Money and Murder

The next day, Wang Yan got a call from Ni Yongxiao, who gave him an anonymous bank account.

Wang Yan noted it down and thanked him profusely.

Then Wang Yan took Li Yun to the bank to check the account. It held exactly ten million US dollars. They changed the password, too.

Afterward, the two of them hurried straight to a law firm.

They found a capable lawyer and had him handle some of the paperwork for registering Wang Yan's companies. Lawyers were professionals at this sort of thing; they knew how to get it done cheaply.

It wasn't that Wang Yan didn't want to hire a famous lawyer. It was just that those big-name lawyers had connections far beyond what ordinary people could imagine. They knew this commissioner, that director—Wang Yan was nowhere near their level.

Wang Yan had the lawyer register several holding companies that he would need in the future. The holding company was named Long Teng Group.

After that, he instructed Li Yun to start recruiting capable, high-caliber underlings on a large scale.

As he'd said, Wang Yan was famous enough that plenty of Guhuozi in prison had helped spread his name. By now, practically every low-level Guhuozi on Hong Kong Island knew who Wang Yan was, and plenty wanted to join him. Having a well-known boss was incredibly important to a Guhuozi. So many came to apply, and after round upon round of screening, they selected the cream of the crop.

Of course, the process inevitably attracted all kinds of undercover officers planted by the police. There was no helping that; it was obvious Wang Yan was planning something. Truthfully, he was glad to have the police moles. They were elite officers who had made it through layers of screening, and they were adaptable rather than hidebound. Those were exactly the kinds of people Wang Yan needed.

Once all that was taken care of, he sent Li Yun to find a few people experienced in financial trading.

In less than three hours, Li Yun had brought in three people from the field. They were all in debt to loan sharks.

Wang Yan gave them some information and told them to act according to his instructions. Then he offered them a few encouraging words and sent some underlings along with them. As for threats? Did they not know how they'd ended up here? Did they not know what Wang Yan did? That was threat enough.

Over the next month, his organization grew steadily. He'd already given the necessary instructions, so there wasn't much for him to worry about.

A month later, the money Wang Yan had borrowed had finally doubled, reaching more than twenty-five million US dollars.

He didn't dare put all that money into a single market. He didn't understand the ins and outs well enough; he could easily get crushed. So he split the funds into smaller portions and made small, tactical plays. With his supposedly infallible tips, the returns were quite impressive.

After that, Wang Yan boarded a flight to San Francisco.

By his reckoning, this was his first time in the free, democratic, peaceful United States across all three of his lives. He wasn't particularly excited. It was just another place, really.

He found a hotel and checked in.

The next day, after searching around, Wang Yan finally got in touch with Hongmen, the local Chinese-American gang. Many of the Hongmen bosses of that era had lived through wartime, and they'd contributed to their homeland's liberation. Plenty of them still cared about their country.

Wang Yan had approached them because they were compatriots and there was a foundation of trust between them.

Wang Yan was nervous about meeting the Hongmen boss. These were ruthless men who killed without batting an eye, with thousands of men under them and tens of thousands in their organization. If talks fell through, they might riddle him with bullets. It wouldn't matter how good a fighter he was then.

Fortunately, the boss was a decent man who still felt a bond with his fellow Chinese and hadn't been blinded by wealth. Wang Yan was from Hong Kong Island and, in the boss's eyes, a nobody—but the man was willing to give the younger fellow a hand and treated him well.

In truth, the boss was only an insignificant figure in Hongmen, but it was an organization that spanned the world. Wang Yan was nowhere near their level.

Wang Yan said to him, "Boss, I've come to ask you for a favor."

The boss gestured for him to go on.

Wang Yan continued, "I'd like you to help me poach a company's entire team. I'll pay you a million US dollars for your trouble."

The boss said it was no big deal. He didn't know why Wang Yan wanted the team of some little company, but all he had to do was say a few words to pocket a million dollars. He hoped more jobs like this would come along.

"Great. Thanks, boss. Here's a check for a million."

The boss put it away without even looking. Ever since he'd reached his current position, nobody had dared cheat him. Nobody.

Then, through Hongmen's connections, Wang Yan easily paid to acquire C-CUBE's MPEG technology along with its staff. Under Wang Yan's money offensive, the researchers had no objections at all and moved to Hong Kong Island as a group.

Back in Hong Kong Island, Wang Yan first got the American researchers settled. He laid out a plan and told them to use MPEG to develop VCD. He ordered them to hurry the project along, promising whatever money and manpower they needed.

Once everyone was settled, Wang Yan immediately flew to the Soviet Union's territory.

The Soviet Union wouldn't last much longer; it was about to fall apart. He might as well get a taste of the spoils and warm his stomach.

Once he arrived, Wang Yan found a Chinese interpreter and, after asking around, managed to get in touch with a general. More than a month had passed, but this was still the most chaotic period. Nobody knew what the future held. People with power had to use it before it expired, so they were all making the most of their positions and grabbing what they could. Even the Westerners were two levels below them.

The general held real power, so he could guess why Wang Yan had come. If Wang Yan dared ask, the man was willing to sell him just about anything. He didn't waste time beating around the bush, and asked outright what Wang Yan wanted.

Wang Yan asked what he had to offer. The general rattled off a long list, mostly military equipment and weapons. As for civilian goods, the general said it didn't matter what Wang Yan wanted—just name it, and he could get it.

Wang Yan hadn't known much about that period of history. He'd thought the chance to grab equipment had already passed, but the general's words made everything clear.

Wang Yan then listed a whole range of things: guns, cannons, all kinds of lathes and machinery, and more.

The interpreter was stunned. Was this guy really bold enough to ask for anything?

He stammered as he translated Wang Yan's list for the general. The general listened carefully. This had a direct bearing on his future comfort, so of course he had to take it seriously.

After listening, the general thought it over for a moment and got a sense of what sort of man Wang Yan was.

He told Wang Yan there was no problem at all. He could get everything on the list.

They haggled for a while and reached an agreement. Including all the miscellaneous supplies, Wang Yan spent more than thirty million US dollars in total.

Naturally, he didn't pay it all upfront. It was an ongoing arrangement.

He sent an underling to set up a Longteng branch office in China to handle local affairs, receive equipment, and gather supplies.

After that, Wang Yan began crisscrossing the world, brokering deals and connecting buyers and sellers. He kept anything useful for himself. For things that weren't very useful to him but might be valuable to others or other organizations, he copied the information or had the equipment's blueprints reproduced. Then he sold everything around the world for US dollars.

After making connections with Hongmen, he also started picking up a few American goods.

For large items, he went through the Hongmen boss. He kept the secret, high-value small items for himself.

He went back and forth like this.

Of course, with Wang Yan doing all this, word was bound to get out, no matter how carefully he kept things quiet. His move to take over other people's business drew attacks from various groups, who tried everything to ambush and intercept him.

Wang Yan wasn't about to be intimidated. They were all out to make money, so what made them so special? He took his elite underlings and fought them head-on.

Wang Yan was skilled and fearless. He'd barely fired a gun before and had never killed anyone, but this time he got an education through combat. While others practiced with stationary and moving targets, Wang Yan used his opponents as targets. Thanks to his excellent physical condition, strong mental fortitude, sharp senses, and steady hands, he was a deadly shot. His marksmanship had even reached LV2 proficiency.

After killing someone, Wang Yan felt that he had changed. The difference was obvious. For one thing, his Fighting had become more brutal. All the skills he'd learned—Sanda, Mixed Martial Arts, Muay Thai, Krav Maga, Boxing, and the rest—had advanced to a new level. His attacks were fierce, every strike aimed to kill. He could feel that his Fighting skills were close to breaking through.

Then there was the psychological change, which made him start looking down on everything without even realizing it. Few people dared meet Wang Yan's eyes; they couldn't stand the way he looked at them, as though they were small animals. This was a bad thing, and Wang Yan was constantly searching for a way to fix it.

Having overcome his psychological barrier about killing, and with his space ability on top of that, Wang Yan was practically cheating. With dozens of lives on his hands, he drove the rival gangs back step by step. Of course, he wasn't a god of war. He got injured by his enemies plenty of times.

Taking such risks brought rich rewards. All the equipment, lathes, and machinery he'd acquired from the Soviet Union had been shipped to China. And his account was now flush with cash.

As for Ni Yongxiao's money, Wang Yan had paid it back in less than half a year. What Ni Yongxiao thought about that was anyone's guess.

Once most of that was in place, Wang Yan finally sat down to get a proper picture of how his organization was doing.

Previously, Li Yun had been reporting to him over the phone, which was naturally far less detailed than seeing things for himself.

Based on Li Yun's detailed report, Wang Yan now had a clear understanding of how much his organization had grown over the past four months.

During that time, Wang Yan's underlings had expanded to more than 500. They'd all been recruited from among the Guhuozi who applied, then vetted through several rounds of screening. They were all pretty capable. Every one of them had joined Wang Yan's Longteng Security Company, and he paid them well. There were 13 pay grades, with wages based on rank. Even a Grade 1 underling earned 5,000 a month, with full insurance coverage. Wang Yan had to shell out nearly four million each month to cover their wages.

Word of Wang Yan's generous pay had spread across Hong Kong Island, and the Guhuozi were green with envy. There'd be even more applicants at the next open recruitment drive. Wang Yan had also created a serious problem for all the gang bosses on Hong Kong Island. The trouble was, people compared. Guhuozi might act all high and mighty, shouting and swaggering around, but they didn't actually take home much. Plenty of them were lucky just to avoid losing money, let alone getting wages or insurance.

Before, everyone had been in the same boat, so it was fine. But Wang Yan's offer was genuinely generous. The average income in Hong Kong Island was only around five or six thousand, and there were far more people than space, creating fierce competition. Wang Yan was offering five thousand, so the underlings in other gangs had started having ideas. I call you boss, while you eat well and throw your weight around. Your men bleed and sweat and get nothing? Nobody could put up with that. The underlings in every gang were getting restless, and, unusually, the streets of Hong Kong Island had gone quiet.

The gang bosses could clearly feel the strange atmosphere. It was the calm before the storm. If things went wrong, there could be a revolution in Hong Kong Island's underworld—and revolutions meant bloodshed.

The bosses had no choice. They cursed Wang Yan on one hand and reluctantly paid out money to pacify their men on the other. They also promised they'd start paying wages from then on.

Naturally, their pay couldn't match what Wang Yan offered. Still, it was enough to calm their restless underlings and maintain their own positions.

With 500 men, a single street was clearly no longer enough territory. Every one of them was willing to fight, after all. With the pay Wang Yan offered, there were plenty of others eager to take their places.

Wang Yan's territory was in a fairly quiet area, so it was occupied by a few small, scattered groups.

Longteng swallowed up the surrounding small-time groups in a lightning-fast move and met no meaningful resistance. Afterward, they reorganized everything according to Wang Yan's rules.

The local shopkeepers welcomed Longteng, because business was booming on the street Longteng managed. With no harassment, muggings, or theft, people were happy to come, and more customers meant better business.

After Longteng Security Company was established, the underlings took lawyers with them when collecting protection money. They had to sign employment agreements with Longteng, and the lawyers explained every legal clause in black and white. It all looked completely legitimate.

Perhaps because Longteng's people were so reasonable, some people kept trying to push their luck, refusing to sign contracts or pay up. They clearly never learned their lesson and forgot what Longteng did for a living. For that kind of behavior, they got a complimentary beating—the traditional Guhuozi treatment. In less than two days, they came crawling back, wailing and begging to sign. Their earlier show of defiance had vanished without a trace. Once Longteng made an example of one, the rest signed obediently.

His territory had reached its limit for the time being. Any further expansion would mean going head-to-head with the larger groups nearby, and Wang Yan didn't want to take them on yet. He needed to grow steadily; expand too quickly, and he wouldn't have enough men.

Wang Yan also started a logistics company, Long Teng Logistics. After all, that was his old line of work, and it required lots of people and generated lots of cash flow. The employees at Long Teng Logistics were first recruited from among his underlings' families, with outsiders hired to fill the remaining positions. This move earned him even more loyalty from his men, on top of the generous pay. After all, their whole families worked for him. If they still didn't give him their all, Wang would have to destroy them.

His men didn't disappoint him. Every one of them was brimming with fighting spirit. They worked out like mad whenever they had free time. It was about all they could do. Wang Yan even bought a building in the suburbs, using a mix of threats and persuasion to get it cheap. He planned to turn it into a sports center, hire instructors for his men, and have them train whenever they had time.

Wang Yan also started a shoe factory and hired the women in his underlings' families. They made counterfeit shoes in their spare time, bringing in a modest profit. He hadn't set it up to make much money, really; it was another way to win his men's loyalty.

In the future, Wang Yan would establish all kinds of companies. In a few more years, he'd be able to provide for his men from cradle to grave.

The police were dumbfounded by Wang Yan's methods. In all their years, when had they ever seen a boss who knew how to play things this way? Apart from collecting protection money, he didn't break the law at all. In fact, the places he managed were especially prosperous. And even his protection money came with contracts. Apart from taking territory and getting into fights, he was practically a model citizen. But the police didn't let their guard down. If anything, they kept an even closer eye on him.