Chapter 1 The Poison

Inside the restaurant's private room.

The waiter looked at You Yifan nervously, nodding repeatedly. "Yes, the person who usually serves this room is on leave today. I'm filling in. Big brother, I didn't sleep well last night because I was watching the game. I didn't do it on purpose..."

You Yifan sized up the waiter. He was young, only about twenty years old, with a thin build and a face full of acne, giving him an unpleasant look.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry...!" The waiter became even more nervous when he saw everyone staring at him, bowing and apologizing repeatedly.

You Yifan paused, then waved his hand and said, "Alright, it's okay, you can go."

"Okay, okay, enjoy your meal." The waiter nodded immediately, turned and left, without even clearing the napkins or used snack plates from the table.

After the waiter left the private room, You Chengcheng frowned and looked at You Yifan, saying, "That person is strange, he doesn't seem quite right."

You Yifan slowly withdrew his gaze, glanced at the table, and finally fixed his eyes on the bowl of wontons.

"I'm going to the restroom. Xiao San, come with me," You Yifan suddenly said as he stood up.

...

Five minutes later.

In the stairwell of the hotel's back kitchen, the waiter stood against the wall, sweat beading on his forehead. He carefully pulled a folded paper packet from the gap in his waistband, glanced around, and quickly opened it, preparing to scatter it at the base of the wall.

"Bang!"

With a muffled sound, the stairwell door was pushed open, and three extremely burly men rushed in.

The waiter turned around in alarm, looking at the three men. "You...?!"

"Bang!"

The burly man in front punched the waiter, knocking him to the ground, and waved his hand, shouting, "Don't make a sound, take him back quietly."

A short while later, inside the 16th-floor ocean-view business suite of the Cabin Hotel, the waiter lay on the ground, twitching, his mouth sealed with tape and his body bound with rope.

Around him, three burly men wielded steel batons, striking the waiter's shins. Each strike produced a cracking sound as the baton hit bone, along with the scraping sound of the waiter struggling on the floor.

Inside the bathroom.

You Yifan repeatedly induced vomiting three or four times, bringing up all the food he had eaten that morning, and then gulped down two large bottles of water. Although he suspected that the waiter hadn't had time to act, otherwise he should have already felt something, he still vomited cautiously, his heart filled with lingering fear.

After this ordeal, You Yifan's face was pale, and he walked out of the bathroom feeling somewhat unwell.

On the sofa, Jing Yan, You Chengcheng, and the others sat quietly, watching the struggling waiter indifferently.

"Are you okay, brother? Should we go to the hospital?" You Chengcheng asked immediately, standing up as she saw her brother emerge from the bathroom.

"No need." You Yifan waved his hand and called out to the three burly men, "You can stop now, take the tape off his mouth."

The three men nodded, bent down, and began to work.

You Yifan sat on the sofa, picked up a cigarette case, crossed his legs, and looked at the waiter with a gloomy expression.

After a few seconds, the tape was removed from the waiter's mouth, but he was still in a dazed state. The pain in his legs made him twitch and curl up.

You Yifan took a deep drag on his cigarette, looked at the waiter, and asked in a hoarse voice, "Can you talk? If you can't, they can help you again."

Hearing this, the waiter was so frightened that his pores exploded, and he slowly raised his head, replying in a trembling voice, "B... Big brother, I was wrong."

"Good, you can talk." You Yifan looked at him, slowly picked up the small folded paper packet on the coffee table, and asked in a raspy voice, "What's in here?"

The waiter swallowed, his eyes struggling.

"Still keeping your mouth shut, huh?" The burly man raised his baton, ready to strike.

"I... I'll talk!" The waiter immediately shouted, "It's aconite... It's poison."

You Yifan looked at him; "You were trying to poison me?"

"Yes, someone asked me to poison you... in the wonton soup." The waiter lowered his head, his voice trembling. "But I've never done this before, I was too nervous."

"The things I ate before, they weren't poisoned?" You Yifan asked again.

"The buns, fried dough sticks, there was no way to put poison in them, it couldn't be diluted." The waiter replied immediately, "I... I'm a server, I'm not in the back kitchen, I don't have access to those things, I could only put it in the wonton soup."

Hearing this, You Yifan's face became even gloomier. "Why didn't you use all of this aconite reduction?!"

"The... the person who hired me said that you can't put it all in, otherwise it will kill people," the waiter replied immediately. "They only told me to put in about one milligram."

Everyone was a little confused when they heard this. If it was poisoning, then it must be aimed at killing someone, so why limit the amount?

You Yifan looked at the waiter: "You didn't plan to kill me?"

"No, the person who hired me said, just let you have some reaction, and go to the hospital." The waiter nodded. "But he was afraid that I wouldn't use the right amount and waste the poison, so he prepared a little more for me."

Hearing this, You Yifan exchanged a glance with Jing Yan, and then asked, "Who hired you?"

"It's... a gangster in Hanoi, named Wu Zheng, we met when we were gambling. I owed some money, he found me and said that as long as I did this, I could get rid of the debt and get 100,000 yuan...." The waiter explained logically, "I was short of money, so I agreed. But... but I've never done this before, I was too nervous, Big brother... I'm just a pawn, please let me go."

You Yifan stared at him: "Besides poisoning, did he mention any other requirements?"

"He just told me to observe, to see when you have a reaction, and when you go to the hospital," the waiter replied.

You Yifan looked up at Jing Yan: "Damn, I almost lost my life eating this meal. Brother Jing, what do you think about this?"

"If we want to make a move, they can't just wait to be beaten." Jing Yan replied, folding his arms. "The other side also wants to make the first move."

You Yifan frowned and fell silent.

"Boss, why don't we just hand him over to the island's officials and let them investigate along this line?" The burly man holding the baton said, pointing at the waiter on the ground.

You Yifan waved his hand directly: "They wanted to poison me, but they didn't want me to die. Brother Jing, what do you think they want to do?"

"The island is full of the Thai family's people, and there are also people from the military, they don't dare to do anything here." Jing Yan replied. "And this place is surrounded by water, even if they do something, they can't take you away."

"Hehe, so that's why...!" You Yifan smiled grimly.

...

Half an hour later.

The waiter called the person who hired him: "Hello, Brother Wu, I... I didn't have a chance this morning, You Yifan didn't drink the soup, I have to wait until tonight to do it."

The other side was silent for a while: "Anyway, I've told you everything, if you don't get the job done, you'll have to pay back the high-interest loan."