Chapter Twenty-Seven: Thoughts

“What’s going on?”
“Why did it suddenly get dark?”
“Could it be a power outage?”
The room was abruptly plunged into darkness.
There was no panic, but the already tense atmosphere seemed to freeze for a moment, and even the oppressive aura that Feng Zhenghao had radiated vanished.
“We’re... saved.”
As the pressure around him dissipated, Zhang Chulan wiped the sweat from his brow, relief welling up inside him.
If not for this unexpected darkness, he truly wouldn’t have known how to face someone as formidable as Feng Zhenghao. They weren’t even on the same level—resistance would have been pointless.
“At least things didn’t go completely wrong.”
As this thought crossed Zhang Chulan’s mind, Feng Zhenghao’s voice sounded again in the darkness, “Xingtong, go check the electrical room. See if the circuit breaker tripped.”
“Alright, Dad.”
Feng Xingtong pulled out her phone and, using its flashlight, hurried out. In less than a moment, the lights flickered back on in the room.
With the return of the light, the atmosphere was no longer quite so rigid.
Feng Zhenghao still stood in front of Zhang Chulan, but his expression had softened, colored now by a hint of inner conflict and a trace of resignation.
“Uncle Feng, a little scare is enough. Were you really planning to keep them both here? If you did, wouldn’t Xu Si come after you with everything he’s got?”
Ye Yan, sensing Feng Zhenghao’s hesitation, yawned casually and offered him a way out.
At his words, Feng Zhenghao sighed, his features relaxing. “Enough. A melon forced from the vine is never sweet. I, Feng Zhenghao, have never liked making things difficult for others against their will. Chulan, take that girl and go.”
With that, he waved his hand.
“Huh?”
Zhang Chulan was momentarily stunned.
He hadn’t expected such a sudden turn of events.
“Thank you, Chairman Feng.”
Leaving these words behind, Zhang Chulan quickly turned and led Feng Baobao out. Before leaving, he shot Ye Yan a grateful glance.
Once the two had gone, Feng Zhenghao spoke again, “Ye, that sudden outage just now—was that your doing?”
“Yes,” Ye Yan replied openly, not bothering to hide it.
With someone as sharp as Feng Zhenghao, it was better to be straightforward than try to conceal such things.
Before coming upstairs, Ye Yan had left Jin Erpeng and Old Ma downstairs to help Little Star tidy up the mess.
It turned out to be perfect timing.
While Feng Zhenghao was furious, Ye Yan had used “mental transmission” to instruct Jin Erpeng to pull the circuit breaker, creating a brief pause for tempers to cool.

It seemed to have worked quite well.
“So, do you have some personal connection with them? Didn’t want me to harm those two kids?” Feng Zhenghao wasn’t angry; he smiled at Ye Yan as he asked.
“No.”
A good performance is part truth, part deception. Ye Yan shook his head, denying it.
“The main thing is, Zhang Chulan’s heart isn’t in our organization. Forcing him to stay would only make enemies with Quan Du Tong, and there’s simply no benefit to be gained…”
“Besides, you’ve just entered the Ten Elders, and the Xu family helped you get there. You can’t ignore that favor… So I figured you just wanted to give Zhang Chulan a little scare.”
“Of course, you might also have needed a way to step back gracefully, so I gave you the opportunity.”
“You sly fox…”
Feng Zhenghao laughed, leaning on his dragon-headed cane.
That was exactly what he’d intended. Even if Ye Yan hadn’t given him that way out today, he wouldn’t have done anything to Zhang Chulan or Feng Baobao.
First, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Second, the Xu family’s favor.
In his view, Ye Yan had simply gone along with the flow, giving him a suitable excuse.
“Heh.”
Ye Yan grinned, knowing the matter was settled.
I really do have a knack for being an undercover agent, he thought.
Just then, Feng Zhenghao sighed, “More than having Zhang Chulan join us, I wish you’d stay.”
Ye Yan: “…”
How did this end up about me?
Ye Yan felt a little awkward and, unsure how to respond, quickly changed the subject. “Uncle Feng, what about Jia Zhengyu?”
“Him…”
Feng Zhenghao glanced at Jia Zhengyu, who was lying sprawled on the floor, and sighed again. “Wake him up, I suppose… To get beaten up like this…”
“Alright.”
Ye Yan replied briskly, walked over, and patted Jia Zhengyu’s face to rouse him.
But before he’d barely touched him twice, a huge fist swung straight at Ye Yan—the attacker was none other than the freshly awakened Jia Zhengyu.
His first instinct upon waking was to swing at whoever was nearby, but Ye Yan dodged it easily with a nimble step back.
“Who… who ambushed me?”
After dodging, Ye Yan clicked his tongue and watched as Jia Zhengyu climbed to his feet, bristling with indignation.
Ye Yan rolled his eyes. “No one ambushed you. You’re the one who fights dirty, you know.”
“Where’s that woman?”
Ignoring Ye Yan, Jia Zhengyu scrambled up and looked around for Feng Baobao.
She was nowhere to be seen…
“She’s gone.”

The answer came from Feng Zhenghao, who, seeing the state of this newly-recruited member, tried to offer a few words of comfort to draw him in.
“Gone?”
Jia Zhengyu’s face shifted from pale to flushed.
“Who let her go?”
Having been so thoroughly humiliated by Feng Baobao, Jia Zhengyu was completely undone, his mind in a daze.
“I did.”
Feng Zhenghao leaned on his cane, his tone even.
But the next moment, Jia Zhengyu blurted out something that made Feng Zhenghao’s expression turn cold. “Go to hell, Feng Zhenghao!”
“…What?”
Ye Yan was stunned—he hadn’t expected Jia Zhengyu to lose his senses so completely, daring even to say that.
“Uncle Feng, should I take care of this?”
Ye Yan narrowed his eyes, asking quietly.
He still had a measure of respect for Feng Zhenghao.
“No need.”
Feng Zhenghao shook his head.
The next second, he flashed forward, his dragon-headed cane stabbing cleanly through Jia Zhengyu’s throat and out the back of his neck.
Jia Zhengyu’s eyes widened in shock and disbelief.
“Hmph!”
With a cold snort, Feng Zhenghao pulled the cane free and watched impassively as the body crumpled to the floor.
Ye Yan was not surprised by this scene.
In the world of the strange and gifted, few had hands free of blood.
Especially someone like Feng Zhenghao, who had built his vast enterprise from nothing—if there weren’t bones piling up behind him, no one would believe it.
Though he usually wore a genial smile, anyone who took him for softhearted would be making a grave mistake.
Seeing Jia Zhengyu collapse, Ye Yan wasted no words. He immediately summoned the Demon Banner, directing Lu Dashan and the others—professionals—to deal with the body.
If you want to be a good employee, an excellent one, you must understand your boss’s intentions.
Only with your boss’s trust can you slack off with impunity.
Ye Yan was not particularly talented, but he was a true expert at working nine-to-five without overtime.