Chapter 565: Rules Are Rules

Inside an alley across the street from the bar, the waitress who wore an overcoat stood, hidden by the darkness of the alley.

She watched as Chen Xiaolian and Soo Soo rushed out from the bar.

Chen Xiaolian stood at the doorway of the bar and surveyed his surroundings before running to the junction on the south side. Soo Soo followed close behind him. The two of them turned into the junction and disappeared.

A disdainful smile appeared on the waitress’ face.

She pulled out a mobile phone from the pocket of her overcoat and called the first number on her list of contacts.

The other end quickly picked up.

“Boss, someone is causing trouble… … they saw the painting in the bar. Mm… … an Asian, young, male. He also has a minor, a little girl with him. She is also Asian. Yes, both of them.”

A pause. What the other person said remained unknown, but the waitress’ face looked solemn. “Yes! I will be careful.” The waitress then said in a hesitant manner, “Should I get some men to make ‘contact’ with them? There is no need to worry, I will tell them to go soft on them. Maybe we will be able to get some information from them. Eh… … yes! I understand! I will not act rashly. Err… … what? Right now? Yes, I will be heading out right now! Understood! I… …”

After saying that, the waitress checked her watch and said, “I will be there in 15 minutes.”

She then ended the call and wiped off the cold sweat on her forehead. Next, she made another call. This time, she spoke with a more arrogant tone. “Hey! I am just opposite the bar. Come fetch me right now.”

After hanging up, the waitress pulled out a packet of cigarette for women and lit one up. She then leaned against the wall and puffed.

In less than two minutes, a black coloured luxury limousine turned into the street through the junction and quietly came to a halt before the woman. She had not even finished the cigarette in her hand.

A beefy Caucasian man stepped out from the driver’s seat. Although he wore a suit, he exuded an unrefined atmosphere. Part of a flame tattoo could be seen on his neck.

The man made his way beside the woman and quietly opened the car door for her. Like a prideful peacock, the waitress tossed the cigarette butt to the ground and stepped into the limousine.

Everything that happened here…

Unknown to the waitress, up above her, on the rooftop of the four-storey building, Chen Xiaolian had one foot on the edge of the rooftop while he leaned forward. He silently observed everything.

There were hints of a sneer on the corners of his lips. He had been listening in on her since the woman began making her first phone call.

Soo Soo stood right behind him and muttered, “I told you, she was lying.”

Chen Xiaolian kept watch. As the limousine began moving away, he quickly retrieved an item from his Storage Watch. Next, he put some force behind his hand and hurled the item down.

With a swooshing sound, an item flew down and gently latched onto the back part of the limousine. The item looked like a piece of metal. However, it quickly transformed into a metal insect, which slowly crawled to the bottom part of the limousine and disappeared from view.

…

The limousine made its way through the city of Bucharest, ignoring any traffic light it encountered as it simply sped its way past them.

Ten minutes later, it stopped at a seemingly remote street.

While there was no one on the sidewalk, luxury cars of various brands lined both sides of the street.

The beefy Caucasian driver got down and pulled open the rear door of the limousine, allowing the waitress to step out. By the time the waitress stepped out from the limousine, she had already changed her clothes.

The overcoat she wore over her person was no more. The same was true of the bar work attire she wore underneath the overcoat. She now wore a burgundy coloured dress, which hugged her body. The edge of the skirt was just three inches above her knee. Her dress had a low-cut design, which put the woman’s magnificent body shape in full view. Her two peachy…

Despite all that, the beefy driver did not look at her. Instead, he had his head lowered.

The woman walked along the sidewalk, her hips swaying as she did so. Looking at her from the back gave birth to an alluring and sensual atmosphere, which was further magnified by the pair of high heels she now wore.

She had also redone her makeup and placed a layer of fiery red lipstick across her lips.

She walked before an iron door and gently pressed the doorbell. A small slide window on the door slid open to reveal a violent looking face that was full of scars.

However, once the person saw who was standing outside, the face quickly took on a fawning expression and he quickly pulled open the iron door.

The man with the scarred face wore a suit as well and he bowed to greet the woman. As he was bowing, the gun on his waist belt became revealed.

The woman simply strutted in with a prideful demeanour.

The iron door was quickly shut and the woman continued walking inside. After a few steps, a second door opened up for her. A deafeningly loud heavy metal music greeted her.

It was an underground nightclub.

The air was almost suffocating. The mingled scents of tobacco, woman’s cosmetics, perfume and various other indescribable scents greeted her.

The woman subconsciously covered her nose.

The entrance to this underground nightclub was on a metal platform. On either side of the metal railings were two stairs leading down into a large dance floor.

Various spotlights and LEDs flashed about. On the stage up front was a young man who had painted his face to the point of becoming unrecognizable. He held onto a microphone and roared into it, singing a certain death metal rock song. Beneath the stage was a chaotic dancing crowd, consisting of both males and females, all of whom were writhing their bodies furiously on the dance floor – it almost seemed as though there were no normal people in here. Most of the men and women here were dressed in heavy metal punk style. They wore black eye shadow and black lipstick, making the place look like a vampire party.

On either sides of the dance floor were two small tables. A vertical metal pole rose up from the middle of each table. On top of the tables were two naked women with tattoo all over their bodies. The two women struck various seductive poses while staying close to the metal poles.

The woman walked forward, her hips swaying as she crossed the dance floor. Wherever she went, the people there would back away in fear. Despite her highly risqué attire and her alluring way of walking, none of the men there dared to reach their hands out at her. Instead, they did their best to distance themselves from her.

The woman walked to the left most part of the dance floor, circling around the stage before stepping through a small door.

Inside was a passageway leading to another iron door. Beyond the iron door were several men in leather attire. They wore nose rings, earrings, lip rings and others of the like. They also had guns holstered within their waist belts.

When they saw the woman entering, they all greeted her before closing the iron door.

The woman continued walking inside, through the passageway and down a stairs. At the end of the stairs was another iron door. Likewise, around five gun-wielding men also guarded this door.

She made her way past the third door. In the end, a wooden door waited for her.

Not a trace of the din from the nightclub could be heard here.

Standing before the door, this woman who had had a haughty bearing about her all this time, took a deep breath. As though putting on a magic trick, her face suddenly took on a reverent and cautious expression. After that, she slowly reached out with her hand to push open the door.

Opening the door, she saw by a Chinese-styled four-panel divider.

The room beyond the dividers was large. On either side of the room was a Bogu shelf filled with various types of antiques. A double-edged Chinese sword hung from the wall in the middle of the room. A few guqin were placed on a table there.

Surprisingly, there were four people playing mah-jong before a square table in the middle of the room.

Several other men stood on two sides of the mah-jong table. On the left were some young men with punkish looks. They all sported arrogant looks on their faces and had guns hanging down their waists.

On the right were several fellows in suits. They exuded a cold and murderous atmosphere – likewise, they too had guns inside their suits.

At the mah-jong table, sitting with his back against the door was an old man in retro Tang suit. On the left was a punk man with thick smoky eye shadows and makeup. His feet tapped the floor as he used one hand to arrange the tiles. A handgun rested beside his hand.

On his opposite was a Caucasian man in a very flashy green coloured suit. He was immaculately clean and his moustache was well trimmed. He observed the mah-jong tiles laid out before him as he wiped his hands with a hand towel.

In the final, central position was…

A young woman.

The woman from the bar quickly made her way to the young woman’s back. Bowing, she then whispered to the young woman. “Boss, I am here.”

Phoenix looked up with what appeared to be a smile.

At this very moment, Chen Xiaolian would certainly be incapable realizing that this woman was the very same Phoenix who had fought alongside him before.

Phoenix wore a retro Tang attire with opened lapels, her long, straight and black hair flowed down. Her delicate fingers were casually arranging the tiles before her.

“About the matter I reported earlier…”

The woman had wanted to continue, but Phoenix interrupted her. Phoenix smiled and said, “Which one should I discard?”

“Eh?” The woman was taken aback.

Phoenix said coolly, “I asked you which one to discard.”

The woman adjusted her emotions and cast a serious look at Phoenix’s tiles. Then, she extended one hand to point – it was an East Wind tile. Judging by the tiles in Phoenix’s possession, that tile appeared to be the most useless one.

Phoenix smiled in response and said, “This is why I never ask you to play.”

Phoenix did not discard the tile that the woman had pointed out. Instead, she quickly discarded another tile. The man in suit pursed his lips to the side and casually discarded a tile. It was none other than an East Wind tile.

The moment he discarded the tile, the punk fellow opposite him laughed out. He began stacking his tiles and said, “It seems I won!”

The woman who was standing behind Phoenix immediately revealed a slightly twisted expression – just now, if boss had listened to me and discarded the East Wind, it would have ended with a ‘blast’.[1]

However, the expression on the man in suit was even worse. He grunted and wiped his hand with the hand towel again. Next, he quickly pushed out a tile. “Just one win.”

“If you are willing to make a bet, you must be willing to accept the loss.” The punk man sneered. “By dawn, the street in the west side will no longer be under the name Gail!”

“What did you say?!” Behind the man in the suit, a subordinate of his, also in a suit, shouted out with a flushed face.

Following his roar, the atmosphere on both sides grew tense and all of them pulled out their guns to point at each other.

The old man in retro Tang suit released a cough before nervously backing away. He observed the tense scene, his eyes blinking.

Phoenix seemingly ignored all of that. Casually, she continued to choose another tile, seemingly ignorant of the tense atmosphere before her. After picking up her fifth tile from the wall, she sighed. “Just a little bit more and it would have been self-picked victory.” [2]

Only then did she raise her head and seemingly took note of what was happening before her. Her beautiful features knitted up and she said coolly, “Although I had only taught you fellows mah-jong for a short time, I do not recall teaching anything about showing off guns while playing.”

The punk man clenched his teeth and said, “Miss Phoenix, this is because someone is trying to deny a loss.”

The man in suit snorted in response. “I did not try to deny it. Your men were simply too rude.”

The two of them stared at each other like fighting cocks and Phoenix sighed. “What a mood breaker.”

She calmly looked at everyone there and said, “Just now, who was the first to pull out their guns?”

The room fell silent as no one dared to answer.

Phoenix smiled. “So, there are people who dare to ignore my question?”

“… … it, it is, my men.” The punk man trembled. Behind him, one of his subordinates raised his hand, his face pale. He stuttered. “It, it, it is me, Miss Phoenix. Ss, sorry, I…”

“Rules are rules.” Phoenix’s face was one of extreme calmness.

Instantly, two robust looking men walked into the room. They turned their attention toward the fellow in question and said, “Please come with us for a moment.”

The young punk man turned to his boss pleadingly. However, all his boss could do was to grit his teeth; not a word came out from his mouth.

One minute later, another man walked in with a silver plate in hand.

On the silver plate was a freshly cut hand!

…

1 Mah-jong terminology. The tile you discarded is a tile someone else picked up to complete a hand. Do note that I am quite in the dark about mah-jong myself.↩

2 Another mah-jong terminology. Self-picked victory (zi mo) happens when you win in mah-jong using tiles you picked yourself and not tiles picked up from those that others discarded. Wall refers to the group of tiles laid in the middle of the mah-jong table.↩