Chapter 156: Kneel and Apologize?

Jiang Yu had no intention of explaining too much to Han Qingyu. In this lifetime, she had long since lost all memories of Yunshang and was nothing more than an ordinary person. Given her perspective, telling her the truth would likely only be met with disbelief.

Rather than saying too much and burdening her with unnecessary worries, it was better to let her live a carefree life.

"In her eyes, I am just a strange man who suddenly barged into her life," Jiang Yu thought to himself, a cold smile suddenly playing on his lips. "There are far too many buzzing flies around Qingyu. It seems I should find a chance to put those people in their place."

On his way back to the dormitory, Jiang Yu unexpectedly ran into Yan Xiaoxiao and Miao Yingxia.

It was worth noting that ever since that gathering a few nights ago, Miao Yingxia's attitude toward Old Tao had undergone a radical transformation. From her initial aloof indifference, she had shifted to initiating contact proactively.

At this rate, it wouldn't be long before the two of them established a romantic relationship.

Jiang Yu decided to find some time to give Miao Yingxia a warning; Old Tao was a good person at heart, and Jiang Yu did not want to see him get ruined by that woman. If she proved ungrateful and failed to appreciate the gesture, Jiang Yu wouldn't mind teaching her a harsh lesson.

"Jiang Yu."

Yan Xiaoxiao crossed her arms, her tone detached.

Jiang Yu raised his eyelids. "Is something the matter?"

He knew deep down that Yan Xiaoxiao had misunderstood his identity, but what did her thoughts have to do with him? Throughout his entire life, why would he ever need to explain himself to others?

If not for the sake of Aunt Yan, Jiang Yu wouldn't even have bothered to acknowledge her.

"I heard that this morning, you beat Zhang Mo from the Taekwondo Club to the point of crippling him?"

Yan Xiaoxiao questioned him with a cold voice. When she first heard the news, she had found it utterly unbelievable. Zhang Mo was a black belt expert in Taekwondo, and she had once witnessed him single-handedly drive off a dozen hoodlums on the street.

Could someone so formidable really have been crippled with a single slap by Jiang Yu today?

Had there not been numerous eyewitnesses, she would never have believed such a ridiculous tale. Jiang Yu had a slender build, a quiet demeanor, and possessed no visible physical strength whatsoever.

"Crippled?"

Jiang Yu looked surprised.

He had merely delivered a light, casual blow to the top of Zhang Mo's head. Precisely because he was afraid of killing the man, he hadn't even used half an ounce of actual force; the impact had been entirely generated by natural momentum and inertia.

Yan Xiaoxiao nodded. "What else did you think? After Zhang Mo was sent to the hospital, examinations revealed a comminuted fracture of his left shoulder bone and broken bones in both legs. Even if he recovers in the future, his entire life will be affected."

Jiang Yu asked, "Does that mean you've come specifically to call me to account?"

Miao Yingxia stepped in, explaining, "Jiang Yu, you've misunderstood Xiaoxiao. You probably don't know Zhang Mo's background. She came looking for you purely out of concern for your safety."

Aunt Yan had indeed mentioned that Yan Xiaoxiao was all bark and no bite, possessing a sharp tongue but a soft heart.

Yan Xiaoxiao let out a soft huff and turned her head away, looking as though she utterly despised the face before her.

Arrogant, reckless, and ruthless.

Jiang Yu had no idea that, imperceptibly, Yan Xiaoxiao had already slapped numerous negative labels on him. She felt an intense resistance toward Aunt Yan's personal request to look after Jiang Yu while at school.

Just two days after starting school, he had triggered two major disasters back-to-back. Yan Xiaoxiao desperately wanted to tell Aunt Yan that she was no deity; the mess Jiang Yu had made was so catastrophic that even if Xiahou Sheng himself showed up, he wouldn't be able to cover for it.

Yet, bound by the favor she owed President Xia, Yan Xiaoxiao was left entirely helpless.

Jiang Yu asked curiously, "Does that Zhang Mo possess some sort of earth-shattering background?"

Miao Yingxia replied, "Zhang Mo is one of Wei Jia's people. He runs amok in the school on a regular basis, and very few people dare to provoke him. On top of that, he is a member of the Tianhe Martial Arts Union, though I don't know the exact details. In any case, you've beaten him to the point of a disability, and there is no doubt it will provoke retaliation afterward."

Jiang Yu nodded. "Oh."

Oh?

Everyone, including Yan Xiaoxiao, froze in place. After preaching earnestly and bitterly for so long, all they got in return was Jiang Yu's detached, single-word response.

He didn't seem to care in the least. Facing such an indifferent attitude, Miao Yingxia had a strong feeling that even if someone told Jiang Yu Zhang Mo was backed by the Jade Emperor himself, he would still remain entirely unimpressed.

Either he was blindly arrogant, or he truly possessed something to rely on.

Miao Yingxia came to a firm conclusion.

She really wanted to see what kind of trump card Jiang Yu held that allowed him to remain completely unfazed after courting disaster time and time again.

Yan Xiaoxiao's expression was as cold as frost. She dropped a final sentence: "As for Zhang Mo's matter, my mother has already smoothed things over for you. Tonight, members of the Martial Arts Union will be at the Nest Bar. You are going to go there, offer an apology, and say a few polite words, and the matter will be considered settled."

After a moment of hesitation, she ultimately kept to herself the fact that her mother had paid out a million yuan in medical expenses out of her own pocket.

Jiang Yu hesitated.

He genuinely couldn't bring himself to reject Aunt Yan's kind intentions. Aunt Yan was unaware of his true identity; in her eyes, he was merely a youngster entrusted to her care by Xiahou Sheng.

Going out of her way to handle this was a genuine expression of her kindness.

Jiang Yu nodded. "Very well, I will drop by the bar tonight to take a look."

Yan Xiaoxiao let out a cold huff and spat out one final instruction:

"Eight o'clock, Nest Bar."

With that, she crossed her arms and walked away, holding back a wave of grievances so intense it made her want to cry.

"Jiang Yu, Aunt Yan practically emptied her family savings just to help you out."

Miao Yingxia sighed softly before turning to follow her.

At eight o'clock in the evening, Jiang Yu and his group arrived promptly at the entrance of the Nest Bar. Fatty Zhao flicked his phone screen and said, "I've already filled my older brother in on the situation. Let's see how the people from the Martial Arts Union plan to handle this first. If worst comes to worst, my brother will step in personally."

Jiang Yu smiled faintly. "There's no need to make a mountain out of a molehill. Forget about Tianhe; across this vast expanse of China, there are very few people who could ever compel me, Jiang Yu, to apologize."

Zhou凯 and the others didn't press the matter further. There was no need to pierce through a face-saving facade and make things awkward. Besides, with Fatty Zhao present, if a real crisis erupted, he had the weight to hold down the fort.

Yan Xiaoxiao, Miao Yingxia, and the others had already ordered drinks and were waiting at a booth.

"Xiaya."

Looking somewhat restrained and embarrassed, Old Tao squeezed in to sit next to Miao Yingxia. The latter responded with natural grace and a radiant smile, completely bewitching Old Tao.

"Where are they?"

Zhou凯 glanced around, but there was no sign of anyone from the Martial Arts Union.

Yan Xiaoxiao said helplessly, "I'm not sure either. The other side agreed on eight o'clock. Fatty, is your end prepared? Tonight, we might still need to trouble you."

Fatty Zhao had a straightforward disposition and laughed heartily. "What trouble are you talking about? Getting all polite like this means you're treating me like an outsider. We're brothers from the same dorm; no matter what happens tonight, I won't let Old Jiang come to any harm."

Yan Xiaoxiao let out a sigh of relief. If Jiang Yu messed things up, her family would have no face left to look President Xia in the eyes.

"Xiaoxiao, tell me honestly: did the people from the Martial Arts Union force Aunt Yan to pay compensation before they were willing to reconcile?" Jiang Yu remembered what Miao Yingxia had said at noon; he didn't want his own affairs to drag others down.

Yan Xiaoxiao placed the wine glass she had just lifted back onto the table.

After a long silence, she nodded. "The people from the Martial Arts Union demanded one million yuan in damages before they were willing to sit down for peace talks. My mother knew you couldn't afford it, so she paid it out of her own pocket for you."

Jiang Yu said nothing more, his fingers gently tapping against the surface of the table. If he had been an ordinary person today, facing Zhang Mo's full-strength attack, his fate would have been either death or severe injury. At that time, would the Martial Arts Union have uttered a single extra word of sympathy?

The Martial Arts Union?

Jiang Yu repeated the name softly to himself, followed by a sudden, cold smile.

On the first floor of the bar, seven or eight burly men were making their way aggressively up to the upper level, causing many patrons to hastily step aside and clear the path, not daring to obstruct them. As the largest organization in Tianhe City, the Martial Arts Union controlled numerous underground forces, ranking just beneath the three great aristocratic families of Tianhe: the Wei, Han, and Fan clans.

Yan Xiaoxiao and the others panicked and instantly scrambled to their feet.

They were merely students; facing a behemoth like the Martial Arts Union, terror was a natural reaction. Forget about them—even the older generations in their families would turn pale at the mere mention of the Martial Arts Union.

Jiang Yu, however, remained steadily seated, holding his wine glass as if there was no one else around, pouring and drinking entirely at his own leisure.

"Jiang Yu, get up quickly."

The Martial Arts Union had a strict rule: anyone who crossed paths with them had to stand to show respect.

"A mere Martial Arts Union—what is there to fear? Everyone just sit down and drink. Don't worry, once this is over, not a single person from the Martial Arts Union will dare to trouble you."

At Jiang Yu's level, once he gave a promise, it meant that the Martial Arts Union was destined to be completely erased from Tianhe.

"It's over."

Despair settled heavily into the depths of Yan Xiaoxiao's heart.

"When meeting the Martial Arts Union, why do you refuse to stand?"

The middle-aged man leading the group glared fiercely. The unspoken rules acknowledged throughout Tianhe were being completely ignored by the punk in front of them. Even before sitting down for peace talks, the kid had already managed to provoke everyone present.

Jiang Yu poured another cup of wine and, without even raising his head, said, "I'm quite curious: have the big shots of the Martial Arts Union played the role of local emperors for so long that they dared to demand an apology from me without even bothering to investigate my identity?"

"Shut up!"

Yan Xiaoxiao wanted nothing more than to lunge forward and clamp her hand over Jiang Yu's mouth.

The middle-aged man said in a deep, menacing voice, "Are you saying you have no desire for peace talks? Seeing as someone already paid to help you out, we were willing to let things slide, yet you continue to provoke us again and again."

Jiang Yu finally raised his head and looked directly at the middle-aged man.

With a slight smile, he replied, "We'll talk, of course we'll talk. But we aren't going to discuss how I injured Zhang Mo. Instead, we are going to discuss how your Martial Arts Union plans to appease my anger."

He paused, a thoughtful glint in his eye.

"How about this: make the top bosses of the Martial Arts Union come and kowtow to me one hundred times, and then pay Aunt Yan one hundred million yuan for emotional distress. Only then will this matter be considered settled."

With those words spoken, everyone who heard them was struck dumb with shock.