Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 611 Who's in Favor, Who's Opposing (Part 1)
Around 9:00 AM, Jiang Shouzhen, who was almost half an hour late, finally appeared in the lobby of the teahouse.

At this moment, "Zheng Dongxi" had been waiting for him in the private room upstairs for quite some time.

But Jiang Shouzhen remained unhurried, slowly walking upstairs as if he had arrived early.

It's obvious that he deliberately arrived late...

Similar tactics are still used by many people today. Simply put, it involves deliberately doing something that is not particularly serious but will definitely cause trouble for others in order to provoke them. Then, the other person's reaction is used to test their personality, emotional management ability, and even their bottom line of principles.

Of course, people who use this method usually believe that they are equal to or superior to the other party in the relationship. If they feel that the other party is a superior they cannot afford to offend, they will often not dare to do so.

Jiang Shouzhen... undoubtedly felt that he was a whole lot "superior" to Zheng Dongxi.

No matter what, Jiang Shouzheng had been a "hero" for over a decade. In his eyes, what was Zheng Dongxi? Just someone who had only recently become famous, without any sect or faction, and whose background was unclear. Did he think he could be a "hero"? Did he think that doing some good deeds and killing some villains made him a hero? Today, I, as a senior, am going to give him a good talking-to and teach him how to be a "hero".

Ladies and gentlemen, please don't think that Jiang Shouzheng has "lost his mind," because his logic, or rather his values, are all based on "successful experience."

Jiang Shouzheng's life is a success story of "a sophisticated egoist who constantly profits and rises to power through despicable and hypocritical means".

Therefore, he is not the same as Murong Xiao, who "fully understands the correct values ​​but still chooses to cross some bottom lines"... He genuinely believes that he is not wrong.

To make someone like Jiang Shouzheng realize his mistakes, reasoning with him is useless; you can only "teach" him a lesson through actions. You have to make him experience failure, and not just any failure, but a failure that comes at an extremely high price and is unforgettable. Only then can you achieve the effect of overturning his already distorted values.

dong dong dong-

Arriving at the door of the agreed-upon private room, Jiang Shouzheng raised his hand and gently knocked three times.

After knocking, he immediately withdrew his hand, struck a pose with his hands behind his back, and waited for the person inside to open the door and greet him.

Unexpectedly, all he got in response was a slightly impatient voice from inside the house: "Who is it?"

This... made Master Jiang a little angry. He immediately thought to himself, "What is this bastard pretending for? Didn't I send someone to deliver a message to him yesterday? Who else could it be?"

Here we'll just mention briefly that, generally speaking, if two big shots in the underworld want to visit each other, it's acceptable to send a letter in advance.

However, there aren't many people who would actually do that.

After all, we're all just ordinary folks. To put it nicely, we're not bothered by details; to put it bluntly, most of us are just roughnecks. Who has so many fussy rules?

In fact, it is common for two sect leaders who have never met to visit each other directly. Unless the two places are far apart or there has been some friction between the two sects, they will send someone to greet each other or send a letter to explain their purpose before meeting, and then arrange the time and place of meeting by replying to each other.

But Jiang Shouzhen was different. Knowing that Zheng Dongxi lived in the same county as him and could have visited him directly, he still sent a letter a day in advance. The wording of the letter was more like, "Come to this private room in this teahouse at this time tomorrow, rather than saying 'I want to get to know you.'"

Even so, Jiang Shouzhen still thought he was quite "refined," so he believed that Zheng Dongxi should be just as "refined" as him and personally come out to greet him.

"Jiang Shouzheng!" After hesitating for a few seconds, Jiang Shouzheng finally responded, but his tone was clearly displeased.

"Oh...come in, the door's unlocked." The person inside took a few seconds to reply, but their tone was nonchalant.

Jiang Shouzhen, who already felt slighted, flew into a rage upon hearing the other party's reply. The next second, he angrily pushed open the door, his eyes wide, and opened his mouth to curse.

But the harsh words were swallowed back the moment the door opened.

In that instant, Jiang Shouzhen glanced around and noticed that besides the righteous-looking man sitting in the main seat, there were about ten other people in the private room, and he vaguely recognized their faces.

The room was filled with people from prominent families in Jiangnan, sect leaders from Hebei, Taoist priests from Qingcheng, and chivalrous heroes from Luoyang.

Even if these people were considered individually, they wouldn't be considered any particularly powerful figures. But since they were able to leave an impression on Master Jiang, it means that they are "someone of note" in the martial arts world.

In a private setting, Jiang Shouzheng would dare to lash out at Zheng Dongxi, but in front of so many people, he had to consider many things.

"Uh..." Because he pushed the door open with a swear word in his mouth, Jiang Daxia was speechless for a moment in the face of this sudden situation and couldn't find a suitable opening line.

Fortunately, Zheng Dongxi, who was sitting in the main seat, spoke up at this moment and took the initiative to talk to him: "Master Jiang, please forgive my impertinence, but I read in your letter yesterday that you wanted to get to know me and make friends. So I took the liberty of inviting a few more friends over so that we could all get to know each other better. I hope you don't mind?"

The way he said that... There were a whole room full of people sitting there, and Jiang Shouzhen could still say he minded in front of them?
"Hahahaha..." Of course, Master Jiang was no pushover either. In just a moment, he put on a perfectly timed look of surprise and replied with a smile, "This must be Master Zheng... Master Zheng. I've heard so much about you."

"It is indeed I," Zheng Dongxi said politely, but he still did not make any gesture of getting up to greet him. "I, Zheng, greet Hero Jiang."

"Hehe... I've long heard of Brother Zheng's chivalrous spirit and benevolent character. Meeting you today, I can see that your reputation is well-deserved." Jiang Shouzhen finished his formulaic greeting with a smile, then looked around at everyone in the room, clasped his hands in greeting, and said, "And fellow Daoists, I, Jiang, am very pleased."

As a result, he did not directly answer Zheng Dongxi's question about whether he minded or not. Instead, he used these three sentences to regain his rhythm and naturally stepped into the house while speaking, thus glossing over his lateness.

But... has it really been over?

"Master Jiang, please find a seat." Seeing the other party walk in as if nothing had happened, Zheng Dongxi added with a smile.

This sentence, compared to the previous one "Do you mind?", is clearly much more malicious.

Normally, at this point, you, as the host, should invite the guest to sit down, tell him where he should sit, and even escort him to his seat. If there are no empty seats in the room, the host should call the waiter to bring a chair over.

But what is Zheng Dongxi saying now...? This is roughly what a lecturer in a modern university would say when he sees a late student enter the classroom, and he says it in a casual, "instructing" tone.

That's not all. The most crucial point is that—at this moment, anyone can see at a glance that there are no empty seats left in this room.