「In the chess and card room.」

Bao Qiudong was still waiting for the team from the Municipal Bureau to arrive when his phone buzzed insistently. The caller ID, "Father," was strikingly prominent on the screen. He had assumed his father would also be furious and want to pursue the matter, but to his surprise, the call began with a roar.

"You worthless animal! What on earth have you done?!"

Hearing the panicked, out-of-control roar from the phone, Bao Qiudong felt as if he had been struck by lightning.

"Dad, what... what do you mean?" Caught completely off guard, Bao Qiudong covered his mouth, hurried to a corner, and asked in a shocked whisper.

"I’m asking you what on earth you’ve done! And what are you doing right now?!" the roar on the other end of the line thundered again.

If it had not been a voice he knew all too well, Bao Qiudong would have assumed it was a wrong number. In his twenty-odd years of life, he could count the times his father had gotten angry at him on one hand, and a hysterical, furious roar like this was absolutely unprecedented.

Thrown by this sudden turn of events, Bao Qiudong was even more bewildered. "Dad, I’m at my uncle’s chess and card room! Someone came and slashed him ten times. He’s in critical condition, and they’re holding him hostage. They’re demanding a ransom of over six million, which they’re euphemistically calling ’overdue late payment interest’! Last year, my uncle borrowed six hundred thousand from a hoodlum, and now it has snowballed with compounding interest into over six million! Dad, I’ve already notified Fu Dinglin. He’s dispatched a team from the Municipal Bureau, and they’re on their way!"

"If he wants money, give it to him! Even if you have to sell everything we own, scrape the money together and give it to them! You can’t stay there any longer. Get out of there! Get out now!" Although his father was no longer roaring with anger, his voice was filled with extreme panic and distress.

"Dad! What are you saying? This is extortion! I can get my hands on six million, sure, but what if they start digging into where that money came from? It would be a ticking time bomb for you and for our Bo Family! Besides, Fu Dinglin’s men are already on their way. When faced with a police squad, do you really think he’d dare to act so brazenly?" Listening to his father’s highly uncharacteristic response, Bao Qiudong furrowed his brow tightly.

He could not understand it. How could his father, who never bowed his head to anyone and was always so domineering, say something like this at such a critical moment? The man who was slashed was not just some random nobody; he was their uncle, a man the entire Bo Family was deeply indebted to!

"Bao Qiudong, I’m warning you! Do as I say, immediately! Give them the money, now! Get out of there, now! Get lost, now!" The four urgent commands perfectly conveyed Bao Xilin’s state of mind.

"Dad! Can you please tell me why?" At this point, sensing the tone coming through the phone, a wave of unease washed over Bao Qiudong.

"Do you have any idea who you’re dealing with right now? Huh?! The Qin Family of Jiangzhou, uprooted! The Du Family of Shanghai, exterminated! And the Qiao Family, who publicly claimed their annihilation was a natural disaster! That person masterminded all of it! And he, to this day, is still walking around free as a bird. Just a moment ago, people from ’the relevant departments’ and Elder Lin himself called me one after another. The warnings in their words were painfully clear! Qiudong, oh, Qiudong, you’re not facing some ordinary thug. You’re facing a monster so powerful that even Ye Jizu of Jiangzhou has to respectfully call him ’Master’! In light of that, do you think a mere Municipal Bureau in Jinling can do anything to him? Stop being so ignorant and foolish! If we make one wrong move in this, our entire Bo Family will face annihilation! Annihilation!!!"

As he spoke those final words, Bao Xilin’s voice trembled uncontrollably. The Qin Family of Jiangzhou and the Qiao Family of Shanghai were played with and crushed so easily that not even dust remained. In comparison, what did the Bo Family amount to?

Ants! To a man like that, they were nothing but ants!

After hearing his father’s words, Bao Qiudong’s expression changed drastically, and all the color drained from his handsome face.

GULP.

"Dad, are you sure there isn’t some mistake? This... this is impossible. He... he only looks like he’s about twenty! And... and he’s hanging around with those thugs. How could someone like that have such earth-shattering connections?"

Even as the memory of Chang Yuanyi’s sycophantic, fawning behavior toward Qin Fan resurfaced in his mind, a part of Bao Qiudong subconsciously refused to believe it.

"To see a mountain is to see a mountain. To see a mountain is not to see a mountain. To see a mountain is again to see a mountain. That is the progression of one’s Realm. Does hanging out with thugs automatically make someone worthless scum? Who taught you that? Never mind anything else; that one sentence from you proves the difference between you and him is like the difference between the heavens and the earth, between the clouds and the mud! Qiudong, do not disappoint me! Things have come to this. I don’t expect you to build a relationship with him. I only hope that he won’t hold a grudge against our Bo Family because of what happened."

As he spoke, Bao Xilin’s voice now carried a faint note of helplessness, a verbal manifestation of his panicked anxiety.

"Dad, I—"

"Don’t you ’Dad, I’ me! Clean up your own goddamn mess! Fast! Now! Immediately!" Hearing Bao Qiudong’s hesitation, Bao Xilin—who almost never swore—could no longer hold back and unleashed another furious roar.

"Okay, I understand!"

The words came out as a reflex. As soon as he said them, Bao Qiudong realized his legs had gone numb. They were paralyzed with fear.

The call ended. Pale-faced, Bao Qiudong turned to look at the figure in the distance with a foot planted on Li Guofu’s chest. In that moment, he realized he did not have the courage to walk back.

Uproot the Qin Family. Massacre the Du Family. Annihilate the Qiao Family. The sheer intimidation of that background made him want to turn and run. But things had already come to this. He could not run. More importantly, he did not dare run. Just as his father said, he was walking a tightrope. One small misstep, and it would be absolute annihilation.

Gritting his teeth, Bao Qiudong dragged his numb legs, each step a monumental effort as he made his way back.

He glanced at Li Guofu, who was on his last breath and seemed about to go into shock. Then, Bao Qiudong finally looked up to meet Qin Fan’s eyes, his own gaze flickering as he said, "Six million, seven hundred eighty-nine thousand. I’ll pay it."

"Holy shit! Something’s not right here, Young Master Bao. You took one phone call and came back a completely different person! Look at that face! Damn, who the hell was threatening you on the phone?" Chang Yuanyi, who was already on bad terms with Bao Qiudong, was practically bursting with laughter at the sight and certainly was not going to pass up the chance to kick a man while he was down.

"Chang Yuanyi, do you find this amusing?" Bao Qiudong replied, gritting his teeth.

After saying his piece, he ignored Chang Yuanyi’s gloating expression. He bowed his head to Qin Fan and said, "I was blind and failed to recognize your eminence. I have offended you greatly, and I hope Mr. Qin can be the better man and forgive my transgression. We will pay the interest exactly as you stipulated. Could you please release my uncle now? I’m afraid he can’t hold on much longer!"