Urban Martial Saint

There were only Ye Qing and Li Lianshan in the room. Ye Qing’s single sentence, however, echoed in Li Lianshan’s ears like a thunderclap. Li Lianshan suddenly sat up, gazing at Ye Qing in astonishment, and said, ”Ye Zi, what... what did you just say? You’re not joking, right? Is this something you can just blurt out?”

”I said, we can swallow up the power of the Fierce Tiger Gang!” Ye Qing said calmly, ”In Shenchuan City, there are three major gangs. The strength of the Fierce Tiger Gang is almost the same as the Tianqing Gang Fubang. If we devour the Fierce Tiger Gang, then, even if any gang from other provinces wants to deal with us, it would be completely impossible. As for the Tianqing Gang and Fubang, I think, once our power rises, they wouldn’t dare to trouble us anymore. Instead, a trilateral power dynamic would emerge once again!”

Li Lianshan scratched his head, falling silent for a moment before saying, ”Ye Zi, do you understand what you are proposing? Swallowing the Fierce Tiger Gang? The gang might be in disarray now, but a starving camel is still bigger than a horse. Besides, we’re not even a horse; at most, we’re just a fat rat. You want to devour a camel? That’s like a snake trying to swallow an elephant. Even if we manage to swallow it, we’ll probably burst before we succeed. By then, forget about not having devoured the Fierce Tiger Gang; we might end up being assimilated by them!”

”So what?” Ye Qing chuckled lightly and said, ”Whether we can swallow the Fierce Tiger Gang or not does not depend on the name of the gang established afterward, but on who controls the Fierce Tiger Gang. If you become the gang leader of the Fierce Tiger Gang, then we are the winners!”

”The gang leader of the Fierce Tiger Gang? Me? Is that appropriate?” Li Lianshan chuckled, asking. Although he questioned it aloud, deep down, he was indeed tempted. He had been in Shenchuan City for so many years and truly wanted to become someone like Tiger King Shangguan Tian or Li Wenyuan. Now that the opportunity had come, albeit slim, it excited him.

”What’s not suitable about that?” Ye Qing said, ”Tiger King also started as a small-time thug, didn’t he? As a person, one should have dreams and then put in the effort to achieve those dreams. Dealing with a single Fierce Tiger Gang is not that difficult!”

Li Lianshan said, ”It’s different now from Tiger King’s early days. There are too many gangs of different sizes in Shenchuan City now, and the power dynamics are very complex. Plus, the strength of the Fierce Tiger Gang is much stronger than before. The miracle of the Tiger King won’t happen again!”

”Man makes history!” Ye Qing said with a faint smile, ”Why do you think it won’t happen again without trying? I think there is still a lot of hope!”

Li Lianshan stared at Ye Qing for a while before shrugging and said, ”Let’s not talk about that now. Even if we do take over the Fierce Tiger Gang, I think it should be you who takes the position of the gang leader. I’m not really suitable!”

”You’re wrong, I’m the one who’s truly not suitable,” Ye Qing shook his head and said, ”Don’t forget, I am a military man!”

”Dammit, you’re still saying that line, at this point in time, you’re a military man?” Li Lianshan said with wide eyes, ”Buddy, how long have you been in society? If you say you’re a military man, which unit would acknowledge you now? You’ve lost your military status long ago!”

”Even if no one acknowledges it, I’ve been a soldier,” Ye Qing said, ”I used to be a soldier. Now, coming out to be the gang leader of a gang, do you think that fits?”

Li Lianshan said, ”Dammit, what’s unfitting about that? Tiger King, that bastard, had also been a soldier before. You’re discharged now, who’s going to care that much about your past?”

”I still think it’s not right,” Ye Qing shook his head and said, ”Besides, between the two of us, isn’t it all the same who becomes the gang leader? If you become the gang leader, would you not help me?”

Li Lianshan said, ”All that is just empty talk. Given our relationship, there’s nothing to discuss. But honestly, I truly believe you are more capable than me. You would definitely run the gang better than I would!”

Ye Qing said, ”I only want to take good care of those kids. Other than that, I’m really not all that interested.”

”Would that cause any conflict?” Li Lianshan shrugged his shoulders and glanced at Ye Qing before saying, ”Ye Zi, I don’t mean to criticize you, but sometimes you really are overly stubborn. All this talk about military men and suitability—it’s all illusory, not what you believe it to be. What’s wrong with having been a soldier? Can’t one do business after they’ve served? You’re managing ten nightclubs now. According to your old way of thinking, shouldn’t you also give up managing those nightclubs? But if you didn’t have those nightclubs, how would you support those kids for their living expenses and meals? How would you buy them a piece of land, build them a paradise to live in? How would you practice charity?”

At this point, Li Lianshan paused and continued, ”You’re a soldier, and you want to add glory to your uniform, but don’t forget, society can be very cruel. Even the public orphanage uses those kids to make money. Why should you be so fixated on your military complex? In my opinion, what matters is not the kind of money you make, but whether you’re doing anything that hurts others or goes against moral principles. Nobody has the right to judge you otherwise. You see, in our line of work, we neither deal in drugs nor force women into prostitution. How many clubs in Shenchuan City are as clean as ours? Sure, nightclubs have a bad reputation, but that’s because there’s demand. Without patrons, we couldn’t run these clubs. And even if we didn’t run them, these people would still patronize other places, never considering donating their money to do good deeds. If we’re taking their money and using it to do some good, that’s what really counts. I believe that in life, it’s not wrong which profession you’re in. The only mistake would be not using the money you earn in a meaningful way!”

Ye Qing looked at Li Lianshan for quite a while before saying, ”Li, I never knew you could talk so much and preach so many grand principles. That’s not like you at all!”

”Hey, these thoughts aren’t originally mine,” Li Lianshan said with a smile, waving his hands. ”It’s about that kid you adopted, the one called Broom Star. When you were back in Jiuchuan County, I took him to stay with Mao Mao. This kid, he’s different from normal children. After chatting with him a few times, I’ll be damned, I couldn’t even outtalk him! All of these insights came from him—tell me, isn’t this kid a bit too precocious?”

Remembering the words of Broom Star, Ye Qing felt amazed too. This wasn’t just precociousness; it was absolute maturity. The philosophies that Broom Star spoke of were so profound that even some old sages who had experienced the ups and downs of life might not be able to articulate. What had this child been through, to be able to speak such wise words?

Li Lianshan continued, ”Ye Zi, I think the kid’s got it right, it really is as he says. Take me for example, I never used to do any good deeds. But since I started doing good deeds with you, I’ve suddenly had some sort of epiphany. What is money? No matter how much I have, it’s just a number; how much can I actually eat or wear? But after adopting Mao Mao, the feeling is simply different. Spending money on him, damn it, I always feel better than spending it on myself—do you think I’ve got some kind of psychological disorder?”

Ye Qing replied with a light smile, ”I don’t think you have any psychological disorder. This just proves that you really are a good person!”

”Damn, I knew I was a good person!” Li Lianshan said with a dismissive wave of his hand. ”Okay, enough chit-chat. I’ve got something I want to discuss with you. Your place here isn’t bad; maybe we could move Mao Mao here too. There’s a teacher here too, right? We could have Mao Mao learn from her. This kid is always hanging out with thugs back at my place and almost starting to swear like them, which is really fucking annoying.”

Ye Qing advised, ”If you swear less, he wouldn’t pick it up from you, right?”

”No way, I’ve been swearing like this for decades—you might as well poison me than ask me to change my ways!” Li Lianshan shook his head and waved his hand disapprovingly. ”Still, I’d feel better sending him over to your place with a teacher around. I’ve met Ms. Mo Xiang, and she is nice. And that Fang Tingyun, she’ll definitely do well with kids. I’m just worried about Huo Pingping. Damn, that woman is fiercer than me; just make sure she doesn’t end up teaching Mao Mao, alright?”

Ye Qing was speechless. Li Lianshan comparing his temper to Huo Pingping’s was just asking for mockery.

It wasn’t long before Black Bear arrived with Chen Jun Hou San, Qin Jing, Yue Peng, and others. Seeing the condition of the house, everyone was extremely excited.

Back home, like Chen Jun and Yue Peng, they had no place of their own and rented dilapidated rooms, barely seeing any daylight, let alone decent decor. Hou San had a place thanks to He Biao, but it was like a dormitory for migrant workers with bunk beds and horrid conditions. Qin Jing, on the other hand, did have his family home, but the conditions of the decrepit rural house can be imagined.

Now, seeing this brightly lit, spacious, extravagantly decorated, fully furnished house filled with appliances, they were all immediately excited and began looking for their own bedrooms, whooping with joy.

Luckily the house was large, with seven or eight bedrooms on the first floor. Everyone could pair up or triple up and still have two rooms to spare.

After choosing a room, Qin Jing ran out excitedly and said, ”Ye Zi, come look, there’s a TV in my room!”

Li Lianshan, lighting a cigarette, replied, ”Damn, what’s so special about that? If you choose another room, you’ll even have a computer!”

”A computer? What’s that?” Qin Jing hadn’t even heard of such a thing.

”Damn, you don’t even know what a computer is?” Li Lianshan’s eyes widened in disbelief as he looked at Ye Qing and said, ”Bro, where did you find these illiterates!”

Ye Qing ignored him and said to Qin Jing, ”The TV in your room isn’t big; if you want to watch TV, you can use the one in the living room.”

Qin Jing quickly turned his head toward the big TV in the living room, caressing it with an eager curiosity. After a while, he turned back and asked, ”Ye Zi, how many channels does this TV get?”