"Brother Liunian, we're about to head out."
"Coming," Zhang Liunian called back to the outside, then released his wife. "Don't overthink things. If anything comes up, just tell me. I'm heading out to handle business."
As he left, Jiang Qingqing couldn't help but follow, wanting to reach out and ask him something. But in the end, she just watched Zhang Liunian and the others depart.
"Selling lobster sauce!" At five in the afternoon, Master Huang's subordinates went to the market to sell lobster sauce again. Zhang Liunian and Master Huang went to inspect the shop they had rented the day before.
The family had moved out quickly. In one day, most of their belongings were gone.
Zhang Liunian took the key and, with Master Huang, went to the Administration for Industry and Commerce to apply for business licenses for the three locations. Then, he looked for people to do the renovations. After finishing the preparatory work and reporting to Zhang Qian and the others, he received news that twenty-five of their men had been beaten.
"Master Huang, the people from the Red Gang not only beat us but also robbed us of our lobster sauce and money. They've gone too far."
"Master Huang, what should we do? I heard the Red Gang has fifty men. We can't possibly beat them now!"
"Even if they only had five, we still wouldn't be a match for them!"
"..."
"Pfft!" Du Ziteng couldn't help but chuckle at this. He had never met such cowardly thugs before and couldn't hold back his laughter.
Zhang Qian, standing beside him, placed a hand on Du Ziteng's shoulder, his shoulders shaking as he struggled to contain himself.
However, the twenty-five men who had been beaten black and blue heard this and felt no shame. Instead, they carried themselves with an air of nonchalance, as if their cowardice was nothing to be embarrassed about.
"They said if we dare to go there again, they'll break our legs next time. Master Huang, maybe we should just give up and sell somewhere else!"
"Yeah, if our legs are broken, we won't be able to get married. Maybe we should just go back to collecting protection money!"
"It's safer to just scare people; then no one will bother us."
"..."
Master Huang felt extremely ashamed of his cowardly brothers. He turned to Zhang Liunian and said awkwardly, "Comrade Zhang, what do you think we should do now?"
It is said that a cowardly soldier makes a cowardly army, and a cowardly general makes a cowardly horde. The reason these people were so timid was that Master Huang himself was a timid person.
Therefore, in his view, when encountering the Red Gang, whom they couldn't afford to offend, it was best to hide.
Zhang Liunian's gaze, deep and profound, swept over Master Huang and his brothers. He neither nodded nor shook his head, but instead, inquired about the Red Gang's location.
"Do you know where the Red Gang is located?"
Zhang Liunian intended to go and meet those people himself and find out who had ordered them to do this.
"What do you want to do? We can't beat them, so let's just forget it!" Hearing Zhang Liunian asking for the address, Master Huang immediately began to persuade him.
"Show me the same attitude you had yesterday and come with me." Zhang Liunian glanced at his injured left arm and started to walk away.
Master Huang quickly grabbed him and said, "Yesterday, we were so tough only because we saw you guys were few in number and thought you were easy to bully. If we had known you were so capable of fighting, we would have called you 'Grandpa' on the spot."
"..."
Such candid honesty was better left unsaid. Zhang Liunian stopped and glanced back at the cowardly thugs behind him, then put a hand to his forehead and sighed, "Follow me. You can at least add to our numbers."
Zhang Liunian winked at Zhang Qian and Du Ziteng, then asked Master Huang to lead the way.
When they arrived at the Red Gang's stronghold, they were in the process of dividing the freshly acquired lobster sauce.
"This lobster sauce is delicious. We robbed too little; we should have gone to rob them the moment they appeared."
"It's okay, haven't we also robbed some money?"
"Exactly. Today, we've had a stroke of luck."
"If we could have food and money every day, it would be a heavenly life."
"Those good-for-nothings from the Yellow Gang must be hiding somewhere, crying their eyes out. Even if they had ten times the guts, they wouldn't dare to come out and sell lobster sauce."
"That's right. Those cowards probably ran back home crying to their mothers."
"Hahaha..."
"..."
"Bang!" Just as the Red Gang was mocking the Yellow Gang, the door of the dilapidated temple was kicked open. Those inside froze as if a pause button had been pressed, all turning to look towards the entrance.
Upon discovering it was the cowardly group from the Yellow Gang, they immediately launched into a barrage of mockery.
"You bunch of cowards and softies dare to kick our Red Gang's territory? Are you tired of living!"
"It seems we weren't harsh enough. We should have crippled all your limbs and then thrown you into the sewer to feed the rats."
"Feed rats? Just raise maggots, they're all just weaklings anyway."
"..."
Although Master Huang and his men were timid, they became quite angry and upset upon hearing such malicious words.
However, they were accustomed to enduring in the past, so even though they were very angry at this moment, they remained silent.
Seeing that the people from the Yellow Gang didn't dare to utter a sound, the deputy leader of the Red Gang became even more contemptuous. "You insignificant shrimp dare to come here? Today, we will teach you how to behave like a human."
"Brothers, attack!"
As the deputy leader of the Red Gang finished speaking, the fifty men present immediately charged towards Zhang Liunian and his group.
Zhang Liunian calmly drew a steel pipe from behind him and, like a storm sweeping away fallen leaves, swung it down. "Bang, bang, bang..." A large portion of them fell.
The deputy leader was stunned. Before he could even charge forward, he saw a large number of his brothers fall. This person was simply a human reaper!
Where did the Yellow Gang find such an expert? So powerful?
Master Huang and his men were also stunned after witnessing Zhang Liunian's abilities. It turned out that he had held back yesterday and hadn't used his full strength. Otherwise, with Zhang Liunian's speed, they would have been instantly incapacitated!
After thinking about it, they realized that they were now Zhang Liunian's men. With such a powerful person, what was there to be afraid of? The Red Gang was nothing. Let's go beat them up and settle old and new scores!
"Brothers, it's time for revenge!" Master Huang shouted, raising his arm, and was the first to charge forward.
The cowardly brothers behind him looked at Zhang Liunian in shock. They suddenly felt that with Zhang Liunian here, there was nothing to be afraid of, and they immediately charged forward.
Never underestimate the rise of cowards. After all, no man wants to be a submissive subordinate. They had been submissive in the past because they lacked reliable strength.
Now that they had Zhang Liunian, what was there to fear? They charged forward and attacked fiercely.
In less than ten minutes, the Red Gang was completely annihilated. Zhang Liunian instructed Zhang Qian to thoroughly search them. Not only did they recover the money that had been stolen, but they also took the Red Gang's money.
"It's all here." Zhang Qian came before Zhang Liunian, carrying a wooden box. Zhang Liunian glanced at it; it looked like several thousand yuan, which was some comfort to his weak and wounded soul.
"Now, tell me, who ordered you to do this?" Zhang Liunian closed the box, found the leader, the deputy leader, and placed a foot on his chest, making it difficult for him to breathe.
Knowing that he couldn't defeat Zhang Liunian, the other man sold out Brother Tang.
Having gotten the result, Zhang Liunian turned to leave. "Let's go."
The members of the Yellow Gang watched his retreating back, as if seeing a towering mountain, a presence they could only admire and look up to.
Following such a leader, wouldn't their good days be far off?
Certainly not far!
"Comrade Zhang, shall we continue selling tomorrow!"