Chapter 804 — The Domineering Young Master Bing

"Our terms are simple. We don't want money — all we ask is that you build us a fully equipped orphanage somewhere else, to our specifications, and we'll hand this orphanage over to you." Yu Xiaoke stated her terms outright; she and the old director had agreed on them long ago.

Developers had come to the orphanage before, on and off, to discuss demolition, but the reconstruction plan Yu Xiaoke laid out was so elaborate that no profit was left in it, and every deal had stalled.

Zhao Qibing noticed Yu Xiaoke then too, his thieving eyes sliding up and down her body. What a beauty! This girl looked fine — and she was from the orphanage, of all places? An itch stirred in Zhao Qibing's heart. Ever since his legs were broken he had not touched a woman in a long while, and now, seeing a top-tier girl like Yu Xiaoke, he was practically drooling.

"Fine. But I like the look of you — come be my secretary. Whatever terms you name then, I'll agree to them." Zhao Qibing leered at Yu Xiaoke as he spoke. It was an idle promise; once he actually had her, who cared about terms?

"Sorry, I can't leave the orphanage. You'd better find someone else." Yu Xiaoke shot Zhao Qibing a look of disgust and turned him down flat.

"Don't be ungrateful and refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit!" Zhong Fabai had not expected the people in this shabby orphanage to be so stiff-necked — did they have a death wish? "We're talking to you nicely now. Since you don't want to talk nicely, then we'll see about it."

"What, you mean to threaten an old woman like me?" The old director gave a cold laugh and looked at Li Cihua. "Li Cihua, you're a name to be reckoned with on Songshan City's underworld, but I'm not afraid of you either! Over the years, you're hardly the only boss who's cast a greedy eye on my orphanage. Do you know why they gave up?"

Li Cihua was taken aback. He glanced at the old director, puzzled. Could there be something hidden here? Could there be some power standing behind this orphanage?

"Zou Tiandi has a man under him named Yan Bo — a Yellow rank expert." The old director spoke mildly. "Zou Tiandi entertained ideas about the orphanage too, but after weighing things up, he gave them up..."

"You... you know about the Yellow rank?" Li Cihua stared at the old director in disbelief. To someone like him the Yellow rank was no secret — he had once had two Yellow rank experts under him, though Wei Zhao, that madman, had killed them.

"This old woman is nothing much, but I too am Yellow rank." The old director's aura surged in an instant, and suddenly Li Cihua, Zhong Fabai, and Zhao Qibing all felt a suffocating pressure. They were not cultivators and could not precisely gauge an opponent's rank, but the old director's aura was indeed like that of the cultivators they had met!

This time Li Cihua no longer doubted the old director's words. He had never imagined that a Yellow rank expert could be hidden away in a tiny orphanage like this! No wonder the place had stood here all these years without being torn down — people had had their misgivings!

"Yellow rank, is it?" Zhao Qibing gave a cold laugh. "My father is already an early-stage Earth rank expert, and my grandfather stands at the peak of late-stage Earth rank. What's a single Yellow rank expert worth?"

Zhao Qibing was not lying. His father, Zhao Guangyin, was already at early-stage Earth rank, and the family's Old Master Zhao stood at the peak of late-stage Earth rank, at present seeking the opportunity to break through Earth rank and step onto the heavenly path.

But to break through from Earth rank to Heaven rank was a chasm; many spent their whole lives and never found the way.

Still, even if not Heaven rank, Earth rank was frightening enough! Zhao Qibing was impatient to take this orphanage, and he could not let himself be cowed by some Yellow rank! He had no choice but to trot out his father's and grandfather's strength to intimidate the other side.

Otherwise, as a bastard son, to recklessly announce his family background out in the world was a great taboo; if the Zhao family heard of it, they would certainly take issue with Zhao Qibing.

And if Uncle Zhu had not been wounded, if Zhang Long and Li Yao were not dead, Zhao Qibing would not have named his own house like this either. But now all the good men at his disposal were gone, and he had not brought the Medicine King along on this trip — surely he could not slink away in disgrace?

The old director had thought her strength would overawe the visitors, but she had never expected that the young man with the broken leg beside Li Cihua would claim his father was an early-stage Earth rank expert and his grandfather a peak late-stage Earth rank expert. The old director was stunned on the spot!

Earlier the old director had not taken Zhao Qibing seriously at all; she had only had eyes for Li Cihua. But now it seemed that if this young man was not boasting, then he was telling the truth!

"May I ask your father's honored name?" the old director asked after a moment's thought.

"My surname is Zhao. My name is Zhao Qibing!" Zhao Qibing did not casually give his father's name. He was not so foolish; he knew he was a bastard son, and that some things were best left hinted at. He knew that if the old director was also a person of the jianghu, she could not fail to understand what his surname meant, and would surely guess at the rest.

"Zhao..." The old director's expression changed at once, and she looked at Zhao Qibing in disbelief. "You are of the hidden Zhao family..."

"Hmph! There are some things you're better off not knowing!" Zhao Qibing sneered. "I'll give you two choices now. Qibing Real Estate has a plot of land in the suburbs, twice the size of this one. If you agree, we'll make an equivalent exchange. Otherwise, we'll compensate you with a sum of money at the current land price, and once you have the money, you can make your own way in the world!"

"You..." The old director was so enraged by Zhao Qibing's domineering words that she could not speak, yet she dared not act rashly. She was, after all, a person of the jianghu, and she knew well the power the hidden Zhao family represented — a colossal force that even the four great families and five lesser families of the mundane world dared not provoke!

Of course, what the old director did not know was that for all Zhao Qibing's frightening talk, his status was merely that of a bastard son of Zhao Guangyin, the Zhao family head, and he had not even won much recognition from Old Master Zhao's side of the family.

"That's all I have to say. Think it over yourselves!" Zhao Qibing sneered. "Remember my words — don't refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit! Otherwise, you'll bear the consequences!"

"How can you be so overbearing? Have you no sense of reason at all?" Yu Xiaoke knew nothing of any Zhao family or otherwise, and she did not understand why the old director had suddenly given ground. But she could not stand by and watch the old director be bullied.

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