Chapter 133: The Overlooked Bait

"Ah!" The man with green hair could no longer keep up the act. The agony was so bone-deep that he screamed out loud.

Cui Quan did not stop; he followed up with a kick straight to the man’s stomach.

The green-haired man’s eyes bulged, and the veins on his forehead distended, writhing beneath his skin like earthworms. Unable to move his body, he was drenched in a cold sweat. In all his life, he had never experienced pain of this magnitude. At this moment, he would have welcomed death just to make the torment end.

Wei Xueying could see that the man was suffering immense agony. Though she could not feel it herself, his wretched state made it clear that this was something no ordinary person could endure.

"Thud!" Cui Quan delivered another identical kick to the man's body.

Cui Quan himself felt it was incredible. With just three needles as thin as ox hair, and his own kicks, the man was practically on the verge of a mental breakdown. It was nothing short of miraculous.

"I’ll talk! Please! Let me go! I’ll tell you everything!" The only part of the green-haired man’s body he could still move was his tongue. He could no longer hold back, and his voice was thick with sobs.

Cui Quan looked at Hua Tianyu with admiration, thinking to himself, "Brother Tian is amazing! Three needles were all it took to make him break."

"Speak. Who sent you?" Cui Quan asked.

"Jiang Liliang from the Yongxing branch of the Jiang Family Martial Arts Hall! He’s the one who paid us!" Snot and tears streamed uncontrollably down the man’s face.

"Jiang Liliang?" Hua Tianyu was surprised by this result. How could they have crossed paths with the Swan Group? Was this aimed at him? No, that didn't seem right. Even if today’s incident was directed at him, the previous events didn't align.

"Yes, yes, that’s the guy! I was wondering why they didn't do it themselves if it was such a profitable job. It was a trap! The bastard set us up!" the green-haired man wailed as he lay on the ground. He had failed to pull off his scam and had ended up in this state. The pain was truly something only the one experiencing it could understand.

"Has your company offended the Jiang Family Martial Arts Hall?" Hua Tianyu turned to ask Wei Xueying.

"The Jiang Family Martial Arts Hall? No," Wei Xueying replied after careful thought. "Our company has never had any dealings with these martial arts factions. As for this hall, I haven't even heard of it."

Hua Tianyu fell into deep thought; it seemed there were hidden layers to this situation.

"Anything else you want to confess? Hurry up!" Cui Quan, seeing Hua Tianyu preoccupied, tried to squeeze more information out of the man.

"There’s nothing else! You know it all now! Before Jiang Liliang sent me here, he told me to call Cheng Feng..." The man began to recount more details, but Hua Tianyu interrupted him mid-sentence.

"Right! I forgot about him! The key must lie with Cheng Feng!" Hua Tianyu slapped the table in regret. He had overlooked that piece of bait. It now seemed that the martial arts hall might have just been a pawn, and the person he had previously dismissed as irrelevant was actually the key player.

"Cui Quan, take two men to the Human Resources department and see if Cheng Feng has fled! If he’s still there, bring him back to me!" Hua Tianyu commanded.

"Understood, I’ll take some men to catch him!" Cui Quan turned to leave.

"No need, just send two men. I suspect he’s already gone," Hua Tianyu said, stopping Cui Quan and ordering two security guards to head over instead.

A few minutes later, Cui Quan’s phone rang. As expected, Cheng Feng had never reached the HR department; he had used the excuse of going to the restroom and slipped away.

"I never expected Cheng Feng to be one of the masterminds," Wei Xueying said with a sigh of regret.

Hua Tianyu shook his head lightly. "He probably doesn't count as a mastermind, but he certainly knows more than these thugs."

"Don't worry about it. Once things are settled here, I’ll pay a visit to the Yongxing branch of the Jiang Family Martial Arts Hall and have a 'heart-to-heart' talk with Jiang Liliang about life and ideals," Hua Tianyu said, trying to comfort her.

Wei Xueying rolled her eyes at him. "Don't go causing trouble with your talk of life and ideals!"

"Causing trouble? Rest assured, I always win people over with virtue!" Hua Tianyu smiled calmly. He pointed at the green-haired man and asked, "Greenie, tell this lady, where did you get those injuries?"

The man was stunned. *Where did I get them? You know exactly where! If not for that club of yours, would I be lying here?* However, the intense pain kept his mind sharp; he knew better than to say that aloud, lest he fail to survive the day.

"I... I fell?" the man asked, gritting his teeth against the pain.

"You fell? All twenty of you fell like this? Does that sound plausible?" Hua Tianyu smiled as he dismissed the excuse.

"Then... we... we fought among ourselves?" the man stammered.

"Oh? And why would you do that?" Hua Tianyu pressed.

"Uh... because... because..." The man’s limited intellect failed him.

"Sigh," Hua Tianyu sighed and reached into his jacket, pulling out a handful of needles.

"Ah!" Fearing another round of torture, the man let out a shriek and fainted—this time, for real.

Hua Tianyu calmly plucked three needles, flicked his wrist, and with a flash of silver, they struck the acupuncture points of the man next to him.

"Ah!" A scream tore through the air as the man’s pain was amplified a hundredfold, yet he still could not explain the cause. Hua Tianyu flicked his hand again and again, each time accompanied by a scream, until he reached the tenth person.

Finally, someone shouted, "It was a dispute over the money! We had an internal conflict!"

Hearing this, Hua Tianyu nodded. Finally, a believable reason. He scanned the thugs on the floor. "Remember the reason?"

"Yes! We remember!"

"It was all because Greenie was stingy with the money, so we started fighting!"

Seeing that the devilish Hua Tianyu had finally stopped with the needles, they rushed to affirm the story.

Hua Tianyu turned to Wei Xueying with a smile. "A gentleman wins people over with virtue and carries the world with profound character. Am I not a man of virtue?"

His words made Wei Xueying roll her eyes so hard she almost saw the back of her head. *Virtue? You're more like a man with a thick hide!*