Call the brothers over.

Zhao Yiman's gaze was as frosty as the dead of winter, radiating an implacable and ruthless resolve.

She pulled out her phone and quickly dialed a number, her tone calm yet unwavering: "Hurry, get over here right now. I'm at the Bengjian Market, and I've caught a thief!"

A voice replied from the other end of the line. After exchanging a few brief words, Zhao Yiman hung up.

She turned around, a flicker of chilling malice flashing in her eyes. Pan Ximi's heart skipped a beat as he sensed that something was terribly wrong.

He spun around, intending to flee.

Moments later, several figures burst in from the teahouse outside the Bengjian Market. How could the veteran security guards of the market possibly stop them? They were directly bowled over and sent crashing to the ground.

These sturdy young men from the Zhao family's security division were all broad-shouldered and powerfully built. Originally dispatched to ensure Zhao Yiman's safety, they had rushed over at a single phone call, exuding an aggressive aura as they immediately surrounded Pan Ximi. Several of them blocked the doorway outright, terrified that he might escape.

Zhao Yiman let out a cold, mocking laugh. "Ten years! I never could have imagined that my old jade pendant would turn up in a place like this!"

"Pan Ximi," Zhao Yiman's voice was like a sharp blade slicing through the quiet room, "you only have two choices today. Either return the jade pendant to me, or wait for my men to take you away."

Panic surged in Pan Ximi's chest; he knew he had run out of options.

Those servants stood like a towering wall, cutting him off completely from freedom.

His hand involuntarily reached up to stroke the jade pendant resting against his neck as he struggled internally. If he returned the pendant to Zhao Yiman, wouldn't he be implicitly admitting that he was a thief? But if he didn't return it, where on earth could he run?

"You... you're driving me to the wall!" Pan Ximi said in a panic, his voice trembling. Pulling out his phone, he glared at Zhao Yiman and warned, "Don't you forget whose turf this is!"

"I don't give a damn whose turf this is! One way or another, you are going to return my jade pendant!"

Professor Wang watched from the side, unable to bear the tension, and tried to smooth things over. "Yiman, calm down. Perhaps we can all sit down and talk this through calmly to see if there's another solution."

"Talk about what?" Zhao Yiman cut him off, her gaze burning like a torch as she locked eyes with Pan Ximi. "He is nothing but a common thief, and he has no right to negotiate with me!"

Pan Ximi felt a wave of utter despair, knowing he had no chance of turning the tables now.

Yet at that exact moment, the office door was pushed open once again. Several Zhao family servants walked in, carrying lengths of thick rope, their eyes fixed on Pan Ximi with the predatory focus of eagles.

"Seize him!" Zhao Yiman commanded coldly, and the servants immediately closed in on Pan Ximi.

His complexion instantly drained of all color. Panized with panic, he scrambled backward in desperation, only to find his path blocked completely by several guards.

"Stay back! If you really push this to violence, you won't stand a chance against us!" Pan Ximi roared.

True to his word, the sound of dense, hurried footsteps echoed from the floor below as the threat left his mouth.

Before long, nearly half of the entire Bengjian Market security force had rushed to the scene.

The corridor outside the room was packed so tightly that not even a drop of water could leak through!

At that moment, a rush of hurried footsteps sounded at the entrance as Wang Hu strode over.

Taking in the sight of Pan Ximi surrounded and trapped on all sides, Wang Hu frowned slightly before stepping forward to look Zhao Yiman straight in the eye. "What is going on here?"

Zhao Yiman's gaze shifted to Wang Hu.

After all, she had caught a distant glimpse of this man from afar at Gao Youde's funeral. She still recognized Wang Hu's face.

She offered a cold sneer, her eyes dripping with disdain. "Wang Hu, you've come at a good time. Tell your friend here that he must return my jade pendant today."

"A jade pendant?" Wang Hu raised an eyebrow, appearing entirely unimpressed by the announcement.

He turned his gaze toward Pan Ximi and asked, "Pan Ximi, what's all this about?"

"I..." Pan Ximi stammered, his heart heavy with fear. Yet faced with Wang Hu, he refused to concede defeat so easily. "I didn't steal anything! This jade pendant is an heirloom passed down in my family. This bitch is framing me, claiming I stole her pendant ten years ago!"

"Framing you?" Zhao Yiman sneered, her gaze piercingly sharp. "Wang Hu, is this the kind of petty thief mingling in the Bengjian Market that you call your friend?"

A surge of vindictive pleasure washed over Zhao Yiman. She looked at Wang Hu with supreme contempt, her tone dripping with arrogance. "Wang Hu, as a Lantern-Bearer, you'd best keep your public and private matters clearly separated. All I want is to take back what belongs to me!"

Wang Hu gave a slight shake of his head, completely unfazed by Zhao Yiman's provocation. "I couldn't care less who you are, but I do care about evidence. You claim this is your jade pendant, but do you expect me to take your word for it? You need to produce proof."

"Proof?" Zhao Yiman's voice was as cold as frost, sparks of pure fury dancing in her eyes. "What kind of proof do you expect me to produce? I am its owner!"

"Yet you have no documentation to prove it." Wang Hu's tone remained unruffled, as if emphasizing an indisputable fact. "I cannot simply take your word for it, especially when you roll in here surrounded by a pack of private guards. Are you folks here to conduct a robbery, or are you actually trying to retrieve something lost?"

"You shameless bastard!" Zhao Yiman gritted her teeth in rage, her contempt for Wang Hu deepening by the second. She thought to herself that Wang Hu was nothing more than a low-level Lantern-Bearer, yet he dared to act so insolently in her presence.

Seizing the opening, Pan Ximi chimed in, "That's right! Exactly! I didn't steal a thing, this bint is just trying to rob me out in the open!"

Ignoring Pan Ximi entirely, Wang Hu kept his eyes locked on Zhao Yiman's face, his tone hardening with resolve. "If you genuinely want your jade pendant back, then please present evidence proving that it belongs to you."

The fires of wrath within Zhao Yiman reached a boiling point; she had never imagined that Wang Hu would prove so stubbornly unyielding.

She let out a chilling laugh, plotting inwardly. *This punk is vastly overestimating himself, actually daring to put on airs in front of me!*

"Do you really think I'll let you get away with this?" she said coldly, her gaze sharpening into daggers as she stared down Wang Hu. "Let me tell you something, Wang Hu, you're nothing more than a minor player, and you aren't worth a single second of my time."

Wang Hu's expression darkened slightly, as if a sensitive nerve had been struck. "A minor player? On the contrary, I think people like you are the exact reason the Bengjian Market is thrown into such utter chaos. Who do you think you are? Just because you're some wealthy heiress, you think you can trample all over other people at will?"

"You!" Zhao Yiman was so infuriated she felt ready to spit fire, her aversion to Wang Hu growing more intense with every passing second.

She cast a cold glance over her shoulder at the guards standing behind her, as if issuing a silent command.

"You heard him! Wang Hu refuses to let me reclaim my property—now show him what I'm capable of!" Zhao Yiman's voice cracked like thunder, shaking the entire room.

Wang Hu furrowed his brow, a quiet sense of unease settling in his chest. Zhao Yiman was unequivocally not someone to be trifled with.

He knew that if this standoff continued, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Even so, Pan Ximi had pocketed a significant amount of funding lately—was this truly the extent of his security capability?

Glancing coldly at Pan Ximi, Wang Hu commanded, "Call the brothers in! Get every single one of them over here right now!"