Sometimes, life is just this awkward.

Lu Fan thought the other guy was a pervert.

But it turned out to be his brother-in-law, whom he had never met.

Jiang Yixia immediately helped the man up from the ground and asked with concern, "Are you okay?"

The man, his face contorted in pain, said, "What the—? Who is this guy? Why did he hit me?"

Jiang Yixia looked up at Lu Fan. "Why are you just hitting people randomly?"

Lu Fan quickly explained, "I saw him acting all shifty and thought he was a pervert. Plus, it looked like he was about to grab you, so I hit him."

The man instantly got angry. He pointed a finger in Lu Fan’s face and snapped, "Who the hell are you, pal? What’s wrong with me teasing my own sister? Do I need your permission to mess with her? You’ve got to be kidding me."

Lu Fan smiled. "My apologies. I overreacted. I’m sorry."

"If ’sorry’ fixed everything, what would we need the police for?" the man said, rolling up his sleeves to give him a beating.

Seeing this, Jiang Yixia tried to calm the man down. "Alright, Jiang Ming, stop messing around."

The man named Jiang Ming turned to Jiang Yixia, confused. "Sis, he’s the one who hit me, not the other way around. Why are you taking his side instead of mine?"

"Besides, this guy’s been staring at the flower shop the whole time. I think *he’s* the real pervert." With that, Jiang Ming, not caring about the consequences, rolled up his sleeves again, ready to go at Lu Fan.

Even though the man before him was more than ten years younger, Lu Fan wasn’t the least bit afraid of a real fight.

After all, with years of working out and training in boxing with Chen He, he’d picked up a thing or two.

But this was his brother-in-law, after all. It wouldn’t be right to get into a serious fight.

So he smiled and said, "Little brother, I apologize."

"What? Who’s your little brother? Why do you keep calling me that? Who do you think you are?" Jiang Ming was still fuming.

Seeing the situation escalating, Jiang Yixia finally explained to Jiang Ming to get them both to calm down, "He’s Silu and Sifan’s biological father."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Jiang Ming froze.

He turned to his sister, a look of horror on his face, and asked, "He... he’s Silu and Sifan’s biological father?"

Jiang Yixia didn’t want to admit it, but she finally nodded.

It was the truth.

An ironclad fact.

The moment Jiang Ming registered Jiang Yixia’s confirmation, he spun around and threw a punch at Lu Fan’s face.

Seeing it coming, Lu Fan took a step back.

So Jiang Ming’s punch hit nothing but air.

But Jiang Ming started cursing furiously, "Fuck you! You’re the reason my sister’s been called a ’wild woman’ for twenty years! You’re the reason my two nieces had no one to play with when they were kids! You’re the reason our family could never hold their heads high in the village!"

Saying this, Jiang Ming charged forward again, grabbing Lu Fan viciously by the collar and raising his right fist.

This time, Lu Fan didn’t dodge.

Instead, he took the punch squarely.

Jiang Yixia was terrified. She desperately tried to pull Jiang Ming back, shouting, "Are you crazy? Why are you hitting him?"

Jiang Ming didn’t care. He pummeled Lu Fan’s body with all his strength.

At the entrance of the pastry shop, Chen He was clearly anxious.

He looked at Jiali and said, "Jiali, are you sure we shouldn’t go help?"

Jiali replied calmly, "The moment he threw that punch, the boss gave us a signal to stand down. So, we can’t go up there."

"Besides, that man has no combat experience—he just has the fighting ability of an average guy. Our boss has been learning mixed martial arts from you for a long time; he can more than handle an ordinary man. The only reason he’s letting himself get beaten up so badly is, to put it bluntly, for the lady boss’s sake."

After hearing Jiali’s explanation, Chen He had a moment of realization.

He immediately pulled up a chair and began to watch with great interest.

Seeing his reaction, Jiali asked, "How did you change your tune so quickly?"

"You’re the one who said it. The boss has everything under control. In that case, I’m definitely going to enjoy the show," Chen He chuckled.

Jiali watched his relaxed expression and shook her head helplessly.

’A musclehead is still a musclehead.’

Meanwhile.

Jiang Ming was still cursing resentfully, "All these years... if it weren’t for you, my sister never would have ended up like this! She was in the prime of her life. With her looks, she could have married a man who would make her happy, but she had the bad luck of meeting you."

"And it’s one thing to meet you, but you turned out to be a scumbag, a cheating bastard at that!"

"Cheating again and again... To be honest, if my sister hadn’t stopped me from coming after you, I would have beaten you to death twenty years ago."

"Why are you back now? Are you trying to get back together with my sister?"

"Let me tell you, no way in hell. As long as I, Jiang Ming, am on this earth, I will never let you touch my sister again."

Jiang Ming said all this in one breath, but Lu Fan just watched him unhurriedly.

Even though his face was already clearly bruised.

Jiang Yixia used all her strength to pull Jiang Ming and Lu Fan apart.

She stood in front of Lu Fan and faced Jiang Ming. "Are you out of your mind? If you keep hitting him like this, you’ll go to jail, you know that?"

"Then I’ll go to jail! But before I do, I’m going to beat this menace to death so he can’t bother you anymore. Trading my life for your happiness... I think it’s worth it," Jiang Ming said, still furious.

Hearing this, Lu Fan was actually quite moved.

’It seems her brother has protected Jiang Yixia well all these years.’

’Of course, this was all his fault for starting it all and then abandoning her.’

’So it was only normal for Jiang Ming to hate him this much.’

Lu Fan didn’t blame him for beating him black and blue.

Jiang Yixia then turned to Lu Fan. "Why haven’t you left yet? Do you want to get hit again? He’s a PE teacher, and he’s more than ten years younger than you."

"It’s fine. If getting beaten up makes my brother-in-law feel better, I’m willing to accept this karma," Lu Fan explained.

"What are you trying to prove right now?!" Jiang Yixia grew anxious. She was genuinely afraid her brother would beat Lu Fan to death.

She used all her strength to push Lu Fan toward the flower shop’s entrance.

"Get out of here now. Go on, get out," Jiang Yixia ordered Lu Fan, her tone almost final.

Lu Fan looked at Jiang Ming, gave a slight bow, and then turned and left.

Seeing Lu Fan about to leave, Jiang Ming wanted to rush forward and stop him.

But Jiang Yixia held him back. "Stop causing trouble."

"Sis, he’s the man who ruined twenty years of your life!" Jiang Ming said frantically.

Jiang Yixia hesitated. Finally, she looked at him and said through her tears, "He didn’t ruin my life. I was the one who gave birth to Silu and Sifan. It has nothing to do with him."

"You... Sis, how can you still be defending him after all this time? You..." Jiang Ming sighed.