Madman!

Chapter 35: Do What a Boss Should Do

In an underground fighting arena deep within the Walled City, two men battered each other with bare fists inside an iron cage while hundreds of spectators outside waved their betting slips and screamed themselves hoarse.

In a room on the elevated platform at the arena's edge, Elephant stood gazing down at the ring below and the frenzied gamblers surrounding it.

One of his underlings answered a phone call and looked up with a stunned expression. "Boss, Shark Jiu and Wen Long have gone to war!"

"What the hell's gotten into Shark Jiu?" Elephant turned his head and bared his teeth in a grin.

"Seems like Shark Jiu took on a new recruit, and Wen Long sent over a dozen men to kill him... then it just kicked off!" the underling reported.

"Wen Long..." Elephant's face twisted with contempt.

"Interesting. This is too damn interesting... Hahahaha!" Elephant suddenly burst into laughter.

"What's the fun in everyone getting along? A little chaos is where the real entertainment is!"

After laughing for a good while, Elephant picked up a phone from the table beside him and paused to think. "What's Shark Jiu's number?"

After the underling told him, Elephant dialed Shark Jiu's number. No one picked up."Can't reach you when I need you — what good are you?!" Elephant hurled the phone to the ground, stomped on it with pure fury, and even ground his heel into it twice.

Another underling standing nearby in a dress shirt watched with twitching eyelids, his expression torn, words dying on his lips.

'Boss, that was MY phone!'

But what finally came out of his mouth was: "Boss, should we rally some men?"

"Put the word out. Tell them to get their gear ready and stand by!"

"And send someone to keep eyes on the situation!"

Elephant's expression brimmed with a bloodthirsty hunger.

...

Inside a nightclub, Fire Dragon — one of Lidong's Five Dragon Generals, known as Brother Fire — wore a sharp suit and red-tinted glasses as he held a sultry woman close, grinding through a body-to-body dance. An underling hurried over and whispered in his ear:

"Brother Fire, Wen Long and Shark Jiu are at each other's throats!"

"What the hell is Wen Long thinking? Why'd he go and provoke that crazy woman?" Brother Fire muttered with irritation.

"Wen Long's crew is losing!"

"Not my problem! He picked a fight with Shark Jiu — what's that got to do with me?" Brother Fire turned back and pulled the woman close again, his hips grinding against her backside, his hand slipping under her clothes.

But less than five minutes later, the underling was back. "Brother Fire, things aren't looking good. Wen Long's people have been scattered, and Shark Jiu's crew is hunting them down. I'm worried they might push into our territory next!"

Brother Fire yanked his hand out of the woman's clothes with visible annoyance, shoved her aside, and scowled:

"Get the boys together. Full alert!"

...

In a hot pot restaurant, Ghost Dragon — known as Brother Ghost — was sharing a meal with his men.

"Brother Ghost, Wen Long and Shark Jiu have gone to war!"

"What happened?"

"Sounds like Wen Long sent people to ambush Shark Jiu's new recruit, and both sides went at it full force!"

"Keep tabs on what the rest of Hetu is doing," Brother Ghost ordered in a low voice.

"Have our people on high alert. Weapons ready. Then we wait and watch."

...

By now, news of the war between Shark Jiu and Wen Long had reached the ears of every person of consequence in the Walled City.

Hetu, Lidong, and various other players — everyone was watching.

And at the very eye of this storm...

"Brother Jun! I'm Ah Fei!" A lean young man with sharp, bright eyes strode over.

"I'm Curry!" Another young man introduced himself — a bit shorter than Chen Wujun, but solidly built and stocky, with a pair of dimples on his cheeks.

Both were New Arts practitioners, their physical capabilities a cut above ordinary foot soldiers. A dozen or so men trailed behind them.

More than a few were splattered with blood, chests heaving as they gulped for air.

Everyone understood perfectly well — Shark Jiu was grooming Chen Wujun for a promotion.

Chen Wujun understood this too.

Shark Jiu could push you up, but only if you could carry the weight yourself.

Earlier, he'd deliberately shown himself to draw Wen Long into making a move, giving Shark Jiu the excuse to shatter the uneasy truce between the two sides and launch open war.

That was a contribution — but not one you could brag about publicly.

Between his earlier feat of killing his way out of a dozen-man ambush to establish his reputation and the credit of seizing the gambling den, there was finally enough justification to promote him "legitimately."

As for whether he could hold the position once he had it, whether he could earn the respect of others — that was entirely up to him.

"Which ones are Wen Long's gambling dens? Anyone know?" Chen Wujun picked up a blade from the ground beside a severed hand.

"I know!" Curry immediately took the lead.

The group stormed down Lung Tsun Road toward the gambling dens, a menacing procession. Along the way, Lidong foot soldiers lay scattered everywhere — drenched in blood, writhing on the ground, groaning.

The Walled City's civilians had long since ducked into hiding, peeking out with cautious, fearful eyes.

Gang wars typically didn't involve ordinary people, but scenes like this were far too chaotic for comfort.

They arrived at a gambling den with its doors shut tight. Chen Wujun kicked the door open, and a chair immediately came flying out from inside.

"Kill them!"

Chen Wujun charged in with his blade. Four Lidong foot soldiers came at him swinging steel pipes and blades. He pivoted on his foot, sidestepping a descending blade, then lashed out with two quick slashes that dropped two of them.

After a night of continuous, bloody fighting, he'd burned through more than half his stamina — but his strikes had only grown more ruthless and precise.

Ah Fei and Curry rushed in behind him. The remaining two Lidong men saw the situation was hopeless and tried to flee, but Ah Fei and Curry caught up and hacked them across the back. Both pitched face-first onto the floor.

The gamblers in the den stood pressed against the walls, trembling, terrified of being caught in the crossfire.

Chen Wujun pulled his blade free, swept his gaze around the room, passing over the Pai Gow tiles, dice, and money scattered across the tables before settling on the gamblers.

He jerked his chin toward the door. "If you've got nothing to do with this, get out. Come back and play tomorrow!"

The gamblers still inside bolted for the exit.

Two of them eyed the cash on the tables and reached for it — then looked up to find Chen Wujun staring at them with an unfriendly gaze.

"That's my money. I just placed a bet..." one of them offered with a forced smile.

Chen Wujun flicked his wrist. The blade spun a full circle in the air. His gaze grew even colder.

"It's mine now."

The tip of the blade pointed toward the door.

Looking at the bloodstains on Chen Wujun's body and his increasingly frigid eyes, the two men squeezed out nervous smiles, then scrambled out the door.

"Ptah!" Chen Wujun spat on the ground.

He despised degenerate gamblers more than anything.

"Post someone here to count every last cent, then hold the place," Chen Wujun told Ah Fei and Curry.

There were still three more gambling dens to hit. No matter who he left behind, some money would inevitably go missing — and the person left behind wouldn't necessarily feel grateful for it either.

Better to turn it into a favor for both of them.

Ah Fei glanced at Chen Wujun, then turned and barked at one of his men:

"Ah Choi, you stay here and hold the fort! If even a cent goes missing, I'll have your hide!"

"Move!" Chen Wujun led the group straight to the next gambling den.

This one was shuttered too. Curry booted the door open, and the people inside scrambled out through the windows. Chen Wujun could only watch them flee.

Same procedure — clear the gamblers out first, then leave a man behind to hold it.

Of Wen Long's four gambling dens, only the largest sat on Longjin Street. The others were scattered across different roads.

In under half an hour, Chen Wujun and his crew had seized all four.

"Count the money."

Chen Wujun pulled out his phone and called Shark Jiu. "Sis Jiu, everything on this end is secured."

"Stay put and wait for now."

After hanging up, Chen Wujun's mind churned:

'Can't rest inside the gambling den. If Lidong's people come back, there'd be nowhere to run.'

He turned to the others. "We wait outside! Send two people to watch the intersection. Any movement — report back immediately."

Chen Wujun dragged a chair outside and sat down by the roadside, finally able to catch his breath.

Exhaustion weighed on every muscle, yet his mind buzzed with a fierce, almost manic energy.

Before long, the tallied money from each gambling den was brought over.

"Sixty-five thousand..."

"Forty thousand..."

"Thirty-two thousand..."

"Eighteen thousand..."

"What's the total?" Chen Wujun couldn't be bothered to add it up himself.

"A hundred and fifty-six thousand, give or take!"

"Plus a few pieces of jewelry..."

Chen Wujun nodded and took the bag. This was the money from the tables — all of it would need to go to Shark Jiu.

Beside him, Ah Fei and Curry were constantly fielding and making phone calls, gathering intelligence.

An hour passed, and the situation had more or less stabilized.

"Brother Jun, Wen Long's people have been completely routed. Only a few spots where his territory overlaps with other Lidong generals haven't been taken yet — everything else is ours."

"Lidong's Fire Dragon, Poison Dragon, and the others have all mobilized heavy numbers to defend their own turf."

"But Brother Elephant's people have also mobilized."

Ah Fei relayed the gathered intelligence to Chen Wujun after hanging up.

Chen Wujun nodded. With no one able to get a clear read on the overall situation, nobody would make any rash moves.

Most likely, there wouldn't be any major action for the rest of the night.

Then he reflected on his earlier decision to have Ah Fei and Curry assign their own men to stay behind and count the money. A quiet realization dawned on him.

'After I did that, those two became noticeably more respectful. More enthusiastic, too.'

'After all, they were only sent by Senior Sister to help me.'

'If you want to be a boss, it's not about looking like one — it's about doing what a boss does.'

'You need authority. Outwardly, you have to be fierce enough, ruthless enough, imposing enough — like Senior Sister. But inwardly, you also have to know how to distribute the spoils! That's the only way people will respect you. Trust you.'

Chen Wujun thought back over everything Shark Jiu had always done, then connected it to the small lesson from tonight. A vague but growing understanding began to take shape.

Just as he was lost in thought, his phone rang.

Chen Wujun answered, exchanged a few words, and hung up.

"Ah Fei, you're with me. Everyone else, hold the fort here. Wen Long's people shouldn't be coming back."