The Professor was a very smart man, whether in running a gang or in running a business.
The bars run by other gangs were given random names, or names chosen by the cadre or captain in charge of the bar.
This led to the bars under one gang having almost all different names, called all sorts of things.
But the Professor was different. All the bars used the same name, simply called “Wolf Bar.” It was easy to recognize and had a distinct identity.
This was actually a process of cultivating brand identity that was very much worth promoting. When a customer consistently drinks at Wolf Bar and develops this habit…
Then in the future, when he has a choice, there is a high probability that he will choose Wolf Bar.
He might even identify with the Wolf Gang itself because he identifies with the bar’s brand.
No one wants to be a gangster forever. The Professor’s goals were lofty. He hoped that the Wolf Gang was just a stage in his life, not the end of it.
He wanted to use the platform of the Wolf Gang to reach a higher place, for example… the political arena.
It might sound a bit incredible, but if he didn’t plan to run for governor or senator, just being a municipal councilman or something was actually not a problem.
The Professor himself had always believed that being a high school teacher was not the limit of his abilities, but the limit of his family background and social connections. If given more opportunities, he could be even more outstanding.
But unfortunately, he was just an ordinary person from an ordinary family, with no prominent background, and no benefactor willing to lend him money at high interest. He could only end up as the head of a gang.
Now, he faintly saw a glimmer of hope again.
With the Workers’ Club being shut down, the bars in the Port District had also started to become lively. They had customers almost as soon as noon passed.
In just a few days, both Wolf and the Professor felt the joy of making big money.
Stuffing ten to twenty thousand into their pockets every day, Wolf’s eyes turned red. He also finally understood why people liked to flock to bustling places.
Because here, money was everywhere.
He didn’t believe it before, but now he did.
So now, besides confronting Lance, the Wolf Gang’s main focus was on the bars.
At a little after two in the afternoon, someone suddenly knocked on the bar’s main door. The doorman glanced outside. There were several people, one of whom he had seen before, having come for a drink a few times. He even remembered the other person’s name.
It seemed to be… Dave something?
“Not working today?” The doorman didn’t open the door immediately. His gaze swept over the few people behind Dave before finally returning to Dave.
Dave was a little nervous, his palms were sweaty. “You know, we’re on strike.”
The doorman slapped his forehead. “I forgot about that!” He smiled. “Are these all your colleagues?”
Dave nodded and said, “Yes, the club was shut down, and they want to have a drink.”
“I like your liquor, not too much water added, at least it’s worth the price.”
The doorman couldn’t help but laugh out loud after hearing this. “You know your liquor!” He opened the door as he spoke, but his eyes were still fixed on the few people behind Dave.
They were wearing the common blue work clothes of the docks and indeed didn’t look harmful.
In the end, he still thought there was no problem with these people. “Do you know the rules here?”
Dave breathed a sigh of relief. “I know, don’t cause trouble.”
“You seem very nervous?” The doorman took another look at Dave.
Dave shook his head. “No, just thinking about the strike. I desperately need a drink right now.”
The doorman felt there was nothing wrong with his answer, and Dave had indeed come a few times and was very well-behaved.
He stepped aside from the door. “Have a pleasant journey, gentlemen.”
“Thanks!” Dave nodded and passed by him. After everyone had entered, he began to re-bolt the door.
Although the Bureau of Hazardous Materials was unlikely to come and check on them, they also had to be wary of Lance’s crew.
Just as he closed the door and was about to sit back in his chair, someone suddenly wrapped an arm around his neck from behind and forcefully lifted his head up.
Suddenly attacked, his whole body trembled. By the time he thought of resisting, it was too late.
A knife slit his throat, along with the main artery.
In less than twenty seconds, he fell to the ground.
The copy of “The Girl’s Fantastic Journey” that he had placed on the chair was also knocked down by him, landing right beside him…
Dave left with a pale face. Although he had been mentally prepared, the impact of watching these people kill another person in front of him was still too great.
When he ran out of the bar, several cars that were parked at the alley entrance with their engines running quickly drove over.
After the cars stopped, a group of people got out.
Ennio held a submachine gun in one hand and a half-smoked cigarette in the other. His face was filled with an irresolvable hatred.
The large group of people entering with guns made everyone in the bar lose their ability to think for a moment. When a thug reached for something under his clothes, Ennio raised his hand and fired a shot.
The gunshot woke up the drunkards who had been drinking since broad daylight. The entire bar instantly descended into chaos.
The manager, who was still sleeping groggily, was awakened by the gunshot. He was so scared that he shivered. While directing others to go out and see what was happening, he dialed the headquarters’ number.
“What’s wrong?”
It was Wolf who answered the phone. The manager said in a panicked tone, “They’ve broken in…”
“Who’s broken in?”
“Who else could it be besides Lance’s people?”
“Fuck, send people over quickly, on… street!”
The gunshots in the receiver were very intense. It sounded like the other side was using submachine guns, and more than one.
The manager was shaking with fear. He was a cadre; he hadn’t experienced this kind of situation for many years.
He didn’t even have time to hang up the phone, just threw it aside, his trembling hands pulling open a drawer and taking out a pistol, clutching it tightly.
Between rushing out to be killed and hiding, he chose to hide.
He crawled under the desk, clenching his jaw to keep from making any sound.
The gunshots outside didn’t last long. In less than two minutes, the only sound left in the room was the “hello, hello” from the receiver.
As the office door was kicked open, even the “hello, hello” sound was gone.
Both the manager and Wolf on the other end of the receiver held their breath.
The sound of footsteps came from far to near. The manager suddenly felt a special urge to take a shit, and his stomach was also very uncomfortable. He was too nervous.
He had been like this since he was a child. Whenever he was nervous, he either wanted to pee or take a shit. After so many years, it still hadn’t changed.
He thought that by joining a gang and becoming a small boss, he could change these things, but now it seemed he was wrong.
Maybe he wouldn’t be nervous when he was killing others, but when others were about to kill him, he couldn’t help but be nervous.
He prayed that those people wouldn’t find him. After all, if they didn’t come behind the desk, they wouldn’t see him hiding under it.
But it seemed that this time God was not on his side. “Get out from under the desk, if you don’t want to be shot into a sieve!”
“Let me see your hands, and drop your weapon on the ground!”
The manager did as he was told. “Don’t kill me, I’m coming out!”
He put his weapon on the ground, pushed it out, and then raised his hands high, crawling out from under the desk in an undignified and embarrassed manner.
Ennio looked at him and walked to the safe. “What’s the password?”
The manager gave a number. He didn’t dare to lie now. The safe was quickly opened. There wasn’t much money inside.
Ennio glanced at it, pulled out his pistol. A look of terror instantly appeared on the manager’s face. “Don’t kill—”
Bang!
The bullet directly opened a hole in the manager’s head. He probably never thought until his death that the person in front of him wouldn’t even give him a chance to finish his sentence.
A dark hole began to ooze blood, not much. He seemed to want to reach out and touch it, but the next second, he fell heavily to the ground.
There was no gushing or spraying of blood, just a little blood flowing out from the small hole, trickling down.
He just collapsed to the ground like that. In fact, he was not completely dead yet. The remaining brain tissue was desperately trying to restart the system.
His eyelids were twitching slightly, rapidly closing. His eyes were full of fear.
Ennio walked over, stood in front of him, and emptied his magazine into his head before letting out a heavy breath.
He glanced at the receiver on the desk, picked it up, and put it to his ear. “Whoever you are, it’ll be your turn soon!”
Wolf, who was listening quietly to all this, cursed furiously, but then he heard the sound of the phone being hung up.
Infuriated, he rushed out of his office. “Men, men!”
The Professor also came out. “What’s wrong?”
“Lance’s people attacked our bar on… street. Everyone was taken out. What do you think I’m going to do?”
“Of course, retaliate!”
The Professor frowned. “Tell me what happened.”
Although Wolf had lost some of his reason due to anger, he still respected the Professor. He recounted what had just happened. The Professor’s brows knitted together tightly, and the more they knitted, the tighter they became, until you could almost arrange flowers in them.
Because he realized that Lance had given him a difficult problem.
The Professor’s silence gradually calmed Wolf down. He hadn’t seen the Professor look like this for many years.
“Is it very troublesome?”
The Professor nodded. “Let’s talk in my office.”
“First, call the other bars and tell them to stop business.”
Wolf was taken aback, obviously a little unwilling. “Just because of this… to have the other bars stop business, won’t that make people think we are too timid?”
“Timid?” The Professor lit a cigarette, his brows furrowed, the two eyebrows seemed to be gathering together. “The result of not being timid is that all the bars will be taken out by them. Now is not the time to act on impulse.”
Wolf cursed a few times. The phone suddenly rang again. The two looked at each other, and the Professor answered the phone.
“It’s me.”
His voice was very recognizable, his enunciation very clear and standard, which was rare among gangsters.
Most gangsters were exposed to street gang culture from a young age, and their speech would clearly carry some gang style and accent.
Before the other party could speak, the Professor heard gunshots. “Lance’s people are attacking. I can’t hold on much longer. Can you send some people over?”
The Professor was silent for a moment. He recognized who this person was. “Do you think if we send people over now… you can hold out until they arrive?”
The man suddenly fell silent.
If Lance’s people were outside the bar, it would be one thing, but once the other party entered the bar, there was no question of holding out or not.
The sound of the door being violently smashed made the manager come back to his senses. He cursed a few times. “I’m afraid it’s too late.”
After a brief silence, he suddenly said, “Give my money to my family. This is my last wish, Professor.”
The Professor knew that the only thing he could do now was to agree. “Don’t worry, your money, and the gang’s pension, not a single cent will be missing when it’s given to your family.”
The manager let out a long sigh. “What fucking bad luck. Why did we have to come to Golden Port?”
“So many brothers have died…”
He hadn’t finished speaking when he heard the sound of the door being kicked in. He dropped the phone directly, pulled the trigger, and was met with a storm of bullets.
In an instant, he was shot into a sieve.
Although he died, at least he died like a character, not a spineless little ghost.
The Professor held the phone. He suddenly felt the fury Wolf had felt just now. These were all old brothers who had followed them from Fides.
When competing with the gangs in the Port District, when competing with the Red Dog Gang, a batch had already died.
The death of a stranger would not cause the Professor any emotion or unease, but now, the one who died was someone he was familiar with, a brother he had been with for several years.
He also fell silent.
The receiver was soon picked up by someone. “I don’t know if someone has already said something to you.”
“But I still have to say, soon, it will be your turn!”
The Professor pursed his lips. “Who are you?”
“Remember your daddy’s name, I’m Hiram!”
With a bang, the phone was slammed onto its base. The Professor stared blankly at the silent receiver in his hand for a while.
He looked at Wolf, wanting to say something, but didn’t know what to say.
He took a deep drag from his cigarette, hung up the phone, and quickly dialed other numbers. Some were busy, some were not answered.
The more he dialed these numbers, the more uneasy he felt in his heart. When he dialed the last number and it was answered, he breathed a sigh of relief. “Are you okay over there?”
“I’m fine, no one is causing trouble. What’s wrong?”
The Professor suddenly didn’t know what to say.
Say that the other bars had been taken out by the Lance Family’s people?
Say that another large batch of their old brothers had died?
For a moment, the Professor didn’t know how to answer this question.
But he quickly came back to his senses. “Close the bar, now. Something has come up.”
“Lance’s people somehow found out the locations of our bars. They are retaliating against us.”
Manager number three on the other end was also shocked after hearing this. “Is it that serious?”
“I’ll go right away…”
Suddenly, the Professor also heard some noisy sounds coming through. Manager number three said, “It seems like something is happening outside. I’ll go take a look, don’t hang up.”
The Professor wanted to say “Don’t go,” but the words were stuck in his throat, unable to come out.
His mouth was now full of bitterness. Lance’s people were moving too fast. He had no reaction, no news at all.
Fierce gunshots came through the receiver again. The Professor’s tense body suddenly relaxed.
He looked as if he was looking at Wolf, but there was no focus in his eyes.
The gunshots didn’t last long. The clear sound of footsteps came through the receiver, and some sounds of laughter could be faintly heard.
The receiver was picked up again, and a gentle voice came through. “Wolf?”
“Or Mr. Professor?”
The Professor had already come to some realization. His eyes were slightly red. “…Lance!”
Lance casually sat down in a chair. The room was full of his men.
The manager was being dragged on the ground by his hair. He had been shot twice, but he wasn’t dead yet.
“So it’s the Professor.”
“How does it feel?”
Lance beckoned to Elvin, signaling him to drag that manager over.
The manager was dragged across the ground by his hair, making pained sounds.
The Professor didn’t speak, but Lance could hear his breathing becoming heavier.
“Want to say a few last words to your brother?”
The Professor rarely felt as he did now, full of a desire for destruction.
If Lance were in front of him right now, he could bite Lance to death.
He gritted his teeth and said, “Give him the receiver.”
“No, I’ll relay it for you. This is your last chance to speak to him. You don’t have to say anything.”
“You son of a bitch!” the Professor couldn’t help but curse. This Lance was too evil.
But the answer he got was a gunshot. Lance raised his hand and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the manager’s shoulder. “Next time, I’ll kill him.”
All of the Professor’s anger and hatred eventually turned into helplessness. “Mr. Lance, help me tell him that it was me and Wolf who let him down.”
Lance looked at the already dying manager. “The Professor said that he and Wolf let you down.”
A smile of relief appeared on the manager’s face. “It’s okay… asshole.”
Lance picked up the phone. “He said ‘It’s okay, asshole.’ But I don’t know if this asshole is referring to me or you. What do you think?”
The Professor had never hated someone so much. “He was talking about me.”
Lance continued to provoke him. “You got him killed.”
The Professor stopped talking. Lance also let out a breath. “Time’s up, Professor. Say goodnight to your brother.”
He couldn’t say it. How could he possibly say it?
Lance looked at the manager. “The Professor didn’t say anything.”
His muzzle was pressed against the manager’s head. “See you in the next life.”
With a bang of a gunshot, although he was far away from the Professor, he suddenly trembled, as if the shot had hit him.
Lance’s voice sounded again. “This is just the beginning, Professor.”
“You are very smart, they all say so. But you, a smart man, did a stupid thing, and that was to provoke me.”
“This is just the beginning!”
(End of chapter)
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