The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

Chapter 155

155 Group’s Burden

Emma was extremely mad at how dirty the way Creeper scammed people were. It felt like this was the first time she’d swear so much. But the tall girl beside her could understand that.

Rachel nodded, “It seems that my grandpa has also been trapped. It seems that he has made his employment contract as collateral, because I saw that our house and other building documents are still there. Those are the last assets we have. He wouldn’t dare to touch it.”

“If they did withhold the employment contracts of the employees, those papers are the same as their property. Even if the Creepers were defeated in the end, while they still have the contracts, that means they still have as many cows as one farm for them to milk.” Emma muttered.

“So what should we do next, Emma? From the large dorm building next to their office, it looks like the group has a lot of strong members.” Rachel said.

“That’s true.” Emma nodded. “And actually, they’re stronger than that, Rachel. While going to the toilet earlier, apart from checking the air vent, I discovered something even bigger.”

Rachel’s brows furrowed, “What’s that?”

“The leader of the Creeper is a man named Lee Mu Fei. I found this large painting there, and luckily, the man appeared while I was there.” Emma showed Rachel the picture on her cell phone, “From what I heard, the Creeper still has another big branch headed by someone named Oscar. The base is at Greenvalley Street. It seems that Lee Mu Fei and Oscar’s relationship isn’t very good, as they are fighting over members to guard their respective areas.”

“Why would they do that?” Rachel asked confusedly.

“Ah.. Looks like I have to explain to you a few things to make things clear.” Emma said.

.....

Then, Emma explained to Rachel everything about the gangsters of Handway City she knew. Even Emma also told about the involvement of Calvin Lee, Troy Roner who was the leader of the Jita Kyoei group, and Marcel Douglas who was the leader of RJC.

“So.. RJC and the Creeper are enemies?” Rachel repeated.

Emma nodded, “Those two groups are both blindly enlarging their groups, recruiting members of the martial arts studio. That’s what made Jita Kyoei’s group angry and finally teamed up with Calvin Lee to stop the groups.”

“Aren’t you friends with Calvin Lee?” Rachel asked.

Emma nodded with a gloomy face, “That’s why I’m so confused right now. Actually, besides being friends with Calvin Lee and Troy, I’m also friends with Marcel Douglas, even knowing his grandmother too. Even though they don’t know that I am Black, of course, I just can’t see one of them breaking.”

“Hmm.. That is confusing,” Rachel muttered. “But.. If indeed RJC recruits new members because they are threatened by the Creeper, won’t they stop doing that if the Creeper falls? If that happens, the feud between RJC and Jita Kyoei probably would stop.” She continued thoughtfully.

“That has a point. So to say the least, the Creeper is actually the source of the problem.” Emma nodded.

“But can we defeat them with our strength? From your story and what I witnessed myself, that group is powerful.” Rachel said.

“Actually, I already have a plan, Rachel. The first thing we should do is.. make Lee Mu Fei and Oscar fight each other.” Emma smiled.

***

Greenvalley was an ordinary street with a few closed shop buildings. From the start, the street did not have a strategic location, so the land price was much cheaper than Bluevalley and Redvalley.

Why did Greenvalley have such a non-strategic location? That was because the location of the street was quite far behind its two siblings. Actually, Greenvalley Street shouldn’t exist. However, after a paper company built its factory around the area, a large wall was built separating the two areas.

When the Chingsu Paper area was under construction, there was a dispute between the company and residents who objected to the factory construction. In the end, Chingsu Paper bribed the Handway City government to permit them to build a big wall to separate their area from the locals’ area.

A big road was cut off by the standing wall. The road was eventually made into Greenvalley Street so as not to become an empty area. But unfortunately, Greenvalley became a location that squeezed between the giant wall and Bluevalley-and-Redvalley Streets in front of it.

In the past, the Redvalley and Bluevalley Streets were controlled by Apollo. Apollo never wanted to glance at the Greenvalley Sreet which had no potential at all for their business. Finally, a group decided to sit in the squeezed street. The group was called the Creeper.

A white-painted building that had begun to turn to be yellowish stood in the middle of Greenvalley Street. It was a three-floor building with many motorbikes parked on the vacant lot next to it. From a distance, three black cars could be seen speeding and stopping in front of the building.

A group of men ran out of the building and formed a straight line. They immediately bowed their bodies deeply towards the centre, where the leader would walk past them.

One man ran to the passenger door of the car and opened it. Even, the other men who were in the front and back cars also ran down and formed a line to bow respectfully.

From the passenger door of the car, a dashing man in a dark blue suit showed up. He had an intimidating sharp pair of eyes. He walked with steady steps, into the headquarters building.

On the top floor was the largest room with many luxurious interiors and furniture in it. The owner of the room was at the door of his luxurious room, waiting for his colleague who was visiting.

“Afei. How are you?” Oscar Chopper greeted. He was a man with brown hair and a thin beard along his jaw.

Lee Mu Fei or who was familiarly called Afei, only smiled briefly at his comrade in arms. Then, he pointed to the door of the room behind Oscar’s back, “We’d better go in now. I just don’t have much time.”

The two men entered Oscar Chopper’s office, leaving their respective bodyguards outside the door. Indeed, they both showed relaxed expressions on their faces, but actually, an aura of tension was strongly felt.

“So you need additional men?” Afei asked as he took a sip of the rice wine Oscar had poured for him.

Oscar nodded once, taking a sip of the liquor as well, “We’re in trouble. Lately, there have been a lot of impromptu superheroes appeared. They have overwhelmed my men.” he explained.

“Is that so?” Afei placed his wine glass on the table in front of him, “I understand the problem you’re facing. But I sent a hundred men for you just two weeks ago. Is that still not enough?”

“It’s not enough, Afei. It’s not enough,” Oscar replied. Then he sighed, “Due to the increasingly difficult conditions, I started aiming for Bluevalley and Redvalley streets. But it turns out that their defences are already very great. RJC seems to have wiped out all the martial arts studios’ students in Handway City.”

“Besides.. If you recruit those students too, of course, we need funds to do it, right?” Afei was seen playing with his glass mouth.

Oscar secretly gulped. Finally, due to a lack of funds, he borrowed money from the central Creeper led by Lee Mu Fei to recruit stronger men when the Black Harvest Day program didn’t run smoothly. Now, when the armour-skinned man talked about it, he felt a shudder of fear in his heart. Because Oscar knew that he wasn’t a strong man like Afei. He was a weak man with a cunning brain. That was what kept him alive to this day.

Even though he was intimidated by Lee Mu Fei, Oscar Chopper had one weapon that he had always used.

“Well.. Things have been getting tougher since the Black Hole started acting up again. But, shouldn’t we be grateful that we’re still in the ranks of the undefeated big group? Every time I look in the mirror, I feel like it all just happened yesterday. The time when there was no Creeper in Handway City. At the time, I was working behind a computer and busy contacting suppliers.” Oscar remembered. Then, he looked at Afei with an innocent face, “Don’t you still remember it, Afei?”

The sharp-eyed man stared at Oscar for a long moment before replying in an even tone, “You know I won’t forget it, don’t you?”

Oscar laughed and nodded as he again poured the rice wine into his comrade’s glass, “I didn’t say you’d forget. You know how I like nostalgia,” he said. “Ah.. If only we didn’t have to separate locations like this, still leading the same place as before. Surely it wouldn’t feel this heavy. But.. Of course, I have to think about how to protect the kingdom we have built so hard together.” he continued.

“I can only give one hundred more men. Nothing more than that,” Afei said after Oscar kept his mouth shut from such unimportant small talk.

Oscar smiled sweetly. In his heart, he was satisfied that Afei complied with his request again, “Although it may not be enough, indeed, I will use it as well as I could. Thank you, Afei.”

“I hope you can take care of all your men so that they can become strong and useful. The source of the Creeper’s strength only comes from my men. We can’t keep depending from one side.” Afei replied before finishing a shot of his rice wine in one gulp. In fact, he was already very done with Oscar’s performance.

“Actually, I also remember when those men were still under my feet too,” Oscar muttered under his breath, pretending to cough. He immediately pulled a bottle of whiskey from the table and drank it straight from the mouth of the bottle. “Ah... Sorry, I choked. I’m not used to rice wine.” he said with a chuckle. Basically, Oscar’s this way attitude meant that he didn’t respect Lee Mu Fei.