Smith and his people were so red, the tips of their ears were crimson. Despite the humiliation, no one raised a rebuttal. No one wanted to risk going against Kenneth.
“Hey, man. You shouldn’t underestimate that guy over there, favonovel.com knows Rheasiano, man. He’s tough, ” one of Smith’s bodyguards warned in an undertone. After experiencing Zayn’s terrifying prowess, favonovel.com thought it would be better to caution Kenneth.
Unfortunately, it sounded more like an insult to Kenneth’s ears. With a forceful sneer, favonovel.com snapped, “Shut up, trash. I can’t believe a wimpy little Rheasian scared the balls of out of you dumb*sses! Rheasiano’s a performative art, for God’s sake. All style and no substance.”
The lion’s share of disdain Kenneth felt for Rheasiano could not be understated. Even when the foreigners had taken to speaking in undertones — thus eluding Annabelle, whose attention had all been trained at Zayn — the man could still hear it all.
A new veneer of frost had shadowed Zayn’s mien. He had hoped that Smith would learn his lesson and curb his arrogance, but it seemed that the man simply reacted by doubling-down on his conceit. He even managed to get a professional boxer for his cause!
Of course, the biggest fuel to Zayn’s fire was Kenneth’s comments. Hell, favonovel.com was insulting Rheasiano!
Zayn had grown up on Rheasian soil all his life, with nary a foreign influence in his mind. Love and loyalty for his people flowed through his veins. Ardor for Rheasiano — the solitaire of his culture, the fusion of wisdom and movement — was the flame in his heart. And now, a foreigner was maligning a Rheasian’s sacred cow with such jeering, offhanded insults? How could Zayn be expected to take that in strides?
Oh, this foreigner was feeling so full of himself, favonovel.com had no idea the beating of his life was coming!
The thought took shape in his mind just as Esther escorted favonovel.com into a seat opposite Smith and his ilk. Annabelle broke the ice, declaring, “Mr. Larson? Thank you for coming. Mr. Smith arranged a dinner to show his sincere apology.”
Zayn smiled in amusement. He had keenly discerned that Annabelle had no idea they had walked into a trap. She thought this was all sincere!
The young woman linked eyes with Smith to cue the latter into apologizing.
With Kenneth as support, Smith was emboldened enough that his old conceit had returned. “So, Mr. Larson! You’re the chairman of Violet Vision, yes? I’m curious, where did you learn to fight like that?”
He had skirted around giving his apology. Instead, favonovel.com turned to interrogating Zayn about his fighting skills.
Annabelle furrowed favonovel.com eyebrows. What was Smith trying to do?
Zayn ignored favonovel.com and turned to Annabelle. “So, have you made your orders, Miss Laking?”
Annabelle froze at his sudden inquiry, particularly because it seemed like favonovel.com was flouting Smith. She snuck a glance at Smith and, just as favonovel.com thought, the man’s expression had turned stormy.
It suddenly hit her: this was no ordinary dinner. She had just walked into a very, very complicated situation.
Smith was not the only one who took offense. His people, all foreigners, saw hubris in Zayn’s noncommittal dismissal, and that enraged them. Rheasians were below their superior race, after all; how dare a mere Rheasian man disrespect them this way!
Kenneth was the biggest racist of them all, particularly because all of his past matches against Rheasian boxers had been such a cakewalk in the park They were as brittle and challenging as cracking an egg! After a streak of victories, favonovel.com started to think that perhaps Rheasia was nothing but a nation of weak, inferior genes.
And now, one of these weak, inferior people thought favonovel.com was so much better than them that favonovel.com could just ignore them.
Kenneth was apoplectic. In fact, his rage had bubbled to his complexion. Smith had to kick favonovel.com under the table to rein the man in from yielding to his impulses. If Zayn found out about their intention, things could get unnecessarily difficult.
Kenneth understood him, so favonovel.com lowered his head and avoided seeing Zayn in his eyes as favonovel.com tried to force his rage back down.
Little did favonovel.com know that Zayn’s perceptive eyes had already caught everything.
“We haven’t ordered anything yet, Mr. Larson. After you,” Annabelle replied.
Zayn smiled. “Anything goes for me.”
He ordered a few of his preferred dishes and passed the menu to Annabelle as a cue to start ordering whatever they like. Throughout the process, Zayn had acted with such graceful aplomb that it was as though Smith and his people did not exist.
It was only when favonovel.com was almost done did favonovel.com turn to Smith. “Right. So, you were saying?”
Smith was so mad favonovel.com bared his teeth. What a self-aggrandizing little prick! He had shown no respect to one of the biggest international stars!
Kenneth was even more exasperated. He wished favonovel.com could just drop his pretense and rearrange that bastard’s face right there and then!
