Chapter 43: Master Hu, hurry and flee!

Green Gang headquarters, the lights dim.

"Chief Hu!" Bai Zishan Chen Wei rushed into the inner hall, face ashen, "Something big has happened!"

Cheng Hu was drinking to drown his sorrows, the cigarette‑burn scar on his face still clearly visible: "What's the matter? You're panicking!"

"The... Japanese consulate was burned by Lin Yu!" Chen Wei's voice trembled, "Not a soul inside left alive!"

"What?!" Cheng Hu's cup in his hand slammed to the floor.

"Not just that," Chen Wei continued, "This afternoon he also wiped out the Japanese gendarmerie—over a thousand men, the whole force annihilated!"

Cheng Hu's face turned deathly pale in an instant.

"Chief Hu," Chen Wei lowered his voice, "Do you still remember that day at the banquet... you and him..."

Cheng Hu instinctively touched the scar on his face. How could he forget the humiliation of that day? Back then he was furious and even issued a jianghu kill order, proclaiming that he would have Lin Yu's head within three days.

But now...

"This madman!" Cheng Hu gritted his teeth, "He dares to burn the Japanese consulate—what won't he dare?"

"Exactly!" Chen Wei urged, "Chief Hu, you previously issued a jianghu kill order for Lin Yu's head..."

Cheng Hu jumped to his feet and began pacing: "It's over, over! This time we're really done!"

"Chief Hu..."

"Pack up the essentials, leave now!" Cheng Hu grabbed Chen Wei's collar, "This madman will do anything! If he comes after us, the Green Gang is finished!"

"But the headquarters..."

"Headquarters?" Cheng Hu sneered, "You didn't see? He dares to burn the Japanese consulate—what's our little property worth?"

He hurried to the inner room: "Go, immediately notify the subordinate halls, recall the order! Immediately withdraw that jianghu kill order! Withdraw whatever can be withdrawn! Hide whatever can be hidden!"

"This..."

"Hurry up!" Cheng Hu roared, "Any later and it'll be too late! This madman might show up and kill us at any moment!"

Watching Cheng Hu's panicked state, Chen Wei couldn't help recalling the scene at that banquet. That young bureau chief really would dare to do anything!

And yet they actually wanted his life? That's just courting death!

The Green Gang headquarters was in utter chaos.

"Quick! Quick, pack up the stuff!"

"The important ledgers have all been burned!"

"Is Chief Hu's car ready?"

Just then, orderly footsteps suddenly came from outside.

"What's going on?" Chen Wei ran to the window and took a look, his soul fleeing his body.

Only to see a dark mass of people already surrounding the entire headquarters. Two hundred gendarmerie soldiers wielding Lee-Enfield rifles, fifty special duty team members holding Winchester shotguns, encircling the headquarters.

"We're done..." Chen Wei collapsed to the ground.

Cheng Hu rushed to the window, seeing Lin Yu standing at the front of the troops, toying with a Colt revolver in his hand. His eyes were icy, a cold smile curling his lips.

"Quick! Go negotiate!" Cheng Hu's voice trembled, "Just say we've withdrawn the jianghu order!"

A dozen or so Green Gang disciples steeled themselves and walked out the main gate.

"Lin... Bureau Chief Lin," the leader forced calm, "Let's talk, our Chief Hu has already..."

"Kill!"

Lin Yu uttered only one word.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The orderly rifle fire rang out.

A dozen or so Green Gang disciples hadn't even finished a complete sentence before they were shot full of holes. Blood spattered, corpses lay sprawled every which way on the ground.

"Charge in! Leave none alive!" Lin Yu coldly ordered.

"Yes!"

Gendarmerie soldiers charged into the headquarters with rifles, the elite of the special duty brigade close behind. At close range, the Winchester shotgun's power was astonishing—one blast could knock down several people.

Gunfire erupted, screams came one after another.

Inside the Green Gang headquarters, it had thoroughly become a hell on earth......

The smell of blood was thick enough to make one nauseous.

Dozens of corpses lay sprawled on the floor, blood pooling into a stream that wound its way through the floorboards' cracks. Walls, pillars, even the ceiling were splattered with blood.

The surviving gang members huddled in the hall's corners, heads in their hands, trembling.

They had personally witnessed the massacre just now; every brother who tried to resist was shot full of holes without exception.

"Drag him over to me." Lin Yu said flatly.

Two gendarmes dragged Cheng Hu before Lin Yu. This former overlord of the French Concession, the Green Gang boss, was now a sorry sight—tattered clothes, covered in blood.

Cheng Hu knelt on the ground, yet he kept his head high, staring fixedly at Lin Yu.

"I heard," Lin Yu lit a cigarette leisurely, "you issued a jianghu kill order for my head?"

Cheng Hu clenched his teeth, saying nothing.

"Last time at the banquet," Lin Yu took a deep drag, "I already told you, the French Concession has only one rule—the Fourth Bureau's rule."

He crouched down, eye-level with Cheng Hu: "But you not only didn't listen, you even wanted my life?"

Cheng Hu remained silent, only his eyes showing an unyielding stubbornness.

"Tsk," Lin Yu shook his head, "still pretty tough."

Saying that, he pressed the cigarette butt from his hand hard onto the other side of Cheng Hu's face again.

"Hiss!"

The smell of scorched skin and flesh spread out.

Cheng Hu trembled all over, yet he didn't utter a sound, only the hatred in his eyes grew deeper.

"Now you have two scars on your face," Lin Yu stood up, looking down at Cheng Hu, "one on the left, one on the right—quite symmetrical."

The gang members in the corner watched this scene, so frightened they didn't dare breathe. They finally understood why Lin Yu, who dared burn even the Foreigners' consulate, was called a "madman."

This man simply doesn't play by common sense!

"You madman!" Cheng Hu finally couldn't help but roar, "You don't follow any rules at all! You provoke anyone! You even dare burn the Foreigners' consulate! A madman like you will surely die without a burial place!"

"Hahaha!" Lin Yu laughed loudly, "That's right, I am a madman. But do you know why I can be this madman?"

He bent down, staring at Cheng Hu: "Because I have this strength. Rules? Rules are meant to be broken. I, Lin Yu, will do whatever I want—do you have a problem with that?"

Cheng Hu glared at Lin Yu with eyes full of venomous hatred.

"That look of yours," Lin Yu suddenly turned cold, "I really don't like it."

He stood up, his voice icy: "Dig out his eyes."

"No! Don't!" Cheng Hu struggled in terror.

But the two gendarmes had already pinned him down.

A shrill scream echoed throughout the hall.

The gang members in the corner trembled with fear, some even fainted outright.

"Now," Lin Yu looked at Cheng Hu, already limp on the ground, "break his limbs."

Another sound of bones breaking accompanied the shrill scream.

"From today on," Lin Yu looked down at the bloody, mangled Cheng Hu, "you will beg for a living on Xiafei Road. Dare step off Xiafei Road, and I'll have someone chop you up!"

Cheng Hu could no longer speak, only able to emit painful groans.

This former Green Gang overlord who once dominated the French Concession will henceforth become a blind, crippled beggar on Xiafei Road, forever living in fear.

This is the price of offending Lin Yu!