It was drizzling that night in C City, evoking a greater sense of calm than the usual nights.

  The passing vehicles on the national expressway would turn on their headlights from time to time, not because they did not know proper propriety on the road but because they just could not help but want to know who exactly that bunch of heavy trucks parked by the roadside was affiliated to.

  "Coal trucks, turning our roads all pitch black. Having to wash the car after each trip, really freaking troublesome," A driver complained.

  He did not notice that while unrefined coal was indeed visible from some of the trucks, others were covered by thick tarapulins.

  Inside the room, Xu Tingsheng had yet to fall asleep.

  It was the same for Lu Zhixin.

  A text arrived: Are you asleep?

  Xu Tingsheng sent back: Not yet. You?

  This was kind of a no-brainer question.

  Still, Lu Zhixin earnestly sent back a reply: Same here. I can't fall asleep without drinking nowadays. I just ordered a bottle of red wine……anyway, do you drink?

  Xu Tingsheng replied: Not me. I seldom drink.

  Lu Zhixin sent back: I see.

  After a while.

  A text arrived again: Right, I almost forgot. I'm still worried about Old Jin causing too big a scene. He told me earlier that a permanent solution can only be going in hard here and intimidating everybody so bad they won't try anything again.

  Xu Tingsheng replied: It fits his style, and actually makes a lot of sense too. Many rascals are hard to tame. Stick your flag into the ground, string one up and they're all quelled.

  He added: Do we have any other choice, anyway? We should say that it's lucky we have Old Jin. We aren't proficient in handling things like this, and yet we can't not handle them……you've already staked it on this too with your major declaration.

  Lu Zhixin said: I know, but I’m afraid it could affect Hucheng’s reputation. If we’re associated with illegal, untoward activities, it could completely wreck Hucheng’s image. You should have stopped him at the time, restricted him a bit at least……why didn’t you stop him?

  Xu Tingsheng sent back: Shouldn’t it be why didn’t you stop him? Hey, you’re Hucheng’s boss.

  Lu Zhixin sent a helpless emoticon: But he just wouldn’t listen to me……don’t you think that I don’t know. Behind my back, he calls me……little lady. And he also doesn’t work at Hucheng.

  Xu Tingsheng: I took a look outside the window. C City is calm and peaceful.

  A city of a few hundred thousand people, located on a hub for transportation-even if 300 people entered, they really wouldn’t cause very much of a ripple.

  That night, everything was as per usual for the ordinary citizens.

  Only those who liked to visit the various entertainment centres and casinos at night would feel that something was wrong as they saw conflict after conflict which seemed to have suddenly appeared from nowhere.

  “It’s like an eradication……directed towards HK!!!”


  “Who could be so wild? Forcefully challenging the local snakehead?!”


  “I don’t know. All I know is that there are over a hundred coal trucks parked by the national highway.”
……

  4am. Those who woke up this early might be those working in the market who had gone to stock-take their fresh goods. The breakfast stores had already been open for a bit, their first batch of customers mostly consisting of environmental workers.

  There was a chill in the air.

  The rain had already stopped. Still, as coal mines were located just over an hour away by car, there seemed to be ash drifting in the air. The sunlight was unable to penetrate through and all was hazy.

  An environmental worker arrived at a garbage collection point with his garbage truck.

  A van passed by. Someone was thrown off it, wailing……

  “Put that down. This is none of your business. Don’t call the police.”


  Having just taken out his phone, the environmental worker was stopped by him.

  The person took some time to calm down before taking out his phone, “Big Bro, my place was wrecked……right, we’re not sure where they came from. They just showed up last night.”


  Just last night, in the span of a single night.

  As many as over a hundred and seventy of HK’s underlings were either beaten up where they were or taken away.

  Their illegal joints had been swept through like a storm.

  At 5 am, the private villa was filled with people, some wounded, the remainder rather panicked too. The other side had come with too fierce a momentum and too forceful methods. They were basically as panicked as they were furious.

  Everyone’s gazes congregated on Peng Wu, still in his pyjamas.

  At forty-seven years of age, Peng Wu was the boss of HK company. Of course, this so-called oil company was merely a front, to give the city face, pay tax and keep the good land theirs. The real money all came from elsewhere, illegal sources always having been the most profitable.

  The oil company’s sole profits came from producing gutter oil. This had actually caused them losses instead recently, however.

  Due to the joint operation which had transcended the level of cities, even Peng Wu himself had spent a couple of days in jail. In the end, a Vice-CEO in name had taken the blame and received a three-year jail sentence while HK had been fined over ten million yuan.

  Since over a decade ago, the local warlord of C City, Peng Wu, had ceased to tolerate slights to himself like when he had initially entered the community in his youth.

  Nowadays, he did not allow anyone to cross him.

  Hucheng was mighty. Some fool had charged straight to them, blown up the matter and met a tragic end. Still, Peng Wu did not mind that. He had his own territory and his own methods to play with them. As he saw it, Hucheng could not afford to and would never be able to resist these means anyway. Also, such had no chance of damaging his foundations whatsoever.

  He was waiting for Hucheng to approach him to negotiate, for that beautiful little lady known across the entire country to experience the abilities of him, Peng Wu.

  In the end, Hucheng had not arrived, and trouble had arisen on his own territory. HK had no opponent of sufficient abilities in C City and no one would dare do such a thing here. Hence, those people were out-of-towners. Had they been invited over by Hucheng?

  Peng Wu lit a cigarette, narrowing his eyes, “Inside my territory, even if you are a dragon, you can only coil.”


  While kind of old school, this was a very realistic mindset too.

  “Boss Peng, after investigating……we can at least be certain that the incidents of last night were related to the hundred plus coal trucks outside the city. Should we continue to investigate who exactly it is over there who wants to make a move on us?”


  Peng Wu nodded, “Go on.”


  ‘Over there’ naturally referred to that bunch of fellas who were associated with mines. With many people from over there having passed by over the years, there would be some minor conflicts every now and then. Since this was their territory, HK had generally had the upper hand.

  Everyone present was clear on the fact that however powerful that place was, they were simply unrelated to them……without any direct conflicts of interest, things would never go all-out between them.

  “Hold on……” Peng Wu suddenly called for the person who had walked to the door to stop, “Hold off on that investigation. I don’t need to know who he is now, nor do I want to know. Retaliation can come first.”


  This meant a few things. Firstly, they would first vent their anger and restore HK’s dignity in C City. Secondly, it didn’t matter who the other side was; HK was that mighty and resolved. And thirdly, since I don’t know who you are, this is all a misunderstanding. Unless you really want me to die, we’ll simply be sitting down to negotiate in the end. In that case, beating you up before the negotiation would surely be more comfortable than negotiating after getting beaten up……

  “How many of their people entered the city last night?” Peng Wu asked.

  “Around 200 plus people. It was mainly because we were unprepared or we wouldn’t have eaten such a loss,” An underling replied.

  Over a hundred trucks, two hundred plus people. This should be basically the total sum for two drivers per truck taking turns. In that case, it seemed that they really had not come here for the express purpose of going against HK to the death.

  “Right now, how many people can our side move at most?” Peng Wu asked.

  “If we count them all, it’s around 600 plus people.”


  “Everyone goes. Surround them, just don’t get anyone dead,” Peng Wu waved a hand rather tiredly, “We’ll talk later, later……go on. Old Three, if you guys aren’t badly injured, stay a bit for breakfast.”