Chapter 161: If You Can't Hold On, Just Surrender

At this moment, it was right around lunchtime, and the Red Forest Restaurant was packed with customers at almost every table.

The commotion over here drew the attention of many onlookers, who craned their necks to watch the spectacle.

The head of the Liu family passionately belting out "Only Mother is Good in This World" made for a genuinely entertaining lunch show.

Quite a few people were also secretly marveling inwardly, wondering just who that impossibly attractive pair of mother and son could possibly be.

Not a single one of the hundreds of security guards brought by Liu Jinlong dared to bare their teeth; they could only stand by helplessly and watch as their boss's dignity was trampled upon the ground.

The news that the Liu family had recently fallen from grace and been replaced by the Ye family had already spread far and wide across Capital City, but no one could have imagined that the disparity in status between the two would be so shockingly vast!

How glorious and arrogant the Liu family used to be!

And now, both father and son were acting like well-behaved babies—told to eat a shoe, they ate a shoe; told to sing a song, they sang a song.

They had completely lost all face!

Liu Jinlong had been singing for roughly half an hour by now.

Lu Ye finished his meal in a leisurely manner, picked up a napkin to wipe his mouth, and said, "Stop."

"Liu Jinlong, take your spoiled brat home and discipline him properly. Remember not to bounce around in front of me ever again, and don't even think about doing it in front of my Uncle Ye or little Qiu."

Liu Jinlong bowed repeatedly with a ingratiating, flattering smile. "Yes, yes, yes, I understand!"

"When I get back, I'll definitely deal with this little bastard severely!"

With that, he twisted Liu Jia's ear and was about to make a panicked escape...

Suddenly, a young man strode into the Red Forest Restaurant, blocking their path. Pointing straight at Lu Ye, he laughed with a hint of mockery, "Even if you are from the Martial Arts Lu Family, isn't it going a bit too far to bully people like this?"

Liu Jia exclaimed in surprise, "Young Master Ma, why are you here?"

Ye Qiu glanced at him, then whispered to Lu Ye, "It's Ma Juncai, the son of Capital City's richest man, Ma Fuyun."

Lu Ye nodded slightly.

He had long since asked Zhou Tao to investigate all the first and second-tier aristocratic families in Capital City, so he was thoroughly familiar with the situation of the Ma family.

They had made their fortune in the internet industry. The founder of the household-name Taobei Network was none other than Ma Fuyun, who sat on a fortune of hundreds of billions.

Moreover, Ma Fuyun was the son-in-law of the Qing family.

The newly emerged tenth-rank master, Qing Zong, was precisely Ma Juncai's maternal uncle. Naturally, the Ma family did not hold the same fear of martial arts families as other merchant clans did.

Judging by the current situation, Ma Juncai seemed intent on standing up for Liu Jia.

Sure enough, he walked straight up to Lu Ye and Cheng Qimeng, offering a disdainful sneer. "Your Lu family is a shadow of its former self. Did you really think everyone could just let you push them around however you please?"

"My cousin Qing Zong is going to march on the Lu family very soon, and when that time comes, your Lu family will have to bow down and submit to us!"

Cheng Qimeng chuckled. "What kind of stinky fish and rotten shrimp is Qing Zong? He won't even be able to cross the threshold of the Lu family!"

Ma Juncai was slightly taken aback, and then roared furiously, "Daydreaming! My uncle is already a tenth-rank master, while your Lu family doesn't even have a single tenth-rank! What do you have to defend yourselves?"

"Why don't you have him go and try? Let's see if Lu Yuqing doesn't beat him black and blue all over the floor."

Ma Juncai was so angry he laughed. He clenched his teeth and nodded, "Fine! I'll pass your words along word for word to my cousin!"

With that, he turned to face Liu Jinlong and his son, asking, "Do you guys want payback for this humiliation?"

Liu Jinlong and Liu Jia were immediately caught in a dilemma...

They knew nothing about the intricate entanglements within the martial arts clans; they only knew that both the Lu family and the Qing family were behemoths they couldn't afford to offend!

After hesitating for a few seconds.

Liu Jinlong said, "I do!"

Liu Jia said, "I don't!"

Ma Juncai barked, "Do you want to or not?"

Liu Jinlong: "I don't!"

Liu Jia: "I do..."

Several dark lines appeared on Ma Juncai's forehead as he yelled, "What the hell is wrong with you two!"

Deciding to drop the question altogether, he threw out his conditions directly: "Let me acquire your Liu Group entirely, and I'll help you get your revenge. How about that?"

Liu Jia just opened his mouth to speak, but Liu Jinlong immediately slapped his hand over his son's mouth.

Gritting his teeth, Liu Jinlong said, "I'm sorry, Young Master Ma, but I'd rather die than sell the Liu Group!"

He wasn't stupid...

What if, after Ma Juncai acquired the Liu Group, the Qing family behind him still couldn't defeat the Lu family? Wouldn't he suffer a catastrophic loss then?

Having his face slapped in public naturally displeased Ma Juncai.

So he dropped a harsh parting threat: "Very well, I hope you don't regret this!"

Following that, Ma Juncai made a phone call on the spot to Qing Zong: "Uncle, when do you plan to set off to challenge the Lu family?"

On the other end of the line, Qing Zong replied, "Three days from now. Why?"

Staring at Lu Ye and Cheng Qimeng with a playful smile, Ma Juncai snitched, "I just ran into Lu Yuqing's wife and son."

"They think you won't even be able to get past the front door of the Lu family, and they even said Lu Yuqing will beat you black and blue all over the floor!"

With that, he pressed the speakerphone button.

Qing Zong's roar instantly erupted from the phone: "What? Lu Yuqing is nothing more than a trashy ninth-rank! How dare they be so arrogant?"

"Don't you worry, nephew, your uncle is going to tear the Lu family down to the ground in three days!"

"Great, my uncle is invincible!"

Hanging up the phone, Ma Juncai laughed frantically. "You heard it all, didn't you? In my uncle's eyes, Lu Yuqing is just trash! There's no telling who will be the one beaten black and blue by then—if you don't believe me, let's wait and see!"

However, Cheng Qimeng merely flashed an eerie smile and actually said "Thank you" to Ma Juncai.

Ma Juncai was completely dumbfounded...

I'm sending someone to kick down your door and beat up your husband, and you're actually thanking me?

Are you out of your mind?

Before he could even react, the group had already stood up, paid their bill, and left the Red Forest Restaurant.

Chen Xi and the others finished the paperwork, drove over to pick up Lu Ye and Cheng Qimeng, and headed straight to the airport to return to Mingzhu City.

On the airplane.

Lu Ye chuckled under his breath and asked, "Mom, it looks like the old man is really going to suffer this time!"

How could he not tell?

Everything Cheng Qimeng had said to Ma Juncai was deliberately intended to provoke the other party, and she had done it entirely under the banner of the Lu family.

Lu Yuqing had truly experienced disaster striking while sitting quietly at home.

Had it been a normal martial arts challenge, Qing Zong might have held back a fraction of his strength so as not to severely injure Lu Yuqing.

However, Cheng Qimeng had unceremoniously torn down all pretense of civility on his behalf. When Qing Zong went to challenge Lu Yuqing with a belly full of pent-up rage, could he possibly expect a pleasant outcome?

"He deserves it!"

Cheng Qimeng instructed him earnestly, "Son, you must remember this."

"Women are the most vengeful creatures in this world. You must never mistreat Qianqian in the future."

Lu Ye's mouth twitched slightly as he muttered softly, "Actually, I've already learned that the hard way. Before you came back, she used older sister to put me in my place plenty of times!"

Cheng Qimeng smiled faintly, something she hadn't expected.

On the evening of two days later.

Unsurprisingly, Lu Yuqing called Lu Ye to ask for reinforcements.

"You brat, you must have caught wind of it by now, right?"

Lu Ye feigned ignorance. "What wind?"

"Don't play dumb with your old man. You're the captain of the Vigilantes; could you possibly not know when something this big happens to the Lu family?"

Lu Ye replied, "I resigned, didn't I? Now I'm a full-time kept man eating soft rice at home. I genuinely have no idea what happened to the Lu family!"

Lu Yuqing was momentarily choked for words, but ultimately swallowed his pride. "A tenth-rank master has appeared from the Qing family, and tomorrow he's coming to challenge our Lu family. I can't hold my ground against him!"

"You can't hold your ground... If you can't hold it, just surrender. What's the use of calling me?"

Lu Yuqing cursed angrily, "You brat, I'm your father!"

"I'm ordering you to come back to the Lu family tomorrow and help guard the arena!"

Lu Ye chuckled cheekily, "If you can convince my mom, I'll go back."

Lu Yuqing drew in a sharp breath. "Hisss! She's back?"

Suppressing a smile, Lu Ye nodded. "Mm-hmm!"

"Never mind then, I might as well just surrender directly tomorrow!"

"What the hell! Old Lu, did you leave your spine behind in Mingzhu City and forget to bring it back to the Lu family?"

Lu Yuqing whined pitifully, "What can I do? If your mother decides to punish me, her methods will probably be even more ruthless than Qing Zong's!"

Beep, beep, beep...

With that, he hung up the phone straight away.

Lu Ye had assumed they would just have to leave the old man to fend for himself this time.

However, early the next morning, when Lu Ye and Su Qianqian got up and went downstairs, they saw that Cheng Qimeng had already prepared breakfast and luggage, looking all set to go out.

Lu Ye asked, "Mom, where are you going?"

Cheng Qimeng snorted, "Going to the Lu family to watch the show. You two are coming with me, and by the way, I'm taking Qianqian to meet that so-called grandfather of yours."

Although the older generation of the Lu family had cold and distant familial ties, returning to one's ancestral roots was, after all, a matter of paramount importance in life. Unruly as Cheng Qimeng was, she could not ignore this fact.

Lu Ye was momentarily stunned, then nodded with a grin. "You got it!"