Two of the men begin to chase after Zhao but they can’t keep up with the boy and soon come back to Xu Hui and the other man. Xu Hui is up but his shirt and face are covered in blood. He looks at the two men and yells, “Go get more men and then go to the boys house! We will get him there and bring me a new shirt and something to clean up my face with.”

The two men just nod in reply and take off. Xu Hui gets up and starts walking to the Hai's house followed by the other man. After they get there they meet up with the man who was watching the house. The man is surprised and asks, “Boss Hui, what happened to you?”

“That brat Zhao took me by surprise and attacked me. I didn’t think the little runt would actually try to fight. Did the boy come here?”

The man shakes his head and says, “No sir, he hasn’t shown up yet. But if you tried to catch him, he might not come back.”

“He will, sooner or later. He might show up with our main target though, and that could be a problem. Has Ming Zhi shown up yet?”

“No sir, he hasn’t been here since he left this morning with the boy.”

“Good.” Xu Hui moves back from the ledge of the roof and waits for the other men to show up. It doesn’t take long till his two men come back followed by another ten men. One of them hands over a package he is carrying to Hui and says, “Big boss Peng said he wants the boy brought in unharmed if possible. He can sell for more that way.”

Xu Hui grinds his teeth a little but nods his head in reply. After cleaning up and changing his shirt. Xu Hui sends five men to each end of the street hidden on the roofs, with instructions to wait for the boy to get close to the house before coming down. After about an hour they see the boy sneaking into the alleyway leading to his home. He moves cautiously but when he finds no one around he begins to move towards his house.

Once he is about halfway to his home Xu Hui and his men all drop down from the roofs and go to surround the Zhao. Zhao looks surprised by the fifteen men who just came from the surrounding roofs to box him in. After checking for a weak spot to run to and not finding one, he moves to put his back to the wall of a house and takes a fighting stance.

Xu Hui sneers at the boy and says, “You can’t run this time brat and I won’t let my guard down this time. You won’t be hurt if you give up, the boss wants you in good shape.”

Zhao looks around at the people surrounding him and says, “You would need more people if you wanted to hurt me. Come and let's see which one of you is spitting out teeth first.”

Xu Hui just smirks and says, “I was hoping you would resist us. Get him!”

All of the men move closer and form a tight ring around him. Then three of them move forward to subdue Zhao. One from each side and one from the front. The man in the front moves first and goes to attack Zhao with his club using an overhand strike. Zhao moves slightly faster than the man and catches the club in his right hand before the man can really gain any speed to the attack. With his left hand he punches the man's wrist, causing the man to lose his grip on the club. Zhao pulls it away, quickly flips it in his hand and after catching it by the leather grip, he swings it into the man's jaw.

The man drops like a sack of bricks to the ground, blood pouring from his mouth. Zhao glances at the other two men who are on each side of him and then at Xu Hui and says, “Looks like we found who wanted to go first.”

Xu Hai just smirks at Zhao and says, “Let's see how long this confidence lasts. Two of you tackle the boy, the rest of you beat him till he can’t move anymore.”

The men all look at each other and then back at Zhao, no one really wants to be the first person to rush the boy. After no one moves for a few moments Hui yells, “I don’t care who, but two of you better hold that boy down now!”

Zhao smirks at what is going on, but then has to swing his club down to the right. The man on his right side goes to tackle him and Zhao just barely manages to smash his club into the man's head. But as his attention was on that man, the man on his left side tackles him to the ground. Zhao manages to catch that man in the temple, but before he can get out of the man's grip and stand up, four clubs are already in motion towards him. Zhao drops his club and curls up into a ball to make himself a smaller target. It’s about a minute later when they pull Zhao up from the ground. He is covered with fresh bruises and is bleeding from a couple blows on his head.

Xu Hui walks up to Zhao who is being held up by his men. He grabs the boy's chin and lifts his face up to look him in the eyes and says, “Not so tough now are you?”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Zhao's eyes are still bright as he looks at Xu Hai. His mouth twists slightly into a bloody smile, as blood leaks out of the corner of his mouth he says, “I can do this all day.” Before Xu Hui can reply, Zhao spits blood all over the man's face. Xu Hui grabs a club from one of his men and begins to hit Zhao in the face with it till the boy slumps down into unconsciousness.

After wiping his face clean of blood he says to his men, “One of you stay here and watch for Ming Zhi, the rest of you are coming with me back to the compound.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mo Pengfei looks at the bloody boy who was dragged into his throne room. He looks at his men, Xu Hui has a broken nose. Two others have badges wrapped around their heads and a third looks like his jaw is broken. He lets out a sigh and points at the bound boy at his feet while asking. “This boy actually caused you so much trouble?”

Xu Hui bows and says, “Sorry boss, he was a better fighter than we thought and caught us off guard.”

“It’s fine, leave him here and go get yourselves cleaned up. Then send out some people and look for Ming Zhi and let him know we have the boy. And someone get me some tea.” Mo Pengfei relaxes on his throne as his men move to complete his orders. Within a few minutes a servant comes in with a tea pot and a cup on a tray. They set it on the table next to Mo Pengfei’s throne and serve him tea before leaving quietly. Mo Pengfei, looks at the boy who is tied up on the ground, bleeding on his floor and smiles.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours pass, but no one comes in with news about their target. It’s actually Mo Pengfei who calls his lieutenants to his throne room. After they gather he says, “I want you to gather the men.”

Xu Hui speaks up first and says, “Which men do you want, Boss Peng?”

“I want all of them. Gather them in the main hall and then come get me once everyone has arrived.”

“All of them? Even the ones looking for Ming Zhi?”

Mo Pengfei turns to glare at Xu Hui who flinches back at his gaze. Mo pengfei stares at him for another moment and then says slowly, “Everyone. I want every single person in the great meeting hall within the next three hours. Do. You. Understand? Or should I find someone else more competent to do it?”

Xu Hui shakes his head and says, “No boss Peng! We will make sure it is done.”

Xu Hui and the others left the room in a hurry. It was only about an hour before Xu Hui rushes back into the room and bows as he says. “Boss Peng, everyone is gathered in the great hall as you asked.”

Mo Pengfei gets up from his throne and begins to walk out of the room. Xu Hui glances around the room. Hai Zhao is nowhere to be found, but he doesn’t say anything as he follows behind Mo Pengfei. Once outside, Mo Pengfei stops and doesn’t move. After a moment he turns to look back at Xu Hui and says, “What are you waiting for, lead the way.”

Surprised but happy with the honor, Xu Hui takes the lead and guides Mo Pengfei to the great meeting hall. When they reach the main hall, Mo Pengfei looks over at the gathered people and then glances at Xu Hui as he says, “This is everyone? No one was left out? Including the servants?”

“No sir, everyone is here. Even the compound guards and the servants are here sir.”

“Great, now we can begin. Go join them.”

Walking inside the room, Mo Pengfei walks into the middle of the room and starts to look at everyone. After a few moments he says, “Everyone move to the left side of the hall with the servants to the south and everyone else to the north.”

It takes a few minutes, but everyone is gathered on the left side of the hall. One group is large with over three hundred people, the other group is smaller with less than one hundred people. Mo Pengfei looks at everyone again, before walking to the southern side of the room and the smaller group of servants. From there he picks a few people almost at random and tells them to go to the other side of the room.

He then moves to the larger group of people and starts to move even more people to the other side of the room. A few of them he sends to the middle of the room. It takes almost an hour but he finally has three groups of people. One group is on the left side of the room, about two hundred people are in this group. In the middle of the room is about fifty people and on the right side of the room is a little over one hundred people.

Mo Pengfei walks to the middle of the north side of the room and looks everyone over before saying, “I want everyone to sit down where you are.” He waits until everyone is sitting before he says, “Can anyone guess why you are in three different groups?”

One of Mo’s lieutenants on the right side of the room is the first to speak and says, “The people on the right side are the most loyal and will be rewarded?”

Mo Pengfei smiles at that and replies, “Oh that was a decent answer, while technically the people in your group will be rewarded. I am pretty sure you will not like the reward you are given.” The man who spoke and the people in his group all looked a little confused at his answer.

He begins to walk around the room, as he does he looks over all the people sitting around him on the ground waiting for him to speak. After making a loop around the group in the middle of the room he finally says, “You were all gathered here for a test. The people on the left side of the room all passed my test, the people in the middle could pass my test if they put in some work. But the people on the right side have failed my test unfortunately.”

Xu Hui and some of the people around him who are in the right side group frown at this. Xu Hui then asks, “Why did we fail?”

Mo Pengfei smiles widely at that and says, “Now that is a great question! Who here knows what karma is?”