In Sham Shui Po, inside the Chiang family villa.
Chan Yiu, the white-paper fan of Hung Hing, handed a photograph to Chiang Tin-sang and explained:
"It was this Zhang Liang and his subordinates who messed up Chan Ho-nam and the others' operation. Moreover, Chan Ho-nam and his crew were beaten and injured by that older man. Our mission to assassinate Babi can now be considered a complete failure..."
"How is it this Yan Liang again?"
Seeing Yan Liang in the photo, Chiang Tin-sang frowned.
Over the past two years, the name Yan Liang had reached his ears more than a few times.
Nowadays, everyone knew that Liang Kun held the most power within Hung Hing. And the biggest reason for Liang Kun's success was none other than Yan Liang, whom Liang Kun regarded as a blood brother. Now, Liang Kun had money when he needed money and men when he needed men, making him the most formidable among the twelve branch leaders. Even some of the elder generation within Hung Hing were now leaning toward Liang Kun. If this continued unchecked, the entire leadership of Hung Hing might actually change hands.
"Mr. Chiang, I seriously suspect that this incident might have been orchestrated by Liang Kun specifically targeting you. Otherwise, he wouldn't have asked you beforehand about promoting Babi to full membership. Looking at it now, he's trying to put you in your place!"
"Hmph, that's possible! But who's putting whom in their place remains to be seen..." Chiang Tin-sang sneered. "Tomorrow, you go to the hospital on my behalf to check on Chan Ho-nam and the others. Since their chance to become Red Poles was ruined, those youngsters must still be choking down their anger. It just so happens there's a job over in Macau with Biao the Fierce, so let these youngsters go try their luck again..."
As Hung Hing's top strategist, Chan Yiu naturally saw right through it—Chiang Tin-sang wanted to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight.
Only, this game of watching the tigers fight...
Chan Yiu shook his head inwardly and said nothing.
In recent years, Liang Kun's influence had grown far beyond the original script. Of course, Yan Liang was naturally the reason for this. By now, Liang Kun's ambition to seize the Hung Hing leadership was an open secret. In fact, quite a few veteran members within the entire Hung Hing faction were already aligning themselves with Liang Kun, and even Chan Yiu, the faction's own strategist, had accepted a tidy sum in bribes. Chiang Tin-sang hadn't mentioned any of this out loud, but he had long since calculated it all in his heart.
On the surface, Hung Hing looked glorious, but beneath the surface, it was rotting with scandals. Since Liang Kun had his eyes on the dragon head, why not use the momentum to push him right into that position? When the time came, all the dirty, unspeakable scandals of the triad could be pinned squarely on Liang Kun. Then, once Liang Kun was eliminated, the Hung Hing he took back would undoubtedly be a brand-new Hung Hing.
The more he thought about it, the more feasible Chiang Tin-sang felt the plan was.
***
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Just as Yan Liang returned home and prepared to cash in his ninety-percent-off discount, Babi's office was discovered by some of his low-level gang members who had come looking for him. Although Babi's body was gone, the wrecked office and the blood on the floor were proof of what had happened there.
Generally speaking, underworld vendettas like this were rarely brought to the police. Even if they were involved, the authorities would simply classify it as gang activity and hastily close the case. But this time was different: the dead man was Babi, and the case was tied to someone under surveillance by the senior inspector handling the investigation. Naturally, they had to dig deep.
Wong Chi-shing and his subordinates briefly combed through the crime scene.
"How is it? Did you dig up any useful info?"
"Reporting officer, there are no eyewitnesses or statements at the moment, but our colleagues outside picked up some chatter."
With that, the officer recounted how Chan Ho-nam and his crew had gone after Babi that night, only to have their prey snatched away halfway. They had also gathered a few photos taken by passersby along the road at the time.
Even so, these photos didn't prove much. After all, based on the coroner's assessment of the blood volume in the office, Babi very likely died right there in the room.
"So you're saying Hung Hing people did this?"
Since both waves of people looking for Babi were connected to Hung Hing, Wong Chi-shing couldn't help but suspect as much. In fact, he felt the probability was extremely high.
"We could go question the last two people who had contact with Babi. One of them is known to our colleagues—it's Yan Liang, Liang Kun's sworn buddy from Mong Kok."
Hearing this, Wong Chi-shing pondered for a moment.
"Track that person down for me first. Guilty or not, someone has to take the fall."
"Yessir!"
***
At the same time, elsewhere.
Having parted ways with Liang Kun, Yan Liang had strolled leisurely back home. Despite having a promising future alongside Liang Kun and plenty of savings in his pocket, Hong Kong dollars tended to slip through his fingers like smoke. If not for this massive discount, he probably would have spent every last cent.
Once back in his rented room, he eagerly opened the system interface.
[The Redemption System is at your service!]
As the system opened, right in the center of the screen, a massive icon marked with a glowing "90% OFF" explosive tag was flashing frantically. Above the icon ticked a countdown timer.
[90% Off Redemption: Legendary Character Summon. Time remaining: 2:17:22 (Discounted price: 10 million, quantity remaining: x99)]
Looking at the discount right before his eyes, Yan Liang finally wore an expression of unprecedented delight. To be honest, when he first saw this discount, he had half a mind to go rob a bank or a gold shop. But after calming down, he knew that even if he pulled off a robbery, he might not be able to scrape together ten million Hong Kong dollars in a single day.
That was precisely why he had gone to borrow money from Liang Kun earlier. And he knew that even without the Babi affair, Liang Kun would have lent him the cash in the end. But things were unpredictable; who could have guessed that this time he wouldn't just scrape together ten million, but actually pull in over twenty million?
That meant he now had enough for two redemption chances. For an opportunity this rare, appearing perhaps once in a few years, he naturally held nothing back.
"System, purchase two ninety-percent-off redemptions."
[Ding! 20 million deducted successfully!]
[Ding! Successfully purchased two 90%-off Legendary Redemptions.]
[Ding! Legendary Redemption activated successfully. Congratulations to the host for successfully redeeming the special character "Xia He" and the special character "Baron"...]
Xia He? Baron??
"These two names..."
Hearing these familiar yet vaguely out-of-context names, Yan Liang was momentarily dazed. It was just like when he had redeemed Jinzhuhua—he hadn't treated her like an actual person at all. But when he met her the next day, it suddenly hit him: she wasn't any ordinary person; she was an absolute psycho! Especially her lethal methods, which stood out even among his own mob of freakish subordinates, making her a fierce tigress that even Zhang Qiandan and the others dared not cross.
Yet here popped up two more familiar strangers.
Looks like he would just have to wait for them to show up tomorrow and find out...
***
The next day,
Yan Liang, deep in sleep, was jolted awake by a frantic pounding on his door.
With a look of dissatisfaction and lingering exhaustion, he pulled the door open.
"Knocking, what are you knocking for?"
"Do you even know what time it is?"