About seven or eight minutes later, the car drove into a somewhat dilapidated street.
The right side of the street was blocked off by fencing due to pipeline construction, leaving only a single lane on the left for traffic, and there were very few pedestrians.
"This is the place!"
The van tailing closely behind suddenly accelerated. Its engine roared like a tractor as it aggressively overtook them from the left drainage ditch, then slammed on the brakes, stopping sideways right in front of the Mercedes-Benz.
Fortunately, Zhao Tianyi had quick reflexes and stepped on the brakes just in time to avoid a collision.
Clang!
The van's doors were violently shoved open.
Seven or eight thugs wielding steel pipes and baseball bats jumped out and surrounded the Mercedes.
Yellow Hair Man swung his steel pipe, banging it against the driver's side window. With a crooked smirk and a face full of hostility, he roared, "Get out of the car! Did you hear me? Get the hell out!"
Zhao Tianyi sighed, opened the door, and stepped out.
He first checked the car window for any cracks before looking at Yellow Hair Man and his gang, saying, "Gentlemen, cutting off a car is illegal. Do you know that?"
"The law? Today, I'll let you know who makes the rules around here!"
Yellow Hair Man pointed his steel pipe at Zhao Tianyi's nose and said arrogantly, "You're that lawyer surnamed Zhao? If you know what's good for you, get on your knees and kowtow a few times. I might consider going easy on you."
Zhao Tianyi slowly buttoned the cuffs of his suit jacket and replied, "Let me correct you. First, I am a senior lawyer. Second, I will give you three seconds to drop your weapons, put your hands on your heads, and kneel down."
"What the fuck? A lawyer acting this tough? You actually dare to tell us to kneel?" Yellow Hair Man and the others were momentarily stunned upon hearing this.
"Brothers, beat him up! Smash his car first, then break one of his arms. Let's see if he still acts tough after that!"
Hearing this, the thugs immediately raised their weapons, ready to strike.
Zhao Tianyi shook his head and pointed behind them. "You had better look behind you."
Yellow Hair Man and the others instinctively turned around to look.
Without them noticing, a group of young men, at least three times their number, was walking toward them with unfriendly expressions, forming an even larger encirclement.
These men were all dressed uniformly in black suits, looking like true underworld professionals, completely different from Yellow Hair Man and his ragtag group.
Yellow Hair Man and his subordinates were dumbfounded. Even though they still held their weapons, their bodies began to tremble instinctively.
Unhurriedly, Zhao Tianyi took a pack of cigarettes from his suit's inner pocket, tapped one out, and lowered his head to light it.
He walked up to the pale-faced Yellow Hair Man and blew a puff of smoke into his face.
"You want to hit me? And smash my car? Do you know that you shouldn't casually mess with a senior lawyer?"
Then he pointed at the group of men in black. "See these guys? They are all my students."
Yellow Hair Man and his gang: "???"
Their brains couldn't quite process it. Shouldn't a lawyer's students be lawyers? Why were they all gangsters? Could it be that lawyers were also part of the underworld?
Zhao Tianyi nodded at the leader of the men in black. "I didn't see anything. Oh, and handle this quickly, I'm in a hurry."
The leader in black nodded and waved his hand.
The men in black immediately sprang into action. With clean and efficient movements, they disarmed the thugs in no time and completely subdued them.
With his back to the crowd, Zhao Tianyi leaned against the hood of the Mercedes, continuing to smoke leisurely as if pondering something.
Two minutes later, he turned around and stomped out his cigarette.
"I'll leave this to you. Clean it up nicely and send them wherever they need to go. I'm heading to the prosecutor's office."
"Yes, Senior Lawyer Zhao," the leader in black said respectfully.
Zhao Tianyi got back into the driver's seat of the Mercedes, restarted the car, maneuvered around the van blocking the road and the subdued thugs, and drove away.
..............
Eastern District of Huaicheng.
Smoke filled a private dining room in a restaurant, where six people were seated.
In the seat of honor sat a sinister-looking young man around thirty years old named Liu Shui. On the surface, he was the boss of several logistics companies, but in reality, he was an agent representing someone named Jiang Gui in the gray areas of the city.
The other five were the leaders of the five most powerful local syndicates in Huaicheng.
"Bosses, the tea is getting cold," Liu Shui said.
Sitting first on his left was a man with a face full of fierce flesh, nicknamed Big Lei. He controlled more than half of the nightclubs and underground casinos in Huaicheng.
"Boss Liu, whether the tea is cold or not doesn't matter. What matters is what the fuck is going on with our businesses? Last night, in just one fucking night! Several of our key turfs were all trashed. You did this, didn't you?"
Just last night, the territories of all five leaders had been attacked one after another without any warning.
First, Big Lei's most profitable underground casino was raided, with most of the cash stolen. Many of his brothers were still lying in clinics right now.
The tea shop of a fat man sitting next to him was also set on fire. The loan sharking ledgers hidden in the shop were burned, which contained records of many shady transactions and client information.
The situations for the other three were basically the same; they had all been attacked to varying degrees and suffered heavy losses.
Considering that Liu Shui had repeatedly invited them over and wanted them to submit to him, they suspected he was the one behind it, trying to force them to bow their heads.
"Do you all really think I did it?" Liu Shui said with an innocent face. "I don't have that kind of time. Besides, the matter with Zhao Biao on my end hasn't been resolved yet, so how would I have the time to target you bosses?"
"Also, I just came from Elder Jiang's place. Actually, when Elder Jiang found out, he was also very shocked and furious!"
"I invited everyone here today to tell you the information we found out."
Then, he told a story he had fabricated to sound very real. It was roughly about a group of uninvited guests from Mingzhu City who wanted to replace them and had massive ambitions.
This was naturally a frame-up.
In fact, he had simply ordered his subordinates to temporarily get some black suits and impersonate the group from Mingzhu City to trash the territories of these bosses.
The purpose of doing this was to make these bosses make up their minds sooner and take action against those outsiders.
"I was originally planning to take over Zhao Biao's sandpit business, and you all know the relationship between Zhao Biao and Elder Jiang. But what happened? These guys actually relied on their superior numbers to forcibly occupy the sandpit, and they even beat up my men!" He was making this up as well, mainly to emphasize that he had also been attacked, just like them.
"Think about it carefully, everyone. As soon as these outsiders from the Ten Thousand Dragons Gang arrived, they killed Zhao Biao, and now they are making moves on all of our territories. Do they have any respect for us at all?"
After Liu Shui finished his highly inflammatory speech, the bosses were mostly convinced.
Their subordinates had indeed seen quite a few unfamiliar men in black operating in Huaicheng. During the day, they had even dealt with a few thugs in a certain area, truly showing no regard for them as the local heavyweights.
Big Lei slammed his hand on the table. "Motherfucker! These outsiders are too arrogant! Do they really think they can swallow us all up?"
"Boss Liu, what exactly does Elder Jiang mean to do? He can't just watch us get bullied by outsiders, right? Zhao Biao was at least considered Elder Jiang's son-in-law. This revenge must be taken!"
