Chapter 948: Chapter 944: Taking the Road Less Traveled
Because Sugai Yasuaki was different from the usual young masters from noble families. They thought that anyone who hit them was slapping their face; he was the opposite. He cared about reason, not people—right was right, wrong was wrong, absolutely fair and impartial.
This personality meant that anyone under him, whenever they did something, had to stand on the side of reason. His subordinates were much more disciplined than those of other powers’ young masters, which in turn won Sugai Yasuaki a pretty good reputation and public image!
The flip side was, once his men had the moral high ground, Sugai Yasuaki would throw his full support behind them, even more protective than other young masters over their own people. You could say he was a pretty qualified superior.
Of course, that didn’t mean Sugai Yasuaki would force his subordinates to death. In some finer details he’d turn a blind eye, as long as they didn’t go too far, or the matter didn’t reach his ears—normally he wouldn’t interfere much.
As for Masuda Ryosei, he’d already been entrenched in this area for years. Small fry couldn’t beat the big shots, and the real big shots didn’t even bother looking at this little patch of turf, so he’d managed to do quite well for himself here.
Especially after the news of Sugai Yasuaki’s royal marriage alliance came out, Masuda Ryosei felt even more confident. His previously restrained heart grew restless again, and he started planning to expand his territory.
However, he just happened to run into the iron wall that was Xiao Tian, and unsurprisingly ended up smashing his head bloody against it.
Masuda Ryosei knew full well that right now he wasn’t in the right, so there was no way he’d get Sugai Yasuaki’s support. On the contrary, he might have provoked a big shot and brought endless trouble down on himself.
Thinking of this, Masuda Ryosei immediately made a decision and said, "How about this, this meal is on me, and I can offer some compensation. Let’s just drop the matter, alright?"
Xiao Tian gave him a mocking look. "Aren’t you one of Sugai Yasuaki’s people? How come you don’t have even a shred of backbone? I’ll repeat myself: if Sugai Yasuaki doesn’t show up today, you’d better be ready to die here."
Masuda Ryosei’s tone turned chilling. "Are you really going to force this to the bitter end?!"
In his view, he’d already lowered himself enough. Besides, Xiao Tian hadn’t actually suffered any real loss from start to finish. To cling to the advantage like this and refuse to let go was just too much, downright bullying!
"You’re not still underage, are you?" Xiao Tian looked at Masuda Ryosei with contempt. "As an adult, you’re responsible for every word you say and everything you do. Since you provoked me, you have to bear the corresponding price!"
As he spoke, Xiao Tian’s tone suddenly turned icy to the extreme. "I’ll give you five minutes. Once five minutes are up, if Sugai Yasuaki doesn’t show up on time, I’ll kill you. You think I dare or don’t dare?!"
In an instant, Masuda Ryosei felt a wave of killing intent slam into him. A chill rose up his spine and spread all the way to his neck. Even though there wasn’t a knife pressed to his throat, he could still feel an icy cold there.
In this situation, Masuda Ryosei didn’t dare doubt the truth of Xiao Tian’s words in the slightest. He didn’t dare gamble his life on the chance that Xiao Tian wouldn’t kill him.
As they were speaking, the half-closed private room door was pushed open again. Five or six security guards holding rubber batons rushed in. When they saw the two bodyguards on the floor in such miserable shape, their hearts all started pounding wildly.
But there was nothing they could do about it; this was exactly the job they were paid for. On regular days with nothing going on, fine, but once something happened they had to step up. No boss would be dumb enough to pay for a batch of idlers.
Before long, a man who looked like a manager walked in. When he saw Masuda Ryosei sitting collapsed on the floor, his expression instantly turned flustered. He hurried over, wanting to help him up.
However, Masuda Ryosei’s mood was already terrible. He slapped away the hand the manager reached out and shoved him aside, snapping, "Take your people and get out. Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something important?"
The manager was dumbfounded on the spot. He really hadn’t seen anyone "talk business" like this before. His gaze swept around the room and he immediately had an idea of what was going on—looked like Masuda Ryosei had just eaten a loss.
That said, Masuda Ryosei usually threw his weight around like a tyrant, and this manager had suffered plenty under him. Although he was worried this might cause him trouble later, at least in this moment, he couldn’t help feeling a bit secretly pleased!
Silently sneering to himself that Masuda finally had his day, the manager also knew this wasn’t a place to linger. He quickly led the security guards out of the private room.
One of the security guards, worry written on his face, asked quietly, "Should we call the police?"
"Call my ass!" the manager shot back immediately, then added, "All of you go back and take a break."
The security guards were naturally happy to do so. One by one they slid their rubber batons back into the holsters at their sides, whispering among themselves about what was going on inside the private room.
...
Once that little episode was over, Xiao Tian lifted his wrist and glanced at the time, then said casually, "Three minutes left."
Masuda Ryosei couldn’t help blurting out in shock, "When did you start counting?"
Xiao Tian answered seriously, "From the moment I told you the five-minute limit. Actually, you just wasted another ten seconds talking. If you don’t care whether you live or die, I don’t mind."
In reality, Xiao Tian was of course just scaring Masuda Ryosei. Right now he was avoiding trouble as best he could; how could he possibly go out of his way to make some?
And the reason he was so intent on meeting Sugai Yasuaki was precisely because of Ozawa Miwa.
That kind, innocent little girl who managed to warn him at the critical moment had left a very good impression on Xiao Tian. Naturally, he didn’t want Ozawa Miwa to end up marrying some scumbag.
As for Xiao Tian reading Sugai Yasuaki’s face and seeing signs of violent tendencies, it was undeniable that he’d projected some subjective assumptions. If they didn’t meet and talk in person, the chance of misjudgment was high.
So that was why Xiao Tian had set the five-minute limit—he was determined to see Sugai Yasuaki before leaving.
After a short while, Masuda Ryosei nervously walked over to Xiao Tian’s side and carefully said, "The boss says he’ll definitely be here within eight minutes. Please extend the time a bit."
Xiao Tian showed an amused smile. This Sugai Yasuaki really was someone who didn’t play by common rules.
Normally, people would pick a round number when setting a time—like five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes and so on. But Sugai Yasuaki had specifically chosen an eight-minute timeframe.
There were two possibilities here. First, Sugai Yasuaki was extremely punctual, with strong execution and judgment. Second, he was simply joking around, or didn’t plan on being on time at all and wanted to give Xiao Tian a bit of a slap in the face.
Which of the two it was specifically, Xiao Tian couldn’t deduce out of thin air, since he’d never studied Sugai Yasuaki. All he could do was patiently wait out these eight minutes.
...
Time ticked by second by second. When seven minutes had passed and Sugai Yasuaki still hadn’t shown up, Masuda Ryosei couldn’t help breaking into a sweat on his forehead. That fierce killing intent that had struck straight at his heart earlier still left him shaken even now.
In that moment, Masuda Ryosei felt waves of cold surging up from the bottom of his heart. Anxiety and fear both showed clearly in his eyes.
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