In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed. In the manager's office at Guan Daqiu's company headquarters, Xin was pacing back and forth in frustration. Ever since his last encounter with Wang An, Wang An seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth, nowhere to be found, truly gone without a trace. However, Xin was certain that Wang An must have been killed by Liu Yong'an and his gang; otherwise, Wang An wouldn't have gone so long without contacting him.
Lately, Xin was on the verge of breaking down. The criminal underworld in Donghai City wasn't just his domain. With the boss gone for nearly half a year, several of his venues had been attacked by unknown individuals, and many of them had to close down. This forced Xin to temporarily shut down the venues far from the headquarters and personally take charge of the headquarters with nine professional killers. Every night, whenever something happened, he would immediately take these nine people to handle the situation. Ordinary fights could be resolved by the small-time hooligans under his command, but when it came to the mafia, things weren't so simple. Therefore, Xin had to personally intervene.
Already overwhelmed by these issues, Xin was further troubled by the murder of the boss's cousin. He wanted to send people to protect the only witness, Wang An, but he couldn't spare the manpower. The other side had over 20 henchmen who were willing to kill, while Xin only had nine killers who were truly willing to risk their lives. The rest were just hooligans. They might be able to rely on their numbers, but once the other side's 20 people all drew their knives, these hooligans would run away in no time. Xin had already told the boss that these hooligans were unreliable, but the boss wouldn't listen. He took away two-thirds of the core members, leaving Xin to handle everything with just ten people. How could he possibly have the time to deal with other matters?
Since Wang An's disappearance, Xin didn't dare to send people to follow the people in Xiaoyucun. He knew that they were in a killing frenzy and couldn't be provoked. He could only rely on their daily business activities to know that they hadn't left Donghai, which gave him some peace of mind. As long as they didn't leave, he could present a great achievement when the boss returned.
However, since December, they suddenly disappeared. No matter how much Xin tried to gather information, he couldn't find any leads. They stopped selling crabs and no longer came out of the village, as if Xiaoyucun had never had these people. Helpless, Xin sent a few hooligans to Xiaoyucun to gather information. But as soon as they arrived in the village, they were knocked out. When they woke up in the hospital, they told Xin that Liu Yong'an and his gang had knocked them out and warned them that if they dared to send more people, they would come after them. This made Xin even more cautious, and he had no choice but to play it safe and wait for the boss to return.
It had been over half a month since his subordinates were beaten in Xiaoyucun. Xin still didn't know what Liu Yong'an and his gang were up to or if they were still in Xiaoyucun. Frustrated, he lay on the sofa, holding his head. Seeing that it was noon again, he knew his headache was about to start. He quickly took some painkillers from the drawer and drank them with water, taking a deep breath to ease the intense pain. Recently, due to these issues, his headaches had become severe every noon. The boss was still over a month away from returning, and Xin worried if he could hold on until then.
In the past half month, since Hai Long and Li Guohui had planned to kill Guan Daqiu, they had been making preparations. Li Guohui told Hai Long that if they wanted to smoothly achieve their goals in the next month, they had to keep Xin in the dark about their whereabouts. Although Xin didn't know that they were secretly training their subordinates, he could still track their location because they were selling crabs. To avoid being discovered, the only way was to stop selling crabs, which aligned with Hai Long's thinking.
Li Guohui told Hai Long that Xin would be anxious about Guan Dahai's death, as it involved the boss's reputation. If the boss's cousin was killed and the murderer couldn't be found, all of Xin's efforts in the past half year to protect the boss's territory would be in vain. For his own sake, Xin wouldn't give up monitoring them. If they stopped selling crabs for two weeks and didn't leave the village, Xin would realize they had disappeared and would be forced to send people to monitor their movements. If they ran away, he would want to know where they went. If his killers came, they would be killed; if it was just ordinary hooligans, they would be crippled to show their strength. Hai Long agreed with Li Guohui's plan.
For the past two weeks, Li Guohui had been training a part of the group at an abandoned shipyard, while Liu Yong'an and his subordinates were lying in wait near the village entrance, waiting for Xin's people. Sure enough, after two weeks, Xin couldn't hold back and sent two cars of people to investigate. On that day, it was Liu Yongquan and Liu Chenglong's teams on patrol. When they saw two unfamiliar vans with city license plates approaching the village entrance, they became suspicious, remembering what the boss and Li Guohui had told them. They sent one subordinate back to report the situation and hid in a nearby house to observe.
Soon, the people from the two vans got out and started talking to the villagers. At that moment, Hai Long and Li Guohui arrived with the rest of the group. Hai Long, holding a telescope, observed from the wall. Seeing their attire, he knew they weren't good people.
"Who the hell wears a big gold chain around their neck, has tattoos on their arms, and walks with a swagger? One person might be okay, but all of them? If they were good people, they'd be a freak show."
Hai Long and Li Guohui exchanged a glance, and seeing the confirmation in each other's eyes, Hai Long signaled to attack. As Hai Long was about to charge, Li Guohui held him back, saying, "Boss, don't go. You're our biggest secret. It's not appropriate to expose yourself here."
Hai Long nodded in understanding and sat on the side to watch.
Liu Yong'an and Liu Yongquan led the charge. Since they approached from the side, the other side didn't notice them at first. It wasn't until they were within 10 meters that the other side heard the footsteps and realized Liu Yong'an and his group were there.
When the other side saw Liu Yong'an, their first reaction was to run. Seeing this, Liu Yong'an and his group were even more certain. They shouted, "Kill them!" and charged with the batons in their hands.
The villagers, who had already noticed Liu Yong'an and his group, didn't tell the other side where they were staying. From their appearance, the villagers knew they weren't good people, so they didn't reveal that Liu Yong'an and his subordinates were right behind them, approaching them.
Being from the same village, they couldn't help but cheer and prepare to watch the show.
The leader of the other side was curious. "Are these villagers stupid? Why are they smiling at us when we ask them questions? Could it be because I'm too handsome and don't look like a gangster?" Seeing a girl nearby smiling at him, the leader felt a sense of pride and secretly combed his slightly messy hair, thinking, "I never knew I was so handsome. I need to pay more attention to my appearance. I should buy a mirror and check myself wherever I go. I can't let messy hair ruin my image."
Just as the leader was indulging in his thoughts, he was pushed by one of his subordinates. Annoyed that his subordinate had interrupted his daydream, he scowled and said, "Why did you push me?"
The subordinate had already seen Liu Yong'an and over 20 people with batons running towards them. Without thinking, he ran towards the car, leaving the leader confused.
The leader cursed, "Why are you running? Can't I beat you?" He thought his earlier display of dominance had scared his subordinate.
But just as he finished speaking, he heard Liu Yong'an's voice, "You might not beat him, but I will." Liu Yong'an charged forward, swinging his baseball bat at the leader's head. In a panic, the leader raised his arm, and with a "crack," his arm broke, and he fell to the ground, howling in pain and rolling around.
The fight lasted only ten minutes. Liu Yong'an and his group beat the dozen or so gangsters to the ground. Upon questioning, it was confirmed that they were indeed sent by Xin to gather information.
Without consulting Hai Long, Liu Yong'an took charge and ordered his subordinates to severely beat the gangsters and then throw them and their cars in front of the hospital.