Chapter 333: Five-on-one Gets Reverse-killed – Can’t You Play Fair?
“Old Jiu, you said there’s a big fat sheep, where is it? You didn’t let him slip away, right?”
The last one to enter was a man with goggles, dressed neatly and genteelly, completely unlike the three people who entered before him.
However, the world of the streets is treacherous.
This scholarly and genteel image is precisely his camouflage for navigating the streets.
Thanks to this harmless appearance, every day countless people’s wallets are pickpocketed by him, and much of the hard-earned money of others falls into his pocket.
Because he excels uniquely in pickpocketing, he became the boss of this small pickpocket gang.
“Brother Fei, I’m watching the target, don’t worry, even if you give him wings, he can’t fly away.”
Old Jiu boasted self-praisefully for a while, walked to the wall and pointed to the men’s clothing store opposite, saying: “He’s right in that store, I saw him go in.”
“In this era, anyone who can afford a mobile phone is definitely a big fat sheep.”
The minor leader called Brother Fei, with eyes full of greed, said: “Today we’ll catch this fat sheep, once we get it, us brothers can live comfortably for a few days, hehe.”
“A few days? I think it’ll be more than that.”
Old Jiu grinned, revealing a mouth of big yellow teeth, and said excitedly: “That kid’s mobile phone is no ordinary one, I saw it in the mall a few months ago, it sells for over three thousand, at least enough for us brothers to live it up for a month.”
“What? Over three thousand?”
The other four pickpockets including Brother Fei were all startled by this price.
One must know that in this era, even in a prosperous place like the capital, the minimum guaranteed salary is just over three hundred bucks, and an ordinary worker’s salary is only four or five hundred a month.
Even workers with an iron rice bowl average only several hundred a month.
One mobile phone is worth half a year’s salary for an ordinary person, and reselling it on the black market could fetch at least one or two thousand bucks; the five of them combined couldn’t pickpocket that much in a month.
“Damn, where’s this a fat sheep? This is practically a fat cow.”
Brother Fei was completely tempted, his eyes emitting a fierce glint as he said: “We must get this one, even if we have to rob it.”
“Right right right, we must get him.”
“Damn, anyone who can afford a three-thousand-buck mobile phone must have plenty of cash on him, let’s fleece him clean, then we can really live it up for months.”
“Five of us against one guy, no way he can run off.”
…
The five, with their greed already stimulated, didn’t care about police or anything; anyway, as pickpockets, they never cared about that.
Their minds were full of thoughts on how to fleece the big fat cow completely next.
Soon.
Under the careful arrangement of the minor leader Brother Fei, the group of five ran out from the alley and began laying out against Chen Jun.
As a pickpocket gang that could operate in the capital, they lacked great wisdom but had plenty of cunning tricks.
To deal with Chen Jun, they even came up with two plans.
First, naturally, was their specialty: layout. Through a carefully set trap, they would ensnare Chen Jun and force him to pay them a large sum.
This technique in civilian terms is called extortion or shaking down.
In the train stations and bus stations of the eighties and nineties, there were thugs everywhere doing this, with all sorts of bizarre extortion methods.
Anyone who lived through that era, even if not experiencing it themselves, must have seen it.
And plenty of it!
If Chen Jun wasn’t knowledgeable and unwilling to cooperate by paying, this group of pickpockets would activate their second plan: relying on their numbers, if he wouldn’t pay, they’d just rob him outright.
In an era with very few surveillance cameras, if robbed without being caught on the spot, there was basically no chance of recovery.
Chen Jun didn’t know that the triangular eyes tracking him actually dared to gather a gang to lay out against him, daring to target a special operations instructor like him.
Still following his own thinking, he changed into a suit and tied a tie inside.
Then he paid, took his things, and came out of the men’s clothing store, preparing to walk to the street and hail a taxi to the blind date location.
But after walking just ten meters or so out of the store, suddenly a person darted out from the small path on the right.
From this person’s direction and movements, Chen Jun reacted in one second that it was clearly aimed at him.
An ordinary person might not dodge in time and collide with him.
But who is Chen Jun?
Chen Jun, who rolled out of piles of corpses, had reaction speed far surpassing ordinary people; even carrying things in hand, it was no difficulty.
He dexterously sidestepped to the right, easily dodging the oncoming man.
This caused the oncoming man to lose balance, stumble, and faceplant on the ground, with the things he was carrying smashing to pieces on the ground.
With the sound of the glass bottle shattering, a liquid and solution’s wine aroma spilled out from the plastic bag.
The man who fell to the ground was furious; he didn’t expect Chen Jun to dodge, causing his hands and feet to get scraped, and he got up cursing at Chen Jun.
“You fucking blind? Walking without goggles? Didn’t you see me coming out? Look what you did, smashed my stuff, and now it’s bleeding.”
Saying this, the man rolled up his shirt sleeve, revealing a tattooed arm and blood seeping from the scrapes.
In this era, tattoos meant trouble, paired with the man’s 8-meter height, bald head, and face full of flesh.
Especially as he yelled angrily at the top of his lungs, the bloodshot flesh looked even more ferocious.
An ordinary person roared at like this by the bald tough guy would probably have half their courage scared away, falling completely into disadvantage, at the mercy of the bald man.
Unlike Brother Fei’s genteel appearance to lower others’ guard for theft.
This bald tough guy’s specialty was using his high, muscular build and fierce face to intimidate others with this routine.
Usually, he’d just stick out his shoe tip; step on his shoe and you’d have to pay dozens or hundreds bucks.
Today, for this big fat cow Chen Jun, the bald tough guy specially bought two bottles of cheap wine and poured them into two prepared Maotai bottles.
High-end props dedicated for extortion, just like that.
The bald tough guy thought his fierce display would scare Chen Jun into submission.
Then he could easily start extorting.
But he found things weren’t going as planned.
Chen Jun, scolded by his ferocious face, unlike the people he usually encountered who turned pale and begged for mercy on the spot.
Instead, he stood there calmly, as if watching his performance.
“What’s going on? This big guy isn’t afraid of me?”
A doubt surged in the bald man’s mind, along with even greater anger; in his turf, someone actually wasn’t afraid of him, King Yama Li.
The enraged bald man stepped forward, further pressuring Chen Jun as he roared: “Kid, look, you smashed my wine, this is Maotai I’ve saved for decades, never willing to drink.
If you don’t settle this today, you ain’t leaving.”
“Ran into an extortionist? This is interesting, I’ve only heard of this before, didn’t expect I’d actually encounter it.”
Chen Jun really hadn’t encountered this before; he always went out in military uniform, and such petty types never dared approach.
He glanced at his watch; subtracting the travel time, he had twenty or thirty minutes spare; going to the coffee house would just be waiting, better to play along here and experience the lowlife of the old era.
So he smiled, raised an eyebrow, and asked: “Maotai saved for decades, never willing to drink? You? Who’d believe that?”
While speaking, Chen Jun deliberately sized up the bald man, his gaze scanning him from top to bottom.
Clearly telling the bald man: with your whole body of clothes not worth fifty bucks, can you afford decades-saved Maotai?
“You fucking wanna die?”
The bald man couldn’t stand Chen Jun’s gaze; being looked down on by Chen Jun made him even angrier, completely dropping the pretense as he threatened: “Don’t worry about whether I can afford it, today you bumped me and smashed it.
Three bottles of Maotai plus medical fees, I won’t ask for more, just three thousand bucks, and we’re square.
Otherwise, I’ll make you unable to eat or leave, this area’s under me King Yama Li; piss me off and I’ll break your legs first.”
After speaking, the bald man moved his hand; his smoke-yellowed right hand reached out to push Chen Jun and assert dominance.
But as soon as his hand extended, Chen Jun slapped it away.
With a face full of mockery, he said: “Just three thousand bucks? You sure can name your price, is your wine gold-plated? If you’re extorting, just say so, don’t play the whore and set up the memorial archway, pulling these pointless tricks in front of me.”
“Right, I’m extorting you, what’re you gonna do about it?”
Seeing the trap exposed, the bald tough guy dropped the act in fury, raised his hand and shouted: “Brothers, this guy’s cocky, all come out.”
With the bald tough guy’s shout, immediately four people surged from the surroundings.
They were Brother Fei, triangular eyes Old Jiu, and the other accomplices who had been hiding nearby.
Some passersby who had stopped to watch the argument, seeing even more people emerge, worried about getting involved, all left fearfully.
“Brother, you look pretty solid, don’t want extra holes in you, come inside with us obediently.”
Leading was Brother Fei, a ruthless one; he directly pulled out a switchblade from his pocket, pressed the release button, and the sharp blade snapped out.
The other three also eyed him hostilely, closing in on Chen Jun from three directions.
Leaving only the right path into the alley.
“Yo, these guys are pretty considerate, knowing I don’t want to fight on the street, which would attract hat comrades and trouble, might even delay the blind date, so specially to an empty alley.”
Chen Jun chuckled inwardly, his mouth curved up, said nothing, and cooperated by walking in.
Brother Fei thought his knife had worked, Chen Jun intimidated by his weapon, smugly nodded his chin to the other four.
The five followed behind, blocking Chen Jun into the alley.
Some passersby who had walked away, seeing Chen Jun in suit and tie, looking like a businessman, being led into the alley by five thugs, couldn’t help gossiping.
“Sigh, I know these thugs, they often steal money at the train station, been caught and jailed several times, messing with them means big trouble.”
“That young guy looks like an out-of-towner, definitely an intellectual, falling into their hands he’ll suffer big time.”
“We can’t just watch, right? Should we help this young guy? Quick, go call the police.”
“Call the police? By the time you run to make the call, police arrive, it’ll be cold; these guys specialize in this, very fast.”
…
The distant onlookers discussed heatedly, but few took real action.
Two robbers can rob a whole bus with dozens of people not daring to resist, let alone expect these onlookers to stand up against five thugs, who even have a knife.
All the onlookers didn’t favor Chen Jun, thinking he’d be robbed clean, coming out with just his underwear.
They waited like this for about one or two minutes, no sound from the alley.
The outside onlookers didn’t dare approach, didn’t dare peek at the alley entrance, could only wait patiently outside.
But it didn’t take long.
Less than half a minute passed.
Suddenly from inside came a burst of clattering, sounding unusually dull thuds, clanging of a knife hitting the ground, and abruptly cut-off screams.
Wait, all sorts of miscellaneous sounds mixed together poured out.
“Fight broke out, fight broke out.”
The imagined extortion turned into a brawl, the onlookers panicked.
Thinking Chen Jun was being beaten by the five inside, fearing a death, one onlooker couldn’t hold back and ran to the telephone supermarket two hundred meters away.
In this era, public phone booths were rare, more popular were the ones with many telephones.
The commotion in the alley came fast and went fast.
The mixed sounds lasted less than a second, no complete sentences spoken during, and the alley returned to quiet.
“It’s over, that young guy’s done for.”
The noise in the alley stopped too quickly; onlookers thought Chen Jun had been stabbed dead.
Only being stabbed dead could end that fast, especially with shouts of stab him during, confirming the guess.
The next scene, all onlookers could imagine.
Definitely, extortion gone wrong killing someone, the five pickpocket thugs grabbing all of Chen Jun’s stuff would panic-run out of the alley.
Soon disappearing into various streets, leaving only a corpse in the alley.
But the next second.
The scene at the alley mouth left all onlookers dumbfounded.
The “young man” who should have been stabbed dead came out carrying luggage briskly, not even a speck of dust on his suit.
As if what everyone saw and heard before never happened.
“My god? What’s going on?”
“Wasn’t he taken in by five thugs, just beaten up? How’s he coming out like nothing happened?”
“This… did I see wrong? The one coming out is that young man? Not those five local ruffians?”
…
The contrast was too huge, imagination clashing violently with reality, the onlookers discussed even more intensely than before, like they’d seen a ghost.
