Chapter 562 — My Boss Is Wei Zhao

"Two million eight hundred thousand is the highest I can go. If you won't sell, then there's nothing I can do about it. You can go find someone else to buy it for four million." Zhang Baji spoke mildly. "Though I'm afraid that, given the way this teahouse of yours is run, you won't find a buyer at all!"

"You..." Father Kang knew this for what it was: Zhang Baji threatening him. Fury surged in him beyond all bearing; he glared at Zhang Baji, eyes bloodshot. This was not a matter of backing down or of fear, but of his whole family's livelihood in the years to come. Father Kang stiffened his spine. I won't sell. You can hardly beat me to death over it. So he said: "Don't bully honest folk. I have no wish to provoke you people, but that doesn't mean I'm afraid..."

"Oh? Old man, have we bullied you?" Zou Ruoguang studied Father Kang with amusement. "You won't sell, is that it? Fine. From now on we'll be here for tea every single day!"

When Kang Xiaobo came home from school to the teahouse, he had scarcely pushed the door open before he sensed something amiss in the air. And when he heard that the man in front of him was pressing his father to sell the teahouse, anger flared up in him at once. What were these people doing here?

"Don't you bully my dad!" Kang Xiaobo ran over and planted himself in front of his father, glaring at Zou Ruoguang and Zou Tiandi and Zhang Baji.

Why did this man look a little familiar? Kang Xiaobo blinked in faint surprise. Zou Ruoguang and Zou Tiandi likewise found Kang Xiaobo somewhat familiar, though neither could place where they had seen him.

"Kid, what turf are you from? This is none of your business—get back inside and do your homework!" Zou Ruoguang said, openly mocking him, paying not the slightest regard to the schoolbag-laden Kang Xiaobo.

"I..." Kang Xiaobo had meant to find Wei Zhao first, but Wei Zhao had gone out, and so he had to steel himself and step forward alone. He could hardly stand by and watch these men bully his father. Having lately spent his time at Wei Zhao's side, he was no longer the timid boy he had once been; he felt himself a man with backbone. So he lifted his head and said: "I follow Leader Lin. And where are you from?"

Kang Xiaobo knew Wei Zhao was formidable, but that was formidable only within the walls of the school. Whether that would be enough to cow these men, he had no idea.

"Xiaobo, don't be foolish—go back to your room and read your books!" Father Kang, seeing his son come home from school and square off against these people, was frightened out of his wits, afraid the boy's hot young blood would land him in some disaster.

"Leader Lin? Which Leader Lin?" Zou Ruoguang was taken aback. He had only meant to jab at Kang Xiaobo in passing; how was he to know the boy would actually produce some Leader Lin? Yet turn it over as he might, among the serious players on Songshan's underworld scene, there was no Leader Lin to be found.

"Wei Zhao, Leader Lin!" Kang Xiaobo said, forcing himself to see it through, though he added one more line: "He came to Songshan not long ago. He's very formidable. I'd advise you not to provoke my leader—I'm his number one underling!"

"Gah?!" The moment Zou Ruoguang heard Wei Zhao's name, it was as if someone had stepped on his tail; he leapt three feet straight up, his face changing color, turning white in an instant. He swung his head around toward his father, Zou Tiandi, a look of dread on his face.

Zou Tiandi was badly startled as well! Surely not? How was this Wei Zhao so dogged, haunting him wherever he went? And now a "number one underling" had popped up out of nowhere? But Zou Tiandi was a figure of some standing after all, and he kept a measure of composure, wondering whether the boy before him was simply making things up. He hurriedly pulled out his phone and dialed his son Zou Ruoming's number.

If Wei Zhao had an underling, Zou Ruoming ought to know. One way or another, he would first confirm whether the boy was bluffing. If Wei Zhao had no such underling, Zou Tiandi resolved to beat Kang Xiaobo's face into a bloody bloom. How dared he try to frighten people? In the instant he heard Wei Zhao's name, Zou Tiandi had nearly been scared out of his wits.

"Hello, Ruoming? Let me ask you something—does that Leader Wei Zhao have any underlings?" Zou Tiandi did not dare show Wei Zhao the least disrespect, and so he too called him Leader Wei Zhao. He truly feared the young man before him might have some connection to Wei Zhao.

Zou Ruoming had no idea why his father should call to ask such a thing, but he answered all the same: "There's one. Fellow named Kang Xiaobo. He used to be a useless coward, but ever since he latched onto Wei Zhao he's been throwing his weight around at school..."

Kang... a moment ago Father Kang had called him "Xiaobo," and Zou Tiandi had heard it. So the boy before him was without a doubt Wei Zhao's underling! Zou Tiandi did not know how he managed to hang up the phone; deep terror was written across his face.

In that instant he finally remembered where he had seen this Kang Xiaobo before—the hospital! That time he had been hospitalized, the time he had clashed with Wei Zhao, this Kang Xiaobo had been standing right there.

"!" Zou Tiandi whirled around and drove a kick into Zhang Baji's chest, sending him sprawling flat on his back, his head cracking straight against the leg of a table, blood pouring down in streams. But Zou Tiandi's hatred was not yet spent; he went at him with a furious volley of kicks.

Over on the other side, Zou Ruoguang had caught on as well, and he too set upon Zhang Baji with his fists.

"Brother Zou, Young Master Zou, what are you hitting me for?" Zhang Baji was beaten senseless. What had gotten into this Zou father and son? Why fly into a rage all of a sudden?

"Hitting you? You damn near got me killed, you bastard! You fool—you didn't even listen carefully. The man has ties to Leader Wei Zhao, and you still dared to set your sights on him? Why didn't they finish you off?" Zou Tiandi was beside himself with rage. Wasn't this the wretch getting him killed? He had already angered Wei Zhao enough with these recent affairs, and now he had come to bully the man's underling—wasn't that just begging for death?

A few days earlier he had bullied Tang Yun's younger brother's girlfriend, and Zou Tiandi had been on edge ever since, never knowing whether Wei Zhao would come looking to settle accounts. He had scarcely had a moment's peace, and now he had crossed Wei Zhao's underling. How was his luck this good? Why did every stroke of ill fortune have to land on him?

This sudden turn of events left the Kang family stunned. Father and Mother Kang stared in disbelief at the furious Zou father and son, and what astonished them even more was that the mere utterance of Wei Zhao's name by their son had made the Zous instantly reverse course and begin savagely beating Zhang Baji.

But by now Kang Xiaobo had finally understood: these two knew Wei Zhao—and not merely knew him, they feared him. Otherwise they could never have worked themselves into such a fury.

Only when Zhang Baji was nearly beaten unconscious did Zou Tiandi and Zou Ruoguang stop. Not for fear of crippling him, but because they had worn themselves out. Both were big-brother figures; the business of laying hands on a man was usually left to their underlings, and they rarely kept at it for long.

Their chief purpose in coming today had been to frighten Father Kang. They had never reckoned on coming to blows.

"Brother Kang, my apologies—this was all a misunderstanding! That Zhang Baji just deserved a beating; he lured us here, and it turns out he meant no good at all! Lucky we caught on in time and put a stop to it, or who knows what else the creature might have done!" Zou Tiandi addressed Kang Xiaobo as "Brother." Awkward as it felt, he had no choice—he did not dare not to.

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