The five young men who had half-runned and half-walked over were enraged upon hearing this. They already knew that the woman had come to avenge them, but when they heard what she said, they became even more furious. They rushed over and ran towards Zhou Xuan, whom the woman was pointing at, looking like they were about to beat him up.
This was no joke. Zhou Xuan was absolutely certain these guys could do something like this without any scruples, and Lu Yanping and the female shop assistants huddled together in fear.
Don't be fooled by the impressive security and management of these stores. That's only true for ordinary people. When it comes to high-ranking officials and wealthy young people, they become lambs to the slaughter. If they start a fight, calling security or the police won't help.
Zhou Xuan was naturally fearless. Now, his superpowers were like those of someone who had mastered advanced martial arts. Unlike before, when his ice-energy attacks would either kill or injure someone, he was now confident enough to protect himself.
The five men rushed forward and started beating Zhou Xuan without any regard for the consequences. However, they only managed to surround him because as soon as they reached out, their hands and feet felt like they were on fire. They thought they were being burned, so they quickly looked down and saw that their sleeves and trouser legs were inexplicably on fire.
The five people immediately cried out in pain, groaning and trying to put out the flames.
Zhou Xuan had secretly given them a good beating. This wasn't just a simple matter of setting their clothes on fire; he had also used high heat to burn them. Even after the clothes were extinguished, the burning pain in their hands and feet didn't disappear; instead, it was excruciating.
Zhou Xuan didn't burn them extensively; he only burned a few spots with high heat, like burning a few points with a burning candle or cigarette butt. The result was no obvious large-area burns, but the pain was excruciating.
After several people shouted and extinguished the fire, they took several steps back. The woman exclaimed in surprise, "What happened? What happened?"
Zhou Xuan didn't move at all. Lu Yanping and the other five people could see it clearly, but they didn't know how the fire was started. But no matter how it happened, the blame would naturally fall on Zhou Xuan.
The woman didn't know what was going on, but after seeing the group frantically extinguish the flames, she glared at Zhou Xuan with a mixture of pain and anger, and then asked, "Did you bully Rongrong? Are you tired of living?"
Zhou Xuan ignored him and said indifferently, "Ignorant and naive."
The leader flew into a rage and charged at Zhou Xuan again, throwing a punch. But just then, someone suddenly appeared from the side and began to beat him mercilessly, shouting, "I'll teach you to be blind! I'll beat up a blind dog!"
This sudden turn of events left everyone bewildered. The young man who was being beaten was attacked without warning and was left dazed and disoriented. He had been beaten for a long time and still didn't know who had hit him.
But the people nearby could see it clearly. The other four people were stunned when they saw the person who suddenly appeared and started hitting them. They didn't dare to step forward to help, and the woman was speechless.
The young man, having finally managed to wriggle free from the grip, darted away and yelled at the four men who had come with him, "Xiao Chuan, are you all fucking idiots? You saw me getting beaten up and didn't even help? Hurry up and cripple this kid first!"
"Hmph, what a big mouth you have, Wu Jianhua. You want to cripple me? Fine, I'll sit here and wait for you. Hurry up," the man who hit him said coldly, his icy voice frightening.
The woman then exclaimed in surprise, "Third Brother, why...why did you hit Brother Jianhua?"
Zhou Xuan already knew this person was Li Wei. When he saw those people about to attack him, Li Wei rushed over furiously from afar to fight them. He recognized all these people, but whether he knew them or not, as long as they attacked Zhou Xuan, what else was there to say? He'd beat them up first and then talk about it.
At this moment, Li Wei was accompanied by six or seven senior managers of Zhou's Jewelry, including Zhou Tao. Li Wei, with his sharp eyes, rushed to the front. When they saw that the people who were about to attack were their big boss, Zhou Xuan, they showed no mercy and swarmed forward to beat the people up again.
Li Wei naturally wouldn't stop them, and the store's security personnel finally arrived. They had already been monitoring the situation on the cameras. However, these people were also shrewd. They only came to prevent the situation from escalating, but they wouldn't take action. They would only use brutal methods against ordinary people, and these people were obviously not people they could afford to offend. They would just act as peacemakers. After all, this was a shopping mall, and they still had to do business and consider the impact.
Zhou Xuan then said, "Stop fighting, everyone stop."
The executives at Zhou's Jewelry had naturally met Zhou Xuan before. Although Zhou Xuan didn't manage company affairs, he frequently visited the head office building, so these executives all knew him and understood that this boss was not only wealthy but also had extraordinary connections and a very deep background.
Why wouldn't they do something like this, where they could curry favor with their boss without worrying about the consequences? They went up and started beating people up indiscriminately. Unfortunately, the other side didn't dare to fight back, so it was their turn to unleash their power. If the other side had fought back, they would have been even more pleased with themselves if they had been injured.
The other five people, including the woman, were there because they saw Li Wei on their side, someone they didn't want to mess with. They figured the person they wanted to fight might have some connection to Li Wei.
As soon as Zhou Xuan shouted, everyone stopped. Lu Yanping and the female shop assistants were secretly surprised. These company executives were their superiors, and they usually had to greet them with smiles and flatter them. But now, seeing them in front of Zhou Xuan, they acted as if they were the same as they were towards these executives. Just who was this seemingly ordinary young man?
Li Wei then coldly said to the woman, "Wu Rongrong, Wu Jianhua, open your eyes wider. You dare to lay a hand on my brother? Are you tired of living?"
The woman named Wu Rongrong exclaimed in surprise, "Third Brother, he... how come he's your eldest brother? Isn't our eldest brother working in another province? Who is this...?"
Wu Rongrong knew Li Wei's older brother. When Li Wei told her that this person was his older brother, she was puzzled. What kind of older brother was this?
The person who led the group was Wu Jianhua, Wu Rongrong's brother. The others also covered their faces and stared at Li Wei, wondering what Li Wei's relationship with this person was.
Zhou Tao was young and impetuous. He was originally a kind and gentle person, but he absolutely could not stand to see his family being bullied. When he arrived here and saw his brother being surrounded by these people who were about to attack him, he couldn't help but step forward and beat him up. Only after he stopped did he walk to Zhou Xuan's side and ask with concern, "Brother, are you alright?"
"What do I need?" Zhou Xuan said with a smile. "You're acting like a child, so reckless. Li Wei, come sit down and we'll talk slowly."
Lu Yanping had been observing Vice President Zhou and Vice President Li. She was truly astonished to see Zhou Tao addressing Zhou Xuan as "brother" and Zhou Xuan addressing Li Wei by his first name.
Zhou Tao was relieved, then frowned and asked Lu Yanping, "Manager Lu, what's going on? It's a complete mess."
Lu Yanping was inwardly groaning. She stammered out the whole story from beginning to end. She was usually a very eloquent woman, but now she was speaking with great difficulty.
Although Lu Yanping spoke somewhat cryptically, concealing some of their problems, she basically made things clear.
Li Wei and Zhou Tao understood what was going on without even thinking. The initial cause was definitely that Zhou Xuan wanted to buy jewelry, but the shop assistant ignored her. Coupled with Wu Rongrong's boasting, she got entangled with Zhou Xuan.
Lu Yanping also explained the bickering and animosity between Wu Rongrong and Zhou Xuan. She had no choice but to say it because Zhou Xuan was there, and she couldn't lie about it.
After saying that, he suddenly realized that Zhou Tao called this person "brother". Looking at Li Wei's expression towards Zhou Xuan, could this person be the big boss Zhou Xuan?
Since he had never met Zhou Xuan, he couldn't be sure, but at this moment he was praying that this person's relationship with Vice President Zhou and Vice President Li was whatever, but he absolutely couldn't be the big boss, Chairman Zhou Xuan.
Li Wei basically understood what was going on. He gave Lu Yanping a cold look, which sent a chill down Lu Yanping's spine.
Then Li Wei turned to face Wu Jianhua and Wu Rongrong, and sneered, "Wu Jianhua, Wu Rongrong, how imposing and intimidating! It seems your family has made quite a bit of money. You want to compete with my brother in wealth? Fine, Xuan-ge, go to the municipal government and find Uncle Haihe, the Party Secretary, and let him see the Wu family's grandeur. Hmm, the Discipline Inspection Commission would be the most suitable."
Li Wei's unhurried words startled Wu Jianhua and Wu Rongrong.
Who exactly is this person? Why is Li Wei so protective of him? The "Second Uncle Haihe" Li Wei just mentioned—that's obviously Wei Haihe, the municipal party secretary. Offending someone like that is worse than death.
Wu Jianhua and Wu Rongrong's father is the director of the municipal finance bureau. Because of his father's connections, they opened a company and made a lot of money without much effort. They are usually arrogant and domineering. The children of high-ranking officials are even more arrogant than the children of rich kids. When it comes to business, other people flock to him to give him money. All they hear and see is flattery and praise. So they always look up to the sky.
Although they were all children of high-ranking officials and belonged to the "princeling clique" in Beijing, they were still far inferior to someone of Li Wei's rank. Therefore, when Li Wei beat them up, they dared not retaliate.
"Third Brother, there must be some misunderstanding. My sister is being unreasonable. I'll apologize to your eldest brother on her behalf, and we'll treat everyone to a meal at the Beijing Hotel. Third Brother, you absolutely have to come!"
Although Wu Jianhua was beaten, he understood the importance of the matter at hand. If Li Wei's older brother really went to find Wei Haihe as Li Wei said, then even if his family didn't die, they would be severely injured.
No matter how arrogant Wu Jianhua was, he knew that if his father fell, his Wu family would be nothing. Li Wei, on the other hand, definitely had that power. If his father found out about what happened today, he would probably tie up his brother and sister and send them to Li Wei's house to apologize.
Li Wei snorted, glanced at Zhou Xuan, and then said, "Don't ask me, ask my older brother. It's ridiculous. Wu Rongrong, I don't care how you make your money or how much you make, but if you want to argue with my older brother, then you're really blind. Do you have a lot of money? Putting aside my older brother's other businesses, just take this Zhou's Jewelry Company for example. Its total assets exceed 3 billion, and it's wholly owned by my older brother. What are you arguing about?"