Chapter 13 - 2#

This matter could only be blamed on him for not informing Kun Yang about Fang Yuan in time. As a result, Kun Yang’s two straightforward and reckless subordinates embarrassed themselves in front of his brother-in-law.

“You really can’t blame me for this, Brother Jin. It’s said that your wife was walking into the hotel with that man. In such a dangerous and urgent situation, could they not take action? Besides taking action, was there any other way to stop your wife from cheating? Even if they wanted to pretend to be police checking the room in such a big hotel, it wouldn’t be easy. Oh right, fortunately they didn’t pretend to be police. That adulterer might be in this line of work. If fake police met real police, wouldn’t it be even more hilarious…”

Jin Yan was about to scold him to shut up when the internal line rang. It was from the secretariat: “President Jin, a gentleman claiming to be surnamed Jiang is coming up from the elevator to see you. The front desk couldn’t stop him. Oh, there is also a man surnamed Fang following him.”

Jin Yan’s vision went black.

The front desk couldn’t stop him? What does it mean the front desk couldn’t stop him? With so many security guards standing there, how could they not stop him?!

Damn it, I’m going to be caught red-handed by my wife in the office! Can I still survive in this circle! Let’s take the entire front desk and security department to jump off the building together!

Actually, Jin Yan really blamed his employees wrongly. Since Jiang Qin appeared at the company’s annual meeting, those who were well-informed could guess his identity pretty accurately. Even if the front desk ate a bear’s heart and a leopard’s gall, they wouldn’t dare to stop him.

Moreover, Jin Yan had been acting abnormally recently. Rumors in the company said he was dumped by Jiang Qin. Now Jiang Qin brought a man who looked quite capable to the company to find him. Isn’t this a living love triangle drama! It was too late to watch the fun, who dared to rush up and be cannon fodder?!

So when Jiang Qin came to the company’s front desk, not only was he not hindered at all, but he was also served tea and water and respectfully escorted to the elevator. Fang Yuan, on the other hand, felt that the employees of Star Entertainment looked at him a bit strangely, a bit like… like looking at a gigolo.

Jin Yan hung up the phone in a panic, circled the office three times, opened the wardrobe to hide, but gave up when he found he couldn’t fit. He wanted to hide in the toilet, rushed out the door and found his phone was left on the table. He turned back to get the phone and came out again, bumping into Jiang Qin and Fang Yuan face to face.

Jin Yan instantly completed the spiritual transformation from a *loser young man to a bastard with robber logic. Within a few seconds, he put on a face of “I did it and I won’t admit it, what can you do to me” and said carelessly: “Yo wife, coming to inspect the company today? I said long ago you should come, after so many years…”

Jiang Qin slapped him to the ground.

Jin Yan was stunned by the slap. According to his normal reaction, at this time he would either slap back or rush up to hug Jiang Qin and press him onto the bed. The former reaction only happened a few times when he was young and reckless. As a result, he had to swear to heaven and earth to coax Jiang Qin back. After a few times, it slowly turned completely into the latter reaction.

Fortunately, his brain was still clear. Knowing that Fang Yuan was present, he forcibly suppressed the urge to pounce, slowly got up from the ground and asked: “What are you doing? You hit me without even an explanation. What will Cousin think…”

Fang Yuan kept his head down and lit a cigarette to smoke on the side.

Jiang Qin asked: “You had someone follow me? Rushed up to beat me as soon as you saw me with someone else?”

Jin Yan denied it to the death: “What are you talking about? How could I do such a thing? You were beaten? Ouch, let me see, are you hurt anywhere?”

Jiang Qin’s face changed. He stared at Jin Yan, wanting to say something but couldn’t.

His face at this time made Jin Yan a little scared. It seemed that he was so angry that he couldn’t make a sound. Holding back anger in his heart was actually very bad for his body. Jin Yan felt guilty and ashamed, and didn’t dare to mess with him anymore, so he had to soften his tone and asked: “You must be thirsty. Come in and drink some good tea and talk slowly. It’s so late, Cousin, don’t call a taxi. I’ll drive you back later.” Saying that, he reached out to put his arm around Jiang Qin’s shoulder.

Jiang Qin pushed his hand away and asked hoarsely: “Jin Yan, will you never tell me a word of truth in your life?”

“What? What truth? I told you Cousin is a policeman, it’s inevitable to offend a few hooligans. Don’t think wildly and ruin your health. Come and drink a cup of hot tea to warm up. Am I not sincere to you? Who else can be as true to you as I am…”

Jin Yan reached for Jiang Qin’s hand as he spoke, but as soon as he pulled it, he felt his fingers were cold and trembling, like ice cubes in his palm. Jin Yan was startled, only to hear Jiang Qin gritting his teeth and asking: “You never do this kind of thing? Then how did Zuo Zhijie’s hand get broken back then?!”

This voice was very small, even Fang Yuan might not have heard it, but Jin Yan’s brain exploded instantly.

Zuo Zhijie.

He hadn’t heard this name for several years. He had forgotten it and never expected to hear it from Jiang Qin’s mouth one day.

He thought Jiang Qin had no chance to know who this person was!

“I…” Jin Yan swallowed, his Adam’s apple moving up and down: “Who are you talking about? I don’t remember.”

Jiang Qin stared at him coldly, his eyes seemingly very wary and guarded.

Jin Yan had seen this expression on many people’s faces in his life, but he never expected to see it in Jiang Qin’s eyes one day. This person whom he was closest to, trusted most, and placed at the tip of his heart, would one day have such obvious and undisguised vigilance towards him.

Jin Yan’s heart went cold instantly, and then an evil fire rushed straight to the top of his head. The cruel, direct, and unscrupulous side of his nature instantly surfaced, and he barely suppressed it with the last bit of reason until he saw Fang Yuan.

“Don’t panic, I don’t blame you.” Jiang Qin paused and said: “I only blame myself for being blind back then.”

After speaking, he didn’t wait for Jin Yan to react and turned around to leave directly.

Fang Yuan nodded awkwardly as a greeting and hurriedly chased after Jiang Qin.

Jin Yan stood in place, watching helplessly as Jiang Qin walked into the elevator, but had absolutely no strength to chase after him. It was as if his whole person was immersed in bone-chilling ice water, and his brain was buzzing with one sentence: He found out, he actually found out.

The Zuo family was the Jin family’s rival back then, and Zuo Zhijie was a person who would make trouble out of nothing. Once he saw Jiang Qin at a reception, he used a fake name to call him every now and then to get close. His actions were very high-profile and completely undisguised.

Jiang Qin didn’t know his identity at that time, just felt that this person was a bit strange and didn’t take it to heart. He was extremely busy with Star Entertainment’s affairs back then, and the business world was complex. It was good enough that he could remember a person like Zuo Zhijie, and he had no mind to deal with him at all.

However, Jin Yan was touched on his reverse scale.

There is an ancient saying that the hatred of taking one’s wife is irreconcilable, basically on the same level as killing one’s father or mother. Men have a strange possessiveness and desire for control over their spouses in their bones. This has little to do with the depth of feelings. Even for couples with average feelings, having their wives snatched away is enough to make men furious. If it is the kind of deep feeling of “one pair for a lifetime”, it is like gouging out the heart and liver alive.

Jin Yan belonged to the latter. If the little American hadn’t left back then, he would probably have had his head broken by him long ago.

Zuo Zhijie probably didn’t take the Jin family seriously at all. He didn’t hide such things from people at all. At that time, someone in the underworld advised him to restrain himself, but he laughed and said that anyway, the two of them didn’t get a marriage certificate. In this era, love is free, what can’t be pursued? Besides, looking at Jin Yan, he looked like someone who couldn’t keep his wife. Even if they got a certificate, I have the ability to break them up.

Jin Yan was furious upon hearing this. He entrusted an intermediary, not knowing what method he used, to provoke Zuo Zhijie into a three-day gambling game with him. The bet was one of the opponent’s hands.

At that time, the so-called underworld was mainly divided into four types. The lowest level was what the police often called “gangs involved in black activities”, manufacturing guns, smuggling and drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder, opening casinos, etc., doing all kinds of evil. The entire gang had at most dozens of members, and only two or three core leaders. It was good enough if their radiation range could penetrate a city. After being caught, the main members of such gangs would generally be sentenced to capital punishment, while accomplices would be sentenced to twenty years to several years depending on the severity of the circumstances.

The second and third types were relatively similar, both family-run. The former’s main channel for making money was legitimate business. Stepping one foot in the underworld was just for convenience. Although the purchase channel was not very serious, the sales channel was mostly clean. Some things that were inconvenient to solve on the table were solved by forces in the underworld. The general direction was towards money, and the relationship with government functional departments was maintained by money and favors, basically wandering on the edge of the law.

The third type was much more common, occupying fifty percent of the underworld world. This type was exactly the opposite of the second type. The main business direction was shady underworld business, and the legitimate business was just a cover. For example, opening laundry shops, antique shops, mounting calligraphy and painting, and luxury nightclubs. You see the shop is decorated magnificently but has few customers. Walking in, you can simply dance in the lobby. Nine out of ten such places are used for money laundering.

The fourth type was the giants of the underworld world. There were single families and multiple intermarried families operating together. One person could control half of the country, and when families united, they could cross countries or even continents. Most of these were registered with the government, using their own resources to help the government do things, and also had prominent legitimate identities and status, often lasting for hundreds of years without falling. Such giants would not do general illegal and undisciplined things at all, and would even help the police quell internal turmoil in the underworld world, for the sake of power balance and family stability. They were the law makers and executors in the underground kingdom.

The Jin family belonged to the third type in the early years. By the time Jin Weiguo and his younger siblings took power, it slowly transformed into the second type. The Zuo family was thoroughly the third type.

The struggle between these two forces was often the cruelest and most tragic, because the opposing family bloodlines and business models inherently had irreconcilable conflicts of interest. In the early years, internal strife occurred between representative families of these two forces in the Northeast. Within a few days, hundreds were killed or injured. No one dared to walk on the most prosperous local commercial street after seven o’clock in the evening. There were people driving unlicensed cars with knives everywhere, hacking at their rivals as soon as they saw them. Later, the family representing the second force suffered a disastrous defeat and was almost completely wiped out. Only two children who were urgently sent abroad survived in the family.

After the incident, the pattern of the underground world tilted significantly instantly. The victorious force annexed territories and incorporated personnel on a large scale. Homemade guns and drug transactions doubled several times within a month. At that time, there was no fourth “giant” force in the local area to curb the situation. With the situation completely out of control, the state established a special task force to station in the local area, and it took more than half a year to completely quell the situation.

It can be seen how distinct the hatred between these two forces is. It is simply a naked war of interests. Any spark can trigger the most violent shock.

So Jin Yan’s declaration of war was also very formal. He even hired a special intermediary, set up a banquet and sent an invitation, and played a gambling game with Zuo Zhijie for three full days.

Of course, they didn’t gamble with the family’s internal assets, but used personal property and hired experts in their own names to oversee. At that time, Jin Yan had very few personal assets under his name, but the person he hired was very powerful. By the afternoon of the second day, Zuo Zhijie had lost everything. On the third day, he brought more than a dozen fully armed bodyguards, carrying two suitcases of cash, counted two million on the spot for the gambler he hired, and then turned around to cut off one of Zuo Zhijie’s hands.

How could the Zuo family agree? However, rules are rules. For families of their status, words spoken are nails spit out, one word is one word.

Old Master Zuo couldn’t bear to see his only son’s wrist broken, and offered ten million to redeem Zuo Zhijie’s hand. Of course, Jin Yan refused. His heart was naturally made of iron and stone. Seeing the ransom rise to a staggering sky-high price, he still insisted and wouldn’t let go. The Jin family was not to be trifled with at that time either, blocking the Zuo family’s gate with many people. In the end, it got out of hand, and they forcibly cut off five of Zuo Zhijie’s fingers.

This incident severely dampened the Zuo family’s spirit. Zuo Zhijie was also sent abroad for limb reattachment surgery. He hadn’t been heard of for many years afterwards, maybe he stayed abroad and didn’t come back.

On the contrary, the Jin family took this opportunity to leap forward and gained huge prestige and benefits. It was at that time that Jin Weiguo suddenly realized that this youngest brother, although left to grow wild for so many years, was truly Old Master Jin’s seed. The cruelty and ruthlessness in his blood were really not fake at all.

Jin Yan didn’t think so much. He was just relieved that his rival in love was sent far away, and no petty people would covet his wife in the future. The only thing that needed to be wrapped up in this matter was that Jiang Qin must not know. With Jiang Qin’s temper, if he knew, there would probably be big trouble.

So he kept it from Jiang Qin and didn’t allow people around him to mention it. Zuo Zhijie used a fake name originally, and Jiang Qin didn’t pay much attention to him, so he didn’t immediately notice anything wrong after he disappeared, and forgot about it in a muddle.

After so many years, like countless things kept from Jiang Qin, Zuo Zhijie had become a distant past in Jin Yan’s memory, and he had no interest or need to recall it. When he asked Kun Yang to track down his rival in love, he didn’t expect that there was a person surnamed Zuo many years ago, and he absolutely didn’t expect that Jiang Qin was not completely ignorant.

How on earth did Jiang Qin know? Who told him?!

Jin Yan only felt chills in his heart, and bone-deep fear rushed up his spine from the marrow. Not only because of Zuo Zhijie, but—besides Zuo Zhijie, what else did Jiang Qin know?

Besides Zuo Zhijie, how much more did he know?!

Jin Yan took a cigarette with trembling fingers, but couldn’t light it after several tries. Finally, he threw the lighter away dejectedly, crumbled the cigarette and chewed it slowly. After a long while, he spat it out with a “pah”.