The brat thrashed and snarled, but in the grip of the six-foot-one man, he was nothing more than a flailing chick. He wasn’t giving up, though, still shouting defiantly, "So ugly! Blegh!" Zhou Yanjing scoffed. "What kind of messed-up school do you go to? Your sense of aesthetics is completely backward." He pried the water gun from the brat's hands and hefted it. It was surprisingly heavy. With a casual toss, he threw it to Lin Yuxi. "Here, go play." Lin Yuxi caught the water gun thrust into her arms. "..." What on earth was she supposed to do with this? Hearing Zhou Yanjing refer to her as his wife, Mr. Wang finally realized his son had picked a fight with the wrong person and scrambled over to apologize. "What are you doing, you little rascal! Get over here now!" He reached out to pull his son away, but Zhou Yanjing’s eyes flicked up with a cold glint, and the man’s hand froze mid-air. "If you don't know how to raise a child, just stand aside and watch. Maybe you'll learn something." Zhou Yanjing glanced at the brat. "What's your name?" The brat shot back, "I'm your daddy!" "Oh," Zhou Yanjing said nonchalantly. "So your name is ‘Your Daddy.’ Your father's pretty creative, giving you a name as nice as that." Mr. Wang's face turned a sickly green. "What did you just say?" he seethed at his son. "This is Uncle Zhou!" "Let's not get familiar. I don't have a nephew who deserves a beating this badly." Zhou Yanjing continued, his voice unhurried, "But it's your lucky day. You know why? It's not every day you run into a concerned citizen like me. Since your father doesn't know how to raise a child, and since I happen to be in a good mood, I'll teach you a lesson on his behalf." With that, Zhou Yanjing grabbed the boy by the collar, lifted him, and flipped him over in mid-air. He held him by a single ankle, dangling him upside down over the surface of the pool. Mr. Wang panicked. "He's just a kid! He doesn't know any better! He just thought your wife was pretty and wanted to play with her, he meant no harm." "What's the rush?" Zhou Yanjing said. "His aesthetics are all backward. I'm just correcting them for him." Suspended upside down, the brat kicked and screamed, "Let me go, you giant asshole! I'll kill you, you hear me?" Zhou Yanjing clicked his tongue. "Didn't your parents ever teach you to brush your teeth? That mouth is filthy. It could use a good rinse." And with that, as if dipping a calligraphy brush in ink, he dunked the dangling brat into the pool. The boy's head went under and was pulled out a second later. His defiant expression had vanished, replaced by the stark white terror on his face as he began to wail. Mr. Wang was torn between heartache, panic, and the overwhelming urge to throttle the little idiot himself. Of all the people to provoke, he had to pick someone from the Zhou family. His company was already struggling with cash flow, desperately waiting on a loan from Hengtai Bank to survive! "Apologize to Mr. Zhou right now!" "I did nothing wrong!" The spoiled brat was more stubborn than a mule, sobbing and spewing incoherent curses. "You #￥%&5*…" "Looks like he's not clean yet," Zhou Yanjing said. "Let's try another rinse." The second time he moved to dip the boy, Mr. Wang dropped to his knees with a thud. "Mr. Zhou! It's my fault for not raising him right. Please, you're a bigger man than this, just let him go!" Even Lin Yuxi was stunned into silence by Zhou Yanjing’s simple, brutal methods. The commotion by the pool quickly drew the attention of the people inside. A crowd rushed out, their eyes widening at the sight of Zhou Yanjing dangling a child over the water while Lin Yuxi stood nearby, holding a water gun. At first glance, it was a clear-cut case of a husband and wife ganging up on a child. "My god, what is happening?" Lin Yuxi snapped out of her daze and hurried forward, tugging on Zhou Yanjing’s sleeve, trying to convince him to put the boy down. Her own methods of revenge were subtle, carried out in secret. Nothing like Zhou Yanjing’s blatant, public displays. Besides, they were guests in someone else's home. Making a scene this big would be an embarrassment for the Shi family, and Ling Yaqiong would surely blame her later for not reining him in. As she stepped closer, Zhou Yanjing wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back. "Stay clear." The child's mother had arrived now, and she lunged forward, wailing, only to be held back by her husband. "He's killing him! Help! Someone save my son!" A chorus of voices rose from the crowd. "Second Master, he's just a child. Why lower yourself to his level?" "Exactly, let's just talk this out." Ling Yaqiong's face was grim. "Yanjing, what are you doing!" Zhou Yanjing coolly raised an eyebrow, giving the dangling brat a little shake. "Can't you tell? I'm serving justice here." Seeing that even Ling Yaqiong's words had no effect, the boy's parents threw themselves at the feet of the eldest host, Elder Shi. "Elder Shi, you have to help us!" Elder Shi shot Zhou Yanjing an exasperated glare. *That damn rascal,* he thought. *Old enough to know better, yet if he's going to bully a child, he could at least have the decency to do it out of sight.* The old man’s face was stern. "Yanjing, he's just a child. No matter what he did to offend you, put him down first." Zhou Yanjing's lips twisted into a devil-may-care smirk. "Grandpa, I'm just a kid myself. This is just one kid playing with another. You shouldn't get involved. Just sit back and enjoy the show. The ground here is wet and slippery by the pool—wouldn't want you to fall and break those old bones." That was Zhou Yanjing. He’d always been a hell-raiser, and there wasn't a soul on earth who could control him. He might have appeared more mature and steady with age, but deep down, he was the same old bastard. Mr. Wang, fuming at his son’s stupidity, yelled, "Just apologize! He'll put you down if you apologize!" The brat, a classic bully who knew when to cave, finally realized no one here could control Zhou Yanjing. He broke down, snot and tears streaming down his face as he cried, "I'm sorry, Uncle!" Zhou Yanjing said, "I'm a little deaf. Didn't quite catch that. Who are you apologizing to?" The brat immediately changed his tune. "Auntie, I'm sorry!" "There are no 'aunties' here," Zhou Yanjing said, still unsatisfied. "My wife is a young woman. What's a ten-year-old punk like you calling her 'Auntie' for?" Lin Yuxi actually wanted to say that she was already twenty-five, soon to be twenty-six. Being called 'Auntie' wasn't entirely out of line. "I'm sorry, big sister! I was wrong, please forgive me!" Zhou Yanjing pressed, "Wrong about what?" "I shouldn't have sprayed you with the water gun just because you're pretty." The brat was now the picture of obedience, hanging on Zhou Yanjing's every word. "I'll never do it again!" "Next time? If there's a next time you see me, you better run as fast as you can. Otherwise, I'll throw you in this pool and won't let you out until you've drunk it dry." "I'll never do it again!" Only then did Zhou Yanjing leisurely pull the boy back onto solid ground. His mother rushed forward and swept him into her arms. Zhou Yanjing slowly rolled his wrists. "What have you been feeding him? He’s so fat, he must be overweight." "..." Once her son was safely on the ground, the brat's mother's bravado returned. She flew at Zhou Yanjing like a shrew, screaming, "A grown man bullying a child! Have you no shame?" A low hum rumbled in Zhou Yanjing’s throat. He stuffed his hands in his pockets. "So what if I bullied him? You got a problem with it? If you want to stand up for him, you can try stringing me up instead. I promise I won't fight back. Wanna give it a shot?"