Chapter 117 Intoxicated

It was a little after four in the morning when Su Tianbei, still in his pajamas, left his house and got into Yu Mingyuan's car.

"Ugh…!" Yu Mingyuan hiccuped, his eyes glazed over. "Going for breakfast?" he asked.

Su Tianbei glanced at him sideways. "How many rounds have you been drinking?"

"I don't know. Just been drinking," Yu Mingyuan replied, not waiting for a response before driving off to find a 24-hour congee shop.

…

A little after six, inside the congee shop.

Su Tianbei's face was flushed, and he reeked of alcohol as he roared, "Why am I upset?! It's because he's too much of a goddamn gentleman! When we dealt with Lu Feng, a few of us fought thirty or forty guys at Fumanlou, and we could barely stand by the end, helping each other up, and then we walked away together with the money. When we were organizing the dock association, the brothers risked their lives together, bled together… We've been through so much together, what kind of bond is that?! If you have a problem, can't you just say it directly? Why the hell did you have to call a shareholders' meeting, bring in Da Bai and Zhou Tonghui… stirring them all up to take down Xiao Yu?! Was it necessary? So Xiao Yu got a little attention, so what? Was it easy for him? He almost died trying to get in good with Lao Li!"

Yu Mingyuan stared blankly, wine dribbling from his nostrils as he asked, "Just this?"

"What else could it be?" Su Tianbei took at least five seconds to react before blinking and saying, "I'm just upset! I'm telling you, if Liu Zi had screwed things up this time, then there's nothing to say! I would definitely keep my tail between my legs! But sorry, our Liu Zi really pulled it off, and Su Tiannan really made up for his mistake and scored another accomplishment! Slap in the face, right?! Doesn't that prove his thinking was wrong? Is there a problem with me getting angry?"

"No!" Yu Mingyuan was convinced by this incredibly straightforward logic.

"…I'm so damn frustrated." Su Tianbei was smug one second and bursting into tears the next. "My brother's in jail, and my old man hasn't eaten properly for three or four days, just secretly drinking his sorrows away! Su Tiannan is different from me. I'm a wild donkey; I'm not that old, so it's okay if I mess around for a couple more years, but he's over thirty, the eldest son in the family! If he really does ten or eight years, what's he going to do when he gets out? His life will be ruined!!"

Yu Mingyuan nodded slowly. "Yeah."

"I'm not saying that Kong Zhengwei is wrong. Tiannan bringing people into the association without saying anything was a mistake, that's true. But people can never use absolute reason to deal with problems." Su Tianbei stretched his neck and roared, "I'm just asking you one thing, if your dad's a drunk, and he's causing trouble in the street when he's drunk! You run into it and see a bunch of people beating him up, what would you do?"

"Whoever's hitting my dad, I'll take them down!" Yu Mingyuan replied without hesitation.

"That's the point. My brother's in jail, and I'm so damn frustrated!" Su Tianbei said, tears welling up in his eyes. "And then, at the dinner table, he brought up Uncle You's matter again… I couldn't take it, you know?"

Yu Mingyuan picked up his wine glass, staring blankly at Tianbei. "Just this, right? Nothing else?!"

"Nothing else!" Su Tianbei shook his head.

"Then do you acknowledge the contributions Kong Zhengwei has made to the team?" Yu Mingyuan asked.

"I do! Without him managing logistics, sorting out funds, and taking money from his family to fill the association's coffers, we would have fallen apart long ago," Su Tianbei replied directly.

"Then can you forgive Kong Zhengwei? I'm talking about emotionally, not rationally," Yu Mingyuan asked again.

"I'm still not over it." Su Tianbei held his wine glass, pausing for a moment before saying, "…Damn it, when I think about it, that's just how my brother is! I wouldn't care if someone else was criticizing me… they can say whatever they want, but not my brother, he's too stubborn."

"I'll have Zhengwei treat you to a drink later," Yu Mingyuan said bluntly. "As for your brother's matter, I'll sell everything I own to take care of it."

"Damn, do I need a drink?!" Su Tianbei raised his eyebrows. "I… I was wrong to hit him, especially at your engagement ceremony, but remember, I'm a reasonable person!"

"Alright!" Yu Mingyuan raised his half-empty glass of cheap baijiu. "Let's finish this, drink up! No one drinks any more after this!"

"Come on, bottoms up!"

With that, they drained their glasses.

Yu Mingyuan's way of communicating with Su Tianbei was completely different from his conversations with Kong Zhengwei. The former was full of street smarts, while the latter was very clear on rules and regulations.

A little after seven in the morning, the two men stumbled out of the congee shop, supporting each other. The owner came over to clean up, and was stunned when he saw the bottle and a half of baijiu on the table.

At a nearby table, an old cleaner grumbled, "Where did these two drunks come from! They've been bragging since four in the morning, and they're still going! Damn, starting the day with over a pound of baijiu, truly the younger generation surpasses the older!"

The owner paused. "Did those two idiots pay the bill?!"

Thirty seconds later.

The owner chased after them, shouting, "Don't go, don't go, give me the money!"

…

Three days later, at six thirty in the morning, inside the Zhadao Prison.

Su Tiannan, wearing a dark brown prison uniform and holding a plastic washbasin, entered the washroom with more than a hundred other inmates.

The prisons in Zone One are very different from the inland prisons most people are familiar with, especially here on Zhadao. They implement a separate management system, meaning that each individual prisoner has his own small room and does not live with other prisoners, which avoids frequent incidents of prison breaks, abuse, and suicide.

After entering the washroom, Su Tiannan stood in his designated spot, waiting in line.

Although he had only been here for three days, Su Tiannan's emotions were already suppressed to the extreme.

The environment here was very unfamiliar, and most of the inmates were of different races: Black, White, Middle Eastern, people from all over the world.

Su Tiannan couldn't speak the language here, and he had no idea what his future held, so his negative emotions were weighing on every nerve. If he wasn't relatively strong-willed, he could have collapsed at any moment.

Standing by the wall, Su Tiannan stared blankly around him.

"Slap!"

Just then, a man over six feet tall with exaggerated tattoos all over his body slapped Su Tiannan on the head.

"What are you doing?!" Su Tiannan looked up.

The man, who was quite perverse, immediately took off his pants, pointed to his manhood, and shouted in broken Chinese, "Hee hee… you… wash for me!!"

"Hahahaha!"

As soon as the words came out, the inmates lined up around them burst into mocking laughter, and some busybodies even whistled.

In the corner by the window, a Chinese middle-aged man in his fifties, holding a toothbrush, glanced back at Su Tiannan.