Otherworldly Merchant

Mr. Qin said reluctantly, “If you don’t sign it, I’m afraid you won’t be able to leave this coffee shop before the situation is solved.”

I smiled casually. This fellow wanted to scare us into signing. If we signed this non-disclosure agreement, it wasn’t different from giving in to him. If we yielded this time, we’d have to do the same in the future. Moreover, if we accidentally leaked these matters, wouldn’t we become his servants?

That was why I had to stand up to him this time. I wouldn’t give in.

My actions scared the gold-toothed man. He shivered and looked at me and then at Mr. Qin. “Mr. Qin, don’t lower yourself to his level. He’s young and hot-tempered, and can be a little childish. I will talk to him and brief him on the situation.”

Then, the gold-toothed man turned to implore me.

I was irritated after seeing his servile face. I shot him a fierce glance to get him to stop his nonsense.

The gold-toothed man’s face looked pale. He was terrified.

But then, Mr. Qin suddenly laughed. “I like men like you, Mr. Zhang. You decide fast and are very resolute. It’s okay if you don’t want to sign it.”

He picked up the documents and tore them apart. “I have a little knowledge of fortune-telling by observing people's faces. I now know that Mr. Zhang is a man of his word. I was worried for nothing, so let’s just skip this troublesome procedure.”

I exhaled in relief. I feared that Mr. Qin was the sort of fellow that would act without regarding the consequences. If he was enraged and restrained us here, we would be helpless.

I felt that he was someone capable of killing us to make us shut up forever.

Since he had changed his mind, I no longer needed to continue with this farce. “So, could you tell me the details of this situation now?”

Mr. Qin nodded and glanced at the gold-toothed man.

The gold-toothed man nodded with a smile. He then rushed to the door and stood on guard.

The matter seemed to be so serious and discreet that even the gold-toothed man wasn’t allowed to know.

No wonder he hadn’t told us any details at first. It turned out he didn’t know anything.

Mr. Qin started to tell the details. “It has worn our entire family out. If we can’t solve it, my brother won’t be able to endure it for long. Everything started ten days ago…”

Mr. Qin’s brother, Qin Minghao, was the head of the family. Qin Minghao was a kind-hearted man, rich and compassionate. He managed a charity fund and was a famous philanthropist and also a Buddhist. He treated people very well and had many good friends.

However, ten days ago, Qin Minghao started to act weird.

At first, his character changed greatly.

A maid had accidentally knocked a teacup, which made the tea spill onto his lap while she was serving his meal. If it had happened before, Qin Minghao wouldn’t be enraged. At most, he would reprimand the maid a little and ask her to be more careful.

However, this time, Qin Minghao’s face turned purple in rage. He slammed the table and started to shout curses at the young maid. His actions shocked everybody in the house. They couldn’t believe that a kind-hearted man like Qin Minghao could use such filthy words to curse at someone.

Qin Minghao persistently accused the young maid of deliberately scalding him. He even threatened to call the police and have her arrested. The young maid was petrified and cried. If Mr. Qin here hadn’t helped her, the young maid would have been in jail as Qin Minghao did have that sort of power.

At first, Qin Minghao’s family thought that he was stressed at work and that he had just vented it out on the young maid. They didn’t take it seriously.

But then, Qin Minghao’s character became even worse. He started to trouble all the guards and workers in the house. Whenever they made a mistake, he would claim that they wanted to harm him. He insulted them, and sometimes, he went as far as assaulting them.

For example, one time, a lazy guard hid in the bathroom to smoke. Qin Minghao busted him and accused the man of attempting to burn his house down. He fired him on the spot and asked him for a big compensation.

The amount he asked for was so high that even if the guard used all his savings, it wouldn't be enough to compensate him.

The security staff was so desperate that he wanted to commit suicide. If Mr. Qin hadn’t secretly given him the money, that man would have already killed himself.

Since the leader of the family had become so strange, the board of directors and elders in the family couldn’t sit still. They carefully considered things and decided to let Qin Minghao rest for a while. They found him a psychiatrist to talk to him.

However, the psychiatrist couldn’t help at all, and Qin Minghao’s situation was getting worse. Qin Minghao hit the psychiatrist and said that he wanted to kill him. The psychiatrist no longer dared to see him and suspected that Qin Minghao was suffering from paranoia. He suggested that the family seek consultation from foreign experts.

Feeling helpless, Mr. Qin had to find a foreign expert.

During this time, Qin Minghao randomly got his sanity back. Since they had some important events they needed Qin Minghao to present and lead, as soon as Qin Minghao regained a clear mind, they arranged some meetings for him.

But then, during an important meeting with their top business partner, his sickness resurfaced. Right when they were about to sign a contract, Qin Minghao changed. He pointed at their business partner and screamed that he wasn’t pleased about the several business deals they had done. He claimed that the partner had cheated him many times and that the other company had plotted against his company and earned a lot from these deals. He complained that the contract this time had some flaws that would harm his company to the last penny. He accused the other company of conspiring against him and attempting to make him lose his wealth and his family.

The other company was one of their top 3 business partners. Since Qin Minghao had insulted the representative, they couldn’t keep this customer, and the Qin Group suffered a great loss. The elders of the Qins were all enraged. They had even thought of a new replacement for his post. If Mr. Qi hadn’t begged the elders, the Qin Group would be in the hands of an outsider already!

After the event, Qin Minghao locked himself in his room and no longer came out. Every activity of his was done in his self-confining room. Eventually, the place started to reek of his own waste, but he still didn’t allow anybody to come in and clean his room. Qin Minghao suspected everybody and thought that they all wanted to murder him.

Then, after two days, Qin Minghao walked out all of a sudden and changed into clean clothes. Although his face was still pale, he looked better than before.

People were surprised and thought that his sickness had gotten better as he acted like a normal person. The only strange thing was that he didn’t speak much and held a sword in his hand.

The sword was strange and had a layer of patina on the surface. It looked really old. The sword was blunt and heavy, but the weak-looking Qin Minghao held it effortlessly.

Mr. Qin didn’t recognize that sword, so it wasn’t something that was originally in their house. He didn’t know where Qin Minghao found it.

Qin Minghao said nothing and went out of the house. Mr. Qi was worried that Qin Minghao would encounter danger. “Brother, where are you going?”

Qin Minghao turned his head and glanced at his brother. It was also when Mr. Qi saw his brother’s calm but scary red eyes.

After a while, Qin Minghao answered, “I’ll be going out for a while.”

Mr. Qin couldn’t ease his mind and wanted to follow his brother, but Qin Minghao went crazy again. He tried to use his long sword to kill him. While wielding his sword, he cursed loudly, “You wanna kill me, right? I know you wanna kill me! Don’t come close to me. I won’t show mercy!”

Left with no choice, Mr. Qin could only watch Qin Minghao leave.

Since he was very worried, he brought two security guards with him and followed his brother.

They followed Qin Minghao all the way to the Wu River.

The Wu River was heavily polluted, with industrial waste floating everywhere, and the stinky water had turned red. The wind blew over, which brought an even thicker smell. Since Mr. Qin was a rich man and wasn’t used to these conditions, he almost puked.

Meanwhile, Qin Minghao acted as if he didn’t smell anything. He lifted his head and stood on the bank of Wu River as the wind ruffled his hair. He kept silent, and his figure looked very lonely.

“Heavens, you don’t have eyes!” Qin Minghao suddenly thundered as if his wrath had rocketed up to the sky. “Even you are jealous of my strength and want to destroy me! Hahaha, even if I’m a ghost, I’m still a hero. I have to find you and ask for justice!”

Then, Qin Minghao raised his sword and prepared to cut his throat.

Everyone was scared as Qin Minghao wanted to kill himself. Mr. Qi gawked in shock, but he quickly got a hold of himself and sprinted forward with the two guards.

However, they were too far away from Qin Minghao. Qin Minghao acted fast, and Mr. Qin clearly saw the sword glide across his brother’s neck. Blood spurted everywhere.

One of the guards was a former member of the special forces. He was the first one to approach Qin Minghao, and before the man could cut his throat one more time, he subdued him.

Mr. Qin saw a deep cut on his brother’s throat. However, it seemed the cut hadn’t reached his artery, so he wouldn’t bleed to death.

He had used a blunt sword to make such a big cut. Mr. Qin shuddered after thinking about the amount of force his brother had used to cut himself!

They then brought Qin Minghao to a hospital nearby. Qin Minghao didn’t cooperate and cursed the entire time about how the heavens wanted to destroy him. He struggled, kicked, and didn’t cooperate with the doctor.

Eventually, the doctor had to inject him with a sedative. Even so, Qin Minghao still kept mumbling those words. The scene scared all those present.

He was out of danger for now, but what were they supposed to do next?

A good man had turned into this. Would Qi Minghao have to live in an asylum for the rest of his life? This fate was even worse than death!