Episode 2 : The Disposal

​Xu Lee arrived at his family’s main villa in his imported sedan, still flushed with the adrenaline of the evening. Despite the strange, hushed exit from the Iron Vault, he was convinced it was just a temporary tantrum, a typical Liu Family drama. He was going to laugh about it with his grandfather, Lee Jinhai, who would smooth over whatever contracts Li Liu had hastily tried to cancel.

​He threw his keys onto the inlaid mahogany table in the grand foyer, expecting silence, or at worst, a stern, private reprimand. Instead, the air in the receiving room was a physical block of ice, far colder than the club had been.

​His grandfather, the formidable Lee Jinhai, was seated on the imperial silk sofa, flanked by Xu’s father, Lee Daewon, and his mother. Standing behind them, arranged like vultures on a fence line, were his younger brother, two sisters, and three cousins, including his oldest cousin, Lee Kang.

​Xu swaggered in, a careless smile on his face. “Grandfather, what’s with the drama? Li Liu had a fit, nothing we can’t fix—”

​Before he could finish the sentence, two enormous, unsmiling Lee family bodyguards moved with terrifying speed. They were not the usual security; these were the muscle used for clean up. They grabbed Xu, one twisting his arm sharply behind his back, the other yanking his expensive suit jacket, forcing him down.

​The bodyguard slammed Xu’s left hand down onto the polished marble floor. Xu gasped, his wrist protesting the impact. The bodyguard then seized Xu’s head, slamming his forehead against the ground with a sickening thud. A sharp pain immediately bloomed across his skull, and a bead of dark blood dripped onto the white marble floor, a startling crimson stain.

​Xu groaned, the triumphant energy draining out of him, replaced by a terrifying, hollow dread. He had forgotten, in his years of comfort and privilege, that he was merely a disposable piece of family leverage.

​The bodyguard yanked his head back up by gripping his hair, forcing his neck into a painfully unnatural angle. Xu's eyes, wide with shock, met his grandfather's gaze. Lee Jinhai's eyes were utterly murderous, cold, and assessing, like a butcher appraising meat.

​“You ungrateful bastard,” Lee Jinhai’s voice was dangerously low, a deep rumble that vibrated through the silent room. “If I would’ve known you’ll forget your place, I would’ve let your cousin Kang step in years ago. But you had to fuck it up.”

​Xu tried to speak, tried to stammer an explanation about Li Liu’s dramatics, but the bodyguard slammed his head back down against the marble, silencing him with a muffled cry of pain.

​Behind his grandfather, Xu's siblings and cousins exchanged knowing, vicious smirks. His brother, Lee Jun, quietly chuckled.

​Lee Jinhai continued, his voice rising, venomous. “The only reason why you were in this position in the first place, Xu, is because Li Liu only wanted you. If we didn’t do exactly what they asked, the Liu family would not collaborate with us. That relationship was the foundation of our stability. Now it comes to this: they terminated their contracts with us. Now I have to pay them hundreds of millions in losses.”

​The bodyguard slammed Xu’s head again, the ringing in his ears turning into a deafening shriek. He struggled to focus, the scent of his own blood sharp in his nostrils.

​“Now,” Lee Jinhai concluded, leaning forward, his face a mask of furious disappointment. “You find a way to pay me back for the losses. You will compensate this family for the destruction you caused.”

​Lee Jinhai looked at the bodyguards with a finality that brooked no argument. “Get him out of here. Make sure he doesn’t step back in until he pays back all the losses.”

​The bodyguards dragged Xu, semi-conscious and bleeding, through the foyer. They roughly tossed him onto the manicured gravel driveway and walked away, not sparing him a backward glance.

​As Xu struggled to sit up, holding his throbbing head, a voice cut through the ringing in his ears—sharp, amused, and cruel.

​“Well, look who’s crawling back to the gravel,” Lee Kang, his oldest cousin, stood framed in the massive doorway, a smirk plastered on his face. Behind him stood Xu’s sister, Lee Soyeon, and his brother, Lee Jun, all of them laughing.

​“Oh, Xu,” Soyeon spoke, adjusting a bracelet on her wrist. “You should've known you're nothing. You’re nothing like Kang.”

​They laughed again, a harsh, cold sound. Then, the youngest female cousin, Lee Nari, stepped into the light, her face betraying a surprising hint of contempt. She looked down at the disgraced heir.

​“Honestly, I feel bad for ex-sister-in-law, Li Liu. I really hope she teaches this bastard child a lesson.”

​Lee Nari then turned and walked back inside with the others, the heavy doors of the villa closing with a soft, decisive thump that sealed Xu Lee out of his own life.

​Left alone on the cold gravel, abandoned and ruined, Xu Lee screamed—a raw, strangled sound of pure, helpless rage.

After a discreet visit to the hospital for the wounds on his head and wrist—wounds he dared not explain to the attending physician—Xu Lee went back to the only place he felt truly his own: his condo. It was a modest place, by his family’s standards, but he had purchased it with the first major bonus he had ever earned. It was a tangible piece of pride, one the Lee family could not yet strip away.

​The next few days were a blur of humiliating phone calls and desperate job applications. The blacklisting was immediate and absolute. Li Liu’s network had closed every door in the city's high-finance sector. Desperate, Xu took the only work available: a graveyard shift as a dishwasher at a local upscale restaurant. He had to pay his grandfather back. The sheer scale of the Liu family's losses meant this debt would take a lifetime to clear, but the threat of absolute financial ruin for his parents hung over him, a threat only he could theoretically fix.

​He collapsed onto his bed after his first long day, his expensive clothes long since replaced by a damp, greasy uniform. His hands, once soft from never having touched a tool, were blistered. His phone rang—an old burner he had dug up.

​“Hello?” he answered, his voice rough with exhaustion.

​It was Wang Wei, his voice sounding hollowed out. “Xu? You free this Saturday? I found a small local bar outside the usual districts. We need to talk.”

​Xu pulled the grimy schedule out of his pocket, checking the handwritten shift times. “Yeah, I’m off. Count me in. Tell the others.”

​The next morning, Xu ate a quick, tasteless breakfast and headed out for a run. He jogged through the local park, sweat quickly soaking his old t-shirt. He couldn't stop running the numbers in his head, reliving the moment on the marble floor. He still couldn't believe his entire life had crumbled after that single, cold phone call Li Liu made. It felt like a nightmare he couldn't wake from.

​He returned home, showered, ate his simple lunch, and tried to rest. Later that afternoon, he put on the least stained and wrinkled clothes he owned from before he had climbed the social ladder.

​As he grabbed his keys, a notification chime rang from his phone. He looked down and clicked on the live news broadcast icon. The screen filled with the gilded entryway of the Lee family's corporate headquarters. The headline flashed: Lee Corporation Announces New Unanimous Heir.

​Lee Jinhai, his grandfather, stood at the podium, looking regal and relieved. “Today, I declare Lee Kang as the only true hierarchy of the Lee family. He has the vision and dedication necessary for the future of our empire.”

​The audience cheered, cameras flashed, and reporters flooded Kang with questions. Kang answered with practiced ease and perfection, wearing a confident smile that Xu had always envied and now fiercely hated.

​Xu remembered the echo of his cousin, Lee Soyeon's, voice: “Oh Xu, you should've known you're nothing. You’re nothing like Kang.”

​Then he remembered the bitter truth: his family had never truly made a public announcement of his heir status. He was merely the placeholder, the one chosen by the Lius for their collaboration. He cringed, shoving the phone into his pocket.

​He drove the simple car he had kept to the local bar location his friend had given him.

​When he arrived, the small, dimly lit corner booth was packed. Zhao Mina, Lin Chen, Wang Wei, and Zhou Feng—all wearing clothes that looked slightly too worn, slightly too desperate—all waved him over. They shared a strained silence before they began to drink heavily, sharing the personal hell they had been through.

​“My grandfather cut me off completely,” Wang Wei mumbled, staring into his beer.

​“My uncle disowned me and took away my trust fund and my car,” Zhou Feng added, gesturing wildly.

​Lin Chen spoke next, her eyes red-rimmed. “I’m forced to get married to a man old enough to be my father to pay back the losses. The merger is the only way my family can survive the contracts Li Liu tore up.”

​Zhao Mina nodded, tears falling silently. “We messed with the wrong person. Li Liu is a monster. I regret everything.”

​Xu took a long sip of whiskey. “I have to work low-class work now, washing dishes in a kitchen. To pay off my grandfather’s losses. And I lost my heir title to my cousin Kang. Yet again, it wasn't mine to begin with.”

​“Damn, man,” Wang Wei said simply, shaking his head.

​Just then, the front door opened, letting in a flash of street light. A beautiful girl walked in with her friends. Her friends called out her name, Mu Gao. Xu noticed her immediately—bright, expressive eyes and a radiant smile as she chatted. A loud thump emerged from his heart, a terrifyingly unfamiliar sensation. He ignored it, tearing his gaze away and forcing himself to look back at his friends' conversation, but he couldn't get the image of Mu Gao out of his head.

​He shook his head, standing up. “I think I’ll head back home early. I still gotta drive. Don’t want to get too drunk.”

​His friends nodded in quiet agreement, their drunken stupor not yet enough to dull the pain. They all went home, leaving the shadows of their old lives in the empty bar booth.

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