Madman!

Chapter 132: Recruiting

"Haven't seen Ah Yue in ages. How's she doing? You never bring her out — keeping her locked away like a hidden treasure, are you?" Karen's eyes curved when she smiled, her body swaying with all the magnetic allure of a woman in her prime.

"She's bored out of her mind sitting at home. I'll give her your number later — she can go have tea with you." Chen Wujun smiled.

Things had been strained between him and Karen because of past events, but on the surface they still got along.

Now, their statuses and prospects were worlds apart. If anything, it was Karen who needed to mend the rift.

Chen Wujun's gaze swept across the crowd and landed on Lin Zetao and his friends.

He acted as if he hadn't seen them and walked off with Karen and his crew.

After lunch on the way back, he turned to Ah Fei. "Put the word out. I'm recruiting."

"Focus on poaching people from the martial arts schools."

Once the funeral was over and Shark Jiu assumed the Dragon Head position, a Hall Master slot would open up.

But his foundation was far too thin. He had too few men and even fewer skilled fighters — not a single one worth putting forward.And skilled fighters were the hardest to find.

The other Hall Masters, including Lidong's Five Dragon Generals, had all built their ranks over years and even then only had a handful of fighters worth mentioning.

"Go get Ah Wei."

"Brother Jun, you wanted to see me?" Ah Wei jogged over.

"Ah Wei, are there any other skilled fighters like you who snuck into the country and are now in the Walled City?" Chen Wujun asked.

"I'm building up my forces. If you know people like that, spread the word. They didn't cross the sea to North Port just to break their backs doing manual labor. Money, women, status — whatever they want, as long as they've got the ability, they can have it." Chen Wujun spoke with commanding authority:

"Or maybe you've got relatives or friends back home. As long as they're skilled and willing to put in the work, send them my way."

"There are definitely some martial artists back home. I can have word sent back. Only thing is... there are quite a lot of them." Ah Wei's eyes lit up, tinged with excitement.

Back in the day, nearly the entire clan had pooled their money to get him out.

Even if Chen Wujun hadn't brought it up, he'd been planning to bring his family over.

He'd found his footing here and had just received a two-hundred-thousand-dollar cut — money that would take ten years to earn back home. He wanted nothing more than to bring everyone over.

Life here was so much better than in East District 7.

Even the Walled City, with its filthy gutters everywhere, was several times better than East District 7. At least here you didn't worry about food or drink, and there were no year-round dust storms choking the air.

Only those who'd lived in the mining regions knew just how unfit for human habitation those places truly were.

"A lot? How many are we talking? Enough to fill one ship? If not, make it two. Get in touch first — I'll arrange the transport when the time comes. But make sure they understand: they'll be putting their lives on the line. The cost gets deducted from their wages. Of course, not everyone has to be a fighter. What I need are skilled martial artists, like you." Chen Wujun's interest was visibly piqued.

Ah Wei's kung fu was excellent, and his combat technique refined.

Whether in Old Arts or New Arts, strength wasn't determined by power level alone — technique mattered just as much.

Ah Wei's raw physical attributes were roughly on par with Ah Fei's and Curry's, but his fighting technique was leagues above theirs.

It was like two ordinary men with the same physical conditioning: one had trained since childhood, the other had only dabbled. In a fight, the first would utterly crush the second.

Among martial artists, this gap was even more pronounced.

"Around thirty-plus people. One ship would be enough." Ah Wei answered eagerly. Having Chen Wujun arrange the transport was far more reliable than finding a smuggler's boat on their own.

Then something occurred to him. He hesitated briefly before adding:

"Brother Jun, I also know a pair of brothers here in the Walled City. They're not exactly... well-behaved. Always talking about pulling off big scores. When I first arrived, they even tried to recruit me." Ah Wei said with some reluctance.

"We're running a gang, not a kindergarten. 'Not well-behaved' is a plus! How tough are they?" Chen Wujun snorted.

"The brothers' surname is Duan. I've never fought them so I can't vouch for their exact strength, but they definitely aren't weak. They both started with Old Arts — have a foundation in Poking Foot and Tumbling Fist — then switched to New Arts," Ah Wei explained.

"Skill is all that matters. If they want to pull off big scores, they'd better have the chops for it. The Special Task Department doesn't just sit around twiddling their thumbs. Tell them there's food at my table — how much they eat depends on how good they are." Chen Wujun didn't care what kind of people these brothers were.

Not well-behaved? Have Ah Wei bring them over, beat them into submission, and they'd behave just fine.

Besides, anyone with the guts for high-stakes criminal work had guts to spare. Those were exactly the kind of men he liked.

All he cared about was whether they had the strength to be useful.

After giving his orders, Chen Wujun headed to Jindi Finance. He told Ah Wei and the others to wait in the corridor and went in alone.

"Brother Jun!" Everyone at Jindi Finance rose to greet him.

Even the ones on the phone paused to acknowledge Chen Wujun before returning to their work.

With Master Xin dead and Shark Jiu all but certain to become Dragon Head, Chen Wujun's stock had skyrocketed. Within Hetu, he was the hottest name there was.

In the seat that had once belonged to Ji Xiang, a man in his thirties stood up. "Brother Jun, you're here! Shark Jiu is inside."

Chen Wujun recognized him — Ah Lang, one of Shark Jiu's long-time people. He'd also been on the West Embankment trip.

Chen Wujun swaggered up to Shark Jiu's office, knocked twice, pushed the door open, and dropped into the chair across from her.

"Senior Sister, reading dirty magazines again? If you like them so much, why not just keep a couple of boy toys?"

"Women are the most troublesome creatures alive! I'm a woman myself and I still don't know what goes on in their heads." Shark Jiu tossed the magazine onto the desk, plucked a cigarette from the pack, stuck it between her lips, and flicked another one to Chen Wujun.

"Snake Aunt is a woman too, isn't she?" Chen Wujun caught the cigarette and the lighter, lit up, and exhaled a long stream of smoke.

"She's different. She just looks like a woman." Shark Jiu shook her head.

"Senior Sister, how's the cleanup going? Have you found that batch of crystals?" Chen Wujun got down to business.

This was what mattered most.

"Found part of it. About fifty million dollars' worth of goods. Enough for now. Still tracking down the rest — we've got leads." Shark Jiu gave him the short version.

"Don't worry, you won't go short on crystals."

Their lineage's training — all the stance work, the eye-forging techniques — relied heavily on crystals. They actually needed more than New Arts practitioners did.

"If Senior Sister shorts anyone, it won't be me. That's not what I'm worried about." Chen Wujun grinned.

They chatted idly for a while, then Shark Jiu's expression turned serious. "Ah Jun, your foundation is too thin and your reputation isn't strong enough. I want to push you up, but you need to earn it."

"After the funeral, once I become Dragon Head, I'll announce the identities of Master Xin's killers. One of them is Li Wenlong from the Northern River Sect — Double Blade Long. Whoever kills him becomes the new Hall Master."

"No problem!" Chen Wujun showed no surprise whatsoever, then asked with a grin: "You said 'one of them' is Double Blade Long. So there's someone else?"

"How could Li Wenlong possibly have killed Master Xin on his own? It has to be believable. The story is: he conspired with the notorious bandit Yuan Hong and ambushed Master Xin near the West Embankment airport." Shark Jiu's eyes narrowed.

Chen Wujun burst out laughing.

So Senior Brother Yuan Hong was going to take the fall, just as expected.

Without a co-conspirator of sufficient infamy, if Shark Jiu simply claimed Li Wenlong had killed Master Xin, even if Hetu's own people kept quiet, outside rumors would never stop.

Not that Senior Brother Yuan Hong would care. He could shoulder a few more black marks without batting an eye.

Chen Wujun made a mental note: whenever he had dirty laundry to toss in the future, he could always pin it on his senior brothers.

With that settled, Chen Wujun got to the real business.

"Senior Sister, I've got a stash of jewelry and diamonds I need to move. Who's the best contact? The diamonds should be straightforward, but the jewelry is a bit conspicuous."

These gems and diamonds were the welcoming gift from his two senior brothers.

He still needed to find a way to offload them.

Diamonds and jewels couldn't be eaten — only cash would give him peace of mind.

"Bring them to me. I can handle it." Shark Jiu smiled.

"Diamonds are a hard currency. Through normal channels, you'd lose forty percent. Through my channels, twenty percent at most — you keep eighty. As for the jewelry, it's hot goods. Normally you'd get thirty percent back at best. Since you're an unknown face, someone might even offer you ten. My channels can get you fifty percent."

"Senior Sister, those margins are brutal..." Chen Wujun hadn't expected the cut to be so steep, even going through Shark Jiu.

"That's the cost of the channel bearing the risk, their profit margin, plus the expense of cleaning, recutting, and labor for those pieces. And I'm not even charging you a finder's fee — otherwise you'd owe me another fifteen percent on top." Shark Jiu smiled.

More than anything, she was educating Chen Wujun about how these things worked.

"Got it. I'll bring it over this afternoon." Chen Wujun nodded.

Inwardly, he was calculating. The fencing margins were far steeper than he'd imagined. His previous thinking had been naive.

By his earlier logic, even if you robbed a gold shop or a watch store and grabbed goods worth several million, you'd walk away with less than a million.

The fencing business was hugely profitable. Sometimes you could even fleece an unknown seller. He should keep his ear to the ground and think about building his own channels.

And capital operations like the Lin Group could play a significant role in that process.

Chen Wujun was beginning to grasp more deeply the symbiotic relationship between capital and fighters like himself.

Capital needed their martial prowess, and they in turn needed the support that capital provided. Each side took what it needed.

......

That afternoon, Chen Wujun delivered the jewelry to Shark Jiu.

Over the next two days, he didn't return to the mourning hall.

There was no need for him to be there every day. After the first two days, the remaining shifts were handled on rotation.

Instead, he spent his mornings training and his afternoons handling other matters.

Three days later.

Chen Wuhong stood before the mirror in a red dress shirt, inspecting himself from every angle.

His legs had been broken multiple times. He'd been confined to the house for nearly a year. At long last, he was being let out.

He studied his reflection a moment longer, then pushed open the bedroom door. Stepping outside the apartment for the first time in ages, he felt an almost surreal sense of disorientation. Instinctively, he lightened and slowed his steps.

After a few paces, it hit him — no one was going to break his legs this time. He straightened his back.

Downstairs, two tall, powerfully built young men in suits were leaning against the alley walls, smoking.

Chen Wuhong guessed they'd been sent by his brother. He cleared his throat twice and walked over.

Without even realizing it, an ingratiating smile had crept onto his face.

The two young men turned to look at him and approached with friendly grins: "Brother Hong, right? Brother Jun sent us to pick you up."

In that moment, Chen Wuhong felt his self-esteem swell to bursting. His whole body seemed to float.

No one had ever shown him this kind of respect before.

And coming from Hetu's people, no less.