Zhao Weixiang hadn't left the house for the past two days, constantly reviewing all the intelligence he had received recently.
That woman's methods were indeed formidable. After Bai Jingchen was attacked, she didn't choose to strike back directly right away; instead, she donated a massive sum to the local police through the Bai Group, quickly establishing connections with local law enforcement.
"What a brilliant move!" Zhao Weixiang had to admit that this woman was highly experienced in handling such matters, always able to accurately find an entry point to build relationships with the authorities.
Her methods were surprisingly similar to his former mentor's.
His mentor was the same way, skilled at pulling strings, weaving webs, and connecting everyone together.
"Boss! The target has arrived in Los Angeles with an entourage of about thirty people," a subordinate reported.
Thirty people.
Zhao Weixiang took a deep drag from his cigar and slowly exhaled the smoke.
Thirty might not sound like a lot, but he knew how high the caliber of the Myriad Dragon Society was, and how strong their forces were. Especially that leading woman—even before meeting her face to face, he could feel an invisible pressure just from the intelligence reports.
Liu Yutong!
This name had once been his nightmare during his days in the Dragon Kingdom.
At first, he too thought she was just a little girl he could easily manipulate, but gradually, he realized how horribly wrong he was.
Zhao Weixiang turned around. Standing in the suite's living room were five people—a mix of foreigners and those of Dragon descent. They were all top-tier fighters he had recruited in the US, acting as his trusted aides here.
The first to speak was a bald, burly man nicknamed Razor. A scar ran down his left cheek from the corner of his eye to his mouth, making him look extremely ferocious.
"Boss, everyone is here. We've also stationed over thirty brothers downstairs, fully armed. We'll make sure they don't make it back alive this time."
Zhao Weixiang nodded and asked, "Over in San Francisco, you've all heard about what happened with the Corraro family, right?"
A tall, skinny white man licked his lips and spoke up, "Heard a bit about it. That guy Rossi actually went down, lost tens of millions, and his ace fighter was beaten to death on the spot. But the Corraro family is just an insignificant branch of the Mafia; their reach shouldn't extend to us here, right?"
Razor also grinned and added, "I also heard that the young head of the Corraro family acknowledged that Dragon Kingdom woman as his great-grandmother. Talk about throwing away every shred of Mafia dignity."
Great-grandmother.
When Zhao Weixiang heard this title, he almost died laughing.
What kind of bullshit title was that!
Of course, none of that was the main point.
"Liu Yutong's subordinates are all fierce fighters. Black and White Fiends, Hell Giant... you should have heard these nicknames by now. Do not underestimate them."
Razor replied, "No matter how good they fight, they're still flesh and blood. In the face of absolute firepower, even a T-Rex would have to hit the dirt."
Zhao Weixiang naturally knew they had guns, and quite a few of them.
Getting hold of these weapons in the US wasn't difficult, but for some reason, the unease in his heart only grew stronger.
Could it be that Liu Yutong and her people also got their hands on guns, or even heavy firepower?
But they shouldn't have any experience using firearms, right?
He didn't dwell on it too much. He would face whatever came his way. Even if the other side had secured guns, they wouldn't necessarily gain the upper hand in a shootout.
After arranging some upcoming tasks, Zhao Weixiang poured himself another glass of wine and half-reclined on the sofa, his mind drifting back to an incident that happened over a decade ago.
Back then, he was just a low-level thug, scraping by selling pirated discs under his boss at the time, Brother Pi.
That night, Brother Pi received a phone call. His expression turned extremely strange, and then he took a few of his core men to an old district in the west of the city, which had now been redeveloped into a high-end residential area.
He remembered it was drizzling that night, with hardly any streetlights. After finishing a delivery, he urgently needed to use the restroom. When he came back, his boss and the others were gone, off doing who knew what.
Then, while waiting by the car, he suddenly heard a commotion coming from a small riverbank not far away.
When he ran over in the dark to check, he saw a man in a police uniform lying in a pool of blood, a knife sticking out of his abdomen.
Zhao Weixiang recognized that face.
It was Chief Inspector Gao from the local police station. He had a great reputation, had solved many cases, and was always amiable with the common folks.
Zhao Weixiang was still mixing it up on the streets back then. Once, after getting into a fight, he was taken to the station, and it was Chief Inspector Gao who took his statement. Unlike the others, Gao didn't yell at him; instead, he poured him a cup of water and advised him that a young man should walk the straight and narrow.
Zhao Weixiang had scoffed at it at the time. In that era, many believed that the bold ate their fill while the timid starved to death, and he was no exception.
But somehow, he had remembered that face.
And yet, not long after, that same face lay pale and lifeless in a pool of blood.
His first reaction had been to call the police, but Brother Pi, who had hurried back, pinned him down and warned him not to be a busybody.
However, not long after, Brother Pi met with an accident. They said it was a car crash, but Zhao Weixiang knew it wasn't that simple.
Because that night, he had seen more than just Chief Inspector Gao; he had seen another figure.
When that person saw him approaching, they grabbed a knife and ran. He had only caught a glimpse of their back.
But later on, he still managed to recognize who that person was.
It was none other than the future boss of the Yilian Syndicate.
After that, the underworld of Pearl City underwent a bloody purge. Several syndicate bosses mysteriously disappeared or died violently, and the fastest-rising power was a new faction named the Yilian Syndicate.
Liu Lei, the boss of the Yilian Syndicate, relied on his ruthless methods to turn the syndicate into the largest gang in Pearl City in just a few short years.
Strangely enough, after the Yilian Syndicate grew powerful, public security in Pearl City actually improved significantly. As someone from the underworld, Zhao Weixiang had deeply experienced the chaos from over a decade ago.
Robberies! Brawls! Thefts and so on were everywhere!
It wasn't until the Yilian Syndicate emerged that many people didn't dare to be so high-profile anymore, terrified of being targeted.
Of course, that wasn't the main point. The main point was that he always felt Liu Lei's actions were about more than just expanding the Yilian Syndicate's territory.
Later, by a stroke of luck, Zhao Weixiang met a mentor who worked as a broker. He gradually made a name for himself and started having his own plans.
As one of the witnesses from that night, he absolutely refused to believe that Chief Inspector Gao was simply stabbed to death by a random thug while on duty.
He had secretly investigated the matter and dug into Liu Lei's background, ultimately discovering something astonishing.
The relationship between Liu Lei and Chief Inspector Gao was not that simple.
Liu Lei had secretly arranged for people to take care of Chief Inspector Gao's daughter, Gao Min, on multiple occasions. At first, Zhao Weixiang thought he was just doing it out of guilt, considering Gao's death was directly tied to him.
But the deeper he dug, the more he felt something was wrong. Gao Min and Liu Lei were actually true father and daughter.
And then, he came to a bone-chilling conclusion.
Liu Lei was probably not just a simple gang boss, and his sweeping of other gangs wasn't purely about grabbing territory. It felt more like some kind of revenge. Perhaps Liu Lei himself hadn't anticipated Inspector Gao's death, and only went completely crazy afterward, indiscriminately purging those gang leaders.
During that time, almost everyone in the underworld was fearing for their lives.
At the same time, Liu Lei's massive moves completely earned the trust of the people behind him.
After all, taking out a police inspector and sweeping through so many underworld bosses—wasn't that enough to be trusted?
But Zhao Weixiang knew that Liu Lei didn't really want to do this. He was just influenced by hatred and simply decided to go completely dark.
From Liu Lei's relationship with Gao Min, one could deduce just how close he was to Inspector Gao.
Based on what he saw that night and the clues he gathered later, Zhao Weixiang guessed that it was highly likely Inspector Gao told Liu Lei to leave first to avoid exposing his identity, and Liu Lei chose to believe that he could hold out...
To be honest, Zhao Weixiang quite admired this kind of policeman, someone who truly achieved self-sacrifice and selflessness...
Of course, Zhao Weixiang never revealed this information to a second person. If it had been leaked, Liu Lei wouldn't have had to wait years to be taken out; he would have been dead long ago.
He always kept this trump card hidden, thinking that if something happened one day, he could use it, or use it to connect with that network and skyrocket to become the king of the underworld in Pearl City.
Unfortunately, just as he was biding his time, planting his people in the Yilian Society, the Yu Group, and around Lin Muyang... or making plans to trap them in his schemes, he met Liu Yutong.
At that time, Zhao Weixiang truly felt a deep sense of bitter rivalry, wondering why he had to exist in the same era as her.
He didn't think his methods were inferior, yet every time he made a move, she always managed to one-up him. It gave him the feeling that she knew exactly what he was thinking.
That feeling made him incredibly frustrated.
At the time, he could have played his trump card and fought Liu Yutong to the bitter end, but ultimately, he chose to flee early and came to the United States.
This was mainly because he was indeed a bit afraid of dying...
After arriving here, he still couldn't figure out where he had lost, especially after getting the news that Liu Yutong had flown to the West. He couldn't understand why she insisted on wiping him out completely, even chasing him all the way to the States.
Until he received a definitive piece of news.
Liu Yutong and Gao Min were actually biological sisters.
Liu Lei, the Yilian Society, Inspector Gao, Gao Min, Liu Yutong...
He should have realized it sooner.
No wonder this woman could navigate both the lawful and criminal worlds with such ease. This was the root of it all.
Time slipped away bit by bit.
As the time for the delivery approached, his trusted subordinate, Razor, came over to report some news.
"Boss, Liu Yutong's people have checked into a hotel downtown. A few of them wearing black suits went straight into the Los Angeles Police Department."
"The police department?"
"Yes, they were in there for almost an hour before coming out."
"Our guys tailed them. After they came out, those people drove around for a few blocks and finally went into that hotel. They should be regrouping there."
"She's going through the proper channels," Zhao Weixiang said suddenly.
"The proper channels?" Razor was confused.
Zhao Weixiang snorted coldly. "This is an old habit of hers. When this woman does things, she always keeps it legal and compliant on the surface. She has absolutely no bottom line as a gangster. Even after coming to the States, she's still pulling this stunt!"
Razor asked, "Then... Boss, should we make the first move?"
Zhao Weixiang shook his head. "No. I don't believe she doesn't know we sent people to tail her. Since she dares to show up so openly now, she must have dug a trap waiting for us to jump in. If we make a move now, we might end up wanted across the whole United States."
He actually guessed right. Among the people Liu Yutong brought, there were indeed plainclothes police officers. This was also one of the reasons why she didn't hide her whereabouts.
Except perhaps on the turf of the United States' next-door neighbor, normally, if you dared to assault a police officer, it would never end well.
Razor frowned. "Then what do we do? Just wait for her to come knocking on our door?"
"Wait?"
Zhao Weixiang sneered. "Of course not. If she wants to play by the rules, we'll give her something outside the rules."
"The Snakehead Gang, are the goods ready?" he asked.
Razor nodded. "They're ready. There are nineteen 'piglets' in this batch, all recently scammed over. There are also some that our bail company paid to bail out of jail; if they can't pay back the money, they have to compensate with the valuable parts of their bodies according to the agreement. Right now, they are all locked up in that old cannery in the South District. According to the original plan, they will be loaded into trucks at dawn and shipped to Sin City to be resold."
Zhao Weixiang grunted in acknowledgment, then suddenly asked, "The boss of the Snakehead Gang, has he always wanted to hook up with Mr. Jiang's network?"
"Yes, they want to do transnational business, so they definitely want to connect with Mr. Jiang's channels over in East Asia. But Mr. Jiang's side has never agreed, thinking their scale is too small and their methods too rough," Razor said.
"That's perfect. Tell them there's a change of plans. The goods won't be shipped away; dispose of them on the spot."
Razor was taken aback. "Dispose of them? Boss, those are nineteen 'piglets' who signed indentured contracts. We could make a fortune just by reselling them..."
"Is money more important, or is your life?"
Zhao Weixiang looked at him coldly. "Since Liu Yutong came this time to investigate us under the guise of Bai Jingchen's case, let's give her an opportunity. If the Snakehead Gang's hideout just happens to be discovered at this time, and there just happens to be a batch of victims locked inside waiting to be rescued..."
Razor's eyes lit up. "You mean, let Liu Yutong and her people go rescue them?"
Zhao Weixiang shook his head and corrected him, "You're wrong. It's to let Liu Yutong and her people step into a trap."
"The cannery is the main lair of the Snakehead Gang. Leak this information out, and also leak the news that I will be heading there too. If Liu Yutong receives the tip, with her style, she will definitely lead her people to pounce on it."
"The three streets surrounding the cannery are an abandoned industrial zone. There are no residents and no surveillance cameras. Our men will lie in ambush at the vantage points in advance. Wait until her people go in to save the hostages, then seal the doors shut, and then..."
He raised his hand and made a shooting gesture.
Razor gasped. "Boss, those are over twenty civilians. If they all get wiped out inside..."
"Who said they all have to be wiped out?"
Zhao Weixiang smiled, a smile that exuded a bone-chilling coldness. "Leave one or two injured as witnesses. When the police arrive, what will they see? They will see Liu Yutong leading a group of armed personnel breaking into a private factory, engaging in a fierce firefight with the Snakehead Gang, ultimately causing massive civilian casualties."
"When that time comes, no matter what connections she has hooked up with over here, she won't be able to explain her way out of it."
Razor suddenly understood. "I get it! Boss, this is a brilliant move! You not only eliminate your opponent but also shift the blame cleanly. However... what about Boss Wang of the Snakehead Gang? We have a long-term partnership with them. If we play them like this, won't we offend him to death?"
Who knew that Zhao Weixiang would say without a care, "Bai Jingchen's case has caused such a huge uproar and has had such a terrible impact. Someone with enough weight needs to take the fall, right?"
Razor felt an inexplicable chill in his heart.
It was only then that he truly realized his boss could not care less about how long they had worked together or how deep their ties went.
Everyone, likely including himself, Razor, was nothing more than a pawn that could be discarded at a moment's notice.
"Go make the arrangements."
Zhao Weixiang waved a hand and leaned back into the sofa. "Remember, the information you leak must be absolutely real. Do not deliberately fake anything, or the other side will not fall for it!"
"Understood!"
