Snatching Them Away

"Flower Boss is very careful. He never gets his hands dirty, and I have no access to the Hua Family's own businesses."

Sitting in the interrogation room, Old Ding asked Zhang Yang for a cigarette and slowly began explaining.

"You don't have to pay him every month?"

Hi Dog thought Old Ding was deliberately holding out. He pulled out a hammer, ready to use the Great Memory Restoration Technique.

Zhang Yang waved Hi Dog off in disgust.

These boys never knew when to hold back. If they actually hammered Old Ding to death, they would really have a mess on their hands.

Old Ding explained helplessly, "Yes, I hand over money every month, but how can you prove it came from dirty work? They could just call it rent. What are you going to charge him with, messing up property prices?"

Little White Tiger and Zhang Yang exchanged a look. Neither of them believed Old Ding.

Old Ding was a local big shot. There was no way he had dealt with Flower Boss without keeping some leverage.

"We're all seasoned actors here. Drop the act and tell us your terms." Zhang Yang tapped the table. "If you really won't talk, you're no use to me. I'll let you go right now. You can leave."

Old Ding froze.

Leave?

If he walked out of the police station now, someone would come to kill him before he made it a hundred meters.

Zhang Yang knew that perfectly well. That was precisely why he had said it.

"Unless Flower Boss goes down, you probably won't survive. Your family will die even if they run to the ends of the earth." Little White Tiger pursed his lips.

Old Ding had reached a dead end, and Little White Tiger stopped pretending.

But Old Ding was dumbfounded.

"Aren't my wife and kid in your hands?"

"Nope. I was just scaring you." Little White Tiger shrugged, looking innocent.

They had only been in the city for a day. Between hiring Lei Zi and discussing their plans with Zhang Yang, when would they have had time to find his wife and child?

Old Ding's face instantly drained of color.

At least his wife and child would have been safe in Little White Tiger's hands. Out there, they were in real danger.

"Fuck! I actually believed your bullshit!"

Unable to hold back any longer, Old Ding lunged forward to punch Little White Tiger.

Old Ninth darted behind him and hoisted his enormous body into the air.

"Get this straight. You're in no position to throw a tantrum with us anymore. Worst case, I kill you and find some other way to take on Flower Boss."

Bang!

Old Ninth slammed Old Ding into the corner.

At that moment, Old Ding finally understood why Old Ninth had insisted on taking him to Young Master Hua's funeral.

Old Ninth had no leverage over him and was afraid he would refuse to cooperate.

So he had used the most direct method possible to cut off every route of retreat.

"Tell us where your wife and child are, and I'll send someone to pick them up. Provided you cooperate," Zhang Yang said.

Old Ding no longer dared to play games. He cried out, almost pleading, "My wife has the ledger. You have to find her, or you'll never bring Flower Boss down."

With that, Old Ding picked up his phone and called his wife.

"Honey, where are you?"

"I'm at Mimi's place. The city gates are full of the Hua Family's people. I can't get out." Old Ding's wife sobbed. "Honey, I'm so scared."

His heart aching, Old Ding comforted her. "Wait for me. I'll send someone to get you."

Once they had his wife's address, Old Ninth took his men and set out without another word.

The Flower Mansion.

Flower Boss's phone rang.

"Master Hua, Little White Tiger went out with some men. Looks like they're picking someone up. I heard them mention a ledger."

On the other end, a mole inside the station secretly reported what had happened.

Whoosh!

Flower Boss abruptly rose, his eyes blazing with murderous intent.

If Old Ding's ledger fell into Zhang Yang's hands, the Hua Family would no longer have a place in the city.

"Dad? What's wrong?" Flower Boss's two remaining sons came over to ask.

"Little White Tiger has a death wish. He can't blame me for what happens next. I'm killing them tonight."

Flower Boss barked an order. "Gather the men. Come with me."

A few minutes later, Flower Boss charged out of the Hua Family compound with dozens of Awakened.

South Garden District.

As the most prosperous district in all of Ice Prefecture, it looked far better than the other districts.

It was also the territory of Yuan, one of the Ice Prefecture Five Overlords.

Compared with the others, Yuan rarely got involved in street-level affairs. She was also the only woman among the Five Overlords.

Inside a small high-rise packed with prostitutes, customers crowded the corridors on every floor.

Wearing sunglasses and a mask, Little White Tiger wove through the customers. The rooms were poorly soundproofed, and indecent moans rose and fell throughout the corridors.

"Hey, handsome, want some fun?"

"Three hundred a go. I'll give you twenty percent off, sweetie."

"Cute boy, fancy a round?"

Women without customers stood by the stairs, openly soliciting business.

Little White Tiger lacked Old Ninth's roguish good looks, but he practically radiated testosterone, leaving the prostitutes drooling over him.

Following the address, they reached the seventh floor, where Old Ding's wife was hiding. Old Ninth lightly nudged Little White Tiger with his hand and warned him, "Something's wrong."

Little White Tiger scanned the customers in the corridor. They were no customers.

Their disguises were good, but the floor where Old Ding's wife was staying lacked those suggestive sounds of panting.

"We've been leaked." Pretending he was merely passing through, Little White Tiger headed straight up to the eighth floor.

At the same time, he pulled out his phone and quickly messaged the hired muscle under his command: "Get to work."

"What do we do?" Old Ninth asked anxiously.

If Old Ding's wife fell into someone else's hands, Zhang Yang's plan would be ruined.

"Fuck."

Little White Tiger stopped, leaned against the eighth-floor stairwell, and quietly lit a cigarette. "How did word get out?"

"There's a mole in the station."

That was no surprise. Flower Boss had been in West Garden for so many years that Zhang Yang could not possibly clear out all his connections inside the police station overnight.

As they spoke, neither noticed that this floor lacked the traffic of the others.

Click, click, click.

The crisp sound of high heels came from the eighth-floor corridor.

A seductive woman wearing a white fur shawl and a qipao slit all the way to the top of her thigh entered the stairwell, apparently heading downstairs.

Little White Tiger instinctively met her eyes. Her pupils widened slightly before she smiled alluringly. "What a handsome young thing. Interested? A thousand."

The woman looked to be in her twenties. She was stunning, with sultry eyes and red lips that were impossible to resist. Her ample cleavage was enough to set anyone's imagination running wild.

Women this beautiful were rare in the Apocalypse.

Old Ninth grinned. "You're paying me?"

The woman rolled her eyes at Old Ninth, tossed her hair, and smiled softly at Little White Tiger. "Sweetie, I haven't had a customer today. Interested in helping a girl's business along?"

"I'll give you ten thousand." Little White Tiger did not refuse. He pulled out a stack of cash and offered it to her. "Do something for me, and the money's yours."

"Go knock on the door at the end of the seventh-floor corridor and see who's inside. Can you do that?"

Little White Tiger did not know whether Old Ding's wife had already been taken, so he wanted the woman to scout ahead.

The woman narrowed her eyes and looked Little White Tiger up and down, then took the money and tucked it into her seemingly bottomless cleavage.

"Wait for my news."

Swaying her slender waist, the woman sashayed downstairs.

A moment later, she brought a young married woman holding a child up to the eighth floor.

"All done."

As though expecting a reward, the woman sidled up to Little White Tiger, pressing her generous breasts against his solid chest.

He instinctively tried to retreat, only to discover the wall directly behind him.

Seeing this, she giggled and brought her face close to his, her sweetly scented breath brushing his face.

"You're so cute."

She pinched Little White Tiger's cheek, teasing him.

Old Ninth patted Little White Tiger earnestly. "Buddy, she definitely wants to fuck you. Stay away from her. She's a human juicer."

Then Old Ninth turned serious, took out Old Ding's thumb ring, and told his wife, "Old Ding sent us to pick you up."

"Th-thank you for the trouble."

Still shaken, the woman hugged her child tightly and cast a wary glance at the seductive woman.

"Move out."

Flushed bright red by the woman's teasing, Little White Tiger pushed her away and led Old Ding's wife off as though fleeing.

As they passed the seventh floor, the men lining the corridor glared viciously at the group hurrying downstairs.

One of the Awakened flicked his sleeve, and a short blade slid into his hand.

"Don't!"

Another Awakened grabbed his companion in alarm. "Are you crazy? You'd dare start a fight in Sister Yuan's building? Do you want to make it out of here or not?"