20 years of the Republic of China

Chapter 560: Know-it-all

The smell of blood gradually spread, it was not only about the sense of smell, but also about premonition.

There were spots of blood on the table that had not yet dried. Rong Qingrui was slumped on the chair with his face up, blood gushing out from between his eyebrows, and filth was dripping on the back of his head. It was red and white, and it was a horrible sight.

Ye Chuosan was at a loss, as if he had just woken up from a dream. He was in a daze, as if he had lost his mind.

Although his eyes were on the bills and ears in front of him, there was a blankness in his eyes, as if he saw nothing and was absent-minded.

In times of chaos, murders are not uncommon, and he himself comes from a family of dirty workers.

However, this was the first time he had seen someone who could commit murders so openly and yet remain calm and composed.

Not to mention, the people killed were disciples of the Du family.

Ye Chaosan had his eyes broadened tonight.

You know, even the three big bosses of the Green Gang who dominated the foreign concessions never killed anyone themselves.

After all, being a leader represents one's face. After one has established a fortune, one cannot easily be involved in gossip to avoid hidden dangers.

But the visitor from Kanto in front of him was truly ruthless and merciless, a tough guy who had no taboos. From head to toe, inside and out, he exuded only one word - cruel!

Ye Chaosan had no idea what the Jiang family's background was, but he guessed one thing right:

Since the loss of power of the Zongli Socialist Party outside the Great Wall, Jiang Lianheng has indeed not started a large-scale killing spree for many years.

Today's exception doesn't seem to be a spur-of-the-moment decision, but rather seems to have been long-planned.

Wang Laojiu and Chen Lixian were also shocked at the scene.

Before the gunshots, they only regarded Jiang Lianheng as a gang leader with some strategies, but more like conspiracy. They praised him highly, but they did not admire him in their hearts. They only treated him as a guest of honor because he had done a favor to the Axe Gang before.

Who would have thought that when the King of Hell called for action and killed people to establish his authority, he did so without any hesitation or fear.

When the gunshots rang out, Jiang Lianheng's bandit nature was exposed. When we looked at him again, we found that he was not an ordinary person.

For a moment, everyone was stunned and the tea room was silent.

Just as everyone was shocked and surprised, a series of "thump thump" footsteps suddenly came from the corridor.

Soon, there was a loud "clang" sound, which frightened Ye Chuosan so much that he trembled all over. He subconsciously wanted to stand up, but was pushed down by Li Zhengxi again.

Turning his head to look, he saw that the door was wide open. It turned out that the brothers heard the gunshots and became suspicious, so more than a dozen strong men came in one after another, scrambling to enter.

Although Zhao Guoyan and others were originally staying in the backyard, they reacted surprisingly quickly and arrived in time with Huang Xiansheng and others.

As soon as the brothers arrived at the door, Jiang Lianheng immediately turned his head and frowned, and quickly gave a wink to his own "Xiangzi". When Zhao Guoyan and others saw the situation in the house, they understood what he meant, and immediately kept silent, and quietly mixed in behind the Axe Gang members.

Fortunately, Ye Chaosan was already distracted at this moment, and could not tell which brother was which. He just saw a large group of people and did not dare to act rashly.

"Master Jiu, are you okay?"

Huang Xiansheng and others rushed into the tea room. As soon as they asked the question, they saw the answer.

"Why are you so flustered?" Wang Laojiu frowned and waved his hand, "You all should go out first. We haven't finished talking here yet."

The brothers looked at Ye Chaosan and Rong Qingrui, then at Jiang Lianheng and Wang Laojiu, and finally responded in a low voice, then left the tea room one after another. However, this time they did not go far, and all stood outside the door with solemn expressions.

Ye Chaosan finally breathed a sigh of relief, and cold sweat broke out on his palms.

Jiang Lianheng suddenly knocked on the table twice, raised his chin towards him, and said in a deep voice: "Didn't you hear me? Take the things and go."

After being frightened again and again, Ye Chaosan's momentum has been weakened, and he can no longer speak as eloquently as before. However, in the current situation, as a lobbyist for the Du family, he really can't flee in a hurry. He still has to take the things he needs to take with him, otherwise he will not be able to report back to the Du Mansion.

Fortunately, he had seen the world before, so he took a few deep breaths, forced himself to calm down, then raised his eyes and carefully looked at Jiang Lianheng who was sitting diagonally opposite him.

"Boss Jiang, according to the rules of the underworld, when two armies are at war, envoys should not be killed..."

Before he finished speaking, Li Zhengxi shook his shoulders, stepped forward, pointed at Ye Chaosan's nose, and scolded him harshly.

"Fuck you, you have the nerve to break the rules on this winding road!"

"West Wind."

Jiang Lianheng raised his hand slightly to stop Li Zhengxi, without looking away, still staring straight at Ye Chaosan, and then asked provocatively: "I know there is this rule, but I killed him today, what's wrong with that?"

The rude guy is unreasonable and there is no need to hide it. In one word, he is just arrogant!

Ye Chaosan naturally had no temper. He just wanted to get away with it, but he still had to say what he should say, so he said: "Boss Jiang is not from Shanghai, why do you have to fight here and end up with both sides suffering..."

Jiang Lianheng raised his hand to interrupt, not wanting to listen, and just warned: "You can still breathe and speak now, not for anything else, just because I want you to pass a message to Du Yong. It would be best if you have this job, but it's okay if you don't. Do you understand?"

"understood."

"Then get out of here before I change my mind."

Ye Chuosan nodded blankly, having nothing more to say. He stood up slightly and was about to leave when he suddenly remembered that this was the hometown association hall of Anhui Province. So he looked at Wang Laojiu tentatively again, and after getting his tacit consent, he stood up and walked towards the door.

"Stand there!" Jiang Lianheng pointed at the items on the tea table, "Take the things away."

Ye Chaosan picked up Rong Qingrui's left ear, tremblingly, but did not dare to take the remittance bill on the table.

"Take the money too."

"This... doesn't seem appropriate..."

Ye Chuosan hesitated for a moment, and Li Zhengxi immediately pushed him from behind, sternly scolding him: "Just take it when I told you to. Don't you understand what I'm saying?"

I knew I shouldn't take the money on the table, but I had no choice but to take it.

Putting the crumpled receipt and the bloody ear into his pockets, Ye Chaosan looked back unconsciously, then opened the door, walked to the corridor, and left the guild building trembling with fear while surrounded by a group of fierce beasts.

When I got out of the street and was about to run, my legs gave out.

After resting for a while, he walked away from the Du Mansion in the French Concession and went back to report.

As for how he explained to Du Yong and what Du Yong’s reaction was, there is no way of knowing for the time being.

After Ye Chaosan left, the Anhui Province Association Hall was not quiet. The Axe Gang brothers immediately started cleaning up the teahouse, occasionally whispering and talking in low voices. When they talked about the Jiang brothers, they were already a little more fearful. The brothers swept the dirt and found a wide-mouthed sack in the backyard, put Rong Qingrui's body in it, pressed two bluestones, and found a brother from the rickshaw company to take it to the Huangpu River in a rickshaw and sank it into the river.

Someone had just died in the teahouse, which was a bit unlucky and it was not convenient to stay there any longer. Wang Laojiu took the opportunity to suggest that the two of them move to the reception room to talk.

Jiang Lianheng certainly had no objection and immediately stood up and followed.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked out of the room, Zhao Guoyan suddenly came up to him and whispered, "Boss, I have something to ask you."

"What's wrong?"

Jiang Lianheng stopped at the corner of the corridor, and used the excuse of going to the bathroom to let Li Zhengxi, Wang Laojiu and others go first.

When the two of them walked to the bathroom, Zhao Guoyan said, "Just now when you were talking upstairs, Yang Lazi, who was waiting at the Great World, came over."

"Have you found Mr. Mei?" Jiang Lianheng asked.

"No." Zhao Guoyan suddenly took out a few pieces of paper from his arms. "It was Cui Yingzhen from the dance hall. I asked her to help check the decoration facilities of the Great World. She sent the drawings here."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Lianheng hurriedly took it in his hand and spread it out for a closer look.

However, the pictures were straight and level, with perfect proportions, and complete rooms of different sizes and darkrooms. The lights and telephone lines were clear, and there were many markings and annotations. They looked extremely perfect, even too professional, so much so that Jiang Lianheng suddenly found it difficult to read.

"That girl is really too much of a fuss. Why is she so meticulous?"

"This is the design drawing of the Great World." Zhao Guoyan explained quickly, "I heard from Yang Lazi that Cui Yingzhen was afraid that she might have made a mistake, so she simply stole a copy from the manager's office and marked it herself."

"Keep it." Jiang Lianheng immediately returned the blueprint. "The Great World is the most popular entertainment venue in Shanghai. People who come and go every day are either rich or noble. It will be easier to get things done with this."

"Don't you need to make a copy for Axe?"

"No, just keep it for yourself. Have you sent someone to talk to Ye Chaosan?"

"Of course." Zhao Guoyan carefully put the blueprint into his arms, "Old Jie is an old man now, don't worry."

Jiang Lianheng nodded, and then ordered: "Okay, if there's nothing else, take the brothers to the backyard and wait for me. Don't be so surprised. Don't forget that I was also a thug. Even if they only have two people, I'm still a veteran."

Zhao Guoyan burst out laughing, responded immediately, and called a few "loud men" from the Jiang family, walked through the hall, and returned to the backyard through the small door to wait.

Jiang Lianheng straightened his clothes and wanted to go to the bathroom to wash the blood off his hands. However, the autumn weather was dry and the blood on his fingertips soon turned into small reddish-brown particles, which were embedded in his fingerprints and could not be washed off in a short time. He was also afraid that Wang Laojiu would wait too long, so he wiped his hands hastily and went straight to the reception room of the guild hall.

When he entered the room again, Wang Laojiu's attitude towards Jiang Lianheng had changed quietly.

It was just politeness before, but now there is a bit more admiration.

"Come on, come on, Brother Jiang, please sit down quickly." Wang Laojiu stood up and poured two cups of tea, and said with some admiration, "Brother, I didn't expect you to be so skilled. When you fired the gun just now, your movements were so quick and sharp. You must not be a novice. Your shooting skills are also accurate. I admire you."

Jiang Lianheng shook his head and said with a smile: "Master Jiu, there are many refugees outside the Great Wall, and people are naturally temperamental. My two tricks are not good enough in my hometown."

Wang Laojiu waved his hand and said, "Brother, don't be modest. I am also half a soldier. I can tell whether someone often touches a gun or not. Brother, you are tough and a real man. I really didn't expect that just now, hahaha."

"Is this considered tough?"

“So tough!”

Jiang Lianheng had a lot of hardship to say, but he just sighed and said, "Brother Jiu, now that I think about it, you were right. If you want to gain a foothold in this foreign land, there is no shortcut. You can only fight them with real swords and guns, otherwise you are not worthy of talking about human relationships."

Wang Laojiu nodded heavily and said many bold and unrestrained words.

In fact, Jiang Lianheng understood this principle.

However, he had no intention of opening a business in Shanghai, so he naturally did not want to go through the trouble and just wanted to save trouble. Looking back now, he realized that he had done more harm than good by thinking things were simple.

Soon, the two of them chatted in the reception room. No one stood up to say goodbye, as if they were waiting for something.

After about a cup of tea, there was a knock on the door. Zhang Luan poked his face with a dark red birthmark and nodded respectfully towards the room.

"Master Jiu, Boss Jiang, the 'know-it-all' is here."

The so-called "know-it-all" in the underworld is the Shanghai street slicker Zhang Luan mentioned earlier who has always admired Wang Laojiu.

It is said that this man is familiar with all walks of life in the foreign land, and knows them all by heart, no matter whether it is the secrets of celebrities or the inside story of politics and business, as long as you start, he can talk about it clearly.

Upon hearing this, Wang Laojiu waved his hand and said, "Bring him in."

Zhang Luan nodded and retreated temporarily.

After a while, there was another knock on the door of the reception room. Wang Laojiu answered it, and then he saw a young man of about twenty-four or twenty-five, accompanied by Zhang Luan, walking into the room in a daze.

After entering the house, he looked around first, then his eyes wandered on Jiang Lianheng and Wang Laojiu for a moment. Soon, he accurately recognized who was the leader of the Axe Gang, and immediately walked up to him, bowing deeply with a smile on his face.

"Master Jiu."

He bowed with a smile, and at the same time bowed to Jiang Lianheng and said politely, "Sorry for disturbing you."

Jiang Lianheng nodded in response and couldn't help but look at the young man in front of him with curiosity.

It would have been better if I hadn't looked at him. But when I did, I saw that he had a naturally good-looking appearance.

The man had a narrow face, a broad forehead, thick eyebrows, big eyes, a high nose and a square mouth. He looked quite dignified. It would be an exaggeration to say that he had a majestic appearance. But just by looking at this face, anyone who saw it would probably feel that he was a righteous man, a generous hero.

When Wang Laojiu saw her, he couldn't help but look at her a few more times and nodded frequently. Before they even started chatting, he had already developed a good impression of her.

"I heard that you've been hanging around in Shanghai for several years. Do you want to join my gang?"

The young man nodded immediately and replied, "I've heard of Jiu Ye's name a long time ago. He led the Anhui Gang and fought bravely. He even looked down upon the Qing Gang. He will definitely be someone who will be treated like an ordinary person in the future. I've wanted to join him for a long time, but unfortunately we're not from the same hometown in Anhui Province, so I never had the chance."

Wang Laojiu liked to hear this and said with a smile: "Now that I have the chance, tell me what you think."

"Go through fire and water, Master Jiu!"

The young man spoke quickly and concisely, without any further ado, which was very much in line with Wang Laojiu's straightforward personality. He immediately asked him what his name was.

The young man raised his eyes with a smile and replied in a low voice: "In reply to Master Jiu, my name is Dai Qiusheng."

(End of this chapter)