The three of them turned their heads in unison and saw that a strange young woman of eighteen or nineteen had burst into their private room. She was quite pretty, but her expression held a certain arrogance that was rather off-putting.
Fang Yi frowned. "Miss, you must have the wrong room."
The young woman didn't answer him. Instead, after looking him up and down, she asked, "Are you Fang Yi of Hundred Herbs Hall?"
"I am." Fang Yi was taken aback, not expecting the young woman to know who he was. "Are you here for me? I don't think I know you."
The young woman ignored his question again and continued, "Where is Zhao Yuan?"
Fang Yi instinctively glanced at Zhao Yuan.
The young woman's gaze fell upon Zhao Yuan, instantly sharpening as she demanded, "So you're Zhao Yuan?"
"I am Zhao Yuan. And you are?" Zhao Yuan asked, standing up in complete confusion.
"Great! I've finally found you, you shameless swindler!" the young woman shouted coldly. She leaped onto the dining table and aimed a powerful, heavy axe kick straight at Zhao Yuan!
It all happened so suddenly that Fang Yi and Zheng Qiang had no time to react.
Zhao Yuan managed to step back just in time, dodging the young woman's surprise attack.
"CRASH!"
The young woman's kick landed on the chair, shattering the high-quality wooden piece into splinters.
"Who the hell are you?" Zhao Yuan was getting angry. "We have no history, no grudges. Why are you attacking me?"
'Just having a nice meal with some friends when a lunatic bursts in and attacks without a word... Anyone would be furious in this situation.'
Her first strike having missed, the young woman didn't give up. She leaped off the dining table and continued her assault on Zhao Yuan, shouting, "My name is Zhao Jingrou, a direct descendant of the main branch of the Jinling Zhao Family! You've been impersonating my Jinling Zhao Family, swindling people everywhere. Your crimes are unforgivable! I'm going to beat you to a pulp and then cripple your hands. We'll see if you dare use the Jinling Zhao Family's name again after that!"
"When did I ever impersonate your Jinling Zhao Family? And you want to cripple my hands? You people are really something else!" Zhao Yuan's anger began to boil.
Fang Yi came to his senses. 'So this girl is from the Jinling Zhao Family. She must think Zhao Yuan is using their family's name to swindle people, so she tracked him down to teach him a lesson.'
'For a renowned Medical Family like the Jinling Zhao Family, with a history stretching back centuries, it's perfectly normal for its members to know Martial Skills. Practicing martial arts is, after all, a method of strengthening the body. In fact, Inner Martial Arts like the Five Animals Qigong and the Eight Pieces of Brocade were originally developed by Medical Families.'
Seeing Zhao Jingrou's attacks grow fiercer with each strike, Fang Yi feared Zhao Yuan would be overwhelmed and quickly interjected, "I can vouch for him! Little Brother Zhao has never once used the Jinling Zhao Family's name. He cured my daughter of a strange illness, and when the famous Dr. Wang Jiasen suspected he might be from the Jinling Zhao Family, he denied it."
In reality, Fang Yi was holding back another thought. 'Your Jinling Zhao Family may be powerful, but they aren't worthy of Little Brother Zhao's impersonation! This is a man who can produce Soul-Stabilizing Incense, Vitality Pills, and the Beauty Pill. After all your centuries of development, can the Jinling Zhao Family produce those three things?'
He was smart enough not to say this out loud; otherwise, he would have completely and utterly offended the Jinling Zhao Family.
Fang Yi's testimony had no effect, as Zhao Jingrou didn't believe a word of it. She snorted coldly, "You two are clearly in it together. Of course you'd cover for each other!"
Seeing that Zhao Jingrou was utterly unreasonable and refusing to listen to reason, Zhao Yuan completely lost his temper. "What is wrong with you? I'm giving you a perfectly good explanation and you won't even listen. Are you dead set on this idea that I'm impersonating your Jinling Zhao Family?"
"That's right!" Zhao Jingrou retorted. "Today, I'm going to cripple your hands so you can never again read a pulse or perform acupuncture! Let's see how you go about impersonating the Jinling Zhao Family to swindle people then!"
"Keep this up and I'm fighting back!" Zhao Yuan shouted.
Until this point, he had merely dodged and blocked Zhao Jingrou's attacks without retaliating. But now, her insolent and unreasonable behavior had thoroughly provoked him.
'This woman is just asking for it! I can't indulge her. The more I let this go on, the more unreasonable she'll become!'
"Fight back? Then fight back! We'll see who's the one left standing!"
Zhao Jingrou paid his threat no mind. 'He's just putting on a brave face! I have him completely suppressed. There's no way he can fight back, let alone turn the tables!'
However, the moment the words left her mouth, Zhao Yuan snatched her kicking left foot out of the air.
Zhao Jingrou froze in astonishment. Her kicking technique was famous for its speed and ferocity; never before in a fight had an opponent managed to catch her foot.
A sharp pain shot up from her ankle. It felt as if her foot wasn't being held by a hand, but by an iron vise!
Despite her shock, Zhao Jingrou reacted with incredible speed. Twisting her waist, she flipped sideways, her body spinning horizontally like a top. Her right foot lashed out like lightning toward Zhao Yuan's head, aiming for a combination kick and takedown.
She was fast, but Zhao Yuan was faster.
Four Saints Formula: White Tiger Form!
In that instant, Zhao Jingrou had an illusion: the thing gripping her was not a man, but a ferocious, striped tiger!
Her movements faltered for a split second.
Zhao Yuan seized the opportunity. He swiftly raised his leg and kicked her hard in the abdomen, sending her flying. She crashed backward, overturning all the plates and bowls on the table and drenching herself in soup and sauces.
Before Zhao Jingrou could get up, Zhao Yuan rounded the table, rushed to her side, and with a swift tap-and-press motion, struck the Nao Hu Acupoint on the back of her head.
Zhao Jingrou's vision went black, and she fainted.
"Y-You⦠you killed her?" Zheng Qiang asked, his voice trembling.
"Little Brother Zhao didn't kill her," Fang Yi explained on Zhao Yuan's behalf. "He just knocked her out for a bit."
Soon, waiters and security guards from Lakefront House came rushing in.
It wasn't their fault they were slow to arrive; the whole incident had started and ended in a flash.
"What happened here?" a man in a traditional jacket who looked like the manager asked.
Fang Yi stepped forward. "I was about to ask you the same thing. The three of us were just enjoying our meal when some woman barged in. I don't know if she was drunk or having some kind of fit, but she just started attacking us. After thrashing about for a bit, she laid down on the floor and fell asleep on her own."
To avoid trouble, he omitted the misunderstanding with the Jinling Zhao Family and the part where Zhao Yuan fought back. 'After all, no one else was in the private room, and Zhao Jingrou is unconscious. My version is the only one that matters right now.'
The manager checked on Zhao Jingrou. Confirming that her life wasn't in danger and that she was indeed just unconscious, he breathed a long sigh of relief. He clasped his hands in a gesture of apology toward the three men. "I am terribly sorry. This was a lapse on our part, and we've caused you a great deal of trouble. How about this: please allow us to move you to another room, where we will serve you a fresh meal, on the house."
"After all this, how could we possibly have an appetite?" Fang Yi refused flatly. He was worried that if Zhao Jingrou woke up, she'd cause more trouble for Zhao Yuan. 'Best to get out of here first,' he thought.
"Understood. In that case, tonight's meal is on me. The next time you three honor us with your presence, I will personally host a table for you as a formal apology!" The manager was clearly skilled at his job; with just a few words, he had won the goodwill of Fang Yi and his friends.
After seeing Zhao Yuan's party off, the manager returned to the private room. Watching the staff clean up the mess, he frowned and asked, "Does anyone know which room this girl is a guest of?"
A waiter replied, "I think she's from Osmanthus Hall. I saw her come out of there just a moment ago."
The manager raised an eyebrow. "Then what are you standing there gawking for? Go get her party."