Chapter 130 Gong Zhenglong’s Cunning Scheme

After treating his followers to a drink, Lin Huai returned home and gave Thunder God a call. Of course Lin Huai did that while being hidden in his room so that Li Liner would not overhear the conversation. Although Li Liner knew that his relationship with Thunder God was not what she thought, ultimately Thunder God was the one causing Li Caier’s death. Thus, Lin Huai wanted to avoid bringing such memories back as it would make Li Liner think about Li Caier’s death.

Thunder God listened to Lin Huai’s complaints and immediately agreed to pass the ownership of the entire street to Lin Huai. That area used to be a part of Gong Zhenglong’s territory and now that such a large portion of his territory was given to Lin Huai, he would definitely be unhappy. That was the main reason Thunder God agreed with Lin Huai’s proposition as he would be able to utilize Gong Zhenglong to keep Lin Huai in check.

However, Thunder God hesitated for a moment when he heard about Lin Huai’s idea to convert the arcade over to a bar. He said, “Brother, I definitely support your idea but what’s the point of having an idea but not having cash? You still need a huge sum of money… With regards to that, I have some money with me but it’s definitely not enough so it’s up to you to come up with ideas to accumulate the remaining portion of money needed. How’s that?”

Lin Huai asked, “Boss, how much do you have?”

Thunder God said, “About a hundred thousand. You may sell off the lottery machines and other gaming consoles as well. I am able to fork out a hundred thousand so you have to come up with the rest of the expenses needed.”

“Sure!” Lin Huai readily agreed. An arcade does not require any extensive renovation as a basic installation of some gaming consoles are sufficient. However, a bar would require an extensive renovation otherwise customers would not come by. Thus, the renovation for a bar would easily cost up to hundreds of thousands. Since I own half of the shares of the bar, it makes sense for me to fork up some money. Nonetheless, Thunder God is still rather stingy as one hundred thousand would be less than half of the total amount of expenses.

Thunder God did not expect Lin Huai to agree just like that so he was shocked and asked, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I will come up with something on my own.” Lin Huai was rather wealthy but he would not expose that to Thunder God. He had to deceive Thunder God into thinking that he was going to come up with a plan to source for funding.

Thunder God then said, “Alright then. I will gather all the leaders of Chengbei District to come by and congratulate you on the day of the grand opening of the bar.”

Lin Huai smiled and said, “Thank you Big Boss Lei.”

“No worries, you are my brother now so I will do my best to take good care of you. Don’t worry and do your best as I will always have your back. Also, I have asked my men to spread the word to the entire Chengbei District over the past two days. By now, everyone in the Chengbei District should know about the fact that you are my follower and also the fifth Red Cane of Thunder Gang. Now you can go anywhere you want without worrying about anything.”

Lin Huai smiled. He knew that Thunder God was right. He could do anything he wanted without worrying about the consequences purely based on the fact that he is the fifth Red Cane of Thunder Gang. However, that was not the main reason Thunder God chose to spread the news. The main reason was to prove to the other two forces that he was one step ahead once again.

Lin Huai was naturally appreciative of his help and he was satisfied with Lin Huai’s performance as well. Both of them hung up the phone shortly after.

Lin Huai lay in bed and different ideas crossed his mind as he brainstormed the renovation of the bar. A hundred thousand was a considerably small amount and the very least he needs to fork out is another two or three hundred thousand. I can fork out a huge sum but I am just a poor student or at the very least that was what everyone thought. How am I supposed to show where I got the money from? If I took the money from my own pocket wouldn’t Thunder God be suspicious?

Looks like there’s only one way left which is to borrow some money.

Lin Huai lay in bed and pondered over the different ways of borrowing money. After all, a well thought out plan must be in place before approaching the lenders otherwise why would anyone lend you money?

The next day, Lin Huai brought around ten followers with him to collect the protection fees. They visited every shop along the entire street. The first shop they visited was a noodle store that was of decent size. As they walked into the store, the owner of the noodles store stared nervously at Lin Huai and his men. Similarly, all the customers within the shop also lowered their head.

Lin Huai brought his men over to the counter. Then, he smacked the table and with a smile on his face, he said, “Bro, I am here to collect the protection fees.”

The owner gulped and said, “I-Isn’t the protection fees collected by Brother Long?”

Chu Wenxing who was standing behind Lin Huai shouted, “F*ck! Haven’t you heard that Brother Huai is the new boss of this entire area? It no longer has anything to do with Brother Long!”

The owner of the store had a long face and he asked, “Y-You are Brother Huai, right?”

“Yes I’m called Lin Huai,” Lin Huai said with a harmless smile on his face, “You can address me as Lin Huai.”

“B-Brother Huai, we have already paid the necessary protection fees this morning. Usually we pay them at the beginning of each month but this morning, Brother Long and his men collected the protection fee for the following six months.”

Lin Huai was stunned and said, “What?”

“It’s true. I’m sure you know Brother Long. You can go and ask him about it. Just as we opened our shop this morning, they came in and asked for it.”

Lin Huai’s expression turned solemn. This son of a b*tch! He’s trying to play tricks with me. At first Lin Huai had everything planned out. He knew that he was on a tight budget so he planned to borrow some money from the shop owners by collecting the protection fees for the upcoming months in advance. However under such circumstances, let alone collecting the fees in advance, the collection of this coming month was impossible as well. Unless Lin Huai wanted to pressure the owners into paying twice the amount which would be equivalent to pushing them to the edge of committing suicide.

Lin Huai took a deep breath, nodded his head and said, “Alright, I understand.”

Chu Wenxing who was next to him panicked and said, “Brother Huai, are we going to walk away just like this? We didn’t manage to collect a single cent. We were relying on the money to cover our expenses!”

With a solemn look on his face, Lin Huai said, “Let’s check out the other shops.”

Chu Wenxing glanced unwillingly at the owner and left with Lin Huai. The owner of the noodle store heaved a sigh of relief and wiped the cold sweat off his face. He was afraid that Lin Huai would be unreasonable and force him to pay the protection fees once more. If that was the case, there would be no point in him running the business anymore.

As Lin Huai expected, the stores throughout the entire street had their protection fees collected by Gong Zhenglong and his men. The only exception were a few clubs that were only opened at night. The rest of the stores were forced to pay the protecting fees of the upcoming six months in advance.

Lin Huai looked gloomy and Chu Wenxing who was with him, scolded while walking down the streets. “F*ck! This Gong Zhenglong! Brother Huai, we cannot let him off so easily.”

With a gloomy look on his face, he coldly said, “Yes, we cannot let him off so easily. Bring two guys with you to look into where Gong Zhenglong visits on a daily basis.”

Chu Wenxing’s eyes lit up and he asked, “Brother Huai, what’re you going to do? Are you going to beat him up? However, I am afraid we don’t have enough manpower. Why don’t we head back to Yulan college and look for all of our friends?”

Lin Huai shook his head and said, “Since you chose to be my followers, you all are considered gangsters of the underworld. However, our friends in college have to stay away from this as they are not considered to be part of the underworld. The underworld is a violent place so if anyone gets injured or dies, I am unable to cope with that. I would feel apologetic and guilty.”

Chu Wenxing hesitated and said, “But I am afraid we are no match for him and his men as there are only around eighty of us.”

Lin Huai smiled and asked, “Who said that we’re going to wage a war with them? If we confront them directly, we would most certainly lose. Just because we have eighty over men, doesn’t mean we are powerful. They would only require half their numbers to deal with us. After all, they were thugs that have been around the underworld for many years. You guys barely stepped foot in the underworld along with me.”

Out of curiosity, Chu Wenxing asked, “Then Brother Huai, why do you need this information…”

“Just go and look into it and you will know when the time comes.”

“Alright then. I’ll bring two of my men and go look into it right now.” Chu Wenxing then turned around and gestured for two of his men that were intelligent to leave with him.

After Chu Wenxing left, Dao Zi who was behind Lin Huai coldly said, “Brother Huai, I know we can’t wage a war against them but I could look for an opportunity to stab him a couple of times.”

“Then what next? He would certainly have more than one henchmen by his side so what are you going to do next?” Lin Huai continued, “When it comes to situations like this, we have to utilize our brains to deal with it. The key point is that if you stabbed him now, anyone would be able to tell that we were the ones responsible. By then, even Thunder God wouldn’t be able to look after us. Our forces aren’t strong enough to go up against Thunder God yet and it would be equivalent to inviting disaster by overreaching ourselves.”

Dao Zi asked, “When are you going to teach me martial arts?”

“I will teach you today after meeting up with Gong Zhenglong.”

“Alright.” Dao Zi acknowledged.

Lin Huai smiled and said, “Due to your natural talent, it would be a waste if I did not give you some pointers here and there.”

Dao Zi coldly said, “If you are able to elevate my skills, I will forever be loyal to you from today onwards.”

Lin Huai smiled, “As if you were going to leave me and follow somebody else if I couldn’t help you increase your fighting prowess.”

However, Lin Huai knew that what Dao Zi said was right. For someone like Dao Zi, martial arts was the biggest temptation. If I’m able to help him elevate his fighting prowess, he’d definitely be extremely grateful towards me in the future and also be extremely loyal.

The group of them returned to the arcade and due to the money yet to be collected, the arcade was operating as per usual. Finally, customers could be seen inside where they were engaged in the gaming consoles and lottery machines. Lin Huai returned to his office and shortly after, Chu Wenxing knocked on the door and walked in. He then said, “Brother Huai, I have done the investigation and found out that he would visit a nightclub in Chengbei District every night. The nightclub is called Yie Di Nightclub.”

Lin Huai laughed and said, “Oh? Yie Di Nightclub? Let’s pay him a visit at night then. Get Dao Zi in here. Ah forget it, it’s better if I head out and look for him. I am going to bring Dao Zi for a short while so help me take charge of this place and make sure nobody causes trouble. Also, be more welcoming to the customers.”

Chu Wenxing smiled, “I understand. Our men are very welcoming and attentive to their needs.”

“Oh right, on a side note, if I find that anybody treats a customer with a bad attitude, don’t blame me for punishing them.”

“Yes I understand as the customer is king.”

“Alright then.” Lin Huai walked out of the office and saw that Dao Zi was standing guard next to the stairwell of the second floor. Lin Huai walked there and patted Dao Zi on the shoulders as he said, “Let’s go. I’m making a move tonight so let me bring you somewhere for now so I can give you some pointers!”

Dao Zi’s eyes lit up and he said, “Sure.”

He then walked downstairs with Lin Huai and left. To his surprise, Lin Huai brought him back to Yulan College.

Dao Zi frowned and said, “Why are we back here?”

Lin Huai smiled and replied, “I am bringing you to the little jungle to teach you martial arts!”