Chapter 77: Dealing With The Aftermath
Wei Changan stared at Chen Chuan for a while before sucking in a deep breath to calm down. Then, he smiled and gave him a nod. “You did great, Chen Chuan!”
He had wanted to help, but soon realized that he might not be able to butt into their fight. If he joined recklessly, he might just end up dragging Chen Chuan down. So, he stayed where he was.
Wei Changan started giving out orders. “Send the injured to the cars. Treat the ones who can be saved and send them to the nearest clinics!”
Cai Si forced his way through to them, and Wei Changan said to him, “Fourth, go and stabilize Scar Face’s condition. Make sure he doesn’t die. We still need his testimony.”
Cai Si nodded and immediately went off to carry out his task.
Wei Changan then gave a few more orders. As he made arrangements, everyone regained their sense of direction and started working. Some people had been unwilling to accept Wei Changan’s leadership before the start of the operation, but things had changed. They all behaved, because he showed his worth by making the operation a success.
More than that, it meant that Wei Changan’s position in the company would change a lot.
Once Wei Changan gave all his instructions, he brought Chen Chuan to the side and patted his shoulder as he sighed. “It’s all thanks to you this time, Chen Chuan.”
“I’m part of the mission. This is what I should do,” Chen Chuan replied.
Wei Changan shook his head and said earnestly, “It’s not just that. Thanks for showing me respect in the end. I owe you one.”
When Chen Chuan came over and reported to him at the end, his action was clearly meant to elevate him in front of everyone. How could he possibly not appreciate the favor? He would remember it for the rest of his life.
Meanwhile, Cai Si arrived at the end of the street and stared at the oil stains on the road. “Welp. Wasted all that oil, I guess.”
In truth, the oil only seemed useful. In reality, it was just there to give them all a sense of calm. How could Scar Face not smell the thick scent of the oil? He would have run into a store and found another exit. With that guy’s strength, it would not have been hard for him to even knock down a wall. Then, it would have been impossible for them to stop him.
The only useful thing was absolute power. Unbidden, the memory of Chen Chuan swinging the sledgehammer rose in Cai Si’s mind. That was real strength that sealed the outcome of the fight.
But was Scar Face even alive? He was not sure.
Cai Si went into the shop and drew close to observe Scar Face. Fortunately, the man was remarkably durable. He was still breathing and had even stopped bleeding at some point in time.
Cai Si called a few people over to tie Scar Face up and take him away. “Scar Face will have to change his name to No Face from now on,” he lamented.
A colleague came over to him. “Who’s that kid, Fourth Brother? He actually fought Scar Face head-on. That’s insane. If I had someone like that working for me, I wouldn’t have failed my last mission.”
“Don’t even think about headhunting him. Wei Changan went through a lot of trouble to get that junior of his to help out. He’s naturally gifted and only joined out of respect for Wei Changan,” Cai Si answered with a laugh.
“Naturally gifted, huh?” The person looked envious and amazed. Then, he whispered, “Only people like that can fight against those with military-grade implants, I guess.”
Cai Si’s eyes went wide, and he whispered as well, “You could tell?”
The person nodded. “No one is going to believe that Scar Face has no one supporting him, not with all those implants. He has also been giving the goods to Fang Dawei and his goons. I’d bet money that those guys are going to be trouble too.”
Cai Si believed the same. “Let’s forget about it for now and cross that bridge when we reach it.” He offered a hand to the person. “It’s been nice working with you, Lao Shen.”
Lao Shen shook his hand. “Don’t say that. We were helping each other out, and I wasn’t much of a help this time. I might need your help next time instead.”
“If you need help, we’ve got your back. Just say the word,” Cai Si said.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lao Shen replied with a smile.
***
Meanwhile, Agent Qu gathered a group of people in another corner. They were all agents sent by the agent company.
“Agent Wei is lucky to have found such a strong helper.”
“Agent Wei is going to be fired up after this.”
“Yeah, he definitely will. I wasn’t expecting him to have such an ace up his sleeve.”
Agent Qu scoffed. “It’s not that simple. We were only looking for Scar Face to get clues about Fang Dawei and his gang, but we ended up with so many casualties, and we caused a huge ruckus. Can we really still find Fang Dawei and his gang?”
He looked around him, waiting for an answer, then said coolly, “If we can’t catch them, his winning streak will end.”
The agents looked at each other before one of them agreed with what Agent Qu said. “You’re right, Agent Qu.”
***
After Chen Chuan finished talking to Wei Changan, he went to the injured martial arts school members. He had not given them much thought at first, but later he recognized their martial arts uniforms as those of the Heroic General School.
He remembered seeing this location marked on the advertisement he got from Liang Tong. The school did seem to be near the market.
Once he went to them, quite a number of its martial artists and employees were treating the injured and moving things. Upon noticing him, they stared at him with respect and admiration. A person who looked like the manager of the school walked toward him and asked, “Hello. Does Agent Wei have any orders for us?”
Chen Chuan shook his head and said, “No, I’m just here to take a look. I know Liang Tong and Sheng Hai from your school. Are they here?”
The person looked behind himself before saying, “Them? The ones here today are all of our best. They’re not strong enough yet, so they’re at home.”
“You’re here, Chen Chuan?” Cai Si walked over and patted Chen Chuan’s shoulder in a show of friendliness before speaking to the manager. “Thanks, Instructor Qiao. It wouldn’t have been so easy for us to succeed without your help.”
Instructor Qiao schooled his expression and said, “It’s nothing. We only did what we should do.”
“Quite a number of your martial artists are injured, aren’t they? If you need medicine, tell us. We can get them through our channels,” Cai Si offered.
“No need, but thank you, Agent Cai. They’re from our school, so even if they can’t get better, we’ll take care of them for life,” Instructor Qiao hurriedly said.
“Still, we have to thank you,” Cai Si said again and shook hands with Instructor Qiao before beckoning Chen Chuan over.
“Come on, Chen Chuan. Instructor Qiao has things to do, so we shouldn’t keep him from treating his martial artists.”
Chen Chuan nodded, said goodbye to Instructor Qiao, and walked back with Cai Si.
“Heh. Do you know why Lao Qiao doesn’t want our medicine? Because he wants to use his martial artists’ injuries to prove that his school has nothing to do with the criminals.”
Chen Chuan pondered over his words. Based on what Cai Si said, Instructor Qiao did not plan to heal some of his best martial artists so that he could get rid of suspicion. It was hard to say whether he achieved his goal, but at the very least, he had an excuse now.
This might have been cruel to the martial artists, but from Instructor Qiao’s standpoint, this was for the school’s survival. Some people’s interests had to be sacrificed for the greater good.
Chen Chuan could not say whether this was good or bad, only that many people were forced to make hard choices to survive, regardless of whether they really wanted to do it or not.
He shifted his mind to something else and asked, “Fourth Brother, I heard from Changan that Scar Face has military-grade implants? Is that true?”
Cai Si hummed in agreement. “Yeah. But this goes way deeper than it looks. If you want to find out more, I can’t help, and it’s not just me. Even if I combined all the authorization power of the agents in my company, we still wouldn’t be able to get information about it.”
Chen Chuan then changed his question. “What about information regarding implants? I’d like to learn about them.”
Cai Si took time to think of a tactful rejection. “About that, there’s no hurry to learn about them. Once you’ve done enough missions or join an agent company, you’ll get introduced to them. Honestly, this is the first time Changan and I ran into someone using implants, so you don’t actually have to worry about facing them again.”
Chen Chuan nodded. He could tell that Cai Si did not want him to be exposed to such things out of the kindness of his heart. He was worried that Chen Chuan would get interested in implants or that he would get dragged into trouble due to them.
But once Chen Chuan came into contact with people using them, it was impossible for him to ignore their existence anymore. Understanding them was a must. Perhaps he could ask Wei Changan about them later.