Hold Me Back, You Two

Seventh City, southern outskirts. A heavy, slow current wound around a wide stretch of wasteland. Only a few sparse old trees stood on the open ground, and ahead rose a tall factory building, rumbling from somewhere inside. Guo Yang, with only one arm left, led Yue Wen and the others up to the factory and pointed ahead. "This is it. This is where I went to work every day." "Still working this late? That's really inhuman," Zhao Xing'er said quietly, looking at the brightly lit plant. Yue Wen stole a glance at her expression, unsure whether that remark included herself, currently working overtime. He didn't know why, but ever since he'd become a boss, his suspicious streak had suddenly gotten bad. And now he could suddenly empathize with Boss Cao, of all people. Maybe paranoia was just an occupational disease of leadership. "He's not even human!" Guo Yang cursed again, then went on: "Once we're inside, besides keeping me safe, I'll have to ask you two to hold me back. I'm afraid that if he deliberately provokes me, I won't be able to stop myself from hitting him and cause something beyond repair. The most important thing today is getting my son back. Everything else I can put up with." "No problem," Yue Wen agreed. "Don't worry, Uncle." Zhao Xing'er nodded too. "We'll definitely keep things under control." "You have to hold me back, or you really have no idea... what a desperate father is capable of." Guo Yang took a deep breath, looked straight ahead, and puffed out his chest. He knew the way here well enough. He led the two of them to the factory's side door and went straight up to the office on the second floor. He knocked and opened the door, and there sat a balding, obese old man in glasses, in the boss's chair. A classic crooked-boss look. Behind his desk stood two men in black suits and sunglasses, arms folded across their chests. Both were big and tall, with brutish, fleshy faces, their vital essence drawn inward and their blood and qi abundant. Cultivators, without a doubt. Yue Wen and Zhao Xing'er folded their arms as well and faced them down. Guo Yang, who had barely managed to work up some courage, immediately slumped a little again. Compared with the murderous-looking gangsters across from him, the two young people on his side looked more like well-behaved university students. "Boss Chen," he called out timidly. "Oh, Old Guo." The fat boss glanced at him sideways and said with his chin raised, "Where'd you dig up these two youngsters? Relatives of yours?" "They're here to help me, Boss Chen..." Guo Yang didn't elaborate. He was afraid that saying he'd hired cultivators to help him deal with his boss would just make Boss Chen angry. "You shut up and listen to me." Boss Chen frowned, cutting him off, then slowly leaned back in his chair. "Between you and me, it's nothing but a little money. There's no need to make things ugly, right?" "Yes, Boss Chen." Guo Yang's tone was meek. "I came to work for you the second year after you built this factory. It's been almost ten years, and I've always worked hard and conscientiously. Back when we were promoting the factory, I took the crew out to hand out flyers in the freezing snow, all for free, and I never once complained. Even if I've never done anything worthy of merit for this company, I've put in the toil." "I know." Boss Chen waved a hand. "I've seen all your hard work. You really have given a lot to this factory. That's exactly why I say you should think about me a little more, show some understanding for my difficulties. How can you keep coming back to make trouble like this?" "Boss Chen, I'm not making trouble. My arm is gone, and I'm waiting on the compensation to pay for surgery, that's why I..." Guo Yang tried to explain. "If you alone had an accident and came to me for money, I could pay. But if everyone came asking me for money, should I pay them all? All these years, everyone who's had an accident at our factory comes to me for money. Can I afford to pay them all? People can't be so selfish!" Boss Chen put on a stern face and said loudly, "All you lost is an arm. What I lost is my business!" "You—!" Guo Yang gritted his teeth, his chest heaving violently. Watching him bully an honest man like this, even Yue Wen felt anger flare in his chest. He turned to look at Zhao Xing'er and found no expression on her face. This girl really had a good temper, he thought. But then he thought about what Guo Yang had asked of them before they came, and Yue Wen quietly suppressed the urge to punch the man. He'd watch a little longer. "Ahem." One of the burly men in sunglasses behind the desk cleared his throat and spoke. "Boss Chen is a friend of the Tiger Head Gang. Anyone who gives him trouble is giving us trouble..." His voice trailed off slowly, thick with menace. "Heh heh." Boss Chen gave a wicked chuckle. "Old Guo, I know your family situation very well. Even if you won't think of yourself, you should think about your son, shouldn't you?" "So it was you!" Guo Yang shot to his feet, glaring at the fat man across from him, his eyes nearly splitting with rage. "Where did you take my son?!" "What are you talking about? I'm a law-abiding busi—" Boss Chen denied it flatly. But before he finished speaking, a white blur flew at him. "Hah!" A fist wreathed in red light slammed into his fat cheek and caved the whole side of his face in on the instant; as his head was driven back, his body was carried up off the floor after it. Boom— Boss Chen's head was rammed entirely into the wall several meters behind him, his limbs still dangling and twitching in the air. When the attacker pulled her fist back from his face, there was even a popping sound. The figure standing by the wall wore a shirt and a long skirt, a delicate, pretty outfit. But now she was shrouded in red light like demonic flame, her skirt and long hair whipping in the air, savage beyond words. It was Zhao Xing'er! ... The most delicate-looking woman in the room had struck first, and put Boss Chen into the wall with a single punch. Even Yue Wen, standing right beside her, hadn't reacted in time, and naturally neither had the two big men from the Tiger Head Gang. After a few seconds of stunned silence, the two men shouted together: "You dare lay a hand on him!" Yue Wen didn't give them the chance to lunge at Zhao Xing'er. He leapt, becoming a blur himself, and unleashed the Wandering Dragon Freehand. These gang enforcers practiced hard martial cultivation methods. The one on the left let out a shout, his arms rising with qi swirling around them. Yue Wen simply drove a kick square into his chest and sent him flying. The man on the right had a tiger's shadow rise behind him, snarling as it struck out with its claws. Yue Wen blocked with his wrist held crosswise, and the man's grip closed on the flying-sword bracelet. The man's qi broke at once, blood spraying as he screamed, "Aah..." Before the sound died away, Yue Wen turned his hand into a textbook knife-chop and knocked him out cold. The two men looked intimidating, but both were only at the first realm, with no more than a few clumsy martial cultivation methods to their names. They were fine for bullying ordinary people, but against a real cultivator, put politely, they could be kicked to death like some filthy stray dog by the roadside, without managing a single complete yelp. Put bluntly, they had no way to defend themselves at all. Once the two men were dealt with, Yue Wen hurried forward to stop Zhao Xing'er. The girl was now filled with red light, as if she had entered some berserk mode. Putting Boss Chen into the wall with one punch hadn't been enough; she pulled him back out and hammered another fist into his head. "You rotten black-hearted bastard, a worker gets hurt and you won't pay compensation! Hah!" she cursed, swinging again. Boom! Guo Yang stared, dumbstruck. When he'd taken that flyer, how could he ever have imagined this little girl had such power? "You've got money to pay the gang protection fees but no money for compensation? Hah!" Zhao Xing'er cursed again, her features contorted into something savage as she swung. Another punch. Boom! The wall was now completely punched through, and Boss Chen's dangling limbs had stopped twitching altogether. Guo Yang grew frightened and hurried forward to intervene. "Miss Zhao, stop hitting him! My son is still in his hands!" "Right, and he kidnapped someone's son too! Hah!" Zhao Xing'er's eyes blazed with searing red light. She cursed again and threw another punch, and the whole building shuddered. Boom! "That wasn't me reminding you to hit him again!" Guo Yang wanted to hold her back, but didn't dare get too close. "And making employees hand out flyers for free! Hah!" Zhao Xing'er cursed again; red flame burst up and her arm swung like a windmill. Boom! "That one's fine, I don't mind that at all!" Guo Yang shouted. It was Yue Wen, who had come to break it up, whose face turned red. He laughed awkwardly and scratched his forehead. Guo Yang grabbed him with his one hand. "Stop laughing, Boss Yue, you have to talk her down!" That was exactly what Yue Wen was here for, so he hurriedly called out too: "Little Zhao, that's enough. We'll have to pay for anything you break." "Is that what this is about?" Guo Yang turned his head, appalled. What is wrong with the people at your agency? "Break things... then dock it from my base pay! Ssibal!" Zhao Xing'er roared, her face twisted, and swung again. Boom! Through the crack in the wall, Boss Chen's pig head could be seen, already flattened. Yue Wen said urgently, "But don't forget, your base pay is only three thousand! How would that be enough to cover it?!" "Is this about money, you two?" Guo Yang clutched his head in despair off to the side. "That murder is against the law is common knowledge, isn't it?" He looked helplessly at that flattened pig head and thought, someone save him... no, someone save me. This won't count as me hiring a killer, will it? Though I did hire one, I only spent five hundred yuan. That's not worth the price, is it?! "Hadouken!" Wait, why are you still hitting him while we're talking? He was now the very picture of a desperate father. Good heavens. Somebody hold her back!