Smoke Fiend

Ice Prefecture, Third Private Hospital.

In the apocalypse, hospitals were reserved for the rich.

The nurse on duty dozed at the reception desk, her chin propped on one hand, when the wind blew the front door open.

She rubbed her bleary eyes and muttered as she got up to close it, only to see a dozen blood-drenched figures standing in the doorway.

"G-ghosts!"

The nurse screamed and ran.

Covered in blood, Old Ninth and Little White Tiger led their brothers into the hospital, looking baffled. They had no idea how frightening they looked.

"This hospital haunted or something?" Hi Dog rubbed his nose.

Holding a plastic bag with his other hand in his pocket, Old Ninth followed the address Mr. Li had sent him and found Piglet's room.

Fresh out of surgery, Piglet lay quietly inside.

Looking through the glass in the door, the brothers clenched their fists.

Their brother had been drinking and horsing around with them just yesterday. Seeing him lying there now would hurt anyone.

"Hello, family visits aren't allowed here..."

The doctor on duty swallowed the rest of his words.

Not only did the young men before him look terrifying, their eyes looked ready to devour someone.

Earthworm turned sideways and raised his gun. "Say that again?"

"Y-you carry on." The doctor scurried away.

Xiao Fei guarded the door with Lei Zi from outside the city.

Little White Tiger silently pushed open the door to the room.

The pungent smell of disinfectant made Old Ninth frown.

The delicate-featured boy lay wrapped in bandages and hooked up to machines, his fate uncertain.

The brothers silently gathered around the bed, and Old Ninth pulled out A Lang's head.

"Piggy, we brought you your enemy's head."

"Don't die, okay? You only just got a fucking girlfriend. You haven't even gotten laid yet."

"Brother, we're only just fucking getting somewhere, and you're leaving us? That's not cool."

One after another, the brothers murmured softly into Piglet's ear.

A tear slipped down the unconscious Piglet's cheek.

Old Ninth set A Lang's head beside the bed and patted Piglet's face. "Brother, time to wake up. You want me feeling guilty for the rest of my life?"

Piglet had suffered these terrible injuries for Old Ninth. If he died, Old Ninth would never forgive himself.

His eyes red, Bone slapped himself hard several times. "It's all my fault. If I hadn't gone out fucking around, Piglet wouldn't have..."

"Piglet..."

Xiao Fei leaned against the wall, listening to the sobs inside the room, and curled his lip.

"Fuck, they're all vicious little tigers out on the street, but get them in a hospital room and they cry like women."

Earthworm peered into the room from outside and sighed enviously. "They're really close."

Little White Tiger and Old Ninth were decisive killers out there, even downright cruel at times.

But in front of their brothers, they were like children.

That contrast was proof of the bond between them.

Late that night, the brothers fell into an exhausted sleep on the floor beside Piglet's bed.

The next day.

Mr. Li made special arrangements to send Piglet out of Ice Prefecture, afraid Old Ding would storm the hospital.

In truth, he was even more afraid of Old Ninth going berserk again.

After that battle, no one dared use common sense to predict Old Ninth's behavior.

Everyone knew Old Ninth only had a dozen brothers, yet he still dared lead them in wrecking Old Ding's place.

Inside the largest hotel in East Garden District.

Mr. Li stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows on the hotel's top floor, watching the heavy snowfall outside as he leisurely swirled his wineglass.

"Good work yesterday. After that fight, nobody in Ice Prefecture will dare underestimate you two."

"But we've also thoroughly pissed off Old Ding." Old Ninth yawned and asked, "What's our next move?"

Old Ding had gone mad. One of his key men had had his head sawed off. If he didn't settle the score, who would respect him again?

"Lie low." Mr. Li shrugged and patiently explained to them, "In terms of strength, Lei Zi and the others you hired definitely can't hold off Old Ding's men. Stay out of his way for now."

They had won yesterday, but only because they had caught their enemies off guard.

Old Ding hadn't even joined the fight. In a genuine head-on clash, Little White Tiger didn't have enough men.

"Those destined for destruction must first be driven mad. Old Ding's a madman now. The more he does, the more mistakes he'll make."

"Why not just kill him?" Xiao Fei curled his lip in disdain.

Outside the city, once a war started, hiding wasn't an option.

If you couldn't beat them head-on, you assassinated them. Either way, you never let the other side rest easy.

Mr. Li smiled faintly. "Killing isn't the goal. We wait until the people behind Old Ding abandon him before making our move. That way, we don't sour relations."

The others stared, stunned.

They needed permission from Old Ding's backers to kill him?

"Our goal is to establish ourselves in Ice Prefecture, not wage all-out war against its local bosses. The angrier Old Ding gets, the more he'll lose control of his actions. Once certain champions of justice set their sights on him, the bosses behind him will have no choice but to sacrifice a pawn to save their king." After explaining, Mr. Li took a check from his pocket and handed it to Xiao Fei.

"I don't know how much Little Tiger promised you, but a few hundred thousand certainly isn't enough to hire the famous Smoke Fiend from outside the city."

When Mr. Li spoke the name Smoke Fiend, Xiao Fei frowned.

"Don't be surprised. I need to know who's working for me, don't I?" Mr. Li explained with a smile why he had investigated him.

This was the apocalypse. Everyone's heart was filthy.

Who knew whether the people you hired would turn on you?

Mr. Li couldn't be faulted for doing this. Only Old Ninth and Little White Tiger could place such unquestioning trust in the people they hired.

Xiao Fei wasn't having it. "Save that crap. Those two are my bosses. If he told me to cut you down right now, I wouldn't hesitate."

Mr. Li smiled and nodded, unbothered. He didn't even doubt that Xiao Fei could actually kill him.

Little White Tiger and Old Ninth, on the other hand, looked stunned.

"You're fucking Smoke Fiend?"

Mr. Li rolled his eyes at them. "I thought you had the balls to hire him. Turns out you just didn't know enough to be scared."

Smoke Fiend's name was taboo even in Ice Prefecture. The two had only known him as Xiao Fei. If Little White Tiger had known he was Smoke Fiend, he might not have had the nerve to hire him.

If Old Ninth was crazy, Smoke Fiend was downright deranged.

If the Ice Prefecture Police Bureau learned that this guy had entered the city, anything short of a citywide lockdown would be an insult to him.

"One wild bastard, one lunatic, and one complete psycho. Our team's become a fucking army of problem children." Half joking, Mr. Li continued, "The Ice Prefecture Five Overlords: Ming King, Flower Boss, Nalan, Shorty, and Luan. You nearly fucking wiped out the Nalan Family, and you still dared come into the city?"

The Ice Prefecture Five Overlords represented the five strongest people or factions in Ice Prefecture.

They were the people who truly stood at the top here. Even someone as powerful as Old Ding was nothing more than their hired hand.

Those five were the ones Mr. Li truly feared. They had people everywhere, from the establishment to the streets.

And Xiao Fei had slaughtered more than a hundred of Nalan's people in one go.

"Of the Six Districts of Ice Prefecture, you buried the Police Commissioners of two districts outside the city. What the hell were you thinking?"

Other people had reasons for killing. Xiao Fei alone was impossible to figure out.

Neither the Nalan Family nor the commissioners had any major conflicts of interest with those outside the city, yet Xiao Fei had dared slaughter them for no apparent reason.

Seeing the questioning looks from Little White Tiger and Old Ninth, Xiao Fei calmly lit a cigarette.

"Three years ago, a girl came to Black Mountain Town and asked me to kill someone. I took the job."

"That girl had only one fucking kidney, one arm, and one leg left. Someone had hacked them off while she was alive. Even the animals outside the city don't torture kids to death, but the Nalan Family's young master had fucking mutilated her." His eyes red, Xiao Fei took two hard drags. "She was coughing up blood as she handed me five bucks. If it were you, would you take the job?"

"Five bucks bought over a hundred lives from the Nalan Family. Heh." Mr. Li gave a noncommittal smile.

"We work the streets and rob people because we've got no way to survive, no food to eat. That doesn't mean we've lost our humanity. As it happened, a hundred or so people from the Nalan Family came out of the city to catch her, so I buried the whole bunch out there." Xiao Fei smiled as though it were nothing.

Though Xiao Fei made it sound simple, having offended the Nalan Family, he must have been under enormous pressure coming into the city this time.

If Nalan learned that Xiao Fei was in the city, he really wouldn't get out again.

"The Nalan Family didn't come out of the city to go after you?"

Little White Tiger offered Xiao Fei a cigarette, showing that he understood what he had done.

"The city has its bosses, and the land outside has its own heavy hitters. Both sides have an agreement not to enter each other's territory lightly. Without the other four backing him, Nalan wouldn't dare leave the city on a whim either," Mr. Li explained for Xiao Fei. "But now that you're inside, the people outside can't protect you."

"I repay every grudge and every favor. Little White Tiger saved my cousin, so I'm seeing this fight through to the end." Xiao Fei nodded to Little White Tiger.

The latter gave him a thumbs-up. "A real man."