On a provincial highway, a long convoy of buses was making its way slowly along the road.
Most of the passengers were in their forties or fifties, with a small number of elderly people around sixty. This was the fifth group of employees’ family members traveling to BS Province. Everyone on the buses was a parent of one of the company’s employees.
Their destination was a city not far from the area hardest hit by last year’s disaster. They were going there on vacation and, while they were at it, to take a look at the post-disaster recovery efforts.
The driver of the lead bus was a veteran who had spent many years driving passenger routes. There was no denying that Old Li was a steady driver. Even so, the black-clad security officer sitting up front felt a little on edge. From his vantage point, whenever they passed through the mountain roads, it seemed as though the bus was practically scraping the edge of the cliffs. The roads were especially treacherous.
“Old Li, how many years have you been driving this route?” the security officer asked.
“Almost fifteen.”
“You were driving this route before the earthquake too?”
“Yep. I happened to be in Da’nan City when the earthquake struck, so I managed to escape the disaster. Once the roads were repaired, I came back and kept driving this route.”
“Were these mountain roads always this deserted?”
“They were even quieter before. After the earthquake, things actually got lively for a while. Rescue vehicles, reconstruction teams, trucks hauling building materials—they were constantly coming and going. But lately, traffic has thinned out again.”
Old Li paused, as if he had suddenly remembered something. Then he added, “I recently heard from some of the drivers who regularly run this route that this stretch of road may not be safe.”
“Not safe? What do you mean?”
“Apparently, there are people stopping vehicles and demanding money. They set up roadblocks, pull cars over, and ask for tolls. They especially like targeting vehicles with out-of-town license plates.”
The black-clad security officer immediately grew serious. He picked up the radio and relayed the information to the men in the buses behind them.
“Stay alert. The road ahead may not be safe. There could be petty thieves waiting for us.”
“Copy!”
“Copy!”
“...”
Seeing how seriously the security officer was taking things, the driver quickly added with a laugh, “There’s no need to be so tense. I heard there’s been a crackdown lately, so there aren’t many people stopping cars anymore. The previous groups of buses never actually ran into trouble. And even if we do, we can just give them a little money and send them on their way.”
The black-clad security officer nodded. “Let’s hope so.”
The convoy continued forward. After rounding a bend, the view ahead suddenly opened up.
They were less than twenty kilometers from the nearest city when the lead bus suddenly slammed on its brakes.
The elderly passengers were caught off guard and lurched forward in their seats.
“What happened?”
“What’s going on?”
“Ouch! What kind of driving is that?”
“...”
The security officer sitting near the front immediately stood up. While raising a hand to calm the startled elderly passengers, he hurried toward the driver’s cabin.
“Great. I really jinxed us. There really are people blocking the road.” Old Li couldn’t help smacking himself in the mouth.
About forty meters ahead, a pine log thicker than a large bowl lay across the middle of the road.
Standing beside it was a group of people—at least twenty at a rough count.
At the very front was a young man wearing a floral shirt. He had a beer belly, a balding head that shone under the sunlight, and a greasy yet menacing face. With his left hand tucked into his pocket and a cigarette pinched between the fingers of his right, he squinted at the approaching convoy.
Behind him stood more than twenty underlings in a variety of clothes.
Some held steel pipes, while others gripped machetes. Two men were holding leashes attached to a pair of snarling, bared-toothed wolfhounds.
Cheng Gang, the head of security on the lead bus, frowned when he saw the scene. He first reported the situation to the men behind him over the radio, then jumped down from the bus and walked straight toward the group, giving them a careful look.
The balding man in charge carried a hint of ruthlessness about him. He didn’t look like an ordinary petty thief blocking the road.
As for the people behind him, around a dozen looked like ordinary street thugs. Several others were drooling and looked mentally impaired. They even shouted incoherently:
“Rob... rob them!”
“Ro... robbing people is fun!”
“Heh heh heh...”
“...”
Cheng Gang did not immediately make a move. He could tell that several of the men were intellectually disabled, and it was possible that the group had genuinely encountered financial difficulties and was stopping vehicles to collect tolls.
So he politely cupped his fists and said, “Brother, who do you work for? What’s the meaning of blocking the road?”
The balding man casually tossed away his cigarette butt and looked him over. His eyes lingered for a moment on the dragon-shaped insignia on Cheng Gang’s chest before he slowly replied, “Which path we come from isn’t important. What matters is that this road belongs to me. If you want to pass, you pay.”
“How much?”
“Two thousand per vehicle.”
Cheng Gang’s eyes instantly turned cold. This guy certainly knew how to make an outrageous demand.
If he had asked for a few hundred yuan, Cheng Gang might have paid it out of consideration for the disabled men among them. But asking for tens of thousands at the outset made it clear that these people weren’t desperate petty thieves. They were real criminals engaged in illegal activities.
Seeing that Cheng Gang remained silent, the balding man pointed at the convoy behind him.
“Looks like you’ve got quite a few vehicles. How about this? I’ll give you a discount. Fifty thousand yuan, and I’ll have my men move the log. Once you pay, we’ll each go our separate ways. We won’t interfere with each other.”
Cheng Gang glanced back at the buses. Everyone inside was an elderly member of the company’s employees’ families. He didn’t want to escalate the situation and frighten them, so he forced down the anger rising in his chest.
“Everyone on the buses is an elderly tourist. Could you make an exception, just this once? Consider it a favor between friends.”
The greasy, balding man twisted his lips into an ugly smile, revealing several smoke-yellowed teeth.
“I don’t make friends. I only take money.”
“If you don’t pay, you can forget about passing through here.”
The greasy, balding man pointed at one of the drooling young men behind him whose mental state was clearly impaired.
“See them? Every one of these people under me is an idiot, and they don’t know their own strength. If they hurt any of your people, that would be unfortunate.”
Hearing this, Cheng Gang suddenly thought of their boss, Ji Yu, of the Myriad Dragon Society.
He never expected that even these petty thugs would use the same trick. Truly, outlaws everywhere seemed to think alike.
And he had to admit—the tactic was quite effective.
Even if these people were arrested, the police couldn’t do much about it. You couldn’t exactly throw a mentally disabled person in prison, could you?
Seeing that the tour group had no intention of cooperating, the greasy, balding man lost patience. He waved his hand and gave the order to his special underlings behind him.
“Brothers, show them what we can do! Let them see how tough we are!”
At his command, several drooling young men with obvious intellectual disabilities raised their steel pipes and charged forward, howling.
Cheng Gang was just about to shout for everyone to prepare for a counterattack when he witnessed an especially comical scene.
Those dim-witted young men didn’t charge at him. Instead, they rushed toward the fallen pine trunk in the middle of the road and started stabbing it wildly.
“Robbery! Robbery! Hand over your money!”
“Give us your money! If you don’t, I’ll stab you to death!”
“……”
If that pine tree had been sentient, it probably would have felt terribly wronged.
What did I ever do to you?
The greasy bald man’s smile instantly froze.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing? Why are you stabbing the tree? Stab a person! Stab the guy in black! Make a hole in him!”
The few intellectually challenged young men tilted their heads and looked at their leader, then at the pine tree. A look of sudden realization spread across their faces.
“Oh! Make a hole!”
Then three of them really did change direction, grabbed their steel pipes, and charged at Cheng Gang.
A smug, vicious grin returned to the greasy bald man’s face. Only by making an example of someone would this tour group obediently hand over their money.
He turned around, pointed at Cheng Gang, and shouted toward the bus.
“See that? This is what happens to anyone who refuses to—”
He broke off mid-sentence.
Because he suddenly felt a chill on his backside.
More precisely, he felt the cold touch of a steel pipe pressed against it.
He stiffly lowered his head and saw a steel pipe planted precisely against his butt.
Following the pipe upward, he saw a foolishly grinning face. It was Third Fool, one of the intellectually challenged young men under his command.
At some point, Third Fool had crept behind him. Now he was squatting on the ground, gripping the steel pipe with both hands and aiming it at the man’s unmentionable region.
His grin was excited and utterly innocent, like a child who had just discovered a fun new toy.
“Make a hole!”
The greasy bald man’s pupils suddenly contracted.
“Wait! Don’t—”
“I’m stabbing!”
The intellectually challenged young man shouted again and eagerly thrust both hands forward.
The steel pipe struck its target with perfect accuracy, tremendous force, and absolutely no mercy, driving straight into the leader’s unmentionable region.
Even through his trousers, that kind of impact was more than ordinary flesh and blood could withstand!
The next second—
“YAAAGH!!!”
A scream like a slaughtered pig rang out instantly.
