Chapter 421: 423. Chapter 417: Fierce Battle

423. Chapter 417: Fierce Battle

Everyone cherishes time, but time is also the most helpless thing of all.

It won't treat you more gently, or move more slowly beside you, just because you cherish it.

Whether you cherish it or ignore it, your time and everyone else's is the same.

Or rather, the process by which matter acts upon you is the same.

It's even possible that cherishing time makes your life more exhausting.

But then again, who can fully explain such things?

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

After finishing lunch at noon, Sarifu went to the cemetery — they had a family cemetery where all their relatives were buried.

Several new tombstones had been added this year; they stood quietly in place, showing no signs of decay, nor any heavy air of sorrow.

By chance, he noticed a fallen yellow leaf in the grass on the ground. When he looked up at the trees above, he realized that, although it was still summer, some of the leaves on the trees had already begun to yellow.

No matter how fiercely the sun blazes down on this world, it cannot stop the arrival of autumn.

Those lives that once bloomed defiantly against the scorching sun of midsummer must finally meet their end, just like the people lying here.

They may each have had their own glories, joys, angers, and sorrows, but when everything comes to an end, they are all the same — whether you were once outstanding or mediocre.

A killing intent hidden in the wind, along with some stirring of the spirit, swept across the world.

He patted the nearest tombstone, then turned and strode toward the outside. Today, he would bring closure for the relatives who had died this year.

He would make Rick understand that the stupidest thing he had ever done was to lay a hand on him!

He got into his car and headed toward the city center, while his subordinates also got into their cars one after another and began to move according to the established plan.

More than ten kilometers away on the other side, Rick stood by the window smoking a fine cigar. On the open grounds of the estate before him, over a dozen cars were parked, along with a large group of gunmen who had just arrived, chatting in clusters of three or five.

Once Sarifu was taken out, the Tita family would be like a cripple with broken legs, unable to hop around anymore.

Then, after dealing with a few others, he and the Keda family would become one of the dual emperors of Jingang City!

A scene he couldn't even fantasize about for all these years might actually come true — an inexpressible exhilaration filled his heart.

He held the thick cigar, savoring the taste of burning money.

Every fine cigar is rolled from money — each puff might cost a few cents, a dozen or more, or even more.

Gusts of wind blew by, mild and gentle. He glanced at the time, made a gesture, and the gunmen all climbed into their cars.

He looked down at the scene from above, like an Emperor about to ascend the throne, inspecting his soldiers.

It was time to bring all this to a conclusion.

"Are you scared?"

In the Pasleituo family estate, Alberto looked at Francisco. The sixteen-year-old boy shook his head. "No, I'm not scared."

If his voice hadn't been trembling, his words would have been considerably more convincing.

He was afraid — and actually, being afraid was quite normal, because this wasn't a game; it was a battle.

In battle, people die — either the enemy or your own.

Every life deserves respect, no matter whose side they're on, and what battle does is take away what others hold most precious.

Alberto stuffed the cigarette he had just lit into Francisco's mouth. "You'll get used to it."

He opened the car door. Today they weren't needed, but they would still go to the scene to watch Rick meet his end.

Francisco took a deep drag of the cigarette; his lungs felt a little ticklish. After exhaling the smoke, he coughed twice — he wasn't quite used to the strong cigarettes Alberto had given him.

But he didn't toss it away. Holding the cigarette, he climbed into the car. Behind them, the people by the seven or eight cars also climbed in.

Sitting in the car, Francisco felt his blood beginning to burn. There was a very peculiar sensation he couldn't describe — in short, his emotions were running very high right now.

"Do we go straight there, or together with Uncle Lans?"

"Cisco, in this world, anyone can have a day when they can't be relied upon — including me. In the end, the only one you can depend on, the only one who can help you, is yourself."

Alberto patted the driver's seat, and the driver started the car.

Lans's afternoon nap was interrupted by an alarm. He rubbed his face.

Summer afternoons made one especially drowsy, and he was still at an age where he was growing. Half-asleep, he began to nod off and made do with a nap on the sofa.

Once he took over Mr. Qiaobafu's bank, he would arrange a rest room in his office so he could lie down for a while whenever he needed to rest.

"Is everyone ready?"

He reached out and took a glass of iced orange juice from Erwin's hand, and took a sip.

The sweet-and-sour taste combined with the full icy coolness woke him up considerably in an instant.

Wait — not just the chill; there was also mint leaves or something like that added in. When he breathed, the air passing through his windpipe was cool.

"The young men are all ready."

Lans took two more sips, set it back on the table, braced his legs and stood up, twisted his neck until it went crack-crack-crack, and said, "Then let's set off!"

In his heart, he added another line: to sound the horn of extinction for the five great families!

At 2:50, Bandi sat at an outdoor café table on the third-floor terrace. He was the only table on the entire terrace, and the only person there.

He was smoking, pondering over some matters.

Accompanied by the sound of footsteps, he looked toward the door — it was Sarifu.

He stood up, took a last drag of his cigarette, tossed the butt on the ground and stubbed it out, then walked forward with a smile, two steps to meet him. He extended his hand, shook hands with Sarifu, and they even embraced each other.

"Thank you for coming," Bandi said, inviting him to sit. "Rick should be here any moment. The reason I've arranged for you two to meet again today is to put an end to the miserable situation in Jingang City as soon as possible."

"Sarifu, you're a smart man — you must understand that the situation we're in now is actually not good."

This was a very "binding" statement: if you "didn't understand," it meant you weren't a smart person. Most people weren't willing to admit they weren't smart, so they could only go along with what he said.

But clearly, Sarifu had no intention of accepting this framing. "I don't want to know what the situation is right now, and I don't want to care too much about it. I just want to know when I can avenge my family."

Bandi frowned slightly. "You've already killed his son — that should make us even."

"I'll say it one more time — I didn't do it!"

As he spoke, Rick also walked in from outside. He glanced sideways at Sarifu. "What didn't you do?"

Sarifu said directly, "Your son — I didn't kill him!"

"This matter was handled by Alberto and Lans, so we haven't evened the score."

Rick didn't even sit down before slamming the table and leaning forward to stare at him. The coffee on the table was shaken by the impact, splashing out. "Don't fucking play the innocent. You're all in it together. I don't care who actually pulled the trigger — you're all responsible."

Sarifu immediately started shouting back, "My cousin is dead too, my younger cousin is dead too, my… why the hell don't you mention that?"

Watching the two start arguing again, Bandy frowned, his head aching. He slapped the table and said loudly in a voice that pressed them both down, "I didn't invite you here today to argue — I invited you to solve the problem!"

"Both of you, sit back down!"

The two glared viciously at each other, but in the end they sat back down.

Although they were all among the Five Great Families, there were still strong and weak among the Five Great Families.

A family like the Kodak Family, which had already begun laundering its money through profits channeled from casinos, was clearly a step above the others.

They were the ones who had truly achieved "full coverage" — both the gang business and the federal government.

When he spoke, those two still had to show some consideration.

In truth, whether it was Rick, Sarifu, Fegal, or Paul, none of them had ever thought about doing anything against the Kodak Family, because they were too strong.

The gangs of this era were indeed very strong — in some regions they could even sit as equals with the federal government in setting social rules.

But a gang is still just a gang. It has a ceiling. Until a gang emerges with a scale equal to that of a nation, as long as things keep escalating, it will be the gang that ultimately loses.

Among the Five Great Families of Jingang, the Kodak Family possessed the power to keep escalating problems and then resolve them.

Watching the two sit back down, a somewhat reserved smile appeared on his face. "We can have a proper talk…"

In fact, this talk didn't last long, because apart from cursing each other and demanding impossible things, they had never once tried to make any real effort toward negotiation!

Their gunmen were right outside, just waiting for the other side to step out of the hotel and be turned into a sieve.

In ten minutes, maybe twenty, the person across from them would be dead — why bother talking to them?

Bandy couldn't be bothered to keep mediating. He declared the negotiation a failure and left first.

He didn't want to get himself splashed with blood — after all, they were old friends of many years.

Once Bandy closed the car door after sitting inside, he said softly, "Faster. Get away from this area as quickly as possible."

"Yes, Mr.," the driver replied, and as he started the car there was a noticeable push-back sensation.

In truth, these old gentlemen didn't care for the push-back feeling. When speed wasn't the goal, the push-back only made them uncomfortable.

Like an elevator.

He didn't know why, but as the car pulled away Bandy kept looking at both sides of the street. He felt something was off about it today.

The strange thing was that the cars parked on both sides of the road all had people sitting inside. These people were essentially silent — neither talking nor moving about, just sitting there.

Some of them even looked his way, and the coldness in their eyes made him shiver even in the middle of this hot summer.

Were these gunmen Rick had brought in?

He could only think that. He wouldn't have guessed that Sarifu had also arranged people, let alone that Alberto and Lans had both arranged people too — all to finish Rick off once and for all today.

"Should we follow them?"

Elvin asked from the passenger seat.

If they were to follow, he only needed a gesture and a car would tail them. Lans shook his head. "Today's target isn't him."

Only then did Elvin's gaze leave that car. Just as he was watching it, Bandy seemed to sense that gaze too.

He saw the young man in the passenger seat looking at him, and faintly made out another person sitting in the back seat, though not very clearly.

There was no respect, no fear, or any similar emotion in this person's eyes toward him. Instead, there was a look — like one regarding prey — that made him uncomfortable.

He began to suspect whether these people were really Rick's gunmen, or… whether they actually belonged to someone else.

The thought made his heart jump. A chill crawled up his spine along his buttock crease, and with every inch it climbed, another layer of goosebumps rose. He shivered once more!

He also pulled his gaze away from those people. At this point he could have easily stopped, walked into a roadside phone booth, made a call, and told Rick that the situation might be taking an unexpected turn.

But for some reason, instead of stopping, he told the driver to keep speeding up. "A little faster."

Only as he got farther from that place did the uneasy feeling gradually fade.

He kept looking back, feeling as if that street had turned into the mouth of some monster, ready to swallow everything there whole!

Meanwhile, the two furious men also walked out of the hotel. Each went to the ramp on his own side of the building, where their cars were waiting.

Neither of them got into the car right away. They stood by the doors, looking at each other.

Separated by some twenty meters, their gazes met in the air. In each other's eyes they both saw something very familiar — exactly what they were showing on their faces.

Contempt, mockery, the look of someone waiting to watch a good show…

Fucking lunatics!

Both turned and got into their cars. Sarifu lit a cigarette, while Rick took out a half-smoked cigar from the cabinet inside the car.

The car trembled slightly and began to move.

He held the lighter to the cigar for a while before taking a puff.

After today, the power structure of Jingang was about to change dramatically!

A faint smile appeared on Rick's face. Let this bastard go meet God!

Just as he was fantasizing about ruling the whole city, a car suddenly pulled up alongside him. He frowned at it.

He didn't like this — driving side by side with someone. Who the hell did they think they were, pulling alongside him?

But the next second, the other side pulled out a submachine gun and pulled the trigger on him.

He instinctively ducked, but the rat-a-tat of bullets hitting the glass snapped him back — this car was bulletproof!

But his front and rear cars weren't so lucky. Armored vehicles weren't cheap; he couldn't afford one for every one of his men.

The bodyguards escorting him were quickly riddled with bullets like a hornet's nest, and their cars lost control and crashed into the houses by the road.

The instant the gunfire rang out, the entire street was filled with screaming people, bullets flying everywhere, and the glass display cases along the road kept being riddled with bullet holes and shattering as a result.

Those shopkeepers were on the phone calling the police, praying the cops would come quickly—at the very least, not wait until everything had been ruined beyond repair before showing up.

Sallyforth straightened up in a rather disheveled state, his face flushed red!

Partly from anger, partly from embarrassment—he had forgotten his car was bulletproof, so much so that he had just thrown himself to the ground in a very sorry state. He hoped the driver hadn't seen, otherwise he'd have to replace the driver.

Only now, clearly, he didn't have that much mind to spare for this matter. The cars escorting him front and back had already vanished, and the only thing he could do now was find support as quickly as possible!

Bulletproof glass is indeed bulletproof, but not bulletproof without limit—it has a tolerance threshold too!

Moreover, these gunmen were clearly all veterans; they kept using the brief moment of impact to strike the bulletproof glass—which was already covered in cracks—with baseball bats or whatever else they had.

Seeing it deeply caved in and starting to shed glass fragments, Rick hurriedly shouted, "Quick, quick, turn around, go after Sallyforth—our people are over there!"

The driver realized this too, and wrenched the steering wheel hard as he passed through the intersection.

At the same time, Sallyforth was suffering the same attack—bullets pinged and clattered against his car. Those gunmen from Yalan really weren't afraid of dying, one after another.

They kept ramming their cars into Sallyforth's, trying to force him to a stop. The entire street had already turned into utter chaos.

Sallyforth's bodyguards also began stopping their cars to exchange fire with these gunmen, and the whole street instantly descended into chaos!

When Lans saw this scene, he felt it was both somewhat unexpected, and yet entirely within reason.

A glint flickered in his eyes—he was clearly planning something.

Without his order, none of his people made a move.

Seeing that Lans's people hadn't moved, Alberto also didn't have his men act.

The street grew more and more chaotic, and traffic order had completely fallen apart.

Even some passing drivers were hit, their cars sprawled every which way, blocking the entire street.

Both sides had also become aware of each other's "presence," and the scope of the firefight grew even larger!

"Take care of Rick first—his threat to us is still too great."

After a while, Lans made his decision. Erwin stuck his arm out the car window and waved toward where Rick was. In an instant, the doors of more than a dozen cars on both sides of the road were flung open, and a large group of armed gang members poured out, charging after Rick's car.

Alberto's men also began to move. With so many people, even though some of the gunmen had already returned to support Rick, they probably wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer.

The entire street became extraordinarily lively, the crackle of gunfire echoing through the whole city center!