Special District 9 Chapter 138: Falling Out

On the streets.

Zhang Tian leaned against the cushion of the car and rested with his eyes closed.

“Brother-in-law, why don’t you look happy even though you have managed to settle this matter properly?” Zhang Tian’s brother-in-law asked.

There was a brief pause before Zhang Tian sighed deeply and said, “It exists not, the way to the best out of both worlds, to remain faithful to the Buddha and the one I love. If there was another way out of this, who would wish to be seen as an avaricious businessman…”(This is a saying from the Sixth Dalai Lama. As the Dalai Lama, he was supposed to not have any mortal desires for the opposite gender in order not to let down the Buddha, but he ended up falling in love with a woman.)

Bam!

But before Zhang Tian could finish his words, a jeep suddenly dashed out and rammed into the right side of Zhang Tian’s car, causing the car to skid three meters across the snowy road before coming to a halt.

“Fuck!” Zhang Tian’s brother-in-law shook his head as his hand swiftly shot forth for his gun.

Guangdang!

The doors of the car were pulled open, and Xiao Jiu, together with three other people, pointed their guns into the car as he spoke impassively, “Baldie told me that he didn’t want to do this, but you forced his hand.”

Zhang Tian was utterly stunned.

“Get out of the car,” Xiao Jiu growled with a deep voice.

“Xiao Jiu, I just don’t get it. Why are you doing this?” the middle-aged man sitting beside Zhang Tian clenched his fists tightly as he howled. “He’s no longer around. You should find a way out for yourself!”

“Don’t force me. Get out!” Xiao Jiu repeated himself with a growl.

…

An hour later.

In a storage facility of the Yuan Family’s company located in the suburbs of Fengbei, Zhang Tian sat down on a broken chair with an unkempt hairstyle. He stared at Baldie with blank eyes, not saying a word at all.

“We just chatted with one another in the afternoon, and you came over to Fengbei the very same night,” Baldie’s head was lowered, making it impossible to read his expression. “Why are you in such a rush?”

Zhang Tian didn’t say a thing at all.

“Like I said, even if you intend to leave, I hope that we can part on peaceful terms. There’s no need to resort to knives and guns,” Baldie spoke with a hoarse voice. He raised his head, revealing his reddened eyes, as he continued, “Even if you have no regard for us, you should at least think about Old Yuan who has only been buried for barely a day. Has he let you down in any way?”

“He has never let me down, but he…”

“Don’t fucking talk to me about Yong Dong,” Baldie glared at Zhang Tian with menacing eyes as he hollered furiously. “Touch your heart and tell me whether Old Yuan has ever let you down?!”

Zhang Tian fell silent once more.

“Even if you wanted to withdraw your investment, I wouldn’t have allowed Yuan Ke to withhold a cent from you. But you betrayed the Yuan Family’s company with the Fourth Mistress and tried to turn it into an empty shell. I can’t allow you to do that,” Baldie slammed the table as he spoke word by word emphatically.

Yuan Ke sat on a crate by the side and listened quietly to Baldie’s words without saying anything.

Zhang Tian tilted his head slightly as he looked at Baldie and said, “I admit. Old Yuan has never let me down, but I have never let him down either! Two years ago, when the company was cornered and the finance department couldn’t even fork out 100,000 dollars, who was the one who helped him through the adversity? It was me! When Old Yuan was around, even if I strongly disagreed with his initiatives because I knew it wouldn’t work out, after raising my opposition, didn’t I still wholeheartedly carry out his orders in the end?”

Baldie vexedly took out a box of cigarettes and lit up a smoke with slightly trembling hands.

“He has never let me down, but neither have I let him down!” Zhang Tian shouted forcefully. “Did I do anything wrong? No one can fault me for liquidating my own stocks, right? Whether those within the company choose to continue working for Yuan Ke or follow me, that’s their own decision to make. I have never tried to coerce anyone before! I’m not the one who landed the Yuan Family in its current plight; it’s the company’s own problem! Do you get that?!”

Baldie exhaled deeply and said, “Zhang Tian, I can’t be bothered to argue with you. Since the cat is already out of the bag, let’s settle it once and for all.”

“Sure. What do you want?”

“I’ll allow you to withdraw your investment and take your men away with you, but I have two conditions,” Baldie took a puff of smoke before saying.

“First, all of your stocks will be bought over by either me, Xiao Jiu, or Yuan Ke, but we’ll repay the money for the stocks in installments over a period of three years. The amount repaid will be 20% for the first year, 30% for the second year, and 50% for the third year. Second, you are not to touch the medicine industry within this three years nor poach any middle or high-level executives within the Yuan Family’s company. If you go against our terms, we won’t repay the remainder of what we owe you, and you can be assured that the Yuan Family’s company will do everything within its means to deal with you.”

“Hahaha!” Zhang Tian burst into laughter. “Baldie, you sure have become a business prodigy now that Old Yuan is dead! Why don’t you just take my life here instead? Won’t you be able to rest easy once I’m dead? What’s the use of setting down such terms? Ah?!”

Baldie glared at Zhang Tian with sharp eyes as he replied, “Old Zhang, if not for the fact that we have been brothers for so many years, do you think that I would have gotten my men to grab you here?”

Zhang Tian was stunned by those words.

“Is killing you hard? No. What’s hard is not killing you, do you get it?!” Baldie slammed the table and tossed aside his cigarette. “This is the only solution out of this. You can live like a tycoon with the money you got, and I can even distribute a portion of the market to you three years later. However, I can’t allow you to threaten the Yuan Family’s company now!”

Zhang Tian plopped back down onto the chair. He looked at Baldie with a nonchalant look on his face and said, “You are better off killing me right now! I can’t accept those terms. I won’t be able to explain it to the men serving under me!”

“You think that I dare not kill you?” Baldie asked menacingly with clenched fists.

“That’s right!” Zhang Tian pointed to Yuan Ke, who was sitting on top of a crate not too far away and said, “If you really intend to kill me for that man over there, I won’t say a word at all!”

“I’ll ask you one last time. Will you agree to it or not?”

“I won’t agree to it. Not over my dead body!” Zhang Tian shouted obstinately.

Hearing those words, Yuan Ke suddenly leaped down from his crate and walked up to Zhang Tian, saying, “Bro, on the account that my elder brother was just buried earlier in the day, can’t you just take a step back on this?”

“Don’t talk to me about Yuan Hua!” Zhang Tian bellowed furiously. “I don’t owe him anything!”

The room fell into a state of momentary silence after the shout.

Baldie looked intently at Zhang Tian for a moment before he finally took out his phone as he said, “You betted right. I can’t bring myself to kill you.”

Zhang Tian was stunned by the sudden admittance.

“Your cousin, Little Yang, Yuan Hua’s Fourth Mistress, and those executives that are on your side… They are under the watch of my men right now,” Baldie’s voice quavered as he spoke. “I’ll have no choice but to send them on their way if you refuse to agree to it.

“You’re trying to scare me into submission?!” Zhang Tian rose to his feet as he shouted with a fearful look on his face.

“Do I look like I’m just trying to scare you?” Baldie replied. Shaking the phone in his hand, he hollered, “You forced this conversation up this direction and refused to budge at all, what else can I do? Why don’t you fucking tell me what I should do?!”

Zhang Tian’s body tensed up in agitation.

“Money or your men, make your decision!” Baldie pressed on forcefully.

Zhang Tian closed his eyes and mulled over this matter. A stifling silence lingered in the storage facility for a very long while before a smile finally curled on Zhang Tian’s lips. He laughed wryly to himself and said, “I finally get it. Old Yuan is your only brother, and I’m nothing more than a pawn you can dispose of whenever it’s convenient. Fine, I’ll admit defeat. Hand the contract over to me, I’ll sign on it!”

Baldie lowered his head for a moment before he turned around and shouted, “Xiao Jiu, pass the contract over!”

…

Songjiang.

Zhu Wei walked into his squad’s office with a bunch of documents in his hands as he said, “Send these over to Fengbei digitally. Do it quickly!”