air armrests.
He said, his tone even blander, “Then maybe you should look at something else in the afternoon.”

“I’m going to.
There’s no signal here, but I can still play single-player mahjong, so that’s my plan for the afternoon,” Shi Jin announced happily.
Willing to share his happiness, he suggested, “Jun-shao, you can also play mahjong during the meeting break.
I brought a portable battery, do you want it?”

Lian Jun decided not to talk to him for the time being, fearing that he might reveal some flaws due to anger, and they were being watched.

Since he didn’t get a response, Shi Jin opened his mouth to ask again, but Gua One finally couldn’t endure.
He put a hand on the teenager’s shoulder and pulled him back, taking over the wheelchair handles.
He gave Gua Two a glance saying “look after him,” then pushed Lian Jun a little faster.

Gua Two caught the “baggage” thrown at him and put a hand over Shi Jin’s mouth.

Shi Jin felt he was being attacked and twisted, trying to jab his fingers into Gua Two’s eyes.

A bit rowdy, the group moved toward the restaurant for lunch.
Unexpectedly, Phantom’s boss chased after them, calling Lian Jun’s name.

Lian Jun gestured for Gua One to stop and glanced at Old Ghost and Fei Yujing, who approached rapidly.
His gaze pausing on the lawyer, he asked, “Do you need me for something, Old Ghost?”

“I want to have lunch with you,” the man replied matter-of-factly, but his fingers formed a “9”.

“9,” nine, Nine Eagles.

Lian Jun saw it and nodded.
“Come on, then.
This is?”

“Fei Yujing, the lawyer I invited.
My business had some problems recently, and several of my deputies were caught up in it.
He’s here to help solve it,” Old Ghost explained and made introductions.
“And this is Lian Jun, the leader of Annihilation.”

Fei Yujing offered his hand to Lian Jun, his manner polite and respectful: “Pleased to meet you.”

Lian Jun shook his hand but didn’t say anything in reply.
He nodded then signaled Gua One to continue pushing him to the restaurant.

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Old Ghost was surprised—just now, Lian Jun very obviously gave Fei Yujing the cold shoulder, but Lian Jun was by no means the kind of person who would be rude to someone he met for the first time.
He frowned then asked, voice low, “Have you met Lian Jun before?”

“I haven’t.” Fei Yujing shook his head, never moving his eyes away from Shi Jin, who tried very hard to pretend his brother was nothing more than a part of the background scenery.
He pondered for a moment.
“Mr.
Lian’s attitude should be because of certain personal reasons.
Don’t worry, it won’t affect your business.”

Old Ghost had complete confidence in him, so these words succeeded in reassuring him, and he inquired no more.

The group entered a box.

Shi Jin felt Fei Yujing’s gaze on him from time to time and continued to pretend not to notice.
He sat at the far end of the table with Gua Nine, eating quietly.

Since Phantom’s leader was present, everyone was on their best behavior.
Nobody spoke, except for Lian Jun, Old Ghost, and Fei Yujing.

After exchanging the usual pleasantries, Old Ghost finally got to the point.

“My business in the southeast has gone wrong, and it’s confirmed Nine Eagles had their hands in it.
Nine Eagles’ leader, Zuo Yang, is ambitious—what he wants is not your position, but a position higher than yours.
According to my information, he already took control of several local organizations, that’s why my business went belly up.
The southeast is getting more and more chaotic.
Though Nine Eagles stirred up trouble for me, I have no intention of fighting it out with them.
Not being able to do business is fine, however, I must protect my people, I can’t abandon them.”

Lian Jun’s finger tapped on the wheelchair armrest.
“So?”

“So I hired Mr.
Fei and prepared to leave the underworld.
I’ll use financial crimes as a pretext and ask the authorities to use official channels to let my people be extradited back to the country.
This is the safest way I can think of.” Old Ghost explained his plan frankly and without reserve, his attitude sincere.

Lian Jun, likely having already guessed the other leader’s purpose in coming to him, said, “Old Ghost, you can’t be this naive.
It’s Nine Eagles and the local organizations who grabbed your people, what’s more, across the border—the official hand doesn’t stretch that far.”

Old Ghost replied, “It indeed doesn’t, but yours does.”

This was a request for help.

Gua One and Gua Two shot the man a glance then their gazes returned to their plates as if nothing happened.

Lian Jun didn’t respond.
The atmosphere became somewhat oppressive for a while.
It was obvious Old Ghost was impatient, but he managed to keep it in check and didn’t urge Lian Jun to give him an immediate answer.

“Excuse me—who is that, if I may be so bold to ask?” Fei Yujing, quiet until now, suddenly spoke up.
He looked straight at Shi Jin, who was engrossed in gnawing a spare rib.

Like one, everyone at the table raised their heads and turned to stare at the teenager.

Shi Jin, suddenly finding himself at the center of attention, froze mid-chew, spare rib in his mouth.
He glanced at Fei Yujing, then at Lian Jun, his expression innocent.

“His my subordinate, code name Gua Four,” Lian Jun answered, looking at Fei Yujing.
“Why, is Mr.
Fei interested in my subordinates?”

Fei Yujing looked away from Shi Jin and replied lightly, “A bit.
I haven’t seen someone eat in such a ‘special’ way for a long time.
It’s an experience.”

His words implied Shi Jin’s way of eating was unsightly.

Shi Jin spit out the bone, wiped his lips with a napkin, then retorted, “I didn’t expect Mr.
Fei to have such meager experience—I would’ve thought someone so worldly has seen people wholeheartedly enjoying their meal more than once.
I guess the long decades of his life must have been exceptionally bitter.
Jun-shao, it seems the way I eat disturbs Mr.
Fei.
Would you like me to leave?”

“No need.” Lian Jun stopped him, his tone faint.
“Gua Three, let the staff prepare another table for Mr.
Fei.”

Gua Three set down his chopsticks and got up.

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The others focused on their meal as if they’d heard nothing.

Old Ghost hadn’t expected the situation to become like this.
Seeing that Lian Jun really intended to have Fei Yujing sit at another table, he hurriedly took on the role of a peacemaker: he appeased Shi Jin with a few sentences and stood up to try to stop Gua Three.

Lian Jun could embarrass Fei Yujing but couldn’t do the same to Old Ghost, so he allowed Gua Three to come back.
However, his attitude became colder.

Shi Jin stuffed another spare rib in his mouth, looking at his brother provocatively.

Fei Yujing returned his stare, not at all embarrassed.
On the contrary, his expression was contemplative.

Later, Old Ghost tried to pick up the previous topic, but Lian Jun wasn’t willing to play along and avoided it with great finesse.
Yet, the matter must’ve been truly urgent—as lunch came to an end, Phantom’s leader suddenly fell silent.
Then, apparently having decided to go for broke, he said, “Jun-shao, if you help me this once, I can help you get rid of Nine Eagles.”

This was a huge sacrifice.
Phantom kept a low profile and never provoked trouble if it could help it.
Now, to obtain a favor from Lian Jun, its leader practically offered to become his pawn.

Yet Lian Jun remained indifferent.
“I don’t care about Nine Eagles.”

All his entreaties ignored, Old Ghost was getting visibly testy.
Abruptly, Fei Yujing broke the silence again.
“I’m sorry,” he said towards Shi Jin.

Shi Jin blinked, unable to understand what the hell his brother was playing at.
And, to his surprise, he saw his progress bar drop back to 550.

Lian Jun looked at Fei Yujing and finally eased up a bit.
He said, “Old Ghost, I can deliver your message to the authorities and ask them to cooperate with your plan, but I won’t help you with the southeast.
Your brothers’ lives are important—my brothers’ lives are equally important.”

At first, Old Ghost’s expression turned happy, but by the end of Lian Jun’s words, it became a frown again.
He remained silent for a while then gritted his teeth and forced out, “Actually, there is another reason why I was targeted by Nine Eagles.”

The man was finally willing to come clean.

Inexplicably, the atmosphere became less tense.
Lian Jun leaned back in his wheelchair.
“Speak.”

Seeing his attitude, how could Old Ghost not realize who lost their psychological war? He sighed inwardly, accepting his defeat, and said, “My subordinates discovered Nine Eagles was looking for the doctor that used to work for you and found a clue in the southeast.”

The atmosphere changed the instant these words left his mouth.
Gua One and others could not help sitting up straight and staring at Old Ghost.

“Keep eating.” Lian Jun knocked on the table.

Everyone took control of their emotions and continued to eat and chat as if everything was normal, though actually, all of their attention was on Phantom’s leader.

Shi Jin also looked at Old Ghost with a slight frown.
His intuition told him the doctor the man mentioned had something to do with the state of Lian Jun’s body, and his heart tightened.

The strange atmosphere made Old Ghost a bit unnerved, and he straightforwardly revealed all he knew: “After discovering Nine Eagles’ movements, I ordered my subordinates to pay attention to them.
They followed their trail to a small, not well-known hospital.
On the surface, it seems to be just an old community hospital, but it’s actually used by a local organization as a place to store goods.
The doctor who betrayed you has been hiding there all these years.
He had plastic surgery and changed his identity—if Nine Eagles hadn’t been watching him, I would’ve never found him suspicious.”

Lian Jun calmly listened to the whole thing then asked, “What happened to him?”

Old Ghost clenched his fists.
“He was taken away by Nine Eagles after my subordinates tried to approach him.”

The atmosphere at the table changed again.
No one here was a fool—they were clear what Phantom’s leader’s intentions had been.
The “approach” he mentioned wasn’t just getting in contact with that person, but an attempt to snatch him from Nine Eagles’ hands.
As for his purpose—needless to say, it was the same as that of Nine Eagles.
They both wanted to use the man against Annihilation or Lian Jun.

Unfortunately, Phantom wasn’t strong enough; not only did they fail at the grab but also suffered Nine Eagles’ retaliation.
Now, they were driven out of the southeast where they advanced two years ago, and Old Ghost had no other recourse but to come to the man he was scheming against to ask for help.
This behavior was nothing if not contemptible.
It was no wonder he was reluctant to disclose the whole truth—forget helping him save his people, he would be lucky if Lian Jun didn’t kill him.

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