The bus was forced to pull over.
All the passengers on the bus were scared witless then.
They were just ordinary passengers, and quite a number of them were there for vacation and have never seen such a scene. They dared not breathe loudly and could only look at Ye Lingchen with pity.
From their gaze, it was not difficult to guess what was going on in their mind. They wished for Ye Lingchen to leave quickly, take responsibility for his actions, and settle this matter as soon as possible without getting them involved.
“Little brother, you’ve really gotten yourself in some big trouble.” The driver sighed. “Brother Leo is a follower of Brother Hao. Rumor has it that Brother Hao was trained in martial arts. This region is desolate, with only villages of various sizes around. They have no way of controlling them. Eventually, it turned into a lawless land. Brother Hao is a capable and ruthless fighter. He’s infamous around here. If you want to run any businesses, you need to first get permission from Brother Hao.”
“That man with a crew cut is Brother Hao.”
The passengers’ gaze followed the direction the driver pointed at. As expected, they saw a young man wearing a white singlet sitting with one foot on the motorcycle. His head was held high, looking sideways at the bus.
The other thugs were gathered around him.
“Before this area was developed, Brother Hao braved the forest on his own and brought back a tiger relying just on his martial arts skill!”
The driver’s voice was filled with deep respect. “That tiger had no knife wounds on it. It was beaten to death with his bare fist! Little brother, you should just go apologize and not offend the local powers even if you’re strong!’
The driver could tell that Ye Lingchen was not ordinary, therefore he tried his best to persuade him.
Ye Lingchen smiled calmly and stood up.
“Hey, are you really going down?” Su Qingxue’s expression changed slightly, holding him back and explained, “These people are thugs. They won’t take an apology just like that. Not only are they capable fighters, they even have weapons. If a fight really breaks out, how will the two of you win?”
To her, Ali was just a little stronger. It was difficult to fight when outnumbered. After all, they were only humans.
“It’s just a group of trash. What’s there to fear?” Ye Lingchen shrugged casually, then slowly got off the bus.
“Stop acting tough at a time like this!” Su Qingxue bit her lips as she watched Ye Lingchen get off step by step.
Just as Ye Lingchen got off the bus, the group immediately surrounded him. Their expressions were vicious, looking at Ye Lingchen with an unfriendly gaze, and seemingly ready to swing their bats at him at any moment.
Only Brother Hao was calmly sitting on his motorcycle. He exhaled a puff of smoke, then narrowed his eyes as he looked at Ye Lingchen, and slowly asked, “Friend, you hurt my brother. Shouldn’t you give me an explanation?”
“What sort of explanation would you like?” Ye Lingchen asked.
Brother Hao tapped his cigarette. “My brother was given a solid slap and was thrown out of the bus by you guys. He even broke his hand. I want you and your follower to apologize and leave behind some compensation for medical fees. That’s not too much to ask, right?”
“That’s not too much. How much are you looking for?” Ye Lingchen’s lips curled upwards as he asked.
“I’ve never been treated like this before! Have your follower come forward and receive a slap [1]from me, then compensate me 200 thousand, and I’ll consider this settled!” Brother Leo interjected, pointing and shouting at Ye Lingchen.
“Sure,” Ye Lingchen answered without any hesitation, then looked at Ali behind him. “Go, slap.”
Everyone was surprised. They did not expect Ye Lingchen to agree so quickly. However, that was rather wise of him to understand using money to settle his troubles.
Ali remained quiet and walked up to Brother Leo slowly. He was huge, naturally giving off an intimidating aura. It instilled a sense of fear in Brother Leo. The people around him could not help but take a few steps back as well.
‘Calm down, he’s here to receive a slap from me.’ Brother Leo thought to himself, forcing himself to calm down.
However, the next instant, Ali raised his hand.
Smack!
The huge palm covered Brother Leo’s entire face. With just one slap, he sent Brother Leo flying, spinning in the air like a top.
Silence!
Everyone was dumbfounded.
‘Is this kid crazy?!’
At first, the passengers thought that things were going in the right direction. Who would have known that it would take such a turn. That was stupidly stubborn!
Su Qingxue was flabbergasted. However, she then gritted her teeth and quickly got off the bus.
Brother Hao’s expression immediately darkened and snuffed out the cigarette in his hand.
“What’s the meaning of this?”
“I’m following your request and giving him a slap,” Ye Lingchen answered calmly and innocently. “Is that not what he wanted?”
Everyone was stunned. That was some mental gymnastics.
In that earlier situation, any normal person would understand what he meant by “receive a slap from me”, but somehow Ye Lingchen misunderstood it?
‘WTF, he’s playing word games with us!’
“Brother Hao, you must help me!” Brother Leo whined on the ground, his face was already deformed from the slap.
“Hehe, ever since I’ve been doing this, nobody dared to make fun of me!” Brother Hao’s face turned icy cold. He got off his motorcycle and approached Ye Lingchen. “It seems our friend is quite capable. Let me check out just how capable he is!”
The other thugs tightened their grip over their baseball bats and glued their eyes on Ye Lingchen. Their legs quivered, excited to jump into action.
“Stop!”
Su Qingxue got off the bus, and shouted at them with a meek voice.
Her skin was fair and delicate. With her slender legs, she gave off a cool and pure air that immediately stunned all the thugs.
Everyone suddenly realized that the conflict must have been related to this girl. As the saying went, beauty brings troubles. That should be it.
“Brother Hao, let’s keep things civil. Can you let this slide as a favor for me?” Su Qingxue asked.
“Do you a favor? Our Brother Hao would only do that for women he has slept with. Do you want to give it a try?” One of the thugs jeered.
Su Qingxue’s face turned scarlet in an instant and gripped her tender fists tightly. She pushed down her anxiety and stated coldly, “I’m from the Su family!”
“Su family? River City’s Su family?!”
Brother Hao’s expression changed immediately. It went from shock to speculation as he observed Su Qingxue. Brother Hao said in a shivering voice, “Didn’t the Su family’s main family only have a daughter and a son?”
Right then, one of the thugs seemed to have recalled something, quickly whispering to Brother Hao by his ear.
“You’re the third miss of the Su family?” Brother Hao’s eyes gleamed, then let out a long sigh.
“That’s right!” Su Qingxue nodded.
Brother Hao laughed. “Since it’s Miss Su, then we naturally wouldn’t dare do anything to you. However, this kid touched our men. He’s not someone Miss Su can protect!”
[1] 给 他/我 一巴掌 (Gei Ta/Wo Yi Ba Zhang / Give him/me a slap) – This is a wordplay here. The same phrase can be understood as either “receive a slap from me” or “give me a slap”. In this case, Ye Lingchen intentionally took the phrase out of context.