Chapter 17: The Gunshot That Broke All Balance

In the third-floor private room of the Cantonese restaurant on Guangming Road, a faint scent of sandalwood permeated the air. The tea set on the solid wood table emitted rising steam. Su Tiannan and Wang Daolin sat facing each other, the atmosphere very quiet, but their thoughts were in turmoil.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on Su Tiannan's forehead as he softly continued to raise the stakes: "Uncle Wang, you and my father were old war comrades who shouldered guns together. As a junior, I definitely wouldn't dare hide or hold back anything from you. There are no outsiders here, let's speak frankly."

Wang Daolin held his teacup, his expression grave, saying nothing.

"I'll hand over Lu Feng's thugs to you, and you put some pressure on Changqing Company, pretending to investigate this case seriously, forcing them to lose their composure. On the outside, the Liu, Bai, and Kong families will cooperate to build momentum. I'm not asking for a complete turnaround, just for my father to be safely released from prison," Su Tiannan said directly. "If this succeeds and the Su family's business is preserved, then from now on, I'll hand over 30% of the company's annual profits. And I believe the Liu, Bai, and Kong families would also be willing to pay this tribute money."

"Hehe," Wang Daolin grinned. "You think I've been willing to meet with you these past few days because I want to eat your family's dividends?"

"Of course not, you value the comradeship with my father, I understand that," Su Tiannan immediately replied. "Handing over 30% of the profits is just our gesture of goodwill. Whether you care about it or not isn't important, but I have to do this."

Wang Daolin quickly processed Su Tiannan's words in his mind, slowly putting down his teacup and saying: "Changqing Company's connection in the Sanitation Management Council is called Zheng Fu'an. Zheng Fu'an has a brother-in-law called Li Xing, who serves as the director of the Smuggling and Criminal Investigation Department in the Dragon City Police Bureau, and is also a member of the Fuzhou Chamber of Commerce. My office and this Li Xing's are only separated by one door. We see each other every day when we arrive at the Police Bureau, and when we have time, we sit down to drink tea and chat."

Su Tiannan was stunned hearing this.

"Little Nan, many things can't be resolved with money and emotions," Wang Daolin sighed and said. "If I help you, can you calculate for me how many people I'd offend?"

Su Tiannan was speechless.

"Even if we don't consider the issue of offending people, working within the system requires face and rules," Wang Daolin continued. "Changqing Company hasn't offended me, nor have they touched the interests of our group. If I help arbitrarily, that's a political provocation! And the most annoying people in the system are troublemakers. If I actively cause trouble and can't resolve it, even my friends might not support me."

Su Tiannan fell silent.

"My suggestion is still the same as before - submit first, hand over the territory, and save your father. Your Su family has many people, even if you don't work in the sanitation business, it won't be hard to survive," Wang Daolin advised softly. "As adults, we must compromise when necessary."

"I understand your meaning," Su Tiannan said, unwilling but resigned. Wang Daolin had already spoken very clearly, and if he kept pressing, it would only increase the other's antipathy.

The atmosphere in the room became awkward. Just as Su Tiannan was about to stand up to pour tea for the other, his phone in his pocket rang.

"Excuse me, Uncle Wang, I need to take this call," Su Tiannan said, standing up.

Wang Daolin nodded slightly in response.

Su Tiannan left the private room and answered the phone in the corridor: "Hello?"

"How did the talk go, Big Brother?" Su Tianyu's voice came through.

"We couldn't reach an agreement at all. I've already offered up to 30% of annual profits, but he still didn't agree to help," Su Tiannan replied with a sigh.

"Offer more?"

"I don't think it's about the money," Su Tiannan shook his head. "He's already said clearly that Changqing Company's network of relationships is very complex. If he rashly gets involved, it would be seen as a political provocation, neither reasonable nor smart."

"Alright, then come back and we'll talk," Su Tianyu said.

"Okay, we'll talk when I get back," Su Tiannan agreed and hung up the phone.

In the corridor of the Cantonese restaurant decorated in an antique style, Su Tiannan's thoughts were very complex at this moment, even somewhat regretful.

After all this groundwork, Wang Daolin still didn't take the bait and help, which meant the Su family's situation had become even more awkward. Without connections in the judicial system to speak up and work things out, they could only rely on public opinion pressure to influence the judiciary. But this approach was undoubtedly extremely risky - if it failed, the old man might be sentenced even more heavily. Because for the Police Bureau, organizing workers to strike had already caused a lot of trouble for the leaders and put them in a bad light.

Thinking of this, Su Tiannan felt that Tianyu's actions were too radical and immature, and now that he had listened to his suggestions, he was in a bit of a bind.

"Sigh."

Su Tiannan let out a long sigh, pushed open the door and walked into the private room, forcing a smile as he said: "Uncle Wang, shall we leave?"

"Alright," Wang Daolin was a very refined and deep old hand. Even when facing the younger Su Tiannan, he showed great respect, only standing up when the other said it was time to leave.

As they left the private room together, Wang Daolin walked with his hands behind his back, saying softly: "Little Nan, I'll say it again, if your Su family is ready to compromise and hand over the territory, you can give me a heads up in advance. I'll sit down with Li Xing later, he should still be able to do me this favor. At least your father won't be sentenced heavily, at most he'll stay inside for a year or so before coming out."

"Yes, yes, I'll discuss it with my family," Su Tiannan nodded in response.

As the two were talking quietly, a man suddenly walked up from the stairway, wearing a baseball cap, head lowered, walking quickly towards Su Tiannan.

Wang Daolin was speaking at this moment and didn't notice this man, but Su Tiannan, whose mind was elsewhere, saw him first.

The man walked very quickly, reaching the two of them in about two breaths. Su Tiannan felt his dress was a bit strange, and he kept his head down while walking, so he instinctively pulled Wang Daolin back a step.

Fortunately, Su Tiannan reacted in advance, because when the man got very close to them, he instantly pulled out a black handgun.

Su Tiannan's face turned pale with fright, and he instinctively reached out to grab the man's arm: "Uncle Wang, he has a gun!"

Wang Daolin was also stunned, suddenly stepping back, his back hitting the wall with a bang.

At this moment, Su Tiannan used all his strength, using both hands to press down on the man's gun-wielding wrist and grapple with him.

The assailant became anxious and directly pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

A crisp gunshot rang out, and the entire restaurant fell silent for a moment, followed immediately by screams and shouts spreading throughout the third floor.

In the corridor, Su Tiannan grappled with the assailant's hand, their bodies slamming against the corridor wall. As they fought, they had already reached the stairway.

"Thud!"

The assailant raised his knee, hitting Su Tiannan directly in the abdomen, causing him to loosen his grip slightly in pain.

At this point, a strange thing happened. The assailant had his back to Wang Daolin and clearly had a chance to shoot, but instead used his left hand to press on Su Tiannan's collar, trying to push him down the stairs.

Su Tiannan's back was against the stair railing, his eyes fixed on the assailant, when he suddenly paused.

The assailant pushed with his left hand, his right hand gripping the gun, seemingly deliberately pointing the muzzle away, about to pull the trigger.

"Slap!"

At this moment, Su Tiannan suddenly grabbed the assailant's gun, twisting the muzzle towards the edge of his own left abdomen.

This move stunned the assailant, who clearly hesitated for a moment, but his body was still facing away from Wang Daolin.

"Bang!"

The gun went off, blood spurting from Su Tiannan's abdomen as his entire body fell backwards over the stair railing, tumbling down the stairs.

The assailant came to his senses, chasing with the gun, leaping down six or seven steps at once. Seeing Su Tiannan had fallen heavily at the second-floor corridor entrance, he raised his arm and fired without hesitation.

Three more gunshots rang out, and the second floor was in chaos.

The assailant wanted to chase further with his gun, but at this moment he saw Wang Daolin's driver rushing into the hall with a police gun.

"Damn it!"

The assailant cursed and turned back to the third floor without hesitation.

In the corridor, Wang Daolin, who had just come to his senses, ran panting to the door of a private room, intending to rush in and hide from the assailant, as there was nowhere else to run nearby. But he didn't expect the guests inside to be so righteous, collectively blocking the door shut.

"Fuck your mother, open the door!" Wang Daolin shouted.

The assailant rushed over, standing beside Wang Daolin. They faced each other, one masked, the other covered in sweat.

"Brother, this has nothing to do with me," Wang Daolin said calmly, raising his hands, but his voice was already trembling.

The assailant looked at him and suddenly raised his arm, directly pulling the gun's trigger.

"Bang bang bang!"

Three gunshots rang out, and Wang Daolin's soul nearly left his body as he collapsed sitting on the ground.

After firing, the assailant turned and ran, rushing to the end of the corridor, skillfully opening the window and jumping out. His body landed on the second-floor external staff staircase, his left hand supporting himself on the stair railing as he jumped again to the first floor, fleeing through the alley and disappearing within seconds.

In the corridor, Wang Daolin was covered in sweat, gasping for breath while constantly feeling his head with both hands, but finding not a drop of blood.

After calming down slightly, Wang Daolin looked up and saw three very neat bullet holes in a row right above where he had been standing.

Fear, terror, anger, and other negative emotions instantly filled Wang Daolin's heart.

A director-level official of the Dragon City Police Bureau had encountered an armed assailant attack while dining with a friend in the evening!

This kind of incident couldn't be covered up even if they wanted to. A storm had already made landfall in Dragon City.

......

About half an hour later, on a cliff by the sea, the assailant skillfully disassembled the gun and threw it into the sea along with the remaining bullets at different locations.

Ten minutes later, the assailant arrived at a second location, where he burned his clothes, shoes, baseball cap, and face mask next to a water tank. Only after they were completely incinerated did he use tree branches to sweep all the ashes into the water, washing them away.

......

Meanwhile, the Cantonese restaurant on Guangming Road had stopped business, with police cars and officers everywhere inside and out.

Wang Daolin and the abdomen-shot Su Tiannan had already been taken to the hospital.

Several mid-level leaders from the Northeast Gang of the Police Bureau came to visit Wang Daolin, cursing before they even entered the room.

"Damn it, Changqing Company really has a death wish! You go after Su Tiannan, but you dare to shoot at a director too?"

"They're getting too cocky!"

"...!"

They talked as they walked into the room.

Wang Daolin was uninjured but looked at everyone with extreme fear, saying: "Damn it, that assailant didn't just not recognize me, he deliberately fired three shots above my head. What does that mean? It's a warning!"

......

In Zha'nan District.

Lu Feng had made countless phone calls but still hadn't found his iron-blooded warrior, Floral Shirt.

"Where could this person have gone?" Lu Feng was nearly going crazy, sitting on the sofa in an extremely bad mood and shouting: "Are you all dead? Hurry up and keep contacting him!"

At this moment, a clever thug weakly raised his hand and said: "I still think he's in the Su family garbage yard, otherwise Ah Ming wouldn't not contact us. Brother Feng, how about this - let's have Director Li from the Police Bureau directly go to the Su family to demand the person. If he's there, they definitely won't dare not hand him over."

"Bang!"

Lu Feng jumped up and kicked him: "Are you fucking stupid?! Why don't you just advise me to report it to the police! Do you think Li Xing would do this for you? If he goes to demand the person, isn't that indirectly admitting to the outside world that we sent people to vandalize and rob?"

The thug was kicked into silence. Lu Feng loosened his collar and was about to give some orders when the phone on the table rang.

"Hello?"

"...Lu Feng, what the fuck are you thinking?! Sending a gunman to shoot Su Tiannan is one thing, but why did you shoot at Wang Daolin? Do you have a death wish?!" Li Xing's angry voice came through.

Lu Feng looked bewildered: "What are you talking about?!"

......

On a road in Zha'nan District, under the dim streetlights, the assailant strolled along, his face revealed in the light. He was none other than the Su family's Dog Six.