Chapter 143: Two Tigers Fight

Every word spoken by the two brothers was laden with hidden meanings.

Others might not understand, but Liu Jingye had some inside knowledge and managed to grasp the gist of it.

"It seems Young Master Feng's branch still yearns to return to the inner circle of the capital, while the fat man wants to keep them drifting outside. The forces in the capital have long been firmly entrenched, and no one is allowed to squeeze in."

Liu Jingye thought to himself, "As expected, entering a wealthy and powerful family is as deep as the sea."

Young Master Feng smiled slightly, steered the conversation away, and said, "Let's go, Third Brother, I've prepared everything and am just waiting to welcome you properly!"

"No, I can't leave," the fat man said. "My phone is dead. My girlfriend said she would call this inn to find me. If I miss her call, she will skin me alive."

"I've long known that Third Brother is a sentimental romantic, wholly devoted and immensely affectionate toward my future sister-in-law," Young Master Feng said. "Alright then, I'll accompany Third Brother and wait."

"Oh, right, I'll introduce someone to you," the fat man suddenly said. Young Master Feng instinctively looked toward Gao Jing standing behind him. Gao Jing's gaze remained aloof; she cast a sidelong glance at him and looked away into the distance without lingering for a second.

Meanwhile, the fat man pulled Liu Jingye over and introduced him: "Sixth Brother, this is my sworn brother Liu Jingye, and also the owner of this inn."

Young Master Feng was slightly stunned, clearly failing to keep up with the rhythm. He looked at Liu Jingye with even greater astonishment—an owner of a rustic country inn had actually become sworn brothers with the dignified Third Young Master of the Tan family; it was simply a sparrow pairing up with a phoenix.

However, he still had to give the fat man face. He proactively reached out a hand and said, "A pleasure, Boss Liu."

Before Liu Jingye could speak, the fat man chimed in, "Why call him Boss Liu? How distant! He's my brother, a year older than you, so you should at least call him Brother!"

A flash of disdain immediately crossed Young Master Feng's eyes, and he said indifferently, "I only have a few brothers like you."

The implication of these words was obvious: Liu Jingye was not worthy.

The fat man, however, refused to let the matter drop. "It's not like I'm asking you to acknowledge him as family, calling him an adopted brother is fine too. Let's all get familiar with each other."

The fat man was clearly deliberately suppressing Young Master Feng, testing him and challenging his bottom line. How could such a lofty aristocratic scion, a figure who held sway over life and death, easily yield? Yet, the fat man's status was far superior to his.

Young Master Feng's gaze flickered uncertainly before he suddenly broke into a smile and said, "Brother Liu, hello. It's our first meeting, please take care of me in the future."

Young Master Feng's attitude underwent a complete one-eighty-degree turn in an instant. A trace of a smile appeared at the corner of the fat man's mouth. Liu Jingye also reached out his hand and said, "Young Master Feng is too polite. I wouldn't dare talk about taking care of anyone, besides, this isn't our first meeting."

"Oh? Is that so?" Young Master Feng asked in surprise, carefully sizing up Liu Jingye.

Liu Jingye smiled faintly and said, "We've met twice in total. The first time was at the airport, where I accidentally bumped and bruised the nose of one of your lackeys; the second time was at the banquet where Secretary Zhang was killed..."

"Ah, I remember now!" Young Master Feng feigned sudden realization, shook Liu Jingye's hand firmly, and said, "You're the hero who subdued a gunman single-handedly that day! I knew it, Third Brother's brother must also be a dragon or phoenix among men."

While praising Liu Jingye, Young Master Feng did not forget to flatter the fat man as well.

The fat man looked at Liu Jingye with curiosity, not expecting the two of them to have history.

Liu Jingye smiled. "Young Master Feng flatters me too much. How could I be considered any hero? At most, I just knocked him out. The person who quietly took his life afterward is the true hero who eliminated a pest for the people."

Young Master Feng was visibly startled. He narrowed his eyes and said with an ambiguous smile, "Someone killed him? That's hardly likely, is it? Didn't the police say that the thug had taken a large amount of drugs before committing the crime, and during the attack, due to nervous excitement and intense physical exertion, his blood circulation accelerated, causing him to die of a drug overdose?"

"I don't think it looks that way." Seemingly unfazed by the chilling gleam in Young Master Feng's eyes, Liu Jingye calmly stated, "I had contact with the thug at the time and clearly saw that his eyes were bright and his behavior was completely normal, not looking high at all."

"Is that so?" Young Master Feng said. "With such important information, Brother Liu, you'd better notify the police as soon as possible. It might just help solve the case."

Liu Jingye smiled faintly. "These are just my guesses. My words carry little weight, and the police wouldn't believe them even if I told them. Besides, I'm a person who hates trouble and even less willing to bring trouble upon myself."

"Brother Liu is a smart man," Young Master Feng said with a smile.

Their words were also laden with hidden meanings, understood only by the two of them. Watching the pair, the fat man wore an imperceptible smile at the corner of his mouth.

Subsequently, the fat man insisted on waiting for the phone call, and Young Master Feng naturally had to accompany him. Gao Jing remained standing about three meters behind the fat man, silent like a shadow.

Young Master Feng had dismissed his subordinates to wait in the courtyard. As for that blond-haired youth, he had long been scared peeing by this spectacle and had slipped away God-knows-when.

Liu Jingye excused himself to clean rooms upstairs and did not stay behind.

Those black-clad bodyguards gathered in groups of two or three in the courtyard. Strictly disciplined in front of others, they were a loose sand behind closed doors, slouching and smoking casually.

Two black-clad men stood smoking by the main gate, holding the hundred-yuan bill the fat man had just given them for candy money. They were discussing something in extremely low voices, but Liu Jingye could decipher the content of their dialogue from the movement of their lips.

The first one said, "That damn fat pig actually dared to humiliate Young Master Feng and humiliate us like this. I really want to punch that fat face of his hard a couple of times."

"Why bother lowering yourself to the level of such a pretentious poseur?" the second one replied. "Who in the entire circle doesn't know that the Third Young Master of the Tan family is a notoriously paper tiger? He struts around borrowing his family's power and puts on airs in public, but in reality, he's a spineless coward. I heard this time it was because of a broken heart; he was making a fuss about ending his life at home, which is why his family drove him out."

"Hmph, that dead fat pig got what he deserved," the first man said indignantly. "He just got lucky, being born into a great and noble family."

"Even when born into a great and noble family, not everyone can bear their own good fortune," the second man said. "Take this Third Young Master for example. Ever since he came of age, the family has tested and tried him many times, but he has achieved nothing. Commerce, politics, military—he fails at all of them. Although he's in the inner circle, he's actually just a marginal figure.

"The family has always promoted people based on ability. Over the past few years, Young Master Feng has worked conscientiously, constantly expanding territories for the family, and his achievements are plain for all to see. It's not entirely impossible that one day our young master will replace this dead fat pig and enter the inner circle."

The two of them discussed this in extremely low whispers. Since they even knew such details, it seemed they were trusted confidants directly under Young Master Feng. Yet they could never have imagined that their entire conversation was observed by Liu Jingye.

"Indeed, the world of wealthy families is as deep as the sea," Liu Jingye thought to himself. "Young Master Feng is painstakingly scheming, single-mindedly wanting to enter the Tan family's inner circle in the capital, while the fat man, Tan Yixing, is a hopeless blockhead to his family, and has become the target for Tan Yifeng to supplant.

"No wonder the two of them put on a facade of false warmth and mutual scheming the moment they met, with every word hiding secret meanings. Clearly, the fat man is also well aware of Tan Yifeng's sinister intentions, while Young Master Feng is merely polite on the surface and doesn't take him seriously at all.

"This fat man appears worldly-wise, irreverent, and boisterous—even servants know him as a pretentious paper tiger—but Liu Jingye didn't think so. It could only be said that the fat man's acting skills were too lifelike, deceiving everyone. To get ahead in a wealthy family, one must know how to endure and seize the right moment to soar straight to the skies."

"The fat man's sudden arrival in this city this time definitely has a complicated purpose. When two tigers fight, one is bound to get hurt. There's a good show to watch now."

Liu Jingye walked downstairs in high spirits. The fat man looked even happier than him, having just finished his call with his girlfriend and being in a wonderful mood.

"Brother Liu, you've come at the right time," Young Master Feng stood up and said to him. "Tonight, I'm hosting a welcome banquet to wash away the dust of travel for Third Brother. Since Brother Liu is my Third Brother's sworn brother, I kindly ask you to honor us with your presence when the time comes."

Liu Jingye cast a sidelong glance at the fat man. The two of them had just met and could at best be considered drinking buddies; calling themselves sworn brothers was way over the top. Moreover, this fat man was hiding too deeply; he had no desire to become a pawn used by others.

Yet Young Master Feng remained a thorn in his side. Things having reached this point, his only option was to plunge right into the thick of it and play it by ear.

"Since Young Master Feng has invited me, it's my absolute honor," Liu Jingye replied in agreement.

Not long after, Young Master Feng's black-clad subordinates re-formed their ranks, greeting the fat man's departure with a grand and magnificent spectacle. Outside the main gate, a line of luxury sedan convoys waited in attendance, a display of pomp and circumstance in no way inferior to a top-ranking imperial commissioner traveling in ancient times.

Nevertheless, the fat man chose his own Phaeton, driven by Gao Jing, taking the lead and driving off first, forcing the car of Young Master Feng, the local host, into second place—a clear move to outrank him.

Liu Jingye was now immensely interested in the struggle between the two cousins of the Tan family. One was high-profile everywhere, seemingly graceful and dashing, yet ruthless, with his ambitions for dominance written all over his face.

The other was bloated and fat, playing the fool, universally recognized as a pretentious paper tiger and a marginal figure of the family, yet performing a grand drama that no one could decipher. As the saying goes, a fat man is not a creature of a mere pond; once he sheds his fat, he turns into a dragon.

Young Master Feng wanted to replace the fat man at every turn, yet the fat man subjected him to utter humiliation upon meeting, completely disregarding him and instead giving him a severe psychological blow right off the bat. Liu Jingye had a premonition that a spectacular show was about to unfold in the future.

"Family power struggles—just imagining them makes me excited," Liu Jingye chuckled inwardly. "Right now, though, the top priority is to fix the fallen chandelier first."

"The fat man's tonnage is no joke; he actually rattled the chandelier right down," Liu Jingye muttered, looking at the nearly cracked ceiling with a bitter smile. "It smashed right onto the blond guy's girlfriend's backside. If it had been a fraction of a second earlier, it would have cracked his head open. Heh, those two really play rough."

Afterward, Liu Jingye made a few phone calls. Yuan Xiaoying had a mission tonight; Chen Xin was working overtime recording a program, having seemingly been assigned additional broadcasting duties due to strong audience demand—the very charm of a leading host. Lin Shengnan was still holed up in the bath center. The KTV had been suspended for rectification, the bath center had also taken a hit with all the hostesses dismissed, making it as legitimate as legitimate could be, and Lin Shengnan was currently learning proper massage techniques from a professional technician...