Chapter 25: Fair And Just
Chen Wujun passed by the convenience store and walked in to glance at the cigarettes on the counter.
“Jian Pai, how much for a pack?”
“A pack, 200.” The boss glanced at Chen Wujun.
Jian Pai is considered a high-end cigarette, which ordinary people in the Walled City can’t afford.
Many people also buy loose cigarettes that have been opened.
“Give me a pack!”
Arriving at the dance hall, the henchman at the door saw him and came up: “Brother Jun! The guy’s in the alley, Yellow Dog and the others are watching him.”
Chen Wujun pulled out a pack of cigarettes and tossed it to the henchman.
“Thanks!”
“Thank you, Brother Jun!”
He then walked toward the alley on the side, and after walking about ten meters, he saw three people standing there smoking, with two lumps on the ground.
“Brother Jun!”
“Take it and split it!” Chen Wujun threw over most of the pack of cigarettes.
“Brother Jun, this is too polite! We’re just helping out a little.” The henchmen quickly said.
“We’re all our own people, I’m treating you to cigarettes!”
Chen Wujun smiled and patted the three on the shoulders, thinking to himself: ‘When doing things out here, you need both grace and might to make it work, make the other side fear you, but also give them some benefit, that’s how others will be convinced.’
Then he walked to the two on the ground.
At this point Brother Hua had woken up, his shirt on his chest soaked red with blood.
Those shards of glass had all been kneed into his chest by Chen Wujun, even cracking his breastbone, and now every breath was piercingly painful.
Chen Wujun grabbed Brother Hua’s hair and pulled him up, staring straight into his eyes: “Just now inside I didn’t want to deal with you, but since you don’t want face, then don’t need it.”
“Kid, you’ve got guts, I’m Li Dong’s!” Brother Hua said through gritted teeth, and saying these words made him break out in sweat from the pain.
“So what about Li Dong? Li Dong’s person ruins my clothes and doesn’t have to pay?” Chen Wujun’s face carried a bit of ferocity.
“These pants are brand name, 3000 bucks, let’s call it even for this.”
“Why don’t you go rob? My boss is Wen Long! Go ask him for it!” Brother Hua spat a mouthful of bloody water directly onto Chen Wujun’s shirt.
Chen Wujun looked down at his shirt, then looked up at Brother Hua, and after a moment smiled.
“Brother Hua, you’re really brave.”
Then he suddenly smashed Brother Hua’s head against the wall.
Letting go, Brother Hua slid down the wall and sat on the ground.
Chen Wujun said to a henchman on the side:
“Find me a stick!”
The few looked at each other, and seeing Chen Wujun like this, things might go bad.
The biggest gang in the Walled City is He Tu and Li Dong, they’ve fought many times before, with heavy casualties on both sides.
Now both sides divide along Long Jin Road, there are usually some frictions but generally restrained.
Beating a few of Li Dong’s people is no big deal, but killing or crippling them is another matter.
“I’ll go check.” A henchman quickly left, went straight into the dance hall to find Kai Lun, and told her what happened.
“Sister Kai Lun, what do you think we should do?”
“Why ask me, go find him a stick! Just two punks, afraid Sister Sha Jiu can’t cover it?” Kai Lun said with a smile.
The henchman took a baseball bat from behind the bar, glanced at Kai Lun, who glanced back and then looked away without speaking.
The henchman went straight into the alley and handed the baseball bat to Chen Wujun.
“Brother Hua, right? Don’t say I didn’t give you a chance!” Chen Wujun took the stick, looked down at Brother Hua, and grinned.
“My boss won’t let you go!” Brother Hua was still threatening quite toughly.
Chen Wujun swung the club and struck his arm.
The henchmen nearby could hear the sound of the arm breaking, feeling a chill on their backs.
Brother Hua clutched his arm and screamed nonstop.
Chen Wujun smashed his leg with another club blow, then kicked him in the face several times in a row, stomping out his rage: “Screaming so ugly, better not scream.”
Moments later Chen Wujun lifted his foot, and Brother Hua’s face was covered in blood, no longer human-looking.
“I thought you were really that tough, a real iron man!”
Chen Wujun was full of malice at this point, and swung another stick at Brother Hua’s other arm.
Then he walked to Brother Hu on the side, grabbed his hair and pulled him up, flashing him a smile:
“How about it, you guys are good brothers, want to pay back his debt for him?”
“Pants plus shirt, he owes me 6000 bucks now.”
“Your pants weren’t torn by me, the shirt wasn’t dirtied by me either.” Brother Hu wasn’t as tough as Brother Hua, his forehead full of cold sweat, his words whistling through his mouth.
“All the money in my pocket is yours, let me go.”
Chen Wujun reached into his pocket and pulled out only some change, totaling maybe over a hundred bucks, which he threw onto Brother Hua.
“For his medical expenses.”
Then he kicked Brother Hu over, swung the club to break his leg, and grinned:
“Good brothers when drinking, but when trouble comes you say it has nothing to do with you… Did your boss ever teach you that the most important thing out here is loyalty?”
“I was gonna let you go, but I hate your kind without loyalty the most!”
Chen Wujun turned to look at those henchmen.
“You guys say, right?”
In the darkness, Chen Wujun’s eyes were very bright, brightly scary.
Those henchmen all felt a chill on their backs and immediately agreed:
“Yeah, out here you gotta have loyalty, this kind without loyalty isn’t even human!”
Chen Wujun tossed the club to a henchman, squatted in front of Brother Hua, picked up the money he’d thrown on him bill by bill, and patted his face with it.
“This is for your medical expenses, but you owe me 6000, this 132 pays some back, still owe me 5900.”
Then he emptied out everything in his pockets.
Finally found 370 bucks.
“This pays some more, still owe me 5600.”
Chen Wujun always acted fairly in everything.
But for three digits and up he only calculated whole numbers.
Chen Wujun stood up and stomped on Brother Hua’s chest, looking down at him with fierce eyes: “Brother Hua, right? You still owe me 5600. If you don’t pay… I’ll come find you, and then we’ll add interest.”
He’d learned quite a bit about collecting debts, with some insights.
Then he turned and left reluctantly, still looking down at his pants while walking, the knee torn open.
There was still some blood seeping, but earlier when he’d just been knee training, his knees were bloody pulp every day, and he could endure it.
This little injury, he didn’t care at all, sleep it off and it’d be fine by morning.
“Sister Kai Lun!” Chen Wujun sat beside Kai Lun and said to the bartender: “Another soda for me.”
“Those two little punks are easy to handle, but they’re with Wen Long, watch out for him causing you trouble.” Kai Lun turned her head to him.
He Tu has the Four Heavenly Kings, Li Dong has a few masters too, set up the Five Dragon Generals.
Wen Long is one of them, controlling half of the Walled City’s number four business.
“Got it!” Chen Wujun nodded.
He wasn’t in the wrong on this.
He saw that gambler and definitely had to take him back.
Those two guys caused trouble, most importantly ruined his pants and wouldn’t pay.
It ended up like this, all their fault.
Chen Wujun turned around to lean on the bar, holding the soda bottle and watching the striptease on stage.
After trying it, watching this really felt different.
A Yue’s figure was really hot.
Moments later Chen Wujun set the soda bottle on the bar, left and first went to the cooked food shop for some marinated beef, had it sliced, then ate while walking.
Back home he changed clothes, then went to the rooftop.
Hands on the edge, he landed on the rooftop, glanced at the dark abyss below, then settled his mind, and all external things faded away.
First standing meditation, then punching practice.
Across was Dong Wu Cun, a large public housing estate on the east side of the Walled City.
A girl was standing at the window holding a cup, and after a while irritably said: “Nutcase! Practicing punches on the rooftop in the middle of the night! I thought he was gonna jump!”
She’d been watching for half a day already, at first thought he was gonna jump and held her cup excitedly waiting.
After a long time, she realized he was practicing punches.
After complaining, the girl held her cup again and kept watching.
Though so close, she’d never been inside the Walled City.
Since childhood she knew it was the city of sin, the lawless no man’s land.
And it always reeked of a mix of fishy, rotten, and moldy smells.
In middle school she went exploring with classmates, but ran back as soon as they reached the Walled City gate.
“People in the Walled City are all nutcases.”
Late at night, under the moonlight, a figure kept moving along the edge of the Walled City rooftop.
Though it was very dark, only able to make out the silhouette by moonlight, and couldn’t understand it, she felt his movements were powerful, fierce.
……
In a house in the north of the Walled City, a man wearing glasses who looked somewhat refined was smoking a cigar and playing cards with his subordinates, with a busty woman cozying up beside him.
Moments later, a henchman hurried over.
“Boss, two of our street punks were beaten by Sha Jiu’s people!”
“Beaten? Didn’t he say their boss is me?” Wen Long said indifferently.
“Yaukee! All one suit!”
“Mahjong!” The young man opposite pushed his tiles forward.
“Mahjong your mother!” Wen Long irritably cursed, pushed his tiles: “Not playing anymore!”
“Boss, they said they were with you, and got beat even worse! One called Hua Zai got both arms and a leg broken, and A Hu got a leg broken!”
Wen Long’s face immediately darkened.
“Bring them here!”
