Madman!

Chapter 24: Brotherly Love

"That fast?!" A few foot soldiers who had followed them out of the dance hall had originally wanted to see if Chen Wujun needed any help.

Instead, they watched both men hit the ground in the blink of an eye.

Chen Wujun looked down and dusted off his pants, only to discover the fabric had been slashed by a broken bottle.

A pang of heartache struck him instantly, followed by a surge of anger.

"My pants!"

He spun around and drove a kick into Hua-ge's stomach, launching the man a full meter across the ground.

"Drag these two away and make them pay for my pants. Three thousand dollars. If they don't pay up, tell them to wait for me to come deal with it personally!" Chen Wujun seethed with fury, his eyes glinting with menace.

Those two pairs of pants had been expensive.

Back when he bought them along with the dress shirts and shoes, the whole set had cost him two thousand dollars.

They were the only two outfits he owned that were remotely presentable.He hadn't even washed them more than a few times before that "Hua-ge" went and slashed through them with a bottle.

"Got it, Brother Jun!" Several foot soldiers who were familiar with Chen Wujun immediately stepped forward.

Previously, they had all just called him "Ah-Jun." After all, Chen Wujun was young, had only recently gotten together with Shark Jiu, and nobody had taken him all that seriously.

But now, seeing his strikes so vicious and clean, that dangerous gleam in his eyes, combined with Shark Jiu's status—respect bloomed in their hearts.

Chen Wujun picked up on this subtle shift immediately.

'Just as I thought,' he mused. 'You have to be fierce and ruthless enough before people will fear and respect you. Before, they all called me Ah-Jun. Now it's Brother Jun.'

"Thanks!" Chen Wujun clapped one of them on the shoulder, then turned and strode toward his older brother, Chen Wuhong.

Chen Wuhong was standing there in a daze.

He never imagined his little brother could be so brutal—taking down both Hua-ge and Hu-ge with the swiftness of a rising rabbit and diving falcon.

What shocked him even more was the attitude those foot soldiers showed toward Chen Wujun.

Everyone knew that every grey-market business in the Walled City had gang connections, and this strip club was no exception.

Chen Wujun grabbed Chen Wuhong by the collar and hauled him away.

After walking several dozen meters, he dragged him into an alley and slammed him against the wall.

"Talk. Why were you there? Where did you get the money?"

Chen Wuhong snapped back to his senses and hissed, "Have you lost your mind? Hua-ge and his boys are Lidong people!"

"You just beat them up—they'll definitely come after you! And they'll come after me too!"

Slap!

Chen Wujun gave him another backhand across the face.

"Forget about them coming after you. You'd better figure out how to get past me first!"

"Where did the money come from? And what's the deal with those guys?"

Chen Wuhong knew he couldn't beat Chen Wujun in a fight. After the last time Chen Wujun had injured him, he couldn't walk properly for half a month. He was genuinely afraid of his younger brother.

Seeing the dangerous look on Chen Wujun's face now, fear crept into Chen Wuhong's heart. He lowered his voice:

"I know I'm a disappointment. I know I've been a burden on the family. But no matter what, I'm still family—I'm not a prisoner!"

Seeing Chen Wujun raise his hand again, Chen Wuhong blurted out, "I bet on the horses and hit a winner... won a nice sum..."

That day, Chen Wuhong had swindled another six hundred dollars out of their mother. He had no intention of actually going to work—all he wanted was to turn his luck around. So he went straight to the horse races, and as it happened, he actually hit a long shot worth over twenty thousand.

Chen Wuhong immediately felt fortune had turned in his favor. He kept betting for a week straight, winning some and losing some, but at least he hadn't gone into the red this time.

In the days that followed, he'd been living it up on the town—though naturally, he didn't dare mention this part to Chen Wujun.

"I just wanted to make some money too, you know? Bring some cash home so Mom and Dad would be happy, maybe help pay off some of the family debt. I finally managed to make a connection, and I wanted to go into business with them..."

"Business?" Chen Wujun scoffed. "You, doing business with them? They'd swallow you bones and all. You, doing business with them?"

"It's a sure thing! There's a market for it, huge demand, and the only hard part is sourcing the goods—but they've got supply!" Chen Wuhong argued immediately.

"A sure thing, huh?" Chen Wujun's mind raced, and his expression turned even colder. "Wolf drug, or heroin?"

"Wolf drug is legal! There are tons of licensed shops selling it—why would I bother? And heroin is way above my level. What they've got is a huge supply of purple water! So many people use it. If I get in on this pipeline, I'll make a fortune!" Chen Wuhong proclaimed with conviction.

Chen Wujun turned it over in his mind and immediately understood what purple water was.

A codeine-based cough syrup. Some people mixed it into drinks or alcohol.

It was technically a legitimate pharmaceutical product.

In the Federation, selling wolf drug wasn't illegal as long as you had the proper license. But this type of cough syrup was heavily regulated.

At that moment, Chen Wujun felt a blaze of fury rising from deep within. This bastard wasn't just gambling anymore—now he was getting into this kind of business?

Barely restraining the urge to beat him to death, he pressed through gritted teeth: "How much money do you have left?"

"If I use the money to pay off debts now, there'll be nothing left! But if I invest it to make more money, I can earn way more!" The moment Chen Wujun asked about money, Chen Wuhong forgot his fear entirely and shouted back.

Chen Wujun lashed out with a vicious kick to his shin.

Over these past days of practicing his fists, it wasn't just his knees that had toughened. His fists, feet, and shins had all become extraordinarily hard through the medicinal liniment.

The kick connected, and Chen Wuhong felt like his leg had snapped in two. He collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony.

Chen Wujun walked expressionlessly to the mouth of the alley, picked up a brick from the ground, turned back to Chen Wuhong's side, and brought the flat edge of the brick down on his shin.

"Wujun... what are you doing?!"

Crack!

The brick shattered on impact.

"AHHH—! My leg! My leg is broken!" Chen Wuhong howled even more wretchedly, clutching his shin and rolling on the ground.

"A broken leg is a good thing. A broken leg might save your life." Chen Wujun looked down at Chen Wuhong.

He had genuinely considered killing his older brother.

But back in the dance hall, this degenerate gambler had at least shown a flicker of family loyalty by trying to smooth things over for him. Although Chen Wujun hadn't needed the help, it had softened his heart just enough. He decided to break the man's leg and leave him at home to recover.

When that leg was nearly healed, he'd break the other one.

And if that still wasn't enough, he'd break his arms too.

A moment later, Chen Wujun hauled him up, hooked a hand under his armpit and supported him as they walked. His tone had turned gentle:

"Leg's broken? Does it hurt? Let me take you to a clinic to get it looked at, then I'll bring you home."

"From now on, you just stay home and rest. Hot meals every day, no more drifting around out there. Mom and Dad have been worried sick about you. Didn't you just say so yourself? We're family."

Yet the more warmly he spoke, the more Chen Wuhong's blood ran cold.

It was Chen Wujun who had just broken his leg. And now the younger man acted as though everything that had happened moments ago had nothing to do with him at all.

"Wujun, please... just let me go. I swear I'll never take out loan shark money again," Chen Wuhong pleaded.

"Recover at home, or accidentally fall off the rooftop. Pick one." Chen Wujun continued supporting him, his tone perfectly calm.

"Besides, if you die, Mom and Dad will be sad for a few days at most. They've still got me and our little brother. And they'll never have to worry about loan sharks knocking on our door again."

Chen Wuhong knew he wasn't joking.

His younger brother had somehow, at some point he couldn't pinpoint, transformed into someone he didn't recognize at all.

Chen Wujun helped Chen Wuhong hobble into a clinic.

"Doctor, when will his leg be healed?" Chen Wujun asked with concern while waiting on the side.

"The injury isn't too severe. Hairline fracture, not a full break. But it'll still be six weeks before he can walk, and even then—no heavy loads, no fast walking. Come back for a follow-up at eight weeks." The doctor explained as he fitted a splint onto Chen Wuhong's leg.

"Good to hear." Chen Wujun nodded.

'Bricks really aren't sturdy enough. Only six weeks at home.'

'When his leg is almost healed, next time I'll use an iron rod.'

Shortly after, Chen Wujun helped Chen Wuhong out of the clinic. On the walk home, he said: "You know what to say when we get back, right?"

"Not a single word about my business. Otherwise, I will beat you to death."

"Isn't it great being home every day? Watch some TV, eat Mom's cooking, and if you get bored, read something. What do you like to read? I'll buy it for you. Want some erotic magazines?"

Chen Wujun's tone swung between cold menace and warm concern so rapidly that only one thought echoed in Chen Wuhong's mind.

Ah-Jun had lost his mind!

He was a complete lunatic now!

The front door opened. Their parents sat on the sofa watching television. Their mother looked up toward the doorway with a hint of expectation, and seeing Chen Wujun, asked:

"Why are you back at this hour?"

Then she saw Chen Wujun dragging Chen Wuhong in behind him.

Chen Wuhong's leg was in a splint.

"Ah-Hong! You're home!"

"What happened to your leg?"

"I spotted some guys chasing Big Brother and beating him up, so I brought him home," Chen Wujun stated with a perfectly straight face.

Hearing this, Chen Hanliang's expression darkened. He rose from the sofa and stared at Chen Wuhong with the bitter frustration of a man resenting iron for not becoming steel:

"Did you go gambling again? Don't tell me you've gotten into loan shark debt again?"

"It's not loan sharks this time. Seems like he just offended the wrong people," Chen Wujun interjected.

"The doctor said he needs six weeks of bed rest before he can walk. He can't go to work during that time, so he might as well recover at home."

Hearing this, Chen Hanliang's expression softened slightly.

"Lucky he wasn't beaten to death."

Then he went back to the sofa and resumed watching TV, though his mind was clearly elsewhere.

"What kind of person hits that hard..." Huang Meizhen murmured, her heart aching over her eldest son's broken leg, though she also breathed a sigh of relief.

He was home. That was good. As long as it wasn't more loan shark debt.

Chen Wujun went into his bedroom, pulled the cash from inside his pillow, and stuffed it in his pocket.

Then he went to the bathroom and tucked another stack of bills into his waistband.

"I'm heading back to the martial arts school."

"Ah-Jun, those clothes... they suit you well." Chen Hanliang had wanted to comment on Chen Wujun's outfit since the moment he'd walked in.

Leather shoes, dark trousers, a deep blue dress shirt—they made him look sharp and composed.

Nothing like the cheap t-shirts from before. He didn't even look like a student anymore.

"They're from Senior Brother Li. He's about my height, wore these once and didn't want them anymore, so he gave them to me," Chen Wujun replied casually.

"That senior brother from your martial arts school sounds like a really good person. Letting you work at the school, helping you out with other things too. Make sure you thank him properly when you get the chance!" Chen Hanliang said.

Chen Wuhong hung his head, a stomachful of words lodged in his throat, none of which he could voice.

"I will." Chen Wujun glanced at his older brother on his way out the door. "Take care of that leg."

The moment he stepped outside, his expression turned cold as he headed straight for the dance hall.

His pants!

They were expensive!