“Jiang Han… Uncle~”

Wang Zaiwu picked himself up off the floor, covering half his face with one hand and glaring straight at Jiang Han.

That word “uncle” came out reluctantly, yet out of habit — in social circles they had always addressed him that way — so Xiao Wang let it slip before he could stop himself.

“Why did you hit me?!”

Having called him uncle, Wang Zaiwu then turned on Jiang Han and demanded to know what that unprovoked punch was about.

Jiang Han shot Xiao Wang a cold, sidelong glance. Everything about him was irritating.

He couldn’t be bothered to explain. He grabbed Liang Meng by the wrist and started for the door.

But Wang Zaiwu was not the kind of man who quietly absorbed abuse. He snatched Jiang Han back with one hand and cleanly, crisply returned the punch!

Jiang Han stumbled and fell to the floor, his lip split open and bleeding.

“Ah!!”

Liang Meng, Lin Qing, and every server in the restaurant screamed at the same time.

Liang Meng rushed over anxiously to help Jiang Han up. He dabbed the blood at the corner of his mouth with a finger, then hooked his long legs beneath him and rose to his feet, seething.

“How dare you hit someone?”

Liang Meng confronted Wang Zaiwu.

Wang Zaiwu was equally aggrieved. He looked around in bewilderment and pointed at Jiang Han. “It was him! He came charging in and, without a single word of explanation, punched me first! Why aren’t you asking him about that?”

Liang Meng shot Jiang Han a resentful glance. He did have a point.

Lin Qing hurried between them to smooth things over. “It’s a misunderstanding! All just a misunderstanding! Nobody hit anyone — nobody hit anyone.”

She knew how to pick her battles. She always did.

Jiang Han’s temper had already been burning on the way over — jealousy, frustration, resentment, and wounded pride all churned together into one volatile mess.

He had no interest in wasting words explaining himself to Wang Zaiwu, this “younger generation” nobody. He had come to take Liang Meng away, and in doing so to make his position clear to the Wang Family: no blind dates, no arranged marriage, no cooperation.

But the moment he walked through the door, he found Wang Zaiwu grabbing at Liang Meng — and this young man had just jabbed a finger into a tiger’s eye.

“And this person is…?”

It was Lin Qing’s first time meeting Jiang Han, and after watching him charge in throwing punches, she blinked at Liang Meng and asked.

Liang Meng replied quietly, “Jiang Han. My brother-in-law.”

“Oh!! So you’re the ‘perverted degenerate’!”

Lin Qing had finally connected the dots.

This Jiang Han — he was certainly good-looking, and he was some kind of CEO on top of that.

But throwing punches without asking questions and harassing his sister-in-law were more than enough to prove he was not a good person.

Lin Qing’s loyalty immediately swung to Wang Zaiwu’s side. She defected then and there.

She gave Jiang Han a shove and planted herself squarely beside Xiao Wang.

“What do you mean, ‘perverted degenerate’?” Wang Zaiwu asked Lin Qing, puzzled.

Lin Qing leaned close and whispered in his ear, “This Jiang Han is not a good person. He was harassing Liang Meng at home whenever her sister wasn’t looking, and it got so bad she had no choice but to move out.”

Wang Zaiwu was a man with red blood in his veins!

No wonder Jiang Han had come to spoil things tonight. So that was it — he had already swallowed one snake and now wanted the second: not satisfied with possessing the older sister, he wanted to get his hands on the younger one too?

All sorts of lurid tabloid headlines flooded the minds of Wang Zaiwu and Lin Qing at once.

“You’ve got some nerve!”

Wang Zaiwu’s sense of justice surged to his head, and he swung his fist at Jiang Han a second time!

Then he quickly pulled Liang Meng behind his back.

“Liang Meng! Don’t be afraid! Even though this is the first time we’ve met, your brother-in-law is not getting away with bullying you again.”

Any notion of this being a blind date was long gone. Wang Zaiwu felt as though he were personally delivering justice.

Meanwhile, what was happening on Jiang Han’s side?

When he saw Wang Zaiwu pawing at Liang Meng — hard enough to snap one of the straps of her slip dress — all manner of lurid scenarios played out in his head, and fueled by wounded pride, he scrambled back to his feet and threw himself at Wang Zaiwu!

“You have the gall to harass your own sister-in-law! And to think I’ve been calling you uncle all these years! You degenerate old pervert!”

“Who are you calling a degenerate, you little punk? What were you just grabbing at Liang Meng for?!”

“I wasn’t grabbing her!”

“Her strap fell down! You were groping her and you won’t even admit it?!”

“What’s there to admit? That was purely bad-quality clothing!”

“Both layers fell, inner and outer — still bad quality?! You little brat! You were groping her on purpose!”

“You ‘old pervert’ dare accuse me of groping?!”

That phrase — “old pervert” — was what truly lit the fuse for Jiang Han.

Pervert was bad enough. But adding the word “old” — what was that supposed to mean?

Jiang Han had already been simmering with resentment over Liang Meng going on a blind date with this fresh-faced young man.

So the two of them, rolling around on the floor — first tugging at each other’s collars — escalated into genuinely trading blows.

Jiang Han had trained in Tai Chi and Northern Long Fist. Wang Zaiwu had trained in karate and taekwondo.

The two men went at each other furiously, and for a moment neither could gain the upper hand.

The scene descended into chaos — it looked like a martial arts performance.

Lin Qing, afraid someone would get seriously hurt, rushed in to pull them apart.

But Jiang Han threw a punch he couldn’t pull back in time, and it caught Lin Qing square on the jaw.

The pain was instant, and tears sprang from Lin Qing’s eyes by reflex.

Having taken the hit, Lin Qing also wanted to vent some of her anger on behalf of Liang Meng. So, looking pitiful, she fanned the flames by whimpering at Wang Zaiwu, “He… hit me!”

Before Jiang Han could even apologize, Wang Zaiwu sent another fist flying his way. “You hit a woman too?!”

Jiang Han had leapt into a river he could never wash himself clean of.

Fortunately, someone in the Xi Tu Lan Ya restaurant had called the police, and officers arrived shortly.

All four of them were taken in.

To prevent Jiang Han and Wang Zaiwu from continuing to brawl, the officers split them between two patrol cars.

Liang Meng started to get into Jiang Han’s car. Lin Qing grabbed her arm. “Boss, are you out of your mind?”

Lin Qing’s implication was unmistakable — though really, there was nothing left to imply. As far as Lin Qing was concerned, the case against Jiang Han had already been proven beyond doubt.

Solid as iron.

With the air of a martyr heading to the gallows, Lin Qing climbed into the car carrying Jiang Han.

Liang Meng had no choice but to board the car with Wang Zaiwu, and both cars headed off toward the police station to make their statements.

As luck would have it, the station was already swamped that day with a dispute from a residential complex and was severely short-staffed.

So when Lin Qing and the others were brought in, they weren’t questioned immediately. Instead they were separated into two rooms and told to calm down first.

Jiang Han ended up in the same room as Lin Qing, his hand cuffed to a metal window frame on the wall.

In the other room were Liang Meng and Wang Zaiwu. Wang Zaiwu was also cuffed.

Jiang Han said, “Can you stop staring at me?”

Jiang Han had been swallowing his rage all evening — enough to erupt a volcano.

And now, sitting across from him, Lin Qing kept fixing him with those wide fishy eyes.

In those eyes: contempt, disdain, sarcasm, scorn…

“What? Scared of being watched? Guilty conscience?”

Lin Qing turned confrontational too.

She was in a police station. Jiang Han’s hands were cuffed. He couldn’t do anything to her.

Under the circumstances, she would settle every score on Liang Meng’s behalf — every grievance and every wrong!

“Guilty of what? Hmph.”

Jiang Han rattled the handcuffs against the window frame and turned his face away.

Lin Qing stood up, clasped her hands behind her back, and began to pace back and forth in front of him with the air of someone looking down from a great height, launching into a lecture.

“I don’t get you. You’re decent-looking, I’ll give you that — reasonably presentable. You’re a CEO of some company, so you clearly don’t lack money. How is it that you can’t just go out and find yourself a normal, proper relationship? Why do you have to go looking for thrills in the filth?!”

Jiang Han could not defend himself, and the rage made his liver ache.

Lin Qing pressed on. “Liang Meng is your sister-in-law! No matter how lecherous you are, you cannot set your sights on her! This isn’t just cheating — it’s depravity. It’s disgraceful!”

Jiang Han, furious, shot back, “How is it disgraceful? What do you know? When did I ever have improper intentions toward Liang Meng?”

“Liang Meng told me herself,” Lin Qing said, with complete conviction. “She said it was because you were harassing her at home that she had no choice but to move out — left without a roof over her head, couldn’t even stay in the villa.”

“She actually told you that?!”

Now it was Jiang Han’s turn to be incredulous.

The nature of his relationship with Liang Meng was something outsiders couldn’t understand — but Liang Meng herself knew perfectly well what it was. How could she…?

Wait.

It hit Jiang Han all at once.

Liang Meng understood everything — except for the one thing she didn’t know: that his marriage to Liang Xing was a sham.

Since arguing would be pointless, he might as well say nothing at all.

Jiang Han turned his face away and tried to rest a while, waiting to give his statement.

But Lin Qing refused to let the fire die, and continued to ramble on in front of him without pause. “Is it just something you rich people are like? Do you need to be depraved and disgusting just to get through the day? That whole story about that island — I used to think that sort of thing was beyond imagining, but now I look at you — tsk, tsk, tsk! The richer you are, the more warped you become! Besides harassing your sister-in-law, I bet you get up to all sorts of other filthy things in your spare time! You getting caught tonight is karma, pure and simple — we’ve done a public service by bringing you in!”

“What are you saying?!”

Jiang Han had weathered many storms, but this was his first encounter with a self-righteous young woman born in the 2000s like Lin Qing.

The great demons are easy to handle — it’s the little demons that wear you down.

Jiang Han just wanted to stand up and clap a hand over Lin Qing’s mouth so he could have a moment’s peace.

But when his patience finally snapped and he struggled with more force than he intended, the handcuffs clattered and clanged against the metal window frame with an enormous racket.

At exactly that moment, a video call came in from Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou had ten minutes before his match was due to begin.

He was already in his gear, and just before teeing off, he suddenly wanted to ask Lin Qing for a good-luck wish.

Lu Zhou was determined to win the championship, but he had a small calculation in mind: if he asked Lin Qing for a “good-luck blessing” before the match, and he actually won, he would have a perfectly natural excuse to take her out for dinner.

“Lin Qing, it’s me…”

Lu Zhou had barely spoken when the screen erupted in chaos!

The picture kept cutting in and out.

A man in black clothing with handcuffs on was thrashing about like a moth battering itself against a light, lunging repeatedly toward Lin Qing!

“Officer — he’s hitting me…!”

Lin Qing’s voice rang through the chaotic, jumbled image.

Then the screen went dark, and a police officer’s voice could be heard: “Settle down! Do you know where you are? This is a police station! And you still want to get physical with a young woman right here? Settle down!”

Then came another crashing rattle of handcuffs!

“Settle down!! We’ll take your statement in a moment!! Young lady, can you give me a quick summary of what happened?”

“He — he’s a perverted degenerate…!”

The handcuffs clanged again.

“Hey!! Still not going to behave?!”

In the commotion, Lin Qing accidentally cut off the video call with Lu Zhou.

When Lu Zhou called back, no one picked up…

“Lu Zhou, just play your steady game out there.”

His manager walked over with a smile, resting a hand on Lu Zhou’s shoulder for a final word of encouragement.

But Lu Zhou, to the manager’s astonishment, suddenly began pulling off his gloves and hat.

“Lu Zhou? What are you doing? You’re about to go on!”

“I don’t want to play this round. I need to get back to the country right away.” Lu Zhou was frantically stripping off his equipment.

“Lu Zhou, you’re joking with me, right?” The manager was bewildered. “After this round you’ve got a Grand Slam! You’ve been ahead all the previous rounds — if you just take the field for this one, you’ll have a medal…”

“I’m not playing! I have to get back right now!”

Concern had muddled his mind. Lu Zhou was worried about Lin Qing, and he had lost his sense of reason.

The manager grabbed Lu Zhou’s hands and asked, with great gravity, what on earth had happened.

Lu Zhou gave a brief explanation: his girlfriend had run into a “perverted degenerate” and was currently at the police station.

The manager sighed and pleaded, “Lu Zhou, don’t be rash! Our competitions are all under contract with the club. If you walk away now, we’ll be hit with massive penalties! And what about the endorsement deals currently being negotiated? The domestic media and your fans are all waiting on the results of your match!”

“I can’t think about any of that right now.”

Lu Zhou’s heart was in turmoil. All he knew was that Lin Qing was in trouble.

“Lu Zhou!” The manager cut him off with a sharp word, hoping to bring him to his senses. “What about sportsmanship?! Four years of sports university — you should know the code better than I do!”

Lu Zhou snapped to attention.

The hand pulling off his glove froze.

The manager understood Lu Zhou — those two words, “sportsmanship,” shattered the impulse that had seized him.

“Lu Zhou, listen to me. Your girlfriend is at a police station right now. A police station has police officers in it — it’s the safest place she could be. Even if you fly back this instant, it will take a full day — it won’t solve anything.” The manager pleaded with him earnestly. “Trust me. I’d never steer you wrong. Finish this one match, and I’ll go rebook our flights right now. I promise: the moment you finish, the car will take you straight to the airport — wheels up within three hours.”

Lu Zhou reluctantly weighed his options, and though it was the last thing he wanted, he had no real choice. He pulled his glove back on. “All right.”