Chapter 24: The Thunderbolt Incident

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Cao Yang was momentarily stunned; that wasn’t Li Yan’s voice.

“Cao Yang, open the door. It’s Thunder.”

He hurried downstairs to open the door, seeing Thunder carrying a large backpack, drenched from head to toe.

“What happened to you?” he asked curiously. Thunder had been drinking with him the afternoon before, saying he’d head to Shenzhen then cross into Hong Kong. How had he returned so quickly?

Thunder stepped inside and Cao Yang closed the door behind him.

“What exactly happened?”

“We ran into trouble. A-liang and Jiawei were both caught by the marine police. I was the lucky one to escape.”

“A-liang and Jiawei will definitely rat me out. I want to hide out here for a while.”

Cao Yang sighed. You can’t walk by the river often without getting your shoes wet. But he hadn’t expected them to fall so quickly. Thankfully, he hadn’t gone with them.

“Are they really so unloyal?”

Thunder chuckled dryly. “There’s no loyalty or disloyalty in this. Before we partnered up, we agreed that if one of us got caught, we’d pin the entire blame on the other. If I got caught, I’d do the same to them.”

Cao Yang was speechless.

Suddenly, he thought that prearranging such things wasn’t bad at all. It was better than those who always spouted loyalty but started betraying their brothers at the first sign of trouble.

Thunder dropped his backpack on the floor. “You have my sister’s number, right? I lost my phone. Can you call her for me?”

Cao Yang handed him a set of his own clothes to change into, then searched his phone for Thunder’s sister’s number and dialed.

It was too early; she might still be asleep. No one answered.

“No one’s picking up. You should go upstairs and sleep for a bit.”

“Ah…” Thunder sighed. “I can’t sleep. I’m worried about my sister.”

“Why worry about her? Even if A-liang and Jiawei rat you out, the police will only come after you, not your sister.”

“You don’t understand. I’m not afraid of the police; I’m afraid of the consignee. I lost his goods. He’ll come after me, and if he can’t find me, he might come after my sister.”

“If you’re all caught, and he still comes after you, isn’t that unreasonable?”

“Ah… this is just how this business works. High returns come with high risks. If all three of us were caught, it might not be so bad. But since I escaped, they want me to compensate.”

“Then why don’t you turn yourself in?”

“I’ve thought about it, but I don’t want to go to jail!”

Thunder lit a cigarette in despair, sighing deeply.

Cao Yang glanced at his large backpack. “What’s inside?”

Thunder unzipped it, revealing sealed plastic boxes filled with tiny electronic chips, each about the size of a fingernail.

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Cao Yang didn’t recognize them and had no idea what they were for.

“Weren’t the goods with you? How come you’re still holding onto them?”

Thunder shook his head. “There were three packages total. Now I only have this one. I didn’t give any to them.”

“So what are you planning to do with these things?”

Thunder took a deep breath. “Since things are like this, I might as well go all in. I’ll sell this package and use the money to go back home.”

“Are these things valuable?”

Cao Yang opened a box and examined a chip closely.

“I don’t know exactly how much, but definitely not cheap. They paid us 30,000 for just one trip. The value of the goods is at least ten times that. We might even be middlemen or third- or fourth-tier dealers.”

At that moment, the phone rang—it was Thunder’s sister, Lei Yu.

Cao Yang handed the phone to Thunder and went downstairs.

After a brief conversation with his sister, he returned the phone to Cao Yang.

“So? What did your sister say?”

“She told me to go to hell!” Thunder said, feeling wronged.

Cao Yang patted his shoulder reassuringly. “It’s okay; that’s just how sisters are.”

“Bang, bang, bang…” Just as he finished speaking, there was a knock at the door.

Thunder jumped, fearing it might be the police or the consignee’s men, and looked to Cao Yang for help.

Cao Yang pointed upstairs, telling him to hide.

It was Li Yan knocking. Cao Yang guessed it was her but wanted to be safe and told Thunder to stay hidden.

“Phew… you’re up early today, huh?” Li Yan was in a good mood. She’d clutched money all night and barely slept but looked refreshed in the morning.

“Cao Yang, I have to tell you—the guys from room 213 got into trouble. When I left just now, I saw lots of police breaking into their rooms. I heard two of them got arrested.”

Li Yan shuddered. “I told you to stay away from those guys, but you didn’t listen. Luckily, you didn’t go off with them this time, or you’d be in deep trouble.”

“No way, I always listen to Sister Yan,” Cao Yang said with a sincere smile.

“Good boy.” Li Yan patted him and then fully opened the door, sitting on the counter waiting for customers.

Cao Yang greeted her and said he’d go back upstairs to catch some sleep.

He really hadn’t slept well, but his attic was small and cramped, and with Thunder still there, he couldn’t rest.

So he and Thunder ended up quietly smoking and chatting upstairs, keeping their voices low to avoid being overheard by Li Yan.

Even if she heard, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but better safe than sorry.

After noon, customers began arriving one after another.

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Li Yan kept exchanging coins for people, watching the pile of money in her hands grow, smiling broadly.

Just as she was basking in her happiness, two men walked in.

Both had large tattoos covering their arms and scars resembling centipedes. They looked like no good, clearly gangsters.

One, a long-haired man, tapped on the glass counter. “Hey, beautiful, are you the boss?”

“I… I’m not,” Li Yan stammered. “I’m just passing by and helping out.” She immediately backed down when faced with these types; she only dared to act tough in front of Cao Yang.

“Then call out the boss. We need to talk.”

Li Yan nodded obediently and hurried upstairs to get Cao Yang.

But when she got upstairs, she found Cao Yang sleeping with a man. She thought to herself, maybe she rejecting him made him so upset?

Upon closer look, the man wasn’t the one from room 213. The police were still looking for him, yet Cao Yang dared to harbor him.

If she had seen this in the morning, she would have been furious and nagged endlessly. But now, she had no time to care.

“Cao Yang, Cao Yang,” Li Yan called, waking him.

“What is it?” Cao Yang grumbled, still half-asleep.

“There are some people downstairs looking for you. They look like gangsters, probably here to cause trouble.”

Cao Yang got up and went downstairs to meet the two men.

The long-haired man lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, scratched the back of his head with the hand holding the cigarette, and struck a pose reminiscent of Chen Haonan.

“You the boss?”

“Yes. What’s your business, brothers?” Cao Yang calmly lit a cigarette and met their gaze without fear.

“Let me introduce myself. I’m Hawk, from the Hunan gang. This area’s our turf. If you want to set up machines here, you’ve got to report to us and pay your dues, understand?”

Cao Yang shook his head. “Don’t understand.”

“That’s okay. I’m telling you now. You know what to do, right?”

“I hear your accent—looks like you’re from Hunan, too. Since we’re from the same place, I’ll give you a discount. Three thousand per machine per month. You’ve got two machines, so six thousand. From now on, I’ve got your back.”

“Can you really cover this place?” Cao Yang challenged.

Hawk smiled. “My big brother is Tie Xiong. You can go ask around if there’s a place in this area we can’t cover.”