Li Xiao took back his phone and returned to his seat.
The restaurant wasn’t large, and neither the JK streamer nor Li Xiao had deliberately lowered their voices.
So the on-duty manager naturally overheard their conversation.
He also caught the part about 11,489 concurrent viewers in the livestream.
He’d thought the guy was just bluffing when he said he had over ten thousand viewers.
But the JK streamer was someone they, Chitori, had invited. She had no reason to team up with this kid and lie to him.
Besides, judging by how sincerely she had just apologized, she was clearly afraid of him causing trouble for her.
The on-duty manager felt his back break out in a cold sweat.
If these four were just some nobodies, their stream wouldn’t have many viewers. Even if they broadcasted what was happening in the restaurant, or even edited it into a video later, it wouldn’t have much of an impact.
And even if the video did go viral, they could just pull some strings and get it taken down.
But if this guy was a major streamer with tens of thousands of viewers, then things were about to get complicated.
It meant that over 30,000 people had already witnessed the conflict just now, as well as the food issues he’d encountered earlier.
As the restaurant manager, he knew exactly what the situation was like inside.
This Chitori restaurant was originally set up to fleece the rich and the vain, while also laundering some money for the boss behind the scenes.
If this really blew up, he would be facing a lot more than just losing his job.
Thinking of the consequences, he quickly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and plastered a fawning smile on his face.
He hurried over to Li Xiao’s side.
"Sir, this has all been a huge misunderstanding between allies! It’s all a mistake, a complete mistake."
"I was wondering, could we perhaps speak in private for a moment?"
Looking at the manager’s sycophantic smile, Li Xiao found the entire situation absurd.
The same man who was just hurling insults at him a moment ago was now standing beside him like a dog, his face a mask of obsequiousness.
Li Xiao shook his head in disdain.
"You’re a real piece of work, you know that?"
"When I wanted to talk things out peacefully, you called people over to throw me out."
"Now that I’m not in the mood for a peaceful chat, you’ve suddenly become all nice. It puts me in a bit of a difficult position."
The on-duty manager quickly forced a smile.
"Honored guest, it was my mistake. I was blind and failed to recognize your importance. Everything that just happened was a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding!"
Just as the manager was about to explain further,
two police officers rushed in from outside.
"Who called the police?"
"Who’s being physically threatened?"
Seeing the police arrive, Li Xiao couldn’t be bothered to talk to this guy anymore.
He waved enthusiastically at the two officers.
"Officers, I’m the one who called. My personal safety has been threatened."
"I was just filming the actual conditions in their restaurant, and these people tried to use violence to kick me out!"
"Look, that guy is still holding a kitchen cleaver. If my phone wasn’t livestreaming, I’d probably be lying on the floor by now."
When the chef with the cleaver saw the police, his heart sank.
He had been chopping ingredients with the cleaver and, upon hearing his manager’s call, had come out subconsciously still holding it.
Then he figured that holding the cleaver might intimidate these young people and make them scram, so he didn’t bother putting it back.
However, he never imagined the police would arrive so quickly.
Now, the cleaver in his hand had become a weapon.
Seeing a group of chefs surrounding three young people, with one of the chefs actually holding a cleaver, one of the officers—a middle-aged man with a gun—tensely placed his hand on the butt of his pistol.
He extended his baton, pointed it at the chef with the cleaver, and barked,
"What are you doing?! I am warning you, drop the weapon now!"
"This is your first warning!"
Hearing the officer’s command, the chef panicked and quickly threw the cleaver to the ground.
The cleaver hit the floor with a sharp CLANG. He frantically raised his hands and explained in alarm,
"Officer, I’m a chef. It’s perfectly normal for me to be holding a cleaver, right?"
The officer wasn’t about to listen to his excuses. He signaled his partner to get the handcuffs and cuff the man first, then said coldly,
"Of course it’s normal for a chef to hold a cleaver—inside a kitchen. Right now, you’re holding a cleaver while surrounding a few young people with a group of men. Why don’t you tell me what you were planning to do."
Seeing their colleague get handcuffed, the other chefs grew nervous.
The middle-aged officer immediately barked at them,
"What are you still standing around for? All of you, get over to the wall!"
The chefs, who had been so arrogant just moments before, didn’t dare to argue. They quickly squatted down by the wall, terrified of being cuffed as well.
Seeing the situation deteriorate so rapidly, the manager broke out in a cold sweat.
He rushed over to the officer to explain, but the middle-aged officer cut him off with a raised hand before he could even start.
"You, be quiet for a moment. The caller—you, tell me what happened."
Just as Li Xiao was about to recount the events, another person walked in. This man was dressed in a sharp suit and carried a briefcase.
Seeing Li Xiao standing next to the police, the newcomer strode over.
He took a business card from his briefcase and handed it to the middle-aged officer.
"Hello, I’m the lawyer for my client, Li Xiao. My name is Zhang Li, and I’m a top attorney with Shengbang Law Firm."
"I wish to be present while my client describes the case. I trust this won’t interfere with your procedures?"
The middle-aged officer’s expression turned serious as he looked at the business card.
If it were just an ordinary law firm, a regular beat cop like him wouldn’t know of it.
However, the card in his hand clearly read: Shengbang Law Firm.
This was the number one law firm in all of Yangcheng—and an undisputed number one at that.
The firm’s success rate had consistently ranked first in Yangcheng for years.
He had heard of this famous firm before; rumor had it that many of its top attorneys were extremely well-connected in all circles.
But this firm usually only took on major, difficult cases.
He never would have expected a lawyer from Shengbang Law Firm to show up for a minor dispute like this.
Moreover, this Zhang Li and Li Xiao seemed to know each other very well.
He immediately became fully alert. In his experience, lawyers were always tricky characters to deal with.
The reason Li Xiao had called his lawyer was, of course, as a precaution.
After all, the moment he saw Ikegawa Yoshihiko’s tattoos, he’d decided to be extra careful.
The owner of a business who collaborates with someone with a gang background was definitely not going to be a simple character.
Although he had considerable faith in the country’s law enforcement,
to avoid any unexpected disasters, he had notified the lawyer he’d worked with before, just in case any special circumstances arose that required immediate help.
But to his relief, the worst-case scenario he’d imagined hadn’t come to pass.
So, with Zhang Li by his side, he recounted the entire course of events from beginning to end.
After hearing the whole story, the middle-aged officer breathed a sigh of relief.
The situation was simpler than he had anticipated. When he saw that a knife was involved, he had assumed it was a serious incident, not just a common civil dispute.
The tension that had just built up quickly dissipated.
However, he didn’t forget that a top-tier lawyer was watching him.
Certain procedures that might have been optional on a normal day naturally became much more formal.