Chapter 12 — A Chronicle of the Millennium

Beside Slender West Lake in Yangzhou stands a villa-only residential compound, where nearly every detached house covers more than five hundred square meters, and the cheapest of them still costs ten million.

Yet within the whole compound, one villa occupied the largest plot of all, sitting right against the compound's artificial lake—a stretch of which had been carved out and made over as its private pond. Its scenery was the finest, and its price the steepest for that very reason. This villa was the residence of Li Xianyue, chairman of the Mingshan Group.

On the great terrace of the villa's third floor there was an open-air pool.

Li Xianyue lay in the open-air pool at his ease, gazing up at the stars.

When Li Xianyue mulled over a problem, he liked to steep alone in the pool; his body at ease, his mind racing all the faster.

"This order runs to a billion. I have to find a way to snatch it up."

Li Xianyue's brows drew slightly together.

"Hm?" He suddenly felt a gust of wind, and the upper half of his body above the water turned faintly cold. He glanced over—and his face changed at once.

On the terrace stood a young man in black trousers and a dark green short shirt. It was none other than Teng Xuanji.

"Who are you? How did you get up here?" Li Xianyue, unrattled in the face of danger, spoke in a low voice. At the same time he stepped straight out of the pool and casually knotted the towel at his waist.

Teng Xuanji looked at this Li Xianyue, scrutinizing him. Li Xianyue was a refined middle-aged man of about forty, of no ordinary bearing. "Without knowing Li Xianyue, one would find it very hard to see through to what lies beneath him." Before coming, Teng Xuanji had also had Elena look up Li Xianyue's information.

Li Xianyue, forty-three this year.

In his youth he had been a member of a gang of thieves, and later became the leader of that gang. Using the money he stole as his first pot of capital, he went into business. The man had connections both in the underworld and in official circles, and beneath him was a great crowd of men who followed him and made their living at his side.

With such capital, it grew at a furious pace.

In twenty years' time, Li Xianyue's Mingshan Group had amassed assets close to ten billion.

"I advise you not to touch that gun hidden in your towel," Teng Xuanji said coldly.

Li Xianyue's expression shifted. The hand that had been knotting his towel whipped a pistol out from it. In with the underworld and in with officialdom alike, in his business career he had driven countless families to ruin, and his loan-sharking had driven countless people to suicide. He had too many enemies.

As a rule, he never let the pistol leave his side.

Li Xianyue had barely drawn the gun before Teng Xuanji, who had been ten meters away, was somehow already before him.

"You—" Li Xianyue was terrified out of his wits by the other man's speed, and the pistol in his hand was already in Teng Xuanji's grasp.

With a clatter of gun parts striking one another, the pistol in his hand was stripped down into a heap of components. Smiling, Teng Xuanji grabbed up these steel pieces—they twisted like fried dough twists in his grip—and with great casualness he flung them to the ground.

Li Xianyue's heart hammered with fright, yet he forced himself to stay calm and even produced a friendly smile. "Brother, you've certainly got skill. To reach the third floor without a sound—admirable, truly admirable." To get to the third floor without alarming the bodyguards or the surveillance system—what kind of skill was that?

To crush steel into a twisted braid—what kind of skill was that?

"I'm going to ask you a few questions now." Teng Xuanji's expression did not change in the slightest. Such paltry protective measures as a wealthy civilian could muster were utterly useless against him. Having roamed the whole world for years, what formidable security had Teng Xuanji not seen?

"Ask away, brother," Li Xianyue said at once.

Teng Xuanji fixed his eyes on Li Xianyue. "Tell me—why did you want to kill Qin Hong?"

"Kill Qin Hong?" Li Xianyue was greatly alarmed within. Very few people knew of this matter; after all, Qin Hong was a member of a special state department, and even Li Xianyue dared not spread such a thing about.

"Brother, where did you hear such a rumor? It's slander, pure slander!" Li Xianyue said hastily. "I may not be any honest businessman, and the rough business of killing—I did my share of it when I was young. But to have me kill Qin Hong, I wouldn't dare even with ten times the nerve."

"Whoosh."

There came a rush of wind, and Li Xianyue felt a searing pain across his whole ear and the left side of his face.

A single slap from Teng Xuanji sent Li Xianyue flying head over heels; the towel fell away, and the wretched man was left in nothing but his shorts, sprawling.

"Brother, what are you—" Li Xianyue raised his head toward Yuan Yueshan in some anger, but what met him was Teng Xuanji's icy gaze and his calm voice: "In my presence, you'd best not play at being clever. Lie to me one more time, and this day next year will be the anniversary of your death."

A shudder ran through Li Xianyue's heart.

He, Li Xianyue, had been in the underworld too, and had seen no small number of killers and ruthless men. Yet he felt that beside the man before him, those ferocious murderers were no more than pets baring their claws.

He looked down at the awkwardly bent gun barrel, and Li Xianyue came fully to his senses. He raised his head toward Yuan Yueshan and said at once, "Brother, I bear Qin Hong no grudge at all. True, this time I hired a man to help kill Qin Hong. But I was doing it at another's request."

Teng Xuanji frowned. At another's request?

"Who?" Teng Xuanji pressed.

Li Xianyue looked at him hesitantly, and Teng Xuanji's gaze turned suddenly fierce.

Frightened into haste, Li Xianyue blurted, "It was Shen Yangming! Shen Yangming of the Northeast!"

"Shen Yangming, one of the Two Tigers of the Northeast?" Teng Xuanji's brows lifted. He had not expected it to be Shen Yangming.

In the dark world, the Two Tigers of the Northeast were a rather formidable pair of assassin partners. One was named Wang Qing, the other Shen Yangming, and both were Grade A assassins; the Two Tigers of the Northeast were far from unknown. But a year ago Wang Qing, one of the pair, had died, and the partnership had dissolved.

Among assassins, some belonged to some great organization or other, and some were free agents.

The Two Tigers of the Northeast belonged to the free-agent sort, pure and simple, men who took up the trade out of personal inclination.

"Yes—you know Shen Yangming too?" Li Xianyue said with a bitter smile. "Since you know him, brother, you should understand my difficulty. This Shen Yangming—on the streets, his name is a golden signboard. However ruthless I, Li Xianyue, may be, I wouldn't dare provoke him. This time he asked me to kill Qin Hong; would I dare deny him the courtesy he asked?"

Teng Xuanji's gaze was like a knife as he scrutinized Li Xianyue.

"Shen Yangming. Hmph." Teng Xuanji's eyes went cold.

Li Xianyue was startled to hear it; this mysterious young man before him seemed not to hold Shen Yangming in his eyes at all.

"A pity. You sent men to kill Qin Hong, and I must punish you for it," Teng Xuanji said, his voice as cold as ever.

"No—wait!" Li Xianyue cried in alarm. He was a shrewd old hand; how could he fail to guess Teng Xuanji's meaning? "Don't kill me. Killing me won't do you much good. So long as you spare me, I can give you a great deal—I'll hand over my whole Mingshan Group to you if need be."

Li Xianyue knew that one who walks the riverbank often cannot keep his shoes dry. So long ago he had stashed a large sum in an overseas account, for use in a life-or-death escape. Even if he gave the Mingshan Group away, he could still live out his days as a rich man.