112: Chapter 112 Siblings Join Forces, Invincible Under Heaven

The courtyard instantly erupted like a drop of water into a pot of boiling oil.

Thirty or forty people squeezed into the small courtyard, spit flying everywhere, the light in their eyes greener than a hungry wolf spotting meat. Leading them was an old man in a Mao suit—the second grand-aunt's eldest cousin—clutching a yellowed genealogy book, desperately pushing toward the main house.

"Chen Fan! I'm your Maternal Cousin-Uncle! I even held you when you were little! Don't you remember?"

"Fan Zi! I'm the neighbor of your third aunt's second-uncle; we're real relatives!"

Chen Haoyu stood like a door god in front of the grandmaster chair, arms spread wide, shouting with a flushed face and bulging neck, "Get back! Everyone get back! If anyone pushes further, don't blame me for not respecting my elders!"

But this group had clearly come prepared and didn't fall for it. The old man in the Mao suit poked Chen Haoyu with the genealogy book. "Move aside! What does a junior like you know? This is a matter between us elders! Chen Fan! Come out! Now that you've made it big, you're going to ignore your poor relatives?"

It looked like Chen Haoyu was about to buckle under the "human wave" charge of these old men and women.

"Let him through."

A cold, clear voice cut through the noisy crowd; it wasn't loud, yet it carried a heart-chilling frostiness.

Chen Muyang sat on the grandmaster chair, his handheld console tucked away at some point. He sat with his legs crossed and fingers interlaced over his knees, his eyes calmly watching the old man in the Mao suit as if looking at a piece of junk mail waiting to be processed.

Chen Haoyu felt as if he'd been granted a grand amnesty. He quickly stepped aside to make a path, wiping sweat from his forehead. These old folks were surprisingly strong; they'd nearly crushed his ribs just now.

The old man in the Mao suit straightened his collar and walked up to Chen Muyang with a smug look, putting on the airs of an elder. "You must be Fan Zi's son? You're quite handsome. Since your dad won't come out, talking to you is the same. Maternal Cousin-Uncle's family wants to build a pig farm recently and we're short by two hundred thousand. You're a junior, so why don't you pay this for your dad?"

As he spoke, his hand with its dirty black fingernails reached out to pat Chen Muyang on the shoulder.

Before he could touch the clothes, Chen Haoyu's small folding nail clipper "swished" out to block him.

Chen Muyang didn't even lift an eyelid. He tilted his head toward Chen Nianyao, who was wiping her hands with a wet wipe. "Yaoyao, did you find it?"

Today, Chen Nianyao wore a white wide-brimmed hat, looking exceptionally well-behaved. She held a tablet, her fingers sliding rapidly across the screen. Her voice was as sweet as honey, but her words were like knives.

"Found it, Brother. This 'Maternal Cousin-Uncle' is named Wang Dagui, and he's beyond the five degrees of kinship with our family. Furthermore, ten years ago when Dad went to borrow tuition money, he set his dog on Dad and bit him, and didn't even compensate for the rabies vaccine. This debt hasn't been settled yet."

The courtyard fell slightly silent.

Wang Dagui's face twitched a couple of times as he gave a dry laugh. "That was a misunderstanding... the dog didn't know any better..."

"The dog didn't know better, but did the person not know better too?" Chen Muyang finally looked up, his gaze like two scalpels precisely slicing away the other's fig leaf. "Two hundred thousand for a pig farm? According to my investigation, your son owes one hundred and eighty thousand in high-interest loans from gambling in the county seat. This money is to fill that hole, isn't it?"

"You... how do you know?!" Wang Dagui reacted as if his tail had been stepped on, his voice changing pitch.

Chen Muyang ignored him and turned to snap his fingers at Brother Haoyu. "Brother Haoyu, did you bring the loan contract?"

"I brought it, I brought it!" Chen Haoyu reacted quickly, pulling a stack of printed A4 papers covered in dense clauses from his designer leather briefcase worth hundreds of thousands.

Chen Muyang took the pen and drew a circle on the paper. "If you want to borrow money, fine. Huihuang Group has legitimate micro-loan companies under its umbrella. For the sake of being 'relatives,' no property mortgage is required. However, the interest is calculated daily. If you're one day late, we will apply to the court for compulsory execution, freezing all assets under your name, including your residential land. Signing?"

The contract was slapped directly in front of Wang Dagui.

Seeing terms like "compulsory execution," "dishonest person list," and "restrictions on high consumption," Wang Dagui's hands shook as if he had Parkinson's. He came here to freeload, not to sell himself into debt!

"This... talking about money among family hurts feelings..." Wang Dagui chickened out, pulling his hands back behind him.

"If we don't talk about money, what should we talk about?" Chen Nianyao replied with a beaming smile. She pulled an exquisite gift box from her bag and handed it over with both hands. "Since Maternal Cousin-Uncle isn't borrowing anymore, then take this back. This is a souvenir we brought back from Jiang City."

Wang Dagui's eyes lit up, thinking it was some gold bar or jade piece. He quickly took it and opened it.

Inside were two neatly arranged bars of sulfur soap and a bottle of medicated oil.

"This..."

"I see that Maternal Cousin-Uncle has quite a temper; use the sulfur soap to wash it off and cool down." Chen Nianyao blinked her large eyes with an air of innocent naivety. "I picked this out carefully myself. Maternal Cousin-Uncle won't look down on it, will you?"

Wang Dagui was so angry he nearly choked, his face turning the color of pig liver. Holding the two bars of sulfur soap, he didn't know whether to throw them away or keep them.

"Next." Chen Muyang gave him no room to breathe, his cold gaze sweeping over the crowd behind who hadn't had a chance to speak yet. "Who else wants to build a house, see a doctor, or get a wife? We have plenty of contracts."

The relatives who had been so aggressive just a moment ago looked at each other in dismay.

Were these two children? They were clearly two little Kings of Hell! One talked about law and interest, the other gave soap to "cool your fire"—the carrot and the stick, perfectly executed.

"Uh... I suddenly remembered I didn't turn off the gas at home."

"I... I haven't fed my pigs yet."

The crowd began to loosen. Someone took the lead in backing away, and the others followed suit.

Seeing them about to flee, Chen Haoyu perked up. He rolled up his sleeves, revealing a temporary tattoo he'd put on yesterday, and took a menacing step forward. "What's this? Weren't you all quite good at pushing just now? Come on, who wants to sign a contract? I'll personally help him press his thumbprint!"

This caused a total stampede.

The "relatives" who had just been trying to eat the Chen family out of house and home now scrambled for the exit as if they'd seen a ghost. In less than two minutes, the once-crowded courtyard was empty, leaving behind only melon seed shells and a few crushed cigarette butts.

"Phew—" Chen Haoyu let out a long breath and plopped down on the steps. "That was so damn tiring. These people are harder to deal with than my group of fair-weather friends."

Chen Nianyao snapped the tablet shut, her well-behaved expression vanishing instantly. She pulled out a bottle of disinfectant spray with a look of disgust and sprayed the air a few times. "It's full of the smell of greed. It stinks."

She turned around and made a "V" sign toward the second-floor balcony. "Dad, Mom! Mission accomplished! The flies have been chased away!"

On the second floor, Chen Fan and Nickname smiled at each other.

"These two kids..." Nickname shook her head helplessly. "Muyang's ruthlessness is like yours, and Yaoyao's quirkiness... I don't know who she takes after."

"Me," Chen Fan said proudly. "Come on, let's go downstairs to eat. They fought a beautiful battle today; we have to reward them well."

The evening breeze blew, and the lanterns in the courtyard lit up, completely dispelling the foul atmosphere from before.

The family sat around the large round table in the center of the courtyard. Chen Jianguo had specifically hired a chef from the county to prepare a table full of hearty dishes. Su Guohua sat in the guest of honor seat, his face glowing as he sipped the Moutai Chen Fan had brought, looking very content.

"Come, let's have a toast!" Su Guohua raised his glass. "To celebrate our Chen family producing these two fine young sprouts! That scene today was truly satisfying!"

Chen Muyang picked up his juice and clinked glasses with his grandfather, his gaze then drifting seemingly aimlessly toward Chen Nianyao, who was currently devouring a hairy crab with grease all over her mouth.

When they were chasing people away earlier, Chen Nianyao had pushed the most tiring task—that persistent Third-Great-Aunt—directly onto him, causing a lipstick stain on his suit.

"Little sister worked hard today." Chen Muyang suddenly spoke, a meaningful smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "Not only did she have to look up data, but she also had to give out soap. Her professional skills are becoming more and more proficient."

Chen Nianyao's movements paused, and the crab meat in her mouth suddenly lost its flavor. She knew her brother too well; this kind of sarcastic praise was usually followed by a huge pit.

"Brother... eat more food." Chen Nianyao quickly put a piece of braised pork into Chen Muyang's bowl, trying to shut him up. "Don't talk while eating or sleeping; Dad taught us that."

Chen Fan was peeling shrimp for Nickname. Hearing this, he chuckled. "It's fine, we're happy today, so just chat. Muyang, what did you want to say?"

Chen Muyang slowly picked up the piece of braised pork and waved it in front of his eyes.

"It's nothing. I just suddenly remembered hearing Yaoyao say that at school, she..."

Chen Nianyao's eyes instantly widened, and the crab leg in her hand snapped with a "crack."

"Brother!!!"

Ignoring his sister's murderous gaze, Chen Muyang put the meat in his mouth, chewed twice, and then looked at the curious Chen Fan, calmly finishing the sentence.

"...seems to be very popular?"