Translator: Larbre Studio
Editor: Larbre Studio
“If you’re not dead yet, get up and run. Or do you want to be hacked to pieces by He Lian Sheng’s men?”
Xu Tianci wiped his mouth with his sleeve. The smile on his face was finally gone.
“I’ll pay you back for that kick some day.”
“I’ll wait.”
Li Yan’s voice was cold. He had just turned to head down the stairs when a ringing sound came from his pocket.
He looked at his phone, cleared his throat, and answered the call in a gentle voice.
“What’s the matter, Judy?”
The woman’s voice on the other end sounded angry.
“Where have you gone, you b*stard?”
“I, I’m working.”
Beside him, Xu Tianci looked at Li Yan quizzically. Li Yan was smiling from ear to ear. Despite all of this, the two of them did not slow down at all.
At the stairway entrance, two He Lian Sheng men were squatting by the side, smoking cigarettes as they watched the entrance. They saw the two men walk out side by side, one of them on the phone.
“Buy a car? What for, Judy? If you’re so generous, why don’t you just give me the money?”
“Even without family property, I still need money.”
“Wha… I wouldn’t dare. No, of course not.”
The man lowered his voice and whispered sweet words into the phone.
The two thugs looked at each other and laughed, then turned away and ignored the two men. When they were three or four paces away from them, one of the thugs suddenly blinked and shot up to his feet.
“Hey brother, wait up.”
The thug rushed up and put a hand on Xu Tianci’s shoulder. The man on the phone suddenly turned around and delivered a fierce side kick to the thug’s jaw, sending him collapsing to the ground.
The other thug threw away his cigarette and reached for the machete by his waist, but in a flash, a black shadow whistled through the air and struck him in the face.
“Noise? Oh, I’m working, of course there’s some noise.”
Li Yan stepped on the blade of the machete with his toes and flicked it upwards with his other foot right into his hand. He grabbed Xu Tianci by the elbow and headed towards the basement.
“Qiu, what’s the matter?”
Another group of thugs heard noises from the stairs and ran up, only to run straight into Li Yan.
“F*ck, why do these b*stards have such good hearing. Ah, no, not you Judy. I wasn’t talking about you.”
Li Yan tossed his Ericsson to Xu Tianci. With his left hand on the handrail, he lifted himself into the air and came down on the thugs, sweeping both legs at them like a giant steel whip. He kicked off from one of the thugs’ chest, spun around at his waist, and struck the last thug with a backfist!
Xu Tianci stood to the side, the Ericsson in his hands still making noise.
“Yan, what on earth are you doing? Why is it so noisy? I don’t see you by Grand Duke’s side. Wow you don’t know how crazy it is here. Taizi Le doesn’t come by the Walled City much and he thinks that he can scare her off with a few hundred of his thugs, but he doesn’t know Grand Duke is nuts. With all this fuss about him being here, he’s probably not leaving Fuyi Tower alive today. Are you listening to me?”
“He…”
Xu Tianci opened his mouth and spoke into the phone.
“Yes, I’m listening. Of course I’m listening.” Li Yan dusted his sleeves and walked over, snatching back the phone in the nick of time. He glared at Xu Tianci who was still trying to talk into the phone.
“Judy, I’ll be done very soon here. I’ll call you back later.”
Li Yan cut the line and then gave Xu Tianci a look.
“Let’s go.”
…
“Brother Yu, our butts are getting sore from sitting here for so long. Are they actually coming?”
Black Teeth Tai was busy swatting away the unrelenting mosquitoes as he spat a wad of phlegm into the dirty drains.
The man glared at him and replied impatiently, “Shut up.”
“It’s not like that, Brother Yu. Taizi Le is finally here in Kowloon Walled City, and now that something big is happening, you send us here to feed mosquitoes? Everyone else is rushing to Fuyi Tower for a chance to prove their worth! What the f*ck! Even trash like Chicken Shit Qiang knows that he should get close to the action, and he’s always the first coward to run away.”
The rest of the thugs said nothing, but they clearly thought the same as Black Teeth Tai.
Amongst them, only Black Teeth Tai had been in the organization for four years. The rest of them were delinquents fresh out of school.
But one should not underestimate these delinquents who had tossed their textbooks. Other than a few of them who just thought it would be cool to have tattoos, eat without paying, play their computer games, belong to a gang who’s all about loyalty, and so on, most of them chose to join the triads to make a living or to strike it rich.
This is why these people were often vicious and willing to put their lives on the line to fight for a position. Right now, their boss’ son was at Fuyi Tower, and all of the low-level riff-raff naturally wanted to be there by his side.
The man took in a deep puff of smoke and crushed the cigarette butt with his foot. He smiled coldly.
“This has blown up so much. Did you see that young schoolboy that slashed open Brother An’s stomach at Fuyi Tower?”
Black Teeth Tai was stunned. “Well, no.”
“Grand Duke’s power within the Walled City is the smallest, no doubt, but she is known for her fighting prowess! Being there would be a disaster, not a blessing. As for that kid…”
The man smiled a creepy toothy smile. “If you had a brain, you’d know that Fuyi Tower will send him out of the Walled City as soon as possible. So I’ll station myself here right in front of the city’s entrance, capture him, and deliver him straight to Brother Le. Who do you think will get the most merit then?”
As he finished speaking, the rest nodded in agreement. Perhaps this was because they had been waiting for quite a while.
The man asked Black Teeth Tai casually, “Remember, Tai, that gambler who tried to exchange some crap paper for money? Did he ever come back?”
Black Teeth Tai shook his head furiously. “Brother Yu instructed me to notify him, right? No, he hasn’t come by lately.”
“I see.”
The man replied calmly. He reached into his pants pocket for a box of cigarettes. He stared as the cigarette box fell to the ground with a clatter.
“They’re here!”
Black Teeth Tai shouted excitedly.
A dozen men clambered to their feet, holding their weapons in their hands.
“Brother Yu, there are two of them…” One of the thugs turned around, but was frightened by the man’s expression.
The man called Brother Yu swallowed a mouthful of saliva. His eyes gleamed and he spoke with uncontrollable nervousness and escitement. “Tai, didn’t I tell you to get me a gun from the Vietnamese just in case? Give it to me now!”
Black Teeth Tai was stunned to hear those words. In his mind, although the foe was a martial artist, he was already heavily injured. He had seen with his very eyes Zhou slashing open the kid’s stomach with his nine-ringed broadsword. On their side, they had over a dozen men, all with weapons. They even had a special hook lock used by hunters. There was no way they couldn’t handle that kid.
He forcefully looked back to face Brother Yu’s murderous glare and replied, “Brother Yu, finding the Vietnamese and getting a gun takes time, and you didn’t give me enough. I…”
The man did not reply. He stared blankly at the tall skinny man next to the metal “Kowloon Walled City” sign.
He turned back and his gaze swept across the many young faces filled with excitement and unease. He looked extremely conflicted.
“So you didn’t get the gun, did you?”
“I didn’t think…”
“Did you or did you not?”
“…No, I did not.”
The man’s stare was practically drilling a hole in Li Yan’s back. Finally, he opened his mouth and said one word.
“Retreat!”