Madman!

Chapter 131: If You Can't Feast on Five Cauldrons in Life, Then Die by Five Cauldrons!

Fifteen million dollars was an astronomical figure for most people — let alone ever seeing that kind of money, they'd never even dared to imagine it.

And yet, when Huang Meizhen heard the number, all that filled her eyes was panic. She rushed over and grabbed Chen Wujun's arm:

"Ah Jun, where did you get all this money? Did you—"

"I earned it. What, you think I robbed someone?" Chen Wujun smiled, his tone casual. "My gaming parlors, dance halls, and other businesses bring in a fortune every day — five or six hundred thousand a month. On top of that, I've invested in some ventures with my senior sister."

"I've got a real head for business. The two biggest gaming parlors in the Walled City are mine."

"Also, Shark Jiu is my senior sister... we trained under the same master. She's been looking out for me."

"Ah Jun, Mom doesn't want fifteen million. I just want you safe. Give the money back — as long as you're safe, nothing else matters..." The worry in Huang Meizhen's eyes deepened.

He was riding high now, in the prime of his momentum.

But everything he'd described — in the eyes of Huang Meizhen and Chen Hanliang, it was simply their child going down the wrong path.

This wasn't wealth. It was blood money."Give it back to whom? I earned it myself... Besides, once you're in this world, there's no walking away." Chen Wujun leaned against the cabinet, his face wearing the same calm smile.

"And anyway, this is what I want. If you can't feast on five cauldrons in life, then die by five cauldrons!"

He'd done so much, sacrificed so much, to have what he had now.

There was no way he was giving it up.

Having tasted power, status, and prestige, all it did was fuel an even greater ambition. He would sooner die than surrender it.

"Enough... The one who fought for his life in the ring — was that you?" Chen Hanliang's hands trembled as he spoke.

"I had a conflict with some people at the time. Gang or no gang, the conflict needed a resolution one way or another." Chen Wujun shrugged.

The conflict had indeed arisen because he'd joined Hetu. But he knew his own nature well enough — even without Hetu, he would have ended up on a similar path.

The same path Yuan Hong and Pei Qingzhi had taken — high-stakes criminal work.

But there was no need to say more about that.

"Like I said — if you won't think about yourselves, at least think about Ah Qi. When I was in school, they called me a gutter roach every single day. Don't let that happen to Ah Qi too." Chen Wujun drove the knife in deep.

Chen Hanliang's proud spine and stubborn heart shattered at those words.

"Just do as I say. I'm in this line of work, and I've made plenty of enemies. You leaving the Walled City is good for you, and good for me."

"As for me — you don't need to worry." As Chen Wujun spoke, his fingers flicked up one by one, each snapping through the air like a whip cracking — pop, pop, pop.

His thumb and forefinger closed around the protruding corner of the wooden cabinet beside him, and the solid wood crumbled to dust in his grip.

Everyone stared wide-eyed, as if they'd just witnessed a magic trick.

"The Federation has been suppressing information about martial artists, so you don't know or understand what we're capable of. At my level, even one or two hundred men couldn't take me down. If I want to leave, almost nobody can stop me."

Chen Wujun finished speaking and sat down, letting Chen Hanliang and Huang Meizhen slowly digest what they'd heard.

Huang Meizhen's eyes were red, her gaze lost and helpless. She looked at Chen Wujun, then at Chen Hanliang — this was beyond anything she could decide.

Besides, it wasn't her decision to make.

After a long silence, Chen Hanliang let out a sigh. "Let's eat first."

There was much he didn't understand. But he understood one thing.

The second son of this house was no longer the obedient child who did everything the family told him to.

In barely a year, the boy had become someone completely unrecognizable.

"I should never have sent you to learn martial arts." That was Chen Hanliang's deepest regret now.

"Wuhong, Wujun, Wuqi..." Chen Wujun smiled. "The names say it all."

"So here's how it's going to be. Once Master Xin's funeral is over, I'll buy you a few apartments, and you'll move somewhere new. You can live off the rental income."

"From then on, cut all ties with everyone in the Walled City."

"Don't contact me either."

"When things are quiet, I'll come visit." Chen Wujun said.

"Except for Big Brother — he stays in the Walled City. I'll arrange work for him."

"Me?" Chen Wuhong blinked in confusion.

"No. If we're leaving, we all leave together." Chen Hanliang objected immediately. One problem child was already more than he could handle — there was no way he'd leave the eldest behind.

"Take him with you so he can keep gambling and drag the whole family down? He stays in the Walled City. I'll give him work and have people watch him. Once I'm satisfied he's truly quit, he can go back." Chen Wujun said.

Keeping the eldest in the Walled City also made him an open target.

If someone truly had no honor and wanted to get to him by grabbing the elder brother... well, if he died, he died.

Chen Wujun wouldn't lose sleep over it.

"I swear to heaven — if I ever gamble again, let lightning strike me dead!" Chen Wuhong swore immediately.

He didn't particularly care whether he left the Walled City or stayed. Now that his little brother was a Hetu big shot, he could swagger through these streets with impunity. Staying wasn't a bad deal at all.

It never even crossed his mind that Chen Wujun intended to use him as bait, dangled out in the open.

"Two years. Big Brother stays in the Walled City for two years. During that time, he doesn't visit the new place, and he doesn't learn the address. If he goes two years without gambling, I'll let him go back."

Chen Wuhong had been feeling pleased, but suddenly sensed something was off. He racked his brain for a moment, then his eyes went wide: "You're sending Mom and Dad away because you're afraid your enemies will come looking for them. But you're leaving me here — so you don't care if I get grabbed?"

Chen Hanliang looked at Chen Wujun. He'd just arrived at the same thought.

"Moving Mom and Dad is just a precaution, and I don't want Ah Qi growing up in the Walled City. You? You're a degenerate gambler — who'd bother grabbing you? The underworld code says you don't go after wives and children. I'll set you up with a job, you lay low and behave, and nobody will give you a second look." Chen Wujun shot him a glance, a flash of menace flickering in his eyes.

"But if you don't want to stay in the Walled City, I've got friends in West Embankment. You can work there for two years and then come back."

"I'll stay in the Walled City." One look at Chen Wujun's eyes was enough to wilt Chen Wuhong like frost-bitten eggplant.

North Port was the center of the universe in East District 9. West Embankment was a backwater, and on top of that, it was crawling with Luoyue People.

No way in hell was he going to West Embankment.

"Ah Jun, just let your big brother come with us!" Huang Meizhen's attention had been successfully redirected — from trying to pull Chen Wujun out of the underworld, she was now focused on keeping Chen Wuhong from being left behind.

That way, at least she could protect two of her sons.

"This is my call. You can't keep an eye on him." Chen Wujun's face was blank. "If he kicks the habit, he can come back in two years. If he can't, a degenerate gambler is going to drag the whole family down eventually. Better he rots in the Walled City."

The dinner table fell silent. Not a single word from anyone. Just heavy, suffocating quiet.

Chen Wuhong ate with his head down, but a glimmer of excitement shone in his eyes. All he could think about was running into his old cronies and the people who used to bully him — and watching them grovel.

Meanwhile, Chen Wuqi's eyes darted about. After a moment, he asked, "Second Brother, are we moving?"

"Yes. And from now on, you must never tell anyone I'm your brother." Chen Wujun said.

He intended to use this chance to sever ties with his original family completely.

No weaknesses meant no hesitation.

When the meal was done, he left. He knew Chen Hanliang and Huang Meizhen needed time to come to terms with it.

Huang Meizhen watched his retreating figure, words on the tip of her tongue that she couldn't bring herself to speak.

Only after Chen Wujun was gone did she turn to her husband, her face etched with worry. "What do we do?"

Chen Hanliang sat in silence. After a long while, he sighed.

The second son was nothing like the eldest. He couldn't understand the boy at all anymore.

......

Chen Wujun returned to Ah Yue's place, had another dinner, then swept Ah Yue into his arms and tumbled onto the bed with her.

Eventually, the room fell quiet. Ah Yue lay draped across Chen Wujun's chest, one finger lazily tracing circles on his skin. Beyond that, she couldn't move a muscle.

Before long, she drifted into a deep sleep.

At five the next morning, Chen Wujun rose like clockwork and headed to the rooftop to train. Starting with Wolf Fist — the very first art he'd learned — then Swimming Dragon Palm, Three Emperors Cannon Hammer, with Through-Back Fist woven in between.

After yesterday's showdown with his family, his punches felt freer than ever. His mind was clearer, more transparent.

Late morning. Song Fat Cold Drinks Parlor.

A group of students sipped their sodas while craning their necks: "That's really Chen Wujun? You sure you're not mixing things up?"

"It's written right on the funeral committee board!" one of them said, pointing toward the mourning hall. "I snuck over last night to look. His name's right there."

"Same name, different person. Has to be. He only graduated a year ago — how could he be a Hetu big shot?" another student argued.

None of them could believe that a former classmate had become a Hetu boss.

It was still summer break and school hadn't started, so the group had come out to gossip and wait for a glimpse.

"It is him..." Lin Zetao cut in, motioning for the others to lean closer, wearing the expression of someone about to share a secret.

"We went to the martial arts school together... And I ran into Brace Girl the other day. She told me the guy who fought in the underground ring — that was him too. Now, the whole area around Brace Girl's family's place is Ah Jun's turf. Every month they have to pay protection money to his people."

"No way! I don't buy it!" The others still refused to believe it.

"Just wait. You'll see for yourselves." Lin Zetao now somewhat regretted not sticking it out at the martial arts school. If he had, he'd surely be a formidable fighter by now too.

Still, having a classmate who was a Hetu boss was something to feel proud about.

If trouble ever came his way, he could go to Ah Jun. For old times' sake, he'd surely lend a hand.

The students waited until noon before they finally saw a procession of people emerging from the mourning hall.

They immediately put down their soda bottles and dashed out of the parlor.

The men filing out of the hall were all tall and powerfully built, their muscles straining against their suits. Every one of them radiated a lethal, menacing air that made your stomach clench just looking at them.

A moment later, a similarly tall young man in a black suit emerged alongside a stunning woman with long, flowing hair. The two walked side by side, chatting and laughing, with more than a dozen men trailing behind them.

Everyone in the crowd parted to make way.

"Look — it's Ah Jun!"

"That's really him? Doesn't look like it. The build's all wrong — he was never that tall. Only the face is kind of similar."

Over the past year, Chen Wujun had changed dramatically — his height, his physique, his bearing, even his features.

"That's what happens when you train martial arts. Watch — I'll call out to him!" Lin Zetao declared, puffing up with confidence.

But seeing him open his mouth, the others scrambled to clamp their hands over it and hauled him back, limbs flailing.

If they'd bumped into Chen Wujun alone on the street, they might have mustered the nerve to say hello.

But here, in a setting like this, not one of them wanted to draw attention. The last thing they needed was Lin Zetao shouting his name.

Inside, their hearts were churning like the sea. Nothing could have stunned them more than the scene unfolding before their eyes.

Although there was one other thing commanding the young men's attention...

'Who's that woman next to him? Gorgeous... so mature and magnetic.'