Chapter 143: The Act Was a Success

Ren Xiadong also noticed the hostility of the three local hoodlums toward him, but he remained silent.

"The place is too small and only has enough room for the few of us. You four brothers should just head back!" one of the hoodlums said, his tone less than friendly and tinged with an overt threat.

Ren Xiadong loved nothing more than putting arrogant people in their place. He replied casually, "It doesn't matter!"

Then, turning to the waiter, he said, "Get us a bigger room. Money is no object!"

The waiter was hardly going to turn down money, so he promptly arranged a large private dining room for them.

The hoodlum who had spoken earlier chimed in again, "We happen to like sitting in the main hall."

However, all five girls followed Ren Xiadong into the large private room. Left with no choice, the three hoodlums had to follow them inside.

Throughout the meal, the three hoodlums kept trying to take advantage of the girls while plotting how to chase Liu Sheng and his friends away.

Eventually, the three hoodlums insisted on a drinking contest, hoping to drink Liu Sheng's group under the table and then walk away with the girls.

To the hoodlums' utter astonishment, Ren Xiadong seemed to have a bottomless capacity for alcohol. Long after the three hoodlums could no longer lift a glass, Ren Xiadong was still drinking easily.

Refusing to accept defeat, the three men resorted to intimidation.

They pointed at Liu Sheng's group and snarled, "Do you even know who we are? How dare you fucking come over here and try to steal women from us! Believe it or not, we'll fucking kill you!"

Liu Sheng retorted calmly, "Oh, so you guys are the kind who kill whoever doesn't yield to you? How about we step outside and have a fight?"

Hearing this, the three hoodlums grabbed their liquor bottles and marched toward Liu Sheng. Just as Liu Sheng was about to teach the trio a lesson, the five girls all rushed forward to break it up. Wang Yufan pleaded with Liu Sheng, "Why don't you guys just leave first? They really do beat people up, and I'm afraid they might hurt you."

At that moment, Ren Xiadong stepped in. "What's wrong? Can't hold your liquor so you want to throw punches? I doubt you're a match for us—to beat all of you, I alone am enough!"

Sensing danger, the other four girls also urged Ren Xiadong to say less, genuinely terrified that Liu Sheng and his friends would get hurt, especially since they had been invited along precisely to protect them from being harassed.

To everyone's surprise, Liu Sheng's group stepped right up, ready to throw down with the three hoodlums. Judging by their builds, the four members of Liu Sheng's group certainly didn't look like they could take on the three pot-bellied thugs.

Naturally refusing to back down, Ren Xiadong declared, "Let's take this outside, how about that? Whoever loses gets the hell out of here, and the winner gets to keep dining with the beauties!"

Accepting the challenge, the three hoodlums sneered, "You're courting death! Let's go!"

After Liu Sheng paid the bill, the entire group headed to a deserted alleyway.

Without a second thought, the three hoodlums lunged straight toward Liu Sheng's group. Old Jiu immediately piped up, "Let me handle this."

Ren Xiadong chimed in, "No, I'll do it!"

Liu Sheng yelled, "Damn it, I'm the one who started this, so it should be me! Stop trying to steal my thunder, will you?"

Watching this exchange, the five girls were utterly dumbfounded. People about to get beaten up were actually fighting for the chance to take the blows.

The girls still desperately wanted Liu Sheng and the others to run away quickly.

However, before any of them could speak, Liu Sheng's group rushed forward, scrambling to be first.

"Formidable Vajra Leg!"

"Monkey Steals the Peach!"

"Invincible Iron Head Gong!"

"Hadouken!"

With Xiaojia shouting his comical battle cry, the fight came to an abrupt end. All three hoodlums were lying on the ground, bruised and battered.

A moment later, the three hoodlums pulled out their phones and hissed, "Don't you dare leave, just wait right here for us!"

"Call them! Go ahead and call whoever you want, your grandpas will be waiting right here," Xiaojia said with supreme arrogance.

Liu Sheng turned around and reassured the five girls, "Don't worry, we're all martial artists. We're never afraid of a fight!"

Before long, however, more than a dozen vans screeched to a halt. Fifty or sixty men armed with iron pipes spilled out. Glancing at the three hoodlums sprawled on the ground, they pointed at Liu Sheng's group and roared, "Are you guys trying to get yourselves killed?"

Liu Sheng hurriedly froze time, sprinted home at lightning speed, grabbed a gun, and raced back just as fast. He tucked the firearm into Ren Xiadong's waistband. He didn't give one to Old Jiu or Xiaojia because only Ren Xiadong was aware of his own abilities, whereas Xiaojia and Old Jiu were not.

Time resumed.

The leader of the gang sauntered over to Liu Sheng and his friends, glanced at the five girls standing behind them, and sneered, "A fatal beauty is a curse indeed. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be giving you a hard time!"

He waved a hand at his underlings and ordered, "Strip those girls naked, take pictures, and post them all over the streets tomorrow. Let's make them famous!"

At that, all five girls were struck dumb with terror, and one of them even burst into tears.

Touching his waistband, Liu Sheng said to Ren Xiadong, "Show off properly. We rarely get an opportunity like this."

Ren Xiadong suddenly realized that Liu Sheng must have used his supernatural ability once again. He reached down to his waist and, sure enough, found a pistol tucked there.

As the henchmen closed in, Ren Xiadong whipped out the gun on instinct, pointed it at the crowd, and shouted, "Take another step forward and I'll send you all to permanent sleep!"

"Bullshit! Are you fucking playing with me, pulling out a toy gun to scare me? I wasn't raised to be frightened by that crap!" the leader scoffed, glaring at Ren Xiadong.

Without hesitation, Ren Xiadong fired a shot directly into the leg of one of the henchmen. The man collapsed instantly, howling in pain as blood spurted from the wound.

Realizing the situation had taken a drastic turn, the gang leader turned pale with panic and even contemplated running away.

Seeing the leader about to bolt, Liu Sheng drew his own gun, aimed it straight at him, and said, "Now that you're here, let's play. Where's that attitude you had a minute ago? What was it you said you were going to take pictures of again?"

"Grandpas, I was just joking around! No pictures, we won't take a single picture."

Liu Sheng was in no mood to let him off the hook. "Don't be like that. Take your pictures before you go!"

Liu Sheng exchanged a knowing glance with Ren Xiadong and the other two. Catching on immediately, the three of them lunged forward together, stripped the gang leader bare, and used his own phone to snap dozens of embarrassing photographs.

Then Liu Sheng instructed Ren Xiadong, "Post them on his Moments, give everyone a nice little treat."

Laughing heartily at the suggestion, Ren Xiadong pointed at Liu Sheng and said, "Damn it, you really know how to have fun. Let's do it your way."

Ren Xiadong tapped away on the leader's phone for a good while, broadcasting the photos not just on his WeChat Moments, but blasting them across every group chat the leader belonged to.

Moments later, the gang leader's phone began to buzz incessantly with likes and comments. Someone even left a comment remarking on how remarkably white the leader's buttocks were.

Liu Sheng then casually asked the humiliated leader, "Who's your boss?"

The leader stammered, "I don't have a boss. We're just a bunch of unemployed layabouts who banded together to shake people down for protection money and pull off petty crimes. The three guys who got beaten up happen to be the second, third, and fourth in command of our gang, which is why I brought so many men out to avenge them."

"Holy crap, you guys actually consider yourselves a gang? Impressive, you guys know how to live it up!"

At that, Liu Sheng's expression shifted as a new thought crossed his mind. He continued, "I sentence you all to sweep the streets for a month. If I don't see your faces out there during this month, I'll execute every last one of you! Especially you—if you don't show up, you're all dead meat."

The gang leader was deeply resentful of the demand, still bristling with defiance. Just because Liu Sheng had a gun, did he deserve to suffer such utter humiliation?

Sensing the leader's lingering disobedience, Liu Sheng raised his gun and casually shot dead one of the motionless hoodlums lying on the ground. The sudden execution stunned the gang leader into absolute terror; he finally understood that Liu Sheng's group was fully capable of murder.

"Did you really think I was just messing around with you?"

Hearing those words and staring at the dead man on the pavement, the gang leader blurted out in a panic, "Understood, understood! Starting tomorrow, I'll be out on the streets right on time. You have my word."

Nodding in satisfaction, Liu Sheng commanded, "Vanish immediately, before I lose control and start shooting again!"

Terrified, the gang leader scrambled to his feet to run away, but Liu Sheng barked, "Wait!"

Thinking Liu Sheng had changed his mind, the leader dropped back to his knees and begged for mercy, "Grandpa, please spare my life! I genuinely know I was wrong!"

"I want you to take your number two, three, four—whatever numbers they are—and carry them away with you. It hurts my eyes to look at them!"

After the entire mob had scattered, Old Jiu complained resentfully, "Damn it, how did you two manage to bring guns out without thinking of bringing one for me? I wanted to have some fun too."

Liu Sheng felt a complex wave of emotion washing over him. Ren Xiadong, Old Jiu, and Xiaojia were originally just ordinary students, yet he had dragged them down this irreversible path—and somehow, they were all starting to enjoy it more and more.