Chapter 438: Grand Finale (Part 1): End of the Wu Sansheng Era

Everyone's positions were messed up. The positions of those people that Panzi had arranged for me had all been thrown into chaos during the sudden change just now. I was holding the ledger and had already started the motion of throwing it, but I forcibly stopped myself mid-motion and instead slammed it hard onto the table with a backhand.

Xiao Hua glanced at me, and his expression changed—he knew things had gone wrong.

Because, with this pause in action, earlier I had pretended to be in an extremely bad mood, not speaking, then hit Panzi, threw the ledger, and immediately left—others would think I wasn't speaking because I was extremely depressed.

But now I stood up and slammed a ledger on the table—generally speaking, that was a prelude to speaking. If I still didn't speak after that, others would immediately sense something was off.

What to do, what to do? My mind suddenly went blank. Looking at those people below staring at me expectantly, waiting for me to say something, I could only force myself to stay silent, thinking maybe I should leave immediately—there might still be a chance, and others would think I suddenly had a stomachache.

Just at the moment when I was about to be exposed and everything collapse, driven almost by the inertia of anxiety, I suddenly roared out a sentence: "Not one of you is any good! All of you, get the hell out!"

I forced this out by straining my throat, and my voice was extremely hoarse and unpleasant—it hardly sounded human.

Everyone stared at me, dumbfounded. Xiao Hua was also dumbfounded, clearly not knowing what to say in this situation.

The whole scene was silent for a long time, the atmosphere extremely awkward. Only then did Xiao Hua barely manage to speak: "Didn't you hear what Third Master said? Do you want Third Master to say it again?"

These people looked at each other and began to stir, clearly finding it very strange, but they still prepared to leave.

In my heart, I really wanted to slap myself. I thought, it's no good after all—I messed up. After preparing for so long, I still messed up. I'm really a fucking waste.

Just then, from outside the window came a series of car horns—at least a dozen cars suddenly honking all at once.

That fishmonger suddenly laughed, stopped in his tracks, and said to me: "Third Master, Old Qiu is here."

Xiao Hua went to the window, hooked the curtain, and looked down. Then he gave the fishmonger a cold glance and lowered his head to whisper in my ear: "Not good, prepare to leave. Downstairs are all Wang Baqiu's men."

The fishmonger continued to the others: "Everyone, if you don't want to stay with Third Master, leave now, and we can still do business later. If you want to stay with Third Master, by all means stay and watch the show that's coming." Then he turned to me: "Third Master, it's not that I'm criticizing you, but you should have kept a few more dogs like Panzi. Now that one is dead, you have no one to watch the house. So now, do you have anything to say? Feel free to speak—we won't mind if it's unpleasant."

The others exchanged glances, and immediately some subordinates came in from outside and whispered in their ears. Soon, everyone began to leave. Clearly they had all received the news. In an instant, only Lao Liu and that middle-aged woman were left in the room facing us.

Xiao Hua was calm nonetheless, and said: "Lao Liu, you've got some nerve! Dare to pull something like this in front of so many colleagues."

"In this line of work, it's all for money. They have no loyalty to Third Master," the fishmonger said. "I know very well what Third Master's current situation is. To end up in such a state, you can only blame your own miscalculation. If a big fire breaks out in this teahouse today, an era will pass. Tomorrow these people will still call me brother, and no one will mention what happened today. Do you believe that?"

"You didn't let me leave, so you want to take me out too?" Xiao Hua laughed.

"I didn't intend to, but you haven't settled Old Mrs. Huo's matter yourself yet! If something happens to you, don't say the Huo family isn't happy. But don't worry, I'll send Miss Xiuxiu back to the Huo family."

Xiao Hua's expression changed. Xiuxiu said in surprise: "Lao Liu, have my two brothers said something to you?"

"You can go back and ask them yourself," the fishmonger said. "But think about it—where would we get such guts? Playing with knives isn't our specialty, but your Huo family has its talents."

Xiao Hua and I exchanged a glance, feeling extremely surprised. I really hadn't expected that there was such a scheme behind the scenes.

It seemed that Xiuxiu's two brothers were no pushovers either—they had actually colluded with Wang Baqiu to swallow up Third Uncle's territory, and maybe even Xiao Hua's territory too.

"Then what makes you think I'll give in?" Xiao Hua sighed, his face turning dark, losing the playful expression he had been wearing.

"What makes you think you won't give in? Master Hua, you don't have Second Master's skills back in the day. Outside are all our people—they'll be up here in half a minute at most. Calling the police won't help you now."

"Is having to fight the only way to be capable?" Xiao Hua said. "Do you really think you can kill Third Master?"

The fishmonger sneered at Xiao Hua: "Don't tell me at this point you can still fly away?"

"Even if you kill all of us, you can't kill Third Master," Xiao Hua laughed.

"What do you mean?"

"Because Third Master isn't here at all," Xiao Hua said.

I didn't know what Xiao Hua was planning, but I immediately realized we had to take a risk. Things had become extremely unfavorable for us.

Xiao Hua turned to me: "Darling, use your own voice to say hello to Sixth Master." I cleared my throat and said in my own voice: "Sixth Master, my apologies for just now. The performance wasn't good—don't mind it."

The fishmonger and that middle-aged woman's faces instantly turned pale: "You are? That voice is—?"

"I am just a little performer under Master Hua," I said.

Xiao Hua said: "The old Nine Gates left behind many skills—how could you bumpkins understand them?"

From outside came the sound of Wang Baqiu leading people up the stairs, and the hair on my back stood on end.

"Impossible, how can you sound so alike?" The fishmonger shook his head.

"Still don't believe me? Then let them see for themselves," Xiao Hua said.

I thought, am I supposed to tear off the mask? But then I realized that wouldn't be easy, and letting them discover I'm Wu Xie wouldn't be good either. So, steeling myself, I took off my jacket.

My build is very different from Third Uncle's. He's been out all year, dark and tough, and there's a big age gap between us, so it's easy to tell. Once I took off my shirt, the fishmonger's face turned even uglier.

"Then where is the real Third Master?" the middle-aged woman asked, her face cold.

"Now that Wang Baqiu has mobilized all his men, is anyone watching your nest?" Xiao Hua said. "You know what kind of person Third Master is. You've been so ruthless these past few months—do you really think he'd come looking for your account books in peace?"

Just as he was speaking, the fishmonger's phone suddenly rang. He picked it up immediately, probably receiving a text message. As he read it, his face went from pale to livid. He said to the middle-aged woman, "Damn it! It's true—Third Master has brought people to our shop! Let's go!"

"And what about them?" the middle-aged woman asked, pointing at us.

"If Third Master doesn't die, killing them is useless," the fishmonger stomped his foot. "I knew it wouldn't be so easy!" With that, he and his men rushed out.

Within moments, they must have run into Wang Baqiu in the hallway, because we heard the fishmonger yell, "We've been tricked! This Third Master is fake—the real one is at my shop!"

"What?" Wang Baqiu shouted. "What's going on?"

"I told you that old fox wouldn't be that easy to handle—we've been outsmarted!" the fishmonger almost roared, his voice as shrill as a eunuch's.

"Go! Let's head back!" Wang Baqiu yelled, and then all of them rushed back down.

Xiao Hua grinned, looked out through the curtain, and listened as the clamor faded downstairs. The cars started up again.

Only after the sounds died away did I almost collapse, sitting on the floor and feeling cold sweat burst out all over me. All the tension from before surged out through my pores.

Xiao Hua seemed relieved too. He pulled me up off the floor in one motion and said, "That was close. Let's go quickly."

"What just happened?" I asked.

"With masks like these, if there's one, there can be another." Xiao Hua motioned for me to keep quiet and showed me his phone. "We members of the Xie family never leave loose ends."

"What do you mean?" I mouthed.

"I'll explain on the way," he said. "There's still a lot to do." Xiuxiu smiled and handed me a final cup of tea. I downed it in one gulp, then lifted the curtain and walked out, quickly heading downstairs.

Most of the people outside were already gone, only a few of the big shots' underlings were still gathered in clusters. Ignoring everyone, I strode toward the car when I suddenly noticed someone still standing among the crowd.

It was the young woman, standing behind the crowd, staring coldly at me.

Cold sweat broke out on the back of my head again. I didn't know how to react, thinking to myself, Could there be overtime? Then I saw her watch me for a moment before turning and walking away.

I took a deep breath. Xiao Hua had already pushed me to the car and made me get inside.

The car started. As we passed the young woman by the window, I watched her figure and felt that she might become a big problem. But I didn't have the energy to think about it—exhaustion crashed over me like a wave.