Chapter 359 — Beaten for Nothing

Who was Li Cihua, after all? There was no way a man whose nose had just been bloodied by a punch would simply let the matter drop.

"Young Master An, about what happened earlier, I can only apologize. I hope you won't hold it against me — though as you can see, I've ended up in this state myself!" Li Cihua pointed at his face and gave a shrug. The power behind Li Cihua was hardly weak, but the An family behind An Liwen was no weakling either — and now there was Su Taizao's Su family on top of that. There was all the less reason for Li Cihua to make new enemies, especially since the two of them had never been enemies to begin with; they were supposed to be partners. Everything that had happened was the work of that bastard Wei Zhao!

"It's fine!" An Liwen waved a hand. A true man bends and stretches as the occasion demands, and he knew perfectly well that today's business was not Li Cihua's fault. If there was anyone to blame, it was Wei Zhao — the man was simply beyond rotten.

Su Taizao, however, was rather indignant. Yes, Wei Zhao had started all this, but that was no reason to go beating people senseless without so much as a by-your-leave. Besides, he had never even heard the name Li Cihua before — who knew what sort of nobody this fellow was?

But seeing that even An Liwen had let it go, he could hardly keep complaining, so he simply sat off to one side in a huff. At least the beating had not been too severe; his face had merely been turned into a pig's head.

"Xuexue, Huahua, go keep this Young Master Su company and cool his temper for him!" Li Cihua had read the resentment in Su Taizao's heart and beckoned to the twin top girls, gesturing for them to attend to Su Taizao.

Pig's head or not, Xuexue and Huahua were no fools. They knew this man had status — anyone who could sit as an equal with Li Cihua was no simple matter.

And true, he was a pig's head now, but when he had first walked in he had been quite the handsome fellow. Keeping him company was no loss to them.

"Young Master Su…" Two swaying, alluring figures closed in around Su Taizao. He had been full of grievance, but now that Li Cihua had yielded both top girls to him, the resentment in his heart vanished clean away in an instant.

He was not a man of much guile. The purpose of his visit to the private room this time had simply been to snatch the women, and now that the purpose had been achieved, he had face! Since Li Cihua had been so sensible as to give him face, Su Taizao naturally had nothing more to say. Happily, he threw his arms around the two top girls and headed into the resting room in the inner part of the private room.

Li Cihua smiled faintly. He understood well enough what Su Taizao was thinking, but he did not take the man seriously in the least. The one he truly valued was An Liwen — the man who could bring him profit.

"Young Master An, forgive my bluntness, but why did you invite Wei Zhao to dinner? Are you and he friends?" Li Cihua first had to get clear on the relationship between An Liwen and Wei Zhao. True, he had seen with his own eyes how furious An Liwen was after Wei Zhao had set him up, but that was only on the surface. Who knew whether there might not be some deeper connection between them?

He himself was about to enter into a partnership with An Liwen. If An Liwen and Wei Zhao really were friends, then this partnership would likely go nowhere.

"Friends?" An Liwen gave a cold laugh. "More like rivals in love."

"Oh?" Li Cihua narrowed his eyes. He had caught a useful piece of information. "No wonder he set you two up!"

"I underestimated the brat's intelligence. It seems he knew all along that I meant him no good. He came, ate a meal at my expense, and then left a trap for me!" An Liwen said furiously. "Brother Cihua, you and Wei Zhao…"

"Wei Zhao is Gu Mengyao's close guard. We wanted to kidnap Gu Mengyao at the time to achieve certain ends, and Wei Zhao ruined it," Li Cihua said lightly. Naturally, he would not admit to something as shameful as the loss of two skilled Yellow-Rank men, and the plan had failed anyway. Jin Gubang had also lost his qualification to move against Gu Pengzhan, and Li Cihua could not be bothered to go making trouble for Gu Mengyao again. But this score with Wei Zhao — that he could not leave unsettled.

"Oh? Wei Zhao really is Gu Mengyao's close guard?" An Liwen was taken aback. He had suspected as much before, but if Wei Zhao really was Gu Mengyao's close guard, then he still had a very good chance!

"I used to think there was something ambiguous between him and Gu Mengyao, but later I found that his relationship with that Shen Yushu seemed a bit closer…" Li Cihua was speaking of the amusement park affair — Wei Zhao had actually risked his life to jump into the sea alongside Shen Yushu, which had made Li Cihua a little suspicious.

"Shen Yushu? Ha, that's wonderful!" Hearing Li Cihua's words, An Liwen quite lost his composure for a moment. But no wonder — before, he had schemed so hard to make trouble for Wei Zhao precisely because he had heard the man was Gu Mengyao's boyfriend. Now that it was confirmed he was not, An Liwen felt thoroughly pleased.

"What, Young Master An — the girl you have your eye on wouldn't happen to be Gu Mengyao, would it?" Li Cihua had caught the hint as well.

"You must think me a fool, Brother Cihua. Yaoyao and I are childhood sweethearts — we grew up together." An Liwen nodded. "When I returned to the country this time, I suddenly found Wei Zhao appearing at Gu Mengyao's side, so I took him out to sound him out."

"That young man is no simple sort. Even if he is only a close guard, you would do well to watch your back around him!" Li Cihua offered the reminder. He did not mind using the occasion to sow discord and let An Liwen have a go at Wei Zhao too.

"I will." An Liwen nodded. "Brother Cihua, you were going to move against Gu Mengyao?"

"That's all in the past. That plan was terminated too, so you needn't worry." Li Cihua smiled. "And even if it hadn't been, for Young Master An's sake, I couldn't very well go through with it now!"

"Then I'll have to thank Brother Cihua for that!" An Liwen was quite pleased with Li Cihua's attitude. Though the two of them had clashed at first, that had only been because of Wei Zhao; now that everything had been aired out, An Liwen still intended to work with Li Cihua.

"Young Master An, you might say we've come to know each other through our little scrap. You and I are both straightforward men, so if there's anything on your mind, just say it." Li Cihua smiled and poured An Liwen a glass of red wine.

Thanks to their earlier misunderstanding, the two of them were able to skip all the usual pleasantries and probing, the push-and-pull of feeling each other out, and went straight to the heart of the matter.

An Liwen glanced at the private room in the back, where Su Taizao was, then looked at the several men standing beside Li Cihua. He hesitated, the words dying on his lips.

Li Cihua smiled faintly, naturally understanding what An Liwen meant. He waved a hand at his several bodyguards and said, "You men, step outside for now!"

"Yes, sir!" Without a word, the bodyguards filed out of the room, pulled the door firmly shut behind them, and took up their posts just outside.

"This one's our own man!" Li Cihua gestured toward Su Jiaonang and said, "Su Jiaonang, my trusted aide!"