Dead silence—an ever-deepening dead silence. Only the shrill screech of scraping tables and chairs rippled outward. Around the entire table, everyone recoiled as if jolted by electricity, scrambling to put distance between themselves and the scene.
And amid the silence, every pair of eyes was glued to him, filled with horror and awe.
As if gazing upon a dead man.
He was a dead man walking!
"Rutswan, are you drunk?"
A chill surfaced across Ling Shuo's smiling face. "If you've had too much to drink, go rest. Someone, help him sober up."
"What's wrong? Scared?! Afraid to let people speak?"
Rutswan sneered, flipping the table in front of him. Like a madman, he sneered up at Ling Shuo: "Either kill me, or get the fuck down from that stage!
"I'm telling you, I won't submit, and I won't swallow this! Kill me, and thousands more will take my place! You're a running dog for that bastard Ji—you think you can slaughter the entire Seven Cities?!"
Ling Shuo said nothing, watching him coldly.
He waved his hand.
Men naturally stepped forward, seizing the screeching Rutswan to drag him away.
Yet right after, their movements abruptly froze.
A crisp sound of clapping rang out.
The piercing sound stung their eardrums, turning their vision black for a moment, disorienting everyone and stopping them in their tracks.
"Don't be in such a rush, A-Shuo."
Ling Liu looked up with a faint smirk, gazing at him. "The Wild Gathering has rules too. With so many uncles and elders present, right and wrong must be made clear.
"No matter how monumental the grievance, shouldn't a man be given a chance to speak his piece?"
He turned his head to look at the others at the table.
Aogao's expression stiffened slightly; he said nothing. This was certainly not his doing. But looking at Abadesa's placid expression, a thought stirred in his heart.
"To be fair, that's true."
Himawan nodded slightly. "Although as an outsider it's not my place to say much, I never imagined everyone had such a massive misunderstanding about Mr. Ling Shuo. It's truly bizarre.
"We're all part of the Wild Gathering. Fighting and killing only hurts feelings. Isn't it better to talk things out?"
*Damned dogs, both of them.*
Noticing the gazes of others settling upon him, Aogao's face darkened. They clearly viewed them as a united front, yet William's instructions before coming were explicitly for him to act with full autonomy and assess the situation first!
William was a hundred percent in the dark about this; otherwise, there was no way he would have hidden it from him. In this world, there were superficial brothers, and there were brothers who would trade their lives for yours. Serving as William's assistant and partner for all these years, Aogao knew plenty of things that even William's wife didn't know. How could he not know his brother? If that stupid brother of his—whose brain only contained fucking and fighting—ever truly grew displeased with him, he would have punched him to death long ago rather than bother with such convoluted schemes.
In other words, when the hell did Mistveil Reef and Iron Hook District get mixed up with this guy named Ling?
*Fuck all eighteen generations of you bastards' ancestors.*
*Forming your own little clique again, are you?!*
Aogao gritted his teeth, picked up his glass, and kept drinking without a word, while his foot stomped down hard on Meng Sang's instep: *Don't you fucking dare get any bright ideas, you living ancestor.*
Fortunately, the fool of his family finally caught his drift, staring down intently at two slices of cold appetizers perched on his chopsticks, looking dazed and slack-jawed. *Good, very good. Play the idiot and keep it up.*
After downing two glasses in a row, he slumped over onto the table with a thud, utterly overwhelmed by the alcohol.
*Excuse me, I'm hammered!*
"...Then, let's hear it,"
Ling Shuo stared coldly at everything in the hall, his voice seeming to squeeze through his teeth. "All seated here are uncles and elders. With a grievance so monumental, surely it can be explained clearly? Let everyone see that I, Ling, am no 'old dog' incapable of letting others make a living!"
"Did you hear that, Rutswan?"
Abadesa smiled down at the man pinned to the floor. "If you have grievances, speak up. The uncles and grandpas present will surely see justice done for you."
Clambering up from the floor, Rutswan's face flushed red with excitement. Then, suddenly dropping to his knees again, he wept and wailed in apparent agony, as though burdened by insurmountable injustice.
"Everyone, you must stand up for me! Today, even if it costs me my life, I'm going to make things clear—"
*Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!*
Even as he spoke, a shrill ringtone burst from his pocket, vibrating relentlessly with an incoming call. His movement paused. Ignoring it, he went back to kowtowing, lifting his head to air his grievances, only for his expression to freeze.
At the table right in front of him, amidst the many turning guests, a man sat quietly watching him, holding a folding smartphone and slowly opening its screen.
On the screen's live video feed was an all-too-familiar room. Several women and children inside were battered and bruised, tied to a sofa, with a handgun pressed against their heads.
A woman with a bruised eye sobbed, clutching a phone and dialing in despair.
Looking into the camera lens.
It was as though, through the screen, her gaze fell directly upon him, sending an involuntary shiver through Rutswan... Those were his family members, whom he had sent out of the Seven Cities just this morning. Yet out of everyone, one person was missing—his mother!
He froze in place, unable to make a sound.
Only the phone's ringtone sounded over and over, relentless and unyielding.
"Why aren't you answering the phone?"
Up on the stage, Ling Shuo looked down, asking with curiosity, "They're calling so urgently, there must be something critical, right? None of us are in that much of a rush—we can certainly wait for you to exchange a few words."
Trembling, Rutswan fumbled to pull out his phone. It dropped to the ground, but he hastily scooped it back up, his shaking fingers finally swiping the call button before pressing it to his ear.
From the receiver came muffled, stifled sobs.
"Rutz, something terrible happened! They broke in and brought us back here! They took Joe, and Mama too..."
"I-I know. I know."
Rutswan struggled to raise his head, looking toward Ling Shuo on the stage. Meeting Ling Shuo's downcast gaze, the voice on the other end was abruptly cut off. On the video feed, a hand reached out and snatched the phone away.
"You know the rules. Betray the family, and it's three blades, six holes, death to your whole house," the voice on the other end informed him. "Rutswan, a man bears the consequences of his own deeds. Trouble doesn't have to fall on your wife and kids, but you'd better not take a single wrong step."
"I... I know."
The call disconnected. Amid the dead silence, on that draining, pale face, tears could no longer be held back. Right before everyone's eyes, he wailed aloud and threw himself to the ground.
"I wasn't wronged!"
He shrieked hoarsely with all his might, "It's President Ling who was wronged!"
In an instant, murmurs broke out anew within the silence. Everyone's expression froze as they stared in dumbfounded disbelief at this 180-degree reversal within a single minute.
Those sharp of ear had already picked up the faint sounds from the receiver; now, they stayed dead silent, feeling needles at their backs, struggling to breathe.
The moment Rutswan turned coat, his whole fucking family had been rounded up—his mother included!
What about them, then?!
"President Ling is innocent!"
He repeatedly kowtowed toward the table of the Wild Gathering representatives. "Elders, you must stand up for President Ling! Last night, someone approached me, trying to make me a traitor, a running dog to betray President Ling! They even gave me a sum of money and promised that once I did this, I'd enjoy wealth and glory in the Empire! If—if I refused, they threatened to expose my past betrayals... I... I'm not human! I'm an animal! Ahhh!!"
Growing frantic, he slapped himself repeatedly, weeping and howling in unbearable anguish. "I'd rather take three blades and six holes than let such a good man as President Ling be slandered! I am guilty! I deserve a thousand deaths!"
"Oh?" Ling Shuo sounded astonished. "Such a thing actually happened?"
"Yes! Yes!"
Rutswan wiped his tears and raised his head. Catching the unspoken meaning in those eyes, he declared decisively, "And the backer behind that person is right here! Right here!"
He straightened up, howling as he raised a finger to point toward the table of Wild Gathering representatives.
"That person is... is... i—"
As he spoke, his throat choked up. His face blackened at terrifying speed. Clamping both hands around his own neck, he clawed desperately, unable to breathe. Violating the decree had invoked a backlash, and the potent poison hidden within his soul instantly spread.
He was dead.
Yet before dying, he had still crawled and squirmed on the floor, his wide-open eyes fixed on that slowly folding phone screen. On the screen, the gun barrel moved away, and the ropes were loosened.
And so, that purplish-black face twitched one last time, half weeping, half smiling.
Then, all fell silent.
"Insolence!"
Ling Shuo vaulted down from the stage, rushing before the corpse to inspect it in a towering fury. "On such a momentous day, someone dared instigate my subordinate to cause trouble at my birthday banquet! Utterly callous and vicious—an outrage against Heaven and Earth!"
He paused for a heartbeat, then whipped his head around toward the front row of the banquet: "Elder Ling, you just said you'd see justice done for grievances. Surely you won't turn a blind eye to something this monstrous?"
"Could such a thing really happen?"
Ling Liu seemed to just catch on, looking puzzled and bewildered. "Only, before he died, he seemed to be pointing right at my table... Uh-oh, could it be me?"
"Elder Ling, don't overthink it. At the end of the day, it was just a traitor driven mad by ambition, willing to spatter venom and say anything," Himawan said, slowly shaking his head. "Mad dogs biting and slinging mud—how could anyone take it seriously?"
"I haven't the faintest idea either," Abadesa sighed placidly. "As guests, how could we possibly do something so shameless?"
"Is that so?"
Ling Shuo looked mildly taken aback, sighing helplessly. "Seems I've misunderstood. Ah, nobody wanted something like this to happen, but who could have known what lies in a man's heart? To think Rutswan could be so two-faced... Even if he was one of our own, this can never be tolerated!
"Since he's dead, we'll let the three blades and six holes slide. Seeing as he saw the error of his ways in the end, his family will only be banished from the Seven Cities—no need to visit disaster upon them." He paused, sighing emotionally as if murmuring to himself:
"There won't be a next time."
For a time, everyone remained silent as cicadas in winter. Even Ling Liu's table, beneath the veneer of lighthearted smiles, fell into an implicit stillness.
"Come, let's not let the petty schemes of a few scoundrels ruin everyone's spirits."
Ling Shuo raised his glass once more. "Loyalty and honor, wealth and glory—a toast to all!"
In an instant, countless attendees rose to their feet. Shouts broke out one after another, gradually uniting into a thunderous chorus:
"To President Ling!!!"
Chapter 855