Chapter 159: Sudden Change (Part 2)

Heiwa had already posed a severe threat to the survival of the Shangqinglin quarry. This was a conflict of interests. Unless they yielded, a fierce struggle was inevitable. This had become the consensus among the people of Shangqinglin.

Hou Weidong said, "I want to go find my brother, Hou Weiguo. Their criminal investigation team is currently tracing the whereabouts of the illegal guns. I hope to get the Shazhou Criminal Police to intervene directly and solve the case sooner."

Xi Zhaoyong disagreed. "A strong dragon cannot fight the local snake. Without the support of the local police, the Shazhou Criminal Police won't be of much use, unless Hou Weiguo is a heavyweight figure in the Shazhou Municipal Bureau."

Hou Weidong added, "I will report this matter to County Magistrate Zeng and ask the personnel from the Shadao Command to use their connections to pressure Yiyang."

Xi Zhaoyong remained silent for a moment, then said, "This case seems clear to us, but we lack key evidence. From a legal standpoint, we can do nothing to Heiwa."

Zeng Xianggang sat with a gloomy expression, listening to their discussion. A fierce light flickered in his eyes, but he said nothing. Only when the other two fell silent did he speak. "I learned a sentence from Chairman Mao during my time in the army: 'If the broom does not sweep, the dust will not go away.' To deal with someone like Heiwa, it is only a matter of blood for blood, tooth for tooth."

Xi Zhaoyong said, "Unless Heiwa is killed, Shangqinglin will hardly find peace."

Hou Weidong agreed with this view in his heart, but he did not explicitly express his support. He only said, "Murder is a serious crime. We must carefully consider whether it is worth it."

The three discussed for a while but reached no conclusion.

Zeng Xianggang returned to his home, where more than a dozen young men had gathered. Three were hitting sandbags, while the majority were playing cards together.

He called Zeng Xianrong into the room and closed the door. "Qin Dajiang was beaten to death by Heiwa today. I want to take revenge. Do you dare to go with me?"

Zeng Xianrong was Zeng Xianggang's cousin. Like his cousin, he was a stonemason by trade, with well-developed abdominal muscles that were hard as small stones. In Shangqinglin Town, he was known as a troublemaker. However, he got along well only with his cousin, Zeng Xianggang. He said disdainfully, "What is there to be afraid of? Heiwa clearly doesn't want to live anymore, bullying his way into Shangqinglin. Let's go and kill him."

Zeng Xianggang said to him, "Zeng San can find Heiwa's home. The two of us will go quietly, cut off one of his hands, and avenge Qin Dajiang. This will also eliminate a disaster for Shangqinglin."

Zeng Xianrong had always listened to his cousin since childhood. He nodded and said, "That's simple. When do we go?"

Thinking further, Zeng Xianggang added, "I heard that Qin Dajiang's sons, Qin Yong and Qin Gan, are coming back. Should we tell them about this?"

Qin Gan was the second son of the Qin family. He and Zeng Xianrong had teamed up to fight countless battles in Shangqinglin. Tian Dadao had once been beaten into a pig's head by him, earning him a notorious reputation. In recent years, he had gone out to work as a migrant laborer and had gradually faded out of Shangqinglin.

"Never mind. The fewer people who know about this, the better. Zeng San is only responsible for guiding the way and pointing out the target. The two of us will find an opportunity to strike. Heiwa might be carrying a gun, so we must dispose of him cleanly and efficiently."

Zeng Xianggang took out ten thousand yuan and said, "This matter is risky. Take this money home."

Zeng Xianrong did not hesitate. He put the ten thousand yuan into his pocket and said, "Zeng San is not trustworthy. If he betrays us, it will be troublesome."

Zeng Xianggang said, "Today I will follow Zeng San to Yiyang County Town to confirm Heiwa's identity. Once I find his home, I will call you. You stay here and wait for my call at any time."

After making the arrangements, Zeng Xianggang and Zeng San took a truck used for hauling stone to Yiyang City.

Zeng San had been sent to a labor camp for repeated thefts in Yiyang City, so he was very familiar with the area. As a fellow criminal, he knew where Heiwa liked to hang out.

After turning seven or eight corners, they arrived at the newly built Xincheng Grand Hotel. The name of this hotel was grand, but it was merely a moderately sized inn, not even rated as a star hotel. However, for Yiyang, it was considered a decent hotel. There was a casino on the fifth floor, a nightclub on the sixth floor, and a restaurant on the second floor. Heiwa had been frequenting the casino and the nightclub recently, and he ate his meals in the restaurant.

Since returning from Fujian, Zeng San had visited this place many times. Being a thief by trade, he liked to tail people. After a few visits, he knew Heiwa's routine. This was also one of the topics he boasted about. Zeng Xianggang had occasionally heard him bragging and had remembered it in his heart.

At mealtime, Zeng Xianggang changed his eye patch for sunglasses and put on a trendy silk T-shirt. He and Zeng San sat in a corner of the restaurant, waiting for Heiwa to come down for dinner.

It was not until one o'clock that they saw six or seven young men with short hair coming down the stairs. They all looked fierce and walked down casually.

"The one in the white shirt is Heiwa."

All the young men were wearing short sleeves, except for one in a white shirt. If not for the switchblade tucked into his belt, he would have looked like an ordinary white-collar worker.

They did not enter a private room but ordered food in the main hall and drank heartily. Zeng Xianggang kept his eyes fixed on Heiwa, firmly memorizing his appearance.

Back in Shangqinglin, Zeng Xianrong waited for two days with no news. On the noon of the fourth day, while he was bored and hitting a sandbag, Zeng Xianggang's call came in. "Bring two butcher knives. We're slaughtering pigs tonight."

Zeng Xianrong took the knives and drove a truck toward Yiyang City. He parked on the outskirts of Yiyang and walked into the city.

After eleven at night, Zeng Xianggang and Zeng Xianrong, armed with sharp butcher knives and short Qinggang wood sticks from Shangqinglin, quietly arrived at a small courtyard.

The courtyard had two buildings and a guard outside. However, the guard was an old man who went to bed at ten o'clock and got up at one in the morning to close the main gate. His presence was completely nominal.

Once inside the courtyard, they turned off the streetlights on the ground floor and cut the pull cords. Zeng Xianggang and Zeng Xianrong hid in the darkness at the corner of the staircase, waiting quietly for Heiwa to come upstairs.

At eleven thirty, a small car drove in. Two people got out. One walked toward where Zeng Xianggang and Zeng Xianrong were hiding, while the other headed toward the other building.

Heiwa was carrying a bag of things. As he entered the doorway, he cursed, "The light bulb is broken, and no one has replaced it." He was just about to take a lighter from his pocket when a heavy blow struck him from the darkness. The blow was extremely heavy. He let out a groan, and his throat was immediately choked by a pair of hands in the dark.

The one who struck the blow was Zeng Xianggang; the one choking his throat was Zeng Xianrong.

When Heiwa was hit on the head, he had already lost consciousness and the ability to resist. While choking his throat, Zeng Xianrong still threw Heiwa violently to the ground.

Zeng Xianggang raised the butcher knife.

The murder of his wife and the autism of his son had made Zeng Xianggang wish he were dead. It was this tragic accidental event that made him hate all the big and small thugs in society. Although Heiwa was not the man who killed his wife, he was a gang leader in Yiyang City. Zeng Xianggang held down Heiwa's right hand and, without hesitation, raised the butcher knife in his hand.

The knife fell, and the hand was severed.

Heiwa's throat was tightly choked, and he did not have time to make a sound while unconscious.

The person who had come out with Heiwa was also a well-known figure in the Yiyang underworld. He was about thirty years old, but Heiwa still called him Xiao Pi. Hearing the groan, Xiao Pi casually took out his switchblade. He stopped and listened carefully but heard no further sound. He called out, "Brother Hei."

Seeing no response from Heiwa, Xiao Pi assumed Heiwa had entered the doorway. Having drunk wine at night, he felt dizzy and weak-legged, so he did not come over. Instead, he held his knife and went upstairs.

Zeng Xianggang held the severed hand and said, "It's done. Let's go."

The two left the courtyard calmly. Zeng Xianggang took off his gloves, wrapped the severed palm, and then walked toward the suburbs. Although Zeng Xianrong had fought countless times, this was his first time doing such a thing. He walked faster and faster on the street. Zeng Xianggang said, "Slow down. What are you panicking for?"

After leaving the city, once the car started, Zeng Xianggang finally breathed a sigh of relief. When the car reached the halfway point up the mountain, Zeng Xianggang called for a stop. He took a flashlight, walked along a small path for a while, then climbed the mountain and threw the blood-stained clothes, gloves, butcher knife, and short stick into a natural deep well. The well was only a little more than a meter wide, but it was said to be bottomless. No one knew how deep it actually was.

Hou Weidong learned the news of Heiwa's severed hand the next afternoon. The funeral reform in Qinglin Town was progressing with twists and turns. Several villages had collected an occupation fee of five thousand yuan, but they then encountered two households that insisted on burying their dead by force. When the corpse exhumation team from the Civil Affairs Bureau came to dig up the graves, a team member was slashed with a knife. The police station arrested the attacker on the spot, which finally controlled the development of the situation.

Another household nearly caused a suicide tragedy. Fortunately, the quality of the pesticide was not up to standard, which pulled a sixty-year-old woman back from the edge of death.

After controlling the two households that insisted on burying their dead by force, Hou Weidong was already exhausted.

On Friday afternoon, while he was calling Xiaojia, Director Qin and Captain Li walked in.

"Captain Li, have you come to the wrong person? Heiwa is a local thug with many enemies. Having his hand cut off is just a minor matter. His life is forfeit sooner or later. What does this have to do with Shangqinglin?"

Seeing the atmosphere was tense, Director Qin tried to smooth things over. "Captain Li is just doing his routine duty to investigate the situation. He is not suspecting anyone from Shangqinglin. He mainly wants to ask about the situation in Shangqinglin."

Hou Weidong said bluntly, "Qin Dajiang was a grassroots civil servant and party branch secretary. He was shot to death in his own home, and the case has not been solved for so long. Yet when a thug has his hand cut off, you are so anxious. Have you got it wrong? Is this the Criminal Police Team under the leadership of the Communist Party?"

After Heiwa's hand was cut off, criminal cases in the city increased sharply, and two people died in succession. The Criminal Investigation Brigade was under great pressure. Captain Li was very familiar with Shangqinglin. He did not believe it was a gang-related revenge killing and always suspected that someone from Shangqinglin had done it.

(End of Chapter 159)