Little Secret

Little Secret

"Still want to fight?" Huang Ji asked.

No one said a word. They all stared at Huang Ji in terror.

Only after taking a beating themselves did they understand how vicious Huang Ji's moves were. One punch could leave someone lying on the ground convulsing. They had never experienced fists like that before.

"No more fighting. You're badass! I don't want the money anymore. Let's just pretend we never met!" Though Zhang Junwei had backed down, he still tried to keep up a tough front.

Naturally, Huang Ji saw right through him. He dragged the injured Zhang Junwei back to a chair beside the Mahjong table.

He flicked the dagger lodged against Zhang Junwei's collarbone and smiled. "I didn't come all this way just to beat you up and leave."

"What, you want to be my boss? Kid, don't think you're so great just because you know some kung fu..." Zhang Junwei said.

But Huang Ji suddenly bent down, leaned close to Zhang Junwei's ear, and said in a voice only he could hear, "If you don't want your brothers finding out about your cross-dressing, you'd better listen to me."

Zhang Junwei's expression shifted slightly. He forced himself to stay calm. "What are you talking about? What do you mean?"

"I could tell at a glance what little kink you have," Huang Ji said with a smile.

Zhang Junwei glared at him. "Huh? What nonsense are you spouting?"

"Let me think... You probably took selfies, right?" Huang Ji smiled.

Zhang Junwei stared at Huang Ji and said, "Quit changing the subject. I admit I lost today. You can leave. I guarantee I won't leak your whereabouts! I don't want those fifty thousand anymore either. I'll offer it up with both hands! Consider it my apology!"

Huang Ji smiled. "So there really are some. Are the pictures hidden on a U Disk or a Memory Card? Or do you have a hard drive just for them?"

"..." Zhang Junwei said nothing.

Huang Ji stroked his chin. "Oh? Those little eyes are blinking. Looks like it isn't a hard drive."

"Could it be a Memory Card?"

Zhang Junwei swallowed. Huang Ji nodded. "Looks like it's on a Memory Card!"

"Fuck your mother!" Zhang Junwei cursed, while inwardly panicking. Was my expression really that obvious?

Huang Ji slowly said, "Would something this important be hidden on your body? In your shoes? Or does your vest have a hidden pocket?"

"Here... here... or here?"

Zhang Junwei's breathing grew more and more ragged. His forehead was covered in sweat, and he was tense to the extreme.

"Could it be here?" Huang Ji seemed to have gleaned something from Zhang Junwei's reaction.

He suddenly reached out and grabbed Zhang Junwei's belt. After deliberately feeling around for a moment, he found a hard protrusion on its inner side.

There were several hidden compartments inside the belt. They could not hold much, only things like blades, slips of paper, or Memory Cards.

One hidden blade was at the back of Zhang Junwei's waist. It was meant to keep him from being abducted; if his hands were tied behind his back, he could feel for the blade and cut the ropes.

And at the front was a Memory Card.

"Fuck, I'll fight you to the death!" The instant Zhang Junwei saw Huang Ji pull out the Memory Card, he snapped!

Ignoring the knife pressed against his neck, a savage force surged from the depths of his heart. Mortified and enraged, he lunged at Huang Ji as though he would rather die.

Unexpectedly, Huang Ji sidestepped out of the way. At the same time, he pulled out the dagger with Zhang Junwei's momentum, without hurting him in the slightest!

As Zhang Junwei charged into empty air and lost his balance, Huang Ji kicked him, sending him sprawling flat on his face.

He knew he could not win in a fight. At that moment, his terror had reached its limit and turned into fury.

There were some secrets he never wanted anyone to know for the rest of his life.

But Huang Ji had already inserted the Memory Card into his phone and begun looking through it.

Zhang Junwei froze on the spot, his mind utterly blank.

It felt as though the sky had fallen. He kept wondering what Huang Ji would do, his heart churning with every possible emotion.

"Fuck your mother!" Zhang Junwei struggled back to his feet.

He wanted to die right then.

"Give it... give it back!" Zhang Junwei growled.

"Enough!" Huang Ji roared, shutting off the phone. "I won't leak this stuff. With my skills, why do you think I let your people capture me and bring me here? Idiot! I said all this because I want to save your life!"

He pressed forward step by step, his aura severe. His tone no longer resembled that of friends casually chatting.

"I saw the text messages between you and your mother. I know you're a filial son."

"I like filial people the most. I would never threaten you with your family, but... someone else will!"

"Think about your mother. Think about your brothers. Think about yourself... You're in great danger right now!"

"I'll say this one last time. Only by trusting me and listening to me can you stay alive!"

Each of Huang Ji's words hammered into Zhang Junwei's heart. His undershirt had long since been soaked with sweat.

He was completely cowed by Huang Ji's bearing. After hearing all that, he slid down into the chair.

"Yes... yes..." Zhang Junwei muttered meekly.

"From now on, I'll listen to you."

Between the beating and the talking, Huang Ji had thoroughly subdued Zhang Junwei.

Lao Wang and Lin Li watched from the side, utterly dumbfounded.

What the hell? Zhang Junwei had just collapsed like that?

Not only could they not make sense of it, the underlings were also exchanging bewildered looks.

Zhang Junwei said, "From now on, he's my boss. If any of you don't accept it and can beat him, then I'll call you boss too!"

Everyone immediately fell silent. Huang Ji had beaten every one of them to the ground, so naturally none of them had much temper left.

Since even their boss had submitted, they had no choice but to accept it.

"My name is Hua Xu. When I'm not around, he represents me in full." Huang Ji pointed at Lin Li.

Huang Ji had already instructed Lin Li beforehand. Lin Li stood there without objecting, looking as though he would let Huang Ji arrange everything. He simply said, "My name is Lin Li."

Zhang Junwei paused, realizing that Huang Ji trusted this man greatly, and nodded repeatedly.

"As for this job, no matter who asks, everyone says the same thing: we found nothing." After saying that, Huang Ji removed the Memory Card and tossed the phone to Zhang Junwei.

Zhang Junwei nodded. "I know what to do. If anyone asks, I'll brush them off."

Then he looked at his brothers. "Same goes for all of you. Keep your mouths shut."

Huang Ji continued, "The five hundred thousand yuan reward you were originally going to receive will be paid by me."

"How could I accept that? If I do as you say and call that person, I'd just be courting death. Boss, you're saving me here. I don't need the money," Zhang Junwei said hurriedly, waving his hands.

Huang Ji said calmly, "Don't put on a false show of politeness with me. I still have things I need you to do."

"But before that, I don't trust this person... He will definitely betray you."

As Huang Ji spoke, he pointed at the man lying on the floor who had picked up the gun.

This man was wildly ambitious. Huang Ji had seen it from the very beginning.

At present, Zhang Junwei had eleven underlings in the warehouse. In truth, every one of those eleven was a minor boss himself, each managing anywhere from eight or nine people to more than twenty. They simply all answered to Zhang Junwei.

For example, Xiao Zha's underling was actually Li Quan, the man who had previously gone to Lao Wang's place to collect a debt.

After learning that Lao Wang had cheated Li Quan out of money, Xiao Zha had not publicly gone after him himself. Instead, he let the underling who had been scammed go and recover his pride.

If Li Quan managed to catch Lao Wang, great. If he failed and Lao Wang escaped, then Lao Wang would surely hide back at home, where Xiao Zha could wait and catch him.

As for the man who picked up the gun, he had long wanted to become the boss. He had secretly been building up his own power, and the people under him knew only him, not Zhang Junwei.

Once Zhang Junwei decided to obey Huang Ji and brush off the client, the other brothers would be fine. There would be no real issue.

But Huang Ji had already foreseen that the man who picked up the gun would definitely bypass Zhang Junwei and report the matter to the so-called Ma Ye.

When he had fired earlier, trying to kill both Huang Ji and Zhang Junwei at once, he had actually wanted to replace Zhang Junwei.

Unfortunately for him, Zhang Junwei had not trusted him that much either and had never told him the gun was fake.

"I don't trust him either, but we've been brothers for so long. I can't just kill him. How about this? I have connections. I can send him to a mental hospital..." Zhang Junwei said.

"Your man, your decision," Huang Ji said. "And take care of your own wounds while you're at it."

"Sure." After saying that, Zhang Junwei glared at the man on the ground and took out his phone to make a call.

"Hello, Old Chen? I have a friend who's gone crazy. Could you make room for a bed over there?"

"Yeah, that's right. He has violent tendencies. Mm-hmm, you understand. I'll transfer the medical fees to you every month. All right, drive over tomorrow and pick him up."

After ending the call, Zhang Junwei ignored the man's pitiful pleas and had someone drag him out to be locked up somewhere.

Once that was settled, he sat in the chair while a trusted underling came over to disinfect his wounds, apply medicine, and bandage him.

"Boss, are we really going to listen to that Hua Xu?" someone asked softly.

"What? You don't accept it?" Zhang Junwei glared.

His brothers had all noticed that Huang Ji had said something, produced evidence, and gained leverage over Zhang Junwei.

Xiao Zha asked curiously, "Bro, what exactly did he use to threaten you? If it's inconvenient to say, forget it."

Zhang Junwei naturally would not tell the truth, but he still said to his two trusted aides, "I've killed someone. There's evidence of me killing someone on that card."

"But that isn't the important part. At worst, I'd go to prison. The main thing is, I think there's a future in following him. Everything he said is true... The matters involved are complicated. That client Ma Ye introduced has deep waters behind him. I really acted on my own. If I call that number and something happens, I might get you all hurt."

Everyone nodded and stopped asking. They also felt Huang Ji was capable, so they did not have much resistance to the idea.

Especially Xiao Zha and another person who had already witnessed how formidable Huang Ji was. For the sake of their future happiness below the belt, they had even fewer objections.

Lao Wang pricked up his ears and overheard their whispered conversation. He secretly laughed. Evidence of murder? This guy definitely isn't telling the truth.

Would someone like him keep such obvious proof of a crime? What, kill someone and then insist on filming a couple of videos to keep as souvenirs? That would be psychotic! Impossible.

In Lao Wang's eyes, Huang Ji had definitely used Cold Reading to uncover Zhang Junwei's weakness, then found the Memory Card step by step through verbal probing and analysis of his expressions.

Lao Wang had watched the whole process from the side. He just did not know what the weakness actually was.

"Hey, what weakness did you see in him?" Lao Wang sidled up to Huang Ji and asked.

Huang Ji smiled and shook his head. "It's an enormous secret. I have to keep it for him."

Lao Wang clicked his tongue and racked his brains.

That so-called murder weakness Zhang Junwei mentioned must just be a cover. Something you'd rather say you killed someone than admit? Damn it, what kind of weakness is it? Something even more important than evidence of murder?

Lao Wang thought until his head hurt, but he still could not figure out what that weakness was.

P.S. Sorry.