An unexpected windfall

Outside the city.

Black Mountain Town.

Young Master Hua had been trussed up and dumped in a pigpen.

He was cold and exhausted, but he didn't dare sleep.

Pigs were omnivores. If he fell asleep, they would start gnawing on him.

The people responsible for tying him up were sitting inside, warming themselves by the fire.

Little White Tiger, Old Ninth, and Xiao Fei sat around a brazier, with two steamed buns roasting above it on a pair of fire tongs.

"How did the negotiations go?"

Earthworm walked out of the bedroom, pulling up his pants, and grinned smugly. "Worth every penny."

"Here you go." All three raised their middle fingers at once.

"Have you decided what to do with him?" Earthworm smiled, unbothered. "Why not just ask Flower Boss for a few million? Worst case, we move to another prefecture."

If not for Mr. Li, Little White Tiger might really have agreed to Earthworm's proposal.

The world was vast. They could make a living anywhere.

But now, as far as everyone else knew, they were Mr. Li's men. If they ran, Flower Boss would definitely go after Mr. Li.

Mr. Li had helped both Little White Tiger and Old Ninth, after all. Doing that to him would be wrong.

Before they could finish talking, Young Master Hua, unable to stand the stench outside any longer, shouted toward the room. "Let me the fuck in! Fuck your mothers! Whatever you want, just name it!"

Little White Tiger raised an eyebrow. Earthworm ducked his head and hurried out into the snow. A moment later, he dragged the half-frozen Young Master Hua into the room.

Young Master Hua looked so wretched now that he barely resembled the man he had been that afternoon.

The wound around his mouth had been given basic treatment, and since he was an Awakened, it was no longer serious. Disfigurement, however, was inevitable.

"Fuck, did you grab me for money or what? If you want a ransom, at least let me call home!" Young Master Hua wriggled across the floor toward the glowing coals and complained, "You aren't following any of the fucking rules!"

Young Master Hua took them for kidnappers. Nothing else had even crossed his mind.

Old Ninth exhaled a mouthful of smoke and asked with world-weary authority, "We didn't grab you for money. We just want to know where Old Ding hid the goods."

"What the fuck?" Young Master Hua was dumbfounded.

He stared at Old Ninth in disbelief. "If you're fucking going after Old Ding, kidnap his son! What the hell did you grab me for?"

As Young Master Hua saw it, the men fighting each other bloody on the streets were only competing for the right to do his family's dirty work.

Laying a hand on him meant burning their bridges with the Hua Family for good.

"Who told you to act so fucking important? You were the only one on the whole street with bodyguards, and Old Ding personally saw you to your car. We thought you were his dad," Little White Tiger sneered.

"You... you're... Little White Tiger?"

Young Master Hua was arrogant, but he wasn't stupid. He ran through the people who held grudges against Flower Boss and soon figured out who was standing before him.

Young, vicious, and utterly lawless.

Putting that together with the rumors, Young Master Hua was certain that one of the men in front of him was Little White Tiger.

"So you're not fucking stupid." Little White Tiger patted Young Master Hua's head. "I thought all you people knew how to do was screw."

Young Master Hua ducked away from his hand. "I'm not stupid. You're going after Old Ding to prop up that Li guy and flex his muscles in Ice Prefecture. But you went straight for me. Have you thought about how you're going to answer for that?"

Smack!

Before Young Master Hua could get any more smug, Old Ninth slapped him across the face.

Already injured, Young Master Hua grimaced in pain.

"Buddy, we're not like Old Ding. He's happy being a dog. We're not Mr. Li's pawns. I could kill you, take your fingers to your old man, demand a few million, and skip town. Want to bet?"

Grinning, Earthworm pulled the Iron Saw That Cut Off A Lang's Head from his bag and tossed it onto the floor.

Old Ninth stared expressionlessly at Young Master Hua.

The stare made Young Master Hua's skin crawl. Old Ninth didn't look as though he was joking.

If Old Ninth had a family and a business, he really wouldn't have been afraid of him.

But Little White Tiger and Old Ninth had no one to feed except themselves. Put simply, there was nothing he could hold over them.

Men like that really would kill him if pushed too far.

After a long hesitation, Young Master Hua decided not to risk it. After all, Old Ding's life wasn't worth much to the Hua Family.

"The goods aren't in the city." Young Master Hua sat up and said seriously, "If I tell you, will you let me go?"

"No," they answered in unison.

Clang!

With a cigarette clenched between his teeth, Little White Tiger tossed a shovel in front of Young Master Hua. "If you don't want to talk, go outside, dig yourself a hole, and jump in. I'll put up a headstone for you later."

Young Master Hua shrank back and made one last request.

"Then I don't want to go back in the pigpen. Give me a better room. And... I'm hungry."

The Hua Family's pampered young master had lived in luxury his entire life. When had he ever faced anything like this? Dejected, he hoped to improve his living conditions a little.

When none of them objected, Young Master Hua asked for a cigarette too.

"The goods... are leaving the city tonight."

After smoking half the cigarette, Young Master Hua spilled.

"A group of mysterious people offered a Wasteland Artifact in exchange for this shipment. My old man takes this very seriously. By now, Old Ding's men should be taking the goods to the exchange."

After finishing, Young Master Hua shrugged helplessly. "That's all I know."

Their eyes lit up.

Wasn't this just the opportunity they needed?

With the goods in their hands, how could Old Ding avoid getting dragged in?

If they were lucky, they could even pin the blame on the Hua Family.

"Time to work."

Xiao Fei stood and clapped his hands. "Old Black, round up the men."

Ice Prefecture's city gate.

Old Ding directed five trucks as they slowly passed through the checkpoint.

The city gate closed at six, but Old Ding's cargo was too sensitive, so his shipments always moved at night.

The squad leader guarding the gate counted the banknotes in his hand and nodded in satisfaction. "Boss Ding, thanks."

"We're all brothers here. No need for that. Once I'm through this busy spell, we'll do what we always do-have a night out at Heaven on Earth." Old Ding gave the squad leader a familiar pat, and the two exchanged smiles.

A gust of icy wind blew past, lifting the windproof tarp on a truck.

Steel bars had been welded across the truck's cargo bed. A group of skeletal children huddled against them, staring fearfully at the people outside.

"Brother, let me go this time."

Red Hair arrived with thirty or forty men in more than a dozen off-road vehicles.

A Lang used to handle jobs like this, and he had built up their connections outside the city too.

Now that A Lang was gone, Old Ding intended to escort the shipment himself.

Red Hair patted the weapon in his backpack. "Brother, you should stay here. It's too dangerous out there."

"There's too much trouble brewing right now. I'll go myself." Old Ding shook his head, missing A Lang a little more.

"Boss, Brother Lang took me along this route before. We've paid off all the bandit groups along the way. It'll be fine," Red Hair reassured him considerately.

With A Lang dead, Red Hair's position was hanging by a thread, so he had no choice but to grit his teeth and take on the job.

He knew perfectly well how dangerous it was outside the city. Old Ding could only pay off some of the established groups. The gangs that struck and moved on never took their money, and there were also bandits like Xiao Fei who couldn't be bought or persuaded.

So everything outside the city was uncertain.

"Old Ding, you'd better stay inside. I heard things have gotten pretty ugly between you and Smoke Fiend out there. That kid has some clout outside the city. Don't risk it," the gate's squad leader advised him kindly.

Old Ding looked over the men in front of him. Seeing that their spirits were high, he hesitated for a moment.

"All right, you go. Make sure you bring the item back."

At that moment, Old Ding still had no idea that his own young master had already sold him out.

"Don't worry, boss. We'll get it done."