Chapter 150: Chapter 150; All right Third Master Mu
He turned his hollow eyes to his remaining kin, their faces pale and lips bitten raw.
“And Tang Yuze, when you find him, break his legs and drag him here. I will watch him die for betraying his blood. This Tang shame must be buried with him!” How could he play them like that? How could he do that?
A young relative, maybe fifteen, suddenly burst into sobs at the horror of it all.
No one comforted him, they were all too consumed with the knowledge that they had just become prey and their family might vanish with the night.
Outside, thunder rumbled low in the distance, like an omen that the Tang dynasty, once proud and unyielding, had finally been fed to the wolves.
Rain lashed the grand windows now, each drop like a drumbeat to the old patriarch’s slow undoing.
The guard, voice trembling, dared to finish the report that would shatter the last illusion of control they thought they had.
“Patriarch… Young Master Yuze… He… he moved abroad after Madame Tang, his wife, was rescued by Lady Zhou Yuxi herself. She had been kidnapped by our own people on your niece’s orders, sir… when Young Master found out…..”
Tang Yanshi’s mouth dropped open, words dying in his throat. He felt like he was being choked and couldn’t express himself.
The servant forced the truth out before fear killed the courage in him: “After that, Young Master Tang knew the family would never stop until his wife and son were dead, to keep him obedient. He moved when he learned about the plot to fake an accident to kill his boy, he moved immediately. He left everything behind except the shares he gave Lady Zhou.”
He swallowed a sob. “He said…. he said he would rather let the company live in her hands than die slowly under ours. He said to tell you: ‘At least Zhou Yuxi won’t eat my children alive.'”
A silence thicker than death settled over the hall. The elders stared at each other, realizing, that it was too late to reverse the situation, that the son they had used like a beast of burden had carved his own salvation with the same cunning methods they had exploited for decades.
Tang Yanshi’s breath rattled in his chest. A frothy cough, flecked with red, bubbled on his lips.
“He…. betrayed….” he rasped, but no one was listening anymore.
Around him, the old guard of the Tang clan was already sliding into hushed panic: making silent calculations of how to jump ship before Mu Yunchen’s shadow fell over their necks too.
The mighty Tang house, undone by its very own blood that should have secured it. Tang Yanshi fell unconscious and they had to rush him to the hospital.
The black Maybach swiveled through the highway heading back to the hospital. When he heard Zhou Yuxi was conscious and had fallen unconscious, he wanted to be there when she woke up again.
Inside, Li Feng drove in tense silence while Mu Yunchen sat in the back of the car leaning backwards exhausted, his shirt bloodstained, knuckles wrapped in a handkerchief that soaked red too quickly. He had gotten too handy and forgotten that his skin would easily bruise.
He didn’t even have time to tend to the wounds.
His mind wasn’t in the pain he was feeling but it was on her. Zhou Yuxi.
The thought of her pale face in that hospital bed made his chest clench painfully.
He replayed everything in his mind at every second: her unconscious breathing, her fragile wrist in his palm, the machines placed all over her body. Her tiny chest that was moving up and down.
Li Feng sneakily glanced at his Master through the rearview mirror. “Third Master, should I prepare for the Chen family raid, or are we done for the night?”
Mu Yunchen’s eyes flicked up, looking at Li Feng for a second before diverting them; they were distant and cold. It seemed like only Zhou Yuxi could soften him.
“I will see.” At this moment, he just wanted to get over to the hospital. Nothing else mattered at this moment, his girl had woken and could wake up at any time, just imagine opening her eyes and not finding him.
“All right Third Master….” The car swiveled back to the hospital.
*Mu Private Hospital, Zhou Yuxi’s Room*
Su Feng stood by the bed, arms folded, guarding the wardroom tentatively. He could walk over to the corridor and back.
He looked at Zhou Yuxi before gazing at Li Meili who was already snoring so heavily.
*At the Private Hospital, Lounge*
The soft hush of midnight wrapped the private hospital wing in uneasy quiet, disturbed only by the muted clicks of designer shoes and the smell of disinfectant wafting all over the place.
The car was parked at the private parking spot as they alighted, and they took the elevator up without delaying.
Mu Yunchen stepped out of the private elevator, with Li Feng trailing behind him with a phone glued to his ear, barking coded orders that would dismantle some families and empires that were involved in this entire matter before dawn.
At the far end of the lounge, there were plush leather chairs gathered in an elegant cluster beneath a muted chandelier.
There, as if they owned the place, sat members of the Jin family, immaculate suits, silk scarves, and a thick air of practiced civility. Their patience was slightly worn out as time went by and they couldn’t see Mu Yunchen.
Jin Zhenyu was the first person to spot him, lifted his gaze first. His eyes, hooded and fox-like, flicked from Mu Yunchen’s bloodstained cuff to his predator-calm face. He crossed one leg leisurely, giving the impression of a patient viper.
“Well, well. Third Master Mu, always so dramatic,” Zhenyu spoke up dawdling, his voice dripping with a mocking warmth. He never liked him, and Third Master Mu never liked him either. They had businesses in the underworld, but they never crossed paths; they were enemies.
He lifted his porcelain teacup, steam curling lazily upward. “I just heard the Tang family is halfway in the grave already. Should we be offering our condolences… or our applause for that marvelous job?” He lightly smirked checking him out. This guy was being too much. What wrong could warrant someone’s death sentence? Did they deserve death?
Beside him, Jin Jishu, younger and sharper-tongued, smirked openly showing her displeasure, “Or perhaps you need our services? I’m sure even Mu Yunchen bleeds when he plays hero for a pretty woman.”
Li Feng stiffened at that. The whole lounge seemed to grow teeth in the silence that followed. Were they here to provoke their Master? Don’t they know it was the wrong time for jokes!
Mu Yunchen didn’t even glance at Li Feng or anyone. His eyes were drooping and lazy; he pinned his gaze first on Zhenyu and then on Jishu. The corner of his mouth twitched into something that could have been a smile, except it never touched the glacial depths of his stare.
“If you have something useful to say, just say it, time is one thing that I don’t have…” he said, voice so low and deep, you couldn’t decipher his exact emotions from them or his facial expressions… “If not, get out of my way.”
Jin Zhenyu chuckled, a soft snake’s hiss of amusement. “Of course, Third Master Mu, why couldn’t we say it? We are simply curious observers. You know how the market trembles when you lose your temper. It’s… bad for profits, and bad for families, you can’t be going around killing!”
Jin Zhenyu’s lazy smirk thinned at the edges when Mu Yunchen did not so much as flinch at the market threat. How come he didn’t seem to be worried about scandals? This man’s powers were innumerable, and he felt like he probably hid who he truly was.
He toyed with the porcelain cup, turning it slowly between his fingers, an elegant mask barely hiding the tension that bled into his voice.
“All right… Third Master Mu we came over…” Jin Boyuan had just opened his mouth but Mu Yunchen cut him short before he could complete his sentence.
“What?” He was growing impatient! Jin Chengyu had fallen asleep on the couch and the kids got the shawl covering his body up.
“Third Master Mu, don’t be so cold. We came…..