"Blackhearted Shark, your granddad finally found you, you bastard!"
"Boss Zhang, leaving aside how your younger brother provoked us that day and killed my brother first... we're here for the Jianghuai Assembly today. Both the authorities and the underworld have said that harmony comes first..."
"Harmony comes first? Blackhearted Shark, you're scared, aren't you?"
"Zhang, it isn't that I, Sha Datong, am afraid of you. But if I fight you now, wouldn't that be showing contempt for Inspector Bai of the Heaven-Reliant Sword, Desperate Third Son Zhang White Ribbon, and the local Huankou bosses who issued the invitations with them...? Listen to me. Once the Jianghuai Assembly is over, we can settle this out in the wilderness... but better still, let's take this assembly as a chance to turn spears and shields into jade and silk, shake hands, and make peace..."
"Better my ass! If I don't avenge my brother, how can I, Young Master Zhang, keep showing my face in the Huai Region?!"
"You're spitting on the face I'm giving you. Master Sha is standing right here. Come kill me!"
"Stay right there!"
"Whoever moves is the other's grandson."
On the third floor of the largest restaurant in the market beside Huankou Town's ferry landing, Brocade-clad Patrol Cavalry officer Zhou Xingfan had booked the entire floor for a team-building gathering with a squad of Street-Cleaning Tigers and a squad of gang members formerly of the Longwhale Gang, now belonging to who knew what gang. He listened dumbfounded as Blackhearted Shark Sha Datong baited his hook by the second-floor hall's railing. All he could do was exchange looks with the burly men at the four or five tables filling the floor, each gripping his weapon.
A moment later, thumping footsteps indeed sounded below, followed by shoving, weapons being drawn, startled