Chapter 3538: A Lump of Dog Shit

A group of young people in their teens, almost completely lacking any counter-surveillance awareness.

These people gathered together, chatting and laughing as they headed toward the city center, constantly horsing around on the road, appearing no different from ordinary kids.

After leaving this neighborhood, several of them found an intersection and, on one side of a bench there, shared a pack of cigarettes; from twelve or thirteen to eighteen or nineteen, everyone had a cigarette dangling from their lips, exhaling clouds of smoke.

The leader, Bruce Brown, had a baseball bat hidden behind his buttocks, his hands resting on the backrests on either side of the bench, squinting as he scanned left and right at passersby, seemingly searching for prey.

Ye Chen said to Chen Zekai: "Old Chen, park the car opposite them—I'll go meet them."

Chen Zekai asked: "Young Master, you're going yourself?"

Ye Chen nodded and asked him: "You still think I can't handle them?"

Chen Zekai laughed: "No, I'm just afraid these little trash will dirty your hands, Young Master—this kind of thing, either I or Master Hong Wu could handle it easily."

Although Chen Zekai and Master Hong Wu aren't martial arts material, after Ye Chen's enlightenment and the aid of elixirs, their strength far exceeds that of ordinary people, so dealing with a group of teenagers is naturally no problem.

However, Ye Chen smiled faintly and said: "Don't worry, I won't fight them—fighting would be boring."

Chen Zekai felt doubtful inside but knew it wasn't good to press further, so he followed Ye Chen's request and parked the car opposite the youths.

Ye Chen opened the door and said to the two: "You guys arrange more personnel to track down Butler Tang's whereabouts, contact Inspector Li, and activate my ground network system to see if there's any progress."

Chen Zekai nodded and said: "Young Master, rest assured—I'll get this done right away!"

Ye Chen hummed in acknowledgment, stepped out of the car, adjusted his collar, crossed the street, and walked toward those teenagers.

At that moment, a young Asian couple happened to pass by them; as Bruce Brown saw them approach, he immediately gave his companions a glance, then leapt up from the bench, grabbed the baseball bat behind him with his backhand, and stepped in front of the couple, while his little brothers instantly flanked from both sides, surrounding the couple in the center.

The couple was startled and alarmed; the man immediately nervously asked: "You... what do you want?"

Bruce Brown sneered and asked: "Which country are you from?"

The man cautiously replied: "We're Australians, already naturalized as Australian citizens!"

Bruce Brown furrowed his brow, clearly not expecting that answer, then asked again: "Then before you became Australian citizens, where were you from?"

The man answered: "Korea—what's it to you?"

"What's it to you?" Bruce Brown snorted coldly and cursed: "Korean scum, get the hell back to Korea—Australia doesn't welcome you!"

The man still tried to reason: "We swore our oath of naturalization last year—we're legal Australian citizens!"

"To hell with you Korean scum—even naturalized, you're still Korean scum! You're parasites in Australia!" Bruce Brown spat at the man, then immediately told his companions: "Hit them!"

Having said that, he swung up the baseball bat, preparing to strike.

Meanwhile, his little brothers kept their eyes fixed on the man's shoulder bag and the woman's small backpack; they often came here to find Asian targets—first, to amuse themselves by beating people up, and second, to seize valuables to fund their eating, drinking, and entertainment.

They targeted Asians because, first, most Asians are easy to bully—unable to fight back or talk back; second, police tend to turn a blind eye to such incidents; they've done this many times before without consequence, and even when occasionally caught by bad luck, they're quickly released.

Seeing the other side suddenly attack, the Korean couple was startled and panicked; the man, fearing the baseball bat, covered his head with both hands, while the woman crouched on the ground and screamed loudly.

As the baseball bat was about to smash into the man's arms, Ye Chen, standing outside the encirclement, shouted loudly: "Damn it, everyone stop!"

Bruce Brown instinctively halted his motion, turned, and looked toward the speaker, Ye Chen.

Seeing Ye Chen was also Asian, he immediately snapped coldly: "Are you with them?"

Ye Chen smiled, intrigued, and said: "What kind of dogshit were you born as? Untaught, no manners at all—when you speak to me, you'd better get on both knees, got it?"

"Holy shit!" Bruce Brown, though young, had always been the one bullying Asians—when had he ever been humiliated like this by an Asian?

Seeing Ye Chen so arrogant, all attention instantly shifted to him.

The Korean couple, seeing someone divert the attackers' attention, exchanged a glance, then turned and ran, vanishing quickly from sight.

Bruce Brown no longer paid them mind; he hoisted the baseball bat onto his shoulder and strode purposefully toward Ye Chen.

Ye Chen saw him swinging the bat with all his might at himself, yet he didn't dodge in the slightest; instead, at the moment the bat was about to strike his face, he calmly extended his hand and, without effort, lightly gripped the upper half of the bat.

Bruce Brown's earlier powerful, heavy strike seemed to instantly lose all energy, becoming completely motionless.

Yet, the force built up in his body and the bat during the swing had nowhere to dissipate, so it was as if he had swung the bat with all his might against a copper wall and iron wall—it snapped back violently, causing him excruciating pain in both arms; he instinctively released his grip and cried out in agony.

The other boys, seeing this scene, were stunned, mouths agape, afraid to step forward; they all crowded around Bruce Brown, chattering anxiously about his condition.

Bruce Brown stared at Ye Chen in horror and blurted: "How... how is this possible?! How can your hand be harder than steel?!"

Ye Chen smiled and said: "Look at you—you've grown so big, yet you can't even hold a baseball bat steady—what's the difference between you and a useless piece of trash? Again."

Having said that, he raised his hand and tossed the baseball bat to Bruce Brown.

Bruce Brown's arms were numb and painful; he instinctively tried to raise his hand to catch it, but as soon as he lifted his arm, the pain shot through him like a dagger to the heart—he couldn't complete the motion, and the bat slipped from his grasp, falling to the ground with a metallic clang.

Ye Chen couldn't help but shake his head and sigh: "I've never seen such a useless person as you—limp as a rag, good for nothing; if you were molded from a lump of dog shit, you'd probably have more strength than you do now—what are you staring at? Hurry up and pick up the baseball bat!"

The surrounding kids were frightened by Ye Chen's eerie aura; Bruce Brown was now both shocked and fearful, yet Ye Chen's words were truly cutting, making him feel utterly humiliated—if he didn't beat Ye Chen half to death today, how could these little brothers ever respect him again?

So, he gritted his teeth, endured the pain, and lifted the baseball bat once more.

Ye Chen nodded, satisfied, and said with a smile: "Not bad—now you're at least barely a qualified lump of dog shit! Come on, continue! Let me see just how big the gap is between you and dog shit!"