Chapter 125: The Dragon-Slayer’s Gift

Hu Yingqi looked at Liu Sheng lying on her bed and sighed. She brought over a damp towel and began wiping his face and hands.

Just as she was wiping him down, Liu Sheng suddenly seized her hand, startling her badly.

“Were you this kind to the man you were with before?” he asked bluntly.

Hu Yingqi yanked her hand free and demanded angrily, “I thought you were drunk!”

“Do you only have a chance when I’m drunk? You can do it now, too. At least I don’t look like a corpse.” Liu Sheng was quite the flirt, especially with beautiful women. With a stunning beauty like Hu Yingqi, how could he possibly resist saying a few more provocative things?

Hu Yingqi clenched her little fist and punched him in the chest. Liu Sheng quickly covered his chest and pretended to be in agony.

“It hurts so badly! Oh, no—my bones are broken!”

“Stop pretending. Zhan Long beat you that hard and you were fine. One punch from a delicate girl like me, and you’re already like this?” Hu Yingqi said irritably.

Liu Sheng continued rolling back and forth in pain. “Zhan Long hit me right in the chest. I endured it the whole time, and now you’ve struck the same spot again. Aren’t you just adding fuel to the fire? It hurts like hell!”

Hearing this, Hu Yingqi actually believed she had hurt him. She asked anxiously, “What should I do? I’ll call the family doctor.”

Seeing her about to leave, Liu Sheng hurriedly said, “No need. Just rub it for me.”

“Rubbing it will make it stop hurting?”

At her question, Liu Sheng simply nodded expectantly.

Hu Yingqi sat down on the bed and slowly placed her hand on his chest. With a mixture of seriousness and embarrassment on her face, she began gently massaging him.

Liu Sheng lay there, gazing intently at Hu Yingqi as she rubbed his chest. Her beautiful face made his heart beat faster. A refined young lady was a refined young lady—she was on a completely different level from ordinary women. If Liu Sheng had not returned from the future, and if he did not possess all those abilities, the most he could have done was spot a wealthy young woman stepping out of a luxury car and exclaim, “Damn, she’s beautiful!”

Hu Yingqi suddenly looked up at him. Seeing that he seemed perfectly fine, she grew angry, clenched her fist again, and struck him in the chest with all her strength.

“Ow! Why are you so vicious?” Liu Sheng howled. This time, he was genuinely in pain. Hu Yingqi had used every ounce of her strength without holding anything back.

Watching him cry out, Hu Yingqi pouted. “You’re the best actor of all! You just wanted an excuse to take advantage of me!”

“Who took advantage of you? You’re the one rubbing me!”

Hu Yingqi raised her fist again. Liu Sheng hurriedly said, “All right, all right! Hu Ying deliberately brought us closer because he wants me to keep an eye on you.”

“What should we do, then?” Hu Yingqi asked.

Liu Sheng replied with complete confidence, “We’ll turn his scheme against him. From now on, you should properly manage the businesses you’ve just acquired. I’ll remain by Hu Ying’s side and gradually bring him down. You can contact me openly from now on. Besides, there’s only one opponent left—and he’s a useless one.”

Just as Hu Yingqi was about to speak, Liu Sheng suddenly pushed her down and pinned her beneath him.

“I’ve helped you so much. How are you going to repay me?”

Hu Yingqi had intended to resist, but after hearing his words, she relaxed and turned her head aside, squeezing her eyes shut.

Seeing her like that, Liu Sheng asked, “How old are you?”

Hu Yingqi kept her eyes closed and answered slowly, “Twenty-two.”

Liu Sheng climbed off her. “I don’t like relationships between older women and younger men.”

Hu Yingqi sat up and returned the pistol in her hand beneath the pillow.

“That preference just saved your life. Otherwise, you’d already be dead.”

Good heavens! I was only joking with her, and she wanted to beat me to death!

Liu Sheng lay down on the bed and said, “I’m a restless sleeper, so please don’t kill me in the middle of the night.”

The moment he finished speaking, Hu Yingqi kicked him off the bed.

“If you dare climb back up, I’ll kill you!”

With no other choice, Liu Sheng lay on the floor and pulled a pillow down from the bed.

In the middle of the night, Hu Yingqi awoke and saw that Liu Sheng truly had not climbed back onto the bed. She fetched another blanket, quietly covered him with it, and then gazed at his face in the light from outside. Before she knew it, she reached out and gently stroked his cheek.

Still dreaming, Liu Sheng suddenly seized her hand.

“Leave him and come with me!” he murmured in his sleep.

He was dreaming of Xiao Ya.

He gave Hu Yingqi’s hand a hard tug, and her entire body fell onto him. Liu Sheng then wrapped his arms tightly around her, leaving her unable to break free. Hu Yingqi could not bring herself to wake him. More precisely, she was reluctant to leave his embrace.

The death of her boyfriend had left Hu Yingqi utterly helpless. At such a time, it was easy for a woman to be moved, for both her body and her spirit were terribly empty.

Besides, Liu Sheng was now the only man she could rely on, and the only person she truly trusted.

Early the next morning, Liu Sheng woke to find Hu Yingqi lying on top of him. He hurriedly reminded her, “Last night, when I pinned you down, you wouldn’t let me. Now you’ve climbed onto me without my permission!”

“You were the one holding me and refusing to let me go!”

Liu Sheng was not convinced. He scolded her, “Can’t a woman show a little modesty? You’ve benefited from it, and now you’re acting innocent!”

Hu Yingqi ignored the matter and instead asked anxiously, “Do you have a girlfriend?”

Liu Sheng replied with his usual shamelessness, “Which one are you asking about?”

“Be serious!”

“I don’t.”

Hu Yingqi furrowed her brows, then continued, “You were talking in your sleep last night. I don’t know who you mistook me for, but you held on to me and wouldn’t let go. You even told me to leave with you.”

Liu Sheng tried hard to recall his dream. A faint image of Xiao Ya surfaced in his mind, and he smiled.

“No one. They’re all people from the past.”

Then Liu Sheng asked, “What happened to your boyfriend?”

“He died overseas. He got into a conflict with the Lin family while working for Hua Yong’s interests, and the Lin family killed him in the end. Hua Yong would never seek revenge against the Lin family for the sake of one person. The consequences would be too great—so great that the entire world would tremble.”

Hu Yingqi spoke with deep resentment. She could not accept that her boyfriend had been taken from her, and felt that all the time they should have shared had vanished forever.

“All right,” Liu Sheng replied.

He washed his face and prepared to bid farewell to Old Master Hu before returning to Chong City.

As he opened the door, Ren Xiadong, who had been crouching outside and eavesdropping, suddenly stumbled into Hu Yingqi’s room. He quickly stood up, brushed off his clothes, and said to Liu Sheng, “I’ve been looking for you all morning.”

“Don’t give me that. How did you find me so accurately? Were you hiding by the door and listening for me?”

Seeing that Liu Sheng had seen through him, Ren Xiadong scratched his head and asked, “When are we going back?”

“We’ll say goodbye to Old Master Hu and leave.”

* * *

“Master, Liu Sheng and Ren Xiadong are here to see you.”

“Let them in.”

Liu Sheng and Ren Xiadong entered Old Master Hu’s study together. Looking around at the study, which resembled a library, Liu Sheng could not help exclaiming, “It’s practically a treasury of ancient texts!”

“Heh, you have a good eye. Once you leave this place, you may not find many of these books anywhere else. I have texts from every era, as well as calligraphy by famous figures. What about you, Liu Sheng? Do you enjoy reading?”

Liu Sheng did not answer. Books were wonderful things to him. No matter how much knowledge he absorbed, he could remember every bit of it forever. Without waiting for Old Master Hu’s permission, he began browsing through the shelves on his own.

He was thrilled. The information recorded in these ancient books could not be found even in the computers of the present day. Although it was of little practical use now, it would certainly come in handy when he wanted to impress people with strange stories.

Several hours later, Old Master Hu suddenly asked, “Did the two of you have anything to do with Hu Yinghe’s death?”

His expression was extremely stern, as though he were interrogating criminals.

Ren Xiadong was so frightened that he could not speak, nor did he dare meet Old Master Hu’s eyes. Liu Sheng lowered the book in his hands and answered with a smile, “I destroyed his business, but we didn’t kill him. I heard he took his own life out of guilt. If you insist that we were involved, we won’t deny it. After all, it was because of us that Hu Yingqi’s illicit businesses were exposed.”

After hearing Liu Sheng’s explanation, Old Master Hu closed his eyes and spoke slowly.

“Hu Yinghe was the successor I had placed the greatest hopes in. I still haven’t adjusted to his absence. Whoever you truly work for, Liu Sheng, I hope you can expand Hua Yong once again.”

“You mean the Lin family?” Liu Sheng asked tentatively.

Old Master Hu suddenly laughed.

“What an extraordinary young man you are, Liu Sheng—brilliant beyond compare! You destroyed Hu Yinghe without lifting a finger, which proves that you have ability. Once you establish yourself within Hua Yong, you can go toe-to-toe with the Lin family!”

Liu Sheng said nothing. Such matters were still too distant from him, and he had no real concept of what they entailed.

Old Master Hu spoke again. “All right. I’m getting old and need more rest.”

Understanding the hint, Liu Sheng casually asked, “What about the young master, Hu Sheng?”

“He has servants attending to him while he travels abroad.”

Upon learning that Hu Sheng was not there, Liu Sheng did not disturb Old Master Hu any further. He left the study with Ren Xiadong.

As they were about to depart, Zhan Long called out to them. He took out two specially made pistols and said, “These are for you. The two guns you brought were pitiful.”

Liu Sheng and Ren Xiadong’s eyes lit up. They eagerly took the pistols, turning them over in their hands and wiping them down.

“Bullets! What good are guns without bullets?”

Liu Sheng knew that these pistols used a different caliber from the previous ones. Not only that, their firepower was considerably greater.

Zhan Long brought out ten thousand rounds of ammunition and said, “The complete set, not a single round missing. Ten thousand bullets—take them. Whenever I have time, I’ll come find the two of you. I still intend to fight you for several hundred thousand rounds!”

On the way back, Ren Xiadong kept playing with the pistol in his hands, making Liu Sheng extremely nervous.

“Possessing firearms illegally is against the law! There are cameras everywhere along this road. Aren’t you afraid of being sentenced to life in prison?”

Ren Xiadong hurriedly put the gun away.

“I was just too excited! I’ve never seen a weapon this good. Once we get back, I’m finding somewhere to test it!”