bellyful of rage and nowhere to vent it, Xue Bao Tian spun around with a vicious glare, expecting to see Zhang Chi pinned down. Instead…
He instinctively took a step backward. “What the hell is this supposed to mean?”
No one in the hall was being restrained anymore. Everyone was standing upright—including Zhang Chi.
“Master Xue,” said the middle-aged man who had negotiated the price with Xue Bao Tian in the car that day, “we accepted your job, sure, but you only told us to tie someone up, beat him, then let him go. We tied him up, and we beat him. Our contract didn’t include rape.”
“You’re a fucking underworld outfit and you actually sign contracts? What, does that help boost the country’s GDP? People would laugh their asses off if they heard about it. You just want more money, don’t you? I’ve got plenty.”
“Master Xue is certainly straightforward. Then add this much.” The man held up a hand to indicate a figure.
Xue Bao Tian’s eyes widened. Pointing at Zhang Chi, he snapped, “Are you fucking robbing me? That much would be enough to have him killed!”
The man clicked his tongue and smiled. “Master Xue, if we can’t come to an agreement, then we’ll be leaving.” He patted Zhang Chi on the shoulder. “Bro, take care.”
Zhang Chi nodded without saying much.
The men strolled out as leisurely as though they were taking a walk through a park. Before leaving, they even took Xue Bao Tian’s two lackeys with them.
Only when everything around him had gone quiet did Xue Bao Tian finally begin to process what had happened. Holding the ashtray, he turned around blankly, practically surrounded by question marks. “What the hell does this mean?”
The coarse hemp rope slipped from Zhang Chi’s wrists. He stretched his legs and headed toward the sofa, passing Xue Bao Tian along the way without mocking him for shrinking back.
Pulling out several tissues, Zhang Chi casually wiped the blood from his face. He lowered himself onto the sofa and crossed his legs just as Xue Bao Tian had earlier, one white sneaker swaying slightly. “We know each other.”
Xue Bao Tian’s voice abruptly shot upward. “Who? Those kidnappers?”
Zhang Chi clicked his tongue. “I wouldn’t really call them kidnappers. They take gray-area jobs—helping people settle grudges or blow off some anger. They know where the limits are, so nothing serious usually happens.”
“So they took my money and then turned around and made a fool out of me?!”
“Not exactly.” After half a night of chaos, Zhang Chi was thirsty. He casually twisted open a bottle of water and drank half of it. Only after swallowing did he notice that it tasted strange, and he frowned at the label. “They didn’t know it was me until they grabbed me. As for me, I wanted to find out who I’d offended badly enough to arrange all this, so I came along to see. Who would’ve thought it was you, Two Hundred?”
Seeing Xue Bao Tian’s expression change, Zhang Chi obligingly put on a slightly apologetic look. “What’s your name, anyway? It’s inconvenient talking to you when I don’t have one to call you.”
Xue Bao Tian ground his teeth so hard they nearly cracked. “You can call me Grandpa. I don’t mind if you call me Ancestor either.”
Zhang Chi looked faintly helpless and continued, “Once I saw it was you, I figured I’d let you vent some of that anger, so I let you hit and curse me. But you… bringing those women here was going a little too far.”
“An eye for an eye. I paid out of my own pocket to let you have some fun with women tonight. How is that going too far?”
“I’m completely gay. I can’t do it.”
“And I’m completely fucking straight. You think I could?!”
Zhang Chi reined in his presence slightly and tried to reason with him. “Then let’s find some middle ground. Whatever I can do to compensate you, I’ll do it.”
“You fucking bastard, the only thing on your entire body with any weight to it is those few ounces of meat between your legs. Even your bones are worthless. A lowlife like you wants to compensate me? What the fuck could you possibly compensate me with?”
His gaze followed his words. Xue Bao Tian instinctively looked toward those “few ounces of meat” he had just mentioned, only to discover in horror that the front of Zhang Chi’s black underwear was now noticeably more raised than before.
He abruptly backed away, alarmed. “Why the fuck are you ready to go anytime, anywhere…?!”
Zhang Chi looked puzzled too. He lowered his head to inspect himself and murmured, “I feel kind of hot. Restless, too.”
“You drank that?” Xue Bao Tian pointed at the half-empty bottle on the coffee table. “Who the fuck told you to drink it?!”
“What is it?”
“…That kind of… drug.”
They both fell silent. The air suddenly seemed to thin, and every breath Xue Bao Tian took came out rough and heavy.
After a long while, Zhang Chi finally moved again. He planted both elbows on his knees, hooked his long fingers around the bottle, and lifted his narrow eyes. “Why did you prepare this?”
His voice was low and unhurried, yet when it reached Xue Bao Tian, it sent a shiver through him. For some reason, he suddenly felt that the mild, good-natured Zhang Chi… was gone.
Fresh blood seeped from Zhang Chi’s wound, casting a bloodred shadow across his face. The coldness in his gaze was direct and unmistakable. He answered his own question. “You prepared it for me? If I refused to do it with those women, you were going to force this down my throat?”
“Two Hundred, I thought you just had a rotten temper. Turns out you’re rotten all the way to the core.”
Zhang Chi rose and advanced on the shrinking Xue Bao Tian one step at a time, the water bottle dangling from his hand just as the ashtray had swung from Xue Bao Tian’s earlier.
He forced Xue Bao Tian into a corner, then reached out with one large hand and seized him, dragging him close. Looking into those panicked eyes, he asked, “Two Hundred, the women are gone. What do we do now?”
Both Xue Bao Tian’s body and his voice were trembling. “I-I’ll call them back. No, no, I’ll find you men. Whatever kind you want, I can get them for you.”
Zhang Chi lowered himself slightly and gave Xue Bao Tian another careful once-over. “No need to trouble anyone else. You’ll do. You’re not that ugly—better than I imagined.”
“Zhang Chi! Fuck you! If you dare do that to me again, I’ll fucking kill you!”
“Dying beneath a flower like you wouldn’t be worth it.”
Zhang Chi suddenly clamped his fingers around Xue Bao Tian’s jaw and forced his mouth open, then poured the remaining drugged water down his throat.
Zhang Chi’s strength was impossible to resist. Even though Xue Bao Tian struggled frantically, he still ended up swallowing most of the water. His face dripping wet, he finally began to surrender. “Zhang Chi, enough. I won’t come after you for revenge again. We’ll call it even right now. You go find men, I’ll go find women, okay? I’ll pay. Do whatever you want.”
“Too late.”
Zhang Chi stepped in close, abruptly hoisted Xue Bao Tian over his shoulder, and headed toward the spacious sofa. “Forgot to tell you: your mouth is nasty and your heart is rotten, but your ass isn’t bad. At least there’s some meat on it.”
Smack!
The sharp sound rang out, followed by Xue Bao Tian’s anguished roar:
“Zhang Chi, fuck you!”