Chapter 172: Framing Him

Chapter 172: Framing Him

“Ever heard of the Golden Flower Group on the Myanmar border?” Wu Chen asked with a sidelong glance and a smile.

“Golden Flower Group?” Li Ruobing frowned first, then her eyes widened. “That… warlord? The drugs—”

“That’s right.” Wu Chen nodded.

In Golden Flower Group, the word group meant a criminal organization.

The Myanmar border was a chaotic place. Quite a few forces there could still be called warlords even in the modern world, and nearly all of them had some connection to drugs.

Golden Flower was one such organization.

“So this Old Dao—he’s with Golden Flower?” Li Ruotai thought it over and seemed to understand.

“Right.” Wu Chen nodded. “Old Dao is essentially a top enforcer, one of Golden Flower’s operatives inside China. You could also call him a mercenary hitman. Pay him and he’ll do the job—and he’s willing to take the work nobody else will.”

“Then Ding Ruilong… and Golden Flower… could it be…” Li Ruotai’s speech slowed without his noticing, each word coming later than the last, while excitement crept into his voice.

If Ding Ruilong had ties to Golden Flower Group, if drugs were involved, then once the matter came out, not even the gods could save him.

Wu Chen shook his head.

“It isn’t as grave as you’re imagining. Ding Ruilong has plenty of legal ways to make money. He wouldn’t touch that kind of business, and the Ding family would never let him run that wild. He personally has no connection to Golden Flower Group. He isn’t stupid enough for that.”

“Then he…” Li Ruotai sounded disappointed.

“Old Dao.” Wu Chen laid weight on the name, smiling. “He knows a great deal about Golden Flower, and he knows a great deal about Ding Ruilong. There have been several occasions when Ding Ruilong wanted something done absolutely, with nothing traceable back to him. Each time he brought in outsiders. And the man he hired was Old Dao.”

Li Ruotai listened, and thought.

His eyes widened slowly.

“He hired Old Dao… to kill who?” He had worked it out.

Ding Ruilong had very likely hired Old Dao to kill people he should never have killed—people he could not afford to kill.

Old Dao might not have carried out every job himself, but he would certainly know the inside of it.

Wu Chen looked at him and smiled.

After a pause he said, “Time for lunch.”

“Huh?” Li Ruotai had been waiting for him to go on, and instead he was talking about food.

“When I speak with Old Dao, you can sit in,” Wu Chen added with a faint smile.

“Ah—good, Brother-in-law! Good! You mean it, now!” Li Ruotai came back to himself and agreed hurriedly.

Then he stood. “So, Brother-in-law… where are we eating?”

“Order in. Talking outside isn’t convenient, and it wastes time,” Wu Chen said.

“All right… I’ll have a hotel send something over.”

Li Ruotai took out his phone.

He called it ordering in, but naturally Li Ruotai did not use a delivery app. He simply called a star-rated restaurant that offered no delivery at all and told them to prepare food and bring it over.

He stepped aside to make the call.

Li Ruobing had been listening to Wu Chen and her brother the whole time. Seeing Li Ruotai now, she knew Wu Chen had handled it.

He had never tried to talk her brother out of anything.

He had simply made him understand there was another, better way, and Li Ruotai had abandoned the impulse on his own.

Whatever came next, it was better than sending men to kill Ding Ruilong outright and ending up with a mess nobody could contain.

Li Ruotai finished the call quickly and came back to sit opposite them.

“Sis, I’ll call Dad then…” he said.

That he could say it meant he had truly given up on acting rashly.

“I’ll call him,” Li Ruobing said.

His expression shifted slightly in surprise.

He knew his sister had not called their father of her own accord in years.

Their father was always the one who called her.

Li Ruobing took out her phone and dialed quickly.

It connected almost at once.

“Hello, Bingbing! Hahaha, my daughter has…