Chapter 448: To Eliminate A Public Threat
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
The phone call came from Shenyang, and not from the military phone of Zhao Huzi and others, but from a privately-owned renovation company.
After Qin Fen bought a house in Shenyang on the same day, he commissioned a real estate developer to help contact a reliable renovation company of high quality. The one that was contacting him at the moment was the renovation company that the real estate developer helped find.
“h.e.l.lo Mr. Qin, I am Manager He, from Xinxin Housing Design and Renovation Company. We have sent our staff to a.s.sess the situation in your house. Are you currently free to receive our quotation?”
On the other side of the phone, Mr. He’s voice was very gentle. Qin Fen pressed the email receiving b.u.t.ton on the new phone, and a detailed quotation with clear information appeared in the projection from Qin Fen’s mobile phone.
Seeing the quotation from the company, the faint smile on Qin Fen’s face quickly solidified, and a little anger rose from his facial muscles.
For a mere bag of sand to be transported to a unit on the eighteenth floor, the transportation cost was already up to eighteen yuan, whereas the price of the bag of sand itself is only about three yuan!
The s.h.i.+pping cost of a bag of sand is actually more than six times that of the sand itself? Qin Fen’s eyebrows raised as he continued to read the costs.
A set of family-use sofas was quoted by the decoration company at about six thousand yuan, but the cost of transportation was another three thousand yuan.
What is this? Qin Fen sneered, all the while confused. Is this a decoration company or a robbery company? I thought everybody said that current real estate developers cooperated with decoration companies and have formed a fair pricing system? How is the price so expensive?
Has.h.i.+moto Nagas.h.i.+ro stared at the quotation for a long time and asked, “Are there any problems with the prices?”
Qin Fen looked at the martial dao master from the State of j.a.pan for a few seconds, only to recall that a lot of martial dao masters were not like himself, who once lived as part of the bottom of society and had nothing.
Regarding that past, Qin Fen had always regarded it as a precious experience in life, the many odd jobs back then; a construction site worker, an hourly paid worker, and even a moving company worker. Naturally, he knew the price of transportation of materials for renovations well.
A bag of three yuan sand costs eighteen yuan to transport, this was beyond the description of sky-high prices. Qin Fen shook his head again and again. This kind of transportation charge made money much faster than robbing the bank. How could the previous moving company that I worked in not have such high prices?
Qin Fen was silent for a few minutes. Manager He’s voice at the end of the phone was slightly perturbed, “Mr. Qin, do you have any questions about this quotation?”
Do I have any problems? Qin Fen heard this and sneered, “There is a problem. Three yuan for a bag of sand yet you want me to pay eighteen yuan for the transportation fee. And the sofa that costs six thousand yuan, you want me to pay a transportation fee of three thousand yuan. The quoted price of these doors and windows are all prices for branded products, but the brands you listed are notoriously low quality in the industry.”
Has.h.i.+moto Nagas.h.i.+ro looked at Qin Fen. This young martial dao master was not only proficient in martial arts but also understood basic livelihood for the public. He even knew the price and quality of any brand clearly.
As a martial dao master, Has.h.i.+moto Nagas.h.i.+ro knew that usually, everyone a.s.signed matters directly to their disciples, so that they didn’t have to worry about it themselves. This meant that they didn’t know about the prices of things as well.
Qin Fen shook his head hard again and again, although he was no longer the poor boy who struggled in poverty back then, it did not mean that he would simply waste money of any amount, especially on this kind of wastage that was obvious to the discerning person.
Manager He on the other end of the phone chuckled awkwardly, and the tone of voice was full of helplessness as his voice sounded again in Qin Fen’s ear, “Mr. Qin, as far as you see it, except for the transportation costs and doors and windows, other prices are still fair right?”
Qin Fen was momentarily stunned. He didn’t expect Manager He to admit to this in such a simple way. This quotation was indeed very fair except for the price of transportation and doors and windows.
“Mr. Qin, there are some things that we cannot decide.” Manager He’s voice had a bit of an admonis.h.i.+ng tone, “You also know that there are many factors to be considered in doing business in this society. I am going to be frank with you; your current transportation costs took us half a day of negotiation to get it to this cheap price…”
“Cheap?” Qin Fen suspected that his hearing was faulty. The other party dared to blindly say that these transportation costs were considered cheap!
If this was considered cheap, Qin Fen would like to ask the manager if, in his eyes, the pigs in the slaughterhouse were also Diaochan[1]?
“It’s really cheap.” Manager He’s voice was full of self-confidence, “Mr. Qin, I don’t have to lie about this. I can guarantee that even if you go to other decoration companies, the price of transportation and doors and windows will absolutely never be cheaper than what we offer.”
Qin Fen was very skeptical about where the confidence of the other party came from. The tone of his words was full of confidence, as though there was absolutely nothing wrong with the quoted price.
“Manager He.” Qin Fen paused a little, “In regards to transporting the materials, I think I’ll look for someone to do it on my own.”
“If Mr. Qin wants to find someone by yourself to transport it, no problem, just…” Manager He reluctantly said, “Just… if the person Mr. Qin finds is unable to complete the transportation, it is estimated that by the time you want to ask us for help, I am afraid that the price will have continued to rise even further. At that time, I hope that you can understand. There are some things that we can’t control and decide.”
Qin Fen’s left index finger rubbed around back and forth on his chin. He felt that the other party’s words were indeed full of hidden helplessness.
Hanging up the manager’s phone call, Qin Fen used the mobile phone inquiry function to find several moving companies to ask. When they heard the location of the community garden, the prices reported back were far more ridiculous than those reported by the manager. If it wasn’t for the unmistakable tone of helplessness in their words, Qin Fen would have wondered if he carried an aura of an easy target to scam.
“Well it’s just eighteen floors, isn’t it? I’ll just get this done myself, I suppose?” Qin Fen gently rotated his shoulders. With the power of the Dragon Elephant Prajna Art in the World Martial Arts Master Outline, forget sand and cement, even if it was a heavier thing, it wouldn’t even be a burden to lift it.
“Master, I will help you with moving.”
“Brother Qin, count me in as well.”
Qin Fen also felt that Yang Ruoruo and Yang Xixi should be safe for a while. He nodded as he dialed Zhao Huzi’s phone number. “Big Brother Zhao, it is me. Can you help me find a car, to move the sand and sofas and other furniture to the ground floor of where I live? My home address is…”
“Yes! No problem, I’ll just find a few youngsters to do it and even have them move it up to your house.” Zhao Huzi sat on the military chair and said, “There are a few youngsters who just finished recruit training. It’s good to let them exercise more. Right, I haven’t congratulated you on getting famous after the two fights. Come back to Shenyang, I will treat you for dinner.”
“It’s enough to just transport it here, I can move it up myself.” Qin Fen hung up and looked at the two people, “Let’s go to Shenyang now?”
The three men went out and stopped two taxis on the roadside. Qin Fen took the same car with Kyokus.h.i.+n Genichi, while Has.h.i.+moto Nagas.h.i.+ro sat alone and went straight to the airport.
The distance from Tianbei City to Shenyang in a straight-line wasn’t really very far. They bought three flight tickets with the closest departure time. The three people walked into the cabin. Qin Fen did not rush to sit down but instead observed every pa.s.senger on the plane.
As a person who could somehow encounter a hijack every single time he took a civil aviation plane, Qin Fen had now developed a habit of observing pa.s.sengers and onboard surroundings immediately to see if there may be hijackers.
Once he had determined that there was no hidden danger, Qin Fen peacefully took his seat. With the plane taking off and landing, he returned to Shenyang once again.
When he got off the plane and turned the phone on, Qin Fen found that there were two missed calls and opened the voice message box to hear that it was a young man’s message.
“Colonel Qin, we came downstairs of where you live and found the property company to open the door of your home. Anyway, since guarding these items were boring, we helped you to move them in…”
“Colonel Qin… you have a bunch of people here… what are you doing? These are the items we brought in…”
The recording in the second half of the phone was obviously not directed towards Qin Fen. The sound behind it became rowdier as time pa.s.sed. In the blink of an eye, the recording abruptly ended.
Qin Fen looked at the time – it was a matter of a minute ago. He had a gut feeling that something was amiss. He took the two of them directly to find the two most expensive magnetic flying cars to go straight to the community residence on the outskirts of the city.
As time pa.s.ses and society develops, Shenyang had annexed several nearby cities and formed a huge super modern city. Qin Fen’s house was relatively far from the center of Shenyang, and the magnetic car took nearly an hour to reach his residential community.
Looking down from the sky, this newly built residential community was very beautiful, the greenery around it was denser than what was shown on the poster, it looked modernistic yet quiet and elegant so that the people who have bought the houses here would feel like it was a bargain.
The magnetic flying car entered the community and the environment in front of his residence made him frown slowly.
This empty s.p.a.ce in front of his lot, which should be as clean the other buildings, was littered with smashed furniture. The bags of sand and cement were torn and scattered everywhere, and the sand and cement were covering the ground.
In the center of the scene, there were three young people on the ground. Even if you look at it from a distance, people with good eyesight could see that the three young people are covered in blood.
In addition to the three young people on the ground, there were more than a dozen people standing or sitting around and occasionally pointing to the three young people and laughing, or silently bowing their heads and taking a puff of their cigarettes.
The taxi descended to a distance of five meters from the ground. The driver looked back at Qin Fen with an embarra.s.sed look, “Is it okay to see if you can jump out on your own, or perhaps I’ll descend another meter away…”
Qin Fen looked at the taxi driver’s embarra.s.sed look. He gently shook his head and opened the door and jumped.
In such a situation, with such an atmosphere, the reasons for the following events below, perhaps people who do not know the development of the matter did not know, but even those who did not know the cause of the problem understood that a fight took place; the police did not appear.
Thud… thud… thud!
Qin Fen and Kyokus.h.i.+n Genichi landed on the ground one after the other. Has.h.i.+moto Nagas.h.i.+ro’s huge body slammed the ground on landing and made a loud noise. Even the inanimate sand and cement on the ground trembled slightly.
More than a dozen smokers who were around stood up and silently formed a circle to surround Qin Fen.
“Are you all sent by Big Brother Zhao?” Qin Fen crouched down and looked at the three young people whose recruit aura was still obvious, “What is going on?”
“Sand… Sand asked…
Qin Fen was stunned for a moment, but then understood what the recruit, who had been beaten up badly with a swollen bleeding lip as big as a sausage, was trying to say. The so-called ‘sand asked’ meant them.
“I’d like to ask? Are you the owner here?”
A dozen people gathered around, the one leading them had a purple-gold colored oriental dragon tattoo on the neck, and two golden dragon tails tattooed on the back of both hands revealed from his long sleeves.
Qin Fen crouched as he squinted at the broken sofa not far from the ground and raised his eyelids, “I am the owner here, is that my sofa?”
Outside the crowd, a man wearing a black suit and holding a briefcase in his arms, looking like a gentleman, with a timid look in his eyes, came to Qin Fen and whispered, “Mr. Qin? I am Manager He. I talked to you on the phone not long ago, this is the new quotation now. A bag of sand will cost you fifty yuan, as for the sofa…”
Qin Fen raised his hand and interrupted the words of the manager. His eyes glanced at the people around him and asked, “Who are these people?”
“They…” Manager He approached Qin Fen’s ear and said, “They are called building tyrants.”
“Building tyrants?” Qin Fen is somewhat puzzled. He had also stayed at the bottom level of society. How could he have never heard of such an industry?
The crowd heard his words, and there was a glimmer of haughtiness on their faces. Manager He quietly nodded and whispered in Qin Fen’s ear, “Building tyrants are a group of people that charge expensive transportation costs to construction materials and force consumers to buy from them. If you don’t go through them, the sand needed for the renovation can’t be transported in.”
“Underworld?”
Qin Fen blurted out his own way of understanding.
“No, no, no, we are not underworld.” The leading man waved his hand again and again, “We are businessmen, the scope of business is the sale and transportation of construction materials. We occasionally cause some friction with our peers due to commercial activities. For example, what just happened. We are very sorry about the damage to your belongings the friction caused. The set of sofa costs six thousand yuan, right? We will compensate you fully…”
Qin Fen looked at the new quotation in his hand. The cost of carrying the sofa has increased from the initial price of three thousand yuan to nine thousand yuan. Who is paying for that?
Qin Fen also checked the injuries of the three recruits. He did not look at the other party and said, “Genichi, call the police.”
“Mr. Qin…” Manager He whispered and shook his head, “Don’t call the police, it’s useless. They have just been released. They paid a fine and came out. This kind of thing, they have a way to say that it is a commercial dispute. Worst case could be they have to pay for medical expenses, but this cost will still fall onto you in the end…”
Qin Fen crouched on the floor and wanted to laugh at the moving workers around him. The current martial dao master had just been killed by him on Hallasan. It never occurred to him that when he came back to Shenyang to purchase a house, he would be bullied by building tyrants. It seemed that going to the police wouldn’t be of any help, which seemed really amusing to him.
“Mr. Qin, right? Why don’t you sign this contract? You can rest a.s.sured that as long as we are doing this project, we can guarantee that you will not be hara.s.sed by others.”
The leader walked up front and patted Qin Fen’s shoulder as though they were old acquaintances.
Qin Fen looked up calmly at the opponent, “What if I don’t sign?”
“Don’t sign?” The young man with the golden dragon neck tattoo laughed, “Mr. Qin, then I can’t guarantee that your furniture can be safely transported to your home.”
Manager He secretly tugged at Qin Fen’s sleeves. He had seen many people who daringly faced the building tyrants, but none of them prevailed and they all gave in sooner or later.
The building tyrants were not fools. The rich and powerful people in Shenyang were usually living in a villa with a magnetic flying sports car. The people who lived in this relatively remote suburb and even took a taxi to come back would most probably not be rich nor powerful. Hence, they would be easy pickings for the building tyrants.
Qin Fen turned on the mobile phone and calmly looked at the young man who claimed himself to be w.a.n.g Laowu, “Hey, Xin Annan Police Station? I am a resident of the Suns.h.i.+ne Community. You have underworld members here. Aren’t you going to do something about this? Yes, I am renovating here… what? Commercial disputes are not under your jurisdiction? Are you sure? You really won’t care?”
w.a.n.g Laowu smiled, and the people standing around also laughed together. It was not the first police call they’ve encountered. The police station once managed it, but every time it was settled and dealt with by lawyers easily.
This happened a few times, and every time the residents of the residential houses who complained were the ones withdrawing their own complaints. The people in the police station felt ashamed, and in the end they just simply ignored it.
“If you won’t care, then I will help you manage it. You should be ready to call an ambulance!”
Qin Fen’s cold and blunt tone ended the phone call. w.a.n.g Laowu felt that the surrounding air had become cold all of a sudden. Many people s.h.i.+vered, and they had a strange feeling in their hearts. It was as if it wasn’t a person that they surrounded, but rather a fierce mutant beast.
The furniture was smashed, and sand and cement were all over the floor. Most importantly, the three people sent by Zhao Huzi were beaten up. Qin Fen couldn’t find any reason to let these people leave safely in one piece.
“Genichi.” Qin Fen got up and backtracked to Has.h.i.+moto and said coldly, “I want them hospitalized for sixty days, if any of them leave the hospital one day in advance, you fail the test.”
“Yes!” Kyokus.h.i.+n Genichi’s whole body made popping sounds while flexing immediately. All this while he could only watch as master go hands-on. Today, he had the opportunity to take the shot and perform well for Master.
He rushed in front of w.a.n.g Laowu in one step, and the most basic and simple ‘straight punch’ of the Neo Karate style was executed as he stepped forward.
w.a.n.g Laowu only felt a rush of wind and had not reflected on what had happened. His nose suddenly felt sore, and tears started gus.h.i.+ng out without control.
What is this? w.a.n.g Laowu was surprised that he was beaten by another man. A sudden st.u.r.dy impact on his lower abdomen immediately shocked him into the shape of a curled up shrimp. The next moment, the storm-like fist bombarded each part of his body.
In a flash, w.a.n.g Laowu had fallen to the ground, and the degree of injury seemed to be ten times more serious than the previous three recruits.
“What is this…?”
The other building tyrants were in a state of shock, none of the previous homeowners had ever dared to launch an attack under such circ.u.mstances.
“Beat him up!”
An angry roar shouted out from the mouth of the other building tyrants. The timid Manager He knelt on the ground with his hands on his head, and kept whispering, “It’s none of my business, it’s not my business…”
Kyokus.h.i.+n Genichi was a True Inborn Blood Transfusion Rebirth, ten-star-cla.s.s martial artist. Not long ago, he watched the battle of two martial dao masters against Qin Fen. Although he couldn’t be in direct combat like Qin Fen, just witnessing it still has helped him gain a lot of insight. Perhaps he could further advance his strength by leaps and bounds if he was given time to digest.
Even without digesting, the strength of a ten-star-cla.s.s True Inborn Blood Transfusion Rebirth was a powerful presence in the eyes of ordinary people.
In front of these building tyrants, the strongest of them was only seven stars. They couldn’t stand against Kyokus.h.i.+n Genichi who had been carefully trained by Qin Fen. Kyokus.h.i.+n Genichi, who had not been in actual combat for a long time, rushed toward them like a fierce tiger into a pack of wolves. He didn’t even need to see where his opponent was, nor what combat skills were they using. He simply brought up the set of Arhat Fist once used by Qin Fen and began fighting in the crowd.
There were sounds of bones fracturing, grunting, and sounds of people cras.h.i.+ng to the ground, yet there were no screams.
After a short period of time, Kyokus.h.i.+n Genichi withdrew his strength and stood still quietly. The dozens of people who had just surrounded him now collectively fell face down on the ground. They have no chance to even groan, and their mouths look much more seriously wounded than the three recruits.
Qin Fen nodded lightly in approval, Kyokus.h.i.+n Genichi’s control of power had made great progress. These building tyrants who were on the ground couldn’t even wriggle on their own but were all still absolutely conscious. None of them fainted, all enjoying the pain of broken bones and other injuries.
When Manager He heard that the surrounding had become quiet, he slowly looked up and around, stunned at seeing those building tyrants, who had all been put down.
One person! Just one person who seemed to be less than twenty years old, in a short period of time, had defeated all the building tyrants in the area?
Manager He was very familiar with these building tyrants, their combat strength was far worse than real martial artists, but their fighting ability was still very good. Brutal, and yet daring at the same time! Not only do they rarely lose on one-on-one fights at the same level, but when they were gathered together, they once took down an eight-star-peak-cla.s.s homeowner and sent him to the hospital.
These people, when they had nothing to do on weekdays, would be on Sky Battle Net, and they all had some small reputations in different circles.
“Master.” Kyokus.h.i.+n Genichi stood quietly in front of Qin Fen, like a student who handed in an answer sheet, waiting for the teacher’s evaluation.
“Not bad.” Qin Fen gave a thumbs-up and said approvingly, “You are progressing faster than I thought. Keep it up, Nirvana Marrow Transformation is not impossible for you.”
Manager He took a few deep breaths and his sluggish face gradually became dark. He looked straight at Qin Fen and shook his head. “Mr. Qin, I won’t be doing business with you anymore. I really don’t dare to do it. You had yourself a good time beating up people this time around, but you’re offending people quite a lot of people in one go. They are not the only building tyrants…”
“Offending people?” Qin Fen slightly straightened his back. A martial dao master should carry the responsibilities of a martial dao master. He did not make a mistake in this matter. Even if the recruits were not injured this time around, he still would have beaten the tyrants up. The building tyrants didn’t seem to have just bullied only one person. As a former policeman, he felt that he still should have taken care of it.
To eliminate a public threat? Qin Fen smiled and said, “Well, to eliminate a public threat it is.”