Chapter 37

“Haha!” Xie Wendong lay on the sofa, holding Gao Huiyu’s slender waist and saying, “Forget it. It seems I’ll have to sleep on the sofa!”
“Get up. You’ll catch a cold if you sleep here. Go sleep in my room!” Gao Huiyu pulled Xie Wendong up and led him upstairs.
Lying on Gao Huiyu’s bed, Xie Wendong smelled a faint fragrance and remembered what had just happened. He felt incredibly excited, a smile appearing on his face without him realizing it. He thought to himself that he seemed to like Gao Huiyu—being with her always made him feel excited. Seeing her smile gave him an indescribable sense of satisfaction. But why did he feel the same way about Gao Hui Mei and Xiao Jinrong, whom he had saved from Ma Wu? Could it be that he had fallen in love with all three of them!? Xie Wendong closed his eyes and wandered in his thoughts before falling asleep soon after.
Hearing Xie Wendong’s steady breathing, Gao Huiyu, afraid of disturbing him further, picked up his phone and quietly left the room. Back in the living room, she remembered his words, “I think I really like you,” and felt a sweet warmth in her heart, filled with hopeful thoughts about their future. After a while, the phone rang, interrupting her daydreams. Gao Huiyu picked up the phone and said irritably, “Hello? Can you guys stop calling? Why do you keep calling?”
There was a pause on the other end before someone said, “Hello, I’m looking for Brother Dong. There’s something he needs to take care of!”
“He’s not available. He’s sleeping!”
Gao Huiyu shouted and hung up the phone. On the other end, Sanyan held the phone for a while without saying anything, then turned to Li Shuang beside him and said, “Fatty, did you know? Beautiful women are really a disaster! Damn it, she dared talk to me like that!”
Sanyan had never met Gao Huiyu and had only heard about her from others. He was surprised that she was so rude right from the start, feeling furious. Li Shuang, who had suffered at her hands, laughed and said, “Who knows? Maybe in the future, Brother Dong will marry Xiao Yu, and then you’ll have to carry his shoes for him, haha!!” Sanyan glared at Li Shuang and slowly said, “Fatty, do you think you’d talk less if you had no teeth?”
Xie Wendong slept until 2 p.m. before Gao Huiyu woke him up. The two went out for a big meal first, then strolled by the river. Since their relationship had become clear, they acted much more affectionately together. By 5 p.m., it was already very dark (it got dark around 4 p.m. even in winter in this place). After sending Gao Huiyu home, Xie Wendong went to Guiwei again.

Entering the den, he saw many guests, with a sea of people dancing wildly, twisting their bodies frantically. One of the underlings, upon seeing Xie Wendong, rushed over and said respectfully, “Brother Dong, Brother Three-Eyes and the others have been waiting for you for a long time.”

Xie Wendong was in a good mood and nodded with a smile. The underling led him to a private room and then waited outside. The key members of Wendong’s gang were inside, along with two middle-aged men kneeling on the ground, their faces swollen and bruised. Xie Wendong looked closely before recognizing them as Shan Xiaoyun and Zhang Hong. Three-Eyes and the others seated Xie Wendong in the middle and asked, “Brother Dong, what should we do with these two?”

Hearing Three-Eyes’ words, Shan and Zhang begged loudly, “Brother Xie… no… no… Brother Dong, don’t kill us! I’ll give you the place! I still have money—I’ll give it to you! Please let us go!”

Xie Wendong lost his smile and began to think seriously. Although these two no longer had any power, keeping them around would still pose a threat to him. Who wants to keep someone who harbors hatred toward them at all times? Seeing their tearful, pitiful faces, Xie Wendong felt a slight softening in his heart, but then thought it would be wrong—afraid they might seek revenge later and cause trouble for the gang. Resolving himself, he said, “Follow the rules—issue the black notices!” Unwilling to look at their desperate eyes, he left the room and told himself, “Remember, you’re a villain! Compassion only makes you weak!”

Inside the room, Three-Eyes took out two black notices from his pocket and slowly placed them in front of Shan and Zhang, thus deciding their fate. The underworld is a world of survival of the fittest—the winner rules, the loser suffers. Strength determines truth, and the winner becomes the king. If not, it wouldn’t be called the underworld. But what’s the difference from the so-called legitimate world? This is an unchanging truth through the ages!

On his way home, Xie Wendong kept thinking about one question: Could he fall in love with Gao Huiyu? Can villains have love? He didn’t know. He could only smile bitterly inwardly, feeling that his hands were now stained with blood, just like those of a murderer!

After Shan and Zhang were absorbed into Wendong’s gang, everything in the southern part of the city, except for Zhu Youpeng and Liu Qing, was under Wendong’s control. Other underworld gangs aimed to elevate Wendong’s gang to the same status as the Brothers’ Alliance, showing them even greater respect, fearing that one day it might be them who received the black notices. The reputation of the black notices spread throughout J City’s underworld, and everyone knew it was a death warrant.

A month passed in calmness. During this time, Wen Dong organized his twenty-five factions, increasing the total number of members to over a thousand. Xie Wen Dong also took out the weapons he had seized from the Tigers Gang before and distributed them among his brothers. When Liu Bo saw the rifles among the weapons, he told Xie Wen Dong that they weren’t AK47s but were still part of the AK series—called AK74s. Though not among the most advanced in the world, their performance was much better than that of AK47s, with greater bullet impact force.

Li Shuang didn’t understand and asked, “Why is the impact force greater if it’s the same kind of bullet?” Jiang Sen explained, “If you look closely, their bullets are different. The 74 bullet is slimmer than the 47, creating more spin upon firing. Once it hits the target, it rolls, causing severe injuries!”

Li Shuang was thrilled and insisted on getting one, saying it would look impressive if he carried it around. Gao Qiang kicked him in anger, “Impressive? Are you afraid people won’t know you’re part of the underworld, or do you want them to know you’re planning to rob a bank?”

As the gang’s trainer, Liu Bo directed hundreds of people in training every day. The half-day training was changed to full-day sessions—physical training and combat drills in the morning, and shooting practice in the afternoon. Of course, the Wen Dong Gang hadn’t yet reached the point where everyone had a gun; only a hundred people were sent out each time. Jiang Sen managed a secret group of over a hundred members, including both men and women, all of whom were skilled in combat, expert in reconnaissance, and proficient in espionage.

Taking advantage of this rare period of organization, Xie Wen Dong also spent a month indulging in fun with Gao Huiyu. There was another reason he didn’t tell Gao Huiyu—to keep the Brothers Alliance off guard.

A month later, on the evening of February 15, 1996, hundreds of members from the Wen Dong Gang launched a surprise attack on the Brothers Alliance. One side had been planning this for a long time, while the other was caught off guard. Sanyan led the Long Tang faction to take control of three nightclubs belonging to the Brothers Alliance, while the secret group assassinated key members within the alliance. Other factions also reaped some gains. But after all, the Brothers Alliance was a well-established and powerful gang, and its leader, “Er Gaoliang” Pang Jian, was by no means incompetent. Though they were caught off guard at first, they quickly prepared themselves and launched a full-scale counterattack. Just as the two sides were fighting fiercely, Gao Zhen seized the opportunity to attack the Brothers Alliance as well.

Late on the 26th, a massive battle broke out by the river, involving over a thousand people. In the end, the Qing Gang and the Wen Dong Gang won thanks to their numerical advantage.

The three gangs were roughly equally strong, with a two-vs-one fight essentially resulting in an overwhelming victory for one side. The Brothers Alliance kept retreating and was forced to focus solely on defense, unable to mount any meaningful counterattacks; its downfall was only a matter of time. Several elders of the Qing Gang approached Xie Wendong to discuss how to divide the territory after the collapse of the Brothers Alliance. Regarding the 28 locations under the Brothers Alliance, two of the elders were firm in their stance, arguing that the Qing Gang had played a decisive role in the conflict and deserved 20 of those locations. Eventually, even Gao Zhen intervened and promised Xie Wendong that he would get half of the territory originally belonging to the Brothers Alliance. The two other elders were extremely dissatisfied but could do nothing against Gao Zhen. Thus, the dispute was temporarily resolved.

Xie Wendong knew that the two elders of the Qing Gang weren’t entirely wrong—the Qing Gang had indeed played a bigger role than his Wen Dong Gang in the battle against the Brothers Alliance. Following Gao Zhen’s suggestion, in order to gain more benefits, Xie Wendong planned to launch a surprise attack on the Brothers Alliance’s headquarters and eliminate it in one go.

The headquarters of the Brothers Alliance was located in the east of the city, in a solitary three-story building near the riverbank. The area was sparsely populated with overgrown grass, but it was conveniently situated next to Chang’an Road, one of the main roads in City J, making transportation easy. At least 200 people gathered inside the building, all of whom were core members loyal to the Brothers Alliance.

For this attack on the headquarters, the Wen Dong Gang deployed all its elite members. Each faction sent 50 of its best fighters, totaling 300 people across six factions. Adding in all members of the secret group, the total number of attackers reached nearly 400. Before setting off, Xie Wendong reminded everyone again that speed was crucial—the operation was scheduled to last 30 minutes. Regardless of success, they had to withdraw within 30 minutes to avoid alerting the enemy. This was because the Brothers Alliance still had five other locations holding out, and most of its main forces were there. Xie Wendong had calculated that it would take about half an hour to travel from the nearest location to the headquarters. If they couldn’t withdraw within 30 minutes after the attack, they might be trapped by reinforcements arriving from there. Even if they managed to kill the leader of the Brothers Alliance, they would suffer heavy losses, which was exactly what Xie Wendong didn’t want to see.

At 2 a.m. on March 8th, City J was quiet, with people already asleep after a long day. Meanwhile, the Wen Dong Gang was secretly in action. Xie Wendong ordered everyone to stop the car half a kilometer away from the Brothers Alliance’s headquarters in a forest. Throughout the operation, Jiang Sen’s phone was constantly in use, as members of the secret group lurking near the enemy’s headquarters kept sending updates. Every move inside the headquarters was under the Wen Dong Gang’s control.

Jiang Sen led the covert team to get off the vehicle first and silently sneaked toward the building. Xie Wendong and the others followed behind, with only Zhang Yanjiang and the Law Enforcement Hall staying behind to guard the car. Jiang Sen walked carefully at the front when suddenly he spotted a red dot 50 meters ahead. He quickly crawled to the ground and signaled to those behind him. Using a night vision scope (J City is close to Russia, so Russian-made night vision scopes are readily available), he observed that there were two members of the Brotherhood Alliance on guard, and the red dot was the cigarette butt of one of them. Jiang Sen cautiously scanned the surroundings again and only felt relieved after confirming no one else was there. He turned to the two brothers beside him and whispered, “There are two people ahead. You two come with me. Act quickly and silently, understand?” The two nodded. Gao Sen and the other two slowly crept over, approaching the two guards. Gao Sen quietly pulled out a dagger, crawled behind one of them, suddenly jumped up, covered the man’s mouth with one hand, and slashed his throat with the knife.