stonecrandall Page 99
Page 99
Wang Ye grabbed a bottle, skillfully tapped the cap off with the edge of the table, and foam instantly gushed out. He tilted his head back and took a big gulp, the icy liquid sliding down his throat, letting out a satisfied sigh: "Ah—that feels good!"
He picked up a sizzling string of lamb kidneys, took a big bite, and his mouth was covered in grease and chili powder. His gluttonous manner was completely different from his usual lazy demeanor in front of his family and his carefree attitude in Wudang.
“This place is definitely more comfortable,” Wang mumbled, chewing on his meat. His eyes swept over the noisy diners around him—shirtless men playing drinking games, girls chattering about gossip, and students engrossed in their food. “The atmosphere here is lively, the people are real. Unlike at home…”
He pursed his lips and took another swig of wine. "You're afraid to even breathe for fear of disturbing the ancestral tablets. It's so stifling! Being so proper and upright can suffocate you until you're like a piece of dried-out bacon." He shook the bottle, and the ice cubes clinked.
Changing the subject, Wang Ye finally got to the point. He picked up a skewer of charred lamb and handed it to Lin Shen, his eyes filled with inquiry: "But speaking of which, Lin Shen, how come you, such a great figure, returned to Beijing so quietly? As for the Luo Tian Grand Ceremony... has the news died down so quickly?"
Lin Shen was carefully using a bamboo skewer to slice open a roasted eggplant that was soft, tender, and fragrant. Snow-white minced garlic coated the soft, glutinous eggplant flesh. His movements were steady, as if he were performing an extremely precise handicraft.
Hearing Wang Ye's question, he didn't pause his work at all, his tone as calm as if he were stating that it was cloudy that night: "Hmm. I'll go back in a while."
“During this period, my father asked me to lay low in Beijing for a while.”
"I'm with the World Society,"
"Wipe out the Wang family."
The mouthful of beer that Wang Ye hadn't yet swallowed, mixed with a few grains of cumin and chili powder, suddenly sprayed out in a radial pattern!
The golden liquid splashed across the greasy table, creating a mess of water droplets. A few drops even landed on the shiny forehead of a shirtless man at the next table, eliciting a disgruntled grumble from him.
Wang also coughed violently, his face turning red. He covered his mouth with one hand and frantically grabbed at the tissues on the table with the other. His usually half-closed, lazy eyes were now wide open, filled with disbelief and horror as he stared intently at Lin Shen.
"Cough...cough cough...extinguished...extinguished?"
Wang Ye's voice was hoarse and distorted, as if he had choked on beer and it had gone deep into his trachea, "Which...which Wang family?"
He barely managed to keep the name "Wang Ai" from slipping out thanks to his remaining sanity, but the tremor in his voice and the immense sense of absurdity were impossible to conceal.
The earth-shattering lightning at the Luo Tian Grand Ceremony martial arts arena flashed through his mind, along with the scattered news he vaguely heard about Wang Ai's serious injury and the turmoil in the Wang family's power. But the meaning of the word "annihilated" was so heavy that it made his scalp tingle!
Lin Shen watched quietly as Wang Ye frantically wiped the wine stains off the table and his clothes, until the other man's disheveled cough subsided slightly, but his horrified eyes remained fixed on his face.
He slowly picked up a skewer of chicken wings that were roasted to a golden brown and slightly crispy state, took a bite, and carefully picked the meat off the bone.
"The Wang family of Wang Ai and Wang Bing," Lin Shen's voice was clear and steady, like the clash of cold jade stones, each word carrying immense force as it struck Wang Ye's heart, "one of the four great families, the Wang family."
The background noise of the noisy barbecue stall seemed to be filtered out instantly by an invisible barrier, becoming blurry and distant in Wang Ye's ears.
The tissue in his hand was unconsciously crumpled into a ball, sticking greasy to his palm.
Only thunderclaps echoed repeatedly in his mind—Wang Ai! Wang Bing! The four great families! Destroyed?!
Was he defeated by the young man sitting calmly eating chicken wings at the greasy barbecue stall in front of him?
Time seemed to freeze for a few seconds.
The color drained from Wang Ye's face little by little, then flushed red with an extremely complex and indescribable emotion.
Horror, absurdity, disbelief... Ultimately, these emotions, like iron billets thrown into a furnace, twisted and deformed under high temperatures, were forged into a pure, intense, and almost overwhelming shock!
He took a deep breath of the air, which was thick with the smell of smoke, and his chest heaved violently.
The next second, Wang Ye slowly and forcefully raised his oily thumb towards Lin Shen.
His arm trembled slightly from the exertion, his eyes fixed on Lin Shen's calm, expressionless face. A thousand words seemed stuck in his throat, but he finally managed to squeeze out two words through clenched teeth, in a tone that was almost a sigh, yet carried a resolute force:
"Awesome!"
This exclamation of admiration seemed to have exhausted all his strength. He grabbed another bottle of beer from the table, and without using a bottle opener, he pressed his thumb firmly against the edge of the cap, his muscles tense. With a crisp "pop," the cap was forcefully pushed off, arcing through the air before clattering into the garbage can in the distance.
The cold beer foam surged out and splashed all over his arm.
Ignoring everything else, he tilted his head back and gulped down half the bottle, as if trying to extinguish the raging storm and the intense shock in his heart with the icy liquid.
"So...Secretary Lin asked you to come back to avoid the bloodshed?" Wang Ye's voice was dry. "No movement from the company?" He knew all too well how "Na Du Tong" treated those who disrupted the balance.
“The company people,” he said, his voice lowering as he looked at the crunchy piece of bone, “are investigating.”
"However, this is Beijing, they dare not investigate me."
"My dad's got my back."
"Even if the sky falls, my dad can hold it up for me."
"If my father can't hold on, then... the company will have no reason to exist."
The air seemed to freeze, and the surrounding noise was forced back by an invisible pressure.
He clearly felt a chilling, tangible killing intent flash by Lin Shen, so fast that it seemed like an illusion, yet it was enough to freeze one's soul.
.......
........
Chapter 106 Hatred is a thorn in the heart
Meanwhile, on the other side.
The twilight, like blood, was spilled onto the abandoned road leading to Dongxiangzhuang.
After many twists and turns, Wang Bing arrived at Dongxiangzhuang.
Wang Bing heard that the Four Madmen of Quanxing were in Dongxiang Village.
Wang Bing trudged along the cracked asphalt, occasionally kicking broken bottles or shriveled cans that made hollow rolling sounds.
His designer clothes were so stained with dust and unknown dirt that their original colors were no longer visible, making them look like a crumpled shroud wrapped around his body.
The last few crumpled banknotes in my pocket had been exchanged for a few cold, cheap loaves of bread three days ago, and now all that remained in my stomach was a burning emptiness and throbbing pain.
The dilapidated archway leans precariously at the entrance, like a bone gnawed by a giant beast.
A few dim, flickering streetlights barely illuminated the muddy main road. On both sides were low, dilapidated brick houses with crooked doors and windows. The heavy smell of mildew, cheap alcohol, and some kind of animal excrement mingled together, pressing heavily on one's lungs.
Several dirty-furred stray dogs rummaged through the trash in the shadows, their green eyes warily scanning the uninvited guest who had broken in late at night.
Wang Bing's eyes were vacant, yet a near-mad obsession burned deep within his pupils.
The Wang family is gone, like a pile of ashes completely scattered by a strong wind, even the last warmth has dissipated.
Lin Shen's calm yet cruel face, the roar of lightning tearing the sky apart, the densely packed, brand-new memorial tablets in the ancestral hall... countless images were repeatedly cut and replayed in his chaotic mind, each flashback bringing a suffocating spasm and a deep, bone-chilling pain.
He needed a place, a cave that could temporarily shelter him, this stray dog, this venomous snake devoured by endless hatred until only its skeleton remained.
Quanxing... This name is like rotting flesh shimmering with phosphorescence in the darkness, exuding a decadent yet alluring aura—only there, perhaps, can contain the filth and poison that fills his body at this moment.
Rumors circulated that the Middle Eastern village had a stronghold of the Quanxing sect, which became his last resort, like a drowning man grasping at a straw.
He dragged his leaden legs and pushed open a half-closed, creaking wooden door.
Inside the door was an even thicker darkness and a pungent smell of cheap tobacco mixed with the cloying sweetness of cheap perfume.
The faint light leaking through the crack in the door illuminated his pale, haggard, and filthy face, revealing his bloodshot eyes that looked like burning embers.
"Heh... Look who's lost their young master?" A hoarse voice with a heavy Northwestern accent, full of mockery, suddenly rang out. "Tsk tsk tsk, isn't this Wang Bing, the eldest young master of the Wang family, one of our four great families?"
The sound came from the corner. Two people sat around a greasy square table.
A lean and muscular man, wearing a tight black vest, his bare arms bulging with muscles like steel wire, held a cheap cigarette between his fingers, the embers flickering in the darkness.
His cheekbones were high, his eyes were deep-set, his gaze was like a poisoned knife, and a hint of undisguised malice lingered at the corner of his mouth—this was none other than Jia Zhengyu, whose "jealousy is a fire in his heart."
Next to him sat a woman in a floral dress, who looked as ordinary as a neighbor's aunt.
She held a chipped enamel mug in her hands, sipping the murky liquid inside. Her face was peaceful and gentle, even carrying a hint of sorrowful compassion.
However, deep within those slightly drooping eyes lay a bottomless, undisturbed silence, occasionally flashing a chilling indifference—she was Dou Mei, the woman whose "wine is poison that burns through the intestines."
Jia Zhengyu leaned forward, resting his elbows on the greasy table, looking Wang Bing up and down as if admiring a piece of smashed trash. His smile was twisted and gleeful: "The Wang family has been wiped out, their house has collapsed into a grave. You little brat, you're still pretty tough. Why didn't you go down with your bunch of old ghosts? You couldn't bear to leave this wonderful world?"
He deliberately dragged out the last syllable of "extermination of the entire family," each syllable like a whip coated with salt, lashing fiercely at Wang Bing's still-healing heart.
boom--! ! !
An indescribable, scorching, bloody stench suddenly surged up to Wang Bing's crown!
The despair, fear, and insane hatred that had been lingering for days were completely ignited and detonated by this sharp and vicious mockery!
Images of the Wang family ruins, the cold memorial tablets in the ancestral hall, Lin Shen's indifferent gaze... all of these things instantly transformed into a raging inferno that consumed all reason!
"You—you're asking for it!!!"
It was no longer a roar, but a guttural scream that tore at the throat!
Wang Bing's already pale face instantly lost all color, turning into a hideous and twisted expression like a vengeful ghost!
His eyes bulged out, blood vessels bursting out like a dense spider web, and his pupils contracted to almost the size of pinpoints, flashing with a pure, destructive, and insane light!
A chilling, bone-piercing black aura, carrying a strong smell of blood, suddenly exploded outwards from Wang Bing's center!
The rotten wooden door was smashed to pieces by an invisible force in an instant!
The temperature in the dilapidated hall plummeted, and pale frost quickly condensed on the walls!
Countless shrill screams, wails, and curses, so piercing they made one's scalp tingle, rose from nowhere, layer upon layer, like countless cold steel needles frantically piercing one's eardrums and soul!
Black energy surged and coalesced!
A dozen or so twisted, blurry black spirits, exuding soaring resentment and unwillingness, roared and manifested behind Wang Bing!
Some of them have missing limbs, some have bodies charred black like charcoal, and some have faces twisted so that one can vaguely discern the pain and resentment they suffered before they died!
"Look closely at Jia Zhengyu!!" Wang Bing's voice was like two rusty pieces of iron rubbing together, each word splattering with blood and resentment, "The group behind me! They are the dead souls of the Wang family! They are my father! They are my second uncle! They are the entire Wang family!!!"
He suddenly pointed behind him at a charred humanoid spirit with a blurred outline but exuding an extremely venomous aura. The spirit's aura clearly carried a trace of Wang Ai's life energy!
"Now, they are all my spirits!"
"I can't beat that damned bastard Lin Shen now, not you, you old mad dog of Quanxing!" Wang Bing roared, his endless resentment making his whole body tremble violently, like a candle flickering in the wind, yet radiating a ferocious, predatory aura! "What do you think you are?! You dare to point fingers at my Wang family?! Kneel down!!!"
The last word uttered was like a thunderclap!
Wang Bing thrust both hands forward with a sudden burst of energy, as if he were a general commanding a vast army!
The dozen or so twisted and howling vengeful spirits behind him, like a school of piranhas that have smelled blood, accompanied by a chilling wind and soaring resentment, emitted soul-freezing screams and frantically pounced on Jia Zhengyu by the corner table! Their speed was as fast as a ghost!
The mockery on Jia Zhengyu's face froze instantly!
His pupils constricted sharply! The vengeful spirits rushing towards him, the venomous aura that embodied the extreme pain of the entire Wang family before their deaths, made him feel as if he had instantly fallen into the coldest abyss!
A long-lost, chilling feeling called fear, originating from the depths of his bones, instantly seized his heart!
He didn't even care about Dou Mei beside him, let out a strange cry, and the violent Qi in his body erupted instantly!