Chapter 38: What Old Scores to Settle? Just Kill Them!
Page 1 of 3
Chapter 38: What Old Score? Just Kill Him!
Back when Xue An was attending middle school in Qingmang Town, Jie Hu had relied on his family’s influence to make himself the school’s kingpin.
Because Xue An was an excellent student and had no family to protect him, Jie Hu often picked fights with him and bullied him.
Later, Xue An left Qingmang Town. Rumor had it that Jie Hu had been expelled after assaulting a female student.
He was the very definition of scum.
And now, somehow, he had risen to prominence.
Xue Lan said worriedly, “Jie Hu has threatened more than once that anyone who dares interfere will die. Everyone in town is afraid of him. No one dares stand up to him!”
Xue An nodded. “Lan’er, thank you.”
Xue Lan shook her head. “Brother An, don’t blame my parents. They’re afraid too!”
Xue An smiled faintly, then lowered his head and said to Xue Xiang and Xue Nian, “Come on. Daddy will take you to the hotel we just passed and get you something to eat!”
Xue Lan panicked at once. “Brother An, don’t do anything reckless. Jie Hu is very powerful now. I heard he even has a lot of thugs working for him. You…”
Xue An smiled calmly and asked, “Lan’er, have you eaten yet?”
“Me? Not yet…”
“Good. Come with us, then!”
Xue Lan still wanted to say something, but when she saw the composed look in Xue An’s eyes, she fell silent.
She suddenly felt that the gentle, shy Brother An in her memories had become a complete stranger.
Most unsettling of all were his eyes—deep and fathomless, like two black pools whose depths could never be seen, inspiring instinctive fear.
Xue An walked to the entrance of the Yue Lai Hotel.
The decor was decent, though the place was steeped in the vulgarity of the streets.
Without a change in expression, Xue An walked inside, followed by the two little girls and a visibly nervous Xue Lan.
The hotel occupied an excellent location, and Qingmang Town had a large flow of people, so its facilities were no different from those in the city.
There was even a manager and a number of servers in the lobby.
When Xue An entered, one of the servers approached him.
“Sir, are you here for a meal?”
Xue An nodded.
“Very well. Please come this way.”
Xue An did not move. He merely asked indifferently, “Is Jie Hu here?”
The server’s smile gradually vanished.
“You mean our boss?”
“Yes.”
“May I ask what business you have with him?”
“I have an old score to settle with him.”
The server exchanged a glance with someone nearby. A dozen burly security guards came over and surrounded Xue An.
“Kid, if you leave now, I can let this go,” the lobby manager said with a cold laugh as he approached.
Xue An suddenly smiled. “Xiangxiang, Nian Nian, shall Daddy perform another magic trick for you?”
“Yes! Yes!”
Page 2 of 3
The lobby manager sneered. “Playing tricks, are you? Beat him up!”
The security guards surged forward.
Xue An stood with his hands behind his back. Lowering his eyes, he said softly, “Kneel.”
Every one of them dropped to their knees in unison.
“Daddy, why did they all kneel?” Xue Xiang asked.
“Maybe they thought it was too tiring to stand while talking to you two. Kneeling must be more comfortable.”
It was a flawless explanation.
At least Xue Xiang and Xue Nian believed it.
The lobby manager, however, looked as though he wanted to cry.
Xue An walked up to him and said calmly, “I’ll ask you one more time. Where is Jie Hu?”
The lobby manager gritted his teeth. “When our boss gets back, he’ll never let you off! Just wait!”
Xue An smiled faintly. “All right. I’ll wait.”
As he spoke, Xue An patted the manager on the shoulder.
Crack.
The manager’s shoulder shattered under that casual pat. He cried out in agony, but Xue An said, “Shut up!”
The lobby manager could no longer make a sound. Sweat poured down his face from the pain, yet all he could do was stare at Xue An in despair.
“Prepare some food. We’ll eat while we wait,” Xue An told the few female servers trembling in the distance.
Before long, a table was set up in the middle of the lobby.
The meal was lavish, and the two little girls ate with wholehearted delight.
Xue Lan, however, found every bite difficult to swallow.
After all, the men kneeling on the floor were the very thugs who usually swaggered through town, throwing their weight around.
Xue An ate a few mouthfuls, then began pouring himself drinks.
The wine was quite good—a wild-fruit liquor produced locally on Qingmang Mountain.
Its taste carried a hint of childhood.
Everyone in the hotel watched the table with complicated expressions.
Many people kept their distance, whispering among themselves while looking at Xue An as though he were already dead.
“When Boss Jie gets back, there’ll probably be bloodshed.”
“No kidding! That man is being unbelievably arrogant. Doesn’t he know whose territory this is?”
The whispers made Xue Lan even more frightened.
“Brother An, why don’t we leave first?”
“Leave? Why?”
“When Jie Hu comes back…”
Xue An smiled faintly. “He’s exactly who I’m waiting for.”
As soon as he finished speaking, footsteps sounded outside. Then Jie Hu’s nearly obsequious voice rang out.
“Miss Chen, this way, please.”
When the group entered the lobby, they all froze.
The scene before them was simply inconceivable.
More than a dozen burly men were kneeling rigidly on the floor.
Page 3 of 3
Beside them stood a dining table, where a man, a woman, and two children were eating.
“What happened here?” Jie Hu’s expression immediately turned cold and sinister.
He had gone to great lengths that day to invite this distinguished guest from Zhongdu to his hotel.
Now this had happened, and he felt utterly humiliated.
“Boss, it’s all because of this man! We don’t know what trick he used, but none of us can get back up after kneeling down!” one of the security captains shouted.
Jie Hu glowered at Xue An, who was leisurely pouring himself another drink.
“Where did you crawl out from, kid? Do you know what kind of place this is? You dare come here and cause trouble? Are you tired of living?”
Xue An set down his cup and raised his eyes to look at Jie Hu.
“This… isn’t this the old Xue family residence?”
The moment those words were spoken, Jie Hu’s expression changed dramatically. He stared fixedly at Xue An.
“You… you’re…”
The woman standing beside Jie Hu spoke coldly. “Manager Jie, it seems you have some other business to attend to?”
Jie Hu hurriedly put on an ingratiating smile.
“Nothing, nothing. Just a minor matter. I’ll deal with it immediately!”
Then he turned to Xue An and sneered. “Xue An, I never thought you were still alive! What? Why have you come looking for me?”
Leaning back in his chair, Xue An looked at Jie Hu, who resembled a nouveau riche, and suddenly said, “At first, I intended to settle an old score with you.”
Jie Hu’s face turned cold. “Settle a score?”
Xue An smiled. “But I’ve changed my mind. Why bother settling an old score? I’ll just kill you.”
“What did you say? Kill me? You? Ha!” Jie Hu looked at him with utter disdain.
His impression of Xue An remained fixed on the gentle boy he had known back in school.
Xue An raised his wineglass toward him. “I wish you a pleasant journey.”
“Go to hel—”
Before he could finish, Xue An had somehow appeared in front of him. He seized Jie Hu by the throat and lifted him into the air.
Of course, Xue An had concealed the entire scene so that his two beloved daughters would not witness it.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Jie Hu’s face turned bluish-purple as Xue An’s hand crushed his throat, and he clawed desperately at the air, kicking and thrashing in unbearable agony.
Xue An glanced at the woman nearby and smiled faintly. “Excuse me, are you his friend?”
The woman was not frightened in the least. Instead, she watched Xue An with keen interest.
“No.”
“Good. Then I’ll send him on his way.”
With that, Xue An applied the slightest pressure.
Crack.
He snapped Jie Hu’s neck with his bare hand.
Until the moment of his death, Jie Hu never imagined that Xue An would truly dare kill him.
Even in death, his eyes were filled with disbelief—and overwhelming regret.
End of Chapter