Sixty FourLi Shi Qing’s raging anger turned into laughter instead, “Yan Ming, you really have the guts and a h.e.l.l of a brain.”
“You’re being too kind, too kind,” said Yan Ming cheerfully as he walked toward Li Shi Qing and stood in front of him at a distant slightly far away, while Xiao Li followed beside him. “It’s obvious that Xiao Li and I have joined force, why are you saying this to me and not to him? Then there’s Liu Zi Cheng, who had schemed to kill you, yet you wanted him to be your successor? I’m jealous that you’re not afraid of your nephew…even if I see you as my uncle, this gun here doesn’t.”
In seconds, Li Shi Qing watched the gun emerged from beneath Yan Ming’s jacket and pointed boldly at him, “If you wanted to kill me, you would have done so just now, not stand here and say all this nonsense to me.”
Yan Ming clicked his tongue before putting the gun away, “You’re my uncle, after all! I can’t be like Liu Zi Cheng and kill you just like that. Look over here, I’m more thoughtful than you are.” He looked Li Shi Qing up and down, “Where should we inject this to paralyze half your body? What do you call that illness where you’re paralyzed? You know, the kind of life where you can’t take care of yourself and need someone to wait on you when you s.h.i.t or p.i.s.s?” He laughed out loud, “But, neither are my specialties. I only specialize in employing drugs. Uncle, with just one needle, you’ll be ridden with dementia. When the time comes, people will say Liu Zi Cheng shot and struck you so severely that you suffered dementia, wouldn’t it be really amusing?”
One of Yan Ming’s subordinate was still firmly pointing the gun at Ding Yong as he took a step forward and handed him a syringe.
Watching on carefully, Li Shi Qing’s complexion immediately ashen as he glanced at Xiao Li then dragged his eyes back to Yan Ming, who seemed rather fascinated by his expression. He tilted his head to the side and scrutinized him for a moment before deliberately loading the syringe and continuing to speak, “This way, it wouldn’t look like Liu Zi Cheng didn’t complete his mission. Lu Wu would be happy, Sun Ze Yu would also be happy, and even if someone were to try and settle this matter, it wouldn’t fall on my head. Uncle, people say, one’s nephew would certainly be a bit similar to or if not the same as his close relative. Tell me, since I’m so smart, don’t I take after you?”
When Li Shi Qing’s brows locked and he remained silent, Yan Ming glanced at him then looked at Xiao Li at his side, “Hey, do you want to do it yourself?”
Xiao Li looked at the syringe in his hand, contemplated for a moment, then reached out to take it.
At that motion, Yan Ming proudly smiled. But in the next second, that smile remained frozen on his face instead. Xiao Li’s arm has already stretched out from behind him, forcefully gripping his throat while the syringe faced the thick artery on his neck.
“Put the guns down and raise your hands.” Xiao Li ordered Yan Ming’s five subordinates.
His subordinates did not have a chance to react when Xiao Li tightened his grip on Yan Ming’s throat while the needle at the tip of the syringe has already punctured a hole in his neck.
Looking simultaneously at the scene in front of them, the five men did not hesitate to put their guns on the ground, allowing Xiao Chen and Ding Yong to sigh in relieve. Li Shi Qing received a gun and stared closely at those men, hinting at his own bodyguards. Xiao Chen walked over to the side where Lin Zi was lying on the ground and tear off the power cord binding him, then he walked back toward those men, cut the cord up and used it to tie all their hands toward their backs while Ding Yong started to call for manpower.
Now that Yan Ming was subdued by Xiao Li and his subordinates were all tied up, he knew immediately that the situation was hopeless for him. The smile on his face has completely disappeared and instead was replaced with gloominess and anger.
“Xiao Li, you are full of s.h.i.t motherf.u.c.ker!” He cursed, “I’ll f.u.c.king take it as I misread you. As it turns out, you like to let this old b.a.s.t.a.r.d shove his c.o.c.k up your a.s.s even more than being my subordinate!!”
By now, Xiao Li’s cold sweat has started to drip as he smiled, “Yan Ming, stop pretending. Aren’t you the one that everyone misread? Even if he died, Liu Zi Cheng still doesn’t know that you’re the one that betrayed him, right?”
From his side, Ding Yong pa.s.sed Xiao Li a section of the power cord. He threw the syringe away and started to bind Yan Ming with the cord, “First you went to look for Liu Zi Cheng to cooperate with you before urging him to rely on Lu Wu for help, and this is why he said he would never worry about you. Then you came to look for me, *snort*, you undoubtedly instigated problems between Liu Zi Cheng and Qing Ye, between Qing Ye and me, then between Liu Zi Cheng and me. I really admire you……since you purposely came later, were you hoping that the three of us would ma.s.sacre each other until no one lived?”
Yan Ming did not utter another word as a dark and gloomy expression spread across his face. Xiao Li gripped his neck, pulled in close to his ear and whispered, “As much as I hate being f.u.c.ked in the a.s.s, it is much better than having to be your subordinates since they don’t even know they have been used and then betrayed by you.”
“Qing Ye!”
After the sound of a car brakes screeched outside, a few people charged into the warehouse, while many other vehicles rushed toward the same place from afar.
Li Shi Qing walked over, supporting a rather pallid and shaky Xiao Li while staring at Yan Ming who had been detained and was being led away by Ah Long. He slightly smiled, “Don’t worry, you didn’t kill me so I won’t kill you either. You know, you’re not the only one in the gang that’s an expert in utilizing drugs.”
Hearing the implication in his words, Yan Ming’s complexion became even more unsightly. But by then, Li Shi Qing was no longer looking at him, he simply leaned to the side to look at Xiao Li instead, “Your hands are frozen.”
Xiao Li unexpectedly stared at Yan Ming the entire time, and even when he heard Li Shi Qing spoke, he still did not look at him. He merely let out a light sigh, “It’s just a bit uncomfortable.”
“Ding Yong, take Xiao Li to the hospital.”
Ding Yong answered with a grunt and walked over to support Xiao Li, taking him away toward another direction.
Li Shi Qing watched with a complicated expression as their figures moved into the distant.
“Qing Ye.” Ah Long walked over and spoke in a low whisper, “What you’ve told me to investigate, I’ve discovered part of it already.”
“Tell me.”
“The last time Sun Tingzhang ordered you to let Li Ge leave the gang, someone with connection to Li Ge indeed went to look for him.” Ah Long paused for a moment, “It’s……it’s the person from that night……”
Li Shi Qing frowned.
“Something felt strange about it so I investigated further. Qing Ye, do you remember when Luo Dong captured Han Jia then unexpectedly allowed him to recuperate in his territory without causing him any trouble at all?”
Li Shi Qing’s brows tightened even more.
“Continue.”
“I let our men who have been planted in Luo Dong’s territory investigate and they informed me at that time, during the most crucial moment, Luo Dong received a phone call. It’s highly possible that this phone call was from Sun Tingzhang.”
“……Sun Ze Yu.” Li Shi Qing slowly repeated.
Ah Long went quiet for a moment, then unable to hold back before he whispered again, “Qing Ye, do you want to go against Sun Tingzhang?”
“It’s not that I want to go against him, he wants to go against me,” said Li Shi Qing before he gave Ah Long a glance and faintly said, “Although the official and bandits are said to be one family, disagreements will occur at times. If the official wants to make extra money, then he has to support the bandit. But if the bandit goes awry then the official will be worried he won’t be able to control them completely. You think about it, when we fought with Ma Que Zi, and then fought with Luo Dong, did Sun Ze Yu give us a hard time?”
Ah Long pondered for a moment then shook his head.
“But now that we’re the only one left in this city, he can’t sit still anymore,” continued Li Shi Qing, “First he showed us his power at Jin Gu Yuan,all the while standing on Lu Wu’s side at every given moment, giving us troubles. Humph! There is no way he will give up until he creates a disturbance in this city before everything becomes disorganized again.”
To the side, Ah Long seemed to be at a loss before he finally lowered his voice again, “Qing Ye, you’re truly amazing.”
Someone like Ah Long has always been silent, and was never good at flattering others. Yet, now that he suddenly blurted out such a sentence, Li Shi Qing was quite startled, “What do you mean?”
“You’ve fought against Ma Que Zi and Luo Dong, fought against Lu Wu, the underworld’s most powerful leader, and have to guard against Sun Tingzhang, the supposed white collar man, all the while, there’s also a huge disorder within the gang. At the same time, these powerful people are ‘cooperating’ with each other. With all these confusing situations, you’re still able to deal with and understand everything thoroughly. This is truly extraordinary.” Ah Long could not help but to look at Li Shi Qing with a bit of admiration.
Li Shi Qing declined to comment and instead he simply smiled.
Seeing that he did not say anything for awhile, Ah Long spoke again, “Now that it came to this, how do you plan on dealing with Sun Tingzhang?”
Li Shi Qing’s brow tightened even more, “Since Sun Ze Yu is eager for more conflicts to arise within the gang, why would he want Xiao Li to withdraw? He would be thinking of every possible method for Xiao Li to remain in the gang to allow the problems within the gang to worsen. Hence, the last time he came to look for me was definitely not his idea. Unexpectedly, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Qi was actually able to make him do things that go against his original intention. Perhaps, Qi Xiu Yuan has some evidence in his hands that can be used against him.” He gave Ah Long a glance, “Now that Liu Zi Cheng is dead, Sun Ze Yu and Lu Wu will certainly not leave the matter at that. The more bargaining chip we have in our hands, the better.”
“Qing Ye, you want me to kidnap that Qi……that person?” Ah Long was a bit puzzled.
“Kidnap…of course not.” Li Shi Qing’s eyes hung low as he muttered to himself irresolutely, “However, we’ll have to pay him a visit after all.”
Xiao Li had lost an excessive amount of blood to that point that his body was rendered in coldness as he lie in the back seat of Ding Yong’s car, covering his gaping wound. The familiar scenario made him recall the time he had escaped with Han Jia from Luo Dong’s territory.
In such a short span of time, so many complicated situations broke out. Compared to back then, when they had fought over the territories with two very formidable enemies of the underworld, this current situation was even more complicated.
From time to time, everything before his eyes became dark as if there was a small vortex swirling repeatedly in his field of vision. Xiao Li sighed and closed his eyes but that vortex did not fade away, instead, it changed to another color and continued to swirl in front of him. He stared at those spots of light. It was as if he was looking at every kinds of power within the underworld and white collar world form into one strong and fearful vortex, rapidly and terribly spinning, colliding against each other, joining and resisting. All the while, he was sitting in a small leaf boat being swept along to every corner. In one moment, a glorious wave thrashed down on him, and then in the next moment, the vortex swallowed him whole.
Amidst everything laid out in front of him, vaguely, as if looking at countless small vortexes aligning the edge, there was an elevated and beautiful dry land…Qi Xiu Yuan was there with his hands in his pockets as he walked over from that long and drawn out land before standing by the sh.o.r.e.
‘Leave, go back’ Xiao Li could hear himself shouting from the small boat, but the wind was too strong and the waves were too enormous. It seemed Qi Xiu Yuan did not hear anything as he waved energetically at him from the other side before he removed his shoes and prepared to get in the water. The vortexes swirled even faster seemingly excited from this fresh offering. Beneath these threatening vortexes laid dark and gloomy torrential currents, releasing loud and ear-piercing sounds, ready to engulf the person at the sh.o.r.e until not even a drop of blood or a strand of hair remained.
Leave! Go back! Xiao Li shouted with every bit of voice he could conceive regardless of the huge waves clashing above his head.
Qi Xiu Yuan seemed to have finally heard what he said, but that only made him rush into the water even faster. He immediately dived in and swam toward him as if his life depended on it.
Go back! Xiao Li desperately shouted but he could only look on helplessly as Qi Xiu Yuan quickly disappeared into the water without any trace.
At the same time, the huge waves lingering above him crashed down and buried the small boat. Xiao Li, himself, was submerged in the boundless darkness.