Ouyang Haitao was mercilessly thrown out of the torture room. He trembled with pain and fear gripping his heart and somehow stood on his feet. He noticed another guard in front of him and jolted aback as if he would get beaten up once again. But the guard was simply holding a child in his arms.
His gaze slowly met Jun's who was coldly staring back at him. There was silence for a whole minute as they studied each other.
"You dare stare at the young master?" Xuan Hui icily condemned him. "Do you want me to gauge your eyes out!?"
He froze and quickly lowered his head again. "I am sorry! I-I didn't mean…"
"Since you are done meeting with Boss, leave already."
Ouyang Haitao quietly balled his fists and clenched his jaw. "...Yes."
He hung his head low and passed by Xuan Hui as he painfully walked his way out of the base.
Xuan Hui stepped inside the chamber. "Boss! Young master Jun is here!"
Jinhai was wiping some blood off his hand when he paused and slightly furrowed his brows. "You are early."
"I was bored."
Jinhai saw his guard holding Jun in his arms, and he cocked his brow in amusement. "Since when do you let people hold you?"
"Uncle Xuan is nice."
Xuan Hui felt teary-eyed once again.
Young master praised me in front of the Boss…! I am so happy!
"So is your grandfather and uncle."
"They are noisier than nicer," Jun bitterly replied.
Jinhai smiled. "Come here."
Xuan Hui let him down and he walked over to his father's side.
Jinhai was all fresh, clean and tidy when he picked up Jun next. "Which was the video game you wanted?"
"I still have to decide between two options."
"You want both?"
"You will buy me both?" His eyes unknowingly sparkled with hope.
"One for Jian and one for Nian. It's only fair."
Jun internally jumped with joy but maintained a calm and cool expression on his adorable face. "Thank you, Dad."
Jinhai chuckled. It was amusing to watch his son trying to hide his excitement.
He nodded once at Xuan Hui and left. As he walked outside, Jun curiously asked, "Why did you reduce a week to three days for that man?"
"So you heard it."
"Yes. It will not make any difference. He does not seem very responsible. Even after seven days, he cannot pay sixty million. He will be punished anyway."
Jinhai responded without much emotion. "It's to deem his worth and decide whether to let him live or not."
"You kill people if they cannot pay their debts?"
Jun thought that debtors were tortured and made to do any work the underworld demanded to pay the money back.
"I kill people if they choose the wrong path to pay their debts."
Jun frowned. "People who take loans from the underworld are supposed to be bad, right? Why will they do anything right?"
He glanced at him. "The world is not pure black. It's not necessary that people loaning from legitimate banks must be all clean and those taking money from the underworld must be all bad. It depends on the individual circumstances. Sometimes, it's the opposite."
"Oh," Jun slowly understood his point, but he still didn't understand the reason for his time reduction.
Jinhai asked, catching on to his doubt, "When it comes to you, when do you feel desperate about something?"
He immediately answered. "When I want to get away from Grandpa and Uncle. I will do anything for my peace."
He smiled. "Fair enough. When are the twins desperate?"
Jun dryly said, "They are always desperate for food. They shamelessly steal from my plate too."
"Which is wrong."
"Very wrong."
"But still within the boundaries of what is acceptable. That's what I want to see in Ouyang Haitao. People show their true colors when they either see something very precious to them slipping away from their hands or if they are tasked to achieve something under a very stringent time constraint."
Jun tilted his head. He was beginning to get his point.
"Like the students who don't study even till the day before exams and then cheat during the test."
"Along those lines."
"You mean he will do something bad to get the sixty million?"
Jinhai shrugged. "That's his choice to make that I want to see. I don't really care about the sixty million. I am a billionaire."
His mouth slightly twitched.
"What I want to see is how far he would or would not go to get the money. If he comes back after three days and admits that he couldn't gather sixty million no matter how hard he tried and without hurting anybody, I will excuse his full debt. I already know that it's an unreasonable demand. I don't expect him to pay me back even a million in three days. Forget sixty million."
Jun slightly widened his eyes.
"But if he does something that crosses limits to get himself out of the pinch, then I won't spare him."
"So you are testing him," he concluded.
He gave a mysterious smile. "Life is full of surprises and unexpected exams. I have dealt with far worse and shittier people in this world. The underworld is dangerous, but there are still laws here. You have to conduct yourself within those laws or there will be consequences."
There was a deadly ring to his voice as he spoke the last word.
"Cool. He doesn't have any idea that escaping from debt is actually so easy. He just has to be honest about it."
Jinhai chuckled. "'Just…' If only he understood that. What is very simple often turns out to be the hardest for most of the people in this world."
He nodded.
Jun poked his father's shoulder. "In movies they show that the loan sharks chase after the family for money."
"The one who took the money must pay it by himself. From what I know, the woman he lives with isn't even aware that he has taken any such debt. I am not going to send my men to bang on her home's door and demand money from her. The responsibility of debt payment solely lies with Ouyang Haitao himself. But..."
He tilted his head. "But?"
"If he dies or gets permanently incapacitated along the way, then the underworld has to take some measures about his family too..." Jinhai narrowed his eyes, "So that they don't become pesky bugs like Ouyang Haitao is now in the future."
He leaned closely and looked into his son's eyes. "Revenge is slightly bothersome, after all."
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