Yang Jian leaned back on the sofa in the barbershop, feeling a bit drowsy. He closed his eyes, preparing to doze off, when he heard Old Wu shouting from outside the door, "Xiao Yang, come out quickly, they're fighting inside."
"What's going on?"
Yang Jian jumped up and rushed out of the barbershop.
"Xiao Yang, the gambling company was cheating, and they got caught. Biao Biao and the others are fighting inside."
When Old Wu came out, he saw Biao Biao had drawn his extendable baton and thought the fight had already started.
"Old Wu, take the money and go outside to call a taxi. I'll go in and take a look."
As Yang Jian spoke, he tossed his backpack to Old Wu, pulled out his own extendable baton, and charged in. Old Wu knew he couldn't help, so he grabbed the money bag and ran towards the street corner, intending to call a taxi van.
Biao Biao and the other two were already surrounded by more than a dozen young men. These men were all armed, mostly with machetes and wooden clubs. One of them held a two-meter-long trident.
When Yang Jian entered, he saw the man with the trident about to strike, his back to him. Yang Jian immediately kicked out.
The man, caught off guard, took two steps forward but couldn't stop himself. He leaned forward, his face hitting the edge of the gambling table. He immediately fainted.
Before he could fall, Yang Jian attacked the two men next to him. Bending down, he swung his baton to the left, hitting one man's hip bone, and to the right, striking another young man's ankle. Both cried out in pain and fell to the ground almost simultaneously.
This series of blows was too fast; the others hadn't even reacted. By the time they prepared to counterattack, Yang Jian had already stepped on the ankle of the young man he had hit.
"Anyone who dares to step forward, I'll snap their neck."
Yang Jian menacingly pointed his extendable baton at the young men who were about to attack. The young man whose ankle was pinned under his foot yelped in pain, slapping the ground with his hands, clearly in agony, but unable to speak.
In this situation, no one dared to move forward.
Biao Biao quickly grabbed the gambling paraphernalia from the table and stood beside Yang Jian with Liang Liang. Song Ge was also quick-witted; he jumped off the gambling table and swept the trident in a wide arc, forcing the surrounding crowd back three meters.
"Let my brothers go, or you won't leave this room today."
A tall, thin man, about thirty years old, who looked like a monkey, stepped forward.
Yang Jian pointed his extendable baton at him. "Who are you?"
"I'm the boss of this place, Monkey. You let my brothers go, and we'll call it even. I'll let you leave."
"Call it even?"
Yang Jian sneered and looked at Biao Biao. "Tell me what happened."
Biao Biao took out the gambling tools and placed them on the table. "Brother Jian, look, they tampered with the cups to cheat."
"Boss Monkey, what do you have to say about this?"
With witnesses and evidence, Yang Jian figured he wouldn't dare deny it. While getting his hair cut, he had already learned from the young lady at the barbershop that this small casino was run by local thugs, and their boss was a drug addict who relied on this casino to support his brothers and fund his drug habit. They had no powerful backing or connections.
"What do I have to say? You injured three of my brothers. I don't want compensation. We'll consider this matter settled. You can leave."
Monkey could tell that the big guy in front of him was not to be trifled with. He had taken down three of his brothers with one move and wasn't flustered by his men. He had clearly picked a fight with the wrong person today and needed to get rid of them quickly.
"We leave? You're thinking too simply. Biao Biao, how much did we lose?"
"We lost thirty thousand today, and twenty thousand yesterday."
Biao Biao, thinking quickly, knew they had gained the upper hand and seized the opportunity to inflate the amount they had lost.
"Boss Monkey, did you hear that? We lost fifty thousand yuan in two days. Refund all our money, and we'll call it even. Otherwise, I'm not done with you."
"Impossible. You didn't lose that much. Yesterday, you lost at most two or three thousand, and today you only brought out twenty thousand. How could you have lost fifty thousand? I'll give you twenty-five thousand at most."
Monkey knew exactly how much money the Emperor Company had lost. More than half of these gamblers were his own men. The cheating was intended to target Emperor. If the gambling tools hadn't been poorly made and the scheme hadn't unraveled on the spot, this wouldn't have happened.
"Then why don't we call the police? I'll arrange for one of my brothers to go in and serve a few months, and you'll probably be sentenced to three to five years."
Yang Jian had the measure of this so-called boss. He knew the other party wouldn't dare call the police. Running a casino was already a severe offense, and using cheating devices in a casino would be considered fraud, punishable by at least five years for both crimes.
If members of the Emperor Company were caught, as long as they kept their mouths shut, denied being shareholders, and paid for some legal assistance, they would generally be sentenced to six months of detention or control, which was much lighter than the gambling company.
Unable to call the police and outmatched in a fight, Monkey was extremely frustrated. They always said a strong dragon couldn't suppress a local snake, but today he had encountered a dragon crossing the river that had suppressed him, the local snake.
"Brother, I don't have that much money. I can give you thirty thousand at most. Let my men go."
Monkey had no choice but to back down. Taking a loss would allow him to keep his establishment. If the police were called, he would really end up in jail.
"Fifty thousand. Not a penny less."
Yang Jian was not willing to compromise.
"Forty thousand. I'll have to borrow from the neighbors. I can't come up with any more. At worst, we'll fight to the death."
Seeing the other party's firm stance, Biao Biao subtly tugged Yang Jian's clothes, signaling him to accept what they could get.
"Fine, forty thousand it is. We'll take a loss."
"You."
Monkey almost spat blood with anger. They had only made a little over twenty thousand yuan, and now they had to pay back more than ten thousand, and the other party still claimed they were taking a loss. Where was the justice in that?
The dealer at the gambling company only had a little over twenty thousand yuan. Monkey went out to borrow more money.
He returned ten minutes later, having scraped together forty thousand, and handed it to Yang Jian.
Yang Jian handed the money to Liang Liang to count it and check for counterfeit bills. Counterfeit bills were common in gambling establishments, and Liang Liang, having spent more time in casinos, could distinguish genuine from fake bills by touch.
Liang Liang counted the money at an extremely fast pace. It took him less than thirty seconds to count ten thousand yuan, and the entire forty thousand yuan in just over a minute. There were no counterfeit bills.
"You guys go first. I'll cover the rear."
Yang Jian grabbed the young man whose ankle he had pinned, choked him by the neck, and retreated towards the door.
Biao Biao and the other two did not retreat too far, ready to counterattack and reinforce Yang Jian at any moment.
"Xiao Yang, get in the car."
Old Wu appeared at the crucial moment. He had called a van and driven it directly to the entrance of the casino, turning it around.
Seeing Biao Biao and the others get into the car, Yang Jian pushed the young man he was holding to the ground and also got into the van.
Watching the van speed away, Monkey led his men in a half-hearted pursuit for a few steps before finally returning dejectedly. He still had to send three of his brothers to the hospital. They were seriously injured and would require a large sum of money. To use a local idiom: this time they had lost big, trying to steal a chicken but ending up losing the rice.