Chapter 204: What Are You Doing?

Chapter 204: What Are You Doing?

Khun Han was somewhat lost himself.

Wu Chen had opened with a wildly inflated price. Then he had handed over the truth of his nephew Ang Tun’s murder. Then he had all but threatened him. It had left Khun Han with an aching head, casting about irritably for a solution.

This had started as one simple job, Old Dao taking a contract to kill a man. And the target was nobody of consequence.

One job. Take the money, do the work, wrap it up in a few days, leave no trouble behind.

Instead: Wu Chen was not dead. Old Dao was captured. The inside story of Wang Ruida’s murder was known to the Li family. The Wang, Li, and Ding families might all tear into one another, and the Golden Flower Group would be pulled in with them.

What was he supposed to do?

Silence everyone who knew? Kill Old Dao? Kill Wu Chen?

But the Li siblings likely knew too, and he did not dare reach for those two. If he could not touch them, killing anyone else was pointless.

Once the Wang family learned the truth they would strike back at the Ding family for certain, and might take a swing at Golden Flower along the way.

And what could he do about that?

Nothing.

For the moment Khun Han could see no way through. However formidable he was in northern Myanmar, inside China he was nothing. Going head to head with China’s great families could wreck his business there, gut his income in the short term, leave him unable to feed the soldiers under him. And then the other warlords of northern Myanmar might well band together against him.

In truth this was the kind of thing that could turn out large or small. It might not get that bad. But it genuinely could.

Khun Han wanted it solved.

What he had never expected, what left him at a loss, was that Wu Chen appeared to have gone to enormous lengths to make him understand all of this…

And then had handed him the solution himself.

Let Old Dao leave the Golden Flower Group, and Wu Chen would arrange the rest cleanly.

More than that: Wu Chen meant to go after Ding Ruilong and the Ding family. And Golden Flower now had a blood grievance with the Dings. The enemy of an enemy was a friend. Wu Chen said they were not cooperating, but their aims pointed the same way. However Khun Han turned it over, it was an excellent choice.

He could tell, too, that Wu Chen genuinely valued Old Dao as a man.

Enough to give up a hundred million dollars.

It had the feel of a transaction. Let Old Dao go, and when Wu Chen and the Li siblings came for the Ding family, the Golden Flower Group would be left out of it.

“As it happens, even inside the Ding family, very few people know exactly what the relationship between Old Dao and your Golden Flower Group is,” Wu Chen added into the silence. “All they know is that Old Dao has deep ties to Golden Flower. So whether the Wang Ruida business ever gets traced back to Golden Flower depends on how the story gets told when the time comes…”

It was the truth. The Ding family had never had reason to dig that deep. This was all Ding Ruilong’s doing, and all Ding Ruilong had done was hire a man to kill a man.

“If everything you’ve said is true, then I… agree,” Khun Han said at last.

Khun Han agreed.

Wu Chen said nothing more. He simply reached out and offered the phone to Old Dao, who had been sitting on the sofa off to one side the whole time.

Old Dao still looked dazed. He paused, then leaned forward, took the phone, held it to his ear, and gathered himself.

“General.”

“…You’ve been sitting right there listening?” Khun Han asked after a beat.

“Yes…”

“How did you fail?”

“We couldn’t beat him…”

The two of them fell into talking directly, and at that Wu Chen stood, walked out to the balcony, slid both hands into the pockets of his suit trousers, and looked out the window. By the time, the ambulance ought to be arriving.

It was a statement, in fact.

He did not want to hear the particulars. He could still hear Old Dao’s half of it, of course, but there was no chance of hearing the voice on the line, and he did not need to. He had given Khun Han the best available choice, and he understood Old Dao’s character and his thinking. So… it made no difference.

Wu Chen still had no wish to entangle himself personally with a warlord from the border country of a small neighboring nation.

That did not stop him from laying the groundwork and pushing the Golden Flower Group to move against Ding Ruilong. Once the many forces converging on the Ding family began their attack…

Golden Flower would kick the Ding family while they were down without hesitation.

A few minutes later.

“…Jiang Chuan confirmed it. It was Ding Ruilong…” Old Dao mentioned Jiang Chuan.

They had come to Ang Tun’s death. What Old Dao said was enough to convince Khun Han that everything Wu Chen had told him was true.

“…Was it you who wanted out?” Khun Han asked at the end. “Did you raise it yourself? Or does Wu Chen want to use you? Was it his idea?”

Old Dao was quiet a moment.

“I want a different kind of life. Maybe I’m… tired.”

He was lying. Wu Chen had never discussed it with him beforehand, and he had never raised leaving Golden Flower himself.

But he really had thought about getting out, and for a long time. He had made more than enough money years ago. He was past forty. He was still formidable, but he had long since passed the age when a man should be going out into the field himself to stake his life against other men.

Getting out was never that easy, though. He was in too deep.

Old Dao had always understood exactly how men like him usually ended. One day, on some job, they slipped.

And the man they came for killed them instead.

The older he got, the higher those odds climbed.

Now, at last, he had a chance to get out in a way that made perfect sense. Naturally he was going to say it was what he wanted.

Wu Chen was still at the balcony window, looking out.

“Mr. Wu.” Old Dao’s voice came suddenly.

Wu Chen turned. Old Dao had already set the phone down on the table; the conversation was finished and the call ended, hung up by Khun Han, most likely. There was nothing left for him and Wu Chen to say either. It had all been made clear enough.

“Congratulations. You’re free,” Wu Chen said, smiling.

“Mr. Wu, I—” Old Dao began.

“Get your wounds seen to first. We’ll talk afterward,” Wu Chen cut in. Then he added, “Right. Once Jiang Chuan is taken, have them bring him to Donghai quietly. I have a use for him.”

“Done,” Old Dao said without hesitation.

…

Two minutes later, the sound of an ambulance finally rose outside.

Li Ruotai arrived with it, an ambulance from a private hospital. Wu Chen and Old Dao went down, and under Li Ruotai’s utterly astonished gaze Old Dao took a courteous leave of Wu Chen and climbed into the ambulance…

And lay down.

He truly had been forcing himself to hold on. After everything he had put his body through today, the wounds needed working over again.

Li Ruotai wanted to ask Wu Chen what had happened.

But Wu Chen had no inclination to explain much to him.

He had missed it. That was his own doing.

Even so, Wu Chen gave him a quiet run of instructions: follow the ambulance back to the hospital, and here is how the hospital should handle Old Dao’s treatment, and how Old Dao is to be treated afterward.

Li Ruotai could feel that his brother-in-law did not want to tell him much. He even thought Wu Chen was still angry with him.

So he did not dare ask more. Whatever Wu Chen said, he agreed to.

A few minutes later.

Baseball cap on, Wu Chen walked alone down the long alley, came out onto the road at the far end, and got back into his Lamborghini.

Ring, ring…

He had barely pulled onto the road when his phone rang. He picked it up and saw Li Ruobing’s name.

He answered.

“Handled?” she asked, straight out. Clearly Li Ruotai had already called her.

“Yeah. Handled,” Wu Chen said, smiling.

“Coming to the company?”

“Going home to sleep. I didn’t get enough rest.”

“…All right. Rest properly, then.”

Li Ruobing said nothing more.

Off the call, Wu Chen put his foot down and drove home.

This time, saying he was going home to sleep, he meant it. He had slept a little over three hours that morning, and after getting home had managed only a little over four more around midday. His normal routine called for nine hours, to say nothing of how much he had expended the night before…

He would have been nearly rested by now, if Li Ruotai had not disturbed him.

A little after four in the afternoon.

Wu Chen got home.

He tidied up briefly, lay down, and slept to make up the difference.

Before he knew it, it was past five.

Wu Chen was still asleep when someone opened the villa’s front door.

The visitor came into the living room, went up to the second floor, eased the bedroom door open, crossed to the bedside, sat down, turned, and lay down beside him. Propped on one hand, she lay on her side and watched him sleep.

Then Wu Chen moved without warning. He swept an arm around her and rolled with her, and only then opened his eyes, looked at the woman in his arms, and asked, smiling,

“What are you doing?”

It was Li Ruobing.