Chapter 58: The Way Men Solve Problems

"Is Yan Peng calling at this hour because of Tian Yulan?"

Looking at the caller ID on his phone, he felt an urge to reject the call. After all, he had just put Tian Yulan in a very humiliating position not long ago. Now that Yan Peng was calling, it was undoubtedly to demand an explanation, even if this accountability came a bit late.

Yet, realizing that this confrontation was inevitable and hiding from it was no solution—not to mention that his conscience was clear—he answered the call.

"Hello, Yan Peng."

"I'm downstairs at your place. Come down and see me."

Just as Zhou Chen was about to speak, Yan Peng hung up. This caught him off guard and made him frown. He never expected Yan Peng to show up at his building late at night.

However, the fact that Yan Peng asked him to come down instead of storming directly upstairs showed that he was at least more reasonable than Tian Yulan and her mother.

It was already past nine o'clock, and Huanhuan and Chaochao were already asleep. Zhou Chen informed Nan Li and prepared to go downstairs.

"Honey, Yan Peng is definitely here because of Tian Yulan. Try not to get into a conflict with him," Nan Li said with a hint of worry.

Zhou Chen smiled and said, "Don't worry. He had to come sooner or later, and I've been prepared for this all along. At worst, we'll just have a fistfight. The way men resolve conflicts is much simpler and more brutal than you women do."

"Don't talk nonsense. Go on quickly. If anything happens, just call—"

Before Nan Li could finish, Zhou Chen had already left the apartment.

When he reached downstairs, he spotted Yan Peng. Without waiting for Zhou Chen to speak, Yan Peng directly said, "Follow me."

Zhou Chen followed behind Yan Peng until they reached a secluded corner, where Zhou Chen told him to stop.

"Yan Peng, I know why you're here. If you have something to say, just spit it out."

Yan Peng turned around, his face dark and gloomy. He walked straight up to Zhou Chen and suddenly threw a punch.

Zhou Chen had never expected Yan Peng to resort to physical violence, so he was completely unprepared. The punch landed squarely on his face, sending him stumbling backward.

"Yan Peng, have you lost your mind?"

Zhou Chen felt a burning pain in his cheek; the punch had been delivered with full force. When he touched the corner of his mouth, he found it was already bleeding.

"Yeah, I've lost my mind! Xia Junshan, you damn well bullied my wife, and you're asking if I've lost my mind?"

Without wasting any more words, Yan Peng lunged forward and threw another punch. This time, however, Zhou Chen reacted in time. He sidestepped to dodge the blow and retaliated with a swift kick to Yan Peng's stomach, knocking him to the ground.

Ignoring the pain, Yan Peng rolled over and charged at Zhou Chen again. The two men immediately tumbled into a brawl, trading punch for punch as they rolled about on the ground.

They wrestled back and forth for several minutes until both of their faces were bruised and swollen, with blood streaming from their noses.

Fortunately, this was a secluded corner of the residential complex with no one around, or else it would have caused quite a commotion.

"Hoo, hoo, hoo..."

Zhou Chen sat on the ground, his face covered in bruises and blood. Not only his face, but his entire body ached—he had likely sustained several scrapes from rolling around on the ground.

Yan Peng didn't look any better. He lay sprawled out on his back, equally battered and bruised, his clothes even torn from the scuffle.

"We've fought it out. Do you have anything else to say now?"

Zhou Chen touched the corner of his mouth, wincing in pain as he asked Yan Peng.

Hearing this, Yan Peng propped himself up into a sitting position and stared at Zhou Chen with a resentful glare. "Xia Junshan, I considered you my best brother. Why did you have to do that to my wife?"

Zhou Chen sneered. "Why? You should know very well. Every single conflict was provoked by Tian Yulan in the first place. This time was no exception. She had her mother cause a scene at Nan Li's company, and then she filed complaints and snitched to Nan Li's superiors, getting Nan Li demoted and ridiculed until she had no choice but to resign."

Yan Peng retorted, "Tian Yulan said it was Nan Li who first caused her to be suspended."

"Hah, and you believed what she said? Figures, she's your wife after all. But let me tell you, her suspension had nothing to do with Nan Li whatsoever. That matter didn't even fall under Nan Li's jurisdiction. Helping out is a favor, not an obligation. Besides, Nan Li made the phone call afterward, and the supplies were delivered on time anyway. So what right does she have to blame her suspension on Nan Li?"

The more Zhou Chen spoke, the angrier he became. "You know what your wife is like better than anyone else. She has to compete with Nan Li in everything. Grown-ups aren't enough, so she drags the kids into it, turning every gathering into a living nightmare. Lately, she's been pushing her luck further and further. The mother and daughter came to our house to throw tantrums, and then she caused a scene at the school too. I kept tolerating her time and again out of respect for you and your father-in-law. And what did that get me in return? It only made her more brazen and out of control."

Yan Peng said, "So that's why you used those methods against her? You let the media expose her and had everyone humiliate her? No matter what Tian Yulan did wrong, you shouldn't have used such despicable tactics!"

"Then you tell me what I should have done. Should I have beaten her up? If I hit her, I'd probably be playing right into her hands, and I'd be the one in trouble. I'm not that stupid. As for using those methods, she brought them entirely upon herself."

"Yan Peng, no matter what you think, I genuinely treated you like a brother. I've brought this up with you more than once. If you had just a shred of capability to keep her in check and stop her from stirring up so much trouble, would things have come to this today?"

Yan Peng asked angrily, "Judging by your tone, it's still my fault in the end?"

"It's not just your fault; we both have issues. But things escalating to this point has a lot to do with your inaction. I used to have the same mindset as you, thinking that as long as we endured it, things would pass. And what was the result?

The result was that my family got bullied. When you came to fight me today for your wife, what was your frame of mind? Think about it carefully, and you'll understand my feelings and why I did what I did."

Zhou Chen held nothing back. Things had reached a point where there was no room for reconciliation between the two families, so they might as well lay everything out in the open.

Yan Peng shouted, "I don't understand! I really don't understand! Two families that were getting along just fine and could have lived in harmony—why did it turn into this mess? Why?"

Zhou Chen remained silent. The ultimate root of the problem lay in the fact that their two families shared no blood ties and had a complicated dynamic that meant they never should have been mixed together. It also stemmed from Tian Yulan's self-righteous pride and competitive mentality, and perhaps partially from Nan Li looking down upon Cai Jujing and her daughter.

Regardless of the reasons, now that things had deteriorated to this state, there was not the slightest shred of room for mending fences.

Yan Peng stood up and said to Zhou Chen in an icy tone, "Xia Junshan, after today, we are no longer brothers. I won't let Tian Yulan cause trouble for your family ever again, but I ask that you stop targeting Tian Yulan as well. Our two families will have no further contact. Even if we visit the elders over there, we will steer clear of you."

With a calm expression, Zhou Chen replied, "The feeling is mutual."

Without another word, Yan Peng turned and left. Zhou Chen watched his figure disappear into the distance, remaining silently speechless.

Yan Peng had been the closest friend he made after coming to this world, and starting today, that friendship was gone.

A man, once he has a family, will inevitably lose certain things for the sake of that family—some good, some bad.

Perhaps this was what they called growing up...