Eldritch Horror Theatre

Without delay, Fu Qian put away his new reward and headed straight downstairs.

He hadn’t gone far before he spotted the two people Grandma Liu had mentioned.

Two burly men with buzz cuts, sunglasses, and identical outfits were looking around the residential complex.

Asking around the neighborhood while dressed like that was incredibly conspicuous.

Fu Qian made no effort to hide, and the two men quickly spotted him. After a brief pause, they exchanged a glance and hurried after him.

Fu Qian paid them no mind, continuing toward his destination.

Perhaps thinking there were too many prying eyes around, the two only followed from a distance, not rushing to approach.

The scene felt seemingly familiar; it was as if he had just experienced it the day before yesterday.

Fu Qian let out a sigh.

In fact, he strongly suspected these two were here because of that exact incident.His social life was incredibly easy to parse. Thinking it over, the only ones who could stir up a conflict were those five who never let a grudge go.

”Friend.”

Not long after he left the complex, the two men sped up, and one stepped directly into his path.

”Could we have a word in private?”

”No!”

...

Fu Qian’s answer clearly caught the man off guard.

After freezing for a few seconds, Thug A’s expression turned cold. He slowly rolled up his sleeve to reveal a large patch of tattoos on his arm.

The pedestrians who had been watching the commotion quickly backed away.

”Is it convenient now?”

Thug A undoubtedly enjoyed the feeling of being feared. However, halfway through his sentence, he realized his target had already walked away.

”Fuck!”

He jogged forward and blocked Fu Qian again.

Thug B hurried up from behind and reached out to grab Fu Qian’s arm.

”We don’t want to make this ugly. You better cooperate.”

Before he could finish speaking, the man yanked his hand back.

He felt a sharp, numbing pain in his palm, as if he had been whipped by something.

Before he could react to what happened, his mind jolted, and an uncontrollable surge of frenzied anger swelled up inside him.

In his line of sight, his accomplice across from him stood frozen with a vacant stare, while the target had already walked away again.

Without a second thought, he slapped his accomplice across the face.

”What the hell is wrong with you? How did you let him get away again?”

”Huh?”

The latter took the slap and snapped out of his daze.

Upon realizing what had just happened, he was immediately overcome by fury and swung a fist right at the other man’s face.

Fists and kicks flew, blood spraying from their noses. In an instant, the two were brawling with each other.

The Tyrant’s Fist had an immediate effect on ordinary people, even though he had only struck each of them with a single lash.

Fu Qian didn’t even have the interest to cast a backward glance at the intense scene unfolding behind him.

He was honestly getting tired of scenes like this.

Even after collapsing to the ground, the two men didn’t forget to bite at each other, giving the surrounding crowd quite a show.

...

A person had to have a healthy physique to fully enjoy eating unhealthy food.

Finding a seat, Fu Qian took a hearty gulp of ice-cold soda and let out a sigh of contentment.

Those two were clearly just lackeys. If things went as expected, the man actually in charge would show up soon.

Sure enough, about ten minutes later, someone pushed the door open and walked in.

It was a middle-aged man in his forties. He was not tall, but he carried an imposing aura. His brow was sharp and fierce—clearly someone accustomed to giving orders.

The middle-aged man walked straight over to Fu Qian’s spot, pulled out a chair, sat down, and stared intensely at him.

Compared to the two gentlemen from earlier, his physique was somewhat lacking, but his aura was far stronger.

He was just radiating such murderous intent right now that the two young girls at the next table were frightened into burying their heads and eating furiously.

”I am Xu Meng.”

After a long while, the man finally spoke, his voice deep.

”Two days ago, my son had an accident.”

Xu Meng stared into Fu Qian’s eyes as he spoke.

”Even now, he can’t speak, can’t communicate, and can’t even feed himself. His ability to care for himself is worse than a child’s.”

”I don’t buy any of those bullshit explanations, and I don’t care about the reasons. All I know is that if someone did this to him, I will make them pay.”

’He really is here for revenge!’

Fu Qian confirmed his judgment.

”This is you, isn’t it?”

Xu Meng pulled out two photographs and tossed them in front of Fu Qian.

Fu Qian glanced at them. One showed him throwing a soda at someone, while the other showed him leaving the supermarket carrying his purchases.

Although the images were a bit blurry, they were still recognizable.

”I want to know, where did you go afterward?”

”After buying my things, I naturally went home.”

Facing Xu Meng’s interrogation, Fu Qian replied with a smile.

The man clearly understood his son quite well. From a single interaction between Fu Qian and a member of that five-man group, Xu Meng had deduced they might have clashed.

However, the fact that he could only produce these few pictures basically meant he had nothing else.

Thinking about it, those guys had deliberately waited until he reached the bridge before making their move, so it was highly unlikely they left behind any other records.

Of course, even if there were records, it wouldn’t matter.

”What about in between? Did you run into him? What did you do to him? You better tell the truth...”

Xu Meng’s face suddenly contorted into a savage scowl.

”You wouldn’t want to see what I’m capable of.”

”If I were you, I wouldn’t want to show what I’m capable of.”

Fu Qian took another sip of cola.

...

The fierce glint in his eyes seemed ready to pierce through the man in front of him. For a moment, Xu Meng almost wanted to attack directly.

His son had suffered a sudden accident and had become akin to a cripple overnight.

This unexpected tragedy left him not only furious, but more than anything, deeply frustrated.

Because it truly did not look like something a human could do, and more than one person had witnessed strange flashes of light.

But doing absolutely nothing was completely unacceptable to him.

No matter what, he had to find a target to vent his fury.

Fu Qian naturally saw Xu Meng’s reaction and fully understood the man’s state of mind.

He also knew that trying to explain himself right now would be pointless.

Regardless of whether he was innocent or not, it probably wouldn’t change this man’s mind.

Of course, there was no need to explain either.

The greatest advantage of dealing with people who believed in the law of the jungle was that one didn’t need to waste effort reasoning with them.

And this man had blindly stumbled upon the right person, but he clearly didn’t understand the true disparity in strength.

Just then, Fu Qian’s phone suddenly rang.

’Tan Ying, what does she want with me?’

Fu Qian picked it up and answered. Tan Ying’s hurried voice came through.

”Where are you?”

”Eating.”

”Pei Yanqing ran into something weird today, and she just mentioned it to me.”

”Earlier today, someone asked her about you while holding your picture. She didn’t say anything at the time, but she thought it was weird later and let me know, asking if I should give you a heads-up. Are you in some kind of trouble?”

Judging by Tan Ying’s tone, the two of them were already quite familiar with each other.

”Thanks for the heads-up. It’s just a small matter.”

”So, did some weird people come looking for trouble today?”

”Yeah, he’s sitting right across from me.”