Elder Tang and his sons and sons-in-law were seated on a mountain, accompanied by high-ranking officials, either provincial or ministerial-level magistrates, or representatives of top leaders...

The women of the family were seated at a table below.

The men of three generations of the Tang family, including Elder Tang's grandsons, granddaughters' husbands, and grandsons-in-law... also made up a table. Qin Fang had received the recognition of the Tang family, and although he had not formally married Tang Feifei, it was only natural for him to be seated there.

Chen Shijie was originally seated at this table as well. However, the young man was currently in the hospital feigning illness and had not arrived...

"Qin Fang is here, so I won't introduce him to you all... Qin Fang, let me introduce the others to you!"

Adding up all three generations of the Tang family, there were only about eight or nine people. Except for Chen Shijie, everyone was present. Tang Cheng introduced them to Qin Fang one by one, and Qin Fang had already met them before.

The men of the Tang family, perhaps because many of them came from military backgrounds, were all very forthright. They did not treat Qin Fang as an outsider and he quickly blended in with them.

Of course, they couldn't avoid asking about Chen Shijie. Qin Fang also explained according to the agreed story, and everyone did not seem to care much... It was evident how unpopular Chen Shijie was within the Tang family.

But who could blame them? He was a member of the Tang family, yet he was so close to the Xu family. He had squandered so much of the Tang family's brilliance on his own, causing everyone else to lose face by association. It would have been strange if they held him in any regard.

As the birthday banquet began, Qin Fang started drinking with the men of the Tang family. Out of the ten men at the table, six were serving military personnel, and among the remaining four, including Qin Fang, three were either businessmen or politicians, all of whom had spent several years in military service...

It was said to be a rule set by the Old Master himself: every man in the Tang family had to spend time in the military!

This was also one of the reasons why Tang Cheng took Qin Fang to the military district for special training. It was just that Qin Fang was too exceptional; techniques that took others a long time to master, he could handle within minutes... Even Uncle Tang could not resist the urge to recruit Qin Fang as a sniper in the military!

Once the drinking started, the atmosphere quickly warmed up, but from time to time, people would still come over to offer birthday respects to Elder Tang or toast with him. For example, some of Elder Tang's former subordinates, and Qin Fang actually recognized a few familiar figures.

Such as Ning Yumo and her brother Ning Weiqiang. Of course, they came along with a middle-aged man in his fifties. Qin Fang didn't need to guess to know that this man was Secretary Ning of the Jiangnan Provincial Political and Legal Committee...

As far as Qin Fang was aware, Secretary Ning and Tang Feifei's mother, Aunt Shen, were distant cousins. Of course, Secretary Ning was once Elder Tang's bodyguard. Later, as he stepped onto his political path, he also received a lot of support from Elder Tang, which was why the relationship between the Tang and Ning families was so good.

Qin Fang did want to greet Ning's family, but they had their own place, and it wasn't appropriate to mix together.

However, Qin Fang unexpectedly discovered that Xu Ling was seated just at the next table, and others like Miao San, who had a good relationship with him, were also seated together.

Although the older generation might not belong to the same camp and had different political views, they often would not attend such birthday banquets. However, it was common for them to send younger members to show support. Seeing members of the Miao family wasn't surprising.

"Young Master Xu, you've become even more handsome since I last saw you!"

When Qin Fang came to this table, he had initially only paid attention to the people at the table and had not taken much notice of the one behind him. Now that he discovered Xu Ling, he immediately picked up a glass of wine and said with a smile.

"Young Master Qin, you're not being fair with your words. Everyone thinks I don't look too good today, but why do you insist that I look handsome?"

Xu Ling had actually noticed Qin Fang quite early on. He came for Tang Feifei, but since she had gone to the capital and stayed with Old Master Tang at Qingzhu Mountain all these days, he hadn't had the chance to meet her. The reason he arrived early was that Tang Feifei was a member of the Tang Family, and it was a given that she would be here as a host to receive the guests coming to congratulate at Elder Tang's birthday banquet.

But he ended up coming up empty-handed, and later even saw Qin Fang walking in hand-in-hand with Tang Feifei to meet Tang Feifei's mother... Seeing Mother Tang's enthusiastic face, Xu Ling couldn't express how jealous he was.

Of course, he had met Mother Tang before, but ever since he was young, Aunt Shen seemed not to take much notice of him. Even though he and those around him were becoming more and more outstanding and he believed himself to be perfectly suited for Tang Feifei, there didn't seem to be much improvement in their relations...

And the bright smile Aunt Shen showed when she saw Qin Fang was quite a sting to Xu Ling, from his perspective, Qin Fang was nowhere near his level in any aspect.

When Tang Yonghong came storming in, intending to accuse Qin Fang, Xu Ling was rather pleased. He couldn't deny that he was the one leading the charge behind this incident.

Chen Shijie had been scared witless by Qin Fang and didn't dare to play any more tricks on him. In fact, he didn't even dare to attend Elder Tang's birthday banquet this time, simply because he knew he would have to sit at the same table as Qin Fang, he was scared, he had chickened out... With just a little manipulation from Xu Ling's side, the situation had evolved into this.

Chen Shijie hadn't truly intended to frame Qin Fang; his proclamation of sickness was nothing more than an excuse not to attend the birthday celebration. But when this matter reached Tang Yonghong, it completely changed in flavor, making it seem as if Qin Fang had been ruthless with Chen Shijie...

Unfortunately, this misunderstanding didn't lead to Qin Fang losing face or being expelled from the banquet hall. Instead, it was Tang Yonghong who left in a rush, while Qin Fang got to know other members of the Tang Family over cheerful conversations. Xu Ling knew then that his plan had failed again...

To make matters worse, Qin Fang came and sat right next to him, and now they were directly confronting each other.

Xu Ling wasn't normally the type to be sarcastically spiteful, but in the battle for Tang Feifei, this scion of a noble family had lost to the grassroots-born Qin Fang, which was something he simply couldn't swallow, making his words take on a bitterly ironic tone. Of course, he was implying that Qin Fang had snatched away Tang Feifei, who rightly belonged to him...

"Oh, I see... I must have mistaken just now, Young Master Xu, you don't look too well today. Could it be because your dear Japanese friend didn't show up last night?"

Qin Fang could be quite sly at times. Nakamura Shun's attempt on his life naturally had a great deal to do with Xu Ling. Unfortunately, Nakamura Shun was too dangerous to be captured alive, he had to be killed. Otherwise, Qin Fang would have known the relationship between him and Xu Ling...

A promising scion entangled with a notorious assassin was not good news. Should this connection become public, the scandal would indeed be enormous!

Especially since Xu Ling had even attempted to hire a hitman, targeting Qin Fang, the future son-in-law of the Tang Family... This was nothing short of a challenge to the Tang Family's authority.

Xu Ling had not thought much of Nakamura Shun's absence all night, but when Qin Fang mentioned it, the implications were entirely different.

Xu Ling's expression changed suddenly...

What Nakamura Shun was up to last night, Xu Ling could guess - even if he hadn't planned to take action straight away, at least he would have scoped out the situation in preparation for the next move.

But Nakamura Shun had also expressed that Qin Fang possessed a strength that even he couldn't help but fear, meaning Qin Fang himself was a formidable master...

Now, Qin Fang had appeared safe and sound at Elder Tang's birthday banquet, while his trusted expert Nakamura Shun hadn't shown up. Qin Fang's words undeniably suggested he had encountered Nakamura Shun last night...

So now Nakamura Shun might already be...

Xu Ling suddenly thought of a terrifying possibility, or rather an outcome he had never considered before - Nakamura Shun might have fallen into Qin Fang's hands or even... be dead! (To be continued. If you like this work, you're welcome to cast your recommendation tickets and monthly tickets at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation.)

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