Special District 9 Chapter 137: Negotiations

Late at night, in a resting room of a hotel in Fengbei.

Zhang Tian sat on a traditional tatami mat as he prepared a pot of tea solemnly, waiting patiently for his guest to arrive.

Half an hour passed before the second son of the Xing Family, Xing Zilin, opened the door and entered in a black suit.

“Aiyo, Second Young Master!” Zhang Tian stood up and welcomed him with a smile.

Xing Zilin took off his gloves and shook Zhang Tian’s hands nonchalantly before saying, “There were many guests at my home earlier, so I wasn’t able to excuse myself earlier.”

Zhang Tian glanced at the black cloth wrapped around Xing Zilin’s right arm and sighed deeply, “My condolences, Second Young Master.”(In Chinese funeral, a black cloth wrapped or pinned around one’s arm is used to symbolize mourning over one’s kin.)

“Have a seat,” Xing Zilin took off his coat as he gestured to the seats, not bothering to talk about his younger brother’s affair.

Zhang Tian took a seat opposite to Xing Zilin and began pouring a cup of tea for him. “Do you want to have some snacks?”

“I’ll have to pass. I’ll be having a meal together with the elders in my family later at night.” Xing Zilin looked at Zhang Tian quietly, not bothering to initiate a conversation at all.

Zhang Tian calmly pushed the teacup toward Xing Zilin before asking solemnly, “Second Young Master, since you have something to attend to later on, I won’t beat around the bush anymore. I wish to know what Prosperous Dragon’s view toward partnering with us is.”

Xing Zilin calmly lifted his teacup as he said, “The Yuan Family’s company has performed poorly in resolving that matter, but we have also put in a lot of money and effort into supporting them. Furthermore, my younger brother and Old Yuan’s death means that our interests are aligned not just in terms of profits but in vengeance too… If put it explicitly, with Yuan Ke taking over the company, even without our supervision, we can be assured that he’ll continue biting down on our enemies tenaciously. This is a quality that you are lacking.”

Zhang Tian fell silent.

“To put it frankly, your goal is money, isn’t it?”

“Heh,” Zhang Tian chuckled lightly before he looked at Xing Zilin in the eye and said, “I received a piece of reliable news prior to heading here.”

Xing Zilin looked at Zhang Tian quietly.

“After Yong Dong defected to the other side, he revealed the details surrounding the fake medicine incident to the Black Street Sector Police Bureau,” Zhang Tian said calmly. “Under Superintendent Li’s orders, the henchmen responsible for the case have mostly been apprehended, and they have confessed as well. I reckon that the case has already been sealed while I was making my way over to Fengbei.”

After hearing what Zhang Tian had to say, a slight frown appeared on Xing Zilin’s calm face.

Zhang Tian continued looking intently at Xing Zilin as he added, “All it takes now is for the Black Street Sector Police Bureau to release the details of the case, and the Yuan Family’s company will be over. In a fight over the market, they stooped down to framing their rival and deliberately brought about the deaths of two patients. This is a huge scandal.”

Xing Zilin fell deep in thought.

“There’s still something far more terrifying than that though,” Zhang Tian said with a smile on his lips. He tapped his finger on the table as he spoke on, “If I were the enemy, the next step I would take is to draw the commotion over to Fengbei. It’s a fact that the key figure to this case, Little Qu, has died in Fengbei, and Old Ma and the Black Street Sector Police Bureau’s policemen had met with great impediments while pursuing him here. They got involved in gunfights and nearly lost their lives.

“The enemy doesn’t need concrete evidence of Prosperous Dragon’s involvement in this matter at all. All they need is to release the information they have on hand, and Prosperous Dragon will indubitably be implicated in this matter. You’re the supplier behind the Yuan Family’s company, and your headquarters is situated in Fengbei. Even if you have done nothing wrong, it’s inevitable that people would think deeply into it.”

“You don’t think that our Prosperous Dragon has the power to resolve this matter?”Xing Zilin asked.

Zhang Tian contemplated for a moment before replying with a question of his own, “For a small superintendent of a Police Bureau to choose to get involved in a matter of such proportions, do you think that it’s because he’s sick of his job and wishes to court death?”

Xing Zilin nonchalantly lifted his teacup and took a sip once more.

“There’s no doubt that Superintendent Li has backing,” Zhang Tian said. “It would be ideal if Prosperous Dragon is able to resolve this matter, but if it fails to do so, you will be viewed as conspirators behind the malicious hikes in medicine price and the instigating the deaths of innocent patients.”

Xing Zilin waved his hand and said, “Continue on.”

“You’ll be spared from these problems if you choose to partner with me,” Zhang Tian said confidently. “I am someone who has a significant say in the Yuan Family’s company. Many of the veterans are unnerved from how coldly Yuan Hua had treated Yong Dong in the incident, and they believe that Yuan Ke is too inexperienced to hold the fort. All I need to do is to drop the bait, and I’ll be able to take the core members of the Yuan Family away with me.

“In less than a month, the medicine routes in Songjiang will return back to normal. As for the vengeance from the other side, it’ll only be targeted toward the Yuan Family and not me. I can just put out word that I was sorely disappointed with the company’s deeds over the fake medicine incident, which led to me withdrawing my investment.”

Xing Zilin stared at Zhang Tian with narrowed eyes before laughing softly, “Mr Zhang sure is a person who doesn’t allow emotions to get in the way of work. What you’re going to do is no different from plunging the final dagger into the heart of the weakened Yuan Family’s company.”

“Toward Old Yuan, other than our shared interests, we also have our brotherhood sustaining our relations. But now that he’s gone, I don’t have any reason to wait upon Yuan Ke,” Zhang Tian spoke frankly. “I’m not young anymore, so I need to find a way out for myself and those serving under me. Besides, even if the Yuan Family’s company were to fall, the money that Old Yuan has saved over the years is enough for his family to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. I don’t see any problem with what I’m doing.”

“Can you assure that the other side will give up on the idea of bringing the commotion over to Fengbei as long as Prosperous Dragon works with you?” Xing Zilin dived right into the main point of the issue.

Zhang Tian pondered for a moment before replying, “What I suggest is to avoid exerting too much pressure on them for the time being over Third Young Master’s matter. As long as Mr Xing is willing to give them a way out, you can leave the negotiation to me…”

Xing Zilin fell silent.

“Also, even though I don’t have any irreconcilable grudge with them, this is built on the foundation that they don’t shake our profits,” Zhang Tian said grimly. “However, if they continue to vie for a greater market share in Songjiang and eat into our profits, I’ll not hesitate to fight it out with them.”

Xing Zilin fiddled with the empty teacup in his hand. After giving the matter some thought, he finally replied, “Stay in Fengbei for today. I’ll find some time to talk to my father about this matter tonight.”

…

Half an hour later.

Zhang Tian left the hotel and got into a car.

“How is it?” Zhang Tian’s brother-in-law, who had come along with him for this trip, asked anxiously from the passenger’s seat.

“It went just as I had thought,” Zhang Tian said as he took out a box of cigarettes from his pocket. “It still went well, I’ll say.”

“So it’s a success! Hahaha!” Zhang Tian’s brother-in-law was overjoyed. “Brother-in-law, shall we find a place to celebrate the occasion? I heard that there’s a place in Fengbei where we can get a pair of Japanese sisters… Shall we give it a try?”

Zhang Tian looked at his brother-in-law doubtfully, surprised by the sudden suggestion.

“We’re all men! Who doesn’t understand that we have needs?” Zhang Tian’s brother-in-law chuckled. “You don’t need to worry. I won’t tell my sister about this!”

“…!” Zhang Tian took a puff of smoke before replying, “Let’s return to our accommodations.”

The middle-aged man seated on the left side of the backseat asked with a smile, “Are you still worried?”

“Yeah. We should get our connections in Prosperous Dragon to get some words into Fatty Xing’s ears too,” Zhang Tian replied with a nod.

“Good idea,” the middle-aged man said in approval.

Following that, the car took a u-turn and drove away.

Meanwhile, at an intersection not too far away, a person seated in a car picked up his phone and said, “Yes, they have just finished meeting one another and left the place.”

The person on the other side of the phone was silent for a moment before ordering hoarsely, “Do it.”

Chkchk!

The sound of someone cocking his gun sounded in the car.