“That kid isn’t home?“ A hoarse voice passed through the door and entered Nie Yan’s ears.
Nie Yan wrinkled his brows upon hearing this voice, and anger began bubbling forth from inside him. The voice belonged to his oldest uncle from his mother’s side, a person he loathed with a burning passion. When his parents had borrowed money from relatives and friends, his uncle had been the stingiest. Later on, when his father started a successful business, they used the fact that they had lent him money as leverage to coerce him into giving them a twenty percent stake, turning his father’s own business into a family one. They took money but never worked to earn it back and constantly misappropriated the company’s funds. Thankfully, Nie Yan’s father had always been strict and caught on quickly, preventing the situation from worsening. Though, after the business began expanding into Conviction, a crisis suddenly emerged. Initially, his father only allowed thirty percent of the shares to be sold in order to safeguard the company from any mergers or acquisitions. Yet it was these exact friends and relatives cooperating with Cao Xu, backstabbing his father, that led to him losing control of the company. In the end, his father became clinically depressed and was eventually forced to bow out from managing the business.
After travelling back to the past, although the hatred he felt for Cao Xu remained deep-rooted in his very being, it had nevertheless diminished significantly. This world had always been one where the strong preyed upon the weak. If his family didn’t have the strength to defend themselves, granted even if Cao Xu didn’t make a move, some other bigshot would have acquired his father’s business instead. Taking this into consideration, the people Nie Yan resented the most were the friends and relatives who betrayed his father!
Backstabbed by his close friends and relatives… There was nothing else that contributed more to his father falling into deep depression.
「BAM! BAM! BAM!」The knocking on the door changed into heavy pounding, and he could easily sense the anger behind these sounds.
Nie Yan walked over to the door and opened it, whereupon five familiar faces entered his eyes.
“Oh, what a surprise! Uncles, aunties, you all came! Mr. Lin, you’re here as well?”[1] Nie Yan swept over his relatives as his expression filled with an increasing amount of derision and contempt with each passing moment. When his gaze finally fell upon a middle-aged man in the back, however, there was actually a hint of respect that lit up in his eyes. Nie Yan could roughly guess why his relatives had come knocking at the door. After all, his parents had borrowed quite a sum of money from numerous friends and family. It was within expectations that these four showed up at his doorstep, demanding repayment; however, Mr. Lin’s arrival was rather unexpected and puzzling.
Lin Ya was his father’s old friend from the army. When their family had been in dire straits, he had been one of the few people who never abandoned them. Even during the betrayal at his father’s company, he hadn’t been present. From what Nie Yan could remember, Mr. Lin was a man who didn’t speak much but attached great importance to friendship. When they were in the army together, Mr. Lin had even taken a bullet for his father, which left him crippled to this day. Their family definitely owed a lot to Mr. Lin.
After a moment, Nie Yan recalled that Mr. Lin had lent one hundred and sixty thousand dollars to his father, which took a heavy toll on his finances.
Nie Yan found it hard to imagine what sort of promise his father made to convince his relatives and friends to loan him so much money. If he didn’t know any better, he would assume these people had gambling problems. Truthfully speaking, if his father succeeded, they would earn a huge sum of money, but if his father failed, they would receive nothing in return.
Mr. Lin averted his gaze when Nie Yan’s eyes fell on him. Then, he stared back at Nie Yan with a slightly apologetic look and said, “Little Yan, I was dragged over here.”
Nie Yan was also quick to catch on. After lending a hundred and sixty thousand dollars to his father, Mr. Lin probably wasn’t doing too well financially. In all likelihood, Mr. Lin only came because he was unable to resist the pressure from First Uncle and the other relatives. In his heart, Nie Yan didn’t blame him either.
First Uncle and the rest sighed a breath of relief when Nie Yan answered the door.
Nie Yan wore an expression of ridicule on his face. He gazed at his several relatives, smiling and said, “Uncles, aunties, you didn’t think that I had run off, right?”
“Well, who knows!? Your parents borrowed so much money from us! If by any chance you ran off, then who would we go to!?” uttered First Uncle’s wife in an unkind tone. Her grating, high-pitched voice was already somewhat painful to listen to, but at the moment, it became even more unbearable.
Every one of his relatives forced themselves into his house.
“If I wanted to run, I would have done so a long time ago,” Nie Yan sneered.
“Brat! How dare you speak to us in such a tone! Stop wasting our time and call your parents up!” Leveraging his seniority, his first uncle, Luo Ming, spoke with unrestrained arrogance.
“My parents are currently busy and can’t be bothered to speak to you lot. If there’s nothing else, I suggest you go home.” Nie Yan then turned to Mr. Lin and said, “Uncle Lin, I’ll do my best to pay back the money my family owes you as soon as possible. I know your family is in a difficult place right now. I’m so sorry we’re causing you and your family so much trouble.”
Uncle Lin shook his head in response. Waving his hands, he said, “Don’t worry about it. Although we aren’t in the best of circumstances, we’re not in the worst either. Granted, even if I don’t have any money, I can still beg Old Liu to lend me some. Your father and I are friends who would die for each other. Even if your father can’t pay back the money, I wouldn’t hound his son over it.”
Nie Yan felt quite touched by Mr. Lin’s sincere words. Sometimes the saying, “Blood is thicker than water,” simply wasn’t true.
The discrepancy between Mr. Lin and his relatives was like black and white!
“The money my family owes will be repaid in full. My parents have been gone for how long now? Yet you all act like they stole your money and ran away,” Nie Yan criticized as he coldly eyed his relatives.
“When did you become such a presumptuous brat? Make a phone call to your parents right now!” Luo Ming’s palm came flying towards Nie Yan’s face. His uncle had an incredibly short temper and would always beat and scold him at the first sign of perceived disrespect. Nie Yan had been very afraid of him when he was younger, but at present, he didn’t fear him in the slightest.
Nie Yan reached out and grabbed his uncle’s arm, stopping the attempted slap midway. He shot a cold glance at his uncle and growled, “I already told you. My parents are too busy to bother with you lot. You aren’t welcome here, so I suggest you get out.”
“Brat! Who allowed you to speak?!” Uncle Luo Ming still wanted to rely on his seniority to beat and scold Nie Yan, but when he tried pulling back his arm, he discovered his nephew’s hand was like an iron claw, firmly clasping it in place. No matter how he struggled, he was unable to break free, leaving his heart dumbfounded. Just when did his nephew grow to be so strong?
Only then did he notice that his nephew was taller and more robust than he remembered. Nie Yan was almost five foot nine and was no longer the frail and thin child he knew from the past.
He soon noticed Nie Yan’s grip becoming stronger and stronger, causing him to start sweating from the pain which in turn made his face turn bright red, but he was unwilling to back down to a child.
“Husband, what’s wrong? Nie Yan, let go of him! He’s your eldest uncle, you impudent brat!” Uncle Luo Ming’s wife scolded in a high-pitched shriek after realizing her husband was being overpowered.
“How much interest did my parents promise you?” Nie Yan asked, paying no attention to his aunt’s words. He swept his gaze over the three relatives in front of him before releasing his uncle’s arm.
Having finally regained control of his arm, Uncle Luo Ming sighed in relief as he rubbed his arm.
“Ten percent a month!” Luo Ming’s wife replied. She looked like she had been injected with chicken blood as her expression was so distorted even her face looked like it was twisted.
Ten percent a month… In other words, his family had to pay back ten percent interest every month. Not to mention, it was compound interest, which meant they had to pay back more on top of what they already owed in the previous months. His relatives were basically no different from loan sharks.
When he brought up this matter, each and every one of his relatives revealed rotten expressions.
“Old Liu and I told your father he didn’t need to pay any interest…” Mr. Lin explained to Nie Yan. His gaze then happened to fall onto Luo Ming’s arm where he saw something unbelievable. The area Nie Yan grabbed had bruised and turned a deep shade of purple! Though it wasn’t much, he did know a fair bit about Luo Ming’s strength. He wasn’t some martial artist, but he still exercised regularly, and he was considerably strong for the average person. Yet Nie Yan, who was no more than a child, had taken full control over Luo Ming, rendering him helpless. The power required for such a feat was unimaginable!
“Uncle Lin, the money will be returned to you soon, rest assured. As for aunties and uncles, you’ll get your money back and not a penny less. Even if my parents cannot pay it back, I’ll do it in their stead.” Nie Yan stared at his several snobbish relatives, his tone turning increasingly cold.
He wouldn’t allow his father to end up the same way as his past life, neither would he allow his relatives to get their grubby hands on his father’s business. He would force upon these relatives a life of eternal remorse. Taking away all their possible means, he would leave them destitute with no hope of ever escaping the abyss he would leave them in. Only by taking care of them in such a manner would these people have no chance of nipping back at his father’s heels.
Nie Yan would exact revenge on the sins they committed and make them suffer as he had. His heart had grown much colder in the final years of his past life.
[1] In the raws, Nie Yan addresses them individually. Da Jiu (Maternal Uncle), Jiu Ma (Maternal Uncle’s Wife), Gu Ma (Paternal Aunt), and Er Yi (Mother’s Second Sister). Mr. Lin was addressed as Uncle Lin, but it was changed for the sake of preventing confusion since he isn’t a relative.
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