After Jiang Cheng left, the others dispersed.
Although they'd kept eating, drinking, and joking as usual, no different from any other day,
each of them was secretly turning very different thoughts over in his mind.
Once they parted, they couldn't help but tap the forces behind them to dig up the full story of today's incident.
Qi Yuan and Wang Congcong were fine—they'd already lived through the Wang Hao affair, so today's events still left them some buffer.
But Qin Fen, Wang Zheng, and Chen Hao were seeing, for the first time, the power Jiang Cheng had kept hidden behind him.
Right now each of them felt a different degree of shock and dread.
Very quickly they found out about the grudge between Jiang Cheng and Hao Liang.
After reading how things had played out, the three of them were even more stunned.
The clash between the two men had lasted only three days.
And Jiang Cheng's final counterstrike had taken just a few hours to finish Hao Liang off completely.
What made them even warier was that, although the affair had a few loose ends, every one of them had been neatly tied up.
There was simply no direct evidence that could point to Jiang Cheng.
In the hotel suite Chen Hao asked gravely, "All three of us got basically the same intel, so the story must be true. Brother Qin, Brother Wang—what do you make of it?"
Wang Zheng shook his head. "I don't know. The power behind Jiang Cheng is more complicated and stronger than I thought. When he shorted the us stock market I already realized he wasn't simple, but his reach is even bigger than I imagined. Honestly, if it had been any one of us three instead of him, could we have done the same?"
Chen Hao shook his head. "I definitely couldn't. At most I could get my family to force his out of Shanghai, but everything after that—I really couldn't pull it off."
It was only natural they feared Jiang Cheng; having someone so resourceful and ruthless beside you is terrifying.
People tread on eggshells around a man like that, afraid that one slip might get them erased.
After all, the resources in Jiang Cheng's hands were far greater than they'd imagined.
With their own strength, taking someone out would take at least some time, right?
They'd need a meticulous plan, at the very least.
But Jiang Cheng's method had been brutally simple.
In such a short window he'd struck back and flipped the revenge attempt onto his enemy.
There were holes, but he clearly didn't care; that could only mean one thing—he was supremely confident in his own power.
A man like that is downright terrifying.
Seeing Qin Fen lower his head and smoke as if none of it mattered, the two of them pressed, "Brother Qin, you've got more experience with this sort of thing—give us your take."
Qin Fen lifted his head and rolled his eyes. "Don't put words in my mouth. This isn't a joking matter; I'm a law-abiding citizen—clean as a whistle."
Realizing he'd misspoken, Wang Zheng immediately apologized sincerely. "Right, right, my mouth runs ahead of my brain. I was wrong—sorry."
"Old Wang, you've just had too much tonight," Chen Hao said, smoothing things over.
Qin Fen waved them off. "All right, I know what you mean. Sit down first."
Once Wang Zheng sat he said again, "It just gives me the creeps, Brother Qin. Don't you have any worries? Even though we're on good terms right now."
Qin Fen shook his head. "Why overthink it? You know how it went—Hao Liang started it. Besides, Jiang Cheng didn't go for the kill at first; he only meant to teach him a lesson."
"But in the parking garage Hao Liang struck first. Tell me—if it were you and someone messed with your car trying to kill you, what would you do?"
Qin Fen's question silenced them.
They'd been so shocked by Jiang Cheng's display of strength that they hadn't analyzed the cause and effect behind the incident.
As Qin Fen said, in that situation they'd want to hack the guy to pieces themselves.
If they had Jiang Cheng's kind of power they'd probably retaliate the same way.
Seeing them speechless, Qin Fen exhaled a smoke ring and added, "If you don't pull up the roots, the weeds grow back. I'd do the same. From the moment he made the first move he had no right to blame anyone else."
Qin Fen had seen plenty of the dark side growing up; in his mind Jiang Cheng was the victim.
Everything Jiang Cheng had done was simply a normal counterattack.
After Qin Fen's analysis Wang Zheng finally relaxed.
He nodded in agreement and piled on the praise. "As expected of Brother Qin, seeing things from the root—awesome."
Chen Hao concurred. "Brother Qin's right. Looking at it that way, we were over-thinking it. Old Jiang really is solid—worth befriending, and on top of that he's a heavyweight."
"I just like dealing with people like him—powerful background, easy-going nature. If Hao Liang hadn't kept pushing, Jiang Cheng wouldn't have hit back."
"In the end he brought it on himself. I know what you two are worried about. Even if things go sour with him later, as long as we don't pick a fight Jiang Cheng won't wipe us out—provided, of course, we don't pick a fight."
Meeting Qin Fen's warning gaze, Wang Zheng and Chen Hao both nodded.
Qin Fen had the most complicated background of the three, and he saw things most clearly.
"Got it. With Brother Qin saying that, I can go party tonight without worries."
"I definitely won't be stupid enough to stir things up. I feel safe following you big shots—ha-ha."
While the three of them held their late-night meeting, Wang Congcong and Qi Yuan stayed perfectly calm.
They didn't even bother to ask around; they already knew Jiang Cheng's real background.
A strike that hits the vitals without leaving a flaw—what's so surprising about that?
…The next day Qiao Yinyin woke up before Jiang Cheng and saw it was already eleven a.m.
She mischievously took the ends of her hair and drew circles on Jiang Cheng's face.
When Jiang Cheng opened his eyes, Qiao Yinyin beamed sweetly. "Hubby, stop sleeping—I'm starving~~"
Jiang Cheng caught her restless little hand.
Then he looked at the two big softballs squeezed into half-moons.
Jiang Cheng only wanted to ask: first thing in the morning and you show me this?