Chapter 297: Beaten Up
Datou’s single sentence acted like a bolt of thunder out of a clear sky, causing the atmosphere inside the private room to drop to freezing point in an instant.
Xie Yushan’s pupils shrank as well, unable to believe that Datou would speak the words he had just whispered right in front of so many people.
The expressions of both Wen Xiuyi and Master Qiu changed at once, and they asked, “Datou, what did you say?”
Seeing this, Xie Yushan hurriedly opened his mouth: “No, no, how could that be possible? Isn’t that right, Madam?”
There was a clear warning in the look Xie Yushan cast at Qiu Rongrong. At that moment, a surge of icy coldness crept up from the soles of Qiu Rongrong’s feet. Looking at this man who had shared her bed for so many years and with whom she had raised a child, she couldn’t believe he was truly using their own son to threaten her time and time again.
Yi’er was his son as well!
Qiu Rongrong’s words stuck right in her throat. In this moment, rage, indignation, and forced tolerance were all entangled together. Her rationality was on the brink of collapse, yet she forced herself to calm down.
Yi’er is in his hands.
Qiu Rongrong repeated this to herself over and over in her heart, only then allowing her voice to sound somewhat less shaky.
“Yes.”
Datou, however, tilted his head to look at her, looking utterly bewildered: “Sister Rongrong, but he was threatening you just now! He said Xie Anyi was taken away by that old crone from their family, and if you don’t listen to him, Xie Anyi is going to suffer!”
Swish!
Wen Xiuyi and Master Qiu stood up simultaneously.
With a dark, gloomy face, Xie Yushan glared at Datou: “What nonsense are you spewing? When did I ever say that?!”
He bore every mark of someone flying into a rage out of humiliation.
“Xie Yushan!” Master Qiu, who was usually as gentle and refined as jade, raised his voice for the very first time to shout the name.
Setting aside the fact that Xie Anyi was his student now, even if it were purely because he had accepted Qiu Rongrong as his niece, as an elder, it was impossible for him to remain silent at a time like this.
Wen Xiuyi was likewise filled with rage, knowing full well that Datou never told lies.
“Master Xie, please give us an explanation. Where is Xie Anyi? Where have you taken him?” Wen Xiuyi pressed him directly as well.
Not wanting to be left behind, Magistrate Chen stood up alongside them at this moment, his face solemn: “Master Xie, is what Datou said true?”
A flicker of panic flashed across Xie Yushan’s face, but he quickly composed himself. Casting a cold glance at Qiu Rongrong, he turned to the others and said, “Everyone, everyone, it’s a misunderstanding! It’s all a misunderstanding! Yi’er is my son—how could I possibly harm him? Isn’t it just that my mother said she missed Jie’er and wanted to visit him, but couldn’t bear to part with Yi’er, so she took him along? Datou is just a small child, so it’s only natural he misheard. Madam, isn’t that so?”
Qiu Rongrong’s entire body trembled. The moment Wen Xiuyi and Master Qiu stood up to back her up, all her suppressed emotions transformed into pure grievance in an instant. Snapping up from her seat so violently that she knocked her chair over, she glared at Xie Yushan with furious eyes.
“Xie Yushan, give Yi’er back to me!” Qiu Rongrong lunged forward almost frantically to grab Xie Yushan, her whole mind on the verge of breakdown.
This sudden outbreak of violence threw the private room into complete chaos instantly. Qiaoyan hurriedly stepped forward to protect Qiu Rongrong, while Xie Yushan was yanked into frantic, stumbling steps, attempting to strike Qiu Rongrong in his desperation.
Qiaoyan swiftly shielded Qiu Rongrong behind her, shouting in anger, “Master, you already hit Madam earlier! Are you planning to hit Madam again right in front of so many people?!”
The moment these words were uttered, all hell broke loose, and the expressions on everyone’s faces changed.
Qiu Rongrong had been weeping for so long that her tears had already smudged the makeup on her face. As Qiaoyan wiped her tears, she intentionally wiped away the cosmetic powder covering the finger prints on her face. In that instant, her face—glaringly marked with several finger prints—was exposed right before everyone’s eyes.
Even people as composed as Master Qiu and Wen Xiuyi couldn’t help drawing in a sharp breath.
Wen Xiuyi rolled up his sleeves right then and there: “Well done, Xie Yushan! You actually dared to lay a hand on a woman!”
Saying this, he stepped forward and delivered a kick straight to Xie Yushan. The strength in Wen Xiuyi’s current body was immense, and that single kick sent Xie Yushan flying onto the floor.
Dazed from the kick, Xie Yushan looked at Wen Xiuyi in utter disbelief: “You… you dare hit me?!”
“I’m bloody beating you! Hitting a woman—you’ve really grown capable, haven’t you?!” In Wen Xiuyi’s eyes, Qiu Rongrong was his daughter’s good best friend, making her practically no different from his own daughter. Besides, they had long disliked this fellow Xie Yushan anyway.
Xie Yushan looked at him, then looked at Qiu Rongrong, before suddenly roaring in rage, “Well done, Qiu Rongrong! No wonder you keep running to the Wen family all the time! Are you…”
Before he could finish his sentence, he caught a resounding slap across the face—and the person who struck him was actually Master Qiu.
Master Qiu had realized instantly that the words coming out of Xie Yushan’s mouth were no good, so in his urgency, he simply delivered a slap straight across his face, stuffing the words back down his throat.
It had originally been a temporary measure to buy time, yet having delivered that slap, Master Qiu actually felt an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.
In that case, might as well deliver a few more.
Slap… Slap…
Two more slaps followed, slapping Xie Yushan into complete disorientation. It took a long while before he began bellowing, “Assault! Assault! Someone come! Someone come!”
Manager Lu had been present the entire time. The moment the conflict erupted, he had gathered all the restaurant workers upstairs. Far from helping, the two attendants Xie Yushan had brought along could barely protect themselves right now.
The customers downstairs could only hear the commotion coming from above, poking their heads up one after another to watch the spectacle.
Master Qiu walked straight out onto the third-floor corridor, speaking in a clear, resonant voice: “Everyone, today’s meal is at our Zui Xian Tower! Servants, serve an extra roast duck to every table!”
With that single sentence, everyone silently retracted their gazes. As for what happened upstairs, they’ve already used food to stuff your mouth shut—if you still impolitely poked your nose into it at a time like this, wouldn’t that be letting down these delicacies?
Seeing that no one was paying attention to this side anymore, Manager Lu turned around, stepped back into the private room, and pulled the door shut behind him.
For the very first time, Qiu Rongrong felt the sensation of being protected by others, weeping even harder. For so many years, because her parental family was far away, she had endured everything on her own even when wronged, never imagining that a day would finally come when people would protect her like this.
At this moment, Qiu Rongrong thought that even if her own parents and eldest brother were here, they might not have taken action directly. At this thought, Qiu Rongrong sobbed even louder, as if attempting to cry out all the grievances she had suffered during this period.
The young children were completely frightened silly.
Fearing that these two would truly beat the man so badly he couldn’t get down from the stage, Magistrate Chen hurriedly intervened to stop them, pulling Wen Xiuyi with one hand and Master Qiu with the other.
“We can talk things through properly, how can we resort to violence?” Magistrate Chen offered painstaking ‘counsel’.
Anyway, the beating’s already done.
Wen Xiuyi sat down with a huff, and Master Qiu flicked his sleeves, sitting down as well, though the gazes both directed at Xie Yushan were laced with malice.
It took a long while before Xie Yushan managed to scramble to his feet, pointing at them as he roared in rage, “Qiu is a woman of my Xie family! How I treat her is my own business—what right do you have to beat me?!”
Wen Xiuyi stopped speaking. Cooling down now, he felt he was indeed somewhat in the wrong legally speaking; although she was his daughter’s good friend, she wasn’t his biological daughter after all, so it was indeed improper for him to take the lead.
Master Qiu, however, maintained a dark, gloomy expression, speaking in an icy voice: “Rongrong addresses me as Uncle—how could I stand by and watch you bully her like this? Wouldn’t that be failing as an elder? Never mind that you are merely a side branch of the Xie clan—even if the patriarch of the Xie family were standing right here today, I would beat you all the same!”
