Chapter 354: 354 Bizarre Conflict (First Update to Celebrate the Alliance Leader's Reading)
Chapter 354: Chapter 354 Bizarre Conflict (First Update to Celebrate the Alliance Leader’s Reading)
Ermao walked unevenly to the street lamp, looked around, and realized that he was less than 300 meters away from the hotel.
It was a wasteland here—actually, someone had bought it but hadn’t developed it yet. Ermao was very aware of this.
Setting up a private court here or engaging in some shady business indeed wouldn’t draw much attention.
He checked the time and saw it was just 1 AM. He made a call to a trusted underling, asking him to go to his room and bring some clothes over.
In the underworld, sometimes you don’t need to care about appearances, but certainly not when you’ve been beaten black and blue. Obviously, in such a state, you can’t let yourself be seen.
The underling arrived quickly, and even though the distance was less than 300 meters, he actually drove over in a van, which was quite thoughtful.
But the underling was stunned by the sight of Ermao’s condition. “Bro Mao, what happened?” he asked.
“Go, go,” Ermao waved his hand dismissively without explaining. After putting on clothes and gulping down some hot water, he sat in the van, lost in thought.
After a while, he turned to glance at the underling and asked with a heavy voice, “Did anyone see me come out?”
“Haven’t heard anything,” the underling shook his head, looking confused, “I thought you were still in your room.”
Ermao drank some more water, feeling his body returning to normal, then nodded his chin, “Let’s go to the hotel, damn it…”
He wanted to see who had betrayed him, making it so that while he was asleep, someone had carried him outside.
He didn’t dare to confront Sister Hong, but if someone in his own crew was backstabbing him, he had to clean house regardless.
After arriving at the hotel, Ermao, with a dark expression, went straight to the surveillance room to check the tapes. The hotel staff didn’t dare stop him.
However, after watching the surveillance for a bit, he was shocked to find there were no images of him leaving the hotel.
There were no images of that black-clothed man with truncated eyebrows coming in either.
Checking the surveillance of the fourth floor, Ermao could only see that he had entered his room at 11:30 PM with no record of him leaving.
In the meantime, the only people who had entered and exited his room were the two girls he had gotten into a tussle with.
He then checked the lobby’s surveillance and found that from 11:30 PM to the present, no one had left with a suitcase or anything similar.
Ermao’s face darkened, and he squinted, his gaze becoming blank.
The underling vaguely guessed something and spoke softly, “Bro Mao, the window in your room was open.”
“Holy sh*t,” Ermao muttered under his breath then turned and left the surveillance room.
Standing in the room, looking at the half-open window, he was speechless for a long time.
He knew that he was the one who had opened the window. He was already hot from drinking too much alcohol, and fighting with the two Little Imps made him even hotter. It wasn’t the season to use air conditioning, so opening the window was a necessary choice.
The window screen had been pushed up, and if his guess was right, that black-clothed man with truncated eyebrows must have entered from here.
His room was on the fourth floor…
Well, some people are nimble and might be able to climb up. Don’t they always show stuff like Spiderman on TV?
But the key question is… how the hell did that guy take me away?
This doubt sent chills down Ermao’s spine—could someone actually carry me down from the fourth floor?
He was silent for a while, then the underling passed him a hot tea, taking a risk to say, “Bro Mao… drink water.”
“Get me some beer,” Ermao waved his hand, his brow furrowing, then he muttered, “Damn, I’m really in trouble this time.”
What he had planned was to take some money and hide as soon as he got back, not to get involved in the conflicts of the town and manor.
He even had an idea. He could stage a conflict, “accidentally injure” someone, and then “flee in a panic.”
As for dealing with Zhao Haicheng, he hadn’t really made up his mind. Anyway, if he “ran away from trouble,” Sister Hong would probably understand.
Of course, while he was on the run, depending on how the situation developed, he could still decide whether to deal with Zhao Haicheng.
If Luohua Manor came out on top in the end, taking on Zhao Haicheng wouldn’t be too much pressure—he had disliked the guy for a long time anyway.
If Luohua Manor didn’t make it to the end, those people would definitely leave, and then, whether he dealt with Zhao Haicheng or not, no one would care.
He had already calculated all the related pros and cons and felt this was the best course of action.
Surviving in the underworld means you must know how to stay on good terms with everyone. The days of using brute force and loyalty to conquer the world are long gone.
This plan wasn’t problematic at all, but after discovering that he had been taken away mysteriously, Ermao felt he needed to rethink carefully—I’m basically snubbing Sister Hong by running away like this.
As he pondered, he took big swigs of beer, and suddenly, the underling asked, “Bro Mao, are we still going tomorrow?”
“No, we’re not,” Ermao answered decisively, “I have a friend celebrating a birthday, so everyone should just do what they normally do… I’ll notify you about anything else later.”
“Oh,” the underling nodded, “Should I… mention this in the tough guy group chat?”
These days, even the social activities of gangsters have group chats, which just goes to show how convenient these things are.
Of course, most of the details of the activities couldn’t be mentioned in the group chat, or wouldn’t that be handing evidence to the police?
“Don’t!” Ermao stopped him promptly, “Just notify them by phone. Don’t say why.”
Upon hearing this, the little brother understood that what he was worried about had indeed happened.
After making the call, he hesitated for a moment before biting the bullet and speaking up, “Ermao… ”
Ermao glanced at him, annoyed, “If you’ve got something to say, say it.”
Gathering his courage, the little brother spoke, “Ermao, I don’t know if you’ve heard about Zhang Hongfei’s car accident?”
“I don’t care if he dies,” Ermao replied irritably. He didn’t get along with Zhang Hongfei at all. After all, one was a cop and the other a rascal; they had clashed a few times. Although Zhang Hongfei was a policeman, Ermao had a good relationship with the head of the local police station.
Later, someone intervened to reconcile them, and in the end, they would avoid each other when they met on the street.
But the next moment, Ermao was taken aback, “Are you talking about that incident a few nights ago?”
He had heard about the incident, but he hadn’t inquired about the details. He only knew that the car accident scene was quite bizarre and that the kid Zhang Hongfei wasn’t seriously hurt.
But the little brother knew more, “Some people say, he got into the accident because he was giving Feng Jun a hard time.”
Ermao blinked, “And then?”
“Then… there’s no then,” the little brother spread his hands, “He didn’t seek payback, and it’s been several days now.”
“Look at his spirit,” Ermao scoffed with disdain then after pausing, he turned to the little brother, “What are you trying to say?”
The little brother hesitated, then decided to tell the truth, “I mean to say, I heard Feng Jun keeps a crow… He might be a person with paranormal powers. Messing with him is unlucky!”
“Damn…” Ermao muttered another curse.
In the history of Funiu Province, there had been many thriving Daoist sects, and there were plenty of superstitious folks among the populace. Zhengyang was a fairly advanced city, being a deputy provincial-level one, and was somewhat better; but in smaller places, there were even more who believed in such things, often rumor-mongering about the supernatural.
The little brother clearly believed in these things, while Ermao didn’t, but he wouldn’t dare to say “It’s all deception.”
After pondering for a long time, he glanced at the little brother, “Qiangzi, find out how Zhang Hongfei reacted afterward… Be careful, don’t let anyone else know.”
The rift between him and Zhang Hongfei was so deep that casually inquiring about the other was taboo.
But to tell the truth, Zhang Hongfei was, after all, the deputy director, and finding out his recent general situation wasn’t too hard.
Soon, Ermao learned that after the car accident, Director Zhang’s gallbladder inflammation had flared up again. Not only did he not persist with the case, but he also often missed work – the hospital had said that such a condition required plenty of rest.
Finally, Ermao decided to stick to his original plan, only this time the “collateral damage” wouldn’t be the undecided “someone,” but rather the Party and Government Office Director, Zhao Haicheng.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
That noon, there was a brawl in a hotel in Baixing Town.
One party involved was Director Zhao of the Party and Government Office, who was having lunch with two local businessmen, drinking just a little bit of alcohol.
The other party was the rascal Ermao and his thug Qiangzi, who approached to toast Director Zhao, and somehow they ended up in a conflict.
Ermao insisted that Mr. Zhao had looked down on him, making it impossible to let the matter drop without a fight.
The two local businessmen didn’t dare to intercede, and as a result, Director Zhao was beaten badly, with one arm broken on the spot and both hands smashed until they were bloody and mangled.
Then, turning on their heels, they took off with Qiangzi – after bashing up a government official, waiting for prison wasn’t an option, was it?
To most people, this conflict seemed somewhat bizarre and sudden.
But at the same time, there was also a sense of being “unexpected yet rational,” as the relationships between Zhao Haicheng and Ermao were extremely unstable, capable of conspiring together one moment and turning against each other the next over interests.
Thus, it was normal for them to end in a fight after a disagreement; after all, Zhao Haicheng liked to put on airs, especially towards ordinary people, while Ermao, though sneaky, could also act “foolish” sometimes after drinking too much.
As for the fact that these two had thoughts of taking over Luohua Manor not long ago – to most, that also didn’t seem unusual. Couldn’t they have conflicts while cooperating?
It was just that this conflict turned out to be pretty serious; aside from breaking his right arm and injuring both hands, Zhao Haicheng’s face was also injured, making it impossible for him to work normally in the short term, and Ermao had fled.
Suddenly, the pressure facing Luohua Manor inexplicably seemed to have decreased significantly.
This unusual situation caused dissatisfaction in a certain young master – hell, how could these people be so unreliable?
Could you dare to be any more unreliable?
Therefore, the mayor of Baixing Town was summoned to the city and received a scolding.
After that, Zhang Hongfei, the police station officer, was called by the mayor and scolded as well.
After being scolded, Director Zhang felt unwell and took a long leave to Zhengyang, planning to undergo gallbladder surgery to completely rid himself of the trouble and prevent it from affecting his work in the future.
On the third day of Director Zhang’s leave, someone from the local tax bureau went to Si Jifeng Design Company to check their books and found a recent contract. Someone seemingly asked inadvertently, “Luohua Manor seems rich. Have they paid their taxes?”
The personnel at Si Jifeng sensed something amiss and promptly informed Wang Haifeng.
(First update, to alliance leader Reader of Wei Manor.)