Hell's Handbook

Chapter 20: Unafraid of Trouble

Su Jin hated hearing that. That was the problem with today’s society. The rich and powerful were willing to fight fairly only for as long as they were on the winning side. Once they realized that they were on the losing end, it was common for them to pull out their ultimate trump card: their fathers. They always imagined that they were never going to lose because they had a powerful father, so while ordinary folks had to work hard to gain recognition and clout, these came easily to those born with a silver spoon in their mouths.

“And who’s your dad?” Su Jin did not loosen his grip on Young Master Lin’s wrist and smiled sinisterly at Young Master Lin.

“My dad… my dad’s the mayor of S City, Lin Tianyu!” Young Master Lin started feeling a little scared when he saw that sinister smile on Su Jin’s face, but when he thought about how his father was the one who called the shots in this city, he felt emboldened again.

Everyone’s hearts sank immediately when they heard that Young Master Lin was Lin Tianyu’s son. Lin Tianyu was both a capable and tough mayor who had produced good results consistently right from his first day as mayor. In short, he was a mayor that everyone in the city loved, but nobody here was sure if he would still be upright and impartial if a member of his family was on the wrong side of the law.

Since this boy was the mayor’s son, it meant that he was used to enjoying special privileges. It now made sense to them why he had been so arrogant and seemingly unbothered by any possible consequences. Anyone who came from a less powerful background would usually have no choice but to just suck it up and consider themselves unlucky for offending the wrong person.

But Su Jin didn’t think the same way. He was now a person who had no idea how much longer he could live, so he wasn’t afraid of anything. He wasn’t even afraid of a God, never mind a mere human.

“Oh my! Is Lin Tianyu really that amazing?” sneered Su Jin. Then he turned to Tang Ning and said, “Miss Tang, I’m afraid I have to take my leave first. I can’t stand how this little boy is throwing his weight around like this, so I’m going to drag him back to his father!”

“Wait, what?!” Tang Ning was too stunned for words. Compared to Young Master Lin, Su Jin’s words sounded even more outrageous. How could he call Young Master Lin a little boy?

“Wh-what do you want with my dad?” Young Master Lin felt like his wrist was on the verge of breaking. But even worse than the pain in his wrist was the fact that Su Jin didn’t seem to care that he was the mayor’s son and looked more like an adult trying to bring an errant child back to his parents.

“What do I want with your dad? I’m going to ask him if he knows what his son has been doing out here,” said Su Jin as he yanked Young Master Lin along. As he dragged Young Master Lin out, he muttered, “I believe the mayor is doing a walkabout in the city this week, right?”

Young Master Lin’s heart sank as Su Jin dragged him along. It was true that he was the mayor’s son and he had gotten away with a lot of things on account of his father, but it didn’t mean that his father approved of the things he had done.

All this time, regardless of what he did, everyone would do him a favor on account of his father. It didn’t matter how much trouble he created. Anybody he offended would make it so that the grievances they had gone through were trivial or even sweep it under the carpet. Nothing serious ever reached his father’s ears. In fact, his parents always had the impression that their son was a good kid who respected the elderly and took care of those in need.

But now, Su Jin was going to drag him to his father. Knowing his father, it didn’t take a genius to guess how his father would react. His father would not let him off since someone outside the family was involved this time. More importantly, if any of his father’s political enemies found out about what he had done and made a big fuss about it or exposed it to the public, his father might have trouble keeping his position as the mayor of S City.

“Are you quite done?! Who sent you here to do this? It’s just my luck to run into you! How much did those people pay you? I’ll pay you double!” Young Master Lin had concluded that Su Jin must have been sent by one of his father’s political enemies.

Su Jin glared at him for a second before continuing to walk without saying anything. The three men with Young Master Lin didn’t dare to help him either. After observing Su Jin’s reactions to his offer, Young Master Lin wasn’t sure who Su Jin really was anymore. His voice cracked as he pleaded, “Please, sir! I was in the wrong! What do you want? Do you want money? Or are you after my life?”

“I want neither of those! I want justice!” Su Jin had no idea what Young Master Lin was thinking about. He had decided to poke his nose into this matter because he was much stronger than before and wasn’t afraid of any consequences that might follow. But he also knew that if he didn’t close this case cleanly, Tang Ning and the rest were going to be implicated. That was why he decided to just go all the way to the mayor to make sure this case was resolved properly.

“Justice?! What would you consider justice?” asked Young Master Lin as tears welled up in his eyes.

“I want you to apologize to my colleague! Also, after you had threatened her like this, I’m sure she must have suffered some degree of emotional trauma, so you ought to compensate her for that too, don’t you think?” Su Jin stopped walking when he noticed that Young Master Lin looked ready to give in.

Young Master Lin was on the verge of bursting into tears. It was true that he was at fault first. After a few drinks, he had noticed that one of Su Jin’s colleagues had a pretty good figure and touched her, so she immediately grabbed a glass of wine and splashed it on him.

He agreed that he deserved it and it was too bad for him, but at the same time, he didn’t really do much more than that. In the end, he got hit in return and his wrist was on the verge of breaking. And now, Su Jin was actually demanding compensation from him. Such a thing had never happened to him before!

But Young Master Lin didn’t dare let Su Jin drag him to see his father, and he couldn’t beat Su Jin in a fight either. So, he had no choice but to admit defeat and go along with anything Su Jin said. Su Jin dragged him back into the restaurant once Young Master Lin agreed to his conditions, only to see that the owner of the restaurant was arguing with Tang Ning and a few colleagues. The owner immediately hid behind the counter once he spotted Su Jin walking back in.

“What’s going on now?” Su Jin asked Tang Ning.

Tang Ning didn’t know why Su Jin had dragged Young Master Lin back into the restaurant, but her immediate response was, “This restaurant is trying to fleece us! When I booked the place, they had agreed to charge us a total bill of $1,000, but now they’re demanding $8,000 instead!”

“I didn’t know there were still businesses that were so blatant about fleecing their customers.” Su Jin was rather surprised. He didn’t expect Tang Ning to be arguing with the owner over something like that.

“WEI DONGXU! Come out here right now!” Before Su Jin could say anything, Young Master Lin suddenly gave a shout and the owner immediately weaselled out from behind the counter. He looked like he was about to cry.

“What the hell is going on now?”

“B-Boss… I saw that they were hitting you, so I was… I was just trying to find a way to teach them a lesson for you,” replied the owner with a tearful expression on his face.

Young Master Lin’s first instinct was to kick the owner in anger, but because Su Jin had punched him in the foot earlier, this sudden motion nearly brought Young Master Lin to his knees. Thankfully, Su Jin was still hanging onto him, so he didn’t end up on the floor.

“And who the hell told you to do that?! Mind your own business! You don’t have to come back here tomorrow!” yelled Young Master Lin furiously.

Su Jin quickly put two and two together. He laughed and said, “Oh, so you own this restaurant.”

“I, uh, yeah, that’s right! Your meal’s on me today, please take it as my way of apology,” said Young Master Lin with an ingratiating smile on his face, even though he was secretly dying on the inside. He had never had to suffer this sort of loss in his entire life. But he had no choice but to swallow his pride now.

Su Jin nodded. He had been wondering why someone like Young Master Lin would have come to a low-end restaurant like this. So, it was actually a business that Young Master Lin ran.

In the end, Su Jin managed to force Young Master Lin to apologize to Tang Ning and his other colleagues. As for the part about the girl being compensated for psychological damage, the girl who splashed red wine on him was too scared to accept it, so she insisted that she didn’t need to be compensated. Su Jin couldn’t do anything about that, so he left it as that.

“What happened today is between you and me. In the future, if you need to air any grievances, come and look for me directly, you hear me?” said Su Jin to Young Master Lin as he let go of Young Master Lin and patted his shoulders. Su Jin no longer saw this as a difficult problem that he would rather not have. In fact, if Young Master Lin really tried to make life difficult for him, he was ready to teach him a good lesson.

Young Master Lin rubbed his painful wrist and said through gritted teeth, “You’ve got guts! I’ve lost today, but just you wait! I’ll get back at you someday!”

Su Jin nodded and didn’t seem bothered by Young Master Lin’s threat at all. After that, Su Jin walked back to join his colleagues and the entire department left the restaurant together.

After they had left, one of Young Master Lin’s underlings asked, “Young Master Lin, do you want me to call the police and get them to deal with him?”

“Are you stupid?! Where do you think you are? Some small town where the sheriff panders to you just because you’ve got a bit of money and clout? We’re in S City, one of the most developed and wealthiest cities in this country! Even my father doesn’t dare to order the police in this city around! Did you think you were seriously some big shot?” Young Master Lin was already fuming mad, so when he heard one of his underlings say something so stupid, he flew into a rage and slapped that underling hard.

After that, he frowned and said, “This guy either comes from some powerful family or he’s a nutcase! I don’t care which one he is! Find out who he is!”

“Got it!”

Meanwhile, after Su Jin and his colleagues had walked away from the restaurant, Li Zhikai approached Su Jin and said, “I didn’t know you were so good at fighting! But seriously though, that boy is from a pretty powerful family, so I’m sure he’s going to get back at you for doing this to him.”

“I know, but I had to stop him at some point. I couldn’t possibly just stand there and watch my colleagues get bullied like that,” said Su Jin with a smile on his face, as if what just transpired meant nothing to him.

Li Zhikai sighed quietly. He too, knew that if Su Jin hadn’t stood up for them and fought back, everyone at the restaurant earlier would have been implicated and he would have been slapped so badly too.

Tang Ning walked over with the girl who offended Young Master Lin in the first place to thank him. “Su Jin, I really want to thank you for today. I didn’t think that the manliest guy we have in the office would turn out to be you. All the other guys are such cowards!”

“Don’t say that. Everyone has their own difficulties. That can’t be helped,” said Su Jin as he shook his head. If the men who threatened the ladies were just a bunch of ordinary ruffians, he was pretty sure someone would have fought them off too. But Young Master Lin’s background gave him a huge advantage. It hadn’t been easy for any of Su Jin’s colleagues to get a job in this city, so it was only natural for them to stay out of trouble with someone like the mayor’s son if they could.

But Tang Ning didn’t think that way. She tugged at the girl next to her and said, “Li Man, you’ve really got to thank Su Jin for today. If not for him, you’d definitely be in big trouble.”

Li Man nodded and she looked at Su Jin with a pretty smile instead of her usually snobby expression. “Su Jin, thank you so much. I’ll treat you to coffee next time!”

“Nah, it’s alright, I don’t really fancy coffee,” said Su Jin without even thinking. He genuinely didn’t like drinking coffee because he found it too bitter, but these words sounded different to Li Man. As the prettiest girl in the company, she had plenty of admirers lining up just to talk to her. Anyone she agreed to go for coffee with would have been on cloud nine by now. Nobody would have turned her down like this.

.

Tang Ning and Li Zhikai exchanged awkward glances while Su Jin didn’t seem to have noticed anything at all. Li Man scowled and said, “Fine, forget it then.”

“Yeah, it’s fine!” Su Jin nodded slightly, which stunned both Tang Ning and Li Zhikai. They wondered if Su Jin was seriously just obtuse or if Li Man had offended him in the past. But if Li Man had offended him before, why would he bother standing up for her today?

Su Jin ignored Li Man completely and gave Tang Ning an ingratiating smile as he said, “Miss Tang, on account of my performance today, do you think… you could reconsider giving me my perfect attendance reward money?”

Tang Ning almost burst out laughing at Su Jin’s priorities, but she shook her head in the end. “These are company regulations and I’m not able to change those. But you did do a good job today, so I’ll reward you on behalf of the company. You’ll still get your perfect attendance reward money, just from a different source. Will that work for you?”

“Miss Tang, you’re the best!” cheered Su Jin. Money didn’t really mean anything to him now, but he liked the feeling of living life the way he used to.

“By the way, I didn’t know you were so good at fighting. You shouldn’t let that go to waste. Come to my office tomorrow morning, I’ve got a new job for you,” said Tang Ning.

“Oh? A new job?”