Chapter 51: HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT ME BY HITTING MY PERSON

He walked out before anyone finished processing that.

In the elevator he called Zhang Wei.

"Call Tzu and Shu. Tell them to meet me at the city court. Now."

"Is everything—"

"Now, Zhang Wei."

Wang Chengli had positioned himself between the Liao family and the exit with the composed immovability of someone who had been asked to keep them there and intended to do exactly that.

"I strongly suggest you remain where you are," he said, when Liao Changsheng’s father attempted to step around him.

"Get out of our way," the man said. "Before I have you removed."

"You are welcome to try," Wang Chengli said pleasantly, but did not move.

The Liaos had begun to understand, somewhere in the last ten minutes, that something had shifted. That the young man they had slapped was not the nobody they had assumed.

That the woman documenting their names and faces on her phone was not someone to dismiss.

And this man who would not let them leave was considerably more than just someone who knew the young man.

Liao Changsheng’s mother was still talking but with considerably less volume than before.

Twenty minutes later a car pulled up.

Two men stepped out first.

They positioned themselves without being directed to.

Then Liuxian stepped out.

He was in his full work suit, tie straight. Anyone with functioning eyes could see he was furious.

Not the loud kind.

The kind that had gone so far past loud, it had become something else entirely.

He found Guiying first.

Mingzhu saw him coming and stepped back without being asked.

Liuxian stopped in front of Guiying and looked at his face.

The swelling already forming on the left side.

His expression did not change but something behind his eyes did, a single clean shift.

"Who," he said quietly, "ate a tiger’s gall and had the nerve to hit you?"

Guiying looked at him.

He didn’t want to say anything. Liuxian was already at a temperature that didn’t need more fuel and the situation was already complicated enough.

Liuxian looked at him, his expression was calm but they could all hear the anger in his voice.

This man was enraged, it was best to give him what he wanted before it got out of hand.

Guiying pointed at the Liaos, who had shirked to a corner trying to make their presence less.

Liuxian nodded once.

He walked Guiying with him to where the Liaos were standing.

He looked at both of them for a moment with the unhurried assessment of a man who had already decided the outcome.

Then he looked at Guiying.

"Slap them back," he said.

The courtyard went very quiet.

"How dare you—" Liao Changsheng’s father started.

"How dare you disrespect me by hitting my person?" Liuxian said. His voice was still quiet. "If he won’t do it, I’ll do it for him." He turned his head slightly. "Tzu. Shu.."

Piak!

Piak!

One each. Clean, unhesitating and without mercy.

Liao Changsheng’s mother let out a sound.

His father’s head snapped to the side.

The courtyard was silent.

"As for your son." Liuxian said, looking at them both, "I can guarantee he won’t be leaving that cell anytime soon. He will never step out of that prison cell for as long as I, Liu Liuxian, is alive."

He turned to Bai Feng, disappointment written all over his face.

"You told me nothing would happen to him," he said. "I trusted you with that."

Bai Feng held his gaze. "You’re right. I take full responsibility."

Liuxian looked at him for a moment.

Then he turned to Guiying.

"And you," he said, "are in a great deal of trouble."

Zi Sihan stepped forward immediately, his daughter still at his side, and bowed deeply.

"It was my fault," he said. "XiaoYu got hurt because of my situation. I’m truly sorry."

Guiying looked at him and shook his head.

"Don’t," he said. "Don’t let this ruin your day. Go home. Live well with your daughter." He held Zi Sihan’s gaze. "You’ve earned it. I’ll be fine."

Zi Sihan looked at him for a moment. Then he nodded, slowly, though his expression was still solemn.

Guiying turned to Bai Feng and Mingzhu.

Mingzhu squeezed his hand once, briefly, without words before letting go.

He waved them both goodbye.

Then he reached out and took Liuxian’s hand, lacing their fingers together.

"I’m sorry this happened." he said quietly. "Let’s leave first."

Liuxian looked at their joined hands.

Then he looked at Guiying’s face, at the swelling that was going to be worse by morning.

He said nothing.

He tightened his grip and walked them both to the car.

The car was quiet. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Zhang Wei, who had materialized at the courthouse, didn’t say a single word; he didn’t want Liuxian’s anger to be passed to him.

Guiying sat in the backseat beside Liuxian and looked out the window.

He could feel it.

The anger sitting in the space between them, contained and precise, the way Liuxian’s anger always was.

Not loud or sprawling.

Just present, pressing against the air like something looking for a way out.

He didn’t understand it.

Getting slapped was not a new experience.

It was not even a particularly remarkable one by the standards of his life. He had been hit harder, by people who meant it more, in rooms with no witnesses and no consequences.

Two slaps from an old woman and her husband on the steps of a courthouse in broad daylight, was not something that required this level of response.

So why did Liuxian look like it was his own face that had been hit?

"Why would you stand there and let them hit you?"

Guiying turned from the window.

"I didn’t let them." he said. "It happened so fast. I didn’t see it coming."

"You should have moved."

"I was in the middle of a sentence."

"You should have moved," Liuxian said again. His voice was even but the evenness was doing a lot of work.

Guiying looked at him.

"Getting slapped doesn’t really affect me," he said. "This level of pain is nothing."

The car was quiet for a moment.

"How can you say that," Liuxian said.

"Because it’s true."

"Xue Guiying." His voice dropped. "Are you trying to piss me off?"

"I’m trying to tell you the truth," Guiying said. "Getting hit is not a significant event for me. It’s not something you need to—"