Chapter 141 — Old Buffon's Origins

As for the three captured men, Yang Ce waved a hand for Hou Lin to take them away. How to deal with them—Hou Lin and the others surely knew. Higher-ups of the Money Gang like these could not be left alive.

After they had gone out, Yang Ce spoke approvingly to Li Qiang and the others: "Not bad. You haven't disappointed me."

"What do you mean, boss? It's just that those people were too weak in combat. A lot of the brothers were complaining—before we could even get to grips with them, they were either playing dead or running for it. A mob of rabble. The occasional one who did resist was a soft-shelled shrimp—one punch and the fight was over," Li Qiang said with a bitter smile.

"Ha." Yang Xutang shook his head. This was only to be expected. Ordinary gang members had only the ability to intimidate common folk; when a truly formidable opponent appeared, they ran faster than anyone.

"All right, regardless, the mission was completed well," Yang Yanzhou said. "Give every brother a bonus of a thousand yuan. Li Qiang, you four get three thousand each. Go collect from finance in a bit."

"Thank you, boss!" Li Qiang said with deep gratitude. They were already drawing a salary, and now there were bonuses for missions too—the boss was simply too good to them. "But we'll just take a thousand as well, same as the brothers."

"Suit yourselves," Yang Shuoxuan did not insist. "Work hard, and I won't treat you poorly."

Guo Jinbiao was a coward, a thorough coward. Once Yang Yuting struck his acupoint, he could not endure it. Before he had been dragged even a few steps, he blurted out his account number and password—for nothing else, but to beg for death, a quick death. He truly could not bear it any longer.

As for the territory in Jidun City, Hou Lin dispatched men at once to take it over. As for the matter of property rights, there were naturally lawyers to handle it. Incidentally, the Wang Group had now been brought under the name of Mingyang; those lawyers who specialized in underworld affairs were thoroughly adept at seizing others' assets.

Guo Jianchao was now the chairman of the Wang Group, except that the Wang Century Xiongfeng Group had been renamed Mingyang Entertainment Co., Ltd., specializing in hotels, nightclubs, and other entertainment venues.

Although Guo Jianchao was the chairman in name, the group's shares were in fact still held under Hou Lin's name. Still, Guo Jianchao was quite satisfied with this—at least he was far more formidable than before, and with his underworld connections, everyone in the industry gave him a wide berth.

Yet he was not arrogant, for he knew he was merely a dog to Yang Juehuan, and so he constantly reminded himself to keep a low profile, lest one day he end up like Wang Pu.

Wiping out Jidun City had been Yang Juehuan's passing whim; his ambitions had never lain in the underworld. Controlling the underworld was simply a way to keep such unstable elements firmly in his grip.

When he got home, his parents had not yet gone to bed. Yang Ce sighed and sat down helplessly beside the two elders—he had barely come home before heading out again, and they must have wanted to see him, which was why they had stayed up.

"Dad, Mom, still awake?" Yang Yanchuan said.

"We'll sleep once you're back." Yang Cheyan patted Yang Juehuan on the shoulder. "Daming, how did it go abroad this time? Did everything go smoothly?"

"Not bad, more or less smooth," Yang Yanzhou said. "I found a diamond mine in South Africa—I'll be mining the diamonds myself directly."

"Oh, as long as it went smoothly." Yang Cheyan nodded.

"Daming, I heard it's not very safe over in South Africa. Some countries change governments every other day—one provisional government falls and another comes in. Isn't it too dangerous for you to run a mine there?" Mother Yang asked with some concern. "What if the mine gets taken back?"

Yang Lanxu said that unless the leader of that provisional government had a death wish, there was no way the mine would be given away—it had been the payment for the assassin group. To dare demand it back would be to court death. Such things could never stay secret; even if a new provisional government came in, it would know full well who could be touched and who could not. They would not go looking for trouble.

Of course, Yang Ce could not explain it that way, so he said, "This sort of thing is venture capital. I picked a relatively stable country to open the mine in—there shouldn't be any problem."

"Then be careful yourself. If it does get taken back, you mustn't go head-to-head with them, understand?" Mother Yang admonished.

"Mom, don't worry. I'm not a child anymore—I know how to handle things with discretion," Yang Xunai said.

Somehow, the family's conversations had grown much more formal, and in Yang Cheyan's eyes this was simply a sign that the child had grown up. They chatted a while longer about the Songjiang Bus Factory; its restructuring had already gotten on track, the approval documents had come through, and reorganization was imminent.

Yang Jiyan had handed the matter over entirely to his father and did not much care about such things. It was late at night before the family went to sleep. But when Mother Yang learned that Yang Ce had to go out the next day, she complained endlessly, saying he should have said so earlier—had she known he was going out, she would not have kept him chatting.

The next day, Yang Ce was up a little after six. Yang Juehuan's biological clock had already become a habit, and the recent training sessions in particular had wrought a severe change in his routine. Four or five hours of sleep a day was already enough.

Without disturbing his parents, Yang Ce went downstairs alone and drove Hou Lin's BMW X5 to Donghai. No matter what, he had promised Sun Jie, and he would see it through.

Sun Lin had risen quite early today too. Though he grumbled aloud that Yang Ce had actually taken this long to come and visit him, in his heart he was still very much looking forward to it.

His daughter was already so grown up and still had never had a boyfriend—this had long been a great burden on Sun Lin's mind. There were even rumors going around outside that his daughter was a homosexual.

This infuriated Sun Lin. But there is no smoke without fire, and Sun Lin knew well enough what his daughter was like. Through careful investigation, he had indeed discovered a few clues.

Though there was no clear proof that his daughter was a homosexual, he had at least found a great many films of women with women on her computer, which left Sun Lin frantic with worry.

Yet he dared not lay his cards on the table with his daughter—who knew what the consequences might be once the matter was out in the open?

Sun Lin also knew that his daughter's resistance to men stemmed from what had happened back then, so he could only fret helplessly. Now, having finally heard that his daughter had a boyfriend, how could he not be eager to meet him?

After all, the Sun family was a distinguished and prominent clan, with the final say in Donghai. When his daughter found a boyfriend, he had to vet the man carefully. And then, people are ever greedy without end—that his daughter was willing to take a boyfriend at all had already delighted Sun Lin, but in his joy he also felt that if she was to have one, it had to be someone worthy of her.

He had looked over Yang Juehuan's file too, but the man was really too ordinary—just a university student, and quite a bit younger than his daughter. Although Yang Ce had put forward a few rather novel views at that meeting, Sun Lin did not think much of Yang Ce's abilities—these days there were far too many people who knew a little about doing business.

Moreover, Sun Lin had another notion in mind: to groom his prospective son-in-law as his successor. He knew well enough that Sun Zhiwei was good for nothing—a hopeless case who could not be propped up, mud that would not stick to the wall.