Chapter 1255: Disheartened
"If anything gets broken, I’ll take responsibility!"
That one line was enough; it gave the guys watching the floor in the card den enormous authority. As long as nobody got killed, none of the responsibility landed on them!
How many guys were working security in this card den? At the moment, there were more than thirty, all tall, muscular men. These guys were specifically here to watch the place; if anyone caused trouble, it was on them to handle it. As for the waiters, they would never get involved in this kind of thing.
Those thirty-plus men rushed in like a pack of hungry wolves, not giving anyone a chance to talk, throwing themselves at those eight and tangling together, four or so beating on one. The scene was downright spectacular and thrilling.
Whether they could win or not didn’t matter; this joint wasn’t getting protected today anyway!
As for Tian Ming, he was facing off against XimeiXi, the two glaring at each other, a big fight on the verge of exploding!
The gamblers who’d been watching the game all turned into spectators. To avoid getting caught in the crossfire, they all moved off to a safer spot, but no one wanted to miss this mass brawl. Some even whistled, shouting carelessly, "Fight! Fight!"
XimeiXi was a man with a bit of a legendary reputation. Word was he’d been in the army before, and after he got out, fighting ten guys by himself was nothing—his skills were top notch. If it weren’t for that, he’d never have made it to floor manager of the card den.
Finally, under everyone’s watchful eyes, XimeiXi grabbed a chair in one hand and charged at Tian Ming, putting on a fierce front as he swung the chair half a circle in the air and brought it down toward Tian Ming’s head!
The people around were fired up; they were finally going to see XimeiXi go all out.
Tian Ming stood where he was, face solemn, like he’d been stunned stupid.
At last, the chair came down toward Tian Ming’s head. That was when he moved. Tian Ming stepped in with a movement as lithe as a swimming dragon, hands like claws, one grabbing XimeiXi’s wrist and the other his shoulder. His body shifted to the side, both hands yanking hard.
He threw XimeiXi, chair and all, straight onto the floor!
A beautiful shoulder throw!
Everything happened too fast; the spectators were dumbfounded. This result was nothing like what they’d imagined—this was a slap in the face!
XimeiXi lay on the cold floor, feeling like his whole body had fallen apart; even his throat hurt when he tried to shout.
But things didn’t end there. Tian Ming dragged that chair over, raised it high, then smashed it down with all his strength!
Bang!
The wooden chair shattered on impact. As for XimeiXi... he lay on the icy floor, head tilted, eyes closed, blood oozing from his mouth and nostrils. No one knew if he was dead or alive.
The scene was so brutal it was shocking. These gamblers had seen fights before, but never anything this vicious! Even if he wasn’t dead, he was probably crippled for life, right?
As for the thirty-plus guys from the card den, most of them were already down, lying amid the "wreckage," bodies twisted, groaning and wailing. Those eight, on the other hand, were completely fine, getting fiercer the more they fought, all full of energy.
"Keep smashing this place up for me!" Tian Ming shouted.
"Yes, sir!" the eight answered in unison, their voices loud and forceful, and they went at the smashing with even more enthusiasm.
While the scene outside was in utter chaos, Lin Tian had already slipped through a side door. Behind the door was a corridor about two and a half meters wide, with rooms on both sides, around twenty in total. Lin Tian tried pushing them; every door was tightly shut.
He opened his X-ray vision and saw that inside these rooms, some people were lying on sofas, puffing away; some were sprawled out, shivering; others were rocking their heads. And of course, there were also scenes of men and women indulging in debauchery.
Every room was full of junkies getting their fix.
Lin Tian put his hand on a doorknob and twisted it casually a couple of times, popping the lock. When he opened the door and walked in, he could smell a strange, sweet scent. The people inside were all lost in their own worlds; how could they possibly notice him?
Taking advantage, Lin Tian recorded every scene.
...
Half a month ago, a funeral was held at the home of Wang Group’s chairman, Wang Daoran. His eldest son, Wang Sicong, had died in a car accident.
The funeral was kept low-key, but quite a few people still knew about it, though no one dared mention it in front of Wang Daoran.
Even without anyone bringing it up, over these days, Wang Daoran looked like he’d aged twenty years, his former vigor gone. But apart from the few days spent on the funeral, he still showed up at the company every day on schedule, because there were countless things to deal with daily.
Early this morning, Wang Daoran had already arrived at his office. The secretary brewed a pot of hot tea, set it on the desk, and then quietly withdrew.
Hands clasped behind his back, Wang Daoran stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the skyscrapers outside, sighing over and over.
Wang Sicong wasn’t his biological son, but after raising him all these years, blood or not, he’d long since become like a real son. Now that he was gone, it left a hollow emptiness in his heart.
But he was only an outer disciple of Ancient Martial the Wang Family, just a high-level wage earner in charge of making money. He wanted to avenge his son but was powerless. He knew the enemy was Lin Tian; the only thing he could do was crush Lin Tian’s businesses—whether it was Qiansimei or Black Gold, he wanted them all destroyed!
However, the manpower and resources needed for that were simply too huge. It wasn’t his call to make; he could only go begging to the people of Ancient Martial the Wang Family. Who would have thought they actually turned him down!
Wang Sicong was the Patriarch of Ancient Martial the Wang Family’s own son, a direct descendant! And he died just like that, in such a muddled, unclear way, yet they didn’t give a damn! Never mind revenge, they hadn’t even shown up for the funeral!
This was what a great clan was. This was an ancient martial family with a heritage of hundreds of years!
Enough to chill a man’s heart!
For most of his life, Wang Daoran had felt proud to be an outer disciple of Ancient Martial the Wang Family. That sense of superiority was hard to put into words; just thinking about it filled him with glory.
But now, Wang Daoran suddenly felt it all meaningless. So what if he was an outer disciple of Ancient Martial the Wang Family? It meant nothing. He was nothing. Had any of those ancient martial clan members ever really looked him in the eye?
Thinking of this, everything turned tasteless to him, including the group’s profits.
No matter how much money he made, so what? In the end, it was all for someone else to spend. He’d struggled and hustled for most of his life, and he no longer knew what he was even striving for.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door—two short knocks and one long, very proper.
Then the secretary walked in with light steps, stood behind Wang Daoran, and said softly, "Chairman, something’s happened at the card den."
If this had been before, Wang Daoran definitely wouldn’t have been this calm, at least not calm enough to still be admiring the view outside.
You have to understand, card dens were illegal, and they also sold dope inside. The last thing they ever wanted to hear was that something had gone wrong there!
Without waiting for Wang Daoran to ask, the secretary hurriedly said, "Lin Tian hit all three of our card dens last night, and walked away with more than a hundred and twenty-six million. Plus, card den No. 3 got smashed up."
"Lin Tian?!"
At those two words, Wang Daoran immediately turned around, his face full of killing intent, bloodshot eyes blazing.