Super Zoo-Chapter 728 - 714 Shenghe Jixiang_2

"Why does he need the money?" asked the young officer, taken aback.

"Don't be so naive," Mr. Bing said, patting the young officer's cap in frustration, "Do you really think the Shenghe leaders simply promote the most deserving? It all comes down to who has more men, more money, who gives them larger red envelopes, and who can cover them, that's who they let be the local spokesperson. If Jixiang doesn't make money, how can he support a bunch of underlings and make offerings to the leaders above?"

"I see," the young officer muttered reluctantly, "A bunch of social scum, they should have been cleaned up long ago."

"Can you ever really clean them up? Do you think there hasn't been an attempt? Let me tell you, in the '70s, the Independent Commission Against Corruption was established. In '89, the British Government sent 20,000 officers directly into Longcheng. In '94, the British Government organized a large-scale operation across the territory..." Mr. Bing recounted several major crackdowns on gangsters by the police in Xiangjiang's history as if reciting an inventory and then spread his hands out, saying, "What was the result? The gangsters are still around. Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes. With millions in Xiangjiang and billions globally, do you expect everyone to be a law-abiding good citizen? Not even Jesus could achieve that. After the handover, the situation has greatly improved; at least there are no longer large gang activities that affect social order. Many groups have now turned to legitimate business... Youngsters these days haven't lived through the pre-handover era when police officers would go off duty and the gangsters ruled, when right and wrong were completely inverted..."

"So, we're just going to do nothing?" the young officer frowned and asked.

"The commissioner has given the word, as long as they don't cause too much of a fuss, we should leave these people a way out, a means to survive. If you take a stand now, you're challenging Shenghe and breaking their rules; they won't cooperate with us later on. Thank you!" Ming said, shaking his head, taking the cups of milk tea from the server, and giving one to the young officer, "All right, don't overthink it. Slowly finish this milk tea and then we can go out. By then, it will be all peace and quiet again."

The young officer took the milk tea and set it aside, still somewhat unwillingly said, "But those tourists from the mainland are going to be unlucky, right? It's clear to me that it's Jixiang's men causing trouble. If we don't do anything, Jixiang will surely extort a sum from them in the end."

"You know they are tourists from the mainland. Jixiang may be arrogant but he's not stupid; he wouldn't dare do something to them in broad daylight. Rest assured, there have been many conflicts between tourists visiting Xiangjiang and the locals over the years, and even if there is extortion, it ends up being settled by the tourism department, nothing to do with us," Ming explained.

Having said that, Mr. Bing leaned back in his chair, leisurely raised his cup of milk tea, took a sip, and then miserably spat out a few black balls, complaining, "Ugh, I said no pearls! It's all chemicals, bad for your health..."

...

"Jixiang your mother, to actually get intimidated in your own turf, don't even say you're with me, I don't want to die of embarrassment!" Jixiang barked aggressively, pointing at the parking valet.

"You might have misunderstood, we didn't intimidate anyone, he was just parking..." Hou Longtao interjected from the side.

"Shut up, did I talk to you?" Jixiang waved his hand impatiently, cutting off Hou Longtao. His gaze swept across the crowd until it fixated on Suming, who was clearly the leader of the three.

He was about as tall as Lin Mu, towering seven or eight centimeters over Suming, looking down from above with a rebellious glare, rudely interrogating, "What are you three circling around my brother for, huh? Trying to outnumber us?"

Suming furrowed his brows and before he could speak, Jixiang placed two fingers between his lips and let out a shrill whistle.

The street, bustling with traffic and not too wide, regularly saw two-way bike lanes, with people weaving through. Being a business district, there were shops of all kinds on both sides of the road, one after another, including various restaurants, banquet halls, KTVs, and other places that required valet parking services.

At the sound of the whistle, the valets working along most of the street converged from all directions towards Jixiang's location.

In a moment, the narrow road was blocked tight, dozens of parking valets encircling Suming and his two companions in the middle, their arms folded, some wearing cold smiles, some looking savage, all staring at the trio with unfriendly expressions.

Seeing this, the faces of Lin Mu and Hou Longtao changed slightly. This was indeed like something out of the gang tales, as if they were in a movie.

The three of them, no matter how good at fighting, couldn't possibly take on dozens of hoodlums. The others didn't need to lift a finger; just by their numbers, they could crush the three under their weight.

Lin Mu and Hou Longtao were well aware that this was no movie set. If a real fight broke out, even with surveillance cameras all around, with the crowd this dense, it'd be hard to pinpoint who struck, and their side would suffer for nothing.

Settling street disputes was often better handled by streetwise people. Many in Lin Mu's film crew had deep connections with the underworld. He pulled out his phone, about to make a call, when Jixiang snatched it away and tossed it into a nearby trash bin.

Infuriated, Lin Mu was about to charge forward when Suming stopped him.

"Come on, outnumber us!" Jixiang flipped Suming the middle finger with a venomous sneer. "Open your eyes and look around, this is Causeway Bay. The whole street is under Shenghe's protection. Where are you from? You think you can compete with me here in numbers? My boys will trample you into the mud within minutes!"

Suming looked around, then cracked a slight smile. Calmly, he said, "I'm not involved with any place, and I don't know about any Shenghe. As far as I'm aware, this street should be under the jurisdiction of the Xiangjiang Special Administrative Region government. Now, whatever it is you want to do, just say it."

Suming had already realized that they didn't just make such a big scene for the sake of showing off; they must have had an ulterior motive.

"What's the matter? Nothing's the matter," Jixiang laughed, then turned to the valet who had competed for the parking spot and said, "Daozai, you're just a valet, not a gangster, you can't fight back, just stand there and don't move. Let our friend from the mainland have his fun..."

After speaking, his eyes suddenly turned sharp as he pointed at Lin Mu and enunciated every word: "You said you were going to hit my brother. When you're mixed up in this world, you need to be honorable. If you said you're going to hit, you better hit! I'll give you the chance today. If you don't take a swing, none of you are leaving!"