96: Chapter 96 Who do you think you are!

Shen Hongyuan's impassioned speech shattered the worldviews of everyone present.

Forced conscription and extortion; it was so fresh, so refined, and yet so righteous.

Su Ming stood to the side, his eyes flashing with fanatical light, cheering wildly in his heart.

Brilliant! Truly brilliant! Compared to this old fox, when it came to the grand path of shamelessness, he was simply a fledgling fresh out of the nest.

This future father-in-law was the true Ancestral Master!

Lu Beiyuan was choked by these words and couldn't say a thing for a long time, ultimately having to vent his frustration on his brother.

He barked angrily at Lu Beichen: "Why aren't you thanking Mr. Shen for his guidance!"

Lu Beichen felt like he was about to break his teeth, but he had no choice but to swallow it.

He struggled to climb up, forced himself to bow ninety degrees to Shen Hongyuan, and said with a trembling voice: "Th-thank you for your guidance, Mr. Shen! Beichen is deeply grateful, and the Lu Family... will never forget this!"

The words "never forget this" were practically spat out one by one through gritted teeth.

Shen Hongyuan didn't care at all.

Having collected sixteen million in cash and priceless gifts, he hadn't just whitewashed illegal detention into compulsory education, but had also managed to establish a persona of being "concerned for the younger generation."

"Go back and relay my words to your Old Ancestor properly. Do not add fuel to the fire or twist the truth."

"The youngster is doing just fine here. He eats well and sleeps soundly! It's just that his work isn't quite efficient enough yet, so he should come back for a few more days to consolidate his training."

After speaking, he waved his hand as if shooing away flies. "Alright, go on, get out of here!"

Lu Beiyuan, as if granted amnesty, hoisted up the dispirited Lu Beichen and fled onto the silver-white aircraft.

The hatch closed, the aircraft slowly rose into the sky, and tore through the air as it departed.

Su Ming watched the aircraft disappear into the horizon, then looked at Shen Hongyuan with an expression of worship!

I have never seen such a shameless person in my life! I really need to work harder to learn from him!

The aircraft cut through the clouds and steadily climbed to a cruising altitude of three thousand meters.

The luxurious leather sofas and climate control System inside the cabin finally allowed Lu Beichen to recover a shred of the dignity belonging to a young master of a wealthy Family.

He changed out of the oil-stained apron and put his expensive custom suit back on. Looking at the clouds rapidly receding outside the porthole, his eyes were filled with venom.

His swollen cheek made him look like an angry pig's head.

"Brother, I refuse to accept this! Why is a scrap collector so arrogant? When we get back to the Imperial Capital, I will definitely use the Family's connections to seal his lousy factory and make him kneel and beg me!"

He plotted through gritted teeth, completely failing to notice that Lu Beiyuan's face behind him was so cold it could scrape off frost.

Lu Beiyuan walked over in silence. Lu Beichen thought his brother was coming to comfort him. But what greeted him was another heavy, powerful slap!

"Slap!!!" This slap was even heavier than the one at the entrance of the Scrap Yard, sending Lu Beichen tumbling off the sofa and crashing heavily onto the floor.

"Brother, what are you doing!" Lu Beichen clutched his other cheek, completely stunned by the blow.

"Still thinking about revenge?" Lu Beiyuan looked down at him. "Do you have any idea that you almost didn't make it back?"

Lu Beichen's face flushed red, and he argued stiffly: "Isn't he just a notorious Scrap Yard owner? Does our Lu Family really need to fear him?"

Lu Beiyuan sneered, sat down opposite him, and pushed up his rimless glasses. "Do you know the value of the things I gave away?"

"What do you mean?" Lu Beichen was a bit dazed. Lu Beiyuan held up eight fingers.

Lu Beichen froze, then grinned. Although it pained him, his tone carried a trace of relief at having survived a disaster: "Eighty million? Although it's a bit much, for the sake of saving me, the Family can still..."

"Add two more zeros." Lu Beiyuan's voice was devoid of emotion.

"What?" "I said, add two more zeros. Eight billion!"

Lu Beiyuan enunciated every word. His voice wasn't loud, but it exploded like a thunderclap in Lu Beichen's ears.

"Those two items, the Starry Sky Meteorite and the seventh-generation Source Energy matrix core, have a total black market value exceeding eight billion Federal Credits! That is our Family's entire annual research budget! All of it went down the drain!"

The air in the cabin felt like it had been sucked dry. Lu Beichen's mind went blank for a full three seconds.

Then he "sprang" up from the sofa, and the meta-magnetic Source Energy inside his body instantly surged out of control!

"Beep! Beep! Beep-beep-beep!" The aircraft's energy fluctuation alarm blared frantically, the emergency lights on the ceiling all switched to red strobe, and the AI piloting System automatically broadcasted: "Abnormal energy fluctuation detected in the cabin, about to initiate forced suppression protocol..."

"Retract your energy!" Lu Beiyuan roared.

Lu Beichen, as if his throat had been grabbed, desperately forced the surging Source Energy back into his body. The alarm gradually died down, and the red lights returned to normal.

He collapsed back onto the sofa like a wooden chicken, his lips trembling, unable to say a single word. Eight billion... to save him... they spent eight billion?

His eyes grew hot, his voice choked with emotion, filled with immense self-reproach. "Brother... the Family paid such a huge price to save me..."

He sniffled, his eyes turning red. "From now on, I will definitely turn over a new leaf... Cultivate properly... and serve the Family..."

Halfway through his sentence, he noticed Lu Beiyuan's expression. It was the look one gives an idiot. There was no emotion, only pity.

"What are you feeling touched about?" "Do you think Great-Grandfather spent eight billion to save you?" Lu Beichen's mouth opened slightly, and he froze.

"Who the hell do you think you are!" When these words came out of Lu Beiyuan's mouth, the self-pity on Lu Beichen's face shattered directly into slag.

Lu Beiyuan leaned back against the chair and wearily rubbed his brow. "This eight billion isn't just ransom; it's life-buying money." "What it bought, was the life of our entire Lu Family!"

Lu Beiyuan's voice sliced away at his brother's last shred of dignity like a blade.

"Great-Grandfather has been in seclusion for twenty years, and he made the decision within half an hour of receiving the news! It wasn't because he felt bad for you. It was because of the scrap collector you looked down upon—Shen Hongyuan."

Lu Beichen's pupils shrank violently.

"In front of him, let alone you," Lu Beiyuan pointed at Lu Beichen's nose, saying every word clearly, "at a critical moment, I, Father, anyone in the Lu Family, can be sacrificed! Do you understand?!"

The color drained completely from Lu Beichen's face.

He remembered his arrogant demeanor in the Scrap Yard, remembered shouting at Shen Hongyuan "Do you know who my father is," and remembered threatening to have the Lu Family's Silver Wing mecha squad flatten this lousy factory. A wave of numbness went down his spine.

"Our Lu Family can throw our weight around in front of ordinary people. But in the eyes of an existence like Mr. Shen, we are no different from an ant that can be crushed at any moment." Lu Beiyuan's tone carried deep fatigue and lingering fear.

Lu Beichen was completely desperate. He finally knew what kind of terrifying existence he had provoked! But he was unwilling to accept it.

All the humiliation, all the injustice rolled in his heart! The hatred that had accumulated to the extreme needed a vent.

Yes, it's him!! It's all the fault of that wild man named Su Ming!

If it weren't for him! If it weren't for him blocking that combat robot, the one accompanying Miss Shen in the Source Abyss for training would be me!

This heaven-reaching background of the Shen Family should have been my, Lu Beichen's, support!

The more he thought, the angrier he got, and the resentment that had just been extinguished in his eyes reignited with a fierce flame. "Brother... what about that guy!"

"Slap!" The third big slap landed. Precise, crisp. Lu Beichen was slapped so hard his entire head tilted to one side, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

Lu Beiyuan saw through his thoughts: "You still want to move against that youth?" "Are you blind?!"

"Just now at the factory, didn't you notice the positioning of Mr. Shen, Miss Shen, and that kid named Su Ming?" Lu Beichen, dizzy from the beating, subconsciously recalled.

"The positioning of the three of them was a completely undefended, invisible triangle."

"When Mr. Shen was talking with his back to Su Ming, there was no defense at all. Do you know what this means? He already considers that kid as one of his own!"

"And Shen Qingci! You know her personality better than I do, a rising star on the heavenly pride ranking, a student of Commander Huangfu Jing.

From the time she enrolled until now, the people chasing her in school have lined up to the school gate; has she ever looked at you properly? Yet when she was whispering into that kid's ear, she was full of shyness! Use your pig brain and think! Why is that?!"

"Even taking a step back, even without this relationship!" Lu Beiyuan's tone became increasingly severe, "Before I came, I asked people from the Dark Night organization, and on the day of the robot riot, it was that kid who used his Physical Body to withstand the robot's attack.

Don't you know what level your [Meta-Magnetic Heart] is at? You would have been blown away in the first round! Why on earth do you think you can win against him?"

A series of questions, like heavy hammers, smashed fiercely against Lu Beichen's heart.

The Family background he was proud of was worthless in front of the Shen Family. The talent he was proud of was even more of a joke in front of Su Ming.

His own brother's chain of slaps combined with an IQ-crushing lecture finally completely broke his last psychological defense line.

With a "waa," this young master of the Lu Family curled up in his seat, hugged his face, which was swollen like a pig's head, and began to wail.

Lu Beiyuan looked at this spineless appearance of his, frowned in disgust, but eventually sighed.

"Why must Great-Grandfather attempt to break through to the eighth rank while in death seclusion? The old man said... the cycle of the Great Catastrophe is fifty years, and the last time was thirty years ago; there isn't much time left for humanity."

"What the Lu Family needs is someone capable of shouldering responsibility, not a piece of trash who causes trouble everywhere." "It's okay to be wild when young, but you must never be stupid."

Lu Beiyuan walked to his brother and issued the final iron-blooded order. "So Lu Beichen, listen to me and remember this."

"From today on, whether in school or outside, whenever you encounter people from the Shen Family, or that youth, put away that young master temperament of yours!"

"Yield when you should, hide when you should, and help when you should! Treat them like ancestors and respect them!"

"If you dare to be stupid again..." He bent down, his voice so soft that only the two of them could hear. "I won't wait for Father to act; I will be the one to cripple you, damn it."

Lu Beichen's wailing gradually turned into suppressed sobbing. He curled up in the corner of the seat, his whole body huddled into a ball.

He dared not look into Lu Beiyuan's eyes again. Because he had fallen into extreme confusion.

... Wasn't I the protagonist?! Wasn't I the prince in the fairy tale?! Wasn't I the tall, rich, and handsome one?!

So after all that... I'm the world's top-tier, purebred, absolute fraud?! ...