Old Ding's dead end

Inside the city.

"Ice Prefecture News reports: Police in West Garden, Ice Prefecture, recently cracked a major human trafficking case outside the city. The ringleader confessed that the mastermind was renowned local entrepreneur Ding Changyan, chairman of Ding Enterprises. The West Garden Police Department has begun its investigation. We will continue to follow this story."

Clatter!

The bowl slipped from Fatty Ding's hand as he ate breakfast and fell to the floor.

Cold sweat streamed down his fleshy face.

Having climbed to his position, Old Ding naturally had a keen nose for trouble.

He had bought off practically everyone in West Garden District. If this still came out now, there was only one possibility.

Zhang Yang had already obtained evidence that could bring him down for good.

The man was clever. Rather than wait for Flower Boss to suppress the case, he had exposed it straight away.

Now, even if the Hua Family wanted to manage the fallout and bury the case, they could no longer do it.

Once certain things came to light, no amount of whitewashing could clean them up.

"Honey."

Fatty Ding's wife, a minor local celebrity in Ice Prefecture, pointed at the television in shock. "Th-they seem to be reporting on our company."

"I know!" Fatty Ding slammed down his bowl and chopsticks, took out his phone, and called one of his contacts.

"Hello, Director Zhang..."

Before Fatty Ding could finish, a woman's voice came from the other end. "Hello, the director is in a meeting. Also, this is his private number. Please follow the usual procedures for official business... beep, beep, beep."

The fat on Fatty Ding's face twitched as he dialed another number.

"Hello, Bureau Chief Li."

"Hello, the bureau chief is on leave. Who is this...?"

Old Ding could no longer hold back. "I called your home landline! Did he take leave and run away from home?"

"Beep, beep, beep."

The disconnected tone sounded.

Old Ding slumped helplessly into his chair. He did not need to think to know he had been abandoned.

The buddies who had once called him their brother were now desperate to avoid him.

"Th-they... are avoiding us," his young wife quietly reminded him, holding their child. "Old Ding, stop calling. They're the ones we need to watch out for now."

Old Ding's bulky body shuddered.

Fear slowly surfaced in his eyes.

Yes. If he went down, how many people would he drag down with him?

Those people would never let him reach a courtroom alive.

His former friends would be the first to try to kill him.

Trembling, Old Ding lit the cigar in his mouth and shakily dialed his last lifeline.

"Hello."

"Master Hua, I..."

Old Ding listened carefully to Master Hua's tone.

"Forget everything else. Get ready to run. We've worked together for so many years. I can't stand by and watch you spend the rest of your life in prison. I'll arrange for someone to take you out of the city. Go lie low in another prefecture."

Master Hua's tone was calm, and Old Ding breathed a sigh of relief.

After hanging up with profuse thanks, Old Ding let out a long, heavy breath.

But one remark from his young wife turned Old Ding's blood cold.

"Honey, you can't trust Master Hua. Don't you always say he devours people whole? Have you... forgotten what happened to the last man who did their dirty work?"

After Flower Boss abandoned his previous front man, the man and his entire family supposedly killed themselves at home by burning charcoal.

How could an Awakened at the Fourth Awakening possibly die from burning charcoal?

Even breathing carbon dioxide for hours might not kill one.

Old Ding slumped into his chair in despair. To outsiders, he seemed endlessly successful. In truth, he was only a dog with no control over his own fate.

"Y-you take our daughter and leave first."

Prompted by his young wife's warning, Old Ding fell silent for a moment, then took a key from his pocket. "Take some cash. Don't use the cards for now. Go hide in your hometown. If... if... I don't come for you, you must not contact me, and you must not trust anyone. Oh... and take the ledger with you. Remember, unless I call you myself, don't hand it over to anyone who comes looking for you. Otherwise, I'm dead for certain."

Knowing what awaited him, Old Ding reluctantly picked up his daughter and planted a hard kiss on her cheek.

"Daddy." The little girl reached out to hug Old Ding's neck, her voice sweet and childish. He handed her to his wife. "Go, now."

"Why don't we leave together?" his young wife pleaded through her tears. "Don't you know the City Guard Captain? Ask him to help. Give him money. A hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, a million..."

Old Ding gave a bitter smile. "Don't you understand yet? From the moment it happened until it hit the news, we didn't hear a thing. They prepared for this long ago. I might already be under surveillance. If I go with you, none of us will get out. Use the secret passage. I'll stay home and keep their attention on me."

A dying man's words were kind.

Old Ding stroked his daughter's head and smiled reluctantly. "I've spent my whole life doing evil. I deserve to die. I only hope I don't drag you into it. Go."

"Old Ding..."

"Go. I've been the Hua Family's dog for so many years, after all. He probably won't..." Old Ding forced a smile to comfort his wife.

Watching his wife and daughter slip into the secret passage, Old Ding let out a long breath.

Overwhelmed with emotion, he surveyed the lavish villa. This was the fruit of a lifetime's work.

Perhaps he regretted it at that moment, but there was no undoing the past.

Half an hour later, the door was pushed open.

Old Ding narrowed his eyes. Every security guard at the entrance lay on the ground, their blood pooling across the floor.

Five masked men walked into the living room.

"Lei Zi?" Old Ding chuckled.

The men wore cheap canvas clothes. Two of them even had gaping holes in their shoes, looking utterly destitute.

People dressed like that usually came from outside the city.

"Boss Hua told us to see you off. Rest easy on your way."

"Heh. Once the rabbit's dead, the hunting dogs get slaughtered. Fine. Well done." The last thread of hope in Old Ding's heart was utterly extinguished.

Flower Boss had come for him after all. Old Ding's heart sank into lifeless ashes.

"Heh heh." Lei Zi grinned. "We ain't interested in your business. The boss pays, we kill. Brother, you're a respectable man. Don't worry. One cut and it's done. We won't touch your face or spoil the corpse."

With that, all five lunged at Old Ding at once.

Five Third Awakening Lei Zi were more than even Old Ding could handle.

Old Ding, who had seemed utterly deflated, suddenly rose at the last moment.

A three-meter-tall giant bear lunged out from behind him.

How could an underworld boss who lived by the blade simply surrender?

"Damn it! If Flower Boss won't show loyalty, he can't blame me for turning on him!"

Old Ding glanced at the secret passage. Once he was sure his wife and daughter had safely left, he smashed through a window and leaped outside.

Lei Zi caught up and slashed Old Ding's shoulder, but his thick, tough flesh took the blow as he charged out of the house.

"After him!"

The five exchanged a glance and gave chase together.

Old Ding rushed out of the courtyard, passing the bodies of his security guards all along the way.

The moment he climbed over the wall, an SUV without license plates pulled up right outside Old Ding's front gate.

"Old Ding? Get in!"

Flower Boss's butler waved to Old Ding from inside the SUV, oblivious to what had happened. "Master Hua sent me to see you off."

"See your fucking mother off!"

Old Ding cursed, turned, and ran without looking back.

The butler stared blankly as Old Ding ran farther and farther away, then took out his phone. "Master Hua, Old Ding ran."

"Ran?" Sitting in Young Master Hua's mourning hall, Flower Boss scratched his head in bewilderment. "I'm sending him out of the city. What the fuck is he running for?"

"Could he... think we're trying to silence him?"

The butler asked, feeling wronged.

Flower Boss looked blankly at his son's memorial portrait. "For once in my life, I show some mercy, and he doesn't believe me."

Losing his son had made Flower Boss start to believe in karmic retribution. Otherwise, he would have silenced Old Ding long ago.

Meanwhile,

The front gate was pulled open.

The five Lei Zi swaggered out, carrying blood-drenched blades.

The butler met their eyes.

"You... you're... damn it, you're the ones who attacked Old Ding?"

The butler realized why Old Ding had run the moment he saw him. Someone had spooked him.

The five Lei Zi brazenly walked up to the butler's luxury car and stuck their heads inside to look around.

To ease Old Ding's suspicions, the butler had deliberately come alone.

After confirming that the butler was alone, one of the contract killers took out his phone and kept scrolling while studying him.

"Who do you work for?" the butler demanded.

"Shh." Lei Zi raised his index finger for silence.

"Yep, the Flower Mansion's butler." Lei Zi deliberately held up the photograph on his phone beside the butler's face for comparison. "You're not worth much, huh? Fifty thousand. I almost don't feel like killing you."

Beads of sweat appeared on the butler's forehead. He had heard a little about Lei Zi's way of doing things.

Once they confirmed a target, they would not stop until that target was dead.

"Brother, brother, how about this? I'll pay a hundred thousand if you tell me who hired you. You're out here to make money too..."

Seeing the men closing in around him, the butler hurried to speak.

"We earn our money honestly. If we sold out our boss, who'd ever hire us again? Tell you what... after you're reborn in your next life, contact us if you want someone killed. We'll give you twenty percent off."

"Remember our name: the Five Wolves of Pale Mountain."