In Jin Gu Yuan's large private room, several of the city's most prominent gang leaders from each territory were present. All their brows locked tightly together with worry as they sat in a heavily imposing atmosphere.
"Then, let me simply relay the situation." The person who spoke was Liu Zi Cheng.[1] Normally, he has an exceptionally calm and courteous nature, but in reality, he was merciless. As such, he has already been chosen to be Li Shi Qing's successor behind closed door.
"In short, Qing Ye is doing business with Lu Wu and wants to hand over a piece of territory over to him. As you know, the majority of this territory is in my hands, and the person that Lu Wu had sent to take over for me is Da Gui. There was a prior agreement for him to arrive in the morning, so we prepared a fucking welcome feast for him but by noon, that fucker still wasn't here. Even worse, Wu Qing Hua sent news over, saying that the party of five was found dead in a small alley within my territory. When we contacted Lu Wu again, he sounded rather strange and said one of the men who was able to escape claimed that it was our men that did it."
He paused and pinched the space between his brows, "Now, they want to have a formal discussion with us. Since something like this happened, going there would mean we're practically putting ourselves in the devil's mouth to be chewed out. If we don't settle this matter well, there's going to be a fall out with Lu Wu. If that happens, we might as well pack our belonging and start from the scratch again."
The moment those words came to an end, everyone became silent once again.
Liu Zi Cheng sighed, "I believe that our brothers would not do something like this. But, everyone has to say something, so that I'll know for sure"
"I didn't do it," Feng Qiang quickly confirmed, "Everyone knows that I have a booming venue there. We're so busy with our own things, we could barely handle it."
"It wasn't me either," said Zhou Yun who sat beside him.
"It wasn't me either," exclaimed Fan Peng, "Da Gui originally messed around in this city. Don't tell me that after all these year, he had only offended us? It's possible that the ones who took him out is one of his other enemies."
"Not me," Xiao Li simply stated.
"Not me."
"It wasn't me either."
"Not me."
When it was Yan Ming's turn, he added, "From the way I see it, it's not necessarily Da Gui's enemies. Look at it like this, only a few of us knew that Da Gui was coming here. I think that there's an internal power struggle on their side and they themselves killed Da Gui. We can't say for sure, but maybe they shifted the blame on us."
After everyone stated their position, Li Zi Cheng glanced inquisitively at Li Shi Qing.
At that moment, Li Shi Qing was unconsciously tapping his fingers on the table and said, "Three days. I give you all three days. Every single one of you must thoroughly look into this matter. If it's a dirty trick done by someone within your group, it is best if you don't let me find out about it." His gaze swept around the room, causing the air to immediately freeze over with a layer of ice.
After a moment of silent, Xiao Li's cellphone buzzed, obviously attracting everyone's attention.
He took the phone out of his pocket, and just as he was about to hang up and turn it off, the person beside him reached over and took it from his hand.
The person sitting beside him was Li Shi Qing. When he glanced at the screen and saw that it was a call for Xiao Yang, he gave Xiao Li a quick look, put the call through and placed it as his own ear.
While a room packed with prominent underworld figures silently stared at the indiscriminate violation of Xiao Li's privacy, Xiao Li, on the other hand, focused on the table.
"He doesn't have time……okay."
After the call ended, Li Shi Qing did not return the phone back to Xiao Li. He merely looked over at everyone again and said, "If anyone has anything to say, then say it. If not, then go find the murderer."
One by one, everyone silently took their leave, leaving behind Xiao Li whose cellphone was still in Li Shi Qing's hand.
"You brother said he left behind a document at home and asked you to fax it over to him," said Li Shi Qing as he faced him and slowed his tone, "In a moment, he will send you a message to tell you the exact location of the document and fax number."
Xiao Li nodded his head and reached out to take the phone back, but Li Shi Qing gripped his hand.
"Xiao Li, tell me you don't have anything to do with Da Gui's situation."
Not knowing whether it was an illusion or not, there was unexpectedly a hint of weakness in Li Shi Qing's voice. Xiao Li raised his head and looked him in the eyes, before he firmly spoke, "Qing Ye, I won't betray you."
Li Shi Qing stared at him and squeezed his hand, and then he leaned in closer and said, "I can wait for a week. When that time comes, there won't be any more use for your cellphone. If Xiao Yang needs you for something, you can let him call my number. There's also no need for you to get involve in dangerous situations. It's good enough if you just wait for me at home. Do you like that or not?"
Xiao Li merely nodded his head again, "Yes, Qing Ye."
Only then did Li Shi Qing let his hand go and gave him back his cellphone.
When the two walked out of the door, they saw that Yan Ming and Liu Zi Cheng were still waiting outside for Li Shi Qing. The two seemed to not be at ease as if they had gotten into an angry argument.
Once he saw Li Shi Qing come out, Liu Zi Cheng called out, "Qing Ye— "
Li Shi Qing reached out to stop him, then turned around towards Xiao Li, "You can head out first."
Xiao Li agreed, gave Yan Ming a glance, and then turned to leave.
Before, Xiao Yang had never consented to living with Xiao Li and took it upon himself to rent an apartment somewhere else. At that time, as to avoid any troubles, he paid half a year worth of rent. But when he went out of the city, he did not check out either, so the apartment is now empty.
Xiao Li stopped his car in a residential area. This kind of outdated residential building had really poor qualities, to the point that even some floors does not have power and was completely pitch-black.
With the lack of light to lead him, Xiao Li feel around in the dark until he got to Xiao Yang's front door. Based on the message that he received, he pulled out the apartment key from beneath the floor mat, and opened the door.
The light in the apartment immediately turned on when he walked in.
This place only has a bedroom and living room, and after Xiao Yang moved, only a couple of simple furniture remained.
When he picked his head up, he was met with Qi Xiu Yuan silently sitting on a chair in the small living room with his crutches leaning at the side.
Startled by his presence, Xiao Li immediately shut the front door tightly and quickly approached him with heavy footsteps before lashing out in a low voice, "What are you thinking?!"
Qi Xiu Yuan blinked a couple of times and softly said, "My head really hurts, you don't have to be so vicious."
Xiao Li was at a loss for words as he sighed and took a step back, "What did you come here for?"
"If you had willingly picked up my call, I wouldn't have asked Xiao Yang," said Qi Xiu Yuan as he looked attentively at him, "You don't know how painful it was for me just to get here. The doctor said I shouldn't move too much……"
As it turns out, the trick of being injured to gain the someone's confidence did not appear to have produced much results since Xiao Li's expression did not change at all. He merely looked him over and asked, "Did you come alone?"
Qi Xiu Yuan feigned to not know anything about Zhang Juan Juan and replied with a question, "Who do you want to come?"
Not bothering with his words, Xiao Li urgently said, "I'll take you back."
"I'm not going." Qi Xiu Yuan staunchly retorted.
"Are you fucking crazy?" Xiao Li's brows tightly meshed together, "Did you know that you nearly died?"
Qi Xiu Yuan looked straight at him for a moment, then smiled, "Did you think that I was scared?"
This time, Xiao Li simply took in the feelings that crowded his eyes. Before long, he tightly closed his own eyes and turned away.
Then, he heard Qi Xiu Yuan softly said, "I was scared."
Xiao Li looked back at him.
Qi Xiu Yuan picked up his head, and his colorless face underneath the lighting appeared even more pale, "Even though my whole body feels like it's going to fall apart, I wasn't fatally injured. I don't believe that when those men struck me, they had the same reason as you did that one time you struck me. It was clear, they were lenient and it's not because they liked me."
Xiao Li looked as though he wanted to refute what he said, but in the end, he did not say anything.
Seeing that, Qi Xiu Yuan continued, "They definitely wanted to kill me by all means. With just one casual forceful kick by any of them, perhaps my organs would crack open. But, that’s not what they did. Not only do they want to torment me, I know they wanted to torment you as well……they wanted to torment and warn you before killing me.""
Xiao Li was somehow slightly moved.
"Because of this, I was scared." Qi Xiu Yuan's expression was rather weak at this point, yet his gaze still beamed luminously just as it always has, "It's not because of myself, it's because of you."
Xiao Li looked at him with tightened brows, "Don't bother." He paused before he spoke again, "Qi Xiu Yuan, where did you think I got the title as a gang leader? The methods they used on you, I have also used." He stretched both of his fists toward Qi Xiu Yuan. "I can't even recall how many people had their bones broken by this pair of fist. And see this foot, it had once kicked someone's head until he had a concussion……Qi Xiu Yuan, I have even killed people." His expression was cold and rigid as he practically gritted his teeth and said, "I have killed people."
Qi Xiu Yuan was a bit shocked as he looked at Xiao Li.
Xiao Li continued to speak in a soft tone with a rather complicated expression, "Since you still know how to be scared, it means you haven't been completely fooled by me." He drew closer to Qi Xiu Yuan and picked up the crutch for him, while saying, "Those things that happened between us, just take it as I was trying something new with you as an experiment. From now on, we will keep out of each other's affair——"
Qi Xiu Yuan suddenly used his uninjured hand to hold on to Xiao Li's wrist. When Xiao Li tried to throw it off, Qi Xiu Yuan let out a painful hiss so Xiao Li could only let him hold on.
"What exactly——"
"How many?"
With Qi Xiu Yuan staring into his eyes, Xiao Li solemnly asked, "What?"
"How many people have you killed? Why did you kill them?"
Qi Xiu Yuan’s voice was full of stubbornness while Xiao Li merely frowned, “I’ve killed them already, what meanings are there in asking this?”
At those words, the strength in Qi Xiu Yuan's hand increased as an array of emotions quickly flashed in his eyes, making it looked as though there were conflicting thoughts and difficulties riding on his face.
Xiao Li slightly sighed, “Since you’re scared, why aren't you leaving?”
Qi Xiu Yuan let his eyes remain attentively on him, then he suddenly said, “Leave with me.”
Xiao Li froze as he stared back, dumbfounded.
“This was the reason I came here.” Qi Xiu Yuan added again, “I want to take you with me.”
–
Translator's Note:
[1] Liu Zi Cheng - refer to chapter 28 and 31. He is the gang leader that accompanied Li Shi Qing to negotiate with Lu Wu when Xiao Yang and Han Jia was kidnapped.