Release that Man

Chapter 230: Mastermind [2 in 1]

Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97

A row of lavish, modified race cars came over like the wind. The engines howled angrily, the sound filling out the silent night. That sight and sound were more than some normal gloating. The local rich people at most had several million in family assets, and that was only for those that knew how to save and knew how to purchase some stocks and assets to ensure their growth. However, if placed in the real upper society, several million was just the beginning group. Without a foundation in business and connections, these people could be considered the lowest of the low.

For example, Yao Zhixing’s family was the head of the restaurant business in San Lin City. Even though their main business was in the restaurant field, they had invested in other fields. With the effort over many generations, even though they did not dare to say that they had connections in military, politics, and business, at least it could be said that they were indirectly connected. If they needed something done, they would only need to chat with the right people at a public gathering; they did not even need to pay them a special visit and send gifts.

What about the suddenly rich? They did have the money, but that did not mean everything in the world of the upper society. They were not of the same standard, and even if they had the money, they did not have the business to back it up. Therefore, when they wanted to do something, even something very small, they had to use their money to mobilize people. They were just peasants, and other people would only give them face due to the money. That was the difference.

Then again, there was a benefit to the suddenly rich. For example, as domineering as Yao Zhixing was, he did not dare to really commit something illegal. One, it was due to his education, and two, he had to be concerned about his family reputation. The local rich men had no such reservations. They only needed to spread their money around, so they dared to poke their heads into everything. There was no one that they were afraid of.

The biker gang and the surrounding crowd had not met a truly difficult situation before. They were under the impression that they were already the worst of the worst. However, that night, when the real gang arrived, the parade of branded cars that filled up the street gave everyone a real shock.

Bikes? Their bikes were already of a higher class, but one of their bikes was barely enough to cover the car’s four tires. The person with the best bike was the leader, but even his bike could not rival half of those car. Ye Shuang’s expensive car was almost at the bottom compared to the rest.

By then, Ye Shuang, who came to trample on the people, was no longer the main problem. People were more concerned about why so many race cars would come to such a countryside location. What was really happening?

Just as people was stunned and could not pick a reaction, a race car brushed past the crowd. Following the scream of the women in the crowd, the car did a beautiful drift and stopped right in front of the arcade. This was followed by the other racers hitting the brakes. The friction sound of the tires against the ground sang like a choir. The cars spread out like a fan and surrounded the entrance of the arcade perfectly.

The many headlights shone at the entrance of the arcade. This situation that looked like it was picked right out from a police crime movie made the head of the bikers’ leader ache. He knew that he had gotten himself in deep waters this time. Ye Shuang took another few steps forward, and the car owners gradually stepped out from the cars. Not only people from the racing team had arrived—they also brought along their personal bodyguards that sat in the backseat. A few of them probably did not have the time to get their bodyguards, so they dragged the police officers of their nearby stations. Since they had the young master of the superintendent with them, some of the officers were dragged before they even had the chance to change out of their uniform.

“Sister Shuang, are these the people who sent Brother Yao to the hospital?”

“They sure have guts. I bet they think San Lin City is their territory.”

“Should we book them for a few days?”

“That’s not a bad idea. We can just plant some minor crimes on them and make them the suspects. Three days in lock-up and seven days in jail. When the ten days are over, we can plant something else on them.”

The people who got out from the cars had their own discussion. Some of them had already rolled up their sleeves, ready for a fight, while others laughed and mocked. However, their similarity was that they were filled with anger and hostility. Their expressions were ugly.

Ye Shuang added salt to injury. With a faded smile, she looked at the crowd and said, “Just ten days? Brother Yao was sent to the hospital, and the people who did that is still wandering free. If you are unable to pin ten years of jail time on them, how are you going to answer to Brother Yao?”

Since the group of race cars arrived, the gathered crowd realized that things had really gotten out of hand and had remained as silent as a cicada in winter. They looked at Ye Shuang with eyes filled with adoration and fear. They could not figure out what kind of background this woman actually came from.

The thirty or so race cars had brought over one hundred people. The situation was big, and the police were mixed among them. When the racers were openly making threats, the police pretended to not hear anything. Naturally, no one there suspected that the racers were just kidding. The bodyguards of these young masters were tough and powerful, and they looked even more powerful than the police. With this large parade, the gang of the bikers had been holding back, or else based on their personalities, they would have started the whole thing with a fist fight.

However, when they heard Ye Shuang, someone finally lost his cool and started to threaten her. “You f*cking little bitch...”

Before he could finish, he was sent flying by a kick from the leader, and the rest of the words disappeared down his throat. Ye Shuang looked over with a smile, and the leader turned his face around. He smiled like they were friends and forced himself to ask, “Brothers, has there been some kind of misunderstanding here?”

With enough power and the ability to assess the situation clearly, there was a reason this man was the leader. He was able to make the others accept his leadership, so this meant that there had to be something about him that was greater than everyone else. However, at the end of the day, he was not cut from the same cloth as the rest. This was already the limit for the man. In terms of presence, Ye Shuang, who massacred the arcade, was obviously at least a level higher than him. In comparison, the people of the biker gang looked like little kids.

“Misunderstanding?” Ye Shuang thought about it. She wandered over to the tree outside of the arcade and patted it twice before pulling it straight from its root. The leader who was given a direct sight of Ye Shuang’s power felt his butt clench. “The people who entrapped Brother Yao at this place this afternoon, surrender yourselves, and we’ll have a very good discussion on whether there is a misunderstanding or not.”

“Sister Shuang, you’re the best!” The racers clapped their hands and whistled for Ye Shuang.

“Entrapment?” The leader had a headache. It was not the first time that these people had dominated the countryside road. Since they had money, they could do whatever they wanted. Those that were targeted were simply unlucky. As long as no one’s life was taken, they could always use money to solve the problem. Therefore, Yao Zhixing was not the first one that they had been sent to the hospital. However, as they continued to walk by the riverside, one day, they would get their shoes wet. Once he heard what Ye Shuang had to say, the leader understood that they had gone after someone that they should not have that day.

Realizing this, the leader gritted his teeth in anger and whipped his head around to ask the rest, “What is going on?”

Most likely, not everyone had been involved in the activity that afternoon. After some hushed words, someone finally swallowed his saliva and stepped forward. He tried to be calm to show that he was not already. “Some time ago, one of our former buddies came back to have fun. He said that there has been some kid recently who has been making life difficult for him. Brother Cheng said to help him, so he told us to go together...”

“Have you guys lost your mind‽” The leader was incensed. “Which family’s son is so powerful that you have to give him face so much until you do his bidding? Is the man incapacitated or something?”

Ye Shuang shook her head to stop the man from continuing the interrogation. She ignored the man’s anger and desire to continue the investigation. “I’m not here for excuses. I said those who were involved, please step out on your own. If there are some that are missing or have been swapped, Brother Yao himself will know, so don’t try to lie to us.”

After a pause, she added, “Also is that Brother Cheng here? If he’s not, have someone bring us to him.”

The leader’s face was dark and drawn. “Sister, don’t push it...”

“But I’m here to push it.” Ye Shuang smiled and raised her finger to point at the police in the crowd. “I’m also here to dispense some lessons. Don’t think the code of brotherhood can bring you anywhere. Before this, you people dominated the road, and that is because normal people don’t have as much money as you, and they don’t have fists as large as yours. Now, I’m pushing it because my fist is larger than yours, and any single one of us here can squish you to your death with just their pinkie finger. Would you like to bet that there are more than one hundred ways for your life behind bars to be a living hell?”

Hidden experts in society, that was only referring to special skills. In terms of power, it was truly the rules of the jungle. The more powerful one was, the greater one’s name would be. This was the iron rule. There was no situation where someone was very powerful, but no one knew about them. That only happened in fiction. Since no one knew them, then this directly pointed to the fact that they had no power or connections.

If their power was large enough to be shared, everyone else would share their power. This was how connections were formed. Everyone would have fields that their influence was unable to reach, and at a time like this, they would need help and favors from others.

Unless one was able to rule the world alone, one should not think about the epic dream of ‘not showing yourself, but once you do, everyone will bow down to you.’

Why would people listen to them unconditionally simply because of their name?

Similarly, Ye Shuang dared to step on these people because she was sure that there would be no repercussions. The upper society was only so small, and everyone knew everyone.

You’re someone whom other people have no impression of, so what if I step on you?

The leader gritted his teeth and was about to say something more when the twenty or so police in the group took out their handcuffs. They stood to the side at the ready; they were not playing.

“I advise you think about this seriously.” Ye Shuang told the leader who had gone silent again. Her gaze swept the group of people. “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime. If you’re a real man, come out—don’t just hide behind others. Do you really think that the code of brotherhood is going to save you at a time like this? Don’t think that the law is unable to punish the whole group. You dare to do it but don’t dare to admit and wish to drag your brothers down with you? That’s rich.”

Then Ye Shuang turned to look at the arcade behind her and laughed. “Since I already know how to get here, fine, if you’re planning for a long fight, then we’ll do that. If we are unable to find out who did it, I’ll just assume every one of you did it. I’ll capture those that I can, and as for those that I can’t, I’ll remember to come visit you whenever I have time.”

Please don’t! The crowd felt like crying. What kind of solution is this‽

...

One hour later, with the threat and physical force of Ye Shuang, the biker gang’s leader spat out two broken front teeth and had one of his leg snapped before he surrendered. The racers finally calmed down and left. Those who were involved in the activity that afternoon were all captured and taken away. Everyone was afraid of being dragged into the mess. Knowing Yao Zhixing would confirm the people personally, no one dared to play tricks.

After leaving her legend behind in the countryside, Ye Shuang left with the rest of the racers. That Brother Cheng, Ye Shuang had a few conversations with the man before shoving him into her backseat. After she returned to her apartment and parked, Ye Shuang led the man up the elevator. She walked to Han Chu’s room and keyed in the password like it was her own home and walked in.

At the time, Han Chu was in the living room, watching a movie, waiting for the result. Anthony poked his head out from his bedroom. He had probably seen Ye Shuang on the camera or heard her voice.

“Hi!” Ye Shuang waved her hand in greeting and used her other hand to drag her captive into the room. “This is my catch today. It’s not that suitable storing a male at my place, and I’m afraid he might run away. Mind watching over him for one night?”

Brother Cheng was one of the people that had been sent into the hospital by Ye Shuang earlier that afternoon. The bikers had been so quiet that night because they had lost too much during the day. When Ye Shuang arrived at the countryside, at least half of the bikers were at the hospital. Some of them were injured, and others were there to visit. The group filled up the room with their negative energy, but none of the other patients that shared the same room dared to say anything.

Therefore, when Ye Shuang arrived to drag them away, the other patients were so touched that they had tears in their eyes. The only thing they did not do was clap to welcome Ye Shuang.

Brother Cheng and his people almost peed from the shock. In terms of familiarity with Ye Shuang’s power, no one was more familiar than these people. When they were attacked at the hospital, they should have considered themselves lucky because aid was just beside them. Furthermore, it was them who had started the whole thing. Therefore, Ye Shuang punished them with the idea that ‘as long as they still had a breath in them, it would fine’. After seeing how Ye Shuang punched the steel door until a hole was left on it, Brother Cheng’s people had almost surrendered on the spot.

However, that was not all. When their little friends brought the female terror back to the hospital at midnight, Brother Cheng realized with despair that there was no earthling who would be able to stop Ye Shuang. After they were dragged away, this group of people was already injured both physically and mentally, so they cooperated fully. The beds that they vacated were perfect for the other people in the same gang, including the leader.

Han Chu put down the remote and stood up. He walked over to study the obedient young man who had bandages all over his arms and legs. He could not help but sigh. “He’s responsible for the assault on Zhixing?”

“Tomorrow, Brother Yao will come to identify them all, so there is no way he’s going to slip away.” Ye Shuang patted the young man next to her with a kind smile. Like an old friend, she made the introduction. “Brother Han, look closer, don’t you think he’s familiar? He’s one of the people that came to the hospital this afternoon.”

Brother Cheng forced a smile that was uglier than crying. He tried his best to hold on to his pride by not collapsing to the ground.

“He does look familiar.” Han Chu managed to find something familiar on that bruised face. Then, he turned to ask Ye Shuang with a nod, “Was it them who dropped the bracelet?”

Anthony looked at the situation and bounced out of his room excitedly. He took a circle around Brother Cheng and then gave Ye Shuang a thumbs up. “So cool!”

Ye Shuang dragged the man to the living room and dropped him on the sofa. She sat down and picked through Han Chu’s snack bowl. She picked out several chocolates and chewed on them. “It was Xu Jian’s uncle who got the bracelet. The b*stard child is just a smokescreen. It was the uncle that was behind the whole thing. On one hand, he found the people to help him vent some anger, and on the other hand, he told the b*stard child that he would be able to find people to teach Brother Yao a lesson on his behalf. Then the fat lamb gave him the money, and this group of dumb bikers did the hard work. The good ol’ uncle hid at the back and dropped the bracelet to muddy the waters.”

Han Chu saw ‘Brother Cheng’ sit down next to Ye Shuang. He cleared out a clean spot on the table and silently moved the snack bowl to the other side of the table. When Ye Shuang was trying to move Brother Cheng away to get it, a laptop dropped right in the middle of the table.

“Brother Han, as serious as you may look, it’s not going to hide the fact that you’re harboring the snacks,” Ye Shuang accused sincerely.

Han Chu opened the laptop slowly like he did not hear anything. He typed on the keyboard to pull up the document. “I’ve already completed the profile on Xu Jian. His uncle, calculating from bottom up, should be a second layer management person, while Xu Jian can be considered the first layer administrative people. Xu He, forty-four, has a record of getting into fights and larceny. He disappeared for a period of time, and when he surfaced again, he was already a brand agent for an alcohol company. Then he registered for a few more companies, but honestly, they don’t look like investments because Xu He was the CEO for most of these companies. However, they look even less like they were for business. A businessman would not spread his resources so thin like a pile of sand. It was more like he was cultivating a hide-out than a business.”

“So minding holes but not business?” Ye Shuang added in the tone of a joke. She turned to look at Brother Cheng and nodded satisfactorily to see Anthony very cleverly help the man put on a pair of headphones. Even at Han Chu’s distance, he could hear the rock music drifting out from the headphone. It was guaranteed that the man was not going to overhear them.

“Indeed, they look like your typical fake company.” Han Chu nodded. “But different from other shell companies, these companies have their own accounts and business. Even though the amount was not big, from the numbers and records, they look like they were operating normally. Then, starting from the first alcohol business, in these past eight years, the Xi Hwa Organization started to drag these companies into its fold. Xu He became the manager in San Lin City, and two years later, Xu Jian joined the Xi Hwa Organization. That was followed by what happened at the An family.”

“There is no direct competition between the Xi Hwa Organization and Brother Yao, right?” Ye Shuang scratched her chin to think. “Then this is the worst scenario. Tony has already been targeted by these people.”

“I heard my name!” Anthony was interested. The large puppy drapped his upper body over Ye Shuang. “What is happening? You guys didn’t tell me anything.”

Thinking about the whole process and things that needed to be explained, Ye Shuang quickly played dead. Therefore, it was Han Chu who took out the responsibility to explain the situation. He slowly explained what had happened to Yao Zhixing that afternoon, the bracelet that he had found, and the analytical result that he made with Ye Shuang on the way home. After revealing everything without reservation, they took a whole thirty minutes to make Anthony completely understand what was happening.

“In other words... someone has already targeted me and used other people’s problems to make a smokescreen to lure me into helping with this case and use this opportunity to chase me away?” Anthony blinked his blue eyes.

Ye Shuang was finally willing to move her eyes away from the tv screen. She nodded. “That’s right. It was to create an investigation that you have to get involved in somehow. The final purpose is probably to chase you out of the country. Tony, have you been using some surveillance or hacking method recently that have been found out? I feel like if they don’t understand what you’re doing, they would not have come up with a plan like this.”

“Hmm...” Anthony dragged out his voice with an innocent face. When he realized that neither of the people there was going to let him off the hook, he had to admit with a drawn face, “I did do something bad.”

Ye Shuang revealed a face that said, I knew it.

Anthony continued, “I’ve deleted all of their encrypted documents and then replaced them with something else.”

“...Go on.” Han Chu interrogated Anthony, not letting him go.

“Well, they’re guys, right? What kind of things will they like?” Anthony tossed Han Chu a ‘well you know’ type of look, and his eyes were filled with the joy from a successful prank. “I flooded their server with one terabyte of good films. Those are such valuable finds; they should be thanking me. I’ve checked, and at least six people have downloaded those videos from that computer.”

Han Chu held his forehead and raised his eyes as he hissed through gritted teeth. “Tony, I know you like to play, but there is no reason for us to provoke the enemy to make things more difficult for us. You’re basically reminding the opponent—’Hey, you’ve already been exposed. Come get me!’ I thought only five years old kids will do something like this!”

Ye Shuang turned on the flashlight on her phone in place of a candle in solemn remembrance for the two. One was for Han Chu, who befriended a person like this, and the other was for Anthony, who was not going to survive this. He wished to let things blow over after angering Han Chu? In his dreams.

Anthony curled his head into Ye Shuang’s embrace and pretended to cry with heartbreak. “But I was so bored. These people think they’re God, so I just wanted to take them down a peg.”

Ye Shuang put down her phone and moved the large dog away from her. She turned around to ask Han Chu, “Now that we know who the culprit is, what do you plan to do?”

“Nothing.” Han Chu turned his head away from Anthony. “We’re already fighting the Xi Hwa Organization. Even without this incident, nothing would have changed. Knowing the truth means knowing who they’re targeting, but that doesn’t really change anything.”

Even though they knew Xu He was the real culprit, the man only said a few words and dropped a bracelet. Other than the biker gang that did the deed and the b*stard son that paid them off, Xu He could be said to be completely uninvolved. Yao Zhixing was unluckier, being used as a chess piece to create problems.

“We need to inform Brother Yao. At least he deserves to know the truth.” Ye Shuang sighed. “But I still think we can bring this man...”

Her chin pointed at Brother Cheng and continued, “Bring him to go meet that b*stard son. Since he is the one who started everything, we mustn’t let Xu He get too free.”

“Go after the Xi Hwa Organization’s reputation and name?” Han Chu thought about it. “Yes, that’s doable. Having more enemies against the Xi Hwa Organization is beneficial to us.”

...

Brother Cheng was bombarded by the rock music for an hour. When he was finally given his release, he was dropped inside the main bedroom’s bathroom and locked up for a night. When they woke up the next morning, everyone looked refreshed except for Brother Cheng.

When he was shoved inside the car again, Brother Cheng kept yawning, and his whole body ached. He almost pleaded with Ye Shuang to just end him, but that was just a wish. More punishment awaited him. Ye Shuang dragged the man to Yao Zhixing.

After hearing everything that had happened, Yao Zhixing looked at Brother Cheng for half a minute with his plastered hand on his chest. He stared until the man was shivering, and then he snapped his finger. “Someone, get in here.”

A bodyguard in black jumped out from the adjacent room.

Yao Zhixing nodded at Brother Cheng. “Help me undress the man.”

Brother Cheng was gripped by fear.