Recaps

After the previous night’s violence, Lin Feng learned that NLG’s stock had been hit by concentrated short selling and accusations of financial fraud, wiping out billions in market value. He refused to issue a public response and ordered K to buy back every minority shareholder’s shares once the panic eased, believing those who had stayed silent had sided with his enemies.

• K told Lin Feng that NLG’s stock had plunged more than 22% shortly after the market opened, triggering a trading halt amid concentrated algorithmic sell orders.
• K reported that Western Finance Network accused NLG of financial fraud, while a supposed minority shareholder filed an SEC complaint and news networks broadcast the allegations.
• Lin Feng learned NLG had closed down 47.3%, losing about two billion dollars in market value, and concluded that his opponents were willing to spend heavily to attack it.
• Lin Feng rejected K’s suggestion to issue a statement or contact the SEC, saying they should let the attackers believe they had won.
• K told Lin Feng that none of the minority shareholders had contacted them, and Lin Feng ordered him to buy back all their shares once the panic eased.

At Eagle Creek Ranch, Lin Feng learned that three hedge funds were coordinating the NLG short attack with help from minority shareholders and ordered a buyback strategy to pressure the suspected collaborators. With Philip’s associates remaining suspiciously quiet, Lin Feng prepared for a wider conflict and believed the real hunt had begun.

• K reported that NLG’s short positions led to three hedge funds whose settlements ran through the same Cayman Islands shell company.
• K told Lin Feng that twenty-three of NLG’s minority shareholders had likely lent shares to the short sellers, while fourteen others had shown concern and offered cooperation.
• Lin Feng ordered NLG to buy back shares from the fourteen cooperative shareholders at the pre-suspension closing price plus a ten percent premium.
• Lin Feng directed NLG to offer the twenty-three suspected collaborators twelve dollars per share and threaten to report evidence of their collusion to regulators and newspapers if they refused.
• K reported that Philip’s waiter had confessed to the murder and that the people behind Philip had made no public or business moves.
• Lin Feng said his opponents were waiting for him to make a mistake, then shredded the shareholder report and concluded that the real hunt had begun.

Philip Winslow met Lin Feng at a Seattle restaurant and demanded that he surrender Mike Anderson’s assets for five million dollars and leave the United States. Lin Feng rejected Philip’s intimidation without answering, and the chapter ended with him watching Philip leave, his gaze turning cold.

• Philip Winslow confronted Lin Feng over NLG’s falling share price, the SEC investigation, and the media scrutiny surrounding Lin Feng’s companies.
• Philip offered Lin Feng five million dollars to transfer Mike Anderson’s assets and leave the United States within thirty days.
• Lin Feng ignored the agreement and blew cigar smoke in Philip’s face, asking if Philip was trying to scare him.
• Philip used a racist insult and ordered Lin Feng to sign the agreement within three days, calling it his last chance.
• Philip left the restaurant, and Lin Feng left the agreement untouched as his expression turned cold.

Lin Feng watched as a waiter killed Philip and both of his bodyguards in a Seattle restaurant, then calmly sat down to smoke. As sirens approached, Lin Feng relit his cigar and watched the waiter.

• Lin Feng slid his chair away from the table as a waiter moved behind Philip.
• The waiter seized Philip by the hair and stabbed him in the neck, killing him.
• The waiter smashed one bodyguard with a wine bottle, stabbed the other in the throat, and slit the first guard’s throat.
• The restaurant erupted into panic, but the waiter sat down and lit a cigarette instead of fleeing.
• Lin Feng lit his cigar again as sirens approached outside.

After witnessing the restaurant murders, Lin Feng was questioned by Seattle police until Deputy Superintendent Jonathan Lee took over in secret. Jonathan revealed that a powerful political circle had discovered their relationship and warned him to stop helping Lin Feng, leaving Lin Feng to consider the threat.

• Police took Lin Feng and Lü Yi to the station to assist with the investigation into the restaurant killings.
• Lin Feng calmly answered officers’ questions and maintained that his meeting with Philip Winslow had involved ordinary business dealings.
• Jonathan Lee entered the interrogation room, dismissed the officers, disabled the recording devices, searched for hidden surveillance, and freed Lin Feng from his handcuffs.
• Jonathan Lee bowed to Lin Feng and told him that a congressman’s assistant had warned him not to interfere in matters involving Lin Feng.
• Jonathan Lee said the warning reflected the collective will of a powerful political circle, and Lin Feng replied that he understood.

Lin Feng reflected on the invisible barriers facing Great East people in America and considered whether to leave or resist. He rejected returning home because he needed to stay in the United States to build his forces, and chose to fight.

• Lin Feng recalled how American society welcomed Great East investors while barring them from core interests and positions of power.
• Lin Feng concluded that his own challenges to established rules had made powerful interests determined to drive him out.
• Jonathan Lee offered Lin Feng two choices: return to Great East or remain and fight, warning that they could not yet withstand the government’s agencies.
• Lin Feng considered returning home while directing his existing forces remotely, but rejected the plan because his daily death soldier recruits depended on his location.
• Lin Feng chose to stay and fight, and Jonathan Lee pledged to stand by him.

Lin Feng deliberately pleaded guilty to a rushed obstruction charge and was sentenced to ten months in Washington State Penitentiary, where the warden helped carry out his plan. While his enemies celebrated his imprisonment and NLG’s share price rebounded, the warden reported that Lin Feng was safe and everything was going smoothly.

• The Seattle district attorney’s office charged Lin Feng with obstruction of official duties and brought him to a hearing that afternoon.
• Lin Feng pleaded guilty, and the judge sentenced him to ten months in Washington State Penitentiary; the judge tapped his gavel three times as a signal Lin Feng understood.
• Lin Feng arrived at the prison, completed intake, and was assigned a cell; the warden told him that his lawyer would visit the next day to pass along information and arrangements.
• The warden’s secret loyalty to Lin Feng enabled the imprisonment to proceed as planned, while Lin Feng settled into his cell calmly.
• After Lin Feng’s arrest spread through Seattle, NLG’s share price rose by eight percent and his enemies celebrated; the warden called an unlisted number and reported that Master was settled in and everything was going smoothly.

K met Robert Hines in a Seattle café, where Robert threatened Lin’s safety in prison and offered K money and a new future in exchange for betraying him. K pretended to accept, then secretly sent an associate to investigate who was behind Robert.

• On the third day after Lin Feng was imprisoned, Robert Hines met K and warned that Lin could suffer an accident or worse while serving his sentence.
• Robert offered K money and help with legal status in exchange for Lin’s asset records, personnel lists, and overseas financial information.
• K agreed to Robert’s offer and shook his hand, convincing Robert that he would cooperate.
• After Robert left, K wiped his hands and signaled a young man who had been watching from the café’s corner.
• K ordered the young man to investigate Robert and find out exactly who was behind him.

Lin Feng entered Block C of Washington State Penitentiary, where the guards brutally beat Morgan after he taunted him. The inmates and guards treated Lin Feng with new wariness as he settled into a private cell, while a new order began to take shape around him.

• Lin Feng arrived in Block C and drew the inmates’ attention with his calm demeanor.
• Morgan insulted and threatened Lin Feng, but Lin Feng ignored him and kept walking.
• Two guards entered Morgan’s cell and beat him until he was critically injured.
• The guards carried Morgan away on a stretcher, and the inmates reconsidered Lin Feng as someone protected by powerful forces.
• The guards escorted Lin Feng to a private cell and spoke to him more courteously.
• Lin Feng lay down in his cell as the neighboring inmates whispered about Morgan’s beating and then fell silent.

Lin Feng was transferred from ordinary Block C to Block X, a lavish prison unit where he could enjoy a hotel-like cell and extensive services. He viewed the secure block as a fortress and a strategic move, while the people outside remained unaware that the chessboard had changed.

• Guards escorted Lin Feng through secured underground checkpoints to Block X, where a guard addressed him respectfully and led him to room seven.
• Lin Feng inspected his luxurious cell, which included a private bathroom, designer furnishings, entertainment equipment, and a computer.
• The guard explained the room’s amenities and offered customized meals and arrangements for visitors.
• Lin Feng recognized that the block’s security and the warden’s loyalty made prison safer for him than being outside.
• Lin Feng declined further services and watched the courtyard from his window, thinking that he had come to play chess.

Lin Feng explored Block X’s underground fighting business and watched Bone Crusher kill Razor in the first match. On his way out, Steven Harris threatened to destroy Lin Feng’s businesses and warned that prison would not protect him, while Lin Feng remained calm and left with Davis.

• Davis explained Block X’s underground fights, betting, and other ways the prison profited from prisoners, and Lin Feng agreed to attend the evening event.
• Davis led Lin Feng to a private box, where Lin Feng reviewed the fighters’ profiles and betting odds without placing a wager.
• Calvin “Bone Crusher” defeated Dupree “Razor” in the cage and killed him as the spectators cheered.
• Lin Feng left the arena with Davis after watching the first fight without showing any emotion.
• Steven Harris confronted Lin Feng, claimed his associates were taking over Lin Feng’s businesses, and threatened him with violence in prison.
• Lin Feng stayed composed, said nothing in response, and continued toward the exit with Davis.

After humiliating a Great Easterner, Steven Harris was ambushed, abducted, and killed in a steel mill furnace. His captors erased his body and evidence, while the people controlling the operation continued their plans.

• Steven Harris left the prison in an armored convoy, pleased after mocking the Great Easterner.
• Attackers disabled the convoy, jammed Steven Harris's phone, and loaded his Escalade into a truck's cargo box.
• The captors transported Steven Harris to a steel mill and carried his vehicle to the furnace.
• Steven Harris pleaded for his life as the Escalade slid into the furnace, where he died and was reduced to ash.
• A worker restarted steel production, and a man outside the factory reported the operation complete to an unseen contact.

K appeared to accept Robert Hines's deal and planned to leave the United States, but he secretly used the transferred assets as bait to trace their beneficiaries. He drove away after sending a coded message, beginning his real mission to uncover the people behind the conspiracy.

• K met Robert Hines and reviewed the promised asset transfer and Swiss bank deposit.
• K asked for help leaving the United States and claimed he wanted to live quietly on a remote island.
• Robert told K that Lin Feng was imprisoned and could no longer cause trouble, while K answered ambiguously.
• After leaving the office, K checked for surveillance and sent a coded message saying the bait had been cast and the fishing line was being tracked.
• K's supposed concessions and documents contained clues designed to trace the flow of assets back to the hidden beneficiaries behind them.

Warden James Horton told Lin Feng that someone had offered $500,000 to have him transferred to Block C, where an attack could be easier to arrange. Lin Feng agreed to the transfer as a ruse, sending Wang Dao'an in his place with four mercenaries assigned to protect him and identify the plotters; Wang settled into cell seventeen and prepared for the expected threat.

• James Horton reported that an intermediary had offered $500,000 to move Lin Feng to cell seventeen in Block C within three days.
• Lin Feng ordered Horton to accept the deal and send a look-alike stand-in to Block C instead of him.
• Lin Feng instructed Horton to place four trusted men in Block C to protect the stand-in and watch for anyone planning an attack.
• Horton selected Wang Dao'an, a loyal former special forces soldier whose appearance resembled Lin Feng's.
• Two days later, Wang Dao'an arrived at Block C under Lin Feng's identity, with his prison records altered by Horton.
• Wang Dao'an entered cell seventeen while four of Lin Feng's mercenaries took nearby cells and prepared to watch for the enemy.

Wang Dao'an arrived at cell C-23 and confronted his Latino cellmate, who had claimed his bed and racially insulted him. Wang Dao'an beat him severely, then named him Xiahou Dun.

• Wang Dao'an entered cell C-23 and found his Latino cellmate occupying the bed he was supposed to use.
• Wang Dao'an dumped the cellmate’s belongings onto the floor and refused to accept his claim that Wang should sleep by the toilet.
• The Latino cellmate shoved and taunted Wang Dao'an with racist insults, so Wang Dao'an punched him and beat him while nearby prisoners shouted from their cells.
• Wang Dao'an forced the injured man to bite the bed frame, struck the back of his head, and slammed his face into the metal corner, badly damaging his eye.
• Wang Dao'an forced flesh from the man’s wound into his mouth, then told him he would be called Xiahou Dun from then on.

Wang Dao'an ate lunch under the wary stares of Block C prisoners while Viktor Kovac’s Bad Boys gang tried to identify him from a vague sketch. When a feared Latino prisoner and his four men attacked him, Wang Dao'an swiftly incapacitated all five, leaving the cafeteria in stunned silence.

• Wang Dao'an’s morning fight spread through Block C, and prisoners avoided him while guards left him in the general population.
• Wang Dao'an chose a corner seat in the cafeteria and ate as Viktor Kovac studied him and questioned whether he was really the target, Lin Feng.
• A dreadlocked Latino prisoner mocked Wang Dao'an, spat into his sandwich, and patted his head.
• Wang Dao'an broke the man’s wrist and knocked him unconscious with an uppercut.
• The dreadlocked man’s four lackeys charged, and Wang Dao'an knocked all four down in less than ten seconds.

Wang Dao'an was protected from a prison cafeteria attack by four armed mercenaries while Warden James Horton’s guards arrested the attackers and a poisoned-ring guard. After the interrogations exposed a contract on the target but not its source, Lin Feng ordered K to trace the Bad Boys gang up to whoever was directing them.

• Wang Dao'an faced a second wave of Latino inmates as Viktor Kovac’s men approached from behind with a sharpened toothbrush and a guard secretly reached for a poisoned ring.
• A mercenary shot the man with the toothbrush, then ordered the cafeteria to the floor and shot another inmate in the leg when he tried to flee.
• Warden James Horton arrived with armed guards, had Viktor Kovac and the Latino attackers arrested, and seized the guard carrying the poisoned ring.
• The tattooed gang member confessed that the Bad Boys had been ordered to kill the newly imprisoned Asian man, while the guard said an anonymous blackmailer had recruited him to use the poisoned ring.
• Horton gave Lin Feng the interrogation report, and Lin Feng told K to investigate the Bad Boys’ leadership and identify who was directing them.