Chapter Forty-Seven: The Uninvited Guest

Chapter Forty-Seven: An Uninvited Guest

Half an hour passed quickly as Xu Yun sat in quiet concentration, listening to the sounds outside the room.

At last, he heard a few women’s gentle voices greeting, “Hello, Boss Fan.”

Immediately following that, a man’s raspy, coarse voice bellowed a string of curses: “Damn it! Sooner or later, I’m going to deal with that little cop at the precinct! How dare she arrest my people, doesn’t know her place!”

Such arrogance, Xu Yun thought coldly. He knew exactly who this “little cop at the precinct” referred to. It seemed that the news of Wei Weiming and the others being taken away by Qin Wan’er had reached Fan Nanjie’s ear in no time.

“Brother Jie, was it that Weiming was too careless? How could he have offended that Qin girl?” came a sharp, grating female voice, as shrill as a blade scraping across a table.

Fan Nanjie replied coldly, “I’ve warned him several times to steer clear of that Qin girl. There’s no way he’d ignore my orders. Looks like after wiping out the Four Wolves Gang, she’s now set her sights on my Axe Club…”

Hearing this, the woman gasped, “Brother Jie, what should we do? Should we try to reach some sort of understanding with the police?”

“It’s useless,” Fan Nanjie growled. “The chief of the municipal public security bureau is impossible to buy off. I’ve tried bribing him countless times, but it’s never worked. It’s not as simple as you think.”

“Brother Jie, there isn’t a leader in the world who won’t take a bribe, just like there isn’t a cat that doesn’t eat fish. Maybe you just haven’t found the right approach?” The woman’s laughter was both sly and suggestive. “How about I give it a try?”

Fan Nanjie spat, “Get lost! All you’re good for is spreading your legs. Hmph, after today, I’ll have to shut down the bathhouse for a few days. If the cops really want to come after me, this is the only place they can get evidence to convict me.”

“Convict you? Ha! Brother Jie, you’d be guilty of trafficking underage girls. They’re not even adults yet!” The woman’s lascivious voice sent chills down Xu Yun’s spine.

“Then let me see what an underage girl tastes like!” Fan Nanjie cackled, and then Xu Yun heard the door slam shut.

Xu Yun checked his watch. It had been fifty minutes since he’d given his orders to Qiangzi and the Three Tigers of South City. By now, they should all be in position. With that thought, Xu Yun rolled his neck and flexed his fingers. Tonight, he would show Fan Nanjie just who could be messed with, and who absolutely could not.

Xu Yun pushed open the door, just as a passing waiter came by. The waiter paused, “May I help—”

Before he could finish, Xu Yun slapped his head against the wall, knocking him out instantly.

The action was so swift and ruthless that several hostesses in the corridor stopped in their tracks to stare at Xu Yun.

He asked calmly, “Which room is Fan Nanjie in?”

At his words, the women shrieked and fled to their own rooms. Two men emerged from a storage closet near the elevator—a burly brute and a fierce-looking young man. Both wore menacing grins as they strode toward Xu Yun.

“You think you can call out Brother Jie’s name like that?” the fierce-looking youth sneered. With a flash of silver, he whipped out a solid steel baton and, without hesitation, swung it at Xu Yun’s forehead.

Xu Yun sidestepped, deftly disarmed him, and seized the baton. With a dull thud, he brought it down on the young man’s head. Blood trickled silently down the man’s face as he crumpled to the floor without a sound.

The burly brute, seeing his companion fall, charged forward with a fist like a battering ram.

Xu Yun casually discarded the baton, lifted his hand, and caught the man's fist in a vice-like grip. The brute found himself completely immobilized, unable to move his hand at all. He looked up to see Xu Yun’s harmless smile.

Before the man could react further, Xu Yun’s fist crashed into his nose with the force of a thunderbolt, shattering bone and splitting flesh. Teeth scattered as the man staggered back, clutching his face in agony. Xu Yun followed up with a kick to the chest, sending the brute flying five meters down the hallway, where he collapsed without a sound.

Hostesses peeking through their cracked doors slammed them shut in terror. The few who had glimpsed Xu Yun earlier were pale with fright, grateful it had been Room 18 who’d received him, and not themselves—who knew what had become of her by now?

Xu Yun strode to a room packed with frightened hostesses and knocked. “Which room is Fan Nanjie in?” he asked.

A trembling voice from within replied, “Room 408…”

***

“What’s going on out there?” The woman writhing on the bed abruptly stopped, frowning at the door. The sounds of fighting were obvious.

Fan Nanjie, beneath her, was nonchalant. “Hmph, even if someone dares come looking for trouble, Wu Fa and Wu Tian will kill him before he gets to the door. Relax and keep moving; you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.”

As the commotion outside died down, Fan Nanjie assumed Wu Fa and Wu Tian had taken care of the intruder. Those brothers had served him well; Wu Fa had always been stronger and tougher than others since childhood, while Wu Tian, though not as burly, was ruthlessly efficient.

That was why Fan Nanjie always kept the brothers at his side—he trusted them to hold the door.

Bang!

Before the woman atop Fan Nanjie could scream, the door was kicked open.

A man, not particularly tall or imposing, stood in the doorway, wearing nothing but the bathhouse robe and disposable slippers.

“You’re Fan Nanjie.” Xu Yun cast only a brief glance at the naked woman, then fixed his gaze on the rough-faced man sprawled on the bed—a face full of malice, vulture-like eyes, a large jade Buddha amulet hanging from his neck, its clarity hinting at great value.

“You’re looking for me?” Fan Nanjie’s eyelid twitched. He hadn’t expected that after all that noise, it would be Wu Fa and Wu Tian who went down. The young man before him was a complete stranger.

Xu Yun strolled in without ceremony, dragged a chair to the bedside, and sat down.

Fan Nanjie, to his credit, remained calm—no wonder he had the backing of the city’s other crime bosses. Even knowing this uninvited guest had just bested his two bodyguards, he didn’t let it show.

The woman on the bed couldn’t take it any longer, mortified to be stared at while astride another man. She screamed, wrapped herself in the blanket, and tried to run. Fan Nanjie, unwilling to be seen naked by another man, snatched the blanket from her and covered himself.

The woman bolted from the room, naked, shrieking as she fled to the room full of hostesses.

The two men faced off. Though Fan Nanjie was not yet thirty, he’d survived more than a decade in the city’s underworld and had faced his share of storms. But after only a few seconds, sweat beaded on his brow.

The young man before him was no ordinary person. The sharpness in his gaze and his imposing aura were things Fan Nanjie had never seen, even in all his years in the underworld. At last, he could not help but speak. “Who are you?”

“Xu Yun.”

“Brother, as far as I recall, we’ve never crossed paths. Have I offended you in some way?” Though Fan Nanjie kept his face composed, he had to admit to himself that he did not want to make an enemy of this man.

Xu Yun propped his feet up on the bed. “What’s Wei Weiming to you?”

“He’s… my cousin.” Fan Nanjie’s eyes widened in shock. He couldn’t imagine how Wei Weiming could have provoked such a dangerous figure.

“Then that settles it.” Xu Yun reached out his hand. “Your cousin injured seven of my construction workers. I want fifty thousand per person in compensation. No arguments—pay up.”

Rage boiled inside Fan Nanjie. Why hadn’t Wei Weiming warned him about this man? But this demand was outrageous, and he felt insulted. “Brother, if my people have done something wrong, I’ll apologize right here. But isn’t that sum a little much?”

Xu Yun sneered. “The price just went up. Now it’s seventy thousand each.”

“You think I’m a pushover?” Fan Nanjie swallowed his anger but didn’t dare explode. For some reason, he simply didn’t have the guts to go head-to-head with this man.

Xu Yun ignored him and dialed a number with a grin. “Finished eating?”

Qin Wan’er and her companions had just been dropped off at the medicinal restaurant by Dan Hongning’s men when Xu Yun’s call came through. She couldn’t help but ask, “Where are you?”

“I’m at Tropical Rainforest Bathhouse, enjoying a little ‘spa treatment’.” Xu Yun grinned. “I estimate there are at least a hundred hostesses here. Want to come take a look?”

Qin Wan’er immediately understood. “Wait for me!”

Xu Yun hung up and beamed at Fan Nanjie. “Any idea who I just called?”

Fan Nanjie gritted his teeth, reminding himself that as long as all the customers and girls could evacuate, even the police wouldn’t be able to do anything if they came.

“If you want to play hardball, so be it…” Fan Nanjie suddenly threw off the blanket, snatched the ashtray from the bedside table, and hurled it at Xu Yun.

Xu Yun didn’t even stand up. He swatted the ashtray aside and watched with amusement as Fan Nanjie, stark naked, scrambled for the door. Unhurriedly, Xu Yun rummaged through Fan Nanjie’s pockets and found a wallet—not much cash, but a BMW key.

Fan Nanjie dashed out and shouted, “All of you, run! The police are on their way!”

With that, he was the first to bolt for the hidden stairs; he wouldn’t risk the elevator in case the power was cut, trapping him inside. At his shout, the entire bathhouse descended into chaos. Footsteps pounded in the corridors, the commotion on the fourth floor spreading to the third, then to the second, sending startled couples scrambling everywhere.

Xu Yun thought to himself, Maybe my estimate of a hundred hostesses is a little on the low side?