The Heiress's Driver Rules the Underworld

Chapter 7 — Five Minutes Is More Than Enough

The scarred man stared at the timer, then laughed in disbelief.

“Are all drivers this arrogant now?”

“Depends on the driver,” Shen Kaiyue said. “Higher salaries come with worse tempers.”

The man removed his coat and tossed it to someone behind him.

“Fine. Break one of his hands first. Let’s see how he drives after that.”

Men charged from both sides.

Zheng Kailu stood beside the rear entrance with one hand on the door.

“Do I close it?”

“Close it.”

“Seriously?”

“You took eight hundred.”

Zheng clenched his teeth, pulled the heavy wooden door shut, and locked it.

Bang.

More than twenty intruders were sealed inside the main hall.

The scarred man’s smile disappeared. “You’re afraid we’ll run?”

“There are cameras outside. Running into the street would look bad.”

The first attacker was already upon him.

The man pulled a black telescopic baton from his coat and swung at Shen’s shoulder.

Shen did not retreat.

He stepped half a pace forward. The baton had barely extended when his palm caught the attacker beneath the elbow. He lifted, turned the arm outward, and made the man strike his own chest. The baton flew free.

Shen’s knee rose and stopped at the man’s abdomen.

It only seemed to touch him.

The attacker folded and slid to the floor, unable to catch his breath.

A second man tried to grab Shen from the side.

Shen caught him behind the neck and used his momentum to pull him forward. The man’s forehead was about to strike the bar when Shen seized his collar, turned him halfway, and threw him into a nearby sofa.

The sofa overturned.

The man was not badly hurt, but he could not get back up immediately.

“One minute, twelve seconds,” Xue Hongfei announced from behind her wineglass.

Shen glanced at her. “You’re really timing this?”

“I paid three hundred thousand. I have to inspect the merchandise.”

The scarred man’s face darkened. He grabbed a wine bottle from the table and rushed forward.

Xue Hongfei did not blink.

Before the bottle left the table, Shen’s hand closed over the back of the man’s hand.

His fingers tightened.

The scarred man’s wrist might as well have been trapped in a vise. The bottle remained pressed against the tabletop, unable to rise even an inch.

He gritted his teeth and swung with his other fist. Shen released the bottle, trapped his shoulder with an elbow, and drove him down.

The scarred man’s face landed on the share-transfer agreement.

“The person meant to sign is over there,” Shen said. “Wrong position.”

“Get him!”

The others surged forward at once.

Twilight Harbor’s main hall was spacious, but more than twenty men converging on one point only put them in one another’s way.

Shen kicked a chair. It slid sideways, forcing the first three men to stop. He used that single second to cut past the table, seized one attacker by the shirt and drove him into the next two, turned past a baton, then planted his palm beneath its owner’s chin.

There was nothing ornamental in the way he fought.

Anyone who reached for him went down.

Anyone who backed away was left alone.

At two minutes and forty seconds, eight men were on the floor.

The rest stopped advancing.

A bald man quietly reached for the door lock.

Zheng pressed it closed. “Not yet. Five minutes aren’t up.”

The bald man glared at him. “Whose side are you on?”

“The eight-hundred-yuan side.”

Xue Hongfei finally drank her wine. Her shoulders trembled with laughter.

While Shen’s back was turned, the scarred man broke free and hurled a metal ice bucket from the table.

Shen tilted his head. The bucket flew past his ear and struck the wall, scattering ice across the floor.

He turned and kicked the back of the man’s knee.

The scarred man dropped to his knees.

Shen placed a hand on the back of his neck without striking again.

“Where is Hong Wu?”

“Don’t know.”

“You’re collecting shares for him but don’t know where he is?”

“Find him yourself if you’re so capable.”

Xue Hongfei suddenly spoke.

“The cigar room upstairs.”

The scarred man’s face changed.

She set down her glass and looked toward the frosted door on the second floor.

“Fifth Master. Have you seen enough?”

Silence held the hall for several seconds.

The frosted door opened.

A slightly overweight middle-aged man descended the stairs with two bodyguards. Wooden prayer beads moved through one hand. He did not look pleased.

“Hongfei. You knew I was there?”

“Every time you negotiate, you watch from upstairs,” she said. “You watch the other side when you have the numbers and the back door when things go wrong.”

Hong Wu stopped on the final stair.

“I admit defeat tonight. Let my people leave.”

“Take the transfer agreement with you.”

“Fine.”

“From today onward, you do not touch Twilight Harbor’s employees or suppliers.”

“Fine.”

“The eight guards you poached can work wherever they wish. You will pay the penalties they owe me for breaking their contracts.”

Hong Wu frowned. “Don’t push too far.”

Shen glanced at his phone.

“Four minutes, twenty-nine seconds.”

The corner of Hong Wu’s mouth twitched.

“How much?”

“RMB 480,000,” Xue Hongfei said.

“It will arrive tomorrow.”

“Sign tonight.”

Her lawyer emerged from the rear office with documents in hand. He had clearly been waiting there all along.

Hong Wu looked at the papers, then at the cameras along the walls. His expression sank.

Shen understood now. The contract and recordings had already been prepared. The only thing Xue Hongfei had lacked tonight was someone capable of standing in the center of the hall.

Hong Wu took the document and signed.

“Satisfied?”

“Ten seconds remain,” Shen said.

Hong Wu stared at him. “What does that mean?”

“Your people are still blocking the door.”

The scarred man, still held by the neck, immediately shouted, “Move! Everyone move!”

Those still standing dragged their companions aside.

Zheng opened the door.

The timer stopped at four minutes and fifty-seven seconds.

Shen released the scarred man. “Three seconds to spare. I appreciate the cooperation.”

After Hong Wu’s people left, Twilight Harbor’s employees returned through the rear entrance.

No one cheered. Some lifted the overturned sofa. Others collected the ice. One server crouched beside the dented bucket and quietly asked if it counted as a workplace injury.

“Property damage, not your injury,” Shen said as he kicked the batons into a pile. “Don’t touch these with bare hands. Call the police and hand over the recordings, the agreement, and the weapons. Anyone who feels dizzy or nauseated goes to the hospital. Charge the cost to Hong Wu.”

Xue Hongfei watched him. “You handle the aftermath too?”

“What did you think the three hundred thousand bought? Five minutes?”

“I thought I was paying for your fists.”

“Then RMB 295,000 would have been enough.”

Zheng had just reopened the door. He leaned back inside. “What’s the remaining five thousand for?”

“Your door-closing f*e.”

“You should have said so. I suddenly feel this door could use another closing.”

Several employees laughed, and the tension that had held the room all evening finally eased.

Shen did not laugh. He crouched beside two men who had not fully recovered and confirmed that they had only had the wind knocked out of them before the guards helped them outside.

How many people a man could knock down proved only that he was fast. Whether the people on the floor survived without complications determined whether this business could continue.

Xue Hongfei transferred the remaining RMB 150,000.

Then she pushed a new contract across the table.

“RMB 80,000 a month for six months. Daily security, employee training, and emergency response.”

“I still don’t have a company.”

“You can have one tomorrow.”

“What if I lose tomorrow night?”

She looked at the pile of batons that had not yet been collected.

“I’m more worried the other side can’t afford to lose.”

Shen was about to sign when another black sedan stopped outside the front entrance.

Luan Zhaowan stepped out with her assistant and a lawyer carrying a briefcase.

Xue Hongfei checked the time. “Eleven oh seven. Ms. Luan is very punctual when collecting someone.”

“I’m not here to collect anyone.” Luan Zhaowan entered the hall. “The owner of South Embankment Salvage Yard has an old debt with the Luan Group. I’m attending tonight’s wager.”

Shen asked, “It will be dangerous.”

“So the company van assigned to you this morning is being used to pick up another woman tonight?”

“She paid three hundred thousand.”

“I know.”

Luan Zhaowan placed a file on the bar.

“I also know that the salvage yard Qiu Dongye is using as his stake has no renewal rights for the next five years. What he can afford to give you is less than you think.”

Another engine sounded outside.

A black SUV stopped at the entrance.

Cui Chongshan stepped down from the passenger seat and opened the rear door.

A man of about fifty entered Twilight Harbor.

He surveyed the hall before looking at Shen.

“Meng Kuoshan, owner of Zhengyue Martial Arts School.”

“Here to destroy the place?”

“Here to tell you the race is only the first round.”

Meng Kuoshan placed a pair of black wrist guards on the bar.

“Midnight. The salvage yard. Win behind the wheel, and then you earn the right to fight.”