Return of the Antagonistic Lady Boss

"Beauty! Slow down! Don’t run too far!" Yu Minglang shouted, and Beauty obediently stood still waiting for him.

Yu Minglang ran over and patted its head, "Is it exciting to be back in the woods?"

The response he got was a bark from Beauty, it seemed quite happy.

Before it retired, it always followed the trainer to do missions at the border, and it spent the most time entering and exiting the woods. Being able to return to such a place made it especially happy.

Yu Minglang ran with it for a while, then suddenly he stopped in front of a certain tree, and Beauty also assumed a guarded stance.

Yu Minglang made a quiet gesture, signaling Beauty to back off, then he took out a multi-functional knife from his waist, bent down and dug on the ground a few times, and dismantled a trap set in the earth.

If he hadn’t noticed and stepped on it, his Beauty would have stepped into the trap.

These hunting traps weren’t actually rare, but what made Yu Minglang feel familiar was how the trap seemed so reminiscent in its setup method.

As he was thinking, suddenly Beauty barked wildly, Yu Minglang sidestepped and dodged, a shadow rushed towards him, and Beauty, contrary to her usual timidness at home, growled and seemed ready to bite. Yu Minglang took a closer look and saw it was a person, a tall man.

The man was burly, even more robust than Yu Minglang, with a scarf covering his face, and he charged at Yu Minglang to kick.

"Beauty, back off and sit down, don’t move!" Yu Minglang stopped Beauty from joining in the fight.

The opponent was more burly than Yu Minglang, but Yu Minglang was agile, and the two were evenly matched.

After a few moves, Yu Minglang caught a flaw in the opponent’s moves and aimed at his weak spot but stopped upon touching the opponent’s skin.

"Still playing? Meeting an old friend and playing so hard is a bit much, isn’t it?"

The opponent laughed heartily upon hearing this and pulled down the scarf, lightly punched Yu Minglang’s shoulder.

"Good lad, I never thought I’d see you again!"

Yu Minglang saw the familiar face of an old friend and smiled too, the two bumped fists, excitement evident in their expressions.

"I was just talking about you with my wife today, didn’t expect to actually see you! Balan, after so many years, how did you end up here?"

When he looked at the trap earlier, it seemed familiar, clearly, it was Balan’s handiwork!

The two of them cherished each other during overseas training, but having different positions meant they lost contact after leaving the camp, thinking they would never have the chance to meet again, so encountering each other in such circumstances made Yu Minglang overjoyed.

"I’ve retired, spent years running around making money, decided to settle down in the past two years and got employed by a big boss as his bodyguard, he is on vacation over here and I tagged along. Truth be told, your country is so good, high living standard, friendly citizens, I wish I could stay here forever. I wanted to set traps in the woods to catch some wild rabbits and satisfy my cravings, but instead of catching rabbits, I caught you, haha!"

Balan was also very excited to see Yu Minglang, surprised to meet an old friend he thought he’d never see again.

"Boss?"

"Yeah, Mr Li, his home is over there! He made his fortune in logging in the early years, then pharmaceuticals, he owns one of your country’s leading enterprises." Balan didn’t speak Chinese, he and Yu Minglang were communicating in English, Yu Minglang looked in the direction Balan pointed.

What a coincidence, this Mr Li was the man Qian had been visiting.

"One, after so many years, what are you doing now, and why did you suddenly appear here?" Balan was particularly nostalgic about the training times with Yu Minglang.

One had impressed people with his exceptional performance there and garnered attention, Balan was particularly fond of Yu Minglang.

"Me? I’ve gone back to inherit the family business, I’m here today accompanying my wife."

"After so many years apart, should we have a drink? I miss the farewell drink we had back then, your drinking impressed me. Though you once said you guys have this Maotai liquor that tastes even better than XO, I wasn’t convinced. Been here for some time now, many have wanted to invite me for Maotai but I’ve always refused, feeling it’s your drink and it should be shared with you, so how about it, have a drink?"

Of course, Yu Minglang wanted to have a drink with his old friend he hadn’t seen in years, but he was still waiting for Qian, so he regrettably said.

"Right now isn’t possible, my wife hasn’t finished work yet, I have to wait for her to finish so I can take her home, then I can have a drink with you."

"What time is it? What’s your wife’s work?"

"My wife? She’s a psychologist, as it happens, she’s seeing your employer."

This trip with his wife was incredibly rewarding for Yu Minglang, seeing Balan made him particularly happy.

"Really? She’s that amazing psychologist?" A complex glimmer flickered in Balan’s eyes, and he momentarily froze before masking it, though his smile was stiff.

"What’s up?" Yu Minglang keenly sensed something was off with Balan’s state.

"Nothing." Balan immediately adjusted his expression, trying to sound relaxed, "One, don’t let your wife get involved with the Li family affairs, just take her and leave."

He really hadn’t expected One’s wife to be such a key figure, within his abilities, Balan tried to persuade.

"Why? Is there something wrong with their family?"

Yu Minglang asked.

The Li family had emerged as a burgeoning biological pharmaceutical company in recent years, having some dealings with the Shi Tou family. When the Shi Tou family faced a funding crisis last time, it was the Li family along with several others who forcefully invested to help them overcome the hurdle. The head of this family had a good reputation in business circles, and Mrs. Li was a familiar acquaintance for Yu Minglang.

But why was Balan advising Qian to leave?

"Let me put it this way, the boss’s dad has been seen by several psychologists for this illness, none have helped. The old man is over 80 this year, how many more years does he have left? If your wife can’t help, or if the old man coincidentally dies halfway through her treatment, what if the Li family retaliates against her?"

Upon hearing this, Yu Minglang vaguely felt Balan had something unsaid, so he asked another question.

"What’s actually wrong with the old man?"

"He’s always clamoring that he’s got a terminal illness, today says his throat hurts and it’s throat cancer, tomorrow says his stomach hurts and it’s stomach cancer, then reads some news on his own saying he might have liver cancer. Most extravagantly, he read on the newspaper about someone whose stomach started incubating snake eggs and eventually vomited several snakes, and firmly believes his stomach has snakes too, because he just went to a resort a few days ago and drank some spring water. The old man insists the spring water also had snake eggs, do you think this kind of mental problem is treatable?"

That’s pure mental illness.