Chapter 141 — Old Buffon's Origins

Ouyang Junyuan was the Ouyang family's second young master. He was a young master too, but with that extra "second" before the title, he was instantly diminished by no small measure. That word "second" also doomed Ouyang Junyuan to never hold power in the Ouyang family for the rest of his life. Who had told him to be born two years late?

Now, part of the Ouyang family's affairs had already been handed over to his elder brother, Ouyang Junwei, to manage. Although some trivial matters had also been handed to Ouyang Junyuan, he simply threw up his hands and quit, no longer contending for the position of family head.

Relying on the Ouyang name, he ran wild outside, setting up a shell film and television company and preying on young girls everywhere. Ouyang Junwei naturally knew his younger brother's character, but he was only too glad that his brother was not contesting power with him, so whatever Ouyang Junyuan wanted to do, he let him do, and when trouble arose, Ouyang Junwei would clean it up for him.

Over the years, this had actually smoothed over the feelings between the brothers considerably, and the two cooperated in perfect harmony. Although there were victims who went to file complaints, what awaited them was the Ouyang family's frenzied retaliation, which left the victims not daring to file complaints at all. Who did not have family? Sacrificing oneself was one thing, but one did not want to end up with one's whole family ruined. Besides, Ouyang Junyuan was generous: the girls he had played with all received a sum of money, and those who served him well could, through his connections, play a small role on television—a taste of stardom, so to speak.

So Ouyang Junyuan always acted without the slightest scruple.

There were many customers queuing at Liuwei Ju. After Yang Ce and the others finished eating, they rose to pay and leave. Chatting while hogging a table—the waiters would not chase you off, but it was somewhat lacking in public spirit. After all, many people were waiting outside on empty stomachs, holding numbered tickets.

After Yang Ce and the others got up and left, Wang Cheng'en and Ouyang Junyuan also followed them out. Wang Cheng'en pulled out his phone and made a call.

"A-She, this is Wang Cheng'en," Wang Cheng'en said. "I hear you're doing quite well for yourself in Donghai."

"Oh, Director Wang!" A-She picked up the phone and laughed. "What gives you the time to call me?"

"Well, I've come along with my boss to take care of some business, and something's come up that I'd like to ask your help with, A-She," Wang Cheng'en said.

"Oh? You mean Young Master Ouyang is here too?" A-She asked. "What matter could possibly stump Young Master Ouyang?"

"Heh heh, isn't there a saying—a strong dragon does not crush a local snake. You, A-She, are the local snake here, so naturally this matter must be entrusted to you," Wang Cheng'en said with a laugh.

"Since that's the case, just tell me what it is and see whether I can manage it." A-She's heart stirred. If he could get a line to Young Master Ouyang, then who knew—he might still have a chance to develop.

These days in Donghai, things were getting harder and harder. Suppressed badly by the Sun and Tian families, A-She's gang could now operate only within a very small area, and could not collect protection money at will; how much to collect was all set by the Sun family, no more and no less, and a portion had to be handed up to the Sun family. So A-She was tightly constrained, and at this rate it would be hard even to feed the Qingming Sect.

That was right—A-She was in fact Snake Brother, the boss of the Four Snakes Gang. He and Wang Cheng'en had once been primary school classmates, and the two were on good terms. In recent years, as Wang Cheng'en had risen high at the side of the Ouyang second young master, A-She's contact with him had grown even closer.

Although A-She also knew that the Ouyang second young master did not hold power in the Ouyang family, that did not matter. At least if the Ouyang second young master said a word, he could still have a place to shelter in P Province—certainly better than his current situation.

A-She was now caught in a dilemma. A huge gang like his—if things went on like this, he would not even be able to feed his brothers.

A while back he had thought of teaming up with a man named Wu Chiren to swindle some money, but he had never expected that Yang Cenbin, that jinx, would come knocking at his door, scaring A-She half to death.

To be continued.

654. Unlucky Snake Brother

Now there was a good chance to attach himself to the Ouyang family, and A-She naturally did not want to miss it.

"Here's how it is. As you know, our Boss Ouyang has set up a film and television company, and then he took a fancy to two schoolgirls..." Wang Cheng'en explained the matter roughly.

"So that's how it is," A-She said, pondering for a moment. This did not seem complicated—just find some excuse for a quarrel and lure those two men away, and it should be easy enough to do. So he agreed: "All right, I'll bring some men over now."

"Good. We're near Liuwei Ju. Give me a call once you arrive," Wang Cheng'en said.

Actually, Snake Brother could easily have sent a few underlings to handle this sort of thing, but to curry favor with the Ouyang second young master, Snake Brother decided to go in person, to show how much he valued the matter.

Still, it was fortunate that Snake Brother went in person; otherwise he might have regretted it for the rest of his life. Although he simply should not have gone at all, at least by going himself he could still salvage things—if he had sent his underlings and they had offended those great deities, Snake Brother really would have had to hang himself.

Yang Ce and the others left Liuwei Ju but did not drive off right away. After all, Sun Jie and Yang Xin had not seen each other for a long time, and the two good friends wanted to stroll around Gujin.

Wu Yunsheng agreed without a moment's hesitation. Yang Ce had nothing to do anyway, and since Sun Jie and Yang Xin wanted to visit their old school, No. 6 Middle School, he went along too.

"So the Grass really was a student at No. 6 High." Wang Cheng'en watched Yang Ce and the others walk onto the No. 6 High campus and spoke with a sneer.

Before long, Snake arrived in a hurry with six underlings in tow. Catching sight of Wang Cheng'en, he rushed over and said, "Director Wang."

"Snake, let me introduce you. This is Boss Ouyang." Wang Cheng'en hurriedly introduced the man beside him.

"Young Master Ouyang." Snake immediately bobbed and scraped with a fawning nod.

"Mm." Ouyang Junyuan gave a nod and grunted. "Do you see those four on the field over there?"

Snake raised his head and looked in the direction Ouyang Junyuan indicated. Sure enough, two men and two women were talking near the parallel bars. He nodded. "No problem. You want me to go pick a fight and take care of those two men?"

"Beat them up or haul them off, do as you like. Just make sure those two women are left alone," Wang Cheng'en said.

"All set." Snake beckoned to the underlings behind him. "Let's go. Time to work."

"Little brother, now do you understand why Xiaojie's chest is so big?" Yang Xin pointed at Sun Jie, who was doing pull-ups on the horizontal bar nearby, and whispered to Yang Yanzhou beside her.

"Ha, so that's how it is. I thought she'd just been drinking too much papaya soup." Yang Xin was cheeky, but Yang Ce was even cheekier—the two of them really did get along. Wu Yunsheng, meanwhile, had a face full of black lines. Hearing this fierce conversation between siblings, he felt his own cheeks burn. His girlfriend—how could she talk about such things?

But there was no help for it. Who'd told him to like her? To love someone was to love all of them. So Wu Yunsheng could only try to change himself.