Chen Liang stopped Duan Sanbao's topic and looked over. In the rain, Lei Yingdong and three of his men got out of a taxi. Not far ahead, several plainclothes officers with bulging waists surrounded a woman in a black cheongsam and got out of two cars. Both groups entered the Cloud Palace Hotel.
The subordinate in the passenger seat asked, "Brother Liang, two of our men have already gone in—one inside the restaurant on the seventh floor, one outside, and four more at the back door of the Cloud Palace to prevent Song Tianyao from escaping. Are we going to make a move now?"
Chen Liang glanced at his two subordinates who were waiting for his orders. One of them was Liao Donggui's confidant. Liao Donggui had ordered him to kill Song Tianyao tonight, and he couldn't possibly refuse. However, he happened to see Duan Sanbao, and when Duan Sanbao brought up the past again, Chen Liang felt that his boss seemed to have fallen into a trap. From the time someone asked him for help with the cargo shipment, to the robbery, to the intervention of a middleman, and finally a happy ending, Chen Liang now felt that it was all the Taiwan person deliberately targeting Liao Donggui, just to make Liao Donggui feel that he would be influential in Taiwan, so that he would prepare to defect to Taiwan and work for Taiwan in Hong Kong.
Working for Taiwan from Hong Kong, isn't this what happened today? Luckily, I wasn't impulsive and didn't rush to take action immediately. Otherwise, just looking at Lei Yingdong, that Headless cop, looking so nervous and anxious, if I had really killed or injured Song Tianyao, my boss wouldn't have made it to Taiwan safely, and he might not even have survived tonight. He would have been used as a tool to kill someone else.
"You all stay here, I'll go up myself." Chen Liang picked up his umbrella and said, "No one is allowed to go to the Harp Restaurant without my permission."
Chapter 502 People in the Rain
When Rotten-Life Ju and his men rushed back to the Opium den, there were no customers left. Seven or eight of his men lay on the floor, covered in blood. The twenty-odd opium pipes in the Opium den had all been broken. Rotten-Life Ju walked over indifferently, glanced at his men's wounds—all knife wounds—and gestured to his men behind him to help them up. "Get them to the infirmary to get their wounds treated!"
A dozen or so of his men helped the injured away, leaving only five or six men with Rotten-Life Ju. They all looked at him, Rotten-Life Ju Rotten-Life Ju his hand. "Send two to the dock to call for reinforcements. If we don't take care of the Thailand guy tonight, how will we have the face to show our faces tomorrow morning? Oh, and while we're at it, go ask Brother Ten where the Thailand guy who visited him lives."
"Yes, Big Brother." The two shrewd and efficient henchmen turned and left.
The destruction of the Opium den's business didn't bother Rotten-Life Ju or surprise him. That's just how the underworld is. Besides, Chao Yong Yi didn't rely entirely on shady businesses like gambling, prostitution, and drugs to make money. It was just that there were a few such places near the docks, allowing veterans like them who had served the gang for a long time to earn some pocket money. Most importantly, Rotten-Life Ju felt he could recover the losses from the Thailand tenfold or even a hundredfold.
Rotten-Life Ju stood in the middle of the room, and just as he took out a cigarette and lit it, a voice came from the doorway.
"It's raining outside, I've come to get out of the rain." Najie, wearing high-top leather boots, walked in from outside, the boots creaking as they stepped on the Opium den's signboard.
Seeing that Rotten-Life Ju had turned to look at him, Najie flashed a bright smile and raised his hands, "Remember me? I'm the one whose fingernails you plucked all over because I didn't know the rules. I wonder if making this mess of the place today counts as breaking the rules?"
Rotten-Life Ju's face was grave. He looked at Najie, then at the dark doorway behind Najie, and finally locked his gaze back onto Najie's face. "You threatened my brothers with guns and then killed them?"
Najie pulled a pistol from his waist, unloaded the magazine, ejected the bullets one by one, put them in his pocket, and then put the empty gun back in its place. "I could kill you with my bare hands."
"My brother said there are three of you. Where are the other two?" Rotten-Life Ju continued to ask.
"Are all Hong Kong gangsters as cowardly as you? Only good at bullying the weak and fearing the strong?" Najie waved his hands. "If my boss hadn't told me not to get into a conflict with you, I could have beaten you all to death that night. Don't think you're strong just because you have a dozen or so men."
Rotten-Life Ju pulled a thin, narrow, sharp knife from his waistband and handed it to his underling. The next instant, he slammed his feet into the ground and pounced on Najie at the door like a cheetah!
Najie delivered a twisting side kick! Rotten-Life Ju clenched his right fist and punched straight out from his waist! Fists and feet collided!
Najie was knocked back from the Opium den by a punch, and only managed to stand firm on the side of the street. Raindrops hit his face, making Najie's complexion look rather unpleasant.
The Rotten-Life Ju stood at the entrance of the Opium den: "Last time, more than a dozen people pulled out your fingernails; this time, I'll take your life all by myself."
In front of a newly cleared area on Hanging Neck Ridge, Han Chongshan looked up at the gloomy sky, then at the scratched Raymond Weil military watch on his wrist. In front of him, there were only four scattered people standing listlessly. One of them, a middle-aged man, was holding a child who looked no more than two or three years old. He was whistling a urination-inducing whistle while holding the child and skillfully helping the child urinate.
"Brother Shan, are we really going to work for that Tan guy?" One of them smoked his cigarette until only a tiny bit remained before spitting it out, and asked Han Chongshan, "We might end up losing our lives."
The other immediately chimed in, as if the two had planned it beforehand. "Brother Shan, so many high-ranking officials from the Free China Relief Association Headquarters came before, claiming that the Party-State hadn't abandoned us, but it's been three years now, and we're still stuck here, rotting away! We can't trust anything those Free China Relief Association people say anymore!"
The middle-aged man who was helping the child urinate said, shaking the child's urine stream, "That's right, damn it, they kept saying they wouldn't forget us, but all they gave us every day was pig feed. From Mount Davis to Hanging Neck Ridge, how many of our brothers died? Taiwan treated us like a burden, Hong Kong treated us like prisoners. If it weren't for those hundreds of brothers who had been engineers forcibly opening a road at Hanging Neck Ridge, we would have had to swim out of Shau Kei Wan to make a living! There are British Army stationed at the mouth of that bay, and if anyone dared to swim, they would be shot immediately! When dozens of our brothers died in Shau Kei Wan, where were those Tan-surname Free China Relief Association?"