Chapter 121: The Great Powers

“I don’t have time to practice hand-to-hand combat with you in this storm,” Liu Jingye snorted, gun in hand. “Besides, you’re no match for me.”

A cold smile played across his face. Of the two men, one lay on the ground howling, his arm twisted into a grotesque knot; the other had fractures in both arms and now had a pistol pressed to his head.

Liu Jingye slowly approached him. The man had clearly seen his share of trouble and showed little fear. He stared fixedly at Liu Jingye, who suddenly gave him a dazzling smile. The man frowned at once, utterly baffled.

That brief moment of distraction was all Liu Jingye needed. He struck with brutal force, smashing the butt of the pistol against the man’s temple. The man was knocked flat, blood pouring from his head as he fell unconscious.

Liu Jingye then chopped the other man across the back of the neck. His piglike shriek came to an abrupt end. Liu Jingye tossed both men into the battered Santana and returned to Boss Meng’s office.

He threw them onto the floor like a pair of dead dogs. Lin Shengnan had been worried sick, but only relaxed when she saw Liu Jingye return unharmed. She was pressing an ice pack to her face. No woman in the world could remain unconcerned about her own looks.

Everyone else stared at Liu Jingye and the two men on the floor in astonishment. They had not expected him to settle the matter so quickly—or to bring the men back with him.

One man was covered in blood. The other’s arm was twisted at a strange and horrifying angle. Both were clearly badly injured.

“Are these the men who hit you?” Liu Jingye asked coldly.

At that moment, Lin Shengnan wanted nothing more than to throw herself into his arms and burst into tears. Being struck was not what mattered. What mattered was having a man willing to stand up for her—a man who would protect her. For any woman, that was the greatest happiness in life.

Lin Shengnan nodded, tears shimmering in her eyes. Boss Meng came over as well, took a look, and said, “That’s right. These are the two bastards.”

Liu Jingye spun around and fixed him with a gaze sharp as a blade. Boss Meng broke into a cold sweat and hurriedly retreated several steps.

“What exactly happened?” Liu Jingye demanded.

Boss Meng wiped the sweat from his forehead and forced a smile. “Some people came to cause trouble at my sand quarry again today. Duan Hu and the others were beaten up, and the police impounded all my heavy trucks, ordering me to pay a fine to get them back. It was obvious someone was targeting me, so I called in a few favors and tried to find out who was behind it, hoping we could sit down and talk face-to-face. But as soon as you left, they came straight to my office. Sister Nan came with me alone.

“They said they didn’t want to keep destroying things and beating people, since that would be bad for both sides. So they wanted me to sign over the quarry to them for nothing. In return, they would release my impounded trucks and continue giving me the sand-transport work—but they would split the profits fifty-fifty.

“Of course I refused. But the moment I opened my mouth, they tried to beat me. Sister Nan stepped in to protect me and was slapped. I was beaten too. Look—her face is still red.”

Liu Jingye ignored the rambling explanation. Once he had grasped the general situation, he turned to Stone and said, “Get a bucket of ice water. Wake those two up.”

Stone soon returned with the water and dumped it over both men, ice and all. The man with the head wound jolted awake. The one with the broken arm had suffered too much and remained unconscious.

When the man opened his eyes and saw so many people around him, he froze for a moment. He had just begun struggling to his feet when Liu Jingye said, “Beat him first.”

Before the words had even left his mouth, Ox, who loved nothing more than a good fight, kicked the man in the back of the head. The others swarmed him, kicking and stomping with all their strength as they avenged their big sister.

The man was soon beaten to the brink of death, all his arrogance gone. Liu Jingye asked coldly, “Who sent you? What do you want?”

The man was dazed from the beating. He had no doubt that if he refused to answer, they would beat him again—and this was hardly a military secret. He decided to speak plainly.

“Fine, you win. I’ll take the loss today. But don’t think you’ll get away with this. Young Master Feng won’t let you off.”

“Who is Young Master Feng?” Liu Jingye asked in surprise.

“Young Master Feng is Young Master Feng—a great figure beyond the imagination of street thugs like you.” Even with his fate hanging by a thread, the man did not forget to flatter his master.

Seeing him swollen and bruised, blood covering his face, yet still trying to threaten everyone, Liu Jingye smiled.

“Tell me, have you ever met this Young Master Feng? Does he know who you are? If I kill you right now, will he avenge you?”

The man was rendered speechless. How could Young Master Feng possibly know a nobody like him? He was not even worthy of being called a servant in the man’s household.

“His power belongs to him,” Liu Jingye said coldly. “But your life belongs to you.”

“Yes, big brother. I admit defeat.”

The man immediately became obedient. Liu Jingye was too ruthless. He had no doubt that if Liu Jingye lost his temper, he might beat him to death on the spot.

Liu Jingye lit a cigarette. The luxurious office had become an interrogation room, and the man confessed everything.

“Young Master Feng’s name is Tan Yifeng. He comes from the provincial capital, but people say he’s only a branch of a super-wealthy family. The family’s true foundation is in the capital, with enormous influence in military, political, and business circles. They’re also the leading power in the capital’s underworld.

“This time, Young Master Feng came to our city to expand his sphere of influence, mainly in construction and civil engineering. Those projects have always been monopolized by him in the provincial capital, and things will be no different here.

“Most of those projects are controlled by people in the underworld. Now that the Huangchao Gang has fallen, the others are nothing to worry about. Young Master Feng’s strategy is simple—one word: take.”

Liu Jingye nodded inwardly.

Young Master Feng’s strategy was reasonable enough. Sand, construction materials, freight, and logistics were all generally controlled by underworld figures. Even Boss Meng’s sand quarry had originally been won through a legitimate bid by a proper company. Later, Boss Meng had hired gangsters to drive them away by force and seized the quarry for himself.

Now someone stronger had arrived to seize it from him. All he could do was endure it.

Boss Meng was genuinely terrified. He stood there in a panic, utterly helpless, as though he had been targeted by a savage beast.

Liu Jingye had no interest in such matters. When he saw that Lin Shengnan was still applying ice to her face, his heart ached. He glanced coldly at the man and returned to the matter at hand.

“Which of you hit her?”

The man suddenly trembled from head to toe. A chill ran down his spine, and an ominous feeling rose within him. Shakily, he pointed at the unconscious man.

“He did.”

“Which hand did he use to hit you?” Liu Jingye turned to Lin Shengnan, his voice carrying an unquestionable authority.

Lin Shengnan pointed at the man’s arm—the one already twisted into a mangled knot—and said nothing. Even though Liu Jingye himself had crippled the man, her anger had not diminished in the slightest.

Liu Jingye had no mercy for his enemies. He said bluntly, “Beat them to death. Then bury them in the mass graveyard north of town.”

“What?”

The man screamed in terror. Everyone else was stunned as well. To kill someone simply because he said so—what kind of savagery was that?

Lin Shengnan hurriedly rose and whispered into his ear, “Don’t do this. I’m fine. Weren’t you the one who told me not to cause trouble?”

Then, like a little girl coquettishly touching her father, she secretly brushed his hand.

“Get out of here. Go back and tell Young Master Feng that you can do whatever you want—just don’t touch my people,” Liu Jingye said coldly. “I don’t care what kind of aristocratic family you come from. Even if the Emperor of Heaven himself flew down here, I could shoot him out of the sky with one bullet.”

“Yes, yes. I’ll deliver your message exactly,” the man said with apparent meekness. Yet beneath his words lurked a vicious edge. Once Young Master Feng heard what had been said, there would be a fine show indeed.

But before he could savor that thought, Liu Jingye added, “Beat them both once more, then throw them out.”

“Again?” The man looked ready to cry.

Stone had already charged forward. Accepting his fate, the man curled up and covered his head, enduring the barrage of fists and kicks.

Physical abuse was painful, but psychological torment was even crueler. Liu Jingye beat and killed as casually as he pleased. The man had been one of Young Master Feng’s fiercest fighters, someone who had recently taken down more than a dozen of Duan Hu’s men alone at the sand quarry. Yet before Liu Jingye, he was nothing more than a negligible ant.

Stone and the others beat the two men senseless, then carried them away.

Liu Jingye looked at Lin Shengnan beside him. This big sister, who had relied on her stubbornness and strength to lead a whole band of brothers through life, now resembled a wounded lamb quietly licking its injuries, looking pitiful and helpless.

Liu Jingye reached out, wanting to touch her swollen cheek. But the moment his fingers brushed it, she flinched in pain. He quickly withdrew his hand.

With her face flushed, the big sister pressed the ice pack against her cheek and looked at him shyly. That slap had brought her a man willing to fly into a rage for her—even willing to kill for her. It had been worth every bit of pain.

Lin Shengnan had wanted to open her heart a little further and share a tender, romantic moment with him. Unfortunately, Boss Meng was still beside them, pacing around like an ant on a hot griddle.

Just then, Boss Meng’s phone rang. He answered, exchanged a few words, and immediately turned pale.

“Brother Xian, wait a moment. Sister Nan and Brother Liu are here with me. I’m putting you on speaker.”

“It’s good that you’re there,” Brother Xian said in alarm. “The people making this move are backed by an extremely frightening figure. Boss Meng, I advise you to give up your sand quarry. These people are not people we can afford to provoke.”

“You mean Young Master Feng from the provincial capital?” Liu Jingye asked dismissively.

“You already know? That’s even better. Whatever you do, don’t provoke him,” Brother Xian warned. “He was born into a powerful family, one of the capital’s most distinguished clans. For a hundred years, the family’s core members have held high positions in the government, while its collateral branches are spread throughout the world, with influence in every line of business.

“The most terrifying forces are the ones that straddle both the legal and criminal worlds. Whenever something cannot be handled openly, they use underworld methods. Whenever the underworld cannot solve something, they use legitimate power to suppress it. They are practically invincible.”

“Brother Xian, your information came too late.” Liu Jingye laughed indifferently. “I’ve just crippled two of Young Master Feng’s men. I’m afraid I’ve already provoked him whether I wanted to or not.”