The screams hadn't even faded, and the dust was still settling.
The private room looked as if it had been trampled by a wild boar. Two young lords in silk robes were pinned beneath a collapsed screen, wailing for their mothers. The third one, who had been mid-action forcing wine down a pipa girl’s throat while clutching her hair, froze in place.
He turned his head and saw a harbinger of doom standing in the hole where the screen used to be.
The intruder wore a flashy, moon-white silk robe and held a steaming plate of Sweet and Sour Squirrel Fish. His face was a canvas of pure irritation.
"Who... who the hell are you?!"
The man forcing the wine was Wang Teng, a concubine-born son of the Wang family. His fun interrupted, he released the trembling girl and pointed a finger at Xu Wuyou, his voice cracking like a pubescing duck. "You blind dog! Do you have any idea who I am? How dare you kick down my door?!"
Xu Wuyou ignored him.
His gaze fell upon the pipa girl. Her dress was torn at the shoulder, revealing a fair expanse of skin. She was weeping, a pear-blossom-in-the-rain beauty that was undeniably attractive.
More importantly, the tune she had been playing earlier was quite pleasing to his ears.
"I’ve claimed this girl."
Xu Wuyou stepped onto the shattered wooden slats of the screen, the wood splintering with a bone-chilling crunch. He spoke with the matter-of-fact tone of someone picking vegetables from his own backyard. "I wasn't done listening to her. Who gave you permission to lay your hands on her?"
Wang Teng blinked, stunned.
He wasn't here to play the hero? He was here to steal the prize?
"Ha? You’ve claimed her?" Wang Teng laughed out of sheer spite. Was there anyone in Jiangning City more arrogant than himself? "I think you’ve got a death wish! You weren't happy when we insulted that fat pig Xu, and now you want to fight me for a woman? Who do you think you are!"
"Insulting the old man? I can let that slide."
Xu Wuyou approached step by step, holding the plate of fish. His eyes looked at Wang Teng as if he were a sacrificial lamb.
"After all, that old geezer really does deserve a scolding. Sometimes I want to give him a few whacks myself just for the fun of it."
He stopped right in front of Wang Teng. The sauce on the Squirrel Fish was thick, bright red, and piping hot, emitting a lethally sweet aroma.
"However," Xu Wuyou tilted his head, "stealing a woman I’ve set my eyes on? And having the nerve to call that brat a country bumpkin?"
"Where did you get the courage?"
Wang Teng hadn't even processed the sudden shift in the conversation.
Whoosh—
That plate of freshly cooked, scalding, sticky Sweet and Sour Squirrel Fish flew through the air in a red arc. It slammed squarely and seamlessly into his face.
There was no technique involved—just pure, unadulterated spite.
Sizzle—
"Aaaaaagh!!!"
A blood-curdling scream nearly blew the roof off the Drunken Red Pavilion.
The boiling sauce seeped into his eyes, nose, and mouth. The acidity and heat provided a facial spa experience capable of deep disfigurement. Wang Teng clutched his face and collapsed to the floor, thrashing wildly.
Beside him, Zhao Tai and the other lackey had just scrambled to their feet. Their drunken stupor vanished instantly, replaced by cold sweat.
"Lunatic! Get him! Kill him!" Zhao Tai roared. The family guards outside rushed into the room.
Xu Wuyou rolled his wrists. He didn't even bother to draw his sword—the one encrusted with turquoise—fearing that blood might devalue the blade.
Instead, he casually snatched a purple clay teapot from the table.
The First Rule of the Top Silk-Pants Young Master: If you can use your fists, don't waste your breath. And if you do use your fists, beat them until they question their very existence.
Bang!
The teapot shattered over the head of the first guard to reach him.
Xu Wuyou pivoted and delivered a swift, brutal kick to the groin.
"Aow—" The guard instantly curled up like a boiled shrimp, clutching his crotch as he writhed on the floor.
This wasn't a martial arts duel; it was a one-sided street brawl. Eye-gouging, toe-stomping, throat-shoving—Xu Wuyou used every dirty trick in the book. His movements were fluid and practiced, the hallmark of a man who had survived a hundred fights.
In moments, the floor was covered in a pile of groaning "dead pigs."
Seeing things go south, Zhao Tai tried to bolt for the door. He had just reached the threshold when a hand like an iron vise clamped onto his collar.
"Leaving? Did I give you permission?"
Xu Wuyou flexed his arm and hurled him back like a sack of sand.
Boom!
Zhao Tai slammed into the table. Dishes and wine doused him from head to toe. Dripping with soup, he looked like a drowned rat.
A designer boot stepped directly onto his chest.
Xu Wuyou leaned down and casually wiped the grease from his hands onto Zhao Tai’s expensive silk robe, his face full of disdain.
"Come on, tell me all about it." He patted Zhao Tai’s swollen cheek. "Who was it that said they were going to teach that girl some manners?"
The air was being crushed out of Zhao Tai’s lungs, but he still tried to act tough. "You... I am Zhao Chongli’s nephew! This is Jiangning! If you touch me, the Four Great Families won't let you get away with it..."
Slap!
A crisp backhand sent teeth and blood flying.
"The Zhao family? The Four Great Families?"
Xu Wuyou scoffed, looking as if he’d just heard the funniest joke in the world. "You’re trying to compare uncles with me? Your vision is a bit narrow, little brother."
He glanced around at the wailing Wang Teng and Zhao Tai, shaking his head with the disappointment of a teacher toward failing students.
"I have to say, your performance as local bullies is pathetic."
"Kidnapping? Forced drinking? Trash talking? That’s it?"
"Zero technical skill! You’re dragging down the average quality of the entire Silk-Pants community!"
Xu Wuyou stood up and walked to the window, pushing open the carved shutters. Outside flowed the murky waters of the Qinhuai River.
"In the future, if you want to be a tyrant, come pay your respects to me first. Pay the tuition fee, and I’ll teach you what it means to have class—what it means to win people over with 'virtue.'"
With that, he walked back, grabbed the two of them by the collars like they were sickly chickens, and hauled them up.
"Now, go wash your brains out!"
"No! Please—"
Off you go!
Whoosh—
Two figures traced ungraceful parabolas through the air.
Splash! Splash!
Two massive plumes of muddy water erupted in the Qinhuai River, drawing screams from the pleasure boats below.
Having disposed of the trash, Xu Wuyou clapped the dust off his hands and turned around.
In the corner of the room, the pipa girl was frozen in terror. She clutched her broken pipa, wanting to run but not daring to move, tears trembling on her lashes.
Xu Wuyou strode toward her.
The girl shuddered and closed her eyes in despair. She had escaped the wolves only to meet a tiger. This man’s methods were far more brutal than the previous two...
However, the expected blow never came.
A finger lightly tilted her chin upward.
Xu Wuyou looked down at her, his gaze roaming over her body with the unabashed scrutiny of someone appraising a piece of merchandise.
"Not bad. A real beauty. You look even better when you cry."
He turned to the madam of the house, who was already paralyzed with fear at the door. He pulled a thick stack of banknotes from his robe and slammed them onto the table.
"I’m taking this one."
The madam trembled. "My... My Lord, you're taking her now? But the Zhao family..."
"Who said I'm only taking her?"
A wicked smirk played on Xu Wuyou’s lips, completely ignoring the second half of her sentence. He snapped his folding fan open and pointed it around the room, his finger even singling out several dancing girls peeking in from the hallway.
"That one, that one, and the one singing downstairs..."
He waved his hand with grand, sweeping arrogance that carried a chilling edge of dominance.
"Anyone in this pavilion who is pretty, can sing, or can dance—I'm taking them all!"
"Pack them all up for me!"
“From now on, these women are under my protection! Anyone who dares to lay a finger on them will have to answer to me, Xu Wuyou! Those two drowned rats just now were only the beginning!”
The entire hall fell into a deathly silence.
The pipa player opened her eyes in shock, staring at the man before her who was acting with such unreasonable dominance.
Was he... saving them?
No, this felt more like an even more irrational form of abduction!
Xu Wuyou looked at the terrified expressions in the crowd and gave a satisfied flick of his hair. Since he had come to Jiangning, and since he was destined to play the villain, he might as well be thorough about it—villainous enough to shake the very heavens!
If he took all the girls for himself, these bastards would have nothing left to do but go whistle for their dinner.
“What are you all standing around for? Pack your things and follow me!”
Xu Wuyou kicked a broken stool aside, radiating the aura of a lawless bandit.
“My mansion is lacking a bit of life, so we’re going to liven things up tonight! If I see anyone pulling a long face, I’ll toss them into the river to feed the fish!”
