Madman!

Chapter 52: When You Act, Leave No Loose Ends

Ah Yue seemed to sense that Chen Wujun was in a foul mood and had been sweetly attentive to him all evening.

Late at night, Ah Yue lay draped across Chen Wujun's chest, tracing lazy circles on his abdomen with her fingertip.

"What are you thinking about?"

"I just figured something out," Chen Wujun murmured, one arm tucked behind his head as he let out a long breath.

"A dog can't stop eating filth. Never hand someone a second chance so easily — you never know what they'll do with it." A sharp edge glinted in Chen Wujun's eyes.

"People always say 'leave a way out for others.' That's complete horseshit. When something needs to be done, you do it thoroughly — no half measures."

He wasn't particularly close to Shu Fen's family. But seeing the girl curled up in a corner like an abandoned stray had inevitably reminded him that his own household harbored the same kind of degenerate gambler, and it stirred something inside him.

And it wasn't just about Shu Fen's gambling addict of a father or his own family's degenerate gambler — the same principle applied to everything else.

If someone posed a potential threat, you crushed them outright.

You couldn't leave anyone even a sliver of opportunity.After witnessing what happened to Shu Fen's family with his own eyes, Chen Wujun suddenly grasped a fundamental truth.

Never, under any circumstances, leave loose ends. When you act, act decisively and completely.

Ah Yue only half-understood what he was saying. She just felt his words carried too much venom.

She didn't try to talk him out of it. Instead, she changed the subject: "Do you want to go shopping tomorrow? I've never been. We could just walk around the area near the Walled City."

"Maybe in a few months. I really don't have time right now."

Chen Wujun had never told Ah Yue about the gambling den affairs. She didn't work at the dance halls, had no contact with those people, and was completely in the dark.

"Tomorrow I'll give you some money. Find a place for your dad and your little brother to rent — stop paying for beds at the Walled City Hotel," Chen Wujun said, suddenly remembering.

The so-called Walled City Hotel was actually a ten-story building in a state of utter chaos inside.

Not only were there cheap flophouses with single rooms partitioned into seven or eight beds, but there were also plenty of Apartment Phoenix girls working out of private rooms, along with junkies gathering to smoke heroin together.

Quite a few illegal immigrants and fugitives from the law called the place home too.

In the Walled City — a lawless zone that no authority bothered to govern — the Walled City Hotel was the most chaotic place of all.

Ah Yue had to go inside every day to deliver meals. Over time, that was bound to invite trouble. Better to rent a proper place outside.

A couple thousand a month was pocket change compared to the hundred thousand in crystal currency he now spent monthly on martial arts training — a drop in the ocean.

"Okay..." Ah Yue's face broke into a radiant smile at his words, and she promptly seized hold of Little Jun.

...

The next day when Chen Wujun came home, Shu Fen was nowhere to be seen.

At the dinner table, Huang Meizhen was still talking about the girl: "Poor Shu Fen — now she's lost both parents. Though honestly, good riddance to that gambling addict father of hers."

"Both parents gone — who's going to raise her?" Chen Wujun asked casually.

"She's got no one left on her mother's side. I talked to some of the neighbors, and we agreed that each household chips in twenty dollars a month. That's three hundred eighty from all of them combined — enough to keep her in school. As for meals, she'll eat at a different family's house each day." Huang Meizhen spoke between bites.

"The only headache is finding her a place to stay. Her family's apartment was rented, and now that both her parents are gone, she obviously can't stay there. But nobody has the room..."

After all, every family's living space was tiny. Cramming an entire household into a hundred or two hundred square feet was the norm; three hundred square feet counted as a mansion.

'Figures,' Chen Wujun thought. Each family pitching in a little — they couldn't very well let a child starve to death.

As for a place to stay...

"The dental clinic's empty at night. Just let her sleep there," Chen Wujun said abruptly.

Huang Meizhen's eyes lit up at the suggestion, and she glanced over at Chen Hanliang.

Seeing that Chen Hanliang said nothing, she quickly pivoted: "Eat up, eat up! Worst case, she can sleep in the hallway. A bit cold, a bit pitiful, but at least she'll have food in her belly. She won't freeze and she won't starve."

Chen Wujun finished his meal and headed into the bedroom.

His older brother was eating in bed, a small table set up beside him with the remaining dishes on top.

"Chicken soup too? You're getting better treatment than the rest of us!" Chen Wujun sniffed the air.

"Second Brother — did you find the guy who did this?" The moment he saw Chen Wujun, Chen Wuhong pressed him urgently.

He was seething with rage these days.

That night he'd barely stepped out — and someone had broken his legs. Now he couldn't even get out of bed.

"Were you really just stepping out for fresh air, or were you going to gamble?" Chen Wujun shut the door behind him and asked bluntly.

"Didn't I already tell you? I was just getting some air!" Chen Wuhong answered immediately.

"You heard about Shu Fen's father, right? I'm telling you now — if I ever find out you've been gambling again, I'll throw you off the roof myself." Chen Wujun's voice was unhurried, almost leisurely.

"You gambling addicts have stopped being human. All you do alive is drag everyone else down."

Watching Chen Wujun deliver those words with a perfectly calm expression, Chen Wuhong felt a chill crawl through his chest.

"I'm definitely done gambling," he mumbled, lips trembling.

"You'd better be." The coldness vanished from Chen Wujun's face. "New Year's coming. Stay home and heal up."

As he watched Chen Wujun leave, only one thought echoed in Chen Wuhong's mind — his little brother was becoming more and more unsettling.

...

Chen Wujun had assumed that after finishing Spirit Ape Hanging Beam, Master Zhou Qing would teach him Swimming Dragon Palm at their next session.

But over the following two weeks, though he met Zhou Qing twice, the old master didn't teach him Swimming Dragon Palm at all — only had him keep drilling those same Stance Training exercises.

As the days slipped by, the Lunar New Year drew closer and closer. Even the Walled City took on a faint festive air.

Chen Wujun also found himself buried under a growing pile of miscellaneous tasks.

He didn't manage the gambling dens hands-on, but he still needed to drop in from time to time.

Even from outside he could see a crowd gathered around the job posting board. Inside the den, things were even livelier... and foggier with smoke.

A mass of people swarmed around nine gaming tables placing bets, every face twisted with greed and desire.

"Brother Jun, you're here!" A runner spotted Chen Wujun and hurried over to greet him.

"Where's Ah Fei?"

"Fei, Brother Fei! Brother Jun's here!" The runner scrambled to notify him.

"Brother Jun, your idea was brilliant — the place has been packed to the rafters every single day!" Ah Fei rushed to usher Chen Wujun into the back room.

"Brother Jun, this month's net rake is two hundred twenty thousand. Business is booming and New Year's right around the corner — next month's bound to be even higher!" Ah Fei's face was practically glowing as he delivered the report.

After all, during the first week after they'd taken over, the place had been nearly deserted.

The gamblers had only gradually trickled back in after that.

Under those circumstances, pulling in two hundred twenty thousand in net rake meant next month was guaranteed to top three hundred thousand.

"The ledger?"

"Have the cash ready too."

Moments later, a runner brought both the ledger and the money, the cash divided into two stacks.

One was Shark Jiu's share. The other was Chen Wujun's.

Chen Wujun flipped through the ledger first, then pressed his palm down on a thick stack of bills, feeling a rush of heat in his chest.

All of this was his — legitimately earned, not stolen or taken by force. And it would keep coming every single month.

A hundred and ten thousand total, and that was from just this one den.

Chen Wujun first pulled out one bundle, then drew eleven hundred from another stack — eleven thousand one hundred in total — and handed it straight to Ah Fei.

"Yours."

"Thanks, Brother Jun!" Ah Fei pocketed the money with a satisfied grin.

"Tell the others to come in and collect their pay."

Chen Wujun said.

These men had technically been lent to him by Shark Jiu.

But when they collected their wages from his hand every month, given enough time, they'd become his people. He'd just need to give Shark Jiu a heads-up when the time came.

Moments later, the runners filed in one by one to receive their pay.

Apart from Ah Fei, everyone else got three thousand.

Listening to their grateful thanks, Chen Wujun mused to himself: 'Nothing moves the human heart quite like money.'

After distributing all the wages, Chen Wujun headed to the other gambling den. This one had only five tables, a lower entry threshold, and none of the bustling energy of the larger operation.

This month's net rake was only thirty-nine thousand.

Chen Wujun likewise handed out pay to Curry and the runners there.

Then he called over a runner to carry the bag of money and followed him to Jindi Finance.

Stepping inside, Chen Wujun swept the room with his gaze. Ji Xiang's runners all had their heads buried in their work, as if none of them had noticed him walk in.

"Nobody can see someone just walked through the door? Every last one of you gone blind?" Chen Wujun stood in the doorway, his tone laced with amusement.

"Brother Jun, you're here! Sister Shark Jiu and Brother Ji Xiang are both inside!" The runners "finally noticed him" and immediately turned on the warmth.

"Busy, are we?" Chen Wujun asked with a grin.

"Oh yeah, it's year-end — tons of debts to collect!" one of the runners blurted.

"Good. For a second there I thought you all had a problem with me." Chen Wujun strolled inside, amusement dancing in his eyes.

"Problem? No way! We're so busy we can barely keep our heads on straight!"

Chen Wujun rapped on the office door and stepped in. Ji Xiang, Ah Hao, Flower Boy Rong, and Karen were all lounging on the sofa, smoking and chatting.

"Ah Jun! I hear your den's on fire these days!" Ji Xiang greeted Chen Wujun with immediate warmth.

"Even at its best, it's still small potatoes. Your operation here is the real fire, Brother Ji Xiang — everyone's so busy they can't see straight. Literally can't see the person standing right in front of them!" Chen Wujun quipped with a grin.

The two exchanged a round of bantering pleasantries.

Chen Wujun took the bag from the runner's hands and set it on the table.

"Sister Shark Jiu, here's my share. Ledger's in there too."

"Moving the job board right next to the gambling den — what gave you that idea?" Shark Jiu regarded Chen Wujun with a beaming smile.

She genuinely hadn't expected him to pull it off so well.

In the beginning, when Chen Wujun's gambling den had barely any customers, there had been a testing element to her thoughts.

If he could handle it, he was management material — someone with versatile skills and sharp instincts.

If he couldn't... then he'd end up like Cun Bao — leading a crew of enforcers to collect protection fees, and not much more.

She hadn't anticipated that Chen Wujun would be this resourceful. Moving the job board next to the den, cooking up some kind of voucher system — he'd single-handedly turned a dead venue into a thriving one.

"I had no choice. The den was entrusted to me by you, Sister Shark Jiu. If I botched it, you'd lose face. I'd sooner die trying than let that happen," Chen Wujun laughed, exchanging a few pleasantries before settling into the seat beside Ah Hao.

"That voucher thing of yours — walk me through how it works sometime. Loads of gamblers have been asking about it." Ah Hao passed Chen Wujun a cigarette.

"If I don't set something up soon, you're going to steal all my customers."

"Easy enough. Just send someone to find Ah Fei and he'll sort it out." Chen Wujun stuck the cigarette between his lips, in excellent spirits.

The den was thriving, and that reflected well on him.

"Ah Jun's got a head full of clever tricks. But you haven't shown your face at the dance hall in ages — come by for a drink sometime!" Karen chimed in with a smile from the side.

Chen Wujun's voucher scheme hadn't just set the gambling den on fire — it had driven extra business to her establishments too, which had raised him a notch in her estimation.

"I'll definitely make time! You know how swamped I am right now," Chen Wujun laughed, trading pleasantries with the group.

Ji Xiang watched the scene with a smile plastered across his face, but a shadow of something dark flickered through his eyes.

'Misjudged him, it seems.'

He hadn't expected the kid to actually turn the gambling den into a success.