Chapter 44 Sob Drama
“First comes the madness, then the hammer of annihilation. This is exactly why I never liked you military types, no room for mercy for your enemies. Well, I guess I’ll just have to deal with it, you’re still my young Master Zhang after all.”
“Then what would you have done, Uncle Han?” I laughed, and asked in return.
“Chop the two of them up, father and son, and feed them to the dogs.”
Together, we burst into laughter. I knew that Han Kun was perfectly capable of carrying out exactly as he had said, though. He was that capable.
“Well, jokes aside, why don’t you tell me who you’re trying to get to exactly? Tell me, and I’ll look into it for you. And before you begin, don’t tell me that you’re really after the Chen’s.”
I fell silent and contemplated on the idea, but decided to swallow the name back down for now, “No need, I’ll look into it myself.”
Han Kun chuckled, “Chao, I can hear the distrust in your voice just then. What are you telling me to look into Jiang Ming for?”
My heart skipped a beat. Since when have I told him to look into Jiang Ming!?
Not waiting for me to reply, Han Kun continued, “There’s no need for all the petty feints between us. Zhao Gongming never had any enemies in his life, except for Jiang Ming.”
Since the cat was out of the basket, I decided that it was probably better to be upfront about it. I don’t have any confidence that I could possibly fool Han Kun.
I said, “I only came across his name by chance. I heard that there used to be some grudge between him and my father.”
Unexpectedly, Han Kun replied immediately with rock solid definiteness, “I guarantee, Jiang Ming had nothing to do with your father’s death. Just don’t get your nose into Jiang Ming’s business.”
“I…” I breathed out and sighed. It was as though Han Kun had seen through me completely. I couldn’t even come up with a reply.
And, I really hadn’t expected that he was even capable of knowing that I had been secretly investigating Jiang Ming, despite him being so far away from this place at Denmark.
I’m envious of his abilities, and fearful of them at the same time.
But, I knew that Uncle Han would never do anything to hurt me. He would never betray me.
Before he ended the call, Han Kun added, “Feel free to play with the Chen’s if you want, just remember to not overdo it. Well, with that, I’m off to bed. Too tired. I still have much that I must take care of in Denmark.”
After Han Kun hung the phone call, I looked into the mirror, at my own reflection under the dim bathroom light.
Truth be told, my memories of my parents had mostly faded with time. The clearest image I still have of them was that my mother was quite smart, and that she often gave my father advice on things.
In my memories, they were discreet and kept a low profile, perhaps because we didn’t use to have a lot of wealth to speak of back then. The massive group collectively known as the Junran Group only grew into the giant that it is today after the death of my parents, beginning with its logistic department.
Back then, the most valuable possession we had apart from our house was a car, the typical kind that everybody else had. I guess when compared to some, we still came off as being well off enough, but we were never that rich.
My uncle, my aunt’s husband and my father’s brother in law, had no redeeming qualities apart from his good looks. From all the stories I’ve heard, he was something of a street bum, but for some reason he was able to have caught my aunt’s heart and took her hand in marriage. Though I hated my aunt with every fiber of my being, I must admit that she really was pretty, and her renown was spread far and wide.
My aunt had always been distant to my parents. Our family were never close. But back then, my uncle was unable to get a job elsewhere, so my father took him under and hired him as his driver.
My father never drank. Even when they had dinner parties with their business partners, it had always been my mother who drank, as well as my father’s portion too, though sometimes my uncle would do that too. On the night of their accident, my uncle treated our family to dinner. We ate, together along with my aunt’s family. Half way through the dinner, my aunt left, and soon afterwards, my grandparents picked me up and took me home. That night, they didn’t come back, but instead, only the news of their deaths came.
I was young then, and I never once suspected anything. But now, everything I hear tells me that there was something unusual and out of place about their supposed traffic accident.
“Father.” I said to the face in the mirror. Everyone who knew my parents all said that I was a split image of him in his younger days, “And mother too, watch me from above. I swear, I will get to the bottom of this.”
Without Han Kun’s cooperation, it would be difficult for me to perform investigations of any kind and scale. Though from the looks of things, it doesn’t look like he would be willing to help me in this matter, otherwise he would have told me everything about it from the beginning.
So I guess I’m on my own on this one. I mustn’t let anyone else know.
When night came, I drove Lin Fang to the hospital. With her father’s operation just around the corner, it would not do to leave him alone in the hospital by himself.
In the hospital, I asked Big Lon to send a few of his people to be on a secret lookout for Lin Fang’s safety.
After Lin Fang went inside to take over the shift from Lin Kang, a moment later, he came out. I quietly followed behind him, all the way to the elevators, and he never knew that he was followed until I quickly choked him and covered his mouth from behind and dragged him into the dimly lit stairways beside the elevators.
I pressed him into and against the wall. Lin Kang struggled and called out in fear.
“You! What are you going to do to me!?” Seeing that it was me who pinned him against the wall, he was even more afraid. Right now, just about the entire Tong City knew that I got beef with Chen Yuzhou. And him, Lin Kang, was one of his lackeys. From the fear in his eyes, I could tell that he was afraid that I would hit him.
“Got a question for you. Didn’t you say to Chen Yuzhou that you’re going to drug your sister and give her over to Chen Yuzhou? Why was it that it was a Vietnamese killer who came instead?”
“You… you came just to ask something like that?” Lin Kang begged, “Okay, okay, I’ll tell you, just let go of me. Look, I don’t know, he just suddenly changed his mind. Zhang Chao, why don’t you just apologize to my bro Chen Yuzhou nicely? I’ll get my sister to put in a few good words about you to him too. Who knows, maybe he just might forgive you and let you off this time.”
“Me? Apologize to Chen Yuzhou? Heh, what a funny character you are.”
Lin Kang yelled, “It’s for your own good! You got on my bro’s bad side, and you can forget about even setting a foot outside in Tong City. My bro Chen Yuzhou will kill you, you know he can do it! Look, you’re so close with my sister, if you die, you’ll make my sister sad!”
“Oh, then I suppose I should thank you for your kindness. If I didn’t know you any better, I could’ve sworn that you were threatening your sister to be with Chen Yuzhou again, this time with my life.” Coolly, I popped his lies, “Now, last question. Last year, Chen Yuzhou killed a woman, along with the baby that was inside her at that time. What’s her name? Who is she?”
“You’re… you’re not hoping to make a story of it, are you? You think that you can fight my bro with this? Don’t even think about it. You’ll never be able to even touch my bro!”
I ignored his threats, and pressed my thumb into his throat, shutting his lungs off from air. All too soon, he began croaking his pleas for mercy with his eyes rolled upward showing copious amount of white. He gave me a name, Zhou Meng.
I took my hand away from him and stepped back, and Lin Kang slumped to the floor against the wall of the stairways.
“Wait, Zhang Chao, really, I’m warning you, making an enemy of Chen Yuzhou will kill you! You gave my father that 50 grands that he needed for his surgery, I’m thankful for that. Think of my advice as a repayment, don’t touch Chen Yuzhou, he is poison. You touch him, you die.”
I began walking away. I cared little whether Lin Kang was actually reminding me out of whatever goodness he still had in his heart, or simply threatening me.
Seeing my uncaring attitude, Lin Kang yelled to my back, exasperated, “You’re going to die! Horribly!”
With Big Lon’s people here, I don’t need to worry about Lin Fang’s safety.
Lin Fang urged me to go home and rest up. She said that sleeping in the hospital doesn’t do much for rests, and there was no need to tire the two of us out at the same time.
So I made my way back to my place, but when I arrived, I saw that at my door was a small pile of things. My belongings, all of them, were thrown out by someone.
“What’s going on here!?”
Looking at my unlocked door, wide open for the world to see, I thought that a burglar has broken in. Immediately, I took out my phone and was about to call the police, when the landlord came waltzing out of the door of my apartment with a swagger.
“Zhang Chao, I’m not letting you rent the place anymore. Take your things and get out.” He said, as if merely stating a matter of fact.
I gripped my fist. Holding back the anger in my voice, I asked, “Why? My contract hasn’t expired yet has it?”
And even if my contract was going to expire, the proper way to discontinue the contract would require sending me an official termination notice. What he was doing right now wasn’t just terminating the lease contract, but making a point to humiliate me.
The landlord simply stood at the door with his arms crossed squarely in front of him. As he spoke, the curls of his afro shook with his every word, like a giant teddy dog.
“Why? You want me to say it to your face? Alright. Simply put, I don’t want to associate with the likes of you. First you beat someone half dead, then you frame him for rape, I’ve never seen scams as blatant and shameless like this! When you came to me before, I thought you actually had a real proper job, I never thought that you did this for a living. No, I’m sorry, but I won’t rent my house to your kinds! Now take your junk and get off my property!”
Finishing off, he threw the dirty rag he had in his hand at my face, and flipped me one.
Of course, it goes without saying that Chen Ruhai must be the one behind all of this.
So this was what Chen Ruhai and Chen Yuzhou really wanted to do. Even if they couldn’t keep me in the jail cell, they’ll still do all they can to torture me, to humiliate me, just like when I was still in school.
“What are you doing still bumming around here for!? I swear if you don’t get out of my sight this instant, I’ll release the dogs on you!”
I swept my eyes across my belongings on the floor, and then immediately took a few photos of the man and the pile of my belongings on the ground. Then from that pile, I took away only a bag of documents and my laptop. Thank goodness the guy wasn’t smart enough to tell just how important these are, and as for everything else, they can be bought anew later.
“Heh, got an attitude there don’t you? Don’t think I’m afraid of throwing all your junk to the dump!”
I ignored him and kept walking away. Seeing this, the landlord chased after me and spat on the ground, “Bloody uncivilized thug, had the gall to come and rent my property, get lost and don’t come back!”
When I stepped out of the apartment building, the weather was cooperative enough to begin to rain, first lightly, then heavier and heavier into a downpour.
I laughed bitterly within. What ironic timing, it was almost as if I was a character in some cheap sob drama.
At this time, a bright and blinding headlight shone right into my eyes, and an impressive looking Bentley drove up to me and stopped beside me.
The window came down, and as expected, it was Chen Ruhai in the driver’s seat, with Chen Yuzhou beside him.
Chen Yuzhou was a completely different person from the beat up piece of rag of a person that he was in the morning, though his face was still just as beaten up and swollen. He laughed, with visible arrogance in his voice, and raised his fist with his middle finger sticking up towards me, slowly.
“Zhang Chao, I’ll play you, I’ll play you nice and slowly, until you die.”
