The First Order

The news of Luo Lan barging into Stronghold 114 and killing Qing Huan on the spot did not spread too widely.

Not only did an official in the stronghold issue a confidentiality order on the incident, but he also placed everyone who knew under house arrest in Qing Huan's official residence, making them sign a confidentiality agreement.

This official actually knew all about the Qing Consortium's situation. Now that he had seen Luo Lan kill Qing Huan without any hesitation, he knew the true purge was starting.

Therefore, there were definitely others Luo Lan had to kill.

If the people Luo Lan wanted to kill fled after hearing about some commotion in Stronghold 114, all of the officials here would probably get into trouble.

However, this official actually took this incident as an opportunity. Actually, Luo Lan might not really need there to be any confidentiality measures. But if someone were to tell Luo Lan about the hard work he had put in in the future, his position would likely be stabilized even if he could not climb the ranks.

In the next three days, Luo Lan led the Qing Consortium's special forces battalion and traveled to three strongholds in a row, killing over a 100 people in total.

At this moment, the news of Luo Lan wantonly settling scores with the opposing factions within the Qing Consortium could no longer be suppressed.

Some people thought that such ruthless methods would definitely cause the opposing factions to retaliate.

People always wanted to see the world burn. As long as the matter did not implicate them, it would be fine even if it escalated to the Heavens. Therefore, a lot of people were looking forward to seeing a good show play out.

However, the development of the situation disappointed them. No one retaliated because those who could have done so had already been killed by Luo Lan.

Many people finally realized the reason why the opposing factions had kept their lives in the past was because Luo Lan had allowed them to live.

It seemed the list of those who needed to be "cleaned up" was engraved in Luo Lan's mind. During the past three days, he and his men had been rushing to the various strongholds and killing people nonstop. Fatty Luo had thought out his strategy beforehand.

The sequence of the strongholds to visit, and how to coordinate the intelligence agents to keep an eye on the targets, all of that was within his calculations.

After three days, not only did Luo Lan not get tired, but he even seemed to have become more energetic.

Zhou Qi suddenly felt that such people were born to commit murder and arson.

If you wanted him to lead a peaceful life, he would turn listless instead.

The final stop was Stronghold 89.

Luo Lan stood in the middle of the bloodsoaked courtyard house and ordered the special forces soldiers to search every corner of it.

The owner of the house was still lying at Luo Lan's feet and gasping for breath. He was holding onto Luo Lan's pants tightly with his bloody hands. He was trying to say something, but he couldn't muster a sound.

Luo Lan's expression was cold. This person had secretly colluded with the other Qing Consortium members who opposed Qing Zhen and attempted a coup to take control of the Qing Consortium's troops near Stronghold 89.

Legitimacy belonged to the victor. There was no mercy to be had.

The other party was panting heavily. Even though he was almost dying, he refused to draw his last breath.

At this moment, a soldier from the special forces battalion said, "Sir, there are traces of footsteps on the moss by the well in the yard. There should be something hidden in the well."

When he said that, the seriously injured man at his feet suddenly got a ferocious look on his face. But before he could do anything, Luo Lan shot him in the forehead one final time.

"Sir, there's a child hiding in the well," the commander of the special forces battalion said to Luo Lan.

Luo Lan walked to the well and looked down. He saw an eight or nine-year-old child hanging from a rope in the deep well.

The child's eyes were clear but filled with fear. The child had heard the gunshots and screams in the residence. His muscles started trembling under the strain of holding onto the rope in the well for an extended period.

"Sir, let me handle the kid," the commander of the special forces battalion said. It was better to leave the killing of children to they subordinates.

Luo Lan patted the battalion commander on the shoulder. "It's alright, we're pulling out of here."

After killing the last person on the list, Luo Lan left Stronghold 89 as though a burden had been lifted from his mind. He only left behind a trail of blood and corpses in the stronghold.

In the past year, Luo Lan had rarely killed anyone anymore. That was mainly because he was not personally required to take action most of the time. Therefore, a lot of people almost thought Luo Lan had toned down his character. It was just like how all hooligans tried to repackage themselves as gentlemen after gaining authority. But it was only now that everyone realized Luo Lan was still the same as before. He had never changed.

On the way back to Stronghold 111, the armored vehicles and Mountain Obliterators escorting the convoy made for a spectacular sight.

The khaki-colored armored vehicles drove on the road like roaring beasts.

In the off-road vehicle, Luo Lan was sitting in the back and looking out of the window in a daze. He suddenly said to Zhou Qi next to him, "Things have already started changing in the Southwest. I remember when I went to Stronghold 88 as a hostage, there wasn't even a decent road we could take to get there."

"To be honest, Qing Zhen is really good at governing this vast Southwest." Zhou Qi said, "If it were anyone else, they would probably not even be able to establish their authority in such a short time."

"How do you think he became the head of the Qing Consortium?" Luo Lan chuckled.

Zhou Qi glanced at Luo Lan. "He gets to play the good guy while you get your hands dirty out here. Our hands are covered in blood from the past three days of killing. I said that we should execute them once and for all, but you only killed the old and insisted on letting the young ones live. When they grow up in ten years, won't they come hounding us for revenge every day?"

"What's there to be afraid of?" Luo Lan sneered and said, "I'll actually be quite happy that someone would be ballsy enough to take revenge on me."

Zhou Qi muttered, "You're quite optimistic, eh? I just don't understand. Although Qing Zhen is your younger brother, is there a need for you to take the fall for him all the time? Are you the Qing Consortium's Shadow? Don't you know that none of the Qing Consortium's Shadows got a good ending?"

"He's my younger brother," Luo Lan said in seriousness.

"Everyone changes!" Zhou Qi said, "After he's held onto power for a few decades, once you incur the wrath of the masses one day, he'll have to make a choice between power and you. What choice do you think he will make? Power has a charm. It can make people give up everything."

Luo Lan looked out the window and said, "You know I nearly died from an illness when I was six, right? I remember telling you that before."

"Mhm." Zhou Qi replied, "Why are you bringing that up?"

"That time, in order to save me, my father even sold off his piano." Luo Lan said, "You don't know how much my father loved playing the piano. It was practically his life. When I was old enough, I always heard him say that his dream was to become a pianist."

Zhou Qi curled his lips. "So you're saying you were the one who ruined your father's dream?!"

"No, he had given up on that dream a long time ago." Luo Lan said, "At that time, Qing Zhen's mother was diagnosed with cancer, and my old man had exhausted all his savings to treat her illness, but he still couldn't cure her. We were only left with the piano at home. My old man originally planned to sell it so he could support Qing Zhen and me attending a Qing Consortium private school. Because only by getting into a private school would we stand a chance of being valued by the old fogeys living on Mt. Ginkgo when we grew up."

Members of the Qing Consortium were eligible to attend private schools. Although they didn't have to pay for tuition, the accommodations, uniforms, and activity expenses were extremely expensive.

Those private schools were not only for learning, but students were also brought on trips to see the world. Students would be escorted by retired soldiers of the Qing Consortium on those trips.

When Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were still young, everyone in the Qing Consortium wanted to send their children there, because getting enrolled in a private school would help students attract the attention of the old fogeys on Mt. Ginkgo earlier.

Moreover, the teachers at the private schools were the best in the territory controlled by the Qing Consortium. What they taught was also completely different from the curriculum outside. Military, politics, economics, sociology, and philosophy, all of these subjects were comprehensively taught in the private school. From childhood, the students would get access to training with firearms as well.

Children who graduated from such private schools were indeed better than those who attended public schools.

There was a saying within the Qing Consortium that children who attended private school were the future of the Qing Consortium. Those who did not attend private school were considered wild children.

Therefore, Luo Lan's old man had already planned for this. His dream of becoming a pianist was not important at all. If he had to give up on that, so be it. But his two children had to get enrolled in a private school.

But when it rained, it poured. Their family had just spent all their savings to treat Qing Zhen's mother's illness, but Luo Lan fell sick as well. There was no other choice. His life was more important than anything else, so his old man could only sell the piano to save him first.

Their hopes of attending a private school faded with that. His old man's health had deteriorated too because he often sold his blood for money.

Luo Lan smiled at Zhou Qi and said, "You also know what our relatives in the Qing Consortium were like. Much earlier, they had divided up a factory my old man owned. When my old man went to borrow money from them, none of them even wanted to see him."

Luo Lan continued, "Actually, it was their choice whether they wanted to lend us money or not. But not only did Qing Zhen's second uncle refuse to see my old man when he approached him for help, he even had someone bring out a bowl of leftovers from the yard. At that time, Qing Zhen was present as well. His second uncle's butler said, 'Hurry up and eat while it's hot. You won't get such delicious food to eat after you get home.'"

"Qing Yun's father?" Zhou Qi recalled. "I have an impression of him. He died suddenly in his lover's house some years ago. Later, Qing Zhen arranged for someone to also kill Qing Yun. I was there at that time, so was that for revenge?"

Luo Lan laughed. "Qing Zhen's second uncle purely overstretched himself and suffered a sudden death. It had nothing to do with us at all. As for Qing Yun, he was the one who caused his own death. At the beginning, we wanted to take revenge not on any particular person, but on the entire Qing Consortium. Of course, after we grew up, our mentality gradually toned down a little. We understood that this was how the world was, so we had to get used to it. Qing Zhen was quite soft-hearted in the early years. If he had not been forced to that point by how our old man was treated, he would not have made up his mind to take action."

"You've gone on quite a tangent. Back to the piano," Zhou Qi said.

Luo Lan recalled, "When my old man fell seriously ill, he called me to his bedside when he knew he was about to die. Then he told me that piano originally stood for the future of us two brothers. If I hadn't fallen sick, Qing Zhen and I could have gone to attend a private school together, and who knows, we might have been able to join the Qing Consortium and get jobs as officials in the future. But it was my fault that I had to fall sick. My old man said that the piano's value should have been split between Qing Zhen and me, but I ended up using all of it and sacrificed Qing Zhen's future in the process. So my old man said I had to protect my younger brother. It's what I owe Qing Zhen. This is my fate."