Chapter 344 - 344 As Long As You Don't Kill, Suit Yourself
Just as Jin Lianzi was shocked, Ye Qing really did throw another punch. With this blow, Jin Lianzi lost a few more teeth, and his whole being was dazed.
Jin Lianzi's brothers and sisters were petrified upon seeing Ye Qing's methods. Jin Lianzi's face was covered in blood, and it was uncertain how severe his injuries were, but at least half of his teeth were already gone. Moreover, seeing the look on Ye Qing's face, he didn't seem ready to stop. Was he really intent on knocking out all of Jin Lianzi's teeth?
Ye Qing pulled Jin Lianzi up and hit him with another punch, but the effect this time was obviously not as significant as the first. Trying to knock out all his teeth with fists was quite a technical job. After all, the fewer teeth there were, the higher the difficulty of the operation. Ye Qing now doubted he could knock out all of Jin Lianzi's teeth before accidentally killing him.
Fortunately, Da Fei came back at that moment and couldn't help but ask curiously, "Big Brother, what are you doing?"
Ye Qing beckoned and said, "You're back just in time. Go get some pliers and pull out all the teeth in his mouth for me!"
"Alright!" Da Fei was quite excited and immediately went to find a pair of pliers, approaching Jin Lianzi with a grin.
"Hey, Ye Qing, aren't you going too far?" a girl said angrily, "After all, you are still our cousin. Although Eldest Brother's words were not pleasant, what you're doing is really out of line!"
"Please remember, you're the ones who said we don't have any kinship. So, don't try to pull rank on me!" Ye Qing paused and continued, "The one thing I can't tolerate in this lifetime is others insulting my parents. I warned him, and he offended again. He's challenging my bottom line. I don't think I am being excessive!"
"You…" The girl, grinding her teeth with anger, said, "You're ruthless, Mr. Ye. Just wait, my Eldest Brother will definitely not let you off!"
Having said that, the girl gestured and said, "Let's go!"
But Ye Qing went ahead and blocked the door, saying, "Did I say you could leave?"
"So what do you want to do?" a young man said tremblingly, as Da Fei was pulling out Jin Lianzi's teeth nearby, and the screams made everyone's blood run cold.
"I've paid for this ward for an entire day; it can't be wasted." Ye Qing casually pulled over a chair to sit down and said, "We are meeting for the first time, after all. Come, let's sit down and have a chat."
Everyone exchanged glances, and the girl whispered, "We don't have anything to say to you!"
"I think otherwise," Ye Qing shook his head and said, "Come on, let's talk about who sent you to deal with Old Fifth Yang!"
"Ah?" The two girls couldn't help but exclaim in shock, with one of them saying in a trembling voice, "How do you know..."
Mid-sentence, she suddenly realized she had misspoken and promptly clammed up. However, for Ye Qing, what he had heard was already enough.
It seemed his guess had been correct; indeed, someone was out to get Old Fifth Yang. This matter was definitely not as simple as it appeared on the surface.
The trouble that Ye Changwen's brothers brought was just a step from someone behind the scenes. They wanted to escalate the issue of the Ye family's compensation, thereby drawing the villagers' dissatisfaction and impeding Old Fifth Yang's construction project. This would give the person behind the scenes an opportunity to snatch the project from Old Fifth Yang's hands.
Of course, Ye Qing knew that such a matter wouldn't be so simple. The fact that Old Fifth Yang had secured the project before meant he was strong on his own. The person behind the scenes surely had more schemes up their sleeve; forcing Old Fifth Yang to temporarily halt construction was just their first move.
Truthfully, Ye Qing initially didn't want to get involved in such matters. However, Old Fifth Yang did take good care of the Ye family, and moreover, the opposing party had injured his elderly father and put him in the hospital, directly drawing Ye Qing into the affair. At the very least, he could not overlook the incident of his father being injured.
Ye Qing looked at the younger brothers and sisters in front of him and said, "Tell me, who sent you?"
The group looked at each other, all turned their heads away, ready to remain silent.
Ye Qing couldn't be bothered with their reluctance and stood up, saying, "Da Fei, I leave this to you. Find out who sent them. If they won't talk, let them stay here a while longer."
"No problem," Da Fei agreed readily and asked, "Big Brother, just a question, can we use torture?"
Ye Qing replied, "As long as you don't kill them, do as you please."
The color drained from their faces, and one of them said anxiously, "Mr. Ye, I warn you, this is illegal detention!"
"That's right, this is illegal detention," Ye Qing nodded, glanced at Da Fei, and said, "Da Fei, illegal detention plus torture would probably result in three months to a year in jail. You..."
"Da Fei said magnanimously, 'Eldest Brother, don't worry about one year, even if it's two years, what of it? After two years, I'll come out just as much a hero as before!'"
Ye Qing nodded in satisfaction and gave those younger siblings a cold glance. In reality, with Old Fifth Yang's tactics, as long as there were no fatalities, Da Fei definitely wouldn't end up in prison. Ye Qing posed the question to him merely as a hint to the others, indicating that Da Fei was prepared for prison, and thus he wouldn't show any mercy when striking.
As expected, those younger siblings trembled in fright. They were just small-time hooligans from the streets, good at extorting and bullying students, but they had never seen a real showdown.
All the male siblings under Ye Qing had been beaten and incapacitated by him. The remaining two girls were no threat to Da Fei either.
When he returned to his father's hospital room, his stepmother Zhou Hongxia was guarding Ye Changwen's bedside with a look of panic in her eyes. She had almost been hit several times and was genuinely terrified. However, upon seeing Ye Qing return, she was considerably relieved.
Ye Changwen, the father, had yet to wake up, spending most of his time in a comatose state. Ye Qing took his pulse and massaged him for a while, and Ye Changwen gradually began to awaken.
Seeing Ye Qing return, Ye Changwen burst into tears, embracing Ye Qing and crying for a good while.
Ye Qing's heart ached too, and he comforted Ye Changwen for half an hour, finally getting him to slowly calm down.
"Qingzi, have you found Xiao Jun?" Ye Changwen, now settled, first thought of his youngest son.
"I haven't found him yet," Ye Qing did not dare to reveal the uncertain fate of Ye Jun, so he perfunctorily responded.
"Ah, Xiao Jun, that child, has such a hard life... I... I have let him down..." Ye Changwen burst into tears again. Ye Qing was about to console him when suddenly several people walked towards the door of the hospital room.
"Ye brothers!" The leader was Old Fifth Yang. He was elated upon seeing Ye Qing and hurried inside, exclaiming, "I just heard from Xiao Yu that you've come back, when did you arrive?"
"Last night," Ye Qing exchanged pleasantries with Old Fifth Yang. Before they could talk about the important matters, Da Fei hurried over and said, "Eldest Brother, everything has been found out!"
"Eldest Brother?" Old Fifth Yang was stunned for a moment; he didn't recall having such a younger brother.
In his surprise, Ye Qing spoke up, "Found out what?"
Old Fifth Yang looked at Ye Qing, incredulously. Without a doubt, this person referred to as Eldest Brother was him. But how could he have become an Eldest Brother so quickly and gained a younger brother? What on earth had happened to him in Shenchuan City?
Da Fei said, "They were indeed hired with money to cause trouble, and according to them, the person who paid them was He Biao."
Ye Qing didn't know any He Biao, so he could only turn to Old Fifth Yang standing to the side.
Old Fifth Yang sighed and said, "Ye brothers, I didn't expect you to find out about this so quickly. Actually, I was planning to tell you about this myself. It's not appropriate to talk here. Let's find a place, and I'll tell you the whole story."
Ye Qing didn't leave the hospital because he was worried about his father being beaten up again, so he found another room nearby to listen to Old Fifth Yang tell the whole story.
Everything was as Ye Qing had anticipated. This incident was not really aimed at the Ye family, but rather at Old Fifth Yang. The reason it involved the Ye family was due to the higher compensation Old Fifth Yang provided for the Ye family's house compared to other settlements in the area, giving the opponents something to hold against him.
They took advantage of Ye Qing's uncles to amplify the issue with the Ye family, which led to dissatisfaction among others, resulting in the current situation, where Old Fifth Yang couldn't proceed with his construction project.
Old Fifth Yang said, "That He Biao is a local from Jiuchuan County, thirty-two years old this year. He committed numerous assaults in his early years, as well as firearms offenses, and is considered one of the most violent individuals in Jiuchuan County in recent years.
He commands over a hundred people, and they used to run gambling operations in the mines in the mountains, considered a criminal element but with no significant backing. However, he's now in league with that person, directly challenging me, with your uncles personally contacted by He Biao himself."
Ye Qing furrowed his brow and fell silent for a while before asking, "Who exactly is trying to target you?"
Old Fifth Yang looked somewhat troubled, fell silent for a moment, and said in a low voice, "This person is not a local from Jiuchuan County; he's a big construction magnate from the city. He has teamed up with a local named Hu Liang, aiming to take away the development project in New District."
Ye Qing looked at Old Fifth Yang and said, "With your years of establishment in Jiuchuan County, Boss Yang, an outsider shouldn't pose much of a threat to you, right?"
"That's true, but the current situation is a bit different," Old Fifth Yang said gloomily. "Recently, our Jiuchuan County Party Secretary was transferred. I thought Chen Jia'an, the county mayor, was going to be promoted to Party Secretary. I have a good relationship with Old Chen, and there shouldn't have been any problem.
But who knew that suddenly, a new Party Secretary would be parachuted in from the city. Chen Jia'an didn't get promoted, and the local power dynamics shifted."
Ye Qing suddenly understood—it all came down to a change in the local power hierarchy. As the saying goes, "A new emperor brings his own courtiers." If Chen Jia'an had become the Party Secretary, probably no one could have wrestled the project away from him. But now, with a new Party Secretary in place, a construction magnate immediately followed from the city.
Since Chen Jia'an was not the top man in Jiuchuan County anymore, room for contention over the affair had opened up.