SERIOUS MATTERS (3)

"I am Dan Ru!" The man in his forties was all red in the face. This young man had blasphemously laughed jeered at him. It was humiliating.

What he did not know was that the next moment would be much more humiliating.

Xue Guangxi dallied knowing that he had the upper hand. But then, he knew right from the start that he had the upper hand in this situation.

Suddenly, he felt funny for even raising his voice to this family.

"I see. Shuilong Trading. Good company. How long have you been working there, Senior Manager Dan?" He taunted, his lips had a hint of mirth that was uncalled for.

"Seven years!"

"Then you know who the owner of that company is?"

"The Zhu Young Master, Zhu Li Qiang! What is this interrogation about?!" The man retorted, confusion and irritation crossing his ugly face.

"You're steering the conversation elsewhere!" The woman, his wife, commented.

All the Chen family already knew where this was going.

"Are you sure you named the owner correctly? I mean, is there another one? The real founder? I believe Mr. Zhu is just a business partner."

"What do you know?!" The man got even redder in the face.

'This is savage fun.' Xue Guangxi thought as his face fell even darker. He intimidated the man into naming the other owner.

"Alright! Yes, you are correct! That isn't a secret to the public anyway! The founder of Shuilong Trading is Mr. Chen Linyun but he already passed away!"

"And? What's the surname of the kids your son bullied? You didn't even ask, didn't you? Hehehe." It was preposterously satisfying.

The man blanched in understanding. "C-Could it be?! Could it be?! That… Those brats, no.." He shook his head. Are they really –"

"Why don't you say hi to your future bosses? Chen Lihua, Chen Lingtian, come here for a while, kids." Xue Guangxi ordered.

Kang Sola tightened her grip onto each twin's hands. "No."

"Let them, Sola. It's their birthright to meet their employee." He laughed a mirthless one.

Xue Guangxi took the chubby from Sola's and tugged the twins gently by his side, facing the other party head-on.

"Are they really?" Without delay, the man knelt on his knees. His trembling body revealed his inner realizations. Then, his right hand came flying and hit the back of his son's head."

"Honey!!! Why did you hit our son?!" Flabbergasted, the woman yelped. She had not realized what had transpired yet.

"Foolish woman! Kneel with me! Yo too, son! All of all the kids you choose to randomly fight with!" He hit his son's head again.

The onlookers murmured in a hazy buzz. They whispered with each other. The turn of events was too drastic that some did not catch on.

"Can you stop hitting your son? We don't condone violence." Xue Guangxi buried the Chen twins' heads on his side to prevent them from witnessing the acts of violence.

"Yes! Yes! Surely!!! On behalf of my whole family, I apologize!! Sir!"

Xue Guangxi poked his pinky finger into his ear smugly, "You apologizing to me? What wrong did you do to me? I believe you owe the apology to the twins here."

"Yes, yes!!!" The man had turned from an emotional machine gun to an apathetic robot who sweats a lot. "Little boy, little girl, our family apologizes. Our son didn't know any better. We fail as parents to discipline him and teach him manners! Please spare him – us!"

He even kowtowed. He nudged his wife and son to do the same.

The proud wife and son naturally defied him with an aghast expression on their faces. "But Dad! This is so humiliating!"

"Just do it." He glared at his son into submission.

"Honey!!! I refuse!!"

He yanked his wife onto the ground beside him, "It's not a matter of your choice! Just do it!"

The three of them kowtowed at the kids' footsteps.

"Please, young master, young miss! Spare us our lives!!! This is just a small fight among kids, right?"

Xue Guangxi rolled his eyes at these despicably lowly people. "Please stand up or else other people might say that we're guilty of power tripping. We did not do anything, didn't we?"

"Yes, yes, master!! It's all on us." He agreed then turned to the crowd. "Everyone! It's all on us!! We're at fault here!! My boy!!! He's the one responsible!!! We're sorry!!! So sorry!!" He wiped the beads of sweat that built upon his forehead.

"But Dad!" The boy-boss stomped his feet.

"Don't you know who they are? They're the young heirs of the company where I work. Do I have to spell out everything to both of you explicitly? They have our lives in their hands."

Xue Guangxi sighed again. "It doesn't seem right. Do we have your lives in our hands? I don't think so." He bowed down towards the twins. "Do we, Chen Lihua, Chen Lingtian?"

The little boy and the little girl both shook their heads nonchalantly. They understood that the man worked in their father's company, but they did not understand his change of heart at all. What they cared about was to go back to the confines of their room, away from the prying eyes of strangers.

"It's dragging out too long." Xue Guangxi remarked.

"No, we're almost done! It's our boy's fault! Look at the young master's face!" He referred to the bruises on Chen Lingtian's face. "Apologize!" He said to his son.

"Dad!"

"Apologize!"

The boy-boss fidgeted in humiliation. The whole school watched him bow his head to these orphans. "Sorry, alright?" He breathed the apology through his nose.

"I promise this incident will not happen again. I will discipline my boy!" The man got up from kneeling. The wife and son followed suit.

To the teachers, he said, "No need to check the surveillance cameras. My kid will take all the accountability and will serve the punishment that you will impose."

"Dad!" The boy protested.

"Quiet!" The man bellowed.

"Look, Sir, this is not the results that I want." Xue Guangxi commented in exasperation. To the teachers, he said, "Check out the surveillance cameras and please let us know what you found out."

Then, to the kids, he asked, "What else would you two like?"

"We just want to go to our room." The little boy almost pleaded.

"Yes, please, Uncle…" The little girl concurred while tugging on his shirt's hem.

"As you wish." He smiled as he tugged them both while they walked away from the vast grounds.

Kang Sola and the Chen elders followed closely behind, thankful that all ended peacefully.