Chapter 54: Cao Yang's Counterattack

"I don't want you to work under me; I just want you to stay in the Henan Gang."

"No one besides me knows that you killed Liu Yu, and no one besides Xiaoling knows that you've been in contact with me. As long as we keep our mouths shut, you're safe. There's no need to run back to your hometown."

"Then what do you want me to do?" Baozi wasn't completely stupid; he knew Cao Yang must have conditions.

"I want you to help me find Liu Zhenhu's address within a week."

"Once I kill him, this whole matter is put to rest."

"Don't even think about tricking me, and don't try to stall. If I fail to kill him, or if you haven't dug up his whereabouts after a week, I'll still hand that video over to the Henan Gang, and you'll die a horribly painful death!"

Baozi knew Cao Yang wasn't that kindhearted. He wore a deeply dejected expression.

Cao Yang patted his chubby cheek. "You don't have a choice now. All you can do is pray that I succeed in killing Liu Zhenhu. Hurry back; Xiaoling is still at home waiting for you to untie her."

Baozi left, looking back every three steps, terrified that Cao Yang might shoot him in the back.

He returned home, untied Xiaoling, and then squatted on the floor alone to smoke a cigarette.

"Did he beat you?" Xiaoling asked cautiously when she saw blood stains on him. She was afraid Baozi would hit her, considering she was the one who brought Cao Yang home and triggered this chain of events.

Baozi was in no mood to hit her now. He was wondering: if he went straight to Boss Liu and confessed everything, how would Boss Liu deal with him?

He mentally pictured the scene. There was no way he would survive. After all, he was the one who brought Cao Yang there, and he was the one who personally killed Liu Yu.

What if he actually followed Cao Yang's instructions, found Liu Zhenhu's address, and Cao Yang successfully killed Liu Zhenhu? Would he have a way out? Would Cao Yang kill him to eliminate a witness?

He pictured it again and concluded that there was a fifty percent chance Cao Yang would kill him and a fifty percent chance he would let him go.

There was no helping it. Cao Yang was right; he had no choice. He could only gamble on Cao Yang's conscience.

"Don't tell anyone what happened last night, and don't go to work at White Night today."

He instructed Xiaoling, then got up to take a shower, changed into clean clothes, and stood in front of the mirror to steady his emotions.

Unsurprisingly, he would soon receive word of Liu Yu's murder. He had to rush over and put on a mourning performance; he had to act the part so no one would suspect him.

Sure enough, his phone rang shortly after. The brothers told him Brother Yu was dead and urged him to get over there immediately.

When he rushed back to Liu Yu's house, the place was already packed with members of the Henan Gang. There were so many brothers that he couldn't even squeeze inside.

"Baozi, don't shove your way in," a brother stopped him, reminding him that Boss Liu was inside and telling him they could go in after the others left.

Liu Zhenhu looked at Liu Yu's corpse with a face ashen with fury. This was a brother who had followed him for years, and he had died just like that—died in such a miserable way!

A killing should be quick and clean; was there any need to stab him so many times?

"Cao Yang, if I don't kill you, I'll quit the underworld for good!"

He roared to vent his fury.

"Send everyone out! Whoever kills Cao Yang gets a million from me, and whoever captures him alive and brings him to me gets two million!"

"Spread the word! If members of other gangs pull it off, I'll pay the exact same amount!"

This was essentially Liu Zhenhu issuing a bounty on Cao Yang.

Several underlings nodded and immediately began notifying the brothers below.

Suddenly, his phone vibrated. Liu Zhenhu took it out and saw that the incoming call was from Liu Yu.

He looked down at Liu Yu's corpse, then back at the phone's caller ID, and silently pressed the answer button.

He didn't speak, and the person on the other end didn't speak either.

After about a minute of silence, Liu Zhenhu suppressed his fury and spoke.

"Cao Yang?"

"Liu Zhenhu?"

The two had never met nor spoken before. After days of killing each other, this was their very first conversation.

"Fuck your mother, just wait to die! I won't let you off. Even if you hide at the ends of the earth, I'll hunt you down and hack you to pieces!"

Liu Zhenhu gritted his teeth and spat out harsh threats.

Cao Yang sneered in response. "Fuck *your* mother! This isn't a matter of whether you'll let me off; it's *I* who won't let you go!"

"You better make damn sure I don't find you. Keep hiding like a turtle with its head pulled in, because the day I find you will be your doom!"

Liu Zhenhu was driven mad with rage. It had been a long time since anyone dared to curse him to his face like that.

...

Cao Yang hung up, pulled out the SIM card, threw it away, and found a multi-directional overpass tunnel to sleep in.

This city was populated mostly by outsiders, and there were plenty of vagrants. Parks and bridge tunnels were filled with homeless people everywhere, so Cao Yang sleeping here didn't stand out.

He slept until evening, got up, brushed the dust off his clothes, had a meal at a Hunan restaurant, and then walked toward a street bathed in ambiguous, seductive lighting.

This was a fairly famous red-light district. A single street was lined with dozens of hair salons, and every night, the lighting from these parlors dyed the street in colorful hues.

A few loose women wearing revealing clothes leaned against doorframes smoking cigarettes, occasionally calling out to passersby to come inside and play.

"Hey... handsome, come in and have some fun." A beauty in flip-flops and a camisole waved at Cao Yang, winking and showing off her figure to entice him.

Cao Yang bent down, picked up a paving brick, and hurled it at the woman.

The woman was startled, thinking to herself: *If you don't want to play, fine, but why are you throwing bricks at people?*

With a loud crash, the brick missed the woman and smashed into the salon's glass door, shattering the glass all over the floor.

"Fuck your mother, are you insane?" Several loose women were startled, running out to point at Cao Yang and curse him out.

"Sisters, don't let this bastard get away! Make him pay for the damages. He's not leaving today without coughing up three to five thousand!"

The women cursed as they marched toward Cao Yang, while someone pulled out a phone to notify their pimp that someone was causing trouble.

Cao Yang had no personal grudge against these women, nor did he actually intend to hit them—otherwise, given his skills, he wouldn't have missed.

Though the women bore no grudge against him, the people behind these businesses certainly did.

This street was under the protection of the Hunan Gang. Even if they didn't run the operations directly, they collected protection money. Cao Yang was specifically looking to cause trouble for them.

He smashed everything along his way. The glass doors of dozens of shops were completely pulverized by him.

A few Hunan Gang underlings stepped forward to deal with him, but they were beaten so badly within moments that their own mothers wouldn't recognize them.

Someone recognized Cao Yang and became too terrified to step forward; he had become far too notorious over the past few days.

By the time their main force rushed over, there wasn't even a shadow of Cao Yang left.

Without stopping, Cao Yang headed straight to the Pearl Nightclub, intending to smash that place up as well.

However, his trip was in vain. Iron Bear's death had dealt a heavy blow to the Pearl Nightclub, and it still hadn't reopened.

Cao Yang turned and left, unconsciously walking back to the small inn he used to rent with Li Yan.

Seeing Old Xu dumping the trash, Cao Yang walked over to greet him, handed him a cigarette, and the two began to chat.