No word at all

Early the next morning, Yu Mingyuan and the rest of his family sat around the dining table having breakfast at the Yu family's suburban villa.

"Mingyuan, we've arranged to go camping at Zha Lake Reservoir next weekend. Want to come?" An Qiqi asked sweetly.

"I've got a lot going on lately, so I'll pass. You guys go ahead." Yu Mingyuan smiled. "Have fun."

An Qiqi studied him with a mischievous look. "Have you been in a bad mood lately? Did something happen at the company?"

"Nothing happened. I've just been busy." Yu Mingyuan offered no further explanation.

Seeing that he seemed to be in a bad mood, the others said nothing more. After breakfast, they all went off to attend to their own business.

Once Yu Mingyuan finished eating, he neatly set down his bowl and chopsticks and prepared to leave for work.

Tap, tap!

Footsteps sounded as his father, Yu Jinrong, came downstairs. He glanced at his son and asked, "Heading to work?"

Seeing his father coming down, Yu Mingyuan immediately turned and walked to the foot of the stairs. Looking at him, he replied, "I was just about to head to the company, Dad!"

Yu Jinrong came downstairs and walked toward the dining room. "Trouble at the company?"

Yu Mingyuan paused, then immediately followed on his left. "Yes. A shipment was hijacked, and several of our workers were taken hostage."

"Things at the docks are complicated. Can you handle it?" Yu Jinrong asked.

"No problem, Dad. I can take care of it." Yu Mingyuan was very respectful toward his father, but his answer was still quite confident.

Hearing that answer, Yu Jinrong asked no further questions. "Don't wear yourself out. You can't build everything in a day. Make sure you get some rest."

"Sure." Yu Mingyuan nodded. "I'm off to work, then, Dad."

"Go ahead." Yu Jinrong sat down at the dining table and replied with a faint smile.

Yu Mingyuan exchanged a few more words with his father, then waited until he picked up his chopsticks and began eating before turning to leave.

The predicament facing the company was actually quite dangerous. If he handled it badly, he might fail to win over the Dirty Gang's three companies and offend his contacts at sea, causing the new business to collapse. Even so, Yu Mingyuan apparently had no intention of asking his father for help.

After leaving home, Yu Mingyuan sat in his car and called Tang Baiqing. "I thought it over last night. Let's talk to the Dock Gang after all."

"There you go. You've finally come around," Tang Baiqing replied immediately. "All right, I'll arrange it with Xu Hu. You and I will meet first tonight, then we'll talk to them."

"Okay. That's settled." Yu Mingyuan hung up and drove toward the company, his face expressionless.

Inside the Longqiao Import and Export Trading Company at Tianhong Civil Harbor in Zhannan District, Wei Xiangzuo sat in a wooden chair, smoking as he spoke with Xu Hu, the Gang Leader of the Zhannan Wharf Gang, and his younger brother, Xu Er.

Organizations like the Dock Gang had existed since ancient times. The only difference was that their ways of surviving changed with the times. In peaceful eras, they mostly operated as unions, trading companies, corporate groups, or civic organizations, making money and surviving fairly discreetly. In times of turmoil, organizations like these became more active and wielded greater influence.

For example, before the new era, many import and export ports at home and abroad had been home to numerous companies dealing in privately sourced vehicles, parallel-import cars, and even smuggled contraband. These companies and groups had murky structures, strange supply channels, and vaguely defined sales practices. The waters ran deep. Nothing might happen for years, but when a case broke, it involved major groups and sums in the hundreds of millions or billions. In everyday life, however, they kept an extremely low profile.

In turbulent times, organizations like these became more active and visible. First, they banded together to make money and protect their interests. Second, they formed cohesive groups with overwhelming influence, allowing them to establish monopolies in particular industries. During such periods, these groups became less corporate, less institutional, and less formal, while taking on more of an underworld character. With the rules in disarray, personal ties still mattered most.

Dragon City's Dock Gang belonged to the latter category. Since the city's infrastructure had yet to become fully modernized, many trades and industries still depended on manual labor to function. With so many workers, various groups emerged, and organizational structures followed.

Dragon City was a port city, and the number of Dock Gang workers was enormous, far beyond anything the organizations in the sanitation industry could compare with. Its internal structure, however, was also fairly loose, and its underworld character stronger. Dragon City's Dock Gang had a Dockworkers General Association, classified as a civic organization. Put simply, its job was to deal with the government, and Dock Gang workers from every district were members.

On the surface, the Dockworkers General Association was perfectly legal, an officially recognized civic organization. Beneath the table, however, territorial divisions were much more naked and governed by underworld rules. For example, the Dock Gang in Zhannan District frequently fought covertly with those in Longkou District and Xinjie District. Their proximity meant they had to compete for illicit shipping channels and markets.

Su Tianbei had previously mentioned that Wei Xiangzuo had disappeared for several years. Supposedly, a clash with people from Longkou District had ended in a death, forcing him to flee.

The leaders of each district's Dock Gang had distinctly underworld-style titles, such as Hall Master and Gang Leader. They also held generational ranks within the gang, having formally entered a lineage and acknowledged masters and senior brothers. Wei Xiangzuo and Xu Hu, for example, had both become disciples of masters at the General Association, placing them in the Xiang generation. However, Xu Hu's name had already become familiar before he entered the trade, so outsiders rarely called him Xu Xianghu.

A two-meter-tall statue of Lord Guan stood in the center of the Longqiao Import and Export Trading Company's main hall, with an incense burner before it. All in all, the place had a distinctly gangster feel.

Xu Hu was the Gang Leader-in plain terms, the top boss and big shot of the Dock Gang in Zhannan District. Wei Xiangzuo was the Hall Master, primarily responsible for handling the various specific operations beneath the table.

"Wei, we've arranged to meet Yu Mingyuan tonight. Want to come along?" Xu Hu asked.

"You're handling the talks, so you go. I won't get involved," Wei Xiangzuo replied, smoking. "I'll just stick to what I'm already handling."

Xu Hu smiled. "All right. I'll feel him out tonight."

"Yeah. If he's willing to pay his dues, help him get his people released," Wei Xiangzuo suggested. "Just follow the rules."

"Sure," Xu Hu agreed.

"All right, I'm heading out." Having finished the discussion, Wei Xiangzuo stood and left.

At noon.

Near Haiyan Pit, Kong Zhenghui and Su Tianyu sat in their car. After they had waited for over twenty minutes, a motorized tricycle finally came toward them. Its rider was the shifty-looking man Kong Zhenghui had met the previous night.

The man stopped his tricycle, pulled open the car door, and climbed into Kong Zhenghui's car. "I asked around, but I couldn't find any word about seven speedboats."

Kong Zhenghui was unhappy to hear that. "I paid you six thousand, and that's all you've got for me?!"

"I asked everyone I could, but nobody's heard anything about those seven speedboats. I even asked friends outside the district. They said no cops had gone out on the water to seize any cargo either," the shifty-looking man said quietly. "That's all I can tell you."

Kong Zhenghui blinked. "Can you dig a little deeper? Get something from the Dock Gang's higher-ups, for example?"

"That'll cost extra," the man replied after a moment's thought.

"Go, go, go! Get the hell out!" Kong Zhenghui waved him away.

The shifty-looking man grew angry too. Pushing open the car door, he replied, "I'm a man of integrity. You paid me six thousand, and I told you there's no news. You got your money's worth."

With that, the man shut the door and left.

"Damn, this is weird!" Kong Zhenghui said, looking at Su Tianyu. "That guy's been working the docks for a long time. If even he can't find anything, then...?"

"No news is the biggest news of all," Su Tianyu interrupted. "Since we can't find anything out, we might as well take a more direct approach."

"How direct?"

"...!" Su Tianyu considered it for a long moment, then pulled out his phone and dialed a number.