Chapter 223 — The Zou Father and Son
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Since Zou Tiandi had made his fortune and opened his KTV parlor, it had been a long time since he had suffered such a loss. Especially after secretly bankrolling his eldest son, Zou Ruoguang, into the position of North District thug boss, Zou Tiandi had straddled both the lawful and the lawless worlds and prospered mightily.
"Don't ask so many questions! Go to your room and do your homework like a good boy! Our Zou family is counting on you to be the one scholar, to help me run the business someday!" Zou Tiandi glared at Zou Ruoming and snapped.
Zou Tiandi placed great hopes on this younger son, Zou Ruoming. He and his eldest, Zou Ruoguang, were both rough men who had entered the underworld early and could never have pursued any learning, but both of them wanted Zou Ruoming to make something of himself.
The bigger Zou Tiandi's KTV business grew, the more keenly he understood how vital managerial talent was. He could hire such people with money, of course, but no outsider was ever as worry-free as one's own flesh and blood. So he hoped Zou Ruoming would study hard, take a degree in business management, and come back to help him build his enterprise into something greater still.
Zou Ruoming played his part well enough, acting the obedient treasure at home and obeying Zou Tiandi's every word. But how could Zou Tiandi have guessed that his elder son doted on this younger brother to the point of indulgence, not only helping him in his misdeeds but keeping them hidden from Zou Tiandi himself?
"Okay..." Zou Ruoming answered meekly and went back to his room. Once the door was shut, he did not open his books; instead, he pressed his ear to the door and waited for his elder brother to return, to hear what they would say...
It was not long before his elder brother, Zou Ruoguang, returned. Peering through the crack in the door, Zou Ruoming was startled to see that both of his brother's hands were wrapped in bandages.
"Ruoguang, what happened to you...?" Although Zou Tiandi had run with the rough crowds in his younger days and no longer paid much mind to the cuts and bruises of brawling, such things had all but ceased ever since Zou Ruoguang pacified the North District and became its foremost gangland boss.
"Dad, that man is a real fighter — I couldn't beat him!" Zou Ruoguang was terrified of Wei Zhao down to his very bones, and so he held nothing back. "None of my men are a match for him! My guess is, even if he hasn't quite reached the level of a Yellow-tier fighter, he's close! And he may know pressure-point strikes!"
"What? That formidable? Impossible, surely? Those two brats can't be more than twenty years old — how could they be fighters?" Zou Tiandi was taken aback, unwilling to believe it.
"Dad, to be honest, I don't believe it either, but he really is formidable. This business — let's just let it go. We don't have any deep grudge against him..." At this point, Zou Ruoguang felt a chill of fear...
"Damn it, you worthless thing!" Zou Tiandi snorted coldly. "How can your nerve be so small? Even that good-for-nothing younger brother of yours has more guts than you — he dared to molest a female classmate back in middle school. And look at you! I made the wrong call back then — I should have sent you to school and let Ruoming run the streets!"
Zou Ruoguang hung his head, not daring to look at his father.
"However formidable he is, two fists are no match for four hands. That's an old saying, and it must hold some truth — otherwise how would it have been passed down all these years?" Zou Tiandi gave another cold snort. "Your Uncle Yan is already a near-Yellow-tier fighter, and yet wasn't he surrounded and captured all the same? It took me enormous effort to get him out of prison!"