Chapter Eighty-Nine: Song Tianming

Zhao Zejun held the phone and fell silent for two seconds.

The man on the other end had to be President Song, Song Tianming.

Keeping his voice as steady as he could, he said, “President Song, what exactly happened? Jiang Xuan is my friend. Did he do something wrong somehow, offend you in some way—”

“How old are you, anyway?!” Song Tianming cut him off with a sneer. “You little brat, stop pretending you’re some big shot. Let me ask you this: did you and Jiang Xuan set up a construction company and win the recycling project in Gaogang Village?”

“Hold on, it’s too noisy here...” Zhao Zejun swiftly pulled the recorder he had used during his last negotiation with the Demolition Office from his desk drawer and switched it on. Then he turned the phone to speaker, set it side by side with the recorder on the desk, and gestured silently to Junzi to keep quiet.

Only after doing all that did he answer into the phone, “Yes.”

“Good. Then that’s settled. Wait a moment.”

Zhao Zejun had just been about to start recording when, unexpectedly, a different voice came on the line.

The new speaker said leisurely, “I won’t waste words with you. You’ve got two roads. First, Jiang Xuan followed me for years and learned my trade. Without my training and my connections, what right did he have to start a company and land the Gaogang Village project? By any measure, I ought to have a share in that company. Second, people drown in the Ring River all the time. Who’s to say Jiang Xuan won’t get drunk one night and end up dead in the water? Keep an eye on the news these next couple of days. Also, your parents aren’t that old yet, are they? Tell them to be careful when they go out, unless they want to get hit by a car and crippled.”

Zhao Zejun’s brows knitted tightly. He had still underestimated President Song’s crowd.

Even the Demolition Office had never imagined anyone would record them, yet these men had been on guard from the start.

As for the threat against his family, Zhao Zejun was furious, but not surprised. The idea that trouble stops with the guilty and spares their families had always been something that belonged only in the movies. Men from the underworld would do anything for money.

“President Song—”

“No, no, no. I’m no President Song, and I don’t know any President Song. I’m just a thug. If you want to report me, go ahead. But let me remind you, I’ve got plenty of brothers and friends. If I go to prison, you won’t have an easy life either.”

As he signaled for Junzi to close the doors and windows again, Zhao Zejun said into the phone, “You say you want a share. How much, exactly?”

“I’m not asking for much. Half. You and Jiang Xuan are good brothers, so your half isn’t my concern. But Jiang Xuan followed me for so long—his half can count as compensation to me. After that, we’re square.”

There was a burst of noise on the other end, and soon Jiang Xuan’s slurred voice came through again, still saying the same thing: “Zhao Zejun, don’t listen to him!”

A heavy crash followed. Even through the phone, Zhao Zejun heard it clearly this time, as though something massive had been slammed viciously into a human body. Jiang Xuan let out a muffled groan of pain.

The veins on Junzi’s forehead bulged like earthworms, and his teeth ground audibly. On the line, the lazy voice drawled, “Brother Xuan’s a real tough man. Just losing a bit too much blood. Boss Zhao, have you made up your mind yet? If you drag this out any longer, he may not even have to get drunk and drown. He might just bleed to death first.”

“You want my company because you’ve got your eye on the demolition project. Aren’t you afraid the Demolition Office will discover a major change in Zejian and take the project back? And let me tell you this: everyone in the company, top to bottom, was trained by me. If I’m gone, the whole company becomes unstable. You don’t want to seize an empty shell and lose the project too, do you?” Zhao Zejun asked in a low voice.

His plan was to trade money for a life. Once Song Tianming got his hands into the company and took fifty percent of the shares, could the other fifty really be protected? It would only be a matter of time.

There was another stretch of silence on the line before that voice spoke again. “Don’t worry. I’m not taking your shares for now. Here’s what you do: fire your company’s finance officer. Tomorrow I’ll send over an accountant to work for you for free until the project is finished. Then we can handle the transfer.”

Zhao Zejun’s face darkened. This accountant would be even more ruthless than Old Chen, the supervisor accountant Huayang had once sent. Zejian might still remain in his name, but the money the company had already earned and every payment that came in afterward would effectively fall under this accountant’s control.

“Well? Decided yet? Jiang Xuan’s in pretty bad shape,” the voice asked sinisterly.

Zhao Zejun drew a deep breath and said, “Tomorrow, Jiang Xuan comes back with him.”

“Fine.”

The other end hung up with a sharp click.

“Brother, what do we do?!” Junzi said in a low voice. “Once Brother Xuan gets back, let’s call the police!”

Now they had this recording in hand, the police would certainly have to intervene. Even if they couldn’t bring Song Tianming down, at least they would have some protection for a while.

But Zhao Zejun kept his face grim and slowly shook his head.

Calling the police might buy safety for a moment, not for a lifetime.

If he really went to the police and they stepped in, the most likely outcome was that Song Tianming would have Jiang Xuan killed and his body disposed of before anything could be done.

If they waited until Song Tianming’s man arrived tomorrow and then called the police, there was a chance they could catch him red-handed and cause Song Tianming serious trouble.

But the same problem remained: it would not be enough to ruin him forever. It would be all too easy for him to spend a hundred thousand or so to have some underling take the fall.

And afterward, Zejian Company, Zhao Zejun’s family, and Jiang Xuan’s family would all face Song Tianming’s retaliation.

Having been reborn into this life, Zhao Zejun had been granted a second chance. In most circumstances, he cherished life more than he had in his previous one. But at crucial moments, he was also more willing than before to stake everything.

Things had gone this far. Unless he crushed Song Tianming completely and made sure he could never rise again, Zhao Zejun would never know peace.

For the moment, it seemed Jiang Xuan’s life was safe enough. Tomorrow, they would probably send him back.

Compared to legitimate businessmen, the greatest advantage of men from the underworld was that they had no bottom line. They could use illegal means without restraint—coercion, temptation, threats—and step outside the rules to “compete” with those still bound by them.

But that did not make them untouchable.

What was their greatest strength was, looked at from the other side, also their greatest weakness.

To step outside the rules was to escape their restraints—but also to lose their protection. And with the slightest misstep, one would suffer the harshest backlash from those same rules.

Compared with Shen Lian, perhaps Song Tianming was the true monster: in darkness, seemingly invincible, immensely strong, beyond the reach of blades or bullets—but under sunlight, he would swiftly dissolve into smoke and ash, into a puddle of rot. As for that so-called protective umbrella, turned the other way, it could just as easily become a death warrant.

Zhao Zejun told himself to stay calm. The first step was to preserve himself in the dark, keep Jiang Xuan alive, and safeguard Zejian as much as possible. The second was to find a way to kick that bastard straight out into the light.