Transmigrating Into a Book, the Villain Becomes the White Moonlight!

128: Chapter 128 The Dragon King’s GoldAs he spoke, he began to wail again, this time more out of regret and despair. ”I really didn’t expect it to be four billion! Such a huge sum of money, I... how would I dare to swallow it! I couldn’t even if I wanted to!”

The sea breeze blew past, carrying a heavy salty stench and the smell of urine from the man. Small particles of dust danced under the high-intensity lights.

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”And then?” Su Bai’s voice sounded exceptionally cold in the whistling sea breeze. ”They gave you four billion and didn’t explain anything? No contact information, no middleman, there must be something, right?”

”There is! Yes, yes, yes!” The man spoke as if grasping at a final straw, his words coming out so fast he almost tripped over them. ”That person said... that the day after the money arrived, which is tomorrow, someone would contact me. They gave me a phone number and told me to wait for news! I saved the number in my phone!” He struggled to twist his bound body, gesturing toward his pocket.

Uncle Fu gave a look, and a subordinate immediately stepped forward. He reached into the inner pocket of the man’s filthy jacket and pulled out an old mobile phone. Lighting up the screen, he indeed found a newly saved number in the contacts without any name. Uncle Fu took the phone and, without any hesitation, pressed the dial button and turned on the speakerphone in front of Su Bai and the man.

”Beep... beep...”

The brief waiting tone sounded exceptionally clear on the silent pier. However, the phone had only rung twice and had not yet been connected when a faint but distinct default ringtone suddenly drifted over from not far away!

Everyone present was stunned. Su Bai and Uncle Fu quickly exchanged a look. This ringtone... sounded like it was right next to them.

”The source of the sound,” Uncle Fu judged instantly, his voice kept very low, ”seems to be in that shipping container next to us.” He raised his hand and pointed precisely at a rusty blue standard container stacked on the second level a few meters away.

A cold arc curled at the corner of Su Bai’s mouth as he nodded. There were thousands of abandoned containers at this pier, like a giant steel labyrinth. The other party was actually hiding right next to their interrogation site? Was it a coincidence, or blatant surveillance?

”Bring them here,” Su Bai ordered curtly.

Behind Uncle Fu, two bodyguards who had been as silent as shadows but were as swift as leopards moved the moment the order was given. Like predators in the dark, they pounced toward the blue container silently and extremely fast. One of them pulled out a specialized tool, picked the old lock in a few strokes, and yanked the heavy door open—

”Don’t move!”

The beam of the high-intensity flashlight instantly pierced the darkness inside the container, illuminating a figure in the corner who was caught off guard and scrambling to hide a still-vibrating phone.

It was a tall white man wearing a plain dark jacket and cargo pants, a typical civilian outfit. He squinted against the bright light, a flash of panic crossing his face, but he quickly tried to compose himself.

Meeting almost no decent resistance, the two bodyguards easily subdued him, twisting his arms behind his back and hauling him into the light in front of Su Bai.

Su Bai sized up the foreigner, who clearly had Eastern or Northern European facial features. His blue eyes were currently filled with wariness and a forced sense of calm.

”Who are you?” Su Bai asked directly in Chinese, his tone flat but carrying an unquestionable pressure.

The foreign man’s eyes flickered, then he frowned and spread his hands in a display of confusion and innocence, speaking in fluent but accented English: ”I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just a lost traveler.”

Su Bai didn’t speak, just tilted his head toward Uncle Fu. Uncle Fu stepped forward and reached into the foreign man’s pocket before he could dispose of anything, pulling out a latest-model encrypted phone. The screen was still lit, showing a missed call—exactly the number Uncle Fu had just dialed.

With the facts before him, the foreign man’s expression changed several times in an instant.

Just then, the screen of the encrypted phone lit up again as Su Bai called it. The buzzing vibration sounded exceptionally piercing on the silent pier.

Everyone’s gaze focused on the flashing screen.

Su Bai ignored the still-vibrating phone and walked up to the foreign man, his sharp gaze sweeping over his slightly travel-worn clothes and the boots stained with mud from different regions.

”When was this container of his shipped to this pier?” Su Bai asked Uncle Fu, his eyes still locked on the foreigner’s face, not missing any subtle change in expression.

Uncle Fu had already retrieved the information and answered quickly and certainly, ”According to the temporary dispatch records remaining at the port that haven’t been fully cleared, this container arrived this evening near dusk on a small barge from Southeast Asia. It was unloaded about an hour ago.” This meant the container had appeared here very recently.

Su Bai asked again, ”How long ago did we ’invite’ this Ji Family cousin over?” He pointed to the man slumped on the ground.

”About two hours ago,” Uncle Fu responded accurately, immediately understanding Su Bai’s hint.

The timelines matched, yet were subtly offset. When this foreign man hid in the container, they had already begun the interrogation.

It seemed more like he had sneaked into this pre-arranged pickup or meeting container according to the original plan, only to unluckily stumble upon Su Bai and his group who were performing ”cleanup work” nearby. He had walked right into the line of fire. After all, the entire outer perimeter of the pier had already been silently locked down by Uncle Fu’s men; it was hard for anyone outside to notice what was happening inside.

”Young Master, there’s something else in this container.” At this time, the other two bodyguards searching the container made a discovery. They struggled to drag a heavy, large metal sealed chest from the depths of the open container. The chest had no markings but looked very sturdy.

”Open it,” Su Bai ordered concisely.

A bodyguard took out a breaching tool, skillfully pried open the lock, and yanked the lid open—

In an instant, even under the less-than-perfect lighting of the port’s high-intensity lamps, a dazzling, almost blinding golden light burst forth!

The glow was heavy and solid, with the unique cold texture of metal, casting a faint golden hue onto the faces of everyone around. Inside the chest, gold bars of uniform size and extremely high purity were neatly stacked, packed so tightly they filled the entire chest. Their value was immeasurable!

Su Bai’s gaze moved slowly from the shocking chest of gold to the face of the foreign man forced to his knees. When the gold was exposed, the man’s eyes flickered violently, his Adam’s apple bobbed, and his last shred of hope seemed to vanish.

”What is this?” Su Bai spoke, his voice calm, yet pointing at the chest of gold that could trigger anyone’s greed.

The foreign man swallowed, his eyes dodging, and dryly spat out two words in accented Chinese: ”Gold, gold.” He tried to play it off by admitting only the most obvious fact.

”I know it’s gold!” Su Bai suddenly raised his voice. Without warning, he swung his hand and delivered an extremely loud slap to the foreign man’s face! The crisp ”crack” echoed at the pier. The man’s head snapped to the side, a clear handprint quickly appearing on his face as a trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

”I’m asking you, WHAT. IS. THIS!” Su Bai said each word deliberately, leaning forward. His cold gaze seemed to pierce through the man as he repeated the same question, but the meaning was now different—he was asking about the origin, purpose, and ownership of this gold, the shady dealings behind it.

The foreign man was seeing stars from the slap. He was dazed for a moment, then actually stiffened his neck and snapped back with a tone mixed with pain, humiliation, and reckless desperation: ”You already know it’s gold, so why ask!”

He was clearly riled up, or trying to hide a deeper fear with this crude defiance.

”I’m asking you one more goddamn time, what is this!” Su Bai’s voice suddenly rose, echoing across the empty pier, filled with an unquestionable violence. He suddenly raised his foot and kicked the man hard in the chin with the tip of his hard leather shoe!

”Argh!” The foreign man screamed in pain as he was kicked backward, only to be held firmly by the bodyguards behind him. Su Bai gave him no chance to breathe, stepping forward to roughly grab his messy collar and haul his upper body up until their faces were almost touching. Su Bai stared into his bloodshot eyes and roared, ”Speak! What is this!”

With blood at the corner of his mouth and his cheek swollen, the foreign man panted, dazed by Su Bai’s relentless and ruthless violence. His psychological defenses were crumbling as he subconsciously hissed, ”Gold! It’s just gold!”

”I know it’s gold!” Su Bai practically roared in his ear, spittle splashing onto the man’s face. His impatience and ferocity finally exploded. ”I know! I’m asking you what this is!”

The foreign man was dazed by the beating and completely suppressed by Su Bai’s unpredictable and ruthless aura. His earlier forced toughness and defiance collapsed, and the fear in his eyes finally took complete control. He opened his mouth, and looking into Su Bai’s cold eyes that looked like they might actually kill him in the next second, his mental defenses shattered.

”I... I’m really just an errand boy! A middleman! I’m only responsible for bringing the goods to the designated location and passing on a message!” The foreign man lay slumped on the ground, his cheek heavily swollen and his mouth bleeding. His previous toughness had long since vanished, leaving only fear and pleas for mercy. He looked at Su Bai’s cold eyes, terrified that a slow answer would bring another beating.

”What’s the matter?” Su Bai squatted down and patted the man’s swollen face. The force wasn’t light, and his tone was full of danger. ”Do I have to break the question down, grind it up, and feed it to you bit by bit before you’ll say a full sentence?”

Money like this, from shady sources, this hot gold—no matter what its purpose was in flowing into A City, even if it was meant as a birthday gift to wish someone a long life—as long as it shouldn’t be here, it couldn’t be allowed to succeed.

The foreign man’s whole body trembled, his eyes struggling intensely, before he finally collapsed under Su Bai’s increasingly cold stare. He gritted his teeth and squeezed out a name, his voice distorted by fear: ”Dragon... Dragon King Hall...”

”Dragon King?” Su Bai’s brow twitched violently. The word pricked him like a needle. He subconsciously followed up, ”What Dragon King?” In his mind, he immediately associated it with Brother Bufan, whom he found disagreeable in every way, and certain annoying ”story” tropes. He wanted to confirm if this ”Dragon King” was the same nauseating thing as the ”Protagonist” template he suspected.

”It’s an... an assassination and intelligence organization that mainly operates overseas. It’s very secretive and powerful... I, I’m just a low-level member on the periphery. I’m only responsible for transporting supplies and passing on one-way instructions. I really don’t have access to any other core information!” The foreign man explained frantically, fearing Su Bai wouldn’t believe him.

The protagonist.

These two words were like cold blocks of lead, slamming heavily into Su Bai’s mind. As expected... it was that nauseating setup again. Trouble—massive trouble had found its way to his door.

”This ’Dragon King,’ is he currently in the country?” Su Bai pressed on, his gaze like a torch, trying to catch any clue.

”I... I don’t know! I really don’t know!” The foreign man shook his head like a rattle, the panic in his eyes appearing genuine. ”Information from the upper levels is strictly confidential. People like us who run errands only know the instructions and the dead drops. we never see anyone, let alone know their whereabouts!”

”I...” Su Bai stood up abruptly, irritably rubbing his hair and messing up his well-groomed style. A surge of anger flared in his chest.

At this time, a black-clad subordinate who had been standing behind Uncle Fu like a shadow moved slightly. He stepped forward half a pace and suggested to Su Bai in a low voice, ”Young Master, keeping this guy around is a liability, and he might leak information. Why don’t we... handle it the old-fashioned way? Make it clean and toss him onto an ocean freighter to send him to his ’old home’?” His meaning was clear: stage an accident, sink him in the sea, and be done with it.

Su Bai was already annoyed and glared at the subordinate, snapping, ”Is there water in your brain? He’s trouble that came from abroad! You throw out trouble caused domestically, but for trash that drifted in from outside, you should let it rot in your own soil! Throw him back? What, are you going to reimburse his travel expenses too?”

His words were blunt and crude, carrying a reckless ruthlessness and a strange logic, but they immediately let everyone around him understand his meaning—this peripheral member of the Dragon King Hall couldn’t be simply disposed of. He might still be useful; at the very least, he couldn’t be allowed to disappear in the way the other party expected.

Su Bai turned his head and looked at the shivering foreign man on the ground again, his eyes gleaming with calculation.