Chapter 118: Conflict between Profit and Justice
"Too deceiving!"

Seeing that Li Lao Hu was actually using her as a threat, Luo Ningyu was immediately furious and slammed the table and shouted, "Lin Fangda, Liu Xunyi, you catch this bastard who is slandering me!"

"Okay!" Lin Fang laughed fiercely, stood up resolutely and walked towards Li Lao Hu. Li Lao Hu was not afraid at all, but laughed loudly and said, "Okay! If you have the guts, do it! Let's see who regrets it in the end!"

"What do you mean?" Pan Chuba waved his hand to stop Lin Fangda and asked suspiciously, "What other plot do you have?"

"Master Pan, you, Pan Huai, are a big ship merchant with more than a hundred servants. I don't think you would want these servants who bought your life to die like my brother, right?" Li Lao Hu sneered, "Now that things have come to this, I won't hide it from you. This morning I have sent people to surround your dock and business. If you dare to act rashly, they will kill you! Just try it if you don't believe me!"

"Do you still have the law in your eyes..."

"The king's law?" Li Lao Hu laughed in anger. "I'm not afraid to tell you the truth. I have already arranged everything with the government. If you stick to the old ways and don't want to hand over the people or lose money, the government will use the excuse of investigating the case to seal up all of your Pan family's businesses in Yingchuan. When the time comes, hundreds of coolies will be left without food and come to you with their families. I wonder how your Pan family will respond? Mr. Pan, you'd better take care of yourself!"

"Scoundrel! Shameless! Despicable!" At this moment, Luo Ningyu wanted to use all the dirty words she knew on Li Lao Hu. Her eyes widened, and she said to Pan Chuba with a righteous look on her face: "Master Pan Ba, don't pay attention to him. I want to see how he dares to deal with us. If he dares to hurt a hair on my head, my father will send people to wipe out the East Lake Gang and make him wish he were dead."

Mr. Pan ignored Li Lao Hu's aggressive pressure and Luo Ningyu's impassioned speech. Instead, he turned around and greeted the guests, "Some accidents happened in my Pan family today. I am sorry to have embarrassed you all. I dare to ask you to leave for now. I will apologize to you another day!"

After that, Mr. Pan Ba ​​looked at Li Lao Hu again and said, "Boss Li, this matter is of great importance. I can't make a decision at the moment. Can you give me half an hour to discuss it with my children and grandchildren? It will be an explanation to them. Otherwise, even if I agree to share Pan Huai Shipping Merchants with you, but my children and grandchildren don't agree, won't it be a lot of trouble for Boss Li to run it in the future?"

Li Lao Hu originally planned to do it all at once, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that Pan Chuba's words made sense. After thinking for a moment, he nodded and said, "I can give you half an hour, but at the same time, I will send people to guard the mansion tightly, and not even a fly can fly out. Of course, if someone tries to escape in this half hour, then your Pan family will be in big trouble. Humph!"

After leaving a few threats, Li Lao Hu led his people out of the hall. The guests were eager to leave this place of trouble as soon as possible. Seeing that Li Lao Hu did not stop them, they could not wait to bow to Pan Chuba and say goodbye, scrambling to escape from Pan's house.

In a moment, in the hall that was just bustling with people and laughter, only the Pan family, Liu Xunyi, Luo Ningyu and Lin Fangda were left.

"Ahem!" Pan Chuba was the first to break the silence and said in a serious tone, "There are no outsiders here now. You don't have to hide what you want to say, but you can say it!"

"I wonder what Dad means?" Pan Wen pondered.

"No hurry!" Pan Chuba shook his head. "The family business doesn't belong to me alone. It belongs to all of you. So you can speak freely. If you don't speak now, you will regret it in the future."

Pan Chuba went straight to the point. Everyone in the Pan family looked at each other in bewilderment. For a moment, they all looked hesitant, as if they wanted to say something.

On the other hand, Liu Xunyi and the other two tried to speak several times, but were stopped by Pan Chuba's eyes.

"In that case, let me speak first!" Among the Pan family, Pan Chun has the most bold and unrestrained temperament. He has dared to speak and act since he was young, and he does not care about trivial matters. After three years of training in the new military headquarters, he has become even more straightforward.

Pan Chun first bowed slightly to Luo Ningyu and the other two, then turned to Pan Chuba and said frankly, "Grandpa, forgive my rudeness, I shouldn't have handed over half of my family business to the East Lake Gang. It's obvious that Li Lao Hu deliberately framed us. We didn't kill Li Bao at all, and his death had nothing to do with the Pan family. Why should we take the blame? If we agree to his conditions, wouldn't that be confessing ourselves? Outsiders will think we have something to hide."

"That's right!" Pan Wen nodded immediately. "Li Lao Hu can easily take away half of our family property today by finding an excuse. Maybe he will come up with another excuse someday. Then won't he swallow up our entire Pan family?"

"He is a robber in the first place. How can we reason with him?" The eldest lady agreed. "The Pan family is what it is today because of the hard work of three generations. How can we just give it away? People like Li Lao Hu are greedy and have done all kinds of bad things, but they still want to find a high-sounding excuse for themselves. If he sets a precedent, I am afraid that our Pan family will be defeated by him sooner or later."

Although what they said made sense, it still sounded a little awkward to Luo Ningyu. However, even though it was awkward, Luo Ningyu did not rush to express her opinion.

Pan Chuba said calmly, "I guess Li Lao Hu made this excuse for two reasons: First, his brother died, but he couldn't find the real murderer, so he wanted to vent his anger on my Pan family. Second, he wanted to show it to other businesses in Yingchuan. If he robs and robs without knowing right from wrong, who will dare to do business in Yingchuan in the future? Wouldn't everyone be in danger? In this way, he will be the one who suffers in the end. Li Lao Hu has always been smart, and he has calculated this account clearly."

"Although Li Lao Hu is a vicious person, I don't think he would kill his own brothers and deliberately frame us, right?" Pan Feng pondered, "So. Did someone really kill Li Bao last night? And it was killed in an extremely cruel way." "Madam is right." He Hu thought, "If this happened to me, I would definitely be uneasy. After all, an enemy hiding in the dark is far more dangerous than a fight with swords and guns. I just carefully observed Li Lao Hu's words and deeds. His anger and worry came from the bottom of his heart, and it didn't seem like he was pretending. And..."

At this point, He Hu slowly turned his gaze to Luo Ningyu and the other two, and said with a wry smile, "And Li Lao Hu has already determined that the three of you are the murderers, so he came here today to make a scene. In addition to making things difficult for the Pan family, he also has two purposes. The first is to take the opportunity to make money and let the Pan family use half of their family property to settle the matter and resolve the conflict. However, he did not insist on finding the murderer to avenge Li Bao. It is not difficult to see that in Li Lao Hu's heart, he is still quite afraid of you. Secondly, he wants to show his power to the three of you, to let you know that he is the boss in Yingchuan, and any other strong outsiders will never think of doing whatever they want in his territory."

"You mean he is establishing authority for Prince Xian's Mansion?" Lin Fangda sneered with disdain in his eyes.

"In fact, Li Lao Hu deliberately pretended to be ignorant. With his influence in Yingchuan, he could have found out your origins long ago." He Hu responded without denying, "But he didn't dare to blatantly oppose the Xianwang Mansion, so he planned to start with the Pan family. To shock the tiger and kill the chicken to scare the monkey."

Pan Wen said anxiously, "Then we must not agree to his terms, or else his scheme will succeed. Do you think our Pan family is a soft persimmon that is easy to bully?"

"But if they don't agree, what should Miss Luo and the others do?" Pan Yun said doubtfully, "Although Li Lao Hu is afraid of the Xianwang Mansion, since he dared to attack the Pan family, it means that he is not completely afraid of the Xianwang Mansion. If we anger him, who can guarantee that Miss Luo and the other two will be safe in Yingchuan?"

Pan Yuyin nodded and said, "Brother is right. This person is crazy and will do anything for money. Although Xianwang Mansion disdains the East Lake Gang, but... Li Lao Hu wants us to give an answer today. Even if Lord Luo sends someone to come here at full speed, it will take half an hour anyway, right? As the saying goes, distant water cannot quench immediate thirst. We should judge the situation and not act rashly."

Seeing Pan Yun and Pan Yuyin speaking for her, Luo Ningyu couldn't help but show gratitude and said with a faint smile: "It doesn't matter, I don't believe he really dares to deal with us."

"Sister-in-law, we have just expressed our thoughts. I wonder what you mean?" Pan Wen asked Ding Cui who had not said a word.

Ding Cui hesitated for a moment, then said faintly, "What I mean is... we must protect Miss Luo and the others no matter what, and we can't let them make any mistakes. As for half of the family property... it's just something outside of our body after all, at worst we can earn it back in the future!"

"Hiss!" As soon as Ding Cui said this, everyone present was extremely surprised. She usually cared about money the most, but now she could say such generous and righteous words, which really made people look at her with admiration. Even Liu Xunyi and the other two who had just complained about her couldn't help but look at her with a sidelong glance.

"Mom, do you really think so?" Pan Chun asked in disbelief, "That's half of our family property, half of our gold mountain..."

"Silly child, if the three distinguished guests from the Xian Palace really get into trouble in Yingchuan, not only will our family business be in jeopardy, but even we won't be able to survive the wrath of Palace Master Luo." Ding Cui did not forget to apologize to Luo Ningyu and the other two, "My words were a bit vulgar and mercenary, please forgive me!"

"Everyone, there's no need to argue anymore, let's just go and solve this matter!" Luo Ningyu suddenly said, "This matter has nothing to do with the Pan family, and you don't have to cause discord over it. I think Li Lao Hu is just trying to scare us and doesn't dare to really do anything to us. Besides, the three of us have some ability to protect ourselves, so..."

"No!" Before Luo Ningyu could finish her words, Pan Chuba suddenly waved his hand and said solemnly, "Can't you see it? These people from the East Lake Gang are not righteous men at all, and they don't follow the rules of the martial arts world. Many of them have never even heard of the name of Lord Luo. Li Lao Hu is greedy and will do anything for money. If you fall into the hands of this group of evil thieves, the consequences will be disastrous. Lord Luo sent you here, and I will never let you suffer any injustice."

"Dad, are we just going to let him blackmail us for nothing?" Pan Wen asked anxiously.

"I understand what you mean." Pan Chuba said in a deep voice, "But the East Lake Gang came here prepared today. We had no choice from the beginning, and I actually already had the answer. The reason why I let you express your opinions is that I don't want our family to fall apart because of this. In terms of emotion, Lord Luo and I are close friends. His daughter and beloved disciple are visiting my house. How can I put them in danger and ignore them? In terms of reason, the Pan family is in a turbulent time now. The ten-year agreement will be in the spring of next year. It is a life-and-death battle. It is still unknown whether we can keep our family business. What if we give him half of the East Lake Gang?"

When Pan Chuba said this, his lips were trembling slightly. After all, Pan Huai Shipping Merchant was the result of his life's hard work. How could it be as easy as he said?
"Master Pan!"

"father……"

"grandfather……"

"I have made up my mind. No need to persuade me anymore! I will give half of Pan Huai's shipping business to the East Lake Gang!"

……

(End of this chapter)