132: Chapter 132 Alcohol and Iodine Solution: Disinfecting While Applying the Solution

At the Vanke Number One residence of the Qin Family, Qin Qitian was currently kneeling on the polished floor, both hands clutching his earlobes. He was battered and bruised, not daring to lift his head in the slightest, fearing that if he did, he would see his old father's gaze—a look that suggested he wished he could stuff his son back into the womb to be remade.

Qin Hua was wearing a hip-hop outfit, with a gold chain as thick as a pinky finger around his neck. A red and white baseball cap was perched crookedly on his head, and a swollen, red five-finger mark was visible on his right cheek. He kept his hands crossed in front of him, looking as wilted as a frost-bitten eggplant.

As a ringtone sounded, Qin Lang shot a fierce glare at his "good son" kneeling on the floor before answering the phone, his expression shifting instantly:

"Hahaha, Chairman Liu, yes, yes, right, okay."

"Many thanks, Chairman Liu. We recently received a batch of excellent service staff. I hear Chairman Liu has very high standards, so I will have to trouble you to help me vet them properly when the time comes."

After hanging up the phone, Qin Lang took a deep breath and said:

"Get up."

Qin Qitian, whose knees had long since gone numb, stood up with Qin Hua's help and sat on a chair nearby. He still kept his head lowered, not daring to make a sound, though his legs were trembling involuntarily. That was from the pain; anyone who knelt on a hard, smooth floor for two hours would be the same.

Up until now, Qin Qitian still couldn't figure it out. Today, he had clearly been in the middle of coordinating the investigation into Su Ye's information, and he would have had it in another day. He hadn't expected to be slapped to the ground the moment he got home. Then, he saw Qin Lang pull out his belt and unleash a storm of blows before ordering him to kneel. He didn't dare ask what was going on. Didn't he see that when Qin Hua returned after he had already knelt, Qin Hua didn't say a word before receiving a heavy slap? It had stunned the kid.

Qin Lang looked at the son he had once been so proud of, a flash of heartache crossing his eyes, but it vanished in an instant. He said slowly:

"Do you know why I hit you today?"

Alarm bells rang in Qin Qitian's mind. *No way, old man, you're doing it again? Others use entrapment, but you're using forced enforcement.* Qin Qitian already anticipated the storm of attacks to follow, but he would get a beating whether he spoke or not. He might as well test the waters.

So, Qin Qitian racked his brain trying to think of how he had offended the old man. Could it be that he had been found out for messing around with the young woman the old man kept on the side? That couldn't be it; he had clearly been very discreet.

Or was it because his previous embezzlement of company funds had been discovered? That didn't seem right either; he had covered it up using fake liquor accounts.

Watching his son's expression cycle between confusion and sudden realization, Qin Lang gripped his Seven Wolfs belt so hard it creaked, then opened two bottles nearby and wiped their contents onto the belt.

Seeing the old man's actions, Qin Hua swallowed audibly. He then lightly nudged the still-contemplating Qin Qitian and asked:

"Brother—what are those two bottles on Dad's table?"

Qin Qitian was a bit annoyed at being interrupted by Qin Hua, but remembering that he was his own brother and had just helped him up, he replied irritably:

"What could it be? Alcohol and iodine. I smelled it just now."

Hearing this, Qin Hua looked at Qin Lang, who was slowly standing up, as if looking at a demon. He then looked at his older brother with the same gaze he'd had when watching the 300 Spartans, and silently retreated three, four, five, six steps back.

"Crack!"

"Ouch!"

The belt lashed fiercely against Qin Qitian's lower leg, causing him to jump up in a reflex, but because his legs were weak, he fell back to the ground.

"I told you to speak, are you playing games with me, huh!"

"Crack!"

"Ouch, Dad, stop hitting me, I'm trying to think, aren't I?"

"Crack!"

"Still thinking? Even if you think of your grandfather today, it won't help."

"Aaaah!!!"

Qin Hua trembled all over, watching the tragedy in the living room with an unbearable expression. A line of ancient poetry came to mind: *We are born of the same root, why then this mutual persecution?* Something didn't seem right, so he changed it to: *Truly, alcohol and iodine, disinfecting while beating.*

A few minutes later, Qin Qitian lay on the ground like a dead dog. His white shirt was torn to shreds and stained with quite a bit of blood. Qin Lang panted heavily, placed the blood-stained belt on the table, picked up his teacup, and drained it in one gulp.

"I have told you both repeatedly before: our Qin Family may look like we have a massive enterprise, but it is all a castle in the air. Keep a low profile, low profile, and even lower profile. If we can just last another ten or twenty years, we can wash ourselves clean completely. But you two? Huh!"

As he spoke, Qin Lang grabbed the belt from the table and pointed it toward his eldest and youngest sons, scaring them so much they kept trembling.

"One of you does no proper work every day, just hanging out with those fox friends and dog pals, and I have to clean up after you three times a week."

"The other looks like a decent human being and usually does some proper work, but the moment you cause trouble, it's a catastrophe."

"I, Qin Lang, must have owed you two in my past life!"

Qin Qitian finally knew why he had been beaten; it all came down to Su Ye. He struggled to crawl up and didn't dare sit on the chair, instead sitting on the floor as he looked at his father, who looked weary and aged.

"Dad, what exactly is Su Ye's background? In this Sichuan Province, as long as our Qin Family doesn't provoke those few families at the very top, we should still be able to hold our own, right? Even if we are a bit inferior to the average ten-billion-level group or department-level cadres, it's not like we're completely helpless, right?"

Qin Lang had fought two rounds in a row; his anger had dissipated quite a bit, and he was exhausted. He braced his hands on his knees and said:

"Background? If I knew, that would be great. At the very least, I could die knowing who did it. Not to mention the Yu Family and the Chaoyang Group, his own strength on the surface is enough to take on our Qin Family."

"Let's not even talk about business warfare, which is nothing more than squeezing customer traffic, supply chains, and cash flow. If it were just that, our Qin Family would still have a chance to fight. But according to the latest information I've received, this Su Ye has a very close relationship with Yan Zheng, the District Party Secretary of the High-Tech Zone, and Deputy Bureau Chief Chang Le of the Municipal Public Security Bureau. Half of our industrial focus is currently in the High-Tech Zone. You tell me how we are supposed to fight, huh! All it takes is for Yan Zheng to propose some actions or policies, combined with cooperation from Chang Le, and we would suffer massive losses in a short period."

Hearing Qin Lang's words, Qin Qitian was completely stunned. He had originally thought Su Ye was an outsider who at most had good relations with the Yu Family and the Chaoyang Group, but he himself could rely on the protection of the Liu Family, preventing the Yu Family and the Chaoyang Group from interfering. He hadn't expected Su Ye's connections in official circles to be this strong.

"What about... what about Bureau Chief Zhang? Isn't he also a deputy bureau chief of the Municipal Public Security Bureau? And we haven't given little to Mayor Huang either. A district party secretary should still be manageable, right?"

Qin Lang rubbed his nose bridge wearily:

"I've already spoken to Old Zhang. Old Zhang's stance is that he can find a way to block large-scale operations, but he can't intervene if it's the actions of the Wuhou or Gaoxin District branches. One is Yan Zheng's power base, and the other is Deputy Bureau Chief Chang Le's. No one listens to him there."

"As for Mayor Liu, I've also spoken to him, but Mayor Huang said that Yan Zheng is backed by the city's number one, so he can't go too far. He can only talk."