Chapter 56: Enforcing Family Discipline!

At 8:00 PM, Wang Yaotang led A-ji and A-jie into the Kowloon Walled City.

This was a lawless zone outside the reach of any government, with narrow, cramped alleys and flowing sewage. Lacking streetlights, it was illuminated only by the faint neon glow spilling from surrounding shops, forcing Wang Yaotang to keep his head down and walk with care.

Leading the way was a lackey of Boss Su, sporting a crew cut and a face mapped with scars of various sizes. Short in stature, his skin possessed that pale complexion born of a lifetime starved of sunlight. He had a habit of squinting when looking at people, casting a deeply unsettling gaze.

Boss Su was a rather lean, wiry old man dressed in traditional Tang attire, holding an emerald-inlaid bronze opium pipe. Beaming with smiles, he greeted Wang Yaotang by praising him as a handsome, sharp, and lucky little god of wealth, making it hard to imagine this was a formidable triad heavyweight operating within the Walled City.

After a few pleasantries, Wang Yaotang stated the purpose of his visit.

"Just a trivial matter. We are all brothers in the underworld, and I, old man that I am, have zero tolerance for traitors who wear red shoes." Boss Su let out a cold hum. "A-biao, bring him in and let our little god of wealth take a look."

Before long, a somewhat lean man, standing at most 165 centimeters tall with slightly dark skin, walked into the room.

"Just him? Will he do?" A-jie muttered under his breath.

"How does A-yao find him?" Boss Su asked with a smile.

"My boss told me Boss Su handles things with the utmost reliability, so it must be reliable!" Wang Yaotang replied with a smile.

"Hahahaha! His name is Wu Xiangqian, a veteran. In the three years since he came over, he has killed three men with his bare hands." Boss Su pointed with his pipe, speaking with an air of utter indifference.

Wang Yaotang straightened up, his brow furrowing slightly. He opened his mouth to speak, but changed his words at the last second. "Boss Su, wouldn't this be treating Brother Wu rather unfairly?"

"Rest assured, the job will definitely be done right." Assuming Wang Yaotang was feeling uneasy, Boss Su explained, "He gets three hundred thousand for this. He can buy a four-hundred-and-fifty-square-foot apartment in Tsuen Wan, and get three identity papers."

"So, set your mind at ease. The man must be killed; otherwise, he won't get the money, and his family will pay with their lives."

"If he doesn't step up and do the work, neither he nor his family will ever dream of walking out of the Walled City alive!"

"Hoo..." Wang Yaotang let out a long breath. "I know Boss Su is the most reliable. With things in your hands, I am completely at ease."

"A-jie, hand over the money!"

A-jie licked the corner of his mouth, looking at Wu Xiangqian with a look of eager anticipation that made Wang Yaotang want to kick him.

*Thud.* A leather bag dropped to the floor and zipped open, filled entirely to the brim with old, small-denomination banknotes. "Fifty thousand!"

Wu Xiangqian instinctively took two steps forward, only to be blocked by A-biao.

The two stared at each other for a few seconds, and Wu Xiangqian silently retreated a few steps.

***

Wang Guangzu found a street payphone, dropped a coin inside, and made his call.

Moments later, the phone rang on the other end.

"Which row?"

"Soaring in arrogance."

"Brother Yao, congratulations. A Double-Flower Red Pole."

***

"Haha, a minor matter, in the bag."

"The old bastard spilled quite a bit, dropping the whole roster. Do you want me to slip him some poison and finish him off?"

"No need, I have arrangements on my end. Stay low these past couple of days. How have things been lately?"

"Same as usual. You blew the top of my supervisor's head off, and he's losing his mind."

"Hahaha, that's just giving him a prominent profile." Wang Yaotang smiled. "Keep an eye on him. If I get the chance, I'll cripple him and launch you straight to the clouds."

"Don't, it's too dangerous."

"Alright, that's it."

***

With a bruised and swollen face and steel cuffs on his wrists, Wu Xiangqian was shoved and pushed by two police officers into the Yau Ma Tei Police Station.

"Get over there," a cop barked harshly.

"What's going on?"

"Some mainland punk started trouble with a vendor. He tried to run the moment he saw us, took a lot of effort to catch him." A cop grumbled, bearing a footprint on his clothes and a swollen, blackened eye.

Paperwork was processed, and the suspect was temporarily detained.

Since early morning, Yau Ma Tei streets had seen numerous brawls. The police came, but the brawlers didn't run, fighting with extreme ferocity, which resulted in every single detention cell being packed.

In the detention block, two officers escorted Wu Xiangqian to Officer Sam's cell. The veteran cop unlocked the iron door, and the young rookie reached for his keys to remove Wu Xiangqian's cuffs, only to be stopped by the veteran. "Keep him cuffed, it's safer."

"Oh." Giving a casual reply, the young cop shoved Wu Xiangqian hard into the cell. "Behave yourself, mainland boy!"

With that warning, the two turned and walked away.

Wu Xiangqian staggered forward a couple of steps, crouching down in the corner with his head lowered, his peripheral vision locked onto the two retreating officers.

As soon as they stepped out and the iron door slammed shut, Wu Xiangqian slowly stood up, a sharp, piercing gaze fixing on Officer Sam.

Officer Sam met Wu Xiangqian's eyes and shuddered violently. That gaze was ferocious and chillingly indifferent, as if looking at a dead man.

In an instant, the realization struck him that this was a hitman sent by the triad.

"Help..."

Before he could get more than a single syllable out, Wu Xiangqian lunged forward with a fierce kick straight to Officer Sam's groin.

Sam's face contorted in agony as he dropped to his knees, both hands clutching his crotch.

Wu Xiangqian raised his arm and brought his elbow crashing down hard onto the back of Officer Sam's head.

Sam's vision went pitch black, and he collapsed face-first onto the floor.

Hopping up slightly, Wu Xiangqian targeted Sam's neck with his knee and slammed down violently. A sickening crunch of breaking bones echoed through the room.

***

The sequence of actions flowed seamlessly, taking less than eight seconds in total. The occupants of the neighboring detention cells watched in stunned silence, and it was only then that someone finally snapped out of it and roared at the top of their lungs, "Murder! Someone's been murdered!"

Wu Xiangqian slowly stood up. Fearing Sam wasn't dead enough, he unhurriedly raised his foot and stomped viciously onto the neck several times until it was completely twisted and deformed, and blood pooled from Sam's facial orifices. Only then did he step back into the corner, squat down, and interlock his fingers behind his head.

Before the two officers who had just left could even sit down, they heard the frantic shouting echoing from the detention block. They spun around, pushed the door open, and rushed in. Following the frantic pointing of the other detainees, they sprinted to Officer Sam's cell, freezing in horror at the very first glance.

There was no need to check for breathing; the neck was bent back at an unnatural angle of over ninety degrees. He was unquestionably, thoroughly dead.

The veteran cop glanced sideways at Wu Xiangqian squatting in the corner, swallowing hard. *Vicious, and lightning fast!*

"Th-th-this..." The young rookie stood paralyzed for a moment, looking panic-stricken at the veteran. "What do we do? The star witness is dead!"

"You watch him, I'm reporting this upstairs!" The veteran cop turned on his heel and bolted.

"Ah, right."

***

Quiros, Wong Ping-yee, Lui Chun, and a group of OCID officers, alongside the head of Internal Affairs, rushed down in a flurry. Surveying the scene inside the detention cell, Lui Chun, sporting his trademark fierce glare, lashed out with a vicious kick against the heavy iron door. "Motherfucker! This was definitely sent by Wang Yaotang!"

The detention cell door flew open, and Lui Chun lunged furiously inside, launching a barrage of brutal kicks at Wu Xiangqian, who remained huddled in the corner with his head in his hands. "Son of a bitch, did Wang Yaotang send you? Speak!"

"How much did Wang Yaotang pay you? Talk!"

"Are you gonna talk, you bastard!"

"Motherfucker!"

Lui Chun beat Wu Xiangqian like a madman. Wu Xiangqian curled up defensively, absorbing the blows in complete silence without uttering a single word, enduring the kicks and curses.

Wong Ping-yee frowned, wanting to intervene, but after casting a sideways glance at Quiros, he closed his mouth.

It wasn't a matter of playing favorites; beating the man was pointless. This was clearly a syndicate-trained assassin who would never crack.

"Weren't you warned that he was a vital crown witness?" Quiros couldn't care less about Lui Chun's outburst; he turned his gaze coldly to the head of Internal Affairs.

The veteran cop gave a dry cough and stepped forward to speak on behalf of his superior. "Mr. Quiros, as you can see, the patrol officers brought in a lot of people today, and the other cells were completely packed."

"For safety, I specifically kept his handcuffs on. Who could have anticipated..."

The police station had numerous departments, each with its own responsibilities. You couldn't exactly forbid patrol officers from making arrests, nor could you blame Internal Affairs for having nowhere else to put the prisoners under the circumstances.

A complete mess!

"Enough. Lui Chun, process the scene and follow standard procedure." Dropping those words, Quiros turned around and walked away.