Choice

As the sun sank below the horizon, even the flies that had buzzed all day grew quieter.

But night in Tangdu District also meant that order was swallowed by darkness, and the area quickly descended into chaos.

Yet tonight, Tangdu was unusually quiet.

The strongholds of the Fuqing Gang and three other Chinese gangs, along with four local gangs, had suddenly suffered a devastating assault.

Across the river, in the wealthy district, Cassius Fernando, who was in charge of public security, stood before a young man with a puzzled look on his face.

Garfield Fernando gently swirled his glass of red wine and said meaningfully, "My father will agree to this."

"This..." Cassius frowned.

Garfield drained his glass, stood up, and patted Cassius on the shoulder. "I'll go in person and explain everything to my father. I'll take full responsibility for the consequences."

Only then did Cassius breathe a sigh of relief. "Okay. I'll tell the men to keep things quiet. But if the Patriarch gives an order, I'll have no choice but to apologize to you, young master Garfield."

The unspoken message was clear: hurry up and talk to your father before I'm put in a difficult position.

But Cassius didn't know that the person who had unleashed the bloodshed in Tangdu District that night wasn't the Garfield standing before him.

It was a force made up of Garfield, Mada, Radis, and the uncle-and-nephew pair of Harry and his nephew, joined by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce under Takasugi Hei, as well as three other mid-sized Manila families.

All of them were caught in the web of the Homo sapiens Company.

The so-called head of the Fernando family, Jacques, was no match for the Homo sapiens Company on his own.

What's more, that night's events weren't confined to Tangdu District. The whole of Manila was churning beneath the surface.

Watching the little girl wolf down her food,

Li Qingye ate slowly, chewing each bite thoroughly.

They were in a villa complex in the eastern suburbs of Manila. To make it easier to handle business in Manila, he'd had someone buy this estate. It covered around 4,500 mu and was completely enclosed.

"I'm full!" The little girl fought the urge to keep eating.

Li Qingye narrowed his eyes with a smile. "Good. Someone who's been starving for too long might die if they eat too much all at once."

The little girl's face changed. Fortunately, she hadn't kept eating.

"Jasmine, you have to protect yourself. You're my asset."

Sangjibadaleyal replied respectfully, "Yes, sir. Sangjibadaleyal will become your most loyal jasmine."

"You may go."

"Yes."

Sangjibadaleyal followed a soldier out of the dining room. Tomorrow, she would be sent to Darte Port.

It was merely a brief interlude in the night.

Before long, Zhang Wei, who had settled his older brother Zhang Hao in, appeared in the dining room. The table had already been cleared, leaving only a pot of steaming Longjing Tea.

"What does your older brother plan to do?"

Zhang Wei's expression darkened. "He doesn't want to return to China for now. I'm thinking of arranging for him to go to Darte Port and clear his head."

Li Qingye wasn't surprised. Among the people they had rescued, quite a few had been abused until they were disabled or suffered from psychological trauma that was difficult to overcome.

Many might not have the courage to face reality right away, especially when it came to going home and seeing their families.

Li Qingye took a sip of tea and said calmly, "Perhaps I can help them move on. I just don't know whether they're willing to take revenge themselves."

Revenge! Zhang Wei had already begun to feel some fear and unease about his boss.

"Why agonize over it? I won't force them. I'm only giving them a choice."

With that, he stood and led Zhang Wei, Fili, and the others to the surveillance room beneath a chapel on the estate.

Chen Jianxiong was leading the people who had chosen to stay into the chapel hall. There were 173 of them in all.

Among them were middle-aged people beaten into disability, women of the underworld with no will to live, and young people whose eyes brimmed with hatred and a desire to destroy.

Seeing his older brother among them on the surveillance footage, Zhang Wei couldn't help growing anxious.

But Zhang Hao, standing in the crowd, looked numb and miserable.

A soldier slowly climbed the marble steps and stopped before the cross of Jesus. His vacant gaze seemed to pierce everyone's heart, and his figure appeared to merge with the statue behind him.

"Are you suffering? Lost? Angry?"

His voice rang in everyone's ears.

"This is the truth of the world. Tragedy is its dominant theme. Your tragedies are nothing more than insignificant grains of sand among countless people. I was once a grain of sand just like that."

"If you want revenge, stay here. If you don't, walk out of the chapel. Tomorrow, we'll arrange a plane to take you home. Remember, this isn't a forced choice. You have ten minutes to decide."

As soon as he finished speaking,

the 173 people began to stir. Some whispered to each other, some hesitated, and others wore twisted expressions.

Soon, someone made a choice.

"Thank you so much for saving my life, but all I want now is a quiet life... I'm sorry..." With that, the person left the chapel.

Before long, more than a dozen people had left.

Li Qingye didn't have the soldiers stop them. If they'd chosen to give up revenge, then he would let them go.

Ten minutes later, 107 people remained in the chapel.

"It seems you've made your choice. Are you sure? You won't regret it?" The soldier's cold voice rang out again.

"We won't regret it."

"Hahaha... I've already lost everything. What else is there to lose?"

"I just want to kill those bastards."

Some of them lost control of their emotions, some raged hysterically, and others clenched their teeth in fury.

Seeing the savage expression on his older brother's face, Zhang Wei knew he couldn't talk him out of it. If he stopped his brother from taking revenge now, how could he ever face him afterward?

There was no solution.

It was an impossible situation.

"Zhang Wei, go get some rest," Li Qingye ordered in a tone that brooked no argument.

Zhang Wei opened his mouth, but in the end he left, looking thoroughly dejected.

After Zhang Wei left, Li Qingye instructed Chen Jianxiong to lead those who had chosen to stay to the estate's underground wine cellar.

The hidden cellar lay underground, but its wine had long since been cleared out. The whole interior had been converted into more than a hundred cages.

Inside those cages were the leaders of the Fuqing Gang, Bart Gang, Nanyang Society, and other gangs—43 people in total. They were all core members of their respective gangs.

At that moment, Wu Guishan, head of the Luzon Hall of the Fuqing Gang, and his two brothers were locked in the same cage.

When he saw Chen Jianxiong bring Zhang Hao and the others to the cage,

Wu Guishan began to shout, "Do you know who I am? You know that offending the Fuqing Gang means offending the Fernando family and the Lopez family! Get your boss over here, or you'll face the consequences!"

"Heh... I don't like wasting words on the dead." Chen Jianxiong turned and clapped his hands.

The soldiers understood the signal. They immediately opened the cell's Iron Door and handed Zhang Hao and the others some daggers and axes.

"You... What are you going to do...?"

"Ahhh..."

"No, please spare me! I have a secret account at Swiss Bank. If you let me go..."

But Zhang Hao and the others, their hearts already filled with hatred and fury, weren't moved in the slightest. Daggers and axes flashed as flesh and blood splattered across the cell.

Watching the scene through the surveillance feed, Li Qingye smiled and murmured to himself:

"So they feel pain and fear, too. They bleed and die, too. I thought they were different somehow."