I forced myself to stay calm. After weathering so many storms, I had come to understand one truth.
The bigger the crisis, the less you can afford to panic.
I shouted for a few waiters to come and look after Liang Chuang, then grabbed a set of car keys from the counter and went to the back of the tea tower to get the car.
I didn't know where Liang Chuang had been shot or how long he had been running with the wound. His clothes were completely soaked in blood; he looked even more wretched than I did half a month ago.
With the help of a few waiters, I got Liang Chuang into the car. He clenched his teeth and gently shook his head at me while looking at the waiters.
I knew what he meant. There were some things these waiters shouldn't know.
"Keep a good eye on the tea tower. Business as usual. If a problem comes up that you can't solve, just close the doors for a few days."
After giving these instructions to the waiters, I slammed on the gas, and the car shot off like an arrow.
"Liang Chuang, what exactly happened?"
Liang Chuang's breathing was heavy and ragged, sounding like a bellows by a stove. I was terrified he might not catch his next breath and just kick the bucket right there.
"We were coming back from the outside and ran into a group of Vietnamese. Big Brother stole business from them before."
I was startled. Business?
What kind of business did Jiang Qingbo have that involved snatching it from the Vietnamese?
Guixi borders Vietnam, separated only by a river. After 2010, Vietnamese people often crossed the river to work in Guixi cutting sugarcane.
Lincang in Diannan borders Myanmar. The Vietnamese appearing here were definitely not good birds either.
Liang Chuang let out a muffled groan. "Big Brother has a few casinos on the outside too. That's where the real money is."
I cursed inwardly, greeting all of Jiang Qingbo's ancestors. Sure enough, the minds of these society Big Brothers were never easy to guess.
I never imagined Jiang Qingbo had casinos and business outside the border.
I couldn't be bothered to ask what kind of business Jiang Qingbo stole from the Vietnamese, so I asked concisely, "Is Big Brother still alive?"
Liang Chuang nodded somewhat uncertainly. "Should be. Those Vietnamese are in it for the money. Unlike us hooligans, they won't just kill Big Brother outright."
I spat softly. What's the difference? Isn't everyone in it for the money? A society Big Brother handles people just to make money better.
"You mean Big Brother was taken away, not killed on the spot."
Liang Chuang nodded with difficulty. "Yeah. When I ran, Big Brother was just being held down. He wasn't shot or stabbed."
I secretly breathed a sigh of relief. If Jiang Qingbo was dead, Liang Chuang wouldn't need to go to the hospital; I'd just notify Sir Niu to come collect the bodies.
Friends might have missed a detail: I couldn't see Xu Biao's true face because seeing it required a constable's life as a pledge of loyalty.
But Liang Chuang could.
The people hustling here in Lincang weren't just simple underworld hooligans anymore; they were more like bandits who would kill and rob.
It was a completely different concept from what I had seen back in Guizhou. If someone in the interior tried to hustle like Jiang Qingbo—burying two people alive—they would have lost their heads long ago.
I hesitated in my heart. Jiang Qingbo falling into Vietnamese hands... even if we paid the ransom, it would be hard for him to survive.
The most likely outcome was losing both the person and the money.
If Jiang Qingbo died, my path to contacting Xu Biao would be cut off. This matter would end here, and I could pull out.
But if that happened, all my previous efforts would go down the drain.
Getting hacked thirteen times would have been for nothing.
The harder this was to pull off, the heavier I would weigh in Sir Niu's heart once I succeeded.
Sir Niu's status was too high. In the future, there would be absolutely no shortage of people working for him, or even begging to work for him just to curry a little favor.
If I didn't do a few weighty things for him, sooner or later, I would be forgotten.
Risk and reward are always proportional.
I made up my mind instantly.
It's just one life, after all!
I asked softly, "Liang Chuang, I want guns, and I want men."
Liang Chuang stared at me with wide eyes. "Number Two, don't be crazy right now. Those Vietnamese monkeys are killers who don't blink. You think you can go save Big Brother single-handedly?"
Single-handedly?
My heart felt bitter. Actually, I should have realized long ago that for our generation of hustlers, it wasn't about loyalty anymore.
If Jiang Qingbo didn't fall, how would the people under him rise? If this were the seventies or eighties, maybe someone would actually go with me tonight to save Jiang Qingbo.
But this was the late nineties—the era of Reform and Opening Up, where money reigned supreme.
Everyone was hustling for the word "Money," not "Loyalty."
I let out a long breath. "I want guns. Forget the men. And tell me where Big Brother will be taken."
Liang Chuang wasn't Xu Rang. He had no loyalty in his heart, which was why he ran immediately after Jiang Qingbo was caught by the Vietnamese.
I was even less like Xu Rang. I never had the concept of loyalty in my heart. From the moment I started hustling, I understood very clearly that I wasn't a good person.
But Jiang Qingbo couldn't die. At least, not now. He had to wait until Sir Niu caught that drug trafficker and I had firmly grasped Sir Niu as my protective umbrella before he died.
With a complicated gaze, Liang Chuang whispered an address to me.
After dropping him off at the hospital, I drove nonstop to the place he mentioned.
It was a dilapidated tenement building. I fished out the key from the spot Liang Chuang described, went inside, and retrieved a shotgun and a pistol.
Finally, I smashed open the door of a shop. Under the shop owner's angry gaze, I slapped the pistol onto the table and asked if I could borrow his phone.
Ever since the invention of guns, nomadic peoples have suddenly become good at singing and dancing—let alone a small shop owner.
This call was to Sir Niu. I briefly explained the situation and asked him for one thing.
I wasn't Rambo, nor was I Yan Shuangying. Two guns alone wouldn't be enough to handle this!
He gave me an address and told me to wait for him there.
It was past 2:00 AM. Four hours had passed since Jiang Qingbo was caught by the Vietnamese. I stood on the border line waiting for Sir Niu, carrying a shotgun in a shoulder bag and a pistol tucked in my jacket.
Sir Niu came alone in his car. His first words upon arrival were, "Shanhe, you can back out now. I won't blame you. We'll still be friends in the future, really."
I chuckled. "Save that bullshit. If you were really worried about me and wanted me to leave, you wouldn't have brought me the stuff."
Sir Niu fell silent and didn't speak.
I nodded toward the shoulder bag in his hand. "Is the weight enough?"
Sir Niu gave a "Mm-hmm" and shifted the bag behind him. "Shanhe, you really can leave now. I'll arrange a car to send you back to Guizhou immediately."
I snatched the bag from his hand. Without sarcasm, I said very calmly, "You and I are the same kind of people. We are both selfish and self-serving. It's always been about taking what we need from each other. Don't act all sentimental now."
With two bags hanging off me, I stepped across the border line.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and said, "Sir Niu, if I die out there, have a conscience and take care of my old mom at home."
"If I come back alive, don't ever forget that it was I, Chu Shanhe, who staked my life to pave your road to the clouds."
Without waiting for Sir Niu to speak, I turned quickly, dove into the dense forest, and sprinted toward the location Liang Chuang had given me.
In a place like this, there were no roads. Branches and various thorns quickly tore my clothes to shreds, leaving me covered in cuts and bruises.
Jiang Qingbo, you bastard, your fate better be hard enough. Wait for me—I'm staking my life to save you!