20 years of the Republic of China

Chapter 550: True Knowledge Comes from the Sword
Upon hearing the news, Zhao Guoyan immediately called Lao Niu, Yang Lazi and two Hu bandits and rushed to the French Concession.

By the time we arrived at Edoya Road, it was already dark, but we saw Li Jae-soon waiting at the entrance of the Great World with two Koreans.

Although it was the first time the two met, it was not difficult for them to recognize each other.

After all, the mark of a severed finger is difficult to disguise.

As soon as the two sides met, Zhao Guoyan asked, "Where are the people?"

"Not in the dance hall." Li Zaichun pointed to the big world behind him and whispered, "I'm watching acrobatics in the open-air theater with a woman."

Zhao Guoyan nodded, and immediately told Lao Niu and others to wait outside the door, while he followed Li Jae-soon to buy tickets and walked into the Great World Casino.

At this time, the acrobatic performance was at its climax. The open-air theater was extremely lively, with thunderous applause and cheers. There were so many people that a quick glance showed that there were at least 1,800 spectators present.

The two came to the back of the seats. Li Zaichun raised his hand and pointed to the southeast corner, whispering, "Over there, sitting with a woman. She's not wearing a white suit, but a silver-gray one. Do you see her?"

Zhao Guoyan looked in the direction and found A Ming easily without much effort.

The reason was simple: most of the audience's attention was focused on the center of the stage, but he always kept his attention on the woman next to him.

The woman looked to be in her twenties. Her clothes were not luxurious, but she looked like she came from a well-off family.

Ah Ming was beside her, flattering her to the utmost, making the woman tremble with joy and blush with excitement, but her mind was not on the stage at all.

Zhao Guoyan looked around, smacked his lips, and asked, "When will this acrobatic show end?"

"Ten o'clock." Li Jae-soon looked down at his watch. "Less than an hour."

Zhao Guoyan nodded and said, "There are too many people here. Let's wait for the show to end. Tell Lao Niu and the others not to push too hard. I'll keep an eye on him."

"Do you want to use my people for help?" Li Jae-soon asked.

"No need. The Jiang family has its own way of doing things."

Zhao Guoyan whispered a few words of instruction, then stood alone in a corner of the open-air theater, looking straight ahead to take in every move of A Ming.

Li Jae-chun said nothing and turned around and left.

After an hour, the acrobatic show finally came to an end amid applause.

The audience left one after another, including Ming.

He was seen standing beside his female companion, blocking her from the front and back, pushing her left and right, and escorting the woman through the crowd. His flattering look was no different from that of a eunuch in the palace.

But what men despise is destined to be loved by women.

A Ming's attentiveness can only be called a gentleman if it is matched with his handsome appearance and elegant manners. If he changes his mouth and eyes to a crooked one, he will immediately become a traitor or a thief with ulterior motives.

The audience left the Great World Casino one after another.

A Ming and his female companion followed the crowd to the crossroads. Under the slanting moonlight, they held hands and walked away towards the west of the French Concession, occasionally talking about Shakespeare and Ibsen, Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science. It was both romantic and fashionable, really great.

The two walked through the streets and alleys and finally stopped in front of an apartment building near the International Settlement.

When they were about to leave, they couldn't help but express love and affection, hugging each other and finally asking for a kiss. Only then did they realize that the world has really changed.

A Ming wanted to go upstairs to drink some water, but was pushed back by his female companion. She pointed to a bright window upstairs and whispered a few words to him. Finally, they went their separate ways.

After the female companion went upstairs, she made a secret signal at the window. When Ming saw it, he looked up and waved goodbye. Then he turned around, and the earnest smile on his face disappeared without a trace, just like the face-changing in Sichuan Opera.

He lit a cigarette and then walked back towards the French Concession.

Unexpectedly, just after turning into a dark alley, he suddenly felt his right shoulder sink, and before he could react, his whole body was immediately turned around.

"Who?"

Ah Ming was about to scream in shock when he saw Zhao Guoyan raise his right arm and sweep it across like a pendulum, hitting Ah Ming's left jaw squarely.

This punch was powerful and heavy.

The pretty boy had been indulging in the pleasures of sex all day long, so he could not resist it any longer. He suddenly felt dizzy and was about to fall, but he hit his head against the wall in the alley.

Zhao Guoyan didn't wait for a moment, he immediately pinched A Ming's throat with his right hand, pressed him against the wall, then suddenly raised his knee and hit A Ming's spleen and stomach.

Just when he was about to press on with his victory and deliver another punch, he saw Ah Ming vomiting acid, his body hunched, his arms tightly hugging his abdomen, and he fell to the ground with a bang. His whole body curled up and twitched. He wanted to scream but couldn't, and could only groan and wail.

Seeing this, Zhao Guoyan quickly stopped fighting, stepped on A Ming, turned around and whistled towards the alley.

After a while, four figures came running over after hearing the news.

Hearing the footsteps approaching, Ming suppressed the acid in his stomach and quickly opened his eyes, begging for mercy, saying inexplicably:

"Don't hit me, don't hit me. I won't look for Ru Ping anymore!"

When everyone got closer and heard the noise, they looked at each other and asked in confusion, "What is Ruping?"

"Ah? It's not Ruping?" Ah Ming was desperate and asked, "Is it Yiling?"

"Who the hell is Yiling?"

"Ah? That's not Yiling, that's Aning?"

Yang Lazi and the others were bewildered, and immediately kicked A Ming hard a few times, cursing as they kicked him: "Fuck you, you are making up a jingle here!"

Ming fell to the ground, his back arched and his head in his hands, begging for mercy: "Stop hitting me, stop hitting me, just tell me who it is!"

"Alright, alright, this kid can't take a beating, don't let him pass out again later." Zhao Guoyan raised his hand to stop everyone, and then ordered, "Lao Niu, Yang Lazi, you two go to the entrance of the alley, one on each side, I'll ask him a few questions."

Lao Niu and Yang Lazi responded, took out their pistols, and immediately dispersed to both sides of the alley.

Zhao Guoyan squatted down, lifted Ah Ming's collar, let him lean against the wall, and asked coldly: "Your name is Ah Ming?"

Ming nodded blankly. He was a pretty boy to begin with, and now his face turned even paler.

"Do you know Mrs. Mei from the Old Town Apartment?" Zhao Guoyan asked.

Ah Ming was stunned for a moment, frowned, and suddenly asked tentatively: "...Is it someone from the police station?"

As soon as he asked the question, without waiting for the other party to answer, he already felt a little bit unconvinced.

Although Shanghai has a dense population with people traveling back and forth from the south to the north, the majority of people are from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and there are few northerners serving as patrol officers in the police station.

Zhao Guoyan did not answer. Instead, he slapped Ah Ming in the face and asked harshly, "Should I ask you, or should you ask me?"

"I know him, I know him." Ming quickly replied truthfully, "We are... we are friends, but we are no longer in touch. Really, really, I haven't been to the Old Town Apartment for a long time."

"Since when did we stop contacting each other?"

Ming rolled his eyes twice: "Uh... I forgot about this."

"Snapped--"

Zhao Guoyan slapped him again and cursed: "Stop pretending!" "No, no, no, I'm not pretending. I, I really forgot. I have so many friends, how can I remember them all?" Ming shook his head repeatedly.

"Okay, you're tough, huh?"

Zhao Guoyan grabbed A Ming's fingers and twisted them hard. With a "click" sound, he saw that the knuckles bent backwards and the finger bones broke.

A Ming was about to shout, but Zhao Guoyan grabbed his throat again, and he could only make a "hissing" sound.

After holding on for a while, Zhao Guoyan let go of his hand and asked again: "Do you remember it now?"

"No, no...I, I really forgot. It's not a big deal." A Ming still shook his head.

As soon as the voice fell, the bandits standing on both sides became interested. They immediately squatted down, grinned at A Ming, and said with a sinister smile: "Do you feel that you are very tight-lipped?"

A Ming didn't understand what he meant, but he instinctively felt that the two men in front of him were different from the scoundrels in the foreign concessions.

The two Hu bandits didn't explain much, but just turned to look at Zhao Guoyan, as if asking for instructions.

Zhao Guoyan thought for a moment, and finally nodded, with only one reminder - "Don't kill him."

"Don't worry, we have experience in this kind of thing in the mountains."

The two bandits chuckled, then suddenly pulled out a sharp ox-ear knife from behind, and lightly scratched Ah Ming's finger...

After a while, a trembling groan came from the alley, occasionally mixed with faint sobs.

Lao Niu and Yang Lazi were standing at the alley entrances on both sides. When they heard the groans and screams muffled in the throats, they couldn't help but become curious and turned back to look.

In the shadow of the alley, two bandits were seen sneaking around.

Something seemed to have fallen on the ground, a short section covered in blood.

The two fingers of A Ming's right hand were hanging limply like two pieces of jelly, trembling hopelessly, and his whole body was already drenched in cold sweat. Although he didn't bleed much, he was frightened to the point of incontinence, and his face was pale, looking like half a human, half a ghost.

Zhao Guoyan finally stopped the bandit, squatted down, and asked again: "Boy, do you remember now?"

Ah Ming was in tears, looking extremely embarrassed. He nodded hastily, "I remember now, I remember now. It was not long after the robbery of the Sanjin Company. I never went there again...Brother, please don't kill me, okay?"

"Why don't you go?" Zhao Guoyan asked.

Ming said, "I, I feel like something might happen to the tenants there."

"You were in the Great World on the day when the Sanjin Company robbed the goods, right?"

"Yes... Big Brother, can you please let me go?"

Zhao Guoyan followed Jiang Lianheng's instructions and continued to ask, "Besides, you moved the local goods boxes of Sanjin Company that night and suggested reporting to the police. Why do you have to meddle in other people's business?"

"I know that Sanjin Company's cargo ship has definitely not been robbed." A Ming confessed truthfully.

"how do you know?"

"I used to hang out in a tobacco shop. I know that the local products from other provinces are first shipped to the warehouse of Sanjin Company, and then they are affixed with the Sanjin company logo. If the cargo ship was hijacked, it means that it was sold by Sanjin Company. Otherwise, the local products would not be packaged in advance, let alone affixed with the Sanjin logo. Those ordinary people don't know anything and just want to join in the fun."

"So you let others report to the police, and you stayed behind to watch over the box of local products?"

"Since that box of local products was not stolen by the Sanjin Company, once it was brought to the police station, it would definitely be divided up by the police. I thought that whoever saw it would get a share, and maybe they could give me a bag..."

"What did you say after entering the police station?" Zhao Guoyan asked again.

Ah Ming hesitated for a moment, but when he saw the sharp knives in the hands of the two bandits, he immediately confessed the truth: "They asked me to tell you the whole story of the case."

"What did you say?"

"I said... I said that before the carriage passed, a few people were causing trouble in the police station. The police asked me who was causing the trouble, and I said..."

"Just say that you know those people and have met them in the old city apartment?" Zhao Guoyan finished his words for him.

A Ming's lips trembled. He neither admitted nor denied it, but just begged for mercy.

"Brothers... I, I know I was wrong... And, I didn't know at first that those people were related to the Sanjin Company case. I just told the truth to the police. Later, I was at the dock... I heard a news anchor talking about Huang Shan Weng and Guo Jiang Long, and then I realized what was going on. If I had known this would happen... I would never have dared to get involved in this matter!"

At this point, the cause of the matter finally became clear.

Zhao Guoyan stood up and asked, "Do you have any connection with Zhang Xiaolin and Du Yong?"

"No, I really don't!" Ah Ming didn't dare to hide anything anymore. "If I had any connection with them, would I be considered a 'demolition gang'?"

"Has anyone looked for you since you came out of the police station?"

"Lou Jingyuan came to see me, but that was many days later. Have you heard of him?"

Zhao Guoyan's heart trembled, and he asked hurriedly: "Do you know him?"

"He beat me." Ming's answer was ridiculous, "Because of his brother's girlfriend."

There is nothing more to ask.

Although there is no conclusion yet on how many clues and spies the Qing Gang relied on to find out Jiang Lianheng's itinerary, the truth is that A Ming in front of us, like the deceased Shen Shili, cannot be said to be innocent.

Zhao Guoyan turned around and was about to leave.

Ah Ming quickly hugged his trouser legs and pleaded tremblingly: "Brother, ignorance is not a crime, can you please let me go?"

"No."

"I've told you everything I know. Really, really, I'm just a 'white-collar worker', a little bastard, a little punk. I have nothing to do with this place!"

Zhao Guoyan squinted his eyes and said coldly: "Because I ignored a little jerk like you, my brother died in Shanghai. You should go and keep him company."

A Ming was stunned for a moment. When he was about to cry out in pain, he saw the bandit in front of him holding a sharp knife. He swung his arm at him, then immediately stood up and took two steps back.

"Cough...cough..."

At first, A Ming only felt a hint of chillness passing through his throat. When he touched it with his hand, sticky blood immediately gushed out.

The blood spurted out only twice before he fell to the ground with a thud, kicking around with his legs and making a strange "gurgling" sound from his throat.

After struggling for a few seconds, his limbs were no longer under his control and his consciousness became increasingly blurred. The only thing he could feel was waves of icy cold. In less than the time it took to smoke a cigarette, the rest of his life was finally gone.

Zhao Guoyan walked up to Lao Niu and whispered, "Clean up the mess. The boss said that this is Shanghai, so we won't make it difficult for you brothers. But I don't want to see the police find his body within three to five days at least."

"I know." Lao Niu responded as steadily as always.

"I'll tell the boss that after you clean up, you should hurry back to the hotel and talk less and walk less."

Zhao Guoyan gave a few emphatically instructed instructions, then left the alley and walked towards the International Settlement not far away.

Unexpectedly, just after crossing Edoya Road, before I had walked far, a sharp police whistle broke the quiet night sky...

(End of this chapter)