Starting from a Bankrupt Sichuan Cuisine Restaurant

Li Hua and his wife, Liu Jiali, had been selling tofu at the bridgehead for three years. They had long since started treating this spot at Stone Bridge Head as their own territory.

The three brothers of the Li Family had three tofu stalls set up along this street—one at the front, one at the back, and one in the middle. Between them, they could sell thirty to forty jin of tofu a day, earning more in a month than a textile factory worker.

Aside from the Li Family’s tofu, they had driven away all the other competitors.

The only exception was Old Yang, who sold tofu under the banyan tree up ahead. His son was a police officer, so they didn’t dare say a thing to him.

But this little mute kid who had shown up two days ago had somehow sold two whole slabs of tofu yesterday—at least twenty jin.

There were only so many customers buying tofu. If the little mute sold twenty jin, that meant they sold twenty jin less.

As far as they were concerned, it was no different from the little mute stealing money right out of their pockets.

The three brothers had discussed it with their two elders all night. Today, the eldest brother, Li Hua, and his wife had come early to occupy the little mute’s spot and stop him from setting up his stall here.

A little mute who couldn’t hear or speak, with only an old grandmother at home who had trouble getting around—bullying him would have no consequences.

If they really let him build a reputation, how would they make any money?

But the little mute was a bit stubborn. He moved his small table into a corner, determined to set up his stall here anyway.

"I told you to scram, didn’t you hear me?" Li Hua reached for the boy’s back basket.

The boy was surprisingly agile, taking a step back and dodging his large hand.

"You dare dodge!" Li Hua grew angry. He snatched the advertisement sheet that was weighing down the small table, ripped it to shreds in two motions, and WHOOSH—flung the pieces in the boy’s face.

The boy reached out and caught a single scrap of paper. He stared at it, stunned, and his eyes immediately reddened. He clenched his left hand into a fist, his body trembling slightly.

"Hey, now, don’t do that. That’s not right, not right at all..." A woman selling vegetables at a nearby stall waved her hands disapprovingly.

A farmer at another nearby stall also frowned, a look of anger on his face.

"He’s no relative of yours, so mind your own business. You’re overstepping," Liu Jiali said, rolling her eyes. "He is not setting up his stall here today! Not even if the Jade Emperor himself came down! I’m telling you!"

"FUCK YOUR MOTHER!"

Just then, along with the furious curse, a figure suddenly rushed out from behind and kicked Li Hua squarely in his fat stomach.

"OOF!"

Li Hua cried out as his bulky frame was sent flying by the kick, crashing onto a nearby vegetable stall and crushing four or five heads of cabbage.

Liu Jiali’s eyes went wide. She instinctively took two steps back, her legs gave out, and she collapsed to the ground. She looked up in shock at the tall young man carrying a wooden sign and holding two bunches of green vegetables, her voice trembling. "You... Why did you hit him?"

"Who the hell are you?! You dare hit me!" Li Hua spat out the vegetable leaves in his mouth, glaring at Zhou Yan with the same wide-eyed fury.

"Who? I’m his brother!" Zhou Yan pulled Lai Fu behind him, looking coldly at the couple. "Flipping his stall, tearing up his sign, and about to hit him, too. What, you think you can bully a deaf-mute to death? You think us brothers are nobodies, is that it?"

Lai Fu, his eyes red, looked up. He stared, stunned, at the tall, familiar back, and the light returned to his eyes.

The customers and vegetable sellers all turned to look at Zhou Yan. The young man was tall and handsome, with a righteous air about him—not like the Li brothers, whose fleshy, fierce faces made them look like thugs.

Li Hua and his wife’s actions were disgusting. Seeing someone stand up for the deaf-mute boy, the crowd started to clap and cheer.

"Exactly! That poor kid is pitiful enough as it is! Just trying to sell some tofu from a small stall, and he has to get bullied by them!"

"They always pick on the weak, doing nothing but dirty deeds. Looks like they finally picked a fight with the wrong person!" someone in the crowd added with a disgusted curse.

"Brother?" Li Hua’s gaze swept over the wooden sign Zhou Yan was carrying. He recognized the familiar handwriting, and his face hardened as he clenched his fists and climbed to his feet. "Then you’d better take this mute brother of yours and leave today. Otherwise, every time he shows up, I’ll smash his stall!"

From the back of the crowd, two more young men with fierce, fleshy faces were rushing over. They bore a strong resemblance to Li Hua.

From behind, Lai Fu tugged on Zhou Yan’s shirt. He shook his head and pointed at the tofu on the table and his back basket, signaling that they should leave.

"Don’t be afraid. We’re setting up right here." Zhou Yan smiled and patted his head, then turned to Li Hua with a cold smirk. "I’d like to see just how tough you are. Acting like a market tyrant just to sell some tofu."

Li Hua and Liu Jiali exchanged a look. They hadn’t expected to run into such a reckless hothead today.

Meanwhile, Zhou Miao was standing in front of the butcher’s stall, chatting idly with Zhang the Third.

A short, skinny man hurried over, saying urgently, "Fourth Brother! Your Zhou Yan is fighting with someone up ahead! You’d better go take a look!"

"Zhang Yan, who’s Zhou Yan fighting with? How many of them are there?" Zhou Miao’s expression turned cold as he started walking forward, asking as he went.

"It’s Li Hua, the tofu seller. He and his two brothers all sell tofu at the bridgehead. I was afraid Zhou Yan would be at a disadvantage, so I rushed to get you," Zhang Yan replied.

Zhou Miao nodded, then added, "Do me a favor. Ride my bike to the docks and tell Zhou Jie and Zhou Hai to come over."

"You got it!" Zhang Yan agreed, turning to get the bike.

"Fourth, don’t do anything stupid!" Zhang the Third shouted at Zhou Miao’s back. Seeing him forge ahead without a word, he sighed, grabbed a bone cleaver from his stall, and followed.

The three Li brothers had already surrounded Zhou Yan. All three were half a head shorter than him, but they were bulky and imposing, so their presence was not weak.

For the moment, however, no one dared to make the first move.

Zhou Yan could see they were all bark and no bite, which gave him confidence. Instead of retreating, he took a step forward and said with a smile, "Your fists are clenched. You gonna hit me? Market tyranny, public assault... according to Article 8 of the Criminal Code, that’ll add a few years to your sentence. And if we escalate things, you’ll be eating an endless supply of bullets."