Chapter 118: Bronze and the King

If this had been said by a young man, it wouldn't have mattered; Chen Hao could have simply brushed it off. After all, young people are often casual with their words, and a few harmless jokes are hardly worth getting worked up about.

However, the security guard who spoke was a white-haired man of advanced age. Judging by his appearance, he was at least sixty-something. To be honest, calling him a security guard felt like a stretch; "gatekeeper" would have been a far more fitting title.

Given his age, if he were ever to encounter a thief or a mugger, one certainly couldn't expect him to engage in a physical struggle with a criminal. In Chen Hao's view, such an elderly man served a symbolic purpose far greater than any practical one. Yet, it was precisely his age that surprised Chen Hao. Krystal Hotel was an internationally rated star-class establishment; surely a hotel of this caliber wouldn't hire someone so clearly beyond the typical age for security duty?

Yet, the authentic-looking security uniform the man wore told Chen Hao he hadn't misjudged the situation. This was intriguing. A security guard at a high-end hotel at that age? Could he be a beneficiary of nepotism?

What surprised Chen Hao most, however, was the phrase the old man had just used. Was a man of his age actually familiar with the term "X-War"?

"Ahem!" Chen Hao released the burly man he had been pinning down, stood up, and coughed twice. "Sir, you've misunderstood. How could we possibly be fighting an 'X-War'?"

"Who are you calling 'Sir'? You're the one who's a 'Sir'!" To his surprise, Chen Hao's polite greeting met with dissatisfaction, and the man retorted sharply.

"Uh..." Chen Hao wasn't sure what he had said wrong to offend the man. Was it because calling him "Sir" made him feel old?

Thinking this, Chen Hao immediately corrected himself, albeit feeling quite awkward. "Big brother?"

The man huffed again. "Big brother? Why not 'big sister' while you're at it? Does your big brother have a head full of white hair?"

That wasn't right either... Chen Hao felt helpless. He had no idea how to address the man, so he made one last attempt. "Grandpa?"

Surprisingly, the man seemed slightly less dissatisfied, though his previous strong aversion had faded. He simply waved a hand. "Forget it, forget it. It's just a form of address; no need to dwell on it!"

Damn it! This old man had some nerve. It was hard to tell who had been obsessing over a title for the past few minutes.

Without giving Chen Hao a chance to retort, the old guard began lecturing the two of them. "I’m telling you two reckless boys, do you know what kind of place this is? How dare you fight here? Don't you know whose turf... I mean, what kind of venue this is? This is the hotel's underground parking garage. There are vehicles coming and going, and tourists and pedestrians everywhere. You two are fighting in the middle of the road. If a car happens to be driving too fast and hits you by accident, you won't even have a place to lodge a complaint!"

Chen Hao looked at the empty, cavernous parking garage, where only a single-digit number of cars were parked, and felt a flock of crows cawing as they flew over his head.

Was this old man not only hot-tempered but also prone to talking nonsense? He had managed to describe a desolate underground garage—where not a single tourist was in sight—as if it were a bustling marketplace. This ability to lie through his teeth was definitely on par with Gu Mengyan.

Due to the unique nature of Krystal, most visitors were foreigners who naturally wouldn't be driving themselves. Consequently, this massive underground parking garage rarely had many vehicles parked in it.

Chen Hao finally understood why such a large hotel had hired only this one old man as a security guard: because almost no one ever came to the underground garage, there was no need for a large security detail.

Hiring this gentleman to guard the garage was, in plain terms, just a gatekeeping job. Yet, the old man seemed quite diligent. He had appeared shortly after the conflict began, which suggested he must have had surveillance equipment. Otherwise, despite being empty, the garage was far too large to see across at a glance.

Even so, Chen Hao felt that if the old man had noticed the conflict, he shouldn't have been the one to intervene. Surely, a younger person should have been sent to break up the fight?

While Chen Hao was pondering this, the burly man spoke up, using the same rude tone as before. "Stinking old man, mind your own business! This has nothing to do with you, so get lost and stay out of the way! If you don't want to die, get out of here!"

To be honest, Chen Hao hadn't been particularly angered by his earlier conflict with the burly man; although the guy was rude, Chen Hao could at least understand his motivation. But for this guy to speak so disrespectfully to an elderly man, even wishing death upon him, was something Chen Hao couldn't tolerate—even though the old man's attitude toward him hadn't been stellar either.

After all, the man's age commanded a certain level of respect. Even if he was being a bit self-important, Chen Hao didn't mind. Besides, he and the burly man were at fault for fighting in a public space like the parking garage. The old man was right—even if the cars were few, if a passing driver hadn't seen them and hit them, they would have been the ones to suffer. Chen Hao wasn't arrogant enough to think his body could survive a high-speed collision with a car; he wasn't Iron Man.

Furthermore, the old man had only been harsh with him, not the burly man. Why was the guy acting like this?

As Chen Hao was thinking this, the burly man spoke again. "Hey! Stinking old man, are you deaf? I told you to get lost, why are you still standing there?"

The old man's reaction to the insults was strange. He showed none of the feistiness he had displayed toward Chen Hao, instead wearing a smile throughout the burly man's verbal abuse.

This old man... Chen Hao immediately pegged him as someone who bullied the weak and feared the strong. When faced with someone soft-tempered like him, the old man would lecture him incessantly, but as soon as he met someone truly unreasonable, he would immediately adopt a subservient demeanor.

To be fair, considering the physical disparity between the two, this reaction was somewhat expected. Still, this display of sycophancy left Chen Hao feeling cold. It wasn't an isolated incident; it was a widespread reality of society. Such occurrences were so common that everyone had grown numb to them.

Chen Hao knew it was impossible to change this through his own efforts. It wasn't a problem that one person or one group could solve; it required generations of collective effort to improve. He was merely grumbling to himself, and the words he had intended to say in defense of the old man remained swallowed in his throat.

Whether the old man was frightened by the burly man or not, he simply stood there with a grin, neither moving nor responding. This only served to infuriate the burly man further.

He disregarded the fact that his opponent was an elderly man, raised his palm, and swung it toward the old man's face—the exact same move he had used against Chen Hao.

If that blow landed, it would be a disaster. A man of such advanced age might well suffer a concussion. But Chen Hao found it difficult to intervene. The old man was positioned between him and the burly man; to save him, Chen Hao would have to circle around. Given the burly man's frame, by the time Chen Hao made it around, the old man would surely have been struck.

Chen Hao abandoned the idea of intervening. He even prepared himself mentally: after the burly man hit the old man, he would take the guy down and call the police. The officers would send the old man to the hospital, haul the two of them to the station for tea, and then...

What a headache.

However, there are always exceptions. The pained cry Chen Hao expected to hear from the old man never came. Instead, it was the burly man who let out a scream of agony.

When Chen Hao regained his focus, he stared at the scene before him in disbelief.

The burly man's massive palm had stopped half a centimeter from the old man's cheek—suspended in mid-air. No, it wasn't suspended; the burly man's wrist was firmly gripped by two of the old man's fingers. Chen Hao could almost hear the sound of bone splintering; the wrist held by the old man was visibly deformed.

Holy crap! Chen Hao shouted internally. He had thought the old man was a novice... but it turned out the old man was a freaking master! Compared to him, Chen Hao felt incredibly weak. When he had fought the burly man, they were evenly matched, though that was partly because he had been holding back.

But looking at the old man's effortless and practiced movements, it was clear he was a hidden expert. The "Plum-Blossom-Breaking Hand" technique he used was an absolute masterstroke!

The burly man was naturally stunned, but he didn't intend to just wait for his defeat. Even knowing he was far outmatched by the old man, instinct drove him to launch a counterattack.

This time, he used all his strength, lifting his leg to kick the old man in the abdomen.

Yet, the old man still wore that unchanging, relaxed smile. Using his other hand, he repeated the same maneuver, grabbing the burly man's ankle and twisting it with ease...

Chen Hao heard a loud, sickening crack of breaking bone, followed by another scream from the burly man.

"Snap!"

"AHHHHHH!!!!!"