Prelude to the offensive

In Wang Daolin's room at the People's Hospital in Zhannan District, five or six mid-level officials from the Dragon City Police Bureau angrily cursed the people from Changqing Company, indignant that Wang had been dragged into the mess.

Wang Daolin wasn't injured at all. Sitting on the hospital bed, he lit a cigarette, took two deep drags, then suddenly said, "When Changqing Company first arrived, they knew how to behave. They stayed out of our business, and we stayed out of theirs. These past few years, they've set up a chamber of commerce and planted people inside the government. Now that they've built their network, they think they're above everyone. They've even got the balls to shoot at my cap now. No, I'm not swallowing this!"

"If you can't swallow it, investigate the hell out of it," a friend around Wang Daolin's age immediately replied with a frown. "The vandalism and arson, the serious assault on the Sanitation Company employees, the public shooting at the Cantonese Restaurant-they're all leads. Pick any one of them, and we'll have Li Hongze pissing his pants."

"Guys, do you know what Second Su's boy came to talk to me about today?" Wang Daolin had completely shaken off his lingering fear. Instead, he asked the question quite calmly.

"What did he want?" someone asked.

"He asked me to name my price!" Wang Daolin took a drag and stared at the others. "If we work on this together, we don't just get to settle the score. There's something in it for us, too. Most importantly, we've got legitimate grounds. We weren't the ones who started this."

"Name your price? What price?"

"What did he say?"

"...!"

Everyone was intrigued and gathered around Wang Daolin.

About ten minutes later, Wang Daolin left his room and went downstairs, just as Su Tiannan was being wheeled out of the emergency room. He had been shot, but fortunately, the bullet had passed through the edge of his abdomen. It was a through-and-through wound that had missed his major organs, though his intestine had been damaged, and he would need surgery right away.

"Tiannan, are you all right?" Wang Daolin asked, walking beside the wheeled bed.

Su Tiannan hadn't been given general anesthesia and was still conscious. Looking at Wang Daolin, he said in a trembling voice, "That was way too close, Uncle Wang!"

Wang Daolin turned to the nurse beside them and said politely, "I'm with the Police Bureau. I'd like a moment alone with him."

"Don't take too long. He needs to get ready for surgery." The nurse walked away.

Wang Daolin looked down at Su Tiannan and said bluntly, "That thing we discussed at the restaurant-I'll help you arrange it."

"Uncle Wang!" Hearing this, Su Tiannan tried to sit up.

"It's all right, it's all right. Stay down." Wang Daolin pressed a hand against Su Tiannan's shoulder, then bent over and said, "Hand the men over to me. You don't need to worry about the rest."

"Okay, okay!" Su Tiannan nodded repeatedly.

"If your Four Companies still have any cards left to play, don't rush to put them on the table. Let me make my move first." Wang Daolin looked at Su Tiannan calmly. "If I get involved, I won't be handling this alone. You'll need to take care of the contacts who help us out afterward."

"I understand, I understand!"

"Here..." Wang Daolin picked up the medication sheet lying on the bed, wrote a phone number on it, and slipped it to Su Tiannan. "Call this number in a bit."

"Got it!" Su Tiannan was so excited that every hair on his body stood on end.

"Focus on getting better. We'll talk about the rest tomorrow." Wang Daolin patted Tian Nan's arm, then turned and left.

After watching Wang Daolin walk away, Su Tiannan shot upright in excitement. Holding his wound with his left hand, he pulled out his phone with his right and immediately called Su Tianyu. "Hello?"

"Big brother, how are you? I heard you got shot! Everyone's on their way to the hospital. Wait for me, wait for me! Hang in there...!" Su Tianyu's mouth rattled like a machine gun, his voice full of worry.

"Stop fucking acting! You know where I'm hurt better than a CT scanner does. What are you wailing for?!" Su Tiannan cursed under his breath, then immediately continued, "Uncle Wang came to see me. Get Lu Feng's goons out right now. I'll give you a number. You and Tianbei take the men over, and make sure nothing else goes wrong."

"Okay, understood," Su Tianyu immediately replied.

About five minutes later, just after Wang Daolin had left the hospital, Li Xing's car from the Police Bureau and the minivan carrying Li Hongze and Lu Feng all pulled into the hospital's second parking lot.

Li Xing was the first to get out, accompanied by an aide. He hurried into the main building and made his way straight to Wang Daolin's room.

"Where's Wang? How's he doing?" Li Xing asked the officers standing outside the door.

Everyone turned to look at Li Xing. A middle-aged officer with the rank of police captain smiled and replied, "Oh, Director Li!"

"Where's Wang? Is he inside?"

"He just left," the police captain replied quietly. "The incident at the Cantonese Restaurant has caused quite a stir. Deputy Bureau Chief Hong just went back to headquarters to hold a meeting on opening an investigation. Wang's heading over to attend."

"Oh, I thought he was still at the hospital." By now, Li Xing was growing deeply anxious.

"Did you need him for something?" The police captain's words sounded ordinary, but his tone was slightly confrontational.

Li Xing paused before replying, "Nothing much. I heard he was at the scene of the shooting, so I came to check on him."

"Oh." The police captain nodded and said nothing more.

"All right, I'll let you get on with things. I'll be going." Li Xing bade everyone goodbye.

The others nodded in acknowledgment.

Li Xing hurried downstairs, took out his phone, and called Wang Daolin directly, but Wang didn't answer.

"God, what a fucking mess!" Li Xing grumbled, his expression grim. He walked over to the minivan, pulled the door open, and climbed in.

"Did you see Wang Daolin?" Li Hongze asked immediately.

"No. He's gone back to the Police Bureau. I just called him, but he didn't answer either," Li Xing said darkly.

"You have to talk to him," Li Hongze said urgently. "We can't let this turn into a misunderstanding."

"How am I supposed to talk to him? Tell him outright that Lu Feng didn't send the men who shot at him and Su Tiannan?" Li Xing replied with a frown. "Wouldn't that be indirectly admitting that Lu Feng was involved in the earlier incidents, and that I was involved too?"

"Just drop him a hint!" Lu Feng suggested.

Li Xing fixed a piercing gaze on Lu Feng and suddenly asked, "Tell me the truth. Did you hire the gunman or not?!"

"???"

At those words, Lu Feng's face instantly turned purple.

Silence fell inside the van. After waiting a long while, Li Hongze also pressed him. "Say something. Did you hire him?"

Lu Feng stared at Li Hongze in disbelief. After struggling to speak for a while, he roared, "Ask me that one more time, and I'll fucking kill myself! How many times do I have to say it? That gunman has absolutely nothing to do with me!"

Li Xing stared at Lu Feng for a long time, then turned away and said, "A shooting, and the gunman even fired at a Police Bureau director. This... is definitely beyond my power to suppress. Now it all depends on Wang Daolin's attitude. I'll head back to the Police Bureau in a bit and call you if there's any news."

"Okay." Li Hongze nodded.

Clunk!

Li Xing pushed open the door and stepped out.

Lu Feng was at his breaking point. After a long silence, he suddenly asked Li Hongze, "Brother, if I didn't arrange the shooting, could Wang Daolin have arranged it himself?"

Li Hongze froze.

Thinking Li Hongze wanted him to continue, Lu Feng immediately added, "Wang Daolin and Second Su served together. He wants a piece of the sanitation business, but he has no legitimate excuse to get involved, so he and Su Tiannan staged an attack on themselves."

"I praised you just two days ago for finally learning to use your brain. How can you say something this stupid now?" Li Hongze looked helplessly at Lu Feng and replied quietly, "Are you an idiot? Wang Daolin's a police officer. A director! How sick in the head would he have to be to have three shots fired at himself in a public place?!"

In the police vehicle beside them, Li Xing sat silently in the front passenger seat.

As the driver headed out of the hospital grounds, he couldn't help asking, "Lu Feng said he didn't do it. Who else could it have been?"

"You believe him just because he says so? Who knows how many crimes Lu Feng had to his name before he came to Dragon City? Bringing in Big Circle men from out of town, committing crimes with guns-he's better at that than anyone!" Li Xing replied with a frown. "Whether they can take over Zhannan District directly affects Lu Feng's interests. With the Four Companies banding together to protest, he's more anxious than anyone. His denial doesn't mean he didn't do it. It just means things have gotten too serious for him to admit it. Not a single honest word comes out of these fucking outlaws' mouths!"

Three vans stood on a rural dirt road somewhere in Zhannan District. Su Tianbei stood outside, smoking and scanning their surroundings.

In the middle van, Su Tianyu sat in the front passenger seat, growing drowsy and yawning nonstop.

Inside the van, the Iron-Blooded Warrior, Floral Shirt, had both hands bound with chains. His head lowered, he squinted at Su Tianyu and cursed, "You little bastard, what the hell are you trying to do?"

Su Tianyu wasn't in the mood to bother with him.

"You've got us locked up, but you don't dare hand us over to the cops, and you don't dare kill me. When all's said and done, I reckon you're the one who'll be suffering. Heh!" Floral Shirt said viciously. "Like I said, you'd better not let me out, or I'll break both your legs too."

Annoyed by the noise, Su Tianyu turned to him and said, "Stop barking. The Four Companies have already finished negotiating with your Changqing Company. Someone from the Police Bureau will be here to pick you up soon. Li Xing's men."

Floral Shirt froze for a moment, then sneered. "At least you've got some brains."

"Why else would we grab you? It was all to get them talking." With that, Su Tianyu fell silent again.

About ten minutes later, two police vans pulled up, and a dozen or so officers got out. After exchanging a few words with Su Tianbei, the officer in charge pulled open the van's door and began taking the men out.

Floral Shirt and the others were led away. Su Tianbei nodded to the officer in charge, then immediately left with his own people.

After the band of Iron-Blooded Warriors was loaded into a van, Floral Shirt sat in the middle row and asked with a smile, "Brother Li didn't come?"

"Which Brother Li?" the officer in charge asked.

"Didn't Li Xing send you?" Floral Shirt had no idea there had been a shooting outside, much less that Wang Daolin had been shot at too. From his perspective, he genuinely believed the higher-ups had settled things. After all, the Su Family certainly wasn't powerful enough to keep holding them indefinitely.

Looking somewhat bewildered, the officer in charge asked the Iron-Blooded Warrior, "You know Li Xing?"

"Fuck, we go whoring together all the time. We were drinking together just a couple of days ago. Hey, which unit are you guys from?" Floral Shirt asked.

Very interested, the officer bent down and handed Floral Shirt a cigarette. "Here, keep talking. Where did you and Brother Li go whoring? How come you didn't invite us?"

Inside an upscale apartment building in Longkou District.

A refined-looking middle-aged man climbed out of bed, went into his study, and said into his phone, "Has Lu Feng lost his mind? Why is he going after Wang Daolin?"

"I don't know, but it's caused quite a stir. The Police Bureau held a meeting overnight to open an investigation."

"...Here's what you do. Tomorrow, have someone pass a message to the Four Companies. Tell them this..." The middle-aged man paused, then began giving his secretary instructions.