Blending In Perfectly with the Enemy

Not far away, Xiao Zha and Lin Li were still standing guard outside the private room. They were dumbstruck.

They had seen the whole thing. The man who had actually carried out the cash case had already gone into the office next door.

Huang Ji had come over afterward. All he did was pretend to walk away, and the man in the suit mistook him for the person who had carried out the cash.

Of course, Huang Ji's timing had been perfect!

And when they thought about it, the man in the suit was bound to recognize the case, not the person.

The case in Huang Ji's hand was the very one he had taken earlier, along with half a million yuan. Now it held nothing but bricks and rags.

But no one could see what was inside.

The man in the suit knew the case was one he had bought. He had bought several in that style and marked them with his own distinctive stickers, so he recognized it at a glance.

He had forgotten that the case stolen from him earlier looked exactly the same.

With everything happening so fast, he had no time to think. The moment he came out and saw someone carrying the case away, he naturally assumed it was his cash.

So Xiao Zha and the others watched the man in the suit rush over and snatch the brick-filled case from Huang Ji.

Hua Ge, that was brilliant! Xiao Zha thought.

Click! Right then, the power went out!

The KTV plunged into darkness, lit only by the dim red glow of the emergency lights.

"Go! Move!" Clutching the case, the man in the suit knew something was badly wrong. This was probably no routine inspection—the cops were closing in! Otherwise, Cao Jing would not have gone so far as to cut the power.

Fortunately, he had already thrown away the White Powder from the deal, and he had his cash case back.

This was not his territory. He could get out cleanly now. Cao Jing, on the other hand, was probably in deep trouble.

"Heh. We're leaving!" Gloating, the man in the suit hurried off with a case full of bricks in his arms.

One of Cao Jing's blond-haired underlings, who had chased after him, saw it happen.

The blond underling had not seen clearly. All he knew was that the seven men with the man in the suit had surrounded one of his "brothers" and taken the case from his hands. Then the lights went out.

The "brother" rushed back and shouted from the private room's doorway, "Jing Ge! They took the money!"

"Fuck! You useless bastard!" the blond underling snapped. "You should've held on to the case for dear life!"

Then he turned back. "Jing Ge, what do we do?"

Cao Jing was frantic. He had not expected the cops to cut the power too! What kind of tactic was that?

He did not understand it, but he trusted Ma Ye's text!

"Forget him!" Cao Jing had deliberately let the man in the suit chase after his cash case. That little bit of money did not matter.

What mattered was the money in this room!

"If he took it, he took it! Why are you still standing at the door? Do you want to die? This is no time to dawdle! Get in here and pack up the money!" Cao Jing shouted when he saw several of his men still lingering there.

He had meant for the blond underling and the "brother" who had lost the case to hurry inside.

But his words also gave Lin Li and Xiao Zha an opening to slip in.

Hearing Cao Jing in the gloom, the blond underling assumed the two standing guard were on his side. He even urged Xiao Zha on. "He's talking to you! Come on, hurry!"

Lin Li and Xiao Zha mumbled their assent and went in, somehow swept up with the rest of the men.

Cao Jing quickly pulled two flashlights from a cabinet. He switched one on for himself, then lit the other and tossed it to an underling.

But in the darkness, a hand reached out and neatly intercepted the flashlight in midair.

No one paid it any mind. How could anyone tell whom Jing Ge had thrown it to in the dark? He had simply tossed it to someone.

As long as one of their own caught it, that was enough.

Little did they know that Huang Ji was the one who moved through the darkness with ease.

Shining his flashlight on the spot before him, Cao Jing repeatedly slashed open the sofa with his knife, exposing the cash inside!

The money was stacked in bundles of hundred-yuan notes, wrapped in plastic bags and bound with tape until each package was as rigid as a board.

As the flashlight illuminated one slab of cash after another, many of the underlings froze. They had never imagined so much money was hidden in a private room where they usually hung out.

It was too slow for Cao Jing to tear open all the sofas himself, so he told his men to use the faint light from their phones and help.

"Quick. Rip open every sofa. There are sixteen slabs in total, half a million in each."

"Find some backpacks. Each of you take one slab and leave separately. Go find Ma Ye; he'll arrange things. You know what to say if you're caught on the way, right?"

"I know exactly how much is here. If any of you get ideas, I'll skin you alive."

With that, Cao Jing ran out of the private room to see how A Lei was doing.

Ma Ye's text had been clear: a "big wildcat" had come to the house. They had to take away the "dried fish" and wash the "cat litter" clean.

Those were codes between him and Ma Ye. Only Ma Ye would send that message. If trouble came and Ma Ye heard about it, this was how he would warn him.

Usually, the warning would be for a "wildcat"—a cop. This time it was a "big wildcat," which meant the trouble was serious!

And the police cars had arrived shortly after the text. Ma Ye must have learned of it only moments in advance. The cops had kept their operation airtight! This was a major raid, and they surely already knew what was going on here.

He could not count on luck. Ma Ye's instructions had to be right, and he could not jeopardize anything. The dried fish and cat litter both had to be dealt with.

The dried fish was the money. More than half of the eight million yuan here belonged to Ma Ye; Cao Jing was only holding it for him.

If the cops found it, not only would it be hard to explain, but they might also seize it. Then he would have no answer for Ma Ye.

Still, if they failed to move the money, the worst of it was having to answer to Ma Ye.

If they failed to dispose of the goods in the office, he could face a firing squad.

That was why Cao Jing was even more anxious to see whether A Lei had finished!

As Cao Jing hurried toward the nearby office, Huang Ji chased him out of the private room. "Jing Ge! Jing Ge! Isn't it too risky to just run off with the money?"

"How's Ma Ye going to help us?"

Cao Jing was worried about the goods. Hearing Huang Ji catch up to ask such stupid questions, he snapped, "Just do as you're told. Someone will contact you."

By then, he had already entered the office.

He pushed the door open and saw that A Lei and several others had smashed the Guan Yu Statue with the aid of their flashlights.

A Lei and the others were tearing open packets of goods and pouring the contents into the toilet, flushing it all down the drain.

"Hurry it up, all of you! You, get back and take the money away. I'm going downstairs to have a look!" Cao Jing urged, then ran downstairs.

For one thing, he wanted to see what was happening on the first floor. The alarm had stopped ringing, so the cops must have arrived. He needed to stall them for as long as possible.

For another, he wanted to put some distance between himself and the goods. He did not want to be caught in the act.

As soon as he left, Huang Ji called after him, "Oh, downstairs? Got it! I know what to do, Jing Ge!"

As he spoke, Huang Ji casually picked up the case sitting on the desk—the man in the suit's real case of cash—and carried it off.

A Lei was busy flushing the evidence. Why would he notice? He had heard Jing Ge's voice at the door, so surely no outsider could have come in just then.

Still calling out, Huang Ji took the cash case and ran back to the private room by flashlight.

At the doorway, he even pretended to call down the corridor, "Jing Ge! I've got it! Don't worry!"

As Cao Jing went downstairs, he wondered if that underling was a fucking idiot.

"If you've got it, then do it! Stop fucking shouting!" he yelled.

Once Cao Jing was gone, Huang Ji saw that the underlings in the private room had found all the money. "Plans have changed. Ma Ye's people are already here. Jing Ge just told us to throw the money downstairs. The people meeting us are below!"

With that, Huang Ji threw the cash case straight out the window.

Everyone stared in surprise. But they did seem to recall Jing Ge saying something about "downstairs."

Besides, Huang Ji had been calling out, "I've got it" and "Don't worry, Jing Ge," the whole way.

They assumed Jing Ge had given him new instructions to pass along.

Lin Li and Xiao Zha took the lead, throwing the money straight down.

"Hurry up! Wu San'er! Hua Juan'er! Don't just stand there!" Huang Ji said, shining the flashlight in their faces.

Being called out by name and caught in the beam put pressure on them. Before they knew it, the two did as they were told.

"Throw the money down! We're out of time!" Huang Ji urged, and everyone moved faster.

Huang Ji spoke without hesitation, seizing the initiative. His air of command set the pace for the whole room, drawing the others along before they realized it.

His words simply sounded too convincing to question.

Perhaps part of it had to do with that flashlight—the only one piercing the gloom...

There were only two flashlights here. Jing Ge had taken one and thrown the other to Huang Ji.

With Jing Ge gone, Huang Ji was the only person in the room holding a flashlight! As he swept its beam about and gave orders, everyone instinctively trusted him.

With every overt cue and subtle suggestion, he had them dancing to his tune.

And with the situation so urgent and someone taking the lead, the others rushed to grab the money and carry it to the window, afraid of being too slow!

Someone looked down from the window and saw an old man by the back door!

The old man glanced around, then beckoned up at them, signaling them to hurry and throw down the money!

"Hey! Catch!" An underling nodded to him and tossed the money down.

"Quick, quick! Ma Ye's man is down there to take it."

Everyone scrambled to help. In no time, they had thrown all sixteen slabs of cash—a total of eight million yuan—out the window.

Down below, Old Wang heard thud after thud.

Slabs of money fell from the sky and landed in front of him.

"Oh... oh, wow..." Old Wang was beside himself with delight. Marveling all the while, he bent to pick up the money.

He worked briskly, stacking it neatly in layers inside the trash bin.

Old Wang glanced up from below and saw someone at the window waving to signal that there was no more.

He closed the lid of the trash bin and gave them a thumbs-up.

The underlings upstairs kept waving him away, whispering, "Quick! Get going!"

Old Wang nodded and flashed an "OK" sign up at them to show he understood!

Then, smiling, he wheeled the trash bin away at a brisk pace.

Everyone in the private room let out a breath. Sending the money off like that was much better than scattering in every direction with cash on their backs.

"What are you all standing around for?" Huang Ji said. "Clear out! Don't make trouble for Jing Ge!"

"Yes!"

"Got it!"

With a chorus of replies, the group scattered at once.

Huang Ji took Lin Li and Xiao Zha down a shortcut through the darkness, then strolled out the back door.

No one stopped him the entire way.

P.S. Sorry. The strongest strategy is to overwhelm the other side with information. Most invincible-protagonist stories these days make the protagonist unbeatable in a fight, but this protagonist is unbeatable at strategy; his combat strength will grow gradually. I'm starting with small characters and small incidents. In the past, I always explained how his abilities worked almost like an instruction manual, and people criticized the plots for being thin. So I'm trying to explain less about the specifics and just let him use his abilities.