“It’s time to come out.”
With an applause, a man with a felt hat on and in an old black suit walked into the alley.
“Not bad.”
The five men standing behind him were all in black suits too.
Six automatic rifles were in their hands, and the six men stood at the entrance to the dead end, they blocked Old Luo’s only escape route.
The man smiled happily as he looked at Old Luo without any way to flee.
“When did you notice?”
“From the time you stared at me,” Old Luo grinned; the shadow of the alley blocked the disdainful expression on his face.
“Oh?” The man raised his eyebrows with interest. “That’s interesting. But anyone with a little intelligence shouldn’t be stupid enough to walk into a dead end…. Or are you just lost?”
Old Luo smiled and did not answer but asked.
“Who sent you? The Church? Wan Peng? Or the famous Ding Liwei?”
The man did not answer and just looked at Old Luo with a sly smile.
Seeing that man didn’t respond, Old Luo burst out laughing.
“Wait… is it that Tiger’s clan?”
“Is it important?” The man quietly spoke while he snapped a finger, “You just need to know that someone wants your life. That is enough.”
The five gunmen behind the man all simultaneously loaded their rifle, took a half step forward, and pointed the black muzzles at Old Luo in the dead end, stopping any chance of his survival.
“Good night,” The man gently lowered his felt hat and said in a hoarse voice, “Sweet dreams.”
Old Luo smiled.
“Good night.”
The slender dagger, as thin as a scalpel, slipped from his cuff and was expertly pinched at his fingertips.
Under the dim moonlight, the silver was like a shimmer of light, undetectable.
Like feathers and the shackles of the Grim Reaper, the unspoken words blew into the black suit man’s ear.
“You too, sweet dreams.”
…
Pingan Street was already asleep, but the Pan-Asia Cooperation building was still brightly lit.
In the quiet Shangjing, like the candlelight of the civilized world, the last lingering flame swayed into the empty and dark night.
In the conference room, where the Pan-Asia officials held their meetings, the senior officials of the Shangjing Survivors Alliance held another meeting.
However, the nature of this meeting was somewhat different from that of the last meeting. The number of attendees was less than half of the previous ones. They were representatives of the forces working in the building, such as Ding Liwei, Wan Peng, and so on.
Like Xu Tiannan, although he led the Guardian Sect as the archbishop, his force migrated to Shangjing, so he was only regarded as a foreigner. Even though his force was not to be reckoned with, he still couldn’t squeeze into the core of Pingan Street.
Mayor Liu sighed at the conference table.
“The city gate tax at four crystals is still too high, and the survivors have reacted negatively to it. The City Hall received a thousand complaint letters today.”
Among all the people sitting here, as the mayor, he was the one with the least amount of power.
The reason why he rose to the position was probably the result of mutual compromise between the leaders. Either Ding Liwei or Wan Peng could easily be in this position with more stability.
“High?” Wan Peng snorted. “I feel we charged too low.”
Because of NAC’s astronomical bill, he bled crystals with his warehouse shrinking by one million crystals. Even with the financial resources of his Sunday club, it was still a large expense.
“We only got five million,” Ding Liwei said. “After all, our expenses are not small. It’s impossible to squeeze out ten million crystals to the NAC. The city gate tax will continue to be maintained at four. No matter how much resistance, it must be carried out. At least it should last until the spring of next year. This is our bottom line.”
The factories needed crystals, workers and soldiers also required crystals. The profit from hunting was just a drop in the bucket. The capital chain and the supply chain got intermingled. Although they indeed possessed wealth, they still must be cautious of their finances as there was no room for error.
“I mean, at least to make the news public—”
“Impossible,” Wan Peng interrupted the words of Mayor Liu. “Are you considering the consequences of publicity? Why did we want to block the news of the Badaling Military Outpost at all costs? Think about it, Mayor Liu, if you let Pingan Street survivors know that hundreds of CCCP tanks have rolled to the doorstep of Shangjing, what will they do?”
“The news will spread sooner or later.” Mayor Liu smiled bitterly.
“We’ll deal with it when it does,” Wan Peng said and stared at him. “At that time, we naturally will let them believe that the tanks were not coming for us.”
Mayor Liu still wished to add something, but in the end, he swallowed his words.
Wan Peng’s opinion was naturally the consensus reached by the Survivors Alliance. As the mayor, he didn’t have the right to comment, let alone change the mind of the leaders.
“The next question.” Ding Liwei looked at the meeting table at the man wearing glasses.
The man wearing glasses nodded. “The next question. The Guardian Sect plans to move to Pingan Street within three days. Xu Tiannan asked us to arrange a place for his people, preferably at the East Gate of Pingan Street because their settlement is closer to the East Gate.”
“Is he not staying in the gym?” Ding Liwei frowned.
“Because of the Russians.”
Russians.
Someone said the word.
When the word appeared on the conference table, the whole room suddenly fell silent.
After a long time.
“Approved,” Ding Liwei slowly responded, then looked at Mayor Liu. “Go arrange it. Move part of the slums at the East Gate to the West Gate.”
“Okay.” Mayor Liu nodded.
“Go now.”
“Yes…”
Mayor Liu simply packed up the things on the table and left the conference table.
The door of the conference room closed.
After a while, someone broke the silence.
“Russians are in the subway.”
“DAMMIT!” Wan Peng slammed his fist against the table, and gnashed his teeth. “Why couldn’t they choose anywhere but the subway!”
Ding Liwei’s expression was not so great either.
Obviously, he also cursed the Russians in his mind.
The man in the windbreaker sighed. He hadn’t said anything since the beginning of the meeting, but then spoke for the first time.
“What should we do now?”
“First, stop the project. We’ll wait for the Russians and NAC to leave first,” Ding Liwei slightly frowned while staring at the subway lines on the holographic map. “Fortunately, they are at Line 35… I hope they don’t find anything. As long as they don’t go there, everything will be fine.”
“Stop? Okay, I’m going to the construction site now.” The man in the windbreaker stood up and walked to the door.
“Wait.” Ding Liwei suddenly stopped him.
“What else?” The man turned around.
Ding Liwei stared at him solemnly and said word by word.
“You must find that old Luo.”
The man in the windbreaker nodded and quietly responded.
“Rest assured.”
“He can’t run.”