At a bar.
Qi Licheng was drinking and carousing with a group of his good-for-nothing friends amid the deafening music.
After putting on a show of power in front of Yang Xin and Xu Shishi that night, the anger in his heart had not subsided. Instead, it had continued to build.
He had been waiting for an opportunity—an opportunity to properly deal with those two people, especially that woman surnamed Xu.
“Young Master Cheng, what should we do next?” Wumao asked cautiously.
Ever since losing one of his ears the last time, the man had become much more subdued.
He used to occasionally dare to joke around with Qi Licheng, but now he had changed completely, becoming timid and overly careful.
Seeing his cowardly appearance only irritated Qi Licheng further.
“What do you mean, what should we do? How’s the thing I told you to keep an eye on?!” he barked.
“I…I’ve taken care of it.”
“Young Master Cheng, I first had some people cause trouble at the construction sites over in Jingchuan for several days. We even deliberately beat up a few foremen who didn’t know their place, scaring them so badly that they haven’t dared return to work. Now, several of the construction sites have been shut down, and their project manager is frantically calling around trying to find people.”
A faint smile finally appeared on Qi Licheng’s face. “What about the man surnamed Yang and the woman surnamed Xu? How did they react?”
“Well…we don’t know,” Wumao said. “But I think they won’t be able to hold out for long before they give in.”
Qi Licheng let out a cold laugh. “Giving in isn’t enough. I want that woman surnamed Xu to kneel in front of me and apologize personally!”
Wumao nodded and bowed repeatedly. “Yes, yes, Young Master Cheng is absolutely right. That woman is far too insolent! We have to teach that woman surnamed Xu a lesson and show her what Young Master Cheng is capable of!”
“Get lost!”
“Yes!”
Wumao had just turned to leave when a burly man sitting in the booth across from them suddenly called out to him.
The man was called Leopard. He was Qi Licheng’s number-one enforcer and most trusted subordinate. He was broad and muscular, with tattooed sleeves covering both arms from his shoulders to his wrists. His face was a mass of flesh, and he looked exceptionally fierce.
“Wumao, don’t leave yet!”
Hearing someone call him, Wumao turned around with a sycophantic smile. “Brother Leopard, what can I do for you?”
Leopard pointed at his neck. “Hey, Wumao, why are you covering your neck so tightly?”
The smile on Wumao’s face froze for a moment before he explained, “Brother Leopard, I just slept funny and got a stiff neck.”
“Really? If you’ve got a stiff neck, why are you wearing gauze?” Leopard sneered. “Come on, let the brothers have a look. Let’s see whether it’s your neck that’s stiff—or whether your ear has failed to grow back.”
“Hahaha…”
Everyone in the booth burst out laughing.
Wumao’s remaining ear instantly turned bright red, but he still forced a smile. “Brother Leopard is joking. Just joking.”
Leopard refused to let him off so easily. He reached out, grabbed Wumao by the chin, and roughly twisted his head to one side.
Wumao instinctively tried to struggle, but the moment he saw Leopard’s murderous expression, he immediately backed down.
“Bro…Brother Leopard, please, a little gentler.”
Leopard ignored him completely. He had always looked down on petty thugs like Wumao, who knew nothing but how to flatter and curry favor.
“Well, would you look at that? You really are missing an ear.” He turned to the others. “Brothers, come take a look! Our Wumao has turned into One-Ear!”
The people in the booth once again burst into laughter.
“One-Ear? That’s a great nickname!”
“Brother Leopard, you’re a genius.”
“Brother Five Mao, that new look of yours is pretty unique. Which barbershop did you go to? I might get the same cut tomorrow.”
“Hahaha…”
With Leopard gripping his chin, Wumao was forced to remain in that humiliating position while everyone stared at the place where his right ear used to be.
Although he wished he could slaughter every person there, he continued to wear a fawning, ingratiating smile.
“Brother Leopard is right. I’m One-Ear now. One-Ear sounds pretty good, hehe…”
Seeing how spineless he was, Leopard finally released his chin. He patted Wumao’s cheek and said, “One-Ear, let me ask you something. After your ear was cut off, can you still hear clearly when someone talks to you from your left?”
Wumao smiled obsequiously. “Brother Leopard, you wouldn’t believe it. After that ear fell off, the one I have left actually became sharper. I can hear everything perfectly now.”
“Is that so? How amazing.” Leopard grinned. “Then what happened to the ear they cut off? Can you still find it?”
“No, I can’t. It’s long gone.”
“That’s a shame. I was thinking that if you found it, you could bring it to me as a snack with my drinks. I’ve eaten plenty of pig’s ears, but I’ve never tried a human ear.”
The moment Leopard said this, even the girls who had been hired to drink with them began laughing.
One of them—a young woman with dyed red hair and a sequined spaghetti-strap dress—laughed so hard she leaned almost entirely against Leopard.
Wumao knew this woman.
Her name was Xiaomei, and just three days ago, she had been his girlfriend.
Back then, he still had both ears. He had nearly a hundred men under his command and was considered a respectable big shot in the underworld on the western side of Jinchuan City.
Xiaomei was a waitress at the bar. She was quite pretty and had a good figure. He had spent a great deal of money pursuing her.
At the time, Xiaomei had been completely devoted to him, calling him Brother Five Mao at every turn and making him feel warm and pleased with himself.
After his ear was cut off, Xiaomei had been frightened when she saw him with his head wrapped in gauze and had immediately broken up with him.
Later, she became Leopard’s woman.
Leaning against Leopard’s broad shoulder, Xiaomei looked at Wumao and giggled. “Brother Leopard, stop teasing him. Look at him—he’s practically about to cry.”
“Cry?” Leopard said. “Can One-Ear even cry? Come on, come on. Cry for the brothers and let us see.”
The corners of Wumao’s mouth twitched, but he kept his smile in place. He picked up a glass of liquor and held it out to Leopard with both hands, bowing respectfully.
“Brother Leopard, let me toast you. You’re a magnanimous man, so please don’t hold this against me.”
Leopard glanced at the glass, then at Wumao’s petty, obsequious face. He immediately made an outrageous demand.
“You want to drink with me? Fine! Here’s what you’ll do: give us a little dog-crawling performance. Get down on your knees and crawl around like a dog a few times. Weren’t you once in charge of training dogs at a kennel? This is the perfect chance to show off your professional skills.”
The ingratiating smile finally vanished from Wumao’s face.
He first looked at Leopard’s fleshy, intimidating face, then turned toward Qi Licheng, who was seated in the place of honor.
Qi Licheng remained completely unmoved.
Wumao’s heart sank.
Finally, under Leopard’s threatening gaze, he slowly bent down, placed both hands on the floor, dropped to his knees, and began crawling like a dog.
Seeing him in such a degraded and servile posture, Leopard despised him even more and burst into loud laughter.
“Wumao, you’re one hell of a talent!”
Then he turned to Xiaomei and said, “Take a look at your ex-boyfriend. Doesn’t he look just like a dog? Hahaha!”
Xiaomei covered her mouth and said in a coquettish voice, "Brother Leopard, don't talk about Brother Five Mao like that. After all, Brother Five Mao is one of Young Master Cheng's men."
Qi Licheng was leaning on the sofa, watching the show with great interest from beginning to end.
Hearing Xiaomei's words, he then said indifferently, "A dog? Keep it if it's obedient, and kill it if it's not. For now, it's still obedient."
Leopard let out a hearty laugh. Then he picked up a glass of wine, tilted his head and downed it in one gulp. After that, he waved his hand at Wumao.
"Alright, get out of here and don't be an eyesore."
Wumao quickly got up and nodded obsequiously, "Yes, yes, yes. I'll get out right away, right away!"
He fled the bar in a sorry state. As the cold outside wind blew, the smile on Wumao's face disappeared instantly, as if it had been ripped off by someone.
He raised his hand, touched his remaining right ear, and then felt the gauze where his left ear used to be. His heart was filled with shame and anger.
It was Qi Licheng who cut it off with a folding knife. It was like cutting off a pig's ear. With one slash and no anesthesia at all, it made him suffer so much that he felt like he was going to die.
Of course, what pained him the most now was not the physical pain, but the disappointment in his heart.
He, Wumao, had been in Jinchuan City for seven or eight years. He had worked his way up from a small hooligan to a boss in charge of nearly a hundred people. Later, he took refuge with Qi Licheng and, thanks to Qi Licheng's connections, his business kept expanding. Moreover, he would honestly offer hundreds of thousands of yuan to Qi Licheng every month.
He once thought that he had finally become Qi Licheng's trusted subordinate...
But what was the result?
Qi Licheng didn't show any mercy when cutting off his ear. Now, he even allowed Leopard to humiliate him like a dog in front of everyone.
Although he really wanted to tear the two of them to pieces, after calming down, that impulse was replaced by a deep sense of powerlessness.
He still knew how powerful the Qi family was in this area of Jinchuan. If he dared to show any resistance, he was afraid that he would disappear from this place tomorrow.
He could only swallow his anger.
Wumao took a deep breath, straightened his collar, covered the gauze more tightly, and then walked towards the back door of the bar.
Behind the bar was a narrow and cramped alley, filled with empty beer crates and stinking trash cans.
At the end of the alley, there was a black car with its lights off. It was probably someone who had parked randomly and blocked the alley entrance.
Wumao was walking towards the depths of the alley with his head down and almost bumped into the black car.
He was about to curse at whoever had parked the car randomly.
Suddenly!
A strange face suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Wumao?"
Wumao was greatly startled. "You..."
Before he could finish his sentence, three or four black - clothed men flashed out from the side, directly grabbed him and covered his mouth.
At the same time, the door of the black car opened. Without even having a chance to resist, Wumao was stuffed into the back seat.
Then the car started and quickly disappeared into the night.
