Ye Chen glanced at Tang Ao.
Could it be him?
Impossible!
Though the Tang family was wealthy, the Li family had always been proud and disdainful of nouveau riche like them. In terms of power and heritage, the Tang family was leagues behind the deeply rooted Li family. There was no way someone like Tang Ao would be honored with such a grand reception.
But then again, there hadn't been any news of a major figure arriving in this small city of Longquan recently.
Looking at the disdain on the Li family members' faces, Ye Chen was fuming with rage. "Who is it!? Tell me, or I, Ye Chen, will wait here until your so-called important guest who dislikes me shows up!"
"Ye Chen, you swindled more than seven million from my Li family, and we haven't even come after you to settle the score. Our polite request for you to leave was already a mercy, yet now you dare to question us? Do you think we're some nameless small family? With your mediocre skills... our family elder could sneeze, and you'd be flat on the ground, groveling. And you have the nerve to act like a hooligan at our doorstep... Do you deserve this?"
Ye Chen felt like a balloon filled with too much air, ready to burst at any moment. "Fine! Li family! Very well! I, Ye Chen, demand a name. Tell me who I've lost to!"
Li Yifeng glanced at Ye Chen with contempt. His performance had been shocking.
For someone who held the title of Dragon King in Dragon King's Hall, Ye Chen was not only arrogant but also far too impatient, lacking any sense of composure. Such a person couldn't achieve great things.
Li Yifeng couldn't understand how someone like Ye Chen had ever risen to the position of Dragon King in the first place. It seemed his reputation was entirely unfounded.
"Very well... let me fulfill your request." Without even looking at Ye Chen, Li Yifeng clasped his hands together in a formal gesture and bowed in the direction where Tang Ao stood.
The entire Li family followed suit, bowing in unison.
Ye Chen turned his head, his eyes wide with disbelief. In the direction the Li family was bowing... there was only Tang Ao and Zhou Qiao'er!
Ye Chen was livid. "Are you mocking me? There's no one over there!"
Zhou Qiao'er, seeing Tang Ao's confused expression, had already pieced things together.
The esteemed guest the Li family had mentioned...
It had to be Tang Ao.
A woman's intuition told her that this had something to do with Tang Ao's childhood friend, Li Shiyun!
A deep sense of unease crept into Zhou Qiao'er's heart.
She still vividly remembered how determined Li Shiyun had been when she presented her marriage certificate to Tang Ao's parents the previous day.
At the same time, Tang Ao stared at the bowing Li family members, then quickly turned to Zhou Qiao'er.
[What the hell!? There's no one here besides me and Zhou Qiao'er!]
[I'm just a rich kid, morally bankrupt and utterly depraved. There's no way they're doing this for me. The only other person here is Zhou Qiao'er!]
[Wait... could it be that someone in the Li family has taken a liking to Zhou Qiao'er? Since when did she have such sway with the Li family? I don't remember this part in the storyline!]
Zhou Qiao'er looked at Tang Ao and couldn't help but roll her eyes.
To the Li family, both the Tang and Zhou families were just nouveau riche, upstarts they couldn't care less about. Even if Zhou Qiao'er's father were here in person, there's no way the Li family would go to such lengths.
Zhou Qiao'er almost wanted to shake Tang Ao and tell him to stop underestimating himself. The Li family was clearly bowing to him.
"Mr. Tang Ao, please stop watching the show. My Li family has been waiting for you for quite some time!"
[What's going on!?]
[Seriously, what's going on here!?]
[Are they kidding me?]
Tang Ao was utterly stunned.
[How could someone like me deserve such an extravagant reception from the Li family!?]
[This has to be a mistake. I'm sure this part wasn't in the storyline!]
"Tang Ao!!!"
Ye Chen threw his head back and roared in anguish. He pounded his chest and stomped his feet, his face turning ghostly pale as he struggled to catch his breath.
'Pfft~'
In front of everyone, Ye Chen coughed up a mouthful of blood, splattering it on the ground. His body suddenly looked frail, his skin sickly white as if he was suffering from a terminal illness, his body trembling as if a light breeze could knock him over.
"Good! Very good! Tang Ao, you've really done it this time. Remember this! All of you, remember this humiliation today. I, Ye Chen, swear to return this disgrace a hundredfold in the future!"
After his tirade, Ye Chen pulled out a teapot worth three billion yuan from his pocket. "This was supposed to be my gift to the Li family elder—a rare treasure I bought for three billion yuan!"
Rather be broken than remain whole!
Better to shatter my own loss than to let others profit!
Ye Chen had already made up his mind. He would harm himself to spite his enemy!
With those words, Ye Chen hurled the teapot to the ground, smashing it into pieces.
Watching the teapot shatter into fragments, Tang Ao felt a sharp pang in his chest.
That wasn't just a teapot breaking—that was cold, hard cash being obliterated!
Three billion yuan!
That wasn't just three bucks; it was a whole three billion!!!
The Li family members were equally stunned, with many showing expressions of regret.
As a martial family, the Li family rarely involved itself in worldly affairs, and thus their financial situation wasn't exactly abundant.
All the members of the Li family were martial artists, and when it came to making money... let's just say they were utterly clueless. In recent years, they had mainly relied on the family's rich legacy and the prestige of the family elder to attract wealthy individuals eager to learn martial arts, charging them tuition fees. That had become the Li family's primary source of income!
The millions they had invested and lost in Zhou's Miracle Medicine yesterday had been their savings for several years!
Three billion yuan... would have covered all the Li family's expenses for the next ten years!
If they had let Ye Chen inside, the three-billion-yuan teapot would have naturally been given to the Li family elder!
Li Yifeng's expression showed a tinge of regret, but he remained firm. "Mr. Ye Chen, please step aside. Don't block the path of our esteemed guest, Mr. Tang Ao."
Li Yifeng's words were like gasoline poured onto the fire already blazing in Ye Chen's heart. His fury intensified.
Especially the part where Li Yifeng said, "Don't block the path of our esteemed guest, Mr. Tang Ao." It was enough to make Ye Chen feel like his entire body was about to explode. He lost all sense of reason, pulling out a pair of tea pets worth five billion yuan:
"These are white jade dragon and phoenix tea pets, used by royalty over a thousand years ago, worth five billion yuan. They were also intended as gifts for the Li family elder!"
With that, Ye Chen tossed the tea pets into the air and, with all his strength, crushed them to dust with a single punch!
Gasp!
Some of the Li family members audibly gasped.
Li Yifeng's face darkened.
Ye Chen's actions were practically placing the family patriarch, Li Yifeng, in a tight spot.
It was clear that Ye Chen was saying the Li family had suffered a loss of eight billion yuan purely because they had chosen to side with Tang Ao and reject him.
Eight billion!
Even the Li family, including Li Yifeng himself, couldn't help but feel a bit envious.
After all...
It was eight billion with no strings attached!
Ye Chen's outburst had undoubtedly stirred some resentment among the Li family members, who would now blame Li Yifeng for the loss. If the Li family faced any financial difficulties in the future...
Today's events would be used as an excuse to attack Li Yifeng.
Tang Ao, meanwhile, was in a state of shock:
[Wow, the protagonist really knows how to throw money around. Eight billion, gone just like that!]
[The Li family must be regretting their decision now. Even in a situation like this, the protagonist always finds a way to turn things around!]
"Wait a moment!" At this critical moment, Zhou Qiao'er's eyes gleamed as she stepped forward and loudly declared, "My fiancé Tang Ao and I have also prepared a small gift for the Li family elder!"
The phrase 'my fiancé Tang Ao' was emphasized particularly heavily by Zhou Qiao'er!