Chapter 476 – The Power of Life and Death
The… Crime Syndicate Returns? You told me before brother Optimus Prime was stolen by a crime syndicate. I thought you made it up so you don’t have to return it to me, but the crime syndicate actually exists and it seems you’re quite familiar with them.
Xiao Qin didn’t admit Fu ShiJian’s kidnapping had anything to do with her and didn’t admit she had a connection to a crime syndicate. But she couldn’t stand up to my questioning, especially when I said she wouldn’t be my girlfriend anymore, so she could only tell the truth.
But before she spoke the truth, she pleaded to me to not despise her or alienate her because she was the daughter in a crime syndicate family.
“It’s okay, your parents can’t choose their careers…” I randomly said something the cla.s.s leader once said to comfort me, “Even if it’s a crime syndicate…”
Wait, crime syndicate? Who’s in a crime syndicate, Auntie Ren? Is being a martial arts director only a cover?
No, if Auntie Ren was in a crime syndicate, there’s no way she would always interact with the police and even teach policewoman self defense. And Xiao Qin already said Auntie Ren despises ‘them’, so ‘them’ probably refers to members of the crime syndicate.
So there’s only one other possibility. If Xiao Qin said she was the daughter of a crime syndicate family, then Xiao Qin’s father, Huo ZhenBang, must be a part of a crime syndicate.
No wonder Auntie Ren told my dad that Huo ZhenBang’s ident.i.ty in the film world was simply a cover. It’s a good thing Auntie Ren already divorced Huo ZhenBang or if I marry Xiao Qin in the future, my father-in-law would be a part of a crime syndicate!
“If you want to marry my daughter, then first get rid of x.x.x.” He might even make that kind of request to me.
If Xiao Qin’s father is part of a crime syndicate, then Xiao Qin setting up a faction at the Thousand Crane girl’s school makes complete sense, it’s like she’s inheriting her father’s business.
“How did Auntie Ren marry into a crime syndicate?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Well, this goes back to the time when they first met in Hong Kong…” Xiao Qin answered, but based on her tone she didn’t seem to mind her father was in a crime syndicate, but she did feel it was unforgivable that he betrayed her mother.
Not long after Auntie Ren won the female MMA champion t.i.tle, she followed her team to a friendly compet.i.tion in Hong Kong, and she once took care of 6 triad members single-handedly on the streets.
I’ve already heard about it before on the news at the time, but I obtained more insider information from Xiao Qin.
At the time, when Auntie Ren came out of a restaurant, she saw six members of the triads using a rusty artillery sh.e.l.l to try and extort protection fees from the restaurant’s owner.
Auntie Ren knocked those six morons to the ground in an instant and casually pa.s.sed the sh.e.l.l to the owner and scared him half to death.
Auntie Ren’s heroic actions and vigorous body was seen by Huo ZhenBang who was sitting on the second floor of the restaurant. He applauded as he headed down the stairs to have a chat with Auntie Ren. It turns out Auntie Ren didn’t understand Cantonese and the two of them communicated in English.
The beautiful chance encounter between the two of them seemed horrible after Xiao Qin revealed the truth.
It turns out Huo ZhenBang was the leader of the Ju Ying Sect of the Triads. The six fools who came to collect protection fees were low level members of the Triads. It was unknown where they dug up an artillery sh.e.l.l, but they were inspired to use it to extort money. Huo ZhenBang was troubled by how to get rid of those fools. Ever since Hong Kong was returned to China, the crime syndicates in Hong Kong decided to stay on the down low. Blowing up an artillery sh.e.l.l would definitely land them on the government’s blacklist.
So Auntie Ren did Huo ZhenBang a huge favor by getting rid of them, and that’s why he chatted with her to express his thanks.
But after he got closer, he realized Auntie Ren was a beautiful woman. And like all men, he naturally had desires towards her.
But first we had to talk about Huo ZhenBang’s family.
From Huo ZhenBang’s grandfather’s generation, they made their first profits in an investment in a casino. They slowly began to build up their family business until they grew into the enormous Huo Financial Group.
Among the young successors of the Huo Financial Group, Huo ZhenBang was the second eldest. He had an older and experienced older brother who managed most of the family business. Huo ZhenBang had a lot of money and free time, so with an excuse of expanding the family business, he invested in films. Luckily, he invested at the perfect time when mainland was filming a lot of movies with Hong Kong and he made quite a bit of money.
Good things don’t last forever as the Hong Kong film industry soon entered a slump. This was when the big boss of the triads set his eyes on Huo ZheBang and wanted to cooperate in making films with him. Frankly, it was basically money laundering. He wanted to wash the money earned by the triads from their narcotics business.
Huo ZhenBang, who was great at seizing opportunities, fit perfectly with the cooperation with the triads and slowly gained their trust, eventually getting a high level position and becoming the leader of the Ju Ying Sect of the triads.
He got some opposition from his father and older brother for being together with the triads, but they pampered him too much since young and couldn’t do much. Huo ZhenBang helped the triads a lot with using his film investor ident.i.ty as cover. The help ranged from helping the big boss escape the country for a while to avoid being arrested to helping one of the boss’ mistresses get a role in a movie.
Huo ZhenBang was enjoying his success in both the underworld and the regular world, then he met Auntie Ren by chance. On the same day, he brought four hundred of his underlings to cheer for Auntie Ren at the friendly compet.i.tion, then he even got on stage to give her flowers after the match.
Auntie Ren thought the men in suits were all employees from Huo ZhenBang’s company. Who knew they were like the people she beat up earlier, a bunch of gangsters.
Huo ZhenBang had a lot of financial a.s.sets, he didn’t look bad, he put in a lot of effort, and he was considerate, so he easily succeeded in winning over the young Auntie Ren.
When it was finally time to discuss marriage, Auntie Ren’s father, the gramps who taught me Yin Yang Sanshou, was invited to Hong Kong but their discussions failed.
Huo ZhenBang ardently welcomed gramps Ren when he arrived, but with one look, gramps Ren felt he was deceitful and wasn’t a good person to be his son-in-law.
What happened after was even more unexpected. Gramps Ren found out Huo ZhenBang’s grandfather was still alive, and his grandfather was Huo TianKai. They were old acquaintances from the martial arts world and the two of them fought because of a misunderstanding many years ago. They fought each other multiple times, but neither of them won. They were both compet.i.tive, so when they went home, they both told their relatives and friends that they won.
What was supposed to be marriage discussions turned into a compet.i.tion between gramps Ren and Huo TianKai.
Both of them said they were stronger than the other and almost got into a fight. Luckily, Auntie Ren and Huo ZhenBang were able to dissuade them.
Gramps Ren was now faced with a serious problem.
Auntie Ren was his daughter, but Huo ZhenBang was Huo TianKai’s grandson.
They were originally not related, but if the marriage went through, he would be lower in seniority than Huo TianKai by one generation.
Gramps Ren, who never like Huo ZhenBang, was adamantly against her daughter’s marriage. Auntie Ren thought it was because his father had a grudge with Huo TianKai. In the heat of the moment, she had a fight with gramps Ren and married Huo ZhenBang without his blessing.
Huo ZhenBang’s grandfather, Huo TianKai, maliciously sent an invitation to Gramps Ren before the wedding where he referred to Gramps Ren as his ‘nephew’. Gramps Ren tore up the invitation without even reading it.
To be honest, in the first two years of marriage, Huo ZhenBang treated Auntie Ren well. The two of them were always together and partic.i.p.ated in many movie gatherings and charity dinners. Auntie Ren also quickly got pregnant and gave birth to Xiao Qin.
Auntie Ren who left the MMA after she got married was bored, so she slowly developed an interest in her husband’s work with films and became a martial arts director (of course she didn’t know the main purpose of her husband’s films was for money laundering).
Auntie Ren was also the type to become single-mindedly devoted to her work. She let a nanny take care of Xiao Qin and sometimes she would come home at midnight when an actor couldn’t get the hang of certain moments. This gave the opportunity for Huo ZhenBang to meet up with his old lovers.
Huo ZhenBang thought everything would go well, but he was eventually caught in the act by Auntie Ren. Auntie Ren gave him a beating, took Xiao Qin, and left Hong Kong without looking back.
Huo ZhenBang might have been a playboy and was a triad, he still had a good conscience. He felt apologetic to Auntie Ren and his daughter, so he asked repeated to get remarried. Auntie Ren already saw through his true character and never agreed. Auntie Ren had also found out Huo ZhenBang was a part of the triads.
Seeing as Auntie Ren refused to take his money or let him see his daughter, Huo ZhenBang couldn’t do anything but send a couple of his subordinates to the mainland to secretly protect his daughter and Auntie Ren.
As Huo ZhenBang’s precious daughter, Xiao Qin was the main target of protection for the triad members. After a while, Xiao Qin slowly noticed their existence, especially a one-eyed uncle she remembered seeing as a child, so she quickly realized they were men sent by her father.
These members who were usually only in charge of intelligence gather, would never publicly kidnap someone. If they suddenly kidnapped Fu ShiJian at the risk of exposing themselves, it meant it was under Xiao Qin’s orders.
“Someone wanted to harm Ye Lin cla.s.smate, so hurry up and find the ringleader and get rid of him. If you don’t, then don’t appear around my home again and I won’t continue to communicate with my dad anymore.”
Since their leader’s daughter threatened them along with the fact Xiao Qin was also almost run over, the one-eyed uncle called a bunch of his friends and kidnapped Fu ShiJian from his office. At the time, Fu ShiJian was forcing a certain female actor to have office play with him, so he didn’t have any bodyguards around him.
“Fu ShiJian might not be dead yet.” Xiao Qin asked me innocently, “Do you want me to give a call to Uncle Long to put Fu ShiJian in a barrel then fill it up with concrete and toss him into the river?”