Liu Qingshan’s pupils contracted. He was not a deity. There was no possible way that he would have anticipated Old Deng to have tied explosives around his waist.
This entire set up was arranged because he had learned of the conspiracy between his woman Xu Ying and Gao Yue.
He had purposely diverted his bodyguards to mislead Xu Ying and the others into believing that he was defenceless. Then, he secretly replaced the personnel arranged by Xu Ying and Gao Yue with his own followers. Finally, made sure that everyone in the vicinity was well aware of the situation before he went on with his plans.
Liu Qingshan was also very meticulous in his arrangements. He made use of this event to test everyone’s loyalty to him. If anyone were to back him up in such a scenario, then that person could definitely be trusted. When Liu Minghao does really succeed him one day, he wouldn’t have to worry about a revolt either.
But if these people were to disregard their close ties with him at such a crucial moment, it gave Liu Qingshan no reason to show mercy. He was willing to slaughter everyone in that room to pave the way for his son.
It had to be said that Liu Qingshan was a fearful hero. However, he was also one to care about loyalty. To people who obey his orders, he would hold them in high regard. For the rest of them, he will not hesitate to end them. It all depended on whether they knew how to read the situation.
Originally, all his plans had already reached the final stage. As long as he followed through his plans and killed everyone in the hall, he could give Green Dragon Society a complete makeover. However, this sly Old Deng had made preparations of his own.
Thinking about it, Old Deng probably didn’t trust anyone at all. Thus, he had prepared a bomb beforehand to save his own life, just in case.
Who knew that he was the one that would’ve guessed it correctly! Whether it was Xu Ying or Liu Qingshan, none of them could be trusted!
“Old Deng, don’t act rashly. Explosives are not something to be played with,” Liu Qingshan said with a calm face. He was pondering over how to deal with this.
Old Deng sensed an opportunity and immediately broke into laughter. “What? Are you afraid? If you’re afraid then let us go! All we want is to stay alive. In the future we’ll all take our own paths!”
Old Deng was smart enough to use the word ‘us’ instead of ‘me’. He could only gain access to more resources to escape by getting everyone involved.
All at once, the rest started to chime in, shouting for Liu Qingshan to release them.
But right at that moment, Yang Chen who had been sitting silently on his chair suddenly stood up. He walked to the side of a man in black and seized his submachine gun.
That man was reluctant to give it to Yang Chen. Yet, the speed and force at which Yang Chen exerted was beyond his capability to react. His gun was immediately seized!
Liu Qingshan noticed what was happening and frowned. The main reason why he brought Yang Chen along today was to gain his trust and respect.
He wanted Yang Chen to see how honest he was in front of him. It was also a chance for him to prove that he was not an easily oppressed man.
With that, his collaboration with Red Thorns Society in the future would be more stable. And Yang Chen, as his son-in-law, wouldn’t dare to offend him too much.
But the current circumstance made Liu Qingshan regret a little. If something were to befall onto Yang Chen, how was he to explain it to Liu Mingyu and the rest?
“Yang Chen, stay still. What are you doing?” Liu Qingshan asked.
Yang Chen held the submachine gun as casually as though he was holding a chicken’s feather. He was swinging it around like a toy while grinning happily. “This brother is truly bold to put his life in the hands of a bomb. If these American army’s C4 explosives all exploded, not just the people here, even the entire hall would be rendered to nothing.”
“What?! This is C4?” Liu Qingshan’s face darkened. He never expected the situation to be so dire.
It was impossible to obtain this powerful explosive that the US army often used through normal channels. This Old Deng must have paid a hefty price for his protection.
Yang Chen ignored the startled looks on their faces. He held up the gun in his hands and pointed it at Old Deng’s stomach—right at the explosives!
“What are you trying to do?!” Finally, Liu Qingshan panicked. He could already see the blazing waves of flames engulfing him into nothingness!
Yang Chen shrugged, saying, “You are Babe Mingyu’s father. Don’t worry. I won’t let you die so easily.”
As he finished his words, he immediately pulled the trigger, ignoring the terrified looks of the others!
“Are you crazy?!”
“Stop it!!!”
…
Bang bang bang bang!!!
Bullets went straight into the explosives on Old Deng’s stomach.
Boom!!!
At that instant, no one had time to react at all. Their ears were bombarded by the deafening sound of the explosion!!
All of them shut their eyes in anticipation of the blast. Even those armed men in black could only lunge down to the floor due to the lack of time to even run.
Only Liu Qingshan forced his eyes wide open. He knew that there was no use in hiding. At such a short distance, if the explosives truly ignited, not a single soul would survive this. Therefore, he would spend his last few seconds alive to see what this young man was trying to do!
Liu Qingshan’s spirit that wasn’t even afraid of death at this crucial moment was truly a proof of his guts.
And it was precisely this guts of his that gave Liu Qingshan the honor of becoming the sole witness of a ‘miracle’!
When the bullet ignited the entire row of C4 explosives, a glaring hot light started sparkling wildly at Old Deng’s stomach.
Old Deng’s body was engulfed by fire instantaneously. A ray of light that was a blend of red, black, white, and purple radiated and engulfed everything around it!
But, during the aggressive explosion, it would seem that the burning beast had hit an indestructible obstacle!
Oddly enough, the lights were contained within a small area. It was a meter within Old Deng where the point of ignition became a ball of light!
Within this incredible ball of light, the destructive force of the explosives was completely restricted. The powerful impact and high temperature did not affect anyone in the room!
Finally, more than ten dreamlike seconds later, this ball of light diminished.
Liu Qingshan gulped. He could see that Old Deng had already vanished from where he originally stood. There was only a black pool left where he once stood.
He was carbonized!
A living human being was carbonized by extremely high temperatures within a small, compressed area!
At this moment, Yang Chen casually threw the gun back at the man whom he seized it from. He then walked to Liu Qingshan’s side and gave him a pat on his shoulder. “I know you brought me here to let me know that you, my father-in-law, are also a tough man. But Father-In-Law, you must realize that there is nothing you can do to prove your worth to me.”
“Alright, I’ve finished my job. I’m in a good mood today and I’m not interested in watching the slaughter. I’ll wait for you outside.”
In the blank stares of everyone in the hall, Yang Chen left casually. He even closed the door behind him.
Liu Qingshan was stuck to where he stood, unable to recover from the event. He suddenly realized something—everything that he had done was parallel to a boring performance of beheading someone in front of a grim reaper.
…
Beside the manmade lake in the center strip of the Green Dragon International Holiday Resort, Yang Chen sat lazily with his legs crossed on a rattan bench. He was humming a song while looking at the reflections of the light in the lake.
He had just heard Hui Lin sing this song when he visited the branch of Yu Lei Entertainment yesterday. It was to his surprise that he could remember most of the melody even though he had only heard it once. This showed just how fascinating Hui Lin’s song was.
About ten minutes earlier, the sounds of gunshots echoed loudly like firecrackers going off.
Yang Chen knew for sure that Liu Qingshan had killed everyone right after he had regained his senses, Naturally, that included the second mother-in-law whom he had only just met—Xu Ying—and her adulterous partner Gao Yue.
And within this period of time, Yang Chen had also thought of something else that he hadn’t thought about previously.
Liu Qingshan wanted to let Liu Minghao take over his position in the meeting. But he failed to summon Liu Minghao back from Zhonghai. Liu Minghao didn’t even know that he was the subject of their meeting.
Evidently, this didn’t quite make sense. If Yang Chen had noticed this earlier, then it could have been easily deduced that Liu Qingshan had ulterior motives for the event today.
It was because Liu Qingshan knew that Liu Minghao’s mother Xu Ying might be killed by his own men on the spot today. Hence, Liu Qingshan didn’t want Liu Minghao to witness it.
As for explaining everything to that kid Liu Minghao in the future, Liu Qingshan had probably planned for that already.
After quite a while, Liu Qingshan’s silhouette appeared by the side of the rattan bench. He stopped and eventually sat down beside Yang Chen.
Liu Qingshan’s body carried a pungent stench of blood with him. It was without a doubt that all the members in the hall had already been killed. Liu Qingshan had probably already called in the cleaning crew.
“They’re all dead. Not a single person left,” Liu Qingshan said in a most mundane way, as if his dead wife and subordinates who had followed him for so many years were all strangers.
Yang Chen nodded. “That’s good then.”
Liu Qingshan kept quiet for a while, then suddenly let out a bitter laugh. “I knew you were strong. But I did not expect strength beyond that of a human.”
Yang Chen turned around. “Who told you that I’m not human?”
Liu Qingshan said, “Before I decided to form an alliance with Red Thorns Society, I would have naturally conducted a background check on every person involved with them. You were one of those people. My subordinates told me that you had once face dozens of ex-West Union Society members with guns alone, and you killed every single one of them. But there was no conclusive evidence. There was no reason for me to believe it at the time. Now I do.”
Yang Chen realized that Liu Qingshan was probably talking about the time when he dealt with Situ Mingze.
“But, it’s a good that you’re not human.” Liu Qingshan let out a gentle look on his face, “If that’s the case, then should anything happen to me in the future, Yu’er will still be safe in your hands.”
Yang Chen was taken aback. He hesitated a little before asking curiously, “Did you… love her?”
Liu Qingshan was surprised by this question. He answered with a bitter smile on his face, “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have dragged everything out until today. I wouldn’t have bothered to test their loyalty.”
They were talking about Xu Ying who had already been shot to death. The woman who had been by Liu Qingshan’s side for almost twenty years.
Yang Chen fell silent. He didn’t know if Liu Qingshan was telling the truth. But even he couldn’t understand this thing called love.
Liu Qingshan seemed to sense Yang Chen’s doubt. He laughed, “You are also a man. And you are similarly a man with more than one woman. Between your legal wife and my Yu’er, who do you think is your true love?”
Yang Chen replied without hesitation, “Both of them. I love both of them equally.”
Liu Qingshan said, “It’s the same for me. I love Yu’er’s mother, my legal wife. But I also love Xu Ying, the woman who had fought by my side in Beijing for twenty years. But just because I love her, doesn’t mean that I have no reason to kill her.”
“…”
“If I were to give a reason…” Liu Qingshan sighed, “Perhaps it’s because, Xu Ying… she is smarter than Yu’er’s mother.”
Yang Chen didn’t say a word. He just waited for Liu Qingshan to continue speaking.
“In comparison, Yu’er’s mother is not as young as Xu Ying, not as clever as Xu Ying, and is frankly rather uncivilized. Other than trivial household affairs, she spends most of her time thinking about how to save and scrimp, thinking about when the supermarket will have a discount, thinking about what nourishments to feed Yu’er, or thinking about preparing meals and fruits for me.”
“Xu Ying is different. Her intelligence has helped me a great deal in my process of building Green Dragon Society. She can manage both internal and external affairs. She handles matters in a sensible way and decisive way. She has a quick wit, which made me admire her for her ability. She is a rather attractive woman, which has always been the case.”
Yang Chen said, “But it looks like you like my mother-in-law a little bit more. Oh… I mean Mingyu’s mother.”
Liu Qingshan laughed. “You’re right, that is the case indeed. Maybe most people wouldn’t believe it, but deep down in my heart, I really like Mingyu’s mother a little bit more. That woman never fails to amuse me. She’ll probably spend her entire life nagging about trivial household affairs, or sometimes create trouble and cause a headache for me. Yet, she makes me feel more grounded. She makes me feel like the man I want to be.”
“So, you would rather bear the risk of Liu Minghao hating you forever than to leave Xu Ying alive,” Yang Chen said.
“That’s right,” Liu Qingshan admitted. “But I still have a concern, that is, if Minghao can’t surmount this obstacle of me killing his mother, then he wouldn’t be suitable to success my position.”
“Perhaps one day in the future, he will kill you,” Yang Chen said straightforwardly.
Liu Qingshan laughed heartily. “Perhaps. Rest assured, if he can really kill me one day, then I’ll definitely die happily! Because that means he will have surpassed me! But, since our Yu’er has chosen to be with you, you little brat better keep your eyes sharp on the lookout. If you let my daughter down in any way, I haunt you for the rest of your life! You better not think that I can’t do anything to you just because you’re strong!”
Yang Chen grinned and laughed mischievously. “Father-In-Law, I’ve grown to like you a little. Your personality is still very likable albe it a little dumb at times.”
Liu Qingshan felt a cramp in his facial muscles. Was that a compliment or a humiliation? He could no longer tell.
