Chapter 416

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

Yin Senjin stroked his beard as if looking at a dead man, faintly positioning himself to Chen Yi's side. That way, whether someone attacked Chen Yi from behind or from the front, they would expose their ribs to him.

"Who are you?" The man in the black leather jacket wasn't completely stupid; Yin Senjin's movements let him see a hint of something, and he thought in his heart that perhaps it was a retired special forces soldier or the like.

Yin Senjin slowly took out a piece of konjac to eat, clearly not taking the few people in his sight.

"I am Hua Zhen's Ao Long, brother. If you're from the underworld, report your name. When the chopping starts later, don't blame the blade for not having eyes." As he spoke, Ao Long in the black leather jacket drew a long machete from behind him, its special chrome plating reflecting a strange silver under the lights.

Chen Yi exhaled and took out his mobile phone to start dialing.

"You little bastard are courting death." Ao Long couldn't hold back, thinking: Even if you have a special forces bodyguard, I'll sacrifice two people and still finish you off.

He waved his knife, and naturally some young upstart rushed forward to slash at Yin Senjin. Everyone who knows how to fight knows to strike first; if you're going to chop, chop the fiercest one.

Thus Yin Senjin saw two blades wobbling toward his face, slow as a swing about to stop.

Yin Senjin stroked his beard and smiled.

Chen Yi simply turned his back, called Kong Qian, and said: "I have a few people here claiming to be from the underworld, from Hua Zhen Records Company, Hong Kong. See if you can check them out."

"Ten minutes. Where are you? I'll come right over."

"Parking lot, the one on Dang Zhong Street."

Chen Yi hung up the phone and turned around. Ao Long's two horse aides were already finished.

"You seem to have used a bit too much force." Chen Yi could see without bending over that the two who drew their knives first—one had his neck twisted to 90 degrees, the other his calf twisted to 90 degrees. In other words, Yin Senjin had killed one and crippled one.

"Too much?" Yin Senjin couldn't understand instead.

"My fault, forgot to remind you. It's fine, counts as his bad luck. Hmm, generally speaking, we don't kill people." Chen Yi had not a shred of mercy. As the saying goes, "A prodigal son's return is worth a thousand gold," which shows how rare it is for a prodigal to turn back. Killing a hoodlum has only a one-in-a-thousand chance of killing a reformed prodigal, and a 999-in-a-thousand chance of killing a lifelong hoodlum, saving dozens or hundreds of families.

"Don't kill people casually from now on." Yin Senjin stroked his own beard and guaranteed it, inwardly admiring his master's good temper. For a commoner attacking a divine art knight, exterminating the whole family was a normal punishment; according to different city-states there were different systems. Killing outright counted as a very light punishment.

The two men's conversation made Ao Long start stepping back.

They still had four people. Analyzing from the logic of normal people, they seemed to still have a fighting chance—when facing someone who wasn't a lunatic. The black jacket calling himself Ao Long had just made a name for himself in Jiangning and felt he couldn't just leave like this, especially with his men dead. He held his last courage and said: "Brothers, report your names. Today's matter, let our boss talk."

Chen Yi didn't answer, instead asking back: "How do you know we're investigating Hua Zhen?"

"Just those few brats of yours? Asking around at office buildings..." The black jacket still wanted to mock them properly, but under Yin Senjin's tiger-eyed stare, his voice grew lower and lower. He said: "I pumped them for information and found out they were all from Chen Family Martial Arts Hall. People in the underworld all say Chen Family Martial Arts Hall is run by Chen Yi, so I came."

"People in the underworld must hate you, right?"

"How could that be? I was born with leadership spirit." The black jacket laughed very awkwardly.

Chen Yi shook his head, extremely dissatisfied with the Archive Research Room's level, and called Su Yuanchun, speaking kindly: "Did your people find anything?"

"They did." Su Yuanchun was the number one person in the Archive Room. All intelligence about the martial arts hall was summarized and organized in his hands. After searching quickly with his hands and feet, he replied: "Hua Zhen Company is not a purely Hong Kong company. It was established with 50% domestic capital and 50% Hong Kong capital. The legal representative seems to never be at the company. It's said they've signed quite a few celebrities, but there's not much work..."

"That's all?"

"That... is."

"Do you know that Hua Zhen's enforcers have already come to kill me?" By this sentence, Chen Yi's tone was no longer so gentle.

Su Yuanchun let out an "ah," and then a crackling scolding came into his ear: "How do you train your subordinates? When investigating others, don't you know to guard against being investigated yourself? And those things you found, can't they be simpler? If you dare move the receiver farther away again, I'll go back... and cut you."

Su Yuanchun wanted to die but still didn't understand how Chen Yi knew he had moved the receiver away, so he could only press his ear tightly against the receiver like a thunderclap, at a loss.

Ao Long and his men all lowered their heads, as if they were the ones being scolded.

After a while, Chen Yi hung up the phone. The black jacket and the others had already retreated to the edge of the parking lot.

"Bring them back."

Yin Senjin nodded, kicked off the ground, and flew out like Superman.

The black jacket and the other four shouted and ran wildly in four different directions, just as they had discussed beforehand.

Human speed cannot escape a divine art knight's pursuit. Yin Senjin only used three seconds to complete two shuttle runs, caught his breath, then another three seconds for two more shuttle runs. Finally, he stacked the four people together, hoisted them onto his shoulder, carried them back in front of Chen Yi, and smiled proudly: "All alive."

Capturing people alive at this speed was truly not easy. It was like when cavalry charged, their drawn sabers were blunt, to use the horse's speed to injure the enemy while avoiding blade shattering. The bearded man's speed was much faster than a horse. When he reached out his hand, that arm was as dangerous as a speeding car, easily smashing seventy yards. Under these circumstances, capturing alive required complete mastery over strength.

Chen Yi laughed heartily and nodded, asking the black jacket: "Who told you to cause trouble for me?"

"That... the office." Ao Long lowered his head, revealing his true colors.

"Which office?"

"The General Manager's secretary. My rank isn't high enough. Surname Zhou."

Chen Yi continued asking: "Who is the General Manager?"

"Mr. Hua, a Hong Konger."

"And the boss?"

Ao Long was pressed at the bottom, huffing and puffing as he said: "Also surnamed Hua."

Chen Yi thought carefully. Apart from Hua-surnamed leaders who had been dead for a long time, there seemed to be no other Hua-surnamed families, and Hong Kong was also a political dead zone.

Just as he was thinking, Kong Qian arrived.

Ao Long seeing the police was like seeing a relative, tears welling up as he shouted: "Eldest Brother, Eldest Brother, save me."

"Pi Long?"

"Eldest Brother, it's me." The black jacket groaned. Anyone stacked in a human pyramid for ten or twenty minutes couldn't stand it.

Chen Yi nodded, counting it as a greeting, but asked with interest: "Aren't you Ao Long?"

"Eldest Brother—" The black jacket looked at Kong Qian.

The latter shouted sternly: "I'm asking you, what are you looking at me for?"

The black jacket then realized he had kicked an iron plate, felt a wave of regret, and said: "That... when I first debuted, I had no name. People said I was a piece of nothing. Later I brought along little brothers, and they called me Pi Long."

"Ao Long was you lying to me?"

"Not exactly. I usually give Ao Long's name, and after saying it enough times, people just remember it."

Chen Yi laughed helplessly and pursed his lips at Kong Qian: "Ask this Hua Zhen company what kind of shady business they're actually in."

Kong Qian nodded silently. Chen Yi's words amounted to a conviction; unless Hua Zhen had even stronger connections above them, they were finished regardless.

"Also..." Chen Yi lowered his voice: "My bodyguard acted in justifiable defense, and someone died."

"The one whose neck was twisted?"

"Yes."

"Did anyone go up to check his pulse or anything?" Kong Qian asked quite professionally. When he arrived, those four thugs were still piled on top of each other, and if Chen Yi's bodyguard hadn't gone to look, Chen Yi estimated he wouldn't have gone to look either.

Chen Yi knew what he was thinking and said softly: "No one went up to look."

"I understand." Kong Qian turned around and shouted loudly: "Xiao Deng, didn't you see there are two seriously injured people here? Call an ambulance to take them away."

Changing the on-the-spot death to serious injury reduced the charge of excessive defense to some extent. Kong Qian said in a low voice at this time: "Mr. Chen, your bodyguard still has to go give a statement."

"Hmm, there's a problem here."

Kong Qian extremely disliked "problems," but now he could only face the problem and said: "Please speak."

"My bodyguard has no household registration."

Kong Qian's "oh" was drawn out very long; he had encountered similar problems before. Although it wasn't easy to ask, he still had to ask: "Is he a smuggler or does he have a criminal record?"

"Sort of a smuggler."

"Which country's person?"

"Impossible to know."

"That's not good. If he doesn't state his nationality..." Kong Qian suddenly stopped. In his philosophy of being an official, not causing trouble for the leader was the top priority. Because of the nature of police work, trouble often had a criminal element, belonging to trouble among troubles. Thinking to himself, this seemed to be the first trouble Chen Yi had assigned to him, and Kong Qian decided to handle it well.

He carefully looked at Pi Long and his group, confirmed that he recognized all of them, and said softly: "Mr. Chen, why not hand the people over to me to handle?"

"Hmm?"

Kong Qian lowered his voice and said near Chen Yi's right shoulder: "I'll find someone to take the blame for this matter. Of course, we'll still proceed as justifiable defense."

"Fine. If money is needed, find Liu Xinyu." Chen Yi didn't leave his own name; otherwise, Kong Qian estimated he would have to advance his own money. There was no better bribery opportunity than this.

Chen Yi was too lazy to drive, tucked his mobile phone away, and ran home with Yin Senjin. Their speed was extremely fast; as long as they paid slight attention to the surveillance cameras and people on the street, they could appear in various shadows without any influence. This was like ambush warfare in the wild—one must try every means to appear in the sentry's blind spots. Chen Yi's reason for always avoiding provoking the Divine Temple was also this; even the West River Water Fortress with heavy equipment must avoid offending the Divine Art Knights, because on the frontline battlefield there are anti-tank missiles, but when sleeping there are none.

After returning home and washing up simply, Chen Yi checked his mobile phone. There were no missed calls and no text messages, indicating that Hua Zhen Records was not as powerful as they claimed. Perhaps their legal representative was their boss.

That would be too plain and unremarkable.

Chen Yi shook his head, called Lin Yuan, and told her: "Today a proud Ao Long person came to find me, claiming to be from Hua Zhen company. Do you know him?"

Lin Yuan was perhaps taking a bath or something, making rustling towel friction sounds on one side, and asked doubtfully: "Never heard of him. Are you sure it's Hua Zhen Records?"

"More or less. They had someone investigate them, and then they turned around and blocked me in the parking lot."

Lin Yuan exclaimed and said: "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but you'd better not go to Hong Kong recently."

"Understood." Lin Yuan laughed charmingly twice.

Chen Yi said strangely: "I thought you would..."

"Be sad? Depressed?" Lin Yuan said with a light smile: "Of course not. I hadn't even decided whether to go to Hong Kong originally. Isn't it good to know their problems aren't great?"

While the two were chatting, Kong Qian was busy looking for a scapegoat.

This wasn't a "white-cut chicken" that sends one to death, but after all it was a serious assault case, and merely his guarantee wasn't enough. Kong Qian therefore took 2 million yuan from Liu Xinyu and stuffed it all into a certain joint defense member who was driven crazy by poverty—a former joint defense member—and promised him a formal police officer position. If he wasn't sentenced, he would still be a professional with no criminal record.

That joint defense member became Chen Yi's temporary bodyguard, and the assault became a sort of indirect assault on police. Under tremendous pressure, Pi Long and the others all admitted to the matter, or changed their testimony to "couldn't see clearly."

The parking lot lights were too dark; that was also unavoidable.

In just two days, the joint defense team member didn't even have the issue of "excessive defense." He left the detention center without being prosecuted, and was even publicized as a hero—he had saved a 19-year-old young man who was about to drive away his pickup truck worth 600,000 yuan.

Colleagues who didn't know the truth were elated by this, and the joint defense team member was equally overjoyed. Earning 2 million yuan in two days, plus getting a formal establishment—could it get any better?

At the same time, Pi Long and the others continued to be detained, and Kong Qian led people to investigate Hua Zhen Records again and again, like a wolf relentlessly pressuring some nameless creature.

Chen Yi wanted to know who was behind Hua Zhen; sometimes they needed to jump out themselves.

When Hua Zhen Records couldn't operate normally, naturally someone would jump out.

It was another Friday, the democratic life meeting at Lao Zhai.

Chen Yi was listening to Fang Yu talk at length about his raw material business when Lin Yuan's call came in: "Hua Zhen wants us to go to Hong Kong today."

"Today? Tonight?"

"Yes, they said the evening flight is cheaper."

"I thought you terminated the contract with them?"

Lin Yuan said anxiously: "I came to terminate the contract. They said they were willing to terminate it, but kept finding excuses to drag it on. Until now, they demand that I board the plane to Hong Kong with them."

"Forced?"

"More or less. They're coming, what should I do?" Lin Yuan's voice was nervous, but she wasn't terribly afraid, which sounded much more reassuring.

Of course, this was just her personality, not the actual situation.

Besides Pi Long, Hua Zhen company had quite a few bodyguards. But until today, they had only heard accurate news about Pi Long. Although the joint venture company had great capital strength, its news channels in China were often not smooth.

Chen Yi really hadn't encountered such a thing. He thought for a moment and said: "Do you know the flight number?"

"NY7850. It's about to take off..." Lin Yuan hung up the phone hastily, and then someone took it away.

Chen Yi was stunned for a moment, walked back to the room, interrupted Fang Yu's long-winded speech, and said: "Do any of you know someone in civil aviation?"

A group of juniors said all sorts of things, but those they knew were mostly playboys of the same rank.

Chen Yi shook his head, called Bureau Chief Yan again, and asked him to inquire with the Civil Aviation Administration. Afterward, NY7850 had already finished boarding.

"Can we go up and arrest people?"

"International flight, a bit troublesome." Bureau Chief Yan already knew about this Hua Zhen. He waited a moment and said: "Should I have them delay takeoff?"

Chen Yi pondered for a moment and asked: "Is there any way to make them get off the plane?"

"No can do. Unless there's a bomb or something." Bureau Chief Yan cracked a small joke.

Unexpectedly, Chen Yi nodded immediately and said, "Then there's a bomb."

"Ah?"

"You arrange people to go in, get Lin Yuan out for me."

He'd already spoken of saving someone, so Bureau Chief Yan didn't dare refute further. But by the time his men were in position and silently passed the word to the airport, the plane had already taken off.

Yan Hang broke into a cold sweat, and could only report back to Chen Yi: "My men are ready, but the plane took off."

"Bomb won't work?"

"Return flight is a big hassle."

"Flying to Hong Kong is the real hassle. Get them down, I'll go to the airport to meet them." Chen Yi ignored whatever else he said, called Yin Sen Guan, and drove straight for the airport.

30 minutes later, the plane indeed landed back at Jiangning Airport.

Lin Yuan suppressed her excitement, pretending to be completely unaware. But when she saw Chen Yi, her rushing over in haste betrayed her thoughts.

Lin Yuan's body was very soft, like silk fluttering in the air. Her chest, however, was a bit firm, pressing against Chen Yi's pectorals, making one a bit restless.

"No danger encountered?"

"The plane was fine, just the bodyguards inside were a bit scary." Lin Yuan stuck out her tongue and smiled faintly: "Thank you for saving me."

Chen Yi laughed heartily.

Hua Zhen's General Manager left the apologetic airport staff aside, narrowed his eyes at Chen Yi, and asked his Secretary: "Who's that idiot laughing?"

"I'll ask." In no more than two minutes, the Secretary returned and said: "It's Chen Yi, I thought he looked familiar just now."

The General Manager nodded, walked slowly toward Chen Yi, and from three or four meters away asked: "Mr. Chen, was it you who grabbed a few of my horse aides?"

The General Manager was young, had a Hong Kong flavor, but the core of his accent was Xijing's.

"Who are you?" Yin Sen Guan asked him on Chen Yi's behalf.

"You're provoking the Hua family." The General Manager still faced Chen Yi.

"Which Hua family." Chen Yi laughed even more cheerfully. He just wanted to know who was behind Hua Zhen. At this moment, his position was a win-win — he would only gain information, not lose resources.

"The Hua family of Shaanxi." The other's pride clearly came from former high-ranking leaders.

Chen Yi's smile was extremely amiable, yet he said: "Your intel is too outdated. Is it because you've been away from the national center too long?"

"You!" The General Manager flew into a rage instantly.

But Chen Yi had already found the old residence's number and dialed it — this was a perfect chance to establish his might.

……(To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian. com) to cast Recommendation Tickets and Monthly Tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)