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o(n_n)o~

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Though both were descendants of decorated families, Jiang Peize and Fang Zhixin, who had clawed their way through the battlefield on their own abilities, had always despised the Li Family's conduct. Now, another incident of abusing public resources for private gain had occurred in the Old District, resulting in casualties. As the special forces' training officer and political commissar, Jiang Peize and Fang Zhixin were even more furious.

Still, considering the friendship between the older generations of their families, the two of them could not say much. But after hearing Li Jiangnan's words, they felt faintly relieved beneath their surprise.

As expected of soldiers they had trained. Though his family upbringing was poor, he still possessed personal responsibility and resolve.

Sensing his instructors' burning gazes, Li Jiangnan lowered his head in shame. Li Cunzhou, however, said somewhat anxiously, "You can't. Jiangnan is only seventeen this year. He has a bright future and his youth ahead of him. He can't just..."

Jiang Peize snorted angrily. Fang Zhixin quickly tugged at him and said, "We will report this matter truthfully. As for what punishment comes down from above... that is not for us to decide."

Li Cunzhou had run into a neither-soft-nor-hard rebuff and finally got the message. He fell silent awkwardly. Li Mobei, who had always been taciturn, studied the people in the hospital room thoughtfully before suddenly speaking. "What does the Old Zhang Family say? The key to this matter lies with the Old Zhang Family. If they can step forward and speak for the military, proving that those who died in the Zhang Family Secret Passage were not military personnel, we would not be in such a passive position."

Though the military also intended to use the Old Zhang Family's standing in the Old District to help cover up the lie, Jiang Peize and Fang Zhixin were still amazed by Li Mobei's shamelessness. One moment, he had been considering how to harm them; the next, he was asking them to step out and help him. Fang Zhixin glanced at Li Mobei with a faintly mocking smile and praised him without changing expression. "A tiger father truly has no dog son. To remain so calm and collected in a situation like this, you really are the Li Family heir so carefully raised by Old Master Li."

Li Cunzhou and Li Jiangnan both flushed again. Li Mobei smiled calmly. "Since it has already happened, we must find a way to resolve it."

This time, even Fang Zhixin merely curled his lip and said nothing.

Gu Zhaohuan stood in the hospital room and realized there was nothing left for him to do. He immediately smiled and said, "The municipal committee has a meeting this afternoon, so I'll be leaving first."

At that, Li Cunzhou rose and saw Gu Zhaohuan out with Li Mobei. Only Jiang Peize, Fang Zhixin, and Li Jiangnan remained in the room. An unbearable silence instantly spread through the air.

After a long while, Jiang Peize sighed softly and said stiffly, "Before I came, the organization's disciplinary decision had already been issued. Because Old Master Li actively pulled strings, you will not be sent before a military court. Publicly, it will only be stated that you are under eighteen and therefore do not need to bear legal responsibility. But after something like this, you cannot remain in the special forces, or even in the military. The army's punishment is to discharge you from military service. I think that may be best for you. You are only seventeen this year, after all. You have plenty of energy and time. Go back to school, get into a university, and do something else."

So what he had said to Li Cunzhou earlier had only been an excuse. He could not really be blamed; with his fiery temper, he truly could not stand the sight of that father and son.

As he said this, Jiang Peize could not help thinking of the seven special forces soldiers who had died unjustly. Compared to them, the military's punishment of Li Jiangnan was so light it was practically nonexistent. That was the advantage of the privileged class. No matter what mistakes they made, there would be elders to shoulder the burden, ensuring their future and prospects remained unaffected.

Take Li Jiangnan, for example. Though he appeared to have been discharged from military service, it was merely an expedient measure to calm public outrage. Once a few years passed and everyone forgot about this, with Old Master Li's military connections, getting Li Jiangnan back in would take no time at all.

No wonder the organization had sent the two of them to handle this disturbance. As people who also enjoyed privilege, they could accept such matters more easily than officers who had painfully climbed up from the bottom. They would not become too psychologically unbalanced, nor would they work while carrying resentment.

After remaining silent for a long time, Li Jiangnan suddenly asked, "Brother Zhen... I mean, how is the organization handling the seven special forces soldiers who died in the Old District?"

"There were no seven special forces soldiers." Jiang Peize said expressionlessly, "The military never sent troops to the Old District for any mission. Therefore, those who died in the Zhang Family Secret Passage were not special forces soldiers."

"Then who were they?" Li Jiangnan's eyes widened in disbelief as he raised his voice and demanded, "Then who exactly were Brother Zhen and the others? They gave so much for the country. Now they're dead, and just because they died at the wrong time and in the wrong place, the military won't care—"

"Whoever the fuck wants to care can care. I can't handle that much." Jiang Peize, who had been holding back his anger since Yanjing, could no longer suppress it. He cursed with biting sarcasm, "Maybe they were stray cats and dogs trying to curry favor with the Li Family's second young master. Anyway, they weren't my soldiers. My soldiers would not rely on their little bit of skill to climb into someone else's backyard, nor would they act without organization or discipline to seize the people's property. Your Li Family is shameless and heartless, but the ones who died were soldiers under my command. You still have the nerve to argue with me?"

Li Jiangnan's body jolted. After a long silence, he said quietly, "I understand."

Fang Zhixin looked at Li Jiangnan with regret. He was good material, but what a pity.

Outside the hospital room, Li Cunzhou and Li Mobei stood silently, without making a sound for a long time.

This time, they had truly lost. They were battered, disgraced, and had suffered heavy losses. But they would not give up. Since they had already paid such a great price, they had to get their hands on the Old Zhang Family in the end.

Meanwhile, the Old Zhang Family, still being targeted in every possible way by the Li father and son, was also holding its customary post-incident review meeting.

Zhang Linmo sat upright behind an exquisitely crafted rosewood desk decorated with carvings. On the black marble surface lay materials on the recent activities of the younger generation of the Zhang Family, specially gathered by people Zhang Linmo had sent to investigate and follow them. The final page recorded that Zhang Muyang had privately transferred twenty million yuan from the gang's accounts to support the families of the special forces soldiers who had died. Zhang Linmo stared at that page for a long while before suddenly asking, "Did you discuss transferring twenty million from the gang's accounts with the gang elders?"

Zhang Muyang's face reddened slightly as he said awkwardly, "Not yet. But according to gang rules, I don't need to notify the Council of Elders when transferring less than one hundred million."

Zhang Linmo frowned and said in a deep voice, "Gang rules are gang rules. I could withdraw twenty billion from the gang accounts without notifying the Council of Elders either."

The implication was clear: different levels of authority allowed different things to be done.

"This was your first time independently handling gang affairs, and you did fairly well in your earlier responses. But your handling of the final twenty million was a mistake that cannot be overlooked." Zhang Linmo straightened his back as he spoke, fixed his gaze on Zhang Muyang, and asked, "Tell me, what is the second rule of the Old Zhang Family?"

Zhang Muyang said, "Those who offend our clan harbor ill intent. Trace it to the root; grind their bones to ashes."

"Then what did you do?" Zhang Linmo raised a brow. "You took twenty million to settle enemies' families. Did you consider what the brothers in the gang would think?"

"But..."

"Put away that useless soft heart. The foundation of the Old Zhang Family's existence lies in force. Though we are beginning to go legitimate, it is our business that is going legitimate, not the Old Zhang Family's spirit. I'm not running a charity hall. He came to harm me and got himself killed instead, so I'm supposed to clean up after him?"

Zhang Muyang's face reddened under Zhang Linmo's reprimand. He awkwardly defended himself, "But the ones who died this time were soldiers!"

Zhang Linmo sneered. "So soldiers are precious, and people in the underworld like me deserve to die? Taking ten thousand steps back, though I'm in the underworld, I'm still a law-abiding man in the underworld. I pay the taxes I should pay and make the arrangements I should make. Aside from doing slightly different business, I'm no different from normal people. They, on the other hand, shamelessly came all the way from Yanjing to target us. In ordinary people's words, they wanted Shu after getting Long, eating from the pot while eyeing the basin. In our line of work, that's called crossing the line. They deserved to die. If they hadn't died, I wouldn't even have vented my anger!"

"Did you ever think that if they had sent people to wipe out our Old District today, would they have given every dead or injured brother of the Old Zhang Family more than two million out of humanitarian concern? If you have so much money you don't know where to spend it, throw it into the river and listen to the splash. You boys are so damn full of yourselves. You even gave money to the enemy. Aren't you afraid the brothers in the gang will point at your backs and curse your mothers?"

Zhang Linmo's rare indignation successfully awakened the wolfish nature hidden in the Zhang brothers' blood and bones. Zhang Xianyang immediately recalled the filthy stain of treason that had been smeared on the Old Zhang Family after its destruction in his previous life, and his heart shuddered.

His words were rough, but his reasoning was sound. Wasn't Dad absolutely right? The Li Family were a pack of vicious wolves who ate people without even spitting out the bones. Had his string of easy victories gone to his head so badly that he had actually pitied those people? Thinking of the many brothers from his family who had died miserably in his previous life, Zhang Xianyang's eyes nearly glowed with a ghostly green light.

Seeing that his sons had already come to their senses, Zhang Linmo nodded in satisfaction. He softened his tone and continued lecturing them. "I tell you not to be merciful because mercy toward enemies is cruelty toward yourselves. Though this entire affair was secretly planned by the Old Zhang Family, in the end, we never sent anyone to lure the Li Family into the Old District, nor did we force them into the secret passage. Everything they did was a decision they made while fully conscious. Since that was the case, they should have been prepared to face every consequence of failure. Death is not an excuse that can wash away their shameless conduct, much less a reason for us to pity our enemies. If you live by the rules of the underworld, you must be prepared to die. Either you die or I die, and your death is better than mine."

The three Zhang brothers nodded thoughtfully. Zhang Muyang immediately said, "I'll call A-Qiang right away and tell him to take back the twenty million."

Seeing that he had finished knocking some sense into them and that his sons had presumably learned their lesson, Zhang Linmo continued, "When you are in a position of authority, remember never to change orders constantly or be fickle. Since you have already decided to give that twenty million to those soldiers' families, do not casually reverse your own decision. Otherwise, at first the gang brothers will only voice minor complaints. Next, they may look down on you as a leader with no mind of his own. If things get serious, some wolf cubs may even begin harboring different intentions."

The three Zhang brothers looked at one another. Zhang Xianyang shrank his neck and asked cautiously, "Is it really that serious?"

"Not serious?" Zhang Linmo glanced at his third son with a smile that was not quite a smile. "Do you think living in the underworld is playing house, where everything is good for you, good for me, and good for everyone? Don't be fooled by how peaceful everyone looks on the surface. If the Old Zhang Family makes one careless mistake and exposes a weakness, these 'good brothers' will be the first to pounce and bite us to death."

Zhang Linmo's sinister tone made the three Zhang brothers shudder.

Seeing that he had frightened his sons enough, Zhang Linmo curled his lips in a good mood and revealed his purpose.

"You have many shortcomings in this matter, and through them, I have also seen my own negligence." Zhang Linmo sighed here. Looking at his three sons, especially the eldest two, he said with mixed feelings, "My father, your grandfather, was very strict with me. Aside from forcing me to practice horse stance and martial arts from the age of three, he forced me out of China and into Cambodia when I was twelve. From Cambodia, I wandered around the territories of those foreign devils for several years. I was a mercenary, an assassin, and a gunrunner. The foreign groups the Old Zhang Family often works with now were all people I met back then."

"I've killed people, and I nearly got hacked back to the gates of hell myself. When I was eighteen, your grandfather was severely injured by an enemy. I crossed the ocean back to the Old District, only to see the old man lying in bed, able to do nothing but breathe, a younger brother who could only cry beside the bed, and a gang full of brothers with wolfish ambitions. I carried a gun to take revenge on the grandson of the man who had seriously injured your grandfather. After I returned, I killed several gang brothers who harbored other intentions, including one good brother who had played with me since childhood. Only then did I finally secure the boss's seat."