AATP 3

Bian Yiqiu said he’d come over immediately, but he nearly fell asleep again right after hanging up. If it weren’t for his stomach grumbling from a day without food, he might’ve ended up ghosting his men entirely.

Zuo Cheng was picking up the mess of scattered clothes downstairs, like a nanny tidying up. When he heard the landline ring, he quickly walked over to answer it, only to notice that his own number was displayed on the caller ID.

Bian Yiqiu stood in front of the washbasin, holding his bodyguard phone. He told Zuo Cheng to have the hotel kitchen send dinner over, then hung up. As he looked at the marks of affection on his body in the mirror, he cursed Ke Mingxuan to death in his mind. At the same time, he felt a sense of relief, grateful that his habit of lowering the room temperature and tightly wrapping himself in the blanket had spared him from any further embarrassment in front of Zuo Cheng.

After washing up, Bian Yiqiu found some spare clothes in the wardrobe, got dressed, and headed downstairs. Dinner was just being set on the table.

Zuo Cheng respectfully stood by the table, pulling out a chair for him. Bian Yiqiu tossed his phone back to him and casually asked, “Did you find my phone?”

“….” Zuo Cheng silently took the phone from the side.

Bian Yiqiu glanced at the screen, which was shattered beyond recognition, almost not recognizing it: “How did it end up like this?”

With a sincere expression, Zuo Cheng replied, “I don’t know.”

Bian Yiqiu thought it might have been from the fight with Ke Mingxuan yesterday, when he fell to the ground and the phone got smashed. He didn’t dwell on it, put the phone aside, and picked up his chopsticks to eat, calling Zuo Cheng to join him.

Zuo Cheng glanced at the beyond repair phone and sat down without any guilt.

After they finished dinner, Bian Yiqiu leisurely enjoyed a dessert and a pot of top-quality tea. By the time they drove to the western dock, over three hours had passed since He Xu’s call.

In other words, in this cold winter weather, Lawyer He had been stuck in an empty, abandoned warehouse, without food or drink, waiting for him for a full three hours!

He Xu looked at his motionless men scattered around the warehouse, then at the man in the corner, beaten to the point of being unrecognizable. With a sigh, he lit a cigarette, slowly realizing that Bian Yiqiu’s morning mood was not so easily shaken off. He must have been deliberately taking his time to get back at him.

Lawyer He sighed deeply, regretting his poor judgment and careless choice of friends. He took out his phone, about to call Zuo Cheng again, when he heard the unmistakable sound of Bian Yiqiu’s flashy Maybach pulling up outside the warehouse.

He stubbed out his cigarette, jumped down from the wooden crate, and dusted off his pants. “Boss, do you know I charge by the hour for my services?”

Bian Yiqiu gave him a glance. “Do you know how much consulting fees I pay your firm every year?”

Lawyer He immediately changed his tone. “…Boss, how did you get here so quickly? Have you eaten yet? Was there traffic on the way? Would you like to rest for a bit before handling business?”

Zuo Cheng looked at Lawyer He with deep disdain for his money-driven nature, while Bian Yiqiu, on the other hand, found it quite useful. He slowly surveyed the large, empty warehouse, filled only with a pile of broken wooden crates, as though searching for a place to rest. Unfortunately, he found none.

“Forget it,” Bian Yiqiu muttered under his breath, seemingly dissatisfied that there was nowhere to rest in the warehouse. With his hands in the pockets of his trench coat, he walked toward the corner.

Hearing the footsteps, the man, half-beaten and barely alive, opened his eyes, swollen to the point where only a thin slit remained. In the next moment, he used all his strength to lunge at Bian Yiqiu, grabbing his pant leg with precision. “Qiu ge, Qiu ge… please spare me… I was forced into this…”

Bian Yiqiu glanced down at the hand gripping his pant leg, and just as he furrowed his brow, the man, who looked like a bloodied gourd, was kicked aside by Zuo Cheng.

Ignoring the man’s cries of pain, Bian Yiqiu casually brushed his pants and took a few steps forward. Standing before the man, he looked down on him from above. “Who forced you?”

“Young master Qian… no, Qian Yunchang. He had his men kidnap my wife and child, forced me to smuggle drugs on the ship… Qiu ge, please spare me, I won’t dare again… Look, I’ve been with you for eight years, just let me go this time… Qiu ge…”

“Eight years,” Bian Yiqiu crouched down, narrowing his eyes as he studied the man. “Tell me, in these eight years, have I ever wronged you?”

“Qiu ge… Qiu ge, I was wrong, I was ungrateful, I deserve to die a thousand deaths, but I did it for my wife and child… Xiaoyu is still so young, I can’t just watch her be thrown into the sea by Qian Yunchang…”

“Father-daughter love, so touching,” Bian Yiqiu tilted his head slightly, the corners of his lips curling into a faint smile. But the smile never reached his eyes. “But I heard you sent your wife and child to Old Qian for protection because you were planning to switch sides and join him.”

“No, no, that’s not how it happened… Qiu ge… someone is sowing discord between us…”

“Oh,” Bian Yiqiu nodded, extending his hand to the side. He Xu immediately handed him a stack of documents. Bian Yiqiu took them, spread them out in front of the man, and spoke in an almost gentle tone, “Does this look familiar?”

When the man saw the documents, his whole body started trembling. “Qiu ge…”

“This is the entry and exit record from the gambling ship in international waters for the past two years,” Bian Yiqiu casually flipped through the pages. “Tsk tsk, you’re quite the high roller. You bet even bigger than I do. Last year, you lost half of Hongyuan’s profits. You thought you’d recover your losses by getting Ruiyi to help you cover up and avoid the year-end audit. But this year, Ruiyi wants the money back. You couldn’t pay, and you were afraid I’d find out and wouldn’t let you off, so you decided to leave Jiu’an and side with Old Qian. Am I right?”

“Qiu ge, it’s not like that… I was set up… That gambling ship belongs to the Qian family… They framed me… Qiu ge…” The man once again crawled to his feet, sobbing uncontrollably with tears and mucus.

Bian Yiqiu ignored him and continued, “Hongyuan and Ruiyi are both subsidiaries of Jiu’an. How could you be so stupid to think I wouldn’t know you borrowed money from Ruiyi and didn’t pay it back? Oh, right, you also put enough drugs on the cargo ship that came into Hongyuan, the kind that could get me killed. You thought I wouldn’t come after you for that, right?”

“No, no, no, it’s not like that… Qiu ge, I never meant to hurt you. It was all Old Qian who forced me… Qiu ge, I’m sorry, I was wrong. Please spare me. Xiaoyu can’t lose her father at such a young age… Please, for her sake, spare my life…” The man knew he had no more excuses left. The only thing he could do was desperately beg for his life, using his young daughter as leverage.

Bian Yiqiu looked at him and nodded, “Fine, I’ll spare your life, so you can continue being a good father in front of Xiaoyu.” He stood up and handed the documents back to He Xu.

The man seemed taken aback, not expecting Bian Yiqiu, who was known for his ruthless and heartless ways, to let him go so easily. He froze for a moment before kneeling and repeatedly kowtowing. “Thank you, Qiu ge, thank you, Qiu ge…”

“Your life is spared, but from now on, don’t gamble again,” Bian Yiqiu said, his hands tucked into the pockets of his coat. His tone sounded somewhat consolatory.

“I won’t gamble again, never again…”

“Well then, to eliminate the possibility of you gambling again, what do you think we should do?” Bian Yiqiu bent down, smiling at the man. This time, his smile was genuine, but it was far more chilling than any previous expression.

“Qiu-ge…” The man was so terrified that his voice began to tremble.

Bian Yiqiu was satisfied with the man’s reaction. Still smiling, he instructed his subordinates, “Crush all his finger bones for me, and remember, do it one by one. If you miss one, you’ll make up for it yourselves. Understand?”

After saying that, he didn’t spare the man another glance and turned to leave.

“Qiu ge, Qiu ge, spare me… Qiu ge, you can’t do this to me… Bian Yiqiu… Ahhhhh-”

The anguished screams echoed through the silent warehouse. Bian Yiqiu didn’t even furrow his brow, walking away with calm and composure.

If you make a mistake, you must pay the price. That’s Boss Bian’s rule.

After leaving the warehouse, he got into the car with He Xu sitting beside him in the back, while Zuo Cheng drove, leaving the front passenger seat empty.

After a while, Bian Yiqiu suddenly reached out his hand toward He Xu.

He Xu took out a cigarette from his pocket and handed it to him.

Bian Yiqiu said, “Phone.”

He Xu placed the cigarette in his mouth and took out his phone. “What do you want to do?”

“Requisitioned,” Bian Yiqiu replied as he took the phone. While driving, Zuo Cheng, never missing a beat, pulled a SIM card ejector from his wallet and handed it to him. Then, with He Xu’s cries of despair in the background, Bian Yiqiu casually swapped the SIM card.

As soon as he powered the phone on, a call came in. It was from Ke Mingxuan.

He frowned, pressed the answer button, and held the phone to his ear. “Is there something you need?”

“Did you like the gift I sent you?” Ke Mingxuan’s voice came through the phone, laced with amusement.

“What gift?” Bian Yiqiu paused, then remembered the half-dead man in the warehouse. “Zhou Ming was your doing?”

“Who else would it be? Do you think it was your useless subordinates?”

“Ke Mingxuan, watch your tone.” While it was true that his subordinates had been a bit inefficient in this matter, it was still none of Ke Mingxuan’s business to criticize them.

“Alright, alright, I won’t mention your useless subordinates. Let’s talk about something else,” Ke Mingxuan replied.

“You fucking…”

“Next weekend, a few friends are going off-roading at Fengling. Are you coming?” Ke Mingxuan said he wanted to change the topic, and he really did.

Bian Yiqiu thought for a moment. “Are Chu Yi and Lu Xiao going?”

Hearing “Lu Xiao,” both He Xu and Zuo Cheng in the car perked up.

On the other end of the line, Ke Mingxuan seemed to be doing something, but when he heard this, he immediately laughed. “So, do you want them to go, or don’t you?”

“Don’t want to.” He was afraid that if he saw Chu Yi, he wouldn’t be able to control his fists.

“How much do you like Lu Xiao? So much that you don’t even dare to meet him.”

“It’s none of your business.”

“Alright, not my business. But I have to responsibly remind you again, Lu Xiao is one of my brother’s people. Stop thinking about it. You won’t get anywhere.”

“Young Master Ke, you’ve said this to me countless times in different places, at different times, and in different situations. The way you keep repeating it, you’re making it very easy for me to misunderstand.”

“Misunderstand what?” Ke Mingxuan asked, playing along.

“Misunderstand that you’ve fallen for me?”

Ke Mingxuan laughed on the other end of the phone like he’d just heard the funniest joke in the world. In fact, Bian Yiqiu even heard a young man whining in the background, asking what was going on.

He didn’t need to guess, it was probably one of Ke Mingxuan’s little lovers. Young, pretty, obedient, and sweet, just the type Ke Mingxuan liked.

For some reason, Bian Yiqiu found that laughter rather grating. He, of course, knew Ke Mingxuan wasn’t in love with him. In fact, he had no affection for Ke Mingxuan at all. But damn, who would have thought that two men who couldn’t stand each other would somehow maintain such a bizarre friends-with-benefits relationship?

Every time he thought about this, Bian Yiqiu felt like life was just full of damn miracles.

Without waiting for Ke Mingxuan to finish laughing, Bian Yiqiu hung up the phone.

Two minutes later, Ke Mingxuan called again to ask if he was going for the off-road trip. Bian Yiqiu replied, “Send me the time and route,” then hung up the phone again.

Ke Mingxuan quickly sent a message. Before Bian Yiqiu had even finished reading the first one, the second one came through: “Is there any hope for you to stop hanging up before people finish speaking?”

“Too far gone, no cure,” Bian Yiqiu replied with a few words, then promptly turned off his phone and closed his eyes to rest, completely ignoring the eager curiosity from He Xu and Zuo Cheng beside him.