"Ah..." Ma Xiangrong immediately let out a squeal like a pig being slaughtered, causing the two thugs nailed to the table to faint from fright.
"Heh heh, good things come in pairs," Lin Tian chuckled, but this smile looked like the smile of a demon to the thugs.
With a strong twist, Lin Tian broke another of Ma Xiangrong’s fingers. Unable to withstand the excruciating pain, Ma’s head slumped to the side, and he fainted.
As the saying goes, "hurting one’s fingers affects the heart." The pain from a finger injury is no less than that of a broken nose. Lin Tian had just broken his second finger, and Ma Xiangrong couldn’t take it anymore. However, after Lin Tian pressed a few points on his head, Ma Xiangrong woke up again.
"Think you can faint and get it all over with? Not so easy, you still have eight fingers left. After I’m done with the fingers, there are still ten toes. So, what do you think, should I break toes or fingers next?" Lin Tian patted his face, speaking unhurriedly.
With every sentence Lin Tian spoke, Ma Xiangrong shuddered. He panted heavily and growled in a deep voice, "Kill me if you dare, just kill me!"
"Why beg someone else to die? The knife is right here. Just pick it up and gently cut your throat, and you can end this pain," Lin Tian said indifferently, tossing the broken knife in front of him.
Nobody dared breathe as they intently watched Ma Xiangrong and the broken sword before him. They wondered if he would choose death over a life worse than death. As bystanders, they could casually make a choice because they weren’t the ones lying on the ground.
Ma Xiangrong grabbed the broken sword with his intact hand, the blade pointing towards his own neck, inching closer as his hand shook. But a minute went by, then three, and Ma Xiangrong still couldn’t do it. His expression went through a gamut of changes, ending with a look of deflation as he threw the knife to the ground.
His underlings watched Ma Xiangrong with complex expressions—relief, disappointment, confusion. Lin Tian saw all of this very clearly. They were relieved their boss wasn’t dead but disappointed that their boss wasn’t tough enough, and they were confused whether the ’fear no heaven, fear no earth’ mentality instilled by their boss was right.
"As the saying goes, a bad life is better than a good death, Captain Ma, your choice was very smart, heh heh," Lin Tian chuckled, yet the disdain in his tone made Ma’s face flush red.
After saying that, Lin Tian no longer paid him any heed and turned to walk leisurely toward the head of the conference table. He sat down calmly in the chair that commanded the room. The thugs who had been surrounding the area recoiled in horror, dreadfully afraid of angering this Evil God.
"You... you can’t sit there..." Manager Zhao stuttered as he climbed to his feet.
That seat was usually reserved for the boss, and when the boss wasn’t around, it was his. It symbolized power and status in the Night Rose Bar.
But Lin Tian just glanced at him indifferently, and Manager Zhao was so frightened that he immediately shut his mouth, not daring to continue. If the manager dare not speak out against it, the other supervisors and team leaders were even less likely to object. They all curiously watched the young man, wondering who he was to be so bold in the bar, not knowing who stood behind the bar.
"Now, I have a major announcement to make," Lin Tian looked around the room, waiting until he had everyone’s attention before he said, "Starting today, I am the new boss of the Night Rose Bar, Rossi, show them the documents."
The new boss? The same question popped into everyone’s heads. Su Qingqing previously mentioned that Lin Tian was the new boss, but everyone took it as nonsense. The bar was a golden goose for its owners, making a profit every month; why would they give it up?
No matter what everyone thought, Rossi had already sent out the documents, and each person who received them couldn’t believe their eyes. But it was clearly written in black and white that the bar had been transferred to this young man named Lin Tian, and at the end, there was the signature of the big boss.
"Is... is this real?" After looking over the document, Manager Zhao’s eyes widened in disbelief, and then he thought about how he had just offended the new boss. A drumbeat of fear thumped in his heart, worrying that his position as manager was no longer secure.
After the document had been passed around, silence fell upon the conference room. All the supervisors and foremen stealthily sized up Lin Tian, all arriving at the same thought—they wondered how this young man had managed to get the bar from the hands of those rich second-generation kids. Even the injured Ma Xiangrong had a shocked expression. He turned his head and exchanged a glance with Manager Zhao, silently communicating something.
"As the new owner of the bar, I must establish a few new rules. I’m not proposing these new rules for discussion, but they must be followed," Lin Tian stated to the group of supervisors.
Snapping out of their daze, everyone exchanged glances. Announcing new rules meant that the old ones would be broken, and breaking the old rules could lead to changes in positions and interests that directly affected their own. They felt both anticipation and unease.
They didn’t know whether the unknown changes would be for their benefit or if they would end up worse off than before.
"Firstly, the bar will create a new position for a General Manager," Lin Tian announced, causing everyone to startle. Wasn’t the General Manager higher than the Bar Manager? Before they could reflect further, Lin Tian continued, "The position of General Manager will be filled by this person beside me, you can call him Rossi."
All eyes turned towards Rossi. He just sat calmly, neither smiling nor projecting an air of cold aloofness. For a moment, they couldn’t fathom the intentions of their new immediate superior.
But Rossi had no such calculations. The high-ranking position they saw as unattainably prestigious, he deemed more insignificant than dust; he merely wished to carry out his master’s wishes faithfully. If the supervisors knew that Rossi’s detachment stemmed not from inscrutability but from sheer indifference to any position, they might not know what to think.
"Rossi will not be responsible for any specific tasks, but when I’m not at the bar, he will have full authority to represent me. Do you understand?" Lin Tian declared.
All the supervisors and foremen nodded their understanding, but they realized that the Manager was no longer the top authority in the bar. Their looks towards Manager Zhao became meaningful. Only Manager Zhao, Ma Xiangrong, and his gang were at a loss; the bar had changed hands so suddenly, they had not yet come to terms with this reality.
Lin Tian didn’t even look at them as he went on, "Secondly, fire Manager Zhao, Captain Ma..."
"No, you can’t, why, even if you fire me, you need to give a reason," Manager Zhao shouted out loud, his speech growing desperate.
For Manager Zhao, the appeal of being a bar manager was not the salary, but the perks. When the boss was away, he was the top dog, and wasn’t it easy to take advantage? In the past, Bai Yufeng and the others simply didn’t bother with such minor matters as long as profits were delivered, and it was even an unspoken rule that managers could skim a little off the top. Losing this position was something Manager Zhao could not accept, not by two hundred percent.
"A reason? I don’t need to give you any reason!" Lin Tian simply glanced at him indifferently, he said.
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