"Good luck to Young Master Zhou, may he immediately succeed. This time, that frivolous fool is going to suffer," said the descendants of other families as they quickly raised their glasses to flatter him.
"Once Family Head Zhou takes the position of City Lord, we will come back here to celebrate. For today, let’s not go home until we’re drunk!" Flattery wasn’t limited to one individual.
...
While Miss Zhao Shi and others celebrated jubilantly, in the back courtyard of the restaurant, a faint grunt was heard. A hidden guard behind a rockery slumped to the ground softly, and then, two figures appeared. It was Mu Hanyan and Zirong.
"It’s truly unexpected, such tight security in the backyard of a small restaurant," Zirong remarked as he tossed away the brick he had used.
From the outside, the Zhou Family Restaurant seemed unremarkable, no different from the usual restaurants, but as they approached the backyard, the security tightened significantly. Along the way, the two had knocked down at least twelve hidden guards, making it to the backyard without alarming anyone.
Fortunately, this backyard was a distance away from the restaurant and was extremely secluded. After clearing those twelve hidden guards, there were no other threats.
Zirong looked at Mu Hanyan, his eyes full of curiosity.
Of those twelve hidden spots, five were discovered by him, and seven were detected by Mu Hanyan ahead of him.
Zirong was always confident in his keen perception, but he couldn’t understand how Mu Hanyan could detect those seven hidden spots before him. Moreover, Mu Hanyan’s actions were decisive and skilled, using a brick for each guard, so expertly despite his reputation as a useless playboy.
The more Zirong observed, the more puzzled he became about this notorious good-for-nothing.
"The Zhou family has been rooted in Heishi City for several hundred to nearly a thousand years, deeply entrenched. How could they have been content with a lower status and not covet the position of City Lord? This restaurant is a base where the Zhou family secretly cultivates their power," Mu Hanyan said with a light smile.
While families like the Zhou family and the Zhao Family had long coveted the position of City Lord, the Mu Family was not unguarded. However, they focused only on the movements within the main compounds of those families and overlooked their less conspicuous properties, like this Zhou Family Restaurant, which Zirong would not likely know about.
The reason Mu Hanyan knew about this was because, in his past life, when the major families joined forces to challenge the Mu Family, the hidden strength of this restaurant had emerged.
"So that’s how it is, we came today to uproot this base?" Zirong was somewhat excited, but then he felt something was amiss. Even if they were to take action against the Zhou family, it should be a matter for the Mu Family elders or the Family Head. What significant role could this playboy possibly play?
He would not underestimate the restaurant’s hidden strength just because they had knocked down a few guards. It was clear to him that the experts nurtured secretly by the restaurant would not be as easy to handle as these guards.
What was more important was that their target was supposed to be Fourth Miss Zhao, so what did the Zhou Family Restaurant have to do with it?
The more Zirong thought, the more confused he became, his puzzled gaze turning towards Mu Hanyan.
"You’re overthinking it; I don’t think we have that much capability," Mu Hanyan’s words confirmed Zirong’s suspicions, and he said with a mischievous grin, "Today, we came here to borrow something from the Zhou family."