Chapter 467: What a Coward
After leaving the barbershop, Zhu Chen and Xiao Ye decided to get something to eat first.
They would deal with the man later.
Judging by the signs of the disaster star, it would probably be a few more days before anything happened.
After dinner, they went to the house where Ms. Zhang used to live. As luck would have it, they ran right into the man, who was just returning from a night of drinking.
He did have the face of an honest man, but the drooping corners of his eyes betrayed a vicious glint.
His sanpaku eyes were especially noticeable when he looked at people.
He spotted the two of them waiting at the building entrance, and resentment instantly flared in his heart.
Then he saw the luxury car parked nearby, and he was filled with envy, jealousy, and hate.
'Why?'
'Why do some men get to be handsome and rich?'
'And why am I so mediocre?'
He staggered up to Xiao Ye, but the moment their eyes met, a chill ran down his spine, and he instantly sobered up.
His original plan had been to bump into Xiao Ye, dirty his clothes, and maybe even land a punch.
But now that he was clear-headed, he quickly changed his mind. 'This kid looks rich and powerful.'
'If I mess with him, my life might get a lot harder.'
As the man walked away, Xiao Ye frowned slightly. "What a coward."
'He's brave enough to hit his own wife every time he drinks, but he doesn't dare lay a finger on me?'
'Frankly, "drunk fighting" is just an excuse.'
'He knows exactly what he's doing. A piece of trash who bullies the weak and fears the strong—a tiger at home and a mouse outside.'
The two of them didn't go looking for trouble with him.
When dealing with a disaster star, the final blow had to be the one that counted.
If they acted too soon, the disaster star might be suppressed, but it could reappear at any time.
Zhu Chen and Xiao Ye checked into a luxury hotel nearby.
They had men watching him twenty-four hours a day.
The man had a job. On his days off, he drank. At work, he put on a respectable front.
He worked for three days straight, acting almost completely normal.
But on the fourth day, he had a day off.
That afternoon, he went out drinking again.
While on a food street, he furtively groped a young woman's butt.
One of Xiao Ye's men, who had been watching from the shadows, immediately stepped out upon seeing this.
He hadn't forgotten Xiao Ye's orders: if the man did something wrong, even if they couldn't beat him, he had to be taught a lesson.
The man's wrist was suddenly grabbed, and he spun around to face the person behind him.
His fierce expression immediately wilted when he saw the burly, muscular man. "Wh-what are you doing?"
"Let me tell you, we're in public! You're not going to hit me, are you?"
"You just groped that young woman's butt."
"No, I didn't! Don't you go making baseless accusations!" The man tried to wrench his arm free but found he couldn't.
The henchman sneered. "I saw it with my own eyes. Still trying to deny it? Slap yourself, or I'll do it for you!"
Intimidated by the man's strength, he didn't dare to provoke him further and slapped himself across the face. "There. Is that good enough?"
The henchman finally let him go. "That's enough. Don't let me catch you doing that again, or else... I won't let you off so easily!"
A small crowd had gathered. Humiliated and furious, the man turned and fled.
'So humiliating!'
'I can't show my face on this food street for at least a month!'
The man ducked into a bar, ran into his scummy friends, and immediately started ranting about what had just happened.
None of them were good people.
"Hmph, groping those women is doing them a favor!"
"Who do they think they are to complain? If you ask me, Dragon Country should be like Country S, where all the women have to cover themselves up."
"And they shouldn't be allowed to go to school! They only get uppity because they learn too much. Things were better back in the day, with the 'Three Obediences and Four Virtues,' when we men could take concubines. Those were the good old days!"
Other patrons drinking nearby overheard them and were disgusted.
'What kind of scumbags are these?'
'How could they say something like that?'
'Weren't their mothers women?'
But the group didn't care. They kept drinking and shouting, disturbing everyone around them.
A waitress approached them. "Could you please keep it down? Other customers have complained. I hope you can be a bit more considerate."
The drunk man looked at her timid face, was suddenly reminded of his ex-wife, and sneered, "And what if I don't want to keep it down?"
With that, he grabbed the waitress's arm. "Come here!"
"Telling us to be quiet? You've got some nerve!"
"Let go of me!" The waitress's face went pale with fright. She was only in her twenties and had never encountered such a disgusting old man.
Her arm throbbed with pain, but more than that, she was completely disgusted.
The sight of his large, yellow teeth made it even more unbearable.
"Get off me! You're disgusting!"
"You bitch, you dare call me disgusting!" The man raised his hand to strike, feeling as if the waitress before him had transformed into the wife he had beaten and verbally abused for twenty years.
The waitress squeezed her eyes shut, but the expected pain never came.
The man looked and saw it was the same burly man who had grabbed him earlier that day.
'Damn it!'
'Not him again!'
"Y-you... what are you doing here?!"
"Why shouldn't I be here? I just taught you a lesson, and you're already back to causing trouble, aren't you!"
Without another word, the burly man started dragging the man outside.
"Let me go! Help! This man is trying to kill me!"
"What are you all staring at? Someone, call the police!"
The restaurant wasn't large, so everyone had heard the man's earlier tirade.
Now that he was crying for help, nobody paid him any attention.
'He's the kind of person who wouldn't be grateful even if you did help him.'
'Worse, he'd probably try to pin the blame on you!'
The henchman let out a cold laugh. "A guy like you expects someone to help? Dream on!"
He then looked at the terrified waitress. "It's okay. Go get your boss. I'll handle things here."
"O-okay... Thank you so much!"
With that, she hurried away.
The henchman didn't want to interfere with Xiao Ye's plans, so he only landed two punches. "Next time I catch you, it won't just be two punches. Got it?"
He then pulled a few hundred-yuan bills from the man's pocket and stuffed them into the hands of the waitress, who was now hiding behind the counter. "This is from him, for your emotional distress."
"Have your boss back you up. That guy's a total coward; he won't dare do a thing to you."
"Thank you."
The henchman left.
The man didn't dare stay any longer. He quickly paid his bill and got the hell out.
On the way home, the more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He kicked over a trash can.
He hadn't taken ten more steps before he felt something strike his body.
He collapsed to the ground. "Who is it?!"
"Who the hell ambushed me?! Show yourself!"
The man roared in impotent rage, but the dark street was completely empty.
He finally returned home in a fury and proceeded to smash things around until his anger subsided.