The Return of the God level Son in Law

Chapter Three: A Taste of Obedience

I woke before dawn.It was an Old habit.

Being the Zhangs servant, I had gotten used to waking up before any of them got up.

Even now, with power at my fingertips, I couldn’t shake the instinct to rise early before the noise, before the masks came on. The Zhang household was still asleep, silent except for the ticking of the antique clock in the hall and the low hum of the refrigerator.

I sat on the edge of my narrow guestroom bed and stared at the same cracked wallpaper I’d seen for three years. Nothing had changed. Not the peeling paint. Not the rusted fan above my head.

But I had.

Everyone else just didn’t know it yet.

I retrieved my burner phone from its hiding spot inside an empty power bank and tapped the encrypted channel Duan Yu set up last night.

“Status?”

Within seconds, the reply came.

“Qin family retreating. Zhang accounts remain frozen. Preparing Phase Two: Public Leverage.”

I smiled faintly.

Leverage. That was always the key. Not power. Not violence. Leverage.

Because once you had something someone else couldn’t afford to lose, you didn’t need to lift a weapon.

You simply had to wait.

****

By the time the Zhangs woke up, the villa was a battlefield of egos.

“Xue’er, we have to fix this now!” Zhang Deshun barked, gripping the morning paper in his trembling hands. “We’ve lost half our net worth overnight! The board is turning on us!”

Zhang Meiling slammed her cup of tea onto the table. “That useless Qin Hao tricked us! We need another investor! Now!”

“And where the hell do we find one in twenty-four hours?” Xue’er snapped, for once letting her mask crack. “Everyone’s pulling out. No one will touch us.”

I sipped my own tea in the corner, silent.

Zhang Deshun whirled toward me.

“You! You’ve been living off us like a rat for years can’t you at least do something useful for once in your life?”

I met his eyes.

“Useful?” I asked softly. “What kind of usefulness would you like?”

He sneered. “You’ve got contacts at that courier company, don’t you? Or maybe that old friend who works in the finance bureau? Pull some strings. Get our accounts unlocked!”

Zhang Meiling scoffed. “What strings? His friends are probably all unemployed like him.”

I smiled.

Then I stood slowly.

“Fine. I’ll make a call.”

They fell silent.

I walked to the window, pulled out my other phone, the real one and pressed the icon labeled Echo.

A low beep followed.

“Command?” said a voice ,female, cold and efficient.

“Unfreeze the Zhang accounts. Let them breathe. Give them a few crumbs.”

“Yes, Lord Tian.”

I ended the call.

A minute later, Zhang Deshun’s phone rang. He answered, grunted, froze... and slowly turned pale.

He dropped the phone.

“Our accounts... they’re back.”

“What?” Meiling blinked. “That’s impossible—how—?”

He stared at me like he was seeing me for the first time.

“What did you do?” he asked, voice unsteady.

I shrugged. “Guess one of my friends is more useful than you thought.”

He didn’t respond.

Neither did Meiling.

But Zhang Xue’er stared at me , really stared and I could see the gears turning behind her sharp eyes.

She was connecting dots.

Good.

I wanted her to.

Let her realize, piece by piece, that the man she dismissed as trash... was the same man who now controlled her father’s survival with a single phone call.

****

Later that afternoon, I walked alone through downtown Jincheng.

My face still bore the expression of a man crushed by poverty. Same clothes. Same posture. The same slouched gait I’d perfected over the years.

But inside?A storm was brewing.

And today, someone else would feel it.

I turned onto Goldview Avenue, it was a high-end street packed with designer boutiques, art galleries, and car dealerships. One in particular stood out:

HaoLuxury Auto Group.

Qin Hao’s pride and joy.

I stepped inside.

The receptionist barely looked up from her phone. “Appointments only.”

I said nothing.

Just walked past her and headed straight for the showroom, where the latest black Maybach was displayed like a jewel.

That’s when I saw him.

Qin Hao.

Wearing sunglasses indoors, designer shoes polished to a mirror shine, and barking at a junior manager who looked close to tears.

He turned as I approached, already curling his lip.

“Look who it is,” he drawled. “If it isn’t the Zhang family’s house pet.”

I smiled politely.

“No longer,” I said.

He snorted. “Still dreaming, huh? You think unlocking the Zhangs' accounts changes anything? Please. You’re still a nobody. I’ll destroy them again tomorrow.”

“Will you?”

He froze.

Because something in my voice wasn’t right.

Too calm.

Too certain.

He adjusted his collar, trying to recover. “You know what? Fine. You came all the way here. Want a test drive? I’ll let you sit in that Maybach. Might be the closest you ever get to owning something real.”

“Thanks,” I said. “But I actually came to take it off your hands.”

He blinked.

I pulled out a small silver tablet, tapped it once, and handed it to the nearby sales rep.

Her eyes widened as she read the screen.

“Sir... this... this is a transfer confirmation...?”

I nodded. “This dealership now belongs to Dragon Holdings East Asia. Which, in case you're wondering, owns a controlling stake in HaoLuxury Auto Group.”

I turned back to Qin Hao.

His face was frozen.

He looked at the tablet. Then at me. Then back again.

“You’re bluffing.”

“Am I?”

The woman came back, shaking.

“Sir... it’s true. The company has been transferred. The legal documents were filed early this morning.”

Qin Hao’s jaw clenched. “You bastard. You think you can”

“Security,” I called.

Within seconds, two men in dark suits entered,not rent-a-cops, but trained professionals from Dragon Court’s executive enforcement arm. They didn’t say a word. Just stood there, radiating silent dominance.

“Escort Mr. Qin off the premises,” I said calmly. “He's trespassing.”

“You piece of shit!”

He lunged, but the men grabbed his arms.

I leaned in close, just enough for him to hear me through clenched teeth.

“Next time you try to touch my wife,” I whispered, “make sure you’re not standing on ground I own.”

Then I walked away, leaving him thrashing in the hands of men he couldn’t even begin to fight.

****

By evening, news of the dealership’s transfer hit financial networks.

Qin Hao was trending online for all the wrong reasons.

His company was collapsing.

His investors were backing out.

His father, recovering from a heart attack, was hospitalized again.

And I?

I was sitting on the rooftop of the Sky Eagle Tower, sipping aged whisky under the fading sunset.

Duan Yu joined me after an hour.

“The Zhangs think the gods are favoring them,” he said with a grin.

“Let them,” I murmured. “Let them rebuild a little. Then we take it all.”

Duan Yu hesitated.

“There’s something else,” he said.

I looked at him.

“The Circle has taken notice.”

My jaw stiffened.

Of course they had.

Power always draws attention. Especially from the kind of people who don’t like sharing it.

The Circle wasn’t a name most people knew.

But those who ruled cities behind curtains of silk and steel?

They knew.

Because The Circle wasn’t just a syndicate. It was the syndicate. A coalition of old families, black card elites, offshore monarchs, and blood-stained dynasties. They played a different game , one where currency wasn’t money, but secrets, wars, and obedience.

And once you made enough noise, you got an invitation.

Or a warning.

“Let them watch,” I said. “Let them wonder who I am.”

Duan Yu grinned. “You think they’ll guess?”

“They’ll try. But they’ve forgotten the one thing that matters.”

“What’s that?”

I turned toward the city , a sprawling jungle of lights and towers and let the fire settle behind my eyes.

“They thought I was dead,” I said quietly. “But dragons don’t die.”