Dealing with amateurs like this untrained assassin wasn’t a challenge. Yi Leng could take o of them single-handedly.

  He calmly sidestepped the attack, stuck out a foot to trip the young man, and gave a swift pull. The guy fell ft on his face, eating dirt, and his knife fell from his grip. Yet, the young man ersistent. Crawling over, he grabbed at the knife handle again, but a foot pnted firmly on his back pinned him to the ground, rendering him immobile.

  The young man struggled and protested, “Don’t step on me!”

  Yi Leng immediately removed his foot and even apologized, “Sorry, did I hurt you?”

  The young man scrambled to his feet, now covered in filth from the grimy alley floor. Despite his disheveled state, he still held the kightly, his eyes sing Yi Leng’s body, searg for a spot to strike.

  Yi Leng could tell his iions just from his gaze and said, “Doesn’t matter where you aim; none of it’s a good idea. The upper half is all vital a, liver, kidneys, lungs, spleen. Hit any of those, and you’re dead. Slice a major artery? You’ll bleed out in no time.”

  The young maed, “I don’t care!” But this time, he didn’t dare rush headlong at Yi Leng. Instead, he cautiously approached, step by step.

  About teers away, the back door of the hair salon opened. Yan Hua stepped out, holding a spittoon, and was startled by the se. She set the spittoon down, grabbed a mop with a broken handle from nearby, and prepared to join the fight.

  At that moment, Yi Leng decided to show off. He leapt into the air, perf a 360-degree spinning roundhouse kick. Time seemed to slow for the young man. All he could see was a bck leather pant leg, under which was a white cotton sock with a Nike swoosh logo, followed by a heavily worn bck leather shoe. That shoe smashed into his face with a resounding thud.

  Yan Hua paused, lowered the mop, and lit a cigarette. She leaned against the doorframe, watg with i.

  The young man sprawled face-first on the ground, his head buzzing. Such a fshy spinning kick wasn’t ideal feing force; had it been a solid side kistead, the guy would probably already be unscious.

  Yi Leng walked rabbed the young man’s permed hair, and asked, “Who sent you?”

  The young man was surprisingly ho. “I don’t know. In our line of work, it’s a rule not to ask for the t’s name.”

  Yi Leng chuckled. “Very professional of you. But how much are they paying you to kill me? That’s not a secret, is it?”

  The young man replied, “The test iPhone.”

  Yi Leng raised an eyebrow. “Is that all my life is worth?”

  The young man expined, “Uncle, I’m not here to kill you. Just to stab you o fatal. If you let me stab you, I’ll give you the iPhohis is my first job, and I ’t mess it up.”

  Yi Leng was both amused and exasperated. This kid was clearly not all there. Risking someone’s life for a phone—what a ridiculous notion. He was lucky to have entered Yi Leng. If it had been anyone else, that knife could have gooo deep, and two families would be ruined forever.

  Yi Leng wasn’t much for lecturing but was more than capable of teag a lesson. A good beating could reach the soul, followed by a trip to the police station for proper handling.

  Before he could act, Yan Hua swung the mop and struck the young man. “I’ll teach you to go around stabbing people! Some assassin you are!”

  The young man rolled on the ground, trying to dodge Yan Hua’s strikes. But by sheer bad luck, o nded on the back of his head, knog him unscious. He y there, pletely motionless.

  Hearing the otion, Wu Yumei and Xiao Hong rushed over. They froze in shock at the sight.

  “Did you just kill him?” Xiao Hong asked.

  Yi Leng crouched down to check the young man’s pupils and pulse. “He’s not dead, just stunned.” He then asked Xiao Hong t a half-basin of cold water and spshed it on the young man’s face. In the freezing winter air, the shock revived him instantly.

  Wu Yumei took out her phone, ready to call the police, but Yi Leng stopped her. First, he dragged the young man into the kit and asked Xiao Hong t some rope to tie him up. Tying someone up was a skill in itself, and Xiao Hong’s clumsy attempts resulted in little more than ing the rope around in circles.

  Yan Hua took over. In no time, she had the young man tied up securely, with his hands a bound behind his ba a way that tightehe restraints with every movement.

  Yi Leng was quietly impressed. This wasn’t a simple teique. During his time at the Iional Retions Academy, he had learned a simir method from a tactical instructor, who called it the “butcher’s hogtie.” Once bound this way, no amount of strength could break free.

  Xiao Hong marveled, “Sister Yan, where did you learn this?”

  Yan Hua replied, “Kids shouldn’t ask questions they don’t need ao.”

  Xiao Hong pouted. “Don’t think I don’t know what SM is.”

  Wu Yumei cpped her hands. “Enough bickering. What’s going on here?”

  Yi Leng searched the young man’s pockets and found an ID card, a set of keys, and a few loose s. The guy’s name was Zhang g, just 18 years old aered as a local resident. At his age, he should have been in his third year of high school. How had he ended up like this?

  Croug down, Yi Leng patted Zhang g’s fad asked, “Who’s at home?”

  “No one. I don’t have parents,” Zhang g replied nontly.

  “An assassin, huh? The not-so-cool kind, huh?” Yi Leng spped his face lightly. “Do you even know what you’ve dotempted murder—it’s a criminal case. That could get you ten years in prison.”

  Zhang g shrugged. “Then so be it. I’ll take it. You get food and shelter inside. Pretty good deal. When I e out, I’ll have a reputation.”

  Yi Leng spped him hard. The crisp sound echoed through the room. As a father himself, hearing such self-destructive words infuriated him. He could tell Zhang eant every word. Some kids, far too young, had already tasted the deepest sorrows of life. With no love, no guidance, and only bad influences leading them astray, they fell further and further into darkness.

  “This kid ’t be kept around,” Yi Leng said. “He’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

  While Xiao Hong looked fused, Wu Yumei and Yan Hua uood his meaning immediately.

  Yan Hua proposed, “Get ay oil drum, put him inside, fill it with quick-dry t, and dump it into the bay tonight. No one will ever find him—not even the gods.”

  Zhang g’s face briefly faltered, but he muttered defiantly, “You think you scare me?”

  Wu Yumei added, “That’s too much trouble. Why bother with an oil drum a? Just stick him in the freezer and grind him into dumpling filling. Nid .”

  Zhang g’s face turned pale. He finally realized these seemingly kind women might actually be serious.

  He was wrong. The freezer was real. Moments ter, Yi Leng gagged him with a cloth and stuffed him into Wu Yumei’s new freezer, c the transparent lid with a b.

  Curled up in the frigid darkness, Zhang g felt the vibrations of the pressor and grew colder and more terrified with every passing sed.

  “This is my great elder brother, the legendary Fire Alkaline Brother,” Rou Mingrui introduced as he gestured toward the hulking figure standing beside him. “He came all the way from the city just to try our Da Hong Pao tea.”

  Fire Alkaline Brother removed his tinted gsses and nodded politely at Wu Yumei. “Sorry for being te, sister-in-w, traffic was terrible,” he said, hanging a set of car keys on his belt. Among the jumble of keys were a Land Rover remote and a dozen other keys jangling like the set of a prison guard. They dangled from the waist of his bck leather pants, whiotably, seemed to be the trend this winter for the social elite of Jiangwei.

  Wu Yumei uzzled as to why he was calling her "sister-in-w," but before she could respond, Fire Alkaline Brother asked, “Do you have a private room here?”

  “No private rooms,” Wu Yumei thought to herself. In fact, there weren’t even any free tables at the moment. She was about to expin when Huang Pihu emerged from the kit, his tone warm and weling. “Oh, you’re here! This lease, we’ve reserved the best spot for you.”

  Huang Pihu led the fuests to the back of the adjat undry shop, now verted into an improvised dining area. There wasn’t even a proper table—just a wooden board baop a freezer. The appetizers were already id out, sisting of a mix of braised meats, fried peanuts, cucumbers, scallions, carrots, and four bottles of white liquor lined ly in a row.

  To Fire Alkaline Brother, this arra erfect. In a small eatery like this, one couldn’t expect luxury. What mattered was the sense of exclusivity; with other patrons still waiting for tables, he had a private spot, separate from the rest—a clear sign of respect.

  “If I’d known Fire Alkaline Brother was ing, I would’ve prepared more,” Yi Leng said with a smile. Truthfully, he had no idea who Fire Alkaline Brother was, but in situations like these, fttery was essential. Among the social elite, drinking wasn’t just a pastime; it was a test of character—a measure of boldness, resilience, and physical strength. A drinking session was akin to a battlefield, and showing weakness was uable.

  “You’re too polite, brother,” Fire Alkaline Brother replied. “We’ve brought our own supply.”

  One of his subordinates pulled out two bags of liquor, revealing an additional four bottles of the locally popur Huaijiang Special Reserve, the same brand already provided oable. Even the cigarettes matched—Gold Huaijiang, priced at 41 yuan per pack.

  Huang Pihu, busy frying up more dishes, couldn’t stay long. After exging a few pleasantries, he returo the kit, leaving the fuests to their drinking.

  Rou Mingrui, sitting nearby, was both nervous and awestruck. This was his first time meeting the infamous Fire Alkaline Brother, a man he had only heard about in rumors. Introduced through a mutual friend, Rou Mingrui sidered this enter a great honor.

  Fire Alkaline Brother was a relic of Jiangwei’s earliest geion of gangsters. Among his peers, there were only two fates: execution by the gover or death by a rival’s bde. Yet, Fire Alkaline Brother had survived unscathed—a true miracle.

  The drinking began, with the ary downing of three full gsses. It was then that Rou Mingrui witnessed a bizarre se he would never fet. Fire Alkaline Brother filled his gss to the brim, tipped it into his mouth… but didn’t swallow. Instead, he pulled a rubber tube from his waistband, ied it into his mouth, and fuhe liquor through the tube.

  “Sorry about this, brother,” Fire Alkaline Brother said, as if the act were perfectly normal.

  Rou Mingrui could only give a thumbs-up. “Impressive.”

  After three cups, the group picked up their chopsticks and begaing. Fire Alkaline Brother delicately picked a piece of braised iine, chewed it thhly, then pulled out a small funnel. Attag it to the rubber tube, he spat the chewed food into the funnel, added a bit of water to dilute it, and raised the tube high to let the mush slide down into his stomach.

  One of his long-time ckeys, ever loyal as the edic sidekick, asked, “Fire Alkaline Brother, why don’t you tell us how you got your name?”

  Lighting a cigarette, Fire Alkaline Brother exhaled a plume of smoke, his mind drifting back to years gone by.

  “It was the early ’90s,” he began. “I was young and reckless, ended up seriously injuring someone and got sent to prison. Back then, the legal system was underdeveloped, and prison ditions were rough. If you got seriously ill, you could apply for medical parole. So, many iried everything to get sick—even self-harm.”

  “Among all the methods, swallowing fire alkaline was the most extreme,” he tinued. “Fire alkaline, or sodium hydroxide, is highly corrosive and used for ing. Some guys would secretly pocket a k while w and swallow it when no one was looking. Within mihey’d be coughing up blood. Sodium hydroxide would burn through the esophagus, leaving them permaly disabled. But hey, it got them out of prison.”

  “For some, nothing mattered as long as they got out,” Fire Alkaline Brother said, his toinged with mencholy. Taking another sip through his tube, he added, “Of course, some didn’t know their limits. They swallowed too much, and the stuff burraight through their stomachs. Those guys didn’t make it.”

  Rou Mingrui, awestruck, raised his gss. “You’re as ruthless as the legends say, Fire Alkaline Brother. Truly Jiangwei’s most hardcore figure. I salute you.”

  Just then, Yi Leered the room, carrying the Da Hong Pao tea. Fire Alkaline Brother beed him over. “Join us.”

  Yi Leng smiled, raised his cup, and joihe toast.

  “Brother, take a seat,” Fire Alkaline Brother said. “I came here today because I wao meet you. I heard you dislocated Yin Bingsong’s arm yesterday?”

  Yi Leng chuckled. “I wouldn’t call it that big a deal.”

  “Let’s not downpy it. Yin Bingsong is a formidable figure,” Fire Alkaline Brother replied. “I’ve had my share of disputes with him, and you saved me the trouble of dealing with him. I owe you a drink for that.”

  Yi Leng accepted the toast and replied modestly, “I’m just a cook. I still have much to learn from you, Fire Alkaline Brother.”

  Fire Alkaline Brother shook his head. “Don’t learn from me. I’ve spent decades in this life, gaining nothing but ay reputation. I’ve failed my parents, my children, and my wife. She was ohe school belle, but ever since marrying me, she hasn’t had a single good day. Listen to me, brother: once you ehis world, there’s no going back. These days, it’s not about fights and feuds anymore—it’s about brains, es, and making money.”

  Yi Leng nodded. “I appreciate the advice.”

  Just then, the table began to shake violently. Fire Alkaline Brother’s subordinates removed the wooden pnk c the freezer and revealed what was underh—a bound man with a gag in his mouth!

  The notorious Fire Alkaline Brother was momentarily stunned, while Rou Mingrui stumbled ba shock, his gaze toward Yi Leng now filled with fear.

  Yi Leng expined calmly, “Sorry about this. That kid was sent by Yin Bingsong to kill me. I caught him and decided to teach him a lesson. Don’t worry, he’s alive.”

  He opehe freezer lid and pulled out the young man—Zhang g—who was iill alive but looked frozen stiff.

  Zhang g sat up, gring at Fire Alkaline Brother with cold rese.

  Fire Alkaline Brother yahe gag from Zhang g’s mouth, his posure faltering. “You little bastard—why is it you?”

  Zhang g, his toill numb, retorted, “Old bastard—why you drink here but I ’t chill in the freezer?”

  [--------------------------------------------]

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