Chapter 23: Xu Quan

At that very moment, Ye Fan received a call from Wang Jiu, the king of the underground. "Sir, according to the report from those secretly protecting Ms. Su Xue, a man with a tiger head tattoo on his neck has followed Su Mei of the Su family and a member of the Xu family into the Sanya Company!"

"Tell them to keep protecting Su Xue in the shadows. I am on my way!"

Ye Fan hung up the phone, left the scene, and rushed toward Su Xue’s Sanya Company.

Inside Su Xue’s office at Sanya Company, a heavily made-up woman with short hair was berating and mocking Su Xue. "I was wondering what kind of big shot had the audacity to steal business from my Su Group. It turns out to be a cheap woman who was cast out of the family!"

The woman scolding Su Xue was Su Mei, the daughter of Su Haicheng, the head of the Su family. Su Xue’s father, Su Wei, was the third in the family hierarchy, making Su Mei, who was one year older, Su Xue’s cousin.

Before Su Xue helped the Ye family, she was not only the most beautiful woman in the family but also possessed keen business acumen, often outperforming Su Mei in every regard. This had always made Su Mei incredibly bitter. Su Xue had never received the love of her father nor the recognition of the family, and Su Mei had played a major role in that.

Su Mei had come to Sanya Company because her company had lost an order to them a few days prior; she had come to get to the bottom of it, never expecting to run into Su Xue—let alone find her acting as the boss of Sanya Company. Unable to swallow her pride, she had launched into a tirade.

Su Xue remained fearless. "The world is wide and business is fair. You can't call it stealing."

Hearing this, Su Mei turned pale with fury and roared, "What? You ignorant, ugly wretch, how dare you talk back to me? Who gave you the nerve?"

"I did."

Before Su Xue or anyone else in the office could react, a voice that shook the room rang out from the doorway. As the people in the office turned in surprise, Ye Fan, who had just spoken, strode into the office and stood before them.

Ye Fan looked at Su Xue with concern. "Did they lay a hand on you?"

As Su Xue shook her head silently, Su Mei recognized Ye Fan and grew even more arrogant. "I wondered what kind of god had arrived. It’s just you, the useless remnant of the wiped-out Ye family!"

*Slap!*

Ye Fan was not like Su Xue; he would not tolerate such insults. Before Su Mei could react, he swung his hand and slapped her across the face.

The arrogant Su Mei was suddenly rendered silent by the blow. She had never expected this Ye Fan to dare to strike her without hesitation. After her expression froze for a moment, she shrieked in rage, "Ye Fan, you ignorant fool, do you not know who you are? You dare hit me? How dare you!"

*Slap!*

Ye Fan didn't wait for her to recover; he struck her again, drawing blood from her lip. His voice and gaze were cold as ice. "Coming to the company to bully Su Xue—if I don't hit you, should I keep you around for the holidays?"

Su Mei, trembling with rage, turned to the flat-topped young man beside her. "Quan, did you see that? This reckless fool Ye Fan hit me and made my mouth bleed! You have to stand up for me!"

The flat-topped young man, Xu Quan, nodded repeatedly. "Don't worry, Su Mei. Since he dared to hit you in front of me, I will never spare him!"

With that, Xu Quan pointed at Ye Fan with an air of superiority. "Ye Fan, do you know who she is? She is my woman! You dared to hit her in front of me? I order you to apologize to her immediately, or I will make you regret it!"

"Order me? You aren't worthy."

Ye Fan's voice boomed.

"What?" Xu Quan roared, furious. "Ye Fan, you death-seeking fool, you have quite the nerve to disrespect me. Do you know who I am and what my status is?"

"Why should I care about your status?"

*Slap! Slap!*

Before Xu Quan could process what was happening, Ye Fan struck him twice across the face without hesitation.

"What? You dare hit me too?" Xu Quan was beside himself with rage. "You ignorant fool, do you have any idea that with the status of the Xu family in Yunzhou, I can have you ruined with a single word?"

*Thud!*

Before Xu Quan could recover, Ye Fan kicked him to the floor. His voice was freezing. "Ruined with a single word? Why don't you try?"

Xu Quan scrambled up from the floor, briefly regretting having sent away the martial arts expert with the tiger tattoo. Nevertheless, his arrogance remained. "Ye Fan, consider yourself lucky today that my men had to leave, or I would have crushed you! But since you dared to offend me, wait until tomorrow's gala. I will have my cousin Xu Fei wipe out your Sanya Company and destroy you!"

With that, Xu Quan clutched his bruised face and turned to leave with Su Mei. As she reached the door, Su Mei spun around to look at Su Xue, filled with resentment. "Su Xue, you ignorant wretch, you dared to steal my order. Once the Xu family helps me secure the partnership with the Shangjing Xiao Group tomorrow, I will ensure you have no place left to stand in Yunzhou!"

They stormed out of the office.

Looking at the documents from the Xiao Group scattered on Su Xue’s desk, Ye Fan asked, "Su Xue, you’ve done so much research on the Shangjing Xiao Group—were you hoping to partner with them?"

Su Xue nodded silently, her eyes filled with disappointment and helplessness. "When my mother was alive, she wanted to build Sanya Company into something great. I thought the Xiao Group’s arrival in Yunzhou was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I didn't expect that the Xu family would be hosting the development project for them tomorrow, and that the Xu family is linked to the Su family."

She despondently gathered the papers. "It seems I won't be able to fulfill my mother's wish anytime soon."

Ye Fan shook his head. "That’s not necessarily true. Nothing is final until the very end. Don't lose heart, Su Xue. I’ll accompany you to the Xiao Group’s project meeting tomorrow."

As the savior of the Xiao family, all it would take was a single word from Ye Fan for Su Xue to secure the project without the slightest effort.