Li Cihua was not the sort of man to take a bloody nose lying down.

"Young Master An, for what happened earlier, all I can do is apologize. I hope you won't hold it against me — though I've ended up looking like this too!" Li Cihua pointed at his own face and shrugged. The forces behind Li Cihua were no weak thing, but neither was the An family that An Jianwen belonged to, and now with the Su family of Su Taizao thrown in, Li Cihua had all the less reason to make enemies out of nothing. Besides, there had never been any grudge between the two of them — they even had business to do together. All of this had been stirred up by that bastard Wei Zhao.

"It's nothing!" An Jianwen waved a hand. A great man could bend and stretch. He knew today's business was not Li Cihua's fault either; the only one to blame was Wei Zhao. That creature was simply too vicious for words.

Su Taizao, though, was somewhat indignant. True, Wei Zhao had stirred the whole thing up, but that was no reason to beat a man black and blue without rhyme or reason, was it? And besides, he had never heard the name Li Cihua before — who knew what sort of nobody he was?

But seeing that even An Jianwen was letting it go, he could hardly say more, and could only sit sullenly to one side. Fortunately the beating had not been too severe — only his face had swollen into a pig's head.

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

Pig-headed as Su Taizao now was, Xuexue and Huahua were no fools. They knew this man had standing — anyone who could sit on equal footing 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 a handsome fellow; keeping him company was no loss for them.

"Young Master Su..." Two swaying, gorgeous figures surrounded Su Taizao. He had been full of resentment, but now that Li Cihua had given over both top girls to him, the last trace of grievance in his heart vanished clean away.

He was not a man of much subtlety. The whole point of coming to this private room tonight had been to snatch a woman, and now that the goal was met, he had his face back! Since Li Cihua was sensible enough to give him face, Su Taizao naturally had nothing more to say, and happily threw his arms around the two top girls and went into the resting room in the back.

Li Cihua smiled faintly. He knew well enough what Su Taizao was thinking, but he did not regard the man as worth his attention. The one he truly valued was An Jianwen — the man who could bring him profit.

"Young Master An, forgive my bluntness — why would you treat Wei Zhao to dinner? Are you and he friends?" Li Cihua had to first make clear the relationship between An Jianwen and Wei Zhao. Though he had seen An Jianwen's fury at being tricked by Wei Zhao just now, that was only on the surface; who knew whether some deeper connection lay between them?

Now that he himself was to cooperate with An Jianwen, if An Jianwen and Wei Zhao really were friends, then this cooperation would probably go nowhere.

"Friends?" An Jianwen gave a cold laugh. "Rivals in love, more like."

"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. Seems he knew all along that I meant him no good. He ate a meal at my expense, and then left a trap behind for me!" An Jianwen said furiously. "Brother Cihua, you and Wei Zhao..."

"Wei Zhao is Gu Mengyao's close guard. We meant to kidnap Gu Mengyao to achieve certain ends, and Wei Zhao wrecked the whole thing." Li Cihua spoke as lightly as if it were nothing. Naturally he would not breathe a word of the humiliation of losing two Yellow Rank experts; the plan had failed anyway, and Jin Gubang had lost his qualification to move against Gu Pengzhan. Li Cihua could not be bothered to go looking for trouble with Gu Mengyao anymore, but this debt to Wei Zhao — that he could not leave unpaid.

"Oh? Wei Zhao really is Gu Mengyao's close guard?" An Jianwen was startled. He had suspected as much before, but if Wei Zhao truly was Gu Mengyao's close guard, then his own chances were still very good!

"I used to think there was something murky between him and Gu Mengyao, but later I found his relationship with that Shen Yushu seemed closer..." Li Cihua was speaking of the amusement park affair — Wei Zhao had actually staked his life to leap into the sea with Shen Yushu, which had set Li Cihua wondering a little.

"Shen Yushu? Ha, that's wonderful!" Hearing Li Cihua's words, An Jianwen quite lost his composure. Still, no wonder — he had schemed so painstakingly to make trouble for Wei Zhao precisely because he had heard the man was Gu Mengyao's boyfriend; now that he was certain he was not, An Jianwen felt thoroughly pleased.

"What's this, 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'll laugh at me, Brother Cihua. Yaoyao and I grew up together — childhood sweethearts." An Jianwen nodded. "When I came back to the country this time, I suddenly found Wei Zhao appearing at Gu Mengyao's side, so I took him out to sound out the truth of him."

"That brat is no simpleton. Even if he's only a close guard, you had best be on your guard against him!" Li Cihua offered the warning. He did not mind using the occasion to sow discord, and set An Jianwen against Wei Zhao as well.

"I will." An Jianwen nodded. "Brother Cihua, are you people going after Gu Mengyao?"

"That's all in the past. The plan was called off too, so you needn't worry." Li Cihua smiled. "Even if it hadn't been, for Young Master An's sake I could not move against her now!"

"Then many thanks, Brother Cihua!" An Jianwen was thoroughly satisfied with Li Cihua's attitude. The two had clashed at first, but that had only been because of Wei Zhao; now that everything was out in the open, An Jianwen still wanted to work with Li Cihua.

"Young Master An, we might say we came to know each other through a fight. You and I are both straightforward men — whatever is on your mind, just speak up." Li Cihua smiled and poured An Jianwen a glass of red wine.

Thanks to their earlier misunderstanding, the two were spared all the circling and the probing, the taiji of feeling out each other's hand, and went straight to the heart of the matter.

An Jianwen glanced at the inner room, where Su Taizao was, then at the several men standing beside Li Cihua, and seemed about to speak, yet held back.

Li Cihua smiled slightly; he understood An Jianwen's meaning well enough. He waved a hand at his several close guards and said, "You may go out first."

"Yes!" Without another word the guards left the room, then pulled the door firmly shut behind them and stood watch at the entrance.

"This one is one of us!" Li Cihua said, indicating Su Jiaonang. "Su Jiaonang, my trusted man!"

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