Zeng Jin sucked in a sharp breath when he heard that number.
What did she mean... fewer than three thousand people?
Before arriving at the Wanlong Society headquarters, he had been estimating in his head that the organization had at most a hundred or so men in black.
But now, just this night market street alone was densely packed with two to three thousand people sitting there.
That meant the tough guys he had seen before weren’t even a drop in the bucket?
At that moment, he really wanted to muster the courage to ask Liu Yutong one more question: “Are you raising all these people to take over the universe or what?”
It was too absurd!
So absurd that he had started to wonder if he had been living in a parallel universe for the past half of his life.
Liang Mengsong stared at the street, completely swallowed by a sea of black figures, and his expression shifted. From initial bewilderment, it slowly turned into confusion, and finally, with belated awareness, a sliver of fear surfaced.
He slowly turned his head to look at Zeng Jin, his eyes seemingly asking:
“President Zeng, what kind of place have you brought me to?”
“You’ve really screwed me over!”
Liu Yutong, as if she hadn’t noticed how terrified the two men were, wore a perfectly calm expression.
She had seen this kind of scene more than once; she was long used to it.
Then, she spoke to the crowd of men in black, her tone casual.
“Is everyone here?”
Just four simple words.
The next second—
Boom!!!
A thunderclap erupted from the ground!
The thousands of men in black, who had been sitting quietly a moment before, immediately snapped to their feet in unison.
In an instant, the light along the street seemed to be swallowed by that surging tide of black figures, and the pressure shot straight through the roof.
Zeng Jin was so startled his heart clenched painfully, and he almost went weak in the knees, nearly collapsing to the ground.
Then, all eyes from the black-clad men locked onto the slender figure standing at the head of the street—Liu Yutong.
In the next moment, a deafening roar swept through the entire street:
“Greetings, Miss!!!” X thousands of voices.
A thousand voices shouted as one, the sound waves rising straight into the clouds, as if they would tear the sky apart.
That overwhelming clamor violently shook the red lanterns hanging from the shop doors, and even the glass windows along the street vibrated, emitting a low humming sound.
Zeng Jin felt his eardrums ringing, his heart thumping wildly.
He had lived for half a lifetime, but this was the first time he truly understood what it meant to be crushed by sheer presence.
What it meant to speak one sentence and have a thousand respond!
Those so-called big shots, gang leaders, and godfathers from Taiwan Province—compared to this Miss Liu, they weren’t even fit to polish her shoes!
This was what a real boss looked like!
Liu Yutong gently raised one hand, her pale white fingers pressing downward slightly.
The next second!
Whoosh!
The thousands of men in black sat back down in perfect unison.
The whole street immediately returned to its previous silence.
Zeng Jin: “...”
Liang Mengsong: “...”
The two men were completely dumbfounded, their minds blank, as if all ability to think had been stripped away. They just stood there frozen, unable to snap out of it for a long time.
What kind of execution was this?
What kind of commanding presence was this?
One word, one gesture, and thousands moved like an extension of her own arms, stopping when she stopped and moving when she moved!
If Liu Yutong said she wanted to go fight the U.S. military right now, Zeng Jin would actually believe it.
This was just too incredible!
“Today, I’m inviting these two guests for a simple meal. Everyone, please don’t hold back; eat normally,” Liu Yutong’s voice rang out again.
“Understood, Miss!” X thousands of voices.
Then, the previously silent street gradually came alive, as if waking up.
The sounds of chopsticks and bowls clinking, bottles pouring drinks, shop owners serving food, all mixed with lively chatter and laughter slowly built up. The warmth of everyday life returned bit by bit, giving the street back its ‘vitality.’
By the time Liang Mengsong finally shook off his state of mental shutdown, he couldn’t help but ask Zeng Jin a soul-searching question.
“President Zeng... can we still... still leave here now?”
Zeng Jin: “...”
What do you think?
Liu Yutong seemed to have overheard Liang Mengsong’s words. She turned around, glanced at him, and smiled.
“Engineer Liang, you must be joking. You’re our honored guest at Wanlong Society, not some suspect. You’re free to come and go as you please. Why would you think you can’t leave?”
She paused, then added, “Of course, that’s only if you want to leave.”
Liang Mengsong: “...”
Zeng Jin: “...”
Somehow, that sounded even more ominous!
After taking a while to compose himself, Zeng Jin mustered the courage to ask again, “Miss Liu, are all the people from your company here?”
Liu Yutong didn’t want to scare him any further, so she answered casually, “Pretty much. It just so happened we were having a little gathering today, so we’re just having a simple bite here.”
A simple bite?
Zeng Jin nearly coughed up blood. Thousands of people, taking over an entire street, and she called that a simple bite?
In all his life, he had never heard a more ridiculously arrogant statement than this one!
But despite his inner grumbling, his mind was finally crystal clear—this young Miss Liu, in her twenties, was exactly the reason she could rule this city with an iron fist.
With power like this, in ancient times, she could have raised an army and led a rebellion.
Liang Mengsong also finally understood why Qiu Ciyun had insisted he come along to broaden his horizons. He had certainly seen it now.
The only thing was, he wanted someone to buy him a bottle of cardiac emergency pills!
That so-called company of Miss Liu’s was nothing like the legitimate enterprise he had imagined earlier.
It was clearly a hidden empire, wrapped in a legal shell, wielding terrifying power, crossing both the underworld and legitimate society, dominating everything with absolute control.
And the young girl in front of him, who didn’t look even twenty years old, was the—Empress of this empire!
“President Zeng, Engineer Liang, don’t just stand there. Let’s go sit down,” Liu Yutong said, and then led the way forward.
The two men dared not linger; they quickly followed, nervously making their way along behind her.
As they walked, every table they passed sent them a wave of invisible, focused attention.
It wasn’t a hostile glares. On the contrary, the men in black looked at Liu Yutong with something closer to reverence and fanaticism, as if she were their guiding deity.
But when they sized up Zeng Jin and Liang Mengsong, their gazes turned appraising.
Zeng Jin felt as if he had been scanned head to toe by some kind of X-ray machine thousands of times, putting immense pressure on him.
Liu Yutong seemed to sense their discomfort and said over her shoulder without turning back,
“They’re all our own people, very friendly. Don’t worry about it, you two.”
Zeng Jin forced a dry laugh. “No worries, no worries.”
How could he not worry? The pressure was suffocating.
Finally, amidst a sensation of cold sweat running down their backs, they arrived at a pre-reserved round table in the middle of the street.
The positioning was subtle.
Neither too far up front nor too far back.
It sat right in the middle of that long black dragon—looking forward and backward, there was just an endless stretch of men in black as far as the eye could see.
The table had already been laid out with food. It wasn’t any lavish, high-class meal, but the kind of snacks you’d get from a night market.
Things like crawfish, barbecue, seafood, stir-fried noodles, beer, and soft drinks—all steaming hot, fragrant, and enough to make anyone start salivating.
Liu Yutong took the center seat and gestured for them to sit.
“President Zeng, Engineer Liang, make yourselves comfortable. No need to stand on ceremony.”
The two men finally sat down, though their movements carried an unmistakable sense of unease.
Then, the drinks arrived.
Zeng Jin, as if he had made some sort of decision, grabbed a freshly opened bottle of beer. Holding it with both hands, his demeanor utterly respectful, he gave Liu Yutong a deep bow.
“Chairman Liu, I, Zeng, admit defeat.”
“From this day forward, the Zeng family will follow wherever Chairman Liu leads. We’ll go through fire and water without a second thought! As for the talent at Taiji Electric, I’ll do everything in my power to recruit them for you. I won’t let you down!”
He was truly beaten, wholeheartedly and utterly convinced—the kind of submission where you’d prostrate yourself on the ground. After all, anyone who witnessed a spectacle on par with the world’s most formidable syndicate would feel the same way.
Liu Yutong raised the glass in front of her and clinked it against the bottle in his hand.
“Work with us at Wanlong Hui, and you won’t be treated poorly.”
“Thank you, Chairman Liu!”
After expressing his gratitude, Zeng Jin tipped his head back and downed the entire bottle of beer in one go.
