Chapter Eighty-Nine: Luring the Tiger from the Mountain (Part Two)

Like most cities, Jiang City nourishes not only the powerful, the wealthy, and ordinary folk, but also a breed of hoodlums who live by corroding society from within. In their world, hierarchy is enforced with iron severity. From the lowest errand boy to the small-time underling with a handful of men beneath him, and then to the underworld boss whose mere stomp can set off an earthquake, the gulf between each level is not merely vast but unimaginably distant.

Every low-ranking thug in the trade dreams that one day he might rise in a single bound: either by pulling off some earthshaking feat, or by catching the eye of a big shot. Among their daydreams, that hope is the most frequent guest.

Liu San was one such errand boy, carrying a dream in his chest. In the past he had followed his boss, guarding the door of a faded old karaoke bar, smoking cheap cigarettes and dreaming that one day he would become a name known throughout Jiang City. These last two days, Liu San and a few brothers had been sent by their boss to keep watch in a shantytown at the edge of New District, looking for a woman wounded by a gunshot.

He had also heard the rumors on the streets: a mysterious woman with a bullet wound, a furious hidden big shot, and a staggering five-million reward. All of it made Liu San burn with excitement. More than anything, he wanted to be the one blessed with that kind of luck: find the woman, claim the five million, earn the mysterious benefactor’s favor, and soar straight into prosperity. After that, whenever anyone in Jiang City’s underworld spoke his name, they would be unable to stop themselves from giving a thumbs-up and exclaiming from the heart, “Brother San is the real deal!”

But dreams are only dreams. Just as Liu San would always imagine himself a millionaire every time he bought a lottery ticket, only to have that fantasy shattered the moment the numbers were drawn and he was cast back to his original miserable state, so too had the fierce passion he brought to this shantytown watch long since turned into a fart and slipped out of him without his noticing.

“Liu San! We’re out of cigarettes. Go buy a pack!”

In the dead of night, inside a battered Changhe van, the man in the driver’s seat shouted over his shoulder, leaving Liu San thoroughly irritated.

“Brother Niu, the corner shop is only a few hundred yards away. You start the engine and you’ll be there in one press of the gas.”

“Bullshit!” Brother Niu snapped. “We’re here to keep watch, not to go driving around like idiots. If the car moves, won’t that blow our cover? Quit whining and get moving!”

Liu San looked at the other three brothers beside him. Not one of them said a word in his defense. He could only open the door in sullen silence and climb out, muttering curses under his breath: “You damn bastard, so what if you’ve got a driver’s license? Acting all high and mighty in the middle of the night, sending me on errands. Just you wait till I save up enough to get my own license. I’ll make sure you get pushed out for good.”

Though he was unhappy, he could not disobey. After all, Brother Niu was closer to their boss than he was. Liu San pulled his coat tight around himself, went to the corner shop, bought two packs of Red Fortune cigarettes for thirteen yuan each, then stuffed them into his pocket and started back.

Near a pile of garbage, a late-night scavenger was using a flashlight to rummage through the trash. The surrounding night was utterly black, with not even a streetlamp in sight, so the flashlight beam stood out vividly. Liu San glanced casually toward the bright circle of light, half-distracted, when suddenly his eyes lit up.

The reason was simple: within that bright circle, he caught sight of a rectangular scrap of red paper. Though only half of it was exposed from the trash, Liu San instantly judged that it was a one-hundred-yuan banknote.

At that very moment, the scavenger also noticed the half-exposed red note. He aimed the flashlight at it, and now both the scavenger and Liu San, standing some distance away, recognized it for what it was: a genuine hundred-yuan bill. Liu San dashed forward two steps, but before he could reach it, the scavenger hurriedly snatched up the money and shoved it into his pocket.

“Damn it!” Seeing a little windfall slip away, Liu San charged forward and grabbed the scavenger by the sleeve, snarling, “Trash-picker! A find should be shared! Give me half!”

That scavenger had been braving the cold in the middle of the night picking through garbage. What he could gather in an entire evening would only fetch thirty or forty yuan. To him, this hundred-yuan bill was already a fortune dropped from the sky. How could he possibly be willing to split it with Liu San, who had appeared out of nowhere? At once he hurled the flashlight in his hand at Liu San, striking him squarely in the forehead. Liu San cried out in pain, and in that instant the scavenger broke free and fled rapidly into the darkness.

Liu San’s head went numb. By the time he recovered a little, the scavenger was already gone without a trace. Furious, he began cursing loudly: “You little bastard! Don’t let me catch you, or I’ll cut your hamstrings!”

Trying to seize a chicken and losing the rice instead, Liu San only grew more indignant the more he thought about it. He casually picked up the flashlight, deciding that he couldn’t have suffered that blow for nothing. At least the flashlight was still good; he might as well keep it.

Just after he picked it up, the light fell on something that left him staring dumbly. It was a black plastic bag, the mouth tied shut, but a strip of white gauze was sticking out, and there was quite a bit of blood on the gauze.

Liu San frowned. For some reason, his mind instantly connected it to that mysterious woman with a gunshot wound and the five million reward. He crouched down at once, lifted the plastic bag close, and after opening it and fumbling through it, found that it was full of bloodstained gauze, even a severed trouser leg.

Liu San’s excitement became unbearable. Suddenly, his fingertips touched something metallic with a rounded edge. When he pinched it out and looked, he went into a frenzy at once.

The bullet!

Damn it!

A bullet!

I’m made!

In his frenzy, Liu San tremblingly pulled out his phone and finally managed to dial his boss. The moment the man answered sleepily from the other end, Liu San shouted with delirious excitement, “Boss! I’ve struck it rich! No, wait! We’ve struck it rich!”

Just over twenty minutes later, a convoy of cars arrived. None of these vehicles could compare to the battered van Liu San and the others were using: there was a BMW X6, a Porsche Cayenne, a Range Rover, and a Mercedes S600.

The four cars poured out more than a dozen people. Among them was Liu San’s boss.

“Boss!” Liu San saw his boss arrive in the Range Rover and hurried over, holding the plastic bag with great excitement. “Look what I found!”

Liu San’s boss was so excited he could hardly speak. A black-clad man behind him stepped forward and snatched the plastic bag from Liu San’s hands. Then two or three more men gathered around. After they turned the bag inside out and inspected it thoroughly, one of the black-clad men walked to the S600 and knocked on the window.

The window rolled down a third of the way. The black-clad man said, “Lord Ding, this should indeed be that woman’s belongings. I recognize that trouser leg; it was part of the tight outfit she wore that night. There’s a good deal of blood on it, along with bullet holes, and the bullet itself matches the ammunition I use.”

A very deep voice came from inside the car. “How long ago?”

“No more than a day,” the man said. “The gauze is fresh. Judging by the color of the blood and the state of coagulation, it’s within one day.”

“Get everyone into the cars and spread out immediately. Don’t startle the snake. Come up here and speak.”

The black-clad man nodded, stepped forward, and whispered a few words to the men beside him. At once, they all climbed into the cars, and even Liu San and his boss were pulled into one of the Range Rovers.

“Boss.” Inside the car, Liu San looked around excitedly and said to his boss, “This is a Range Rover! So luxurious! Way better than your Lavida.”

“Shut your filthy mouth!” The boss’s face flushed hotly. Damn it, sitting in a Range Rover and bringing up my Lavida—where am I supposed to put my face? Is this an ordinary Range Rover? This is a supercharged Range Rover, at least two million yuan. You could buy a dozen or twenty Lavidas with that.

Meanwhile, the black-clad man had already climbed into the S600. Beside him sat a middle-aged man around fifty years old. The man said, “Lord Qin’s side has been waiting for news. Is this clue worth reporting to him or not?”

“Yes.” The black-clad man nodded. “From the gauze inside, it seems to cover the period from when she was first injured to within a day afterward. She’s wounded, so she definitely couldn’t have gone far. But I suspect someone is helping her in the shadows. Otherwise her bullet wouldn’t have been removed, and this stuff wouldn’t have been dumped in a garbage pile. I suspect she’s hiding nearby.”

The elder frowned. “Then what happened on Jiangquan Road?”

The black-clad man replied, “That night we did lose sight of her near the self-built housing area by Jiangquan Road. But afterward we checked the terrain there and found the alleys were interconnected everywhere. At the time we only had one car, and it couldn’t even get in. There was no hope of blocking her off. It’s very likely she chose that place to shake us off, then came here to hide.”

The elder nodded. “Immediately gather the most capable men, secure this area with the tightest possible blockade, and contact the Jiang City police as well. Have them find an excuse to thoroughly search the surrounding district. Make sure this place is sealed tight. We absolutely cannot let her escape.”

The black-clad man said respectfully, “Lord Ding, rest assured. I’ll get this done and redeem myself.”

The elder gave a hum. “How do you plan to arrange the manpower exactly? Have you settled on a sound approach?”

The man in black said, “The little hoodlums in Jiang City are already on the move. Leave the other districts to them and gather all our own people here. Keep this area under strict watch. We already had the largest number of men stationed near Jiangquan Road before, so we can pull them over. There’s no longer any need to keep guarding there.”