Inside a certain bar, a handsome young man with medium-long black hair and a black face mask sat quietly in a corner, watching the twisting crowd with keen interest.
This was one of Bai Yexiu's alter egos: the renowned intelligence broker Chain.
Bai Yexiu did not proactively go looking for anyone; he knew someone would surely come to seek him out.
Amidst the crowd, a man caught sight of Bai Yexiu sitting in the corner, paused for a moment, and walked over.
The man sat down opposite Bai Yexiu and asked tentatively, "Care to share a drink?"
"Of course." Bai Yexiu's voice modulation was always quite good; this young and magnetic voice was vastly different from his original one.
Bai Yexiu removed his mask, picked up the cocktail he had ordered earlier, and took a sip. Catching sight of Bai Yexiu's appearance, the man seemed even more certain of something.
"You should know what I've come to you for, shouldn't you, Chain?" The man flashed a smile.
"Who else would come looking for an intelligence broker like me for no reason?" Bai Yexiu smiled back at the man. "Let me guess, whose side are you on?"
Bai Yexiu put on a thoughtful expression, while the man across from him offered a hint: "You know, we have influence in Japan as well."
Playing riddles, are we? Would it kill you to just spell it out?
For the sake of business, Bai Yexiu still refrained from saying it outright.
"What do you want?" Originally, Bai Yexiu had zero interest in their gang, but since this guy insisted on talking in riddles, it suddenly piqued his curiosity.
So this is why Gin hates riddle-makers...
"Have you ever heard of an organization like a crow, said to be made up of people who wear black clothes year-round..."
Hearing the man say this, Bai Yexiu couldn't help but secretly glance down at his own attire—an inner set of black casual suitwear, topped with a black coat...
...Are you talking about me?
To be honest, Bai Yexiu was already used to wearing black; years of habit meant that virtually all his alter egos wore black clothes. This habit wasn't something easily changed; sometimes he even felt utterly uncomfortable if he wasn't wearing black.
"The other day, our people trailed a black Porsche..." The man said with utmost gravity.
Don't tell me that was Gin's car...
Bai Yexiu patiently listened on.
"That Porsche belonged to people from that organization. But on a stretch of mountain road, a silver-haired man in the Porsche opened fire on our people, causing our guys to crash and plunge off a cliff..."
Of all people to trail, you had to trail Gin.
Bai Yexiu took a tactical sip of his cocktail.
"To be honest, I myself have tailed those two men, but they discovered me. I barely escaped being shot dead by them, but my subordinates weren't so fortunate..."
Where do you get the confidence to tail Gin? Bai Yexiu carefully sized up the man in front of him, feeling it was nothing short of a miracle that Gin hadn't shot him dead.
"So, I want intelligence on that organization! We've been tracking them all this time, but they're so evasive, not a single lead to be found!" The man's emotions suddenly spiked.
Bai Yexiu tilted his head in thought, figuring this guy must be from a gang he had encountered in the United States. That gang had been hot on the Organization's trail lately, biting onto them relentlessly just like the police group.
Though he wasn't clear on why this gang was so dead set on investigating the Organization, Bai Yexiu guessed it was probably because the Organization had stepped on their toes.
When he was abroad, he had also encountered people from similar gangs coming to him to buy intelligence on the Organization. The intel Bai Yexiu provided them consisted of undercover members about to be dealt with and some irrelevant peripheral members.
As it happened, Gin had sent him a list of undercover agents this afternoon—a full six of them, including two codenamed members and four peripheral members—with instructions for Bai Yexiu to eliminate them within half a month.
"I happen to have a file on an Organization member here. Want it?" Yes, it was the file of an undercover agent he was about to dispose of next.
The man started to reply, "Then—"
"However." Bai Yexiu twirled the drink in his glass, fixing a pair of pale purple eyes on him: "Goods delivered, cash in hand."
The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a check, feeling secretly grateful for his habit of carrying a checkbook around with him; otherwise, he probably wouldn't have been able to purchase the intelligence.
Bai Yexiu glanced down at the amount, running some quick mental calculations. The sum on this check was already enough to match his commission for a major assassination job, so this deal was definitely not a loss.
"Your email." Bai Yexiu pulled out his phone with one hand while pocketing the check with the other.
After forwarding the file to the man, Bai Yexiu stood up and nodded to him. "Thank you for your patronage. I hope you'll recommend me to others."
Bai Yexiu decided to change venues, because this place seemed to be frequented only by that single man who recognized him.
It seemed he wasn't all that famous around here.
Recalling that man, Bai Yexiu couldn't help but admire him—he actually managed to tail Gin without getting killed and survived by some miracle.
As for that gang...
Bai Yexiu wore a smile. A tiny gang of fewer than eighty people, yet every day they dreamed of obstructing the development of other organizations and syndicates, taking plenty of beatings from other gangs because of it...
So where did that guy get the confidence to tail Gin? And where did this gang get the confidence to investigate the Organization? On top of that, he actually came to buy intelligence about the Organization from an Organization member...
It takes all sorts to make a world.
Bai Yexiu felt that was the only way to describe it.
Still, it was good that a piece of business had come in today. Stroking the check in his pocket, Bai Yexiu felt a wave of satisfaction.
The tactile sensation of money...