Chapter 247: It Really Was a Fall

Wang Yan had never taken that old punk Ding Xie seriously, and as for that mysterious, unfathomable "good luck," he scoffed at it even more. He, Wang Mou, was the one with true good luck, being favored by the System, his living father; that was far beyond the level of smoke rising from the ancestral graves of the Wang family...

Of course, even without taking Ding Xie seriously, Wang Yan still needed to keep track of his whereabouts. After all, he had a conflict with the Zhongqing Society, and once Ding Xiaoxie had lived enough and decided to attack him, he had to be a man of his word.

Because he hadn't interfered in the affairs of the island, Ding Xie was still the same as he originally was: after getting out of prison, he went to seek revenge on Long Chengbang, then caused some trouble for Zhou Jisheng, and finally, after Zhou Jisheng's wife died, Ding Xie made his way back to Hong Kong.

There's no need to mention Ding Xie's quotes; he was purely a mental patient.

When his subordinate told him, Ding Xie was carrying his old mother on his back to the clinic of the fourth Ding son to see a doctor.

The old Mrs. Ding was still a reasonable person; she was a good woman. It was just that a bunch of her children and grandchildren were no good, and she, the old lady, had no way to deal with it. So, she had always stayed in the temple, which could be considered seeking peace of mind for herself. But how could she be at peace with the sins her own family had committed? Even looking at the whole drama, this old lady was still a catalyst.

After all, if she hadn't been nagging about being sorry to the Fang family all day, those Ding brothers might not have always been obsessed with the Fang siblings. It was precisely because they all had rebellious psychology; the more they were told not to do something, the more they did it.

Of course, the unfolding of events is always multifaceted and uncertain. If the old lady had died earlier, perhaps the entire Fang family might have died earlier too, who knows. With the conduct of the Ding brothers, they were certainly capable of just killing them off. After all, they never thought they were wrong; the ones who were wrong were always the Fang family, and it was the Fang family who were sorry to the Ding family. Their own father had beaten Fang Jinxin to death, they had been forced to flee to the island, and ended up serving fourteen years in prison. If it weren't for Fang Jinxin, there wouldn't have been so many things; it was all the Fang family who were sorry to them...

However, speaking of Ding Xie's revenge, using two durians to smoke out Long Chengbang, using vermilion paint to write "Righteousness" on his chest, and "Filial Piety" all over his back, one has to mention Long Chengbang's daughter, the daughter of the Chief Chinese Detective, the prototype of "Brother Luo," Long Jiwen.

Because of him, Wang Mou, Fang Zhanbo's apprenticeship with Ye Tian was a bit later, and the time he started working at the Chinese Association was also later. Fate has its own trajectory, and the node where the two fates intersected, under Wang Yan's influence, was perfectly missed. Therefore, Long Jiwen and Fang Zhanbo did not know each other.

As for where exactly Long Jiwen was, Wang Yan really hadn't researched it. But in all likelihood, she was on the island; after all, Ding Xie's kidnapping of Long Chengbang had caused quite a stir, and he had heard the rumors even in Hong Kong. Long Jiwen had gone back to save her father, and now she was attending that Sister Hua's funeral; she wouldn't be coming to Hong Kong for a while.

Wang Yan continued his clinic work, while over at Hennessy Road in Causeway Bay, in the clinic of the fourth Ding son, Ding Lixie, having confirmed that his mother was fine, Ding Xie walked out, gave his three unfilial sons a sour look, and sat on the sofa in the outer room.

The three brothers, Ding Yixie, Ding Wangxie, and Ding Lixie, looked at each other, not knowing what to say for a moment.

Ding Xie glanced at the three sons opposite him, and seeing the second son, Ding Yixie, sitting in a wheelchair with a plaster cast on his foot, he couldn't hold it in, glared, and asked, "Second, what happened to you? Huh? How come you're in a wheelchair?"

It takes a hundred days to recover from broken bones and tendons; Wang Yan hadn't gone easy on him, and even after three months, Ding Yixie still hadn't recovered. Although he could walk, he still couldn't stand that heart-piercing pain.

"Uh, Dad..." Ding Yixie's mind raced, and he said, "I just accidentally fell, that's all. You taught me that a real man shouldn't care about a little injury."

"Ah, the brat still remembers what I said..." Ding Xie looked up and wanted to laugh, then his expression turned serious: "No, you're lying to me, brat. If you just fell, why is your face so pale? You're really being disrespectful, daring to lie to your old man? Tell me, what really happened?"

Ding Yixie recalled Wang Yan's understated ruthlessness; it would be strange if his face looked good. Now that Ding Xie was pressing him, Ding Yixie subconsciously looked at his two brothers, and with a stiff face, said, "Dad, how would I dare lie to you? I really just accidentally fell."

Although Ding Xie was mentally ill and had a very strange thought process, he still had an understanding of his sons' strength, knowing that his sons were quite something in Hong Kong. Seeing Ding Yixie's state, it was clearly someone who had beaten him up; he really couldn't think of anyone else who would dare to be so ruthless and cruel.

He immediately glared and clenched his fists: "Was it the eldest who hit you? Huh? Good, the eldest, that unfilial and unrighteous thing, not only won't let me return to Hong Kong, throwing your grandmother into the temple and ignoring her, but now he's even harming his own brothers; it's really... outrageous. Call the eldest and tell him to come over; I want to see if he still recognizes me as his father."

The three brothers saw that the situation was bad; they all knew how ruthless Wang Yan was, and now their Zhongqing Society was still distributing goods in Long Teng's territory. The most critical thing was that Wang Yan protected the Fang family. If Ding Xie really delivered himself to the door, losing a leg would be the least of it; he might be killed directly, or at the very least, Wang Yan would arrest Ding Xie and hand him over to the police.

Most importantly, Ding Xiaoxie had said countless times not to provoke the Fang family, and even more so, not to provoke Wang Yan. If Ding Xie went to the door and was dealt with by Wang Yan, they would have to take action even if they didn't want to fight Long Teng. But if they fought, it would be a dilemma; now Long Teng had thousands of men under his command, all well-trained, and had already become a force to be reckoned with. Whether they could win was a question. Moreover, if the subordinates fought each other, so what? It wouldn't hurt Wang Yan at all.

If they were to assassinate Wang Yan, damn it, the Ding brothers would become the laughingstock of all Hong Kong. They would only have one chance; if they couldn't kill him, their whole family would really die. Wang Yan's great skill in single-handedly fighting twenty or thirty people, his marksmanship of firing five shots instantly and hitting the target every time, and most importantly, his fearlessness even when five guns were pointed at him—they were truly afraid...

The fourth son, Ding Lixie, hurriedly nudged the third son, Ding Wangxie, who was a lawyer; he could lie, hoping he would go up and say something.

Ding Wangxie stepped forward and sat beside Ding Xie, grabbing the hand of the wide-eyed, angry Ding Xie: "Dad, the second really just fell, it wasn't the eldest who hit him. The eldest is so good to us; if it weren't for him, we would have died outside long ago. How could we be living the kind of life we never dared to imagine before?"

After saying this, without waiting for Ding Xie to speak, he hurriedly changed the subject: "It's not that we aren't filial to you, and even less that we aren't filial to Grandma. Grandma requested it herself; no matter how we told her, she didn't want to live with us and enjoy a happy life. Every time we brought her back, she would go back to the temple herself. You taught us since we were young that we should be filial to our parents; how would we dare to go against Grandma's wishes?"

"And also, Dad, it's not that we don't want to bring you back to Hong Kong to live. But Hong Kong's laws, once you've committed a criminal case, it's valid for a lifetime. If you come back after fourteen years and someone reports you, you'll still have to go to jail. If you get arrested and go to jail again, you'll be a seventy or eighty-year-old man when you come out. Do you think it's worth it, Dad?"

"I understand, I understand what you're saying." Ding Xie shook off his son's hand and said impatiently: "I know that coming back secretly this time means trading my freedom of several decades. Do I want this? I want to be reunited with my old mother and my sons as a family. Who knew my sons wouldn't even pay attention to me."

Seeing that they still wanted to speak, Ding Xie pointed to his own head and said loudly: "Alright, don't change the subject with your old man; I'm not senile yet. Hurry up and tell me, what really happened to the second's leg?"

Ding Yixie naturally couldn't say: "Oh, Dad, I really just accidentally fell and twisted it, it's nothing."

Ding Lixie hurriedly followed up: "That's right, Dad, it really is just like that. If you don't believe me, I'll call the eldest right now and have him come over to explain clearly, alright?"

"Call, call right now, call immediately, tell him to hurry up and get over here and explain it clearly to me."

There was no other way; Ding Yixie picked up the phone and called Ding Xiaoxie, telling him to come over and explain the matter clearly. It could be considered passing on information, letting Ding Xiaoxie think about how to muddle through on the way. At this time, one couldn't cause more trouble; it would really cost lives.

After a moment, Ding Xiaoxie rushed back in a hurry, and upon entering the door, asked directly: "Dad, why did you come back?"

"Eldest, stop questioning me. Why did I come back? Of course, it's to be filial, to be with you all." Ding Xie pulled Ding Xiaoxie and pointed at Ding Yixie: "You tell me, what's going on? They said it wasn't you who hit him, just said he fell, but looking at him, it doesn't look like a fall at all. How are you acting as the eldest? Huh?"

Ding Xiaoxie could be considered the most normal among the men in the Ding family; he knew that it was impossible to reason with Ding Xie. He immediately spread his hands, his face full of helplessness: "Dad, he really just fell. If the second's leg had really been broken by someone, I, as the eldest, would definitely not let that person off. Is there anything else you don't believe, Dad?"

Ding Xie didn't fear this eldest son, but he respected him more, unlike the other three brats. It was mainly because Ding Xiaoxie had taken care of the other three younger brothers for these years, and it was all the eldest's credit that they could live the life they had now. Facing the eldest son, his arrogance was a bit short.

But he was the father, after all, and that didn't stop him from saying other things: "Let's not talk about the second's leg, but why did you leave me alone outside? Isn't that unfilial? If it were me, if my closest person committed a crime and couldn't return to Hong Kong, even if it were to the ends of the earth, I would throw away everything in Hong Kong and run to be with him."

"You all are good." Ding Xie said excitedly: "Throwing me on the island, and then throwing me in Mexico. It's fine if you ignore me, but you even threw Grandma in the temple and ignored her? I'm a wanted criminal, but did your grandmother kill anyone?"

"It's not like that, Dad." The third son, Ding Wangxie, complained: "Didn't I just tell you, it's Grandma who is stubborn and doesn't want to live with us."

"Don't look for excuses." Ding Xie waved his hand and pointed angrily at his sons: "Your grandmother, an old woman of several decades, you are all so big now; even if Grandma is stubborn and refuses to come home to live, if you had filial piety, wouldn't it be fine to carry her back like I did? I haven't read as many books as you, but I know how to be filial to my parents."

"Talking all day about the police wanting to arrest me, you bunch of unfilial sons, if they want to arrest anyone, they should arrest you first. Even if one day I am taken to court, the judge will be moved to tears when he sees how filial I am, and he will sympathize with me and acquit me."

"Alright, stop talking." Ding Xiaoxie interrupted his father's nagging impatiently: "Dad, do you know how much trouble you caused on the island? Zhou Jisheng issued a kill order to kill you, and I've been busy running around cleaning up your mess; I won't even mention how much I lost. Why did you have to go back to the island to cause trouble after I sent you to Mexico? That's fine, but you still ran back to Hong Kong. Do you know how dangerous it is now? If the Fang family sees you, we won't be able to protect you, Dad."

"Talking all this, isn't it still saying that I shouldn't have come back?" Ding Xie pointed at his sons and said angrily: "Are you afraid that I'll lose face when I come back, affecting your high-class life, and you'll have no face? Afraid that the Law Society will know you have a wanted criminal father and you won't be able to be a lawyer, afraid of being implicated by me, and the Medical Association won't let you be a doctor, is that it?"

"It's not like that, Dad." Ding Xiaoxie cried with a helpless face: "We are thinking of you; if the Fang family knows, they will definitely report you."

Ding Xie's stubborn temper flared up: "So what if they report me? It was wrong of me to beat Jinxin to death, but he was sorry to me first. Now that I'm out, I must have revenge for grievances and repay kindness for kindness. Although Jinxin was sorry to me, I did beat him to death, causing Jinxin's children to lose their father early. If they insist on reporting me, let them report me."

Seeing Ding Xie's state, Ding Xiaoxie had no choice but to step forward and pat Ding Xie on the back: "Dad, I'm not blaming you, I'm concerned about you. Let's stop talking, alright? Isn't Grandma sick? Let's bring Grandma home to live, let's be a family together, alright?"

Ding Xie couldn't stand the eldest son's soft words, and now that he had a way out, he didn't speak, walked into the room, and carried the old lady on his back.

Ding Xiaoxie looked helplessly: "Dad, what are you doing?"

"I'm carrying my old mother, really..."

The Ding family was reunited, and after a routine day, Wang Yan also returned to the public housing.

In fact, it was exactly as he said; now, taking out millions to buy a thousand-square-foot luxury house—which, in domestic terms, is a two-bedroom apartment of over ninety square meters—is really unnecessary. He felt that spending that money was truly a waste; what couldn't he do with that money? That's why he, the famous big thug of Sha Tin in Hong Kong and Kowloon, was a joke among the crowd of thug leaders. Not only did other big brothers laugh at him, but even those small-time thugs laughed. When laughing at Wang Yan, the Long Teng big brother, they completely forgot that the person they were laughing at gave his subordinates a monthly salary of five thousand, and there were gifts and bonuses at the end of the year...

Of course, he couldn't always live in public housing; he was already researching getting a piece of land to engage in real estate. When the time came, he would get himself a big villa on the mountaintop, which would be much better than anything on Victoria Peak. It was just that his scale was too small; with Long Teng's current accumulation, he didn't have enough money to buy land in the New Territories bordering Shenzhen, let alone develop it.

This time, he was going to develop the New Territories. After all, the main island and Kowloon had already been developed by Wei Jiacheng and that bunch of old bastards; the New Territories were relatively poorer and had greater development potential. Moreover, he had many subordinates and wasn't afraid that he wouldn't be able to sell the houses. It was still the same strategy: develop them, offer low down payments and low-interest loans, and his own people would digest them.

Based on this strategy, after Long Teng Security took down Sha Tin, they didn't choose to go south to Wong Tai Sin, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, and other districts, but instead infiltrated the adjacent Kwai Tsing District to the west, as well as the Tai Po District to the north. In the future, it would be Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, and the North District, unifying the entire New Territories.

And such an operation also avoided, to the greatest extent, conflicts with the big gangs that had established themselves in the prosperous areas to the south. Although they also had influence in the New Territories, to be honest, compared to the market he, Wang Mou, had given up, they didn't care much, just cursing a few times. Once he took down the entire New Territories, the deadline for the other thug leaders would arrive; one by one, none of them would be able to run.

Eating the dinner Ruan Mei had made, Wang Yan said: "There's no point in school either; why don't you come to my company to work."

"No way, I like being with the children." Ruan Mei didn't even think: "And I don't know how to do anything; wouldn't I just be adding to the chaos if I went to the company? What if I give wrong directions and make the company lose money? I'm not going."

"You have a pretty profound understanding of yourself." Wang Yan laughed: "Are you afraid that you'll be so angry at those unlucky children at school that you'll have a heart attack?"

"No way, I've been doing it for so long, how could I be angered. And if I went to the company, I'd have to learn everything from scratch, wouldn't that be even harder. Being a teacher now is what I'm familiar with, and it's not that tiring, it's pretty good."

"Don't you want to hear how much I'll pay you?"

"Didn't you say ten thousand before." Ruan Mei curled her lips: "Did you forget that last time you gave me a card with five million in it?"

The implication was that she didn't care about that little bit, and was satisfied with the five million. Wang Yan naturally heard it, rolled his eyes at her: "No ambition at all; are you satisfied with a mere five million after hanging out with Brother Yan?"

"You're still talking; I hear every day that Long Teng is hitting this and hitting that; you've offended so many people, you'll be finished sooner or later. Hang out with you? I'm afraid I'll be finished with you in the end."

"Then are you hanging out with me or not?"

"Can I run away?" Ruan Mei rolled her eyes at him.

She had been inquiring about Long Teng's affairs intentionally or unintentionally before, and after being together, there was inevitably more contact. Long Teng's subordinates were arrested every day, and some were injured every day. Colleagues in the class would occasionally communicate and mention Long Teng as a relatively special society. The gossip was all-encompassing, and she could be considered to know what the result would be if Wang Yan were finished; it would be hard to even have a good death.

Wang Yan smiled slightly and didn't say anything more. He knew that the five million was mostly kept by Ruan Mei to take him away when the time came; she was so frugal usually, and couldn't bear to spend money even when she had it. He had thrown away money in tens of thousands in the past, and hadn't felt any change in life; it had all been saved by Ruan Mei like a hamster.

Ruan Mei was ultimately inexperienced and didn't understand what it meant to reach Wang Yan's level. From the day Sha Tin was taken, there was only forward and no retreat. Of course, there would never be a day when he would retreat; otherwise, he, Wang Mou, would have lived these three hundred years in vain.

As for Ruan Mei liking to be a teacher, let her be; it didn't matter anyway. He was just habitually cultivating his woman in the direction of a strong woman; mainly because the women he had kept by his side over the years were rarely vases. Even in ancient times, they were all out and about doing things. Like Ruan Mei, teaching in primary school, although this job could be considered middle-tier in all of Hong Kong, in his eyes, she was still a vase, as long as she was happy.

After eating, Wang Yan took Ruan Mei and the old lady downstairs for a walk. It was the old lady gossiping with other old ladies downstairs, while he and Ruan Mei strolled together.

On the way, they also bumped into Luo Huiling and Fang Ting who had just returned. Because Wang Yan and Ruan Mei were living their lives now, the strangeness that had been seen in Luo Huiling's eyes at the beginning was now almost non-existent. Perhaps Luo Huiling had examined her own heart, and after comprehensive consideration, felt that her feelings for Wang Yan were wrong, and had turned back from the wrong path.

On the contrary, the brightness in Fang Ting's eyes had not diminished; every time she saw Wang Yan, she always sweetly called him "Brother Yan," and would find excuses to say a few more words.

In the original drama, it was impossible to say that Fang Ting had no feelings for Chen Taotao; after all, young men and women spent day and night together, and a serious man is the most charming. Moreover, Chen Taotao was indeed a high-quality man, and it was normal for someone like Fang Ting, who was inexperienced in the world, to have some feelings. It was just that now, with Wang Yan, who was stronger, in front, it seemed that Chen Taotao had no chance.

Especially when the three of them had tea together last time, Wang Yan led the direction of the conversation the whole time, suppressing Chen Taotao completely. Of course, it was for two reasons: on one hand, he, Wang Mou, was indeed a master of chatting and idle talk, and on the other hand, he, Wang Mou, was the Long Teng big brother, the thug leader who controlled Sha Tin. No matter how conceited Chen Taotao was, he wouldn't dare to find trouble with a thug leader.

Then, one has to mention his dressing problem again: wide half-sleeves, big shorts, and cloth shoes. For Hong Kong, which was at the forefront of fashion, even old men wouldn't bother to wear this set of equipment. In the eyes of ordinary people, Wang Yan was trash. But in the eyes of those who knew Wang Yan's identity, such as Fang Ting, that was low-key and true character. But to be honest, his outfit wasn't much better than Fang Zhanbo's before, so why wasn't Fang Zhanbo true character? Everyone has that cheap disease, accustomed to double standards.

After strolling around and returning, Wang Yan read a book while listening to Ruan Mei's nagging, and after washing up, hmm-ah-hey, another day ended...

Ruan Mei's illness could be considered half-healed now, but TCM is inherently slow work for fine results. Although Wang Yan's level was very high, he still had to respect the disease. He could cure minor illnesses with medicine, but difficult and miscellaneous diseases had to be handled slowly. Ruan Mei's was heart disease, and if she wanted to recover completely like an ordinary person, it would take at least a year or a year and a half. Although Wang Yan had said a year or a year and a half before treating the illness, the condition was uncontrollable and changed in real-time, so exceeding the expected time was also normal.

The next day, the sun was bright, Wang Yan gently took off Ruan Mei, who was not honest while sleeping and was clinging to him, got up, tidied up, and went to climb high to act cool alone as usual.

After a warm breakfast, he had his subordinates escort Ruan Mei to school, and Wang Yan also strolled to the clinic near the public housing, where the queue had already been arranged, and began a new day of saving lives and healing the wounded... ===== CHAPTER 248 =====