Xiao Li stood silently at the side of a vanity sink washing his hand beneath the flowing faucet. The pool of water that collected in the sink had already turned into a light shade of red as he rubbed his hands together, almost in a rough manner.
“You’re wounded?” asked a tall and slim man who had suddenly appeared beside the washroom doorway.
Having already sense the imposing presence, Xiao Li continued, not the least bothered no even sparing a glance, “It’s not my blood.”
“Who made you angry?” The man then lazily leaned against the door frame, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you personally do the job yourself.”
The side of Xiao Li’s lips curled, “I’m not in a good mood.”
“Don’t lie to me, who has the ability to spoil your mood like this huh?” A rather enchanting smile graced the man’s face as he laughing, revealing a rather charming tone.
“Don’t mention it, family matters,” said Xiao Li as he grabs the towel that was hanging to the side of the vanity sink and wipe his hands dry, “How has everything been over here recently? Still going smoothly, right?”
“A bit better than you guys. We’re not like you guys who use such violence method like this,” said the man, sounding rather pleased and satisfied with himself.
“Also, since the recent anti prostitution campaigns conducted by the police forces ended, the girls just need to open their legs again and the money will easily flow in. However ––“
“Don’t open your legs too wide,” Xiao Li snorted before looking at him maliciously, “Han Jia, you’re not young anymore. It’s really not suitable for you to spread your legs again.”
“Fuck off,” Han Jia’s arched eyebrows straightened out in a disapproving manner, “Motherfucker, I’m talking serious business here. You know, Luo Dong might come back.”
Xiao Li’s eyebrows suddenly rose, questioningly, “What’s he coming back for? He was beaten by us before, then caught by the police twice. Even if he were to return, he won’t be able to accomplish anything.”
Han Jia looked left and right for a second, before he drew close to Xiao Li, lowered his voice and said: “Last week, a client told me, the girls at “Jin Ting*1” were taking drugs. At first I didn’t believe it. You already know, “Jin Ting” is not a private prostitution nest. The clients there are all rich, powerful and influential figures. Some of them are downright picky as fuck. Don’t even mention consuming drugs, if those girls were to have even the slightest trace of a needle hole in their arms, they’ll be avoided or ignored. Clients are quite wary and afraid they have AIDS. Under those circumstances, who’d expect that those little sluts were taking drugs. I controlled my anger and did some research of my own. Guess what I found out?”
“What?”
“At least three of my goods were damaged,” said Han Jia as he gritted his teeth in anger, “Fuck, where am I supposed to find three, not only educated, but polite and beautiful girls to replace them in such a short amount of time huh?”
Xiao Li’s brows knitted together into a frown: “Did you find out how they got their hands on those drugs?”
“Yeah, I found out alright. Fucking A……they said, the person that gave them the goods is one of Luo Dong’s skilled underling. His nickname is ‘the demon’.” Han Jia lowered his voice even more, “I haven’t talked about this situation with Ming ge*2 yet. I want to observe the situation first. For the time being, can you send a few more of our brothers here at ‘Jin Ting’ to keep a look out? Or send them to check things out?”
Xiao Li contemplated about it for a moment.
“Li ge!” an underling quickly ran toward the doorway of the washroom.
“What are you being all flustered about?” retorted Han Jia in a rather resentful tone as he stared at the underling, “You’re all spoil by your Li ge. There seems to be no rules here, you should behave yourself well.”
The underling’s face reddened with embarrassment: “It’s not……Li ge, Lin ge called over. He said that teacher from yesterday, he came back —“
Xiao Li took a quick glance at him which caused the underling to immediately close his mouth, not daring to say another word.
“I’m leaving,” Xiao Li pondered for a second then said, “I’ll let Lin Zi and a few others go over to ‘Jin Ting’ tomorrow to look around.”
As Han Jia’s leaned his back into the wall, he laughed rather arrogantly: “What’s the matter, why are you in such a hurry to leave huh?”
Xiao Li’s eyes narrowed with an extremely spiteful expression as he glanced at Han Jia: “Family matters.”
—
Qi Xiu Yuan checked his watch several times, and looked as the handle inside ticked away in a seemingly slow fashion. Finally, when he checked once more, his cellphone rang. Without any hesitation, he picked it up immediately.
Xiao Li’s strong and smooth voice transmitted from the other side, “Qi Laoshi? It’s Xiao Li.”
“Xiao Li, what’s exactly is —“
“Qi Laoshi, don’t worry. I have someone over here that have been following Xiao Yang all along. He and Qi Susu are together. Right now, they’re both alright.”
Qi Xiu Yuan let out a sigh of relief: “Where are they now?”
“Give the phone to Lin Zi, I’ll let him bring you over here.”
Qi Xiu Yuan looked expressionlessly at the little brothers*3 that were crowded around him. He lifted the phone in the air and asked, “Which of you is Lin Zi?”
A rather heavy built and strong looking guy step forward and took the cellphone, “Li ge,” a moment later he said, “Understood.”
Afterwards, he respectfully returned the cellphone back to Qi Xiu Yuan, “Yuan ge, please come with me.”
It took Qi Xiu Yuan about five seconds to finally realize what had just happened.\n