Chapter 192: A Breath in the Heart

On the street less than three kilometers from Tonglin Bridge, Lu Feng had just met up with some of his brothers. Seven or eight cars were stopped by the roadside, all with hazard lights flashing.

Lu Feng sat in his car fiddling with his phone while waiting for his lieutenant outside to coordinate gathering people by phone.

"Ring ring!"

A phone rang and Lu Feng pressed answer, replying with furrowed brows: "Hello, what is it?"

"Brother Feng, where are you?" In the phone, one of Du Shengming's brothers' voice came through urgently. "We're blocked at Tonglin Bridge by a group of outsiders - they're really fierce, hitting hard. Brother Du's been cut - come quickly!"

Lu Feng blinked: "You've been blocked?"

"Yes, by a group of outsiders, unfamiliar faces!" Du Shengming's brother shouted back.

"How many people do they have? Any police officers around?!" Lu Feng asked.

"Fifty or sixty people, haven't seen any police officers. Come quickly, Brother Feng!" The other's voice was breaking with anxiety.

Lu Feng paused: "No police officers around either? The Su, Bai and Kong families' people haven't come either?"

"No!!" The other was getting desperate: "Brother Feng, what time is it now? Don't fucking ask so many details, come quickly!"

"...Alright, I'm coming right away," Lu Feng replied.

"Tonglin Bridge entrance, hurry, Brother Feng!"

......

At Tonglin Bridge.

After consecutively cutting down three people, Daxiong carried his long blade pursuing only Du Shengming.

At the most intense fighting in the middle of the street, the fifty men Cui Bin brought from Huadu were exceptionally fierce and fought very systematically. In the hundred-person brawl, their formation stayed orderly, people didn't run wildly - only in groups of ten, supporting each other front and back as they chopped forward. Whenever one person was knocked down and couldn't get up, there were guaranteed to be at least three people going over with weapons to relieve pressure, even if one or two were wounded in the process, they would still pull up their fallen brother.

In contrast, though Changqing's side had more people, over a hundred, they fought chaotically. After charging down from the trucks, their formation was scattered with people on both sides of the vehicles. After Du Shengming had called everyone to charge together, these people split into several waves to attack, but those running at the front encountered Cui Bin's dozen fiercest men and were scattered in the first round!

When the people charging at the front scattered and Cui Bin's brothers pressed forward in formation, it caused those in the back to lose heart, retreating again and again as the opposition broke through their crowd.

Fundamentally, the fifty men Cui Bin brought from the Zhou family had overwhelming spirit as a whole and were clearly of higher quality than Changqing's people - daring to fight and unafraid of blades.

Why was this the case?

Actually, this was the same reason why the Su, Bai and Kong three families previously couldn't beat the Dock Workers Association and couldn't directly confront Changqing!

Why did the Su, Bai and Kong families run earlier? Why did they hide everywhere and need Chi Jun's Zhao Weihu to escort them back to the city? Simply put, wasn't it because they couldn't handle the others?

Why couldn't they handle them? Because previously the Su, Bai and Kong families' people were bottom-level brothers aiming to make a living - they would work for you but wouldn't risk their lives fighting for you, the benefits weren't equal.

But today the situation was reversed. Though Changqing Company was united and stuck together, they were ultimately still a group composed of society's bottom layer, with core members mostly being marginal figures straddling black and white. How could you expect these people to fight against Zhou Yaoxiang's men who would commit capital crimes without hesitation?

The fifty men under Cui Bin were competitors who fought against groups like Old Mo in Zone One. Recently in Huadu, they were pure Big Circle Boys who dared to spray automatic rifles randomly in Old Mo's activity areas!

How could these people fear knives? Their main work was fighting and their livelihood depended on it, but was Changqing the same? No, fighting was only their side business.

If today Du Shengming had brought fifty core brothers, they might not have been scattered in the first round, but he had brought too many people - with more people came uneven quality, and in group fights, once one person with poor mental quality turned to run, collapse was only a matter of time.

Seeing his people scattering and retreating, Du Shengming knew it was over and immediately called Li Hongze to have him send Lu Feng!

......

Inside Tianhong Port, when Li Hongze heard Du Shengming was blocked at Tonglin Bridge, he didn't have time to explain to Xu Hu and immediately went out to call Lu Feng: "Where are you? Quick, go to Tonglin Bridge!"

"I'm almost there!" Lu Feng replied.

"Hurry!" Li Hongze said through gritted teeth. "Must cross the bridge, understand my meaning?"

"Understand, understand!"

"I'll wait for your call!"

With that, they ended their call.

......

On the outskirts of Tonglin Bridge, Lu Feng sat in his car with tightly furrowed brows, feeling anxious, so he first urgently lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

From his deepest true thoughts, Lu Feng absolutely didn't want to get involved in this mess, because last time dealing with the Su, Bai, Kong and Liu four families had thoroughly hurt him - he had truly seen through the red dust of the mortal world!

Previously when Lu Feng spoke with that weird sarcastic tone, it wasn't without reason, nor was it excitement or joking! He truly wasn't convinced, felt unbalanced in his heart.

In the previous matter, most of the money was compensated by Lu Feng himself, the people lost were also from Lu Feng's side, and in the end not only did he get nothing, but was even blamed by Li Hongze, Li Xing and others.

When things failed, Lu Feng took big losses! But what if things had succeeded back then? The one distributing the cake would have been Li Hongze, not him. Highest risk, average returns, and most importantly, no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't get even one warm word in the end - worse, people inside might even say you were nothing, couldn't even handle a few young punks.

Lu Feng was very unhappy, that's why he chanted sutras!

This time investing in Xu Hu's side in Zha'nan, Lu Feng originally didn't agree either, but he didn't have absolute say in Changqing Company. When Li Hongze said to do it, everyone had to follow along. But with things coming to this point, he, Lu Feng, definitely wouldn't be the biggest beneficiary, might not even get to drink the soup, yet had to risk his life!

Fine, risking life was acceptable since everyone ate from the same trough - glory and loss together. But behind risking life, you should at least let him get respect in Changqing, right?

But was there respect?...

Lu Feng sat in the car feeling troubled and irritated - he didn't want to go but had no choice.

After long consideration, Lu Feng lowered the car window and threw away his cigarette butt, shouting: "Call the people who haven't come yet, tell them not to come to Tonglin Bridge for now, just us few will go first."

"What's wrong, Brother Feng?"

"Du Shengming is getting beaten at the bridge entrance," Lu Feng replied with a serious expression. "Let's go, we'll go over."

Hearing the call, the brother outside bent down to get in the passenger seat: "If we're going, shouldn't we wait for people first? We still have forty to fifty people who haven't arrived!"

"Wait my ass!" Lu Feng raised his eyebrows and cursed. "Is Du Shengming your father?! You're not even as good to me as to him! Still waiting for people? Let's just go quickly!"

Seeing Lu Feng like a mad dog, his brother didn't say more, only leaned halfway into the driver's seat to honk the horn before calling out to those outside: "Let's go!"

The convoy set out toward Tonglin Bridge.

Lu Feng sat in the back seat with furrowed brows and meticulously called a friend at the Zha'nan District Police Department: "Hello, Old Lu!"

"What is it, Feng?"

"Hehe, nothing much, just asking if there's any movement tonight?" Lu Feng asked with a smile.

"What do you mean? I don't understand!"

"Don't play dumb with me - with such big things happening in Zha'nan tonight, how could you, a police captain, not hear any wind of it?" Lu Feng sneered. "Is it that we haven't torn underwear together for two days, our relationship has cooled?"

"I really haven't heard anything," the other replied with a laugh. "I'll be honest with you - I'm at some technical investigation meeting at the Police Bureau, Deputy Director Guo is presiding, they even bought midnight snacks, probably going until midnight."

Hearing this, Lu Feng furrowed his brows: "Meeting at midnight?!"

"Yeah!"

"...Alright then, carry on with your meeting," Lu Feng replied.

"Not just me - Old Wang and Little Zheng who we hang out with every day are all here too," the other said with good intentions.

Lu Feng was stunned for a moment: "Alright, I understand."

"Good, that's it then!" With that, they ended their call.

The vehicles rapidly approached Tonglin Bridge, but Lu Feng sat in the car feeling very uneasy and anxious.

"Damn it, something big is definitely going to happen tonight!" Lu Feng wished he could slap himself. "I really don't understand - there was a perfectly good temple fair, why didn't I just go?!"

......

Several hours earlier.

Wang Daolin hadn't received notice to attend the technical investigation meeting, but instead was called by Director Guo for quite a talk.

When the meeting started in the evening, Wang Daolin had called over twenty colleagues from his own department, waiting for orders.

After fighting broke out in Zha'nan, the Police Department immediately reported to the bureau, followed by orders from the bureau telling the Zha'nan Police Department to only gather police force but not immediately deploy to the scene, letting the Police Bureau's Wang Daolin go first, bypassing the district-level case handling unit.

At this moment, Wang Daolin was very close to Tonglin Bridge. He sat in his car holding his phone asking: "Have you seen him?!"

"They've left from inside the port, already gone to Tonglin Bridge!"

"Good, I understand!" Wang Daolin hung up and turned to tell his colleague in the passenger seat: "We'll deal with him tonight!"

Just as he finished speaking, six or seven cars came from the diagonal intersection, led by Lu Feng's lead car.

As both sides were about to meet at the intersection, Lu Feng squinted and glanced at Wang Daolin's car, suddenly saying: "0229, that's the Police Bureau's number series, right?!"

"Right!" the person in the passenger seat replied.

Hearing this answer, Lu Feng's chaotic mind instantly became clear. He stared at Wang Daolin's vehicle with gleaming eyes.

"Big Brother, should we avoid them?" the brother in the passenger seat reminded. "They must be going to Tonglin Bridge!"

Lu Feng sized up the other's convoy: "No, even if they go they won't make arrests! Just five or six cars total - if they were going to arrest, wouldn't be in this formation!"

"Then what do you mean?"

"Where's my fucking knife?!" Lu Feng loosened his belt, his expression fierce to the point of perversion.