Everyone was stunned for a moment. Then they quickly shouted, "It's Xiluo!"
"Fine!" I pulled Xiluo to my side, then pointed at his blood-stained clothes and shouted, "Xiluo, I'm asking you, whose blood is on you!"
Xiluo didn't understand what I meant. After thinking for a moment, he said calmly, "I don't know. Some of the land belongs to me, and some belongs to the Vietnamese."
"Okay!" I said, looking at him. "Take off your shirt!"
Although Xiluo didn't understand what I meant, he wouldn't hesitate to speak. He quickly unbuttoned his clothes, pulled open his shirt, revealing his strong chest, as robust as a calf.
Xiluo took off his shirt, revealing his strong upper body muscles. However, below his shoulder, there was a fresh wound! The wound had obviously only been simply bandaged, and rather hastily, without even completely covering the flesh and blood.
"Siro, how did you get this injury!" I asked loudly.
"Underwater, I was poked by a Vietnamese fish spear." Xiluo's face flushed slightly, and his voice lowered.
I shouted, "Speak up! What are you afraid of! Getting hurt while avenging your brother is nothing to be ashamed of! Speak it out!"
"I was stabbed underwater by the Vietnamese with a harpoon!" Xiluo unconsciously puffed out his chest.
"Alright!" I said slowly, "Then tell me, how did you catch Da Ruan tonight?"
Xiluo paused for a moment, then exclaimed, "I had some people put on diving suits and soak in the sea for an hour..."
Xiluo's eloquence was average, but he spoke simply and clearly. At the end, he glanced at me, and I nodded to him. I immediately shouted at everyone, "I'm asking you, who captured Da Ruan and brought him back tonight!"
"It's Xiluo!" everyone answered in unison.
"Then, who shed blood and sweat to avenge their brothers!" I continued to ask loudly.
"It's Shiro!!" This time the voice was even louder!
"I'll ask you again, who deserves the most credit for capturing Da Ruan?!"
"Xi Luo!!" Most of the brothers below knew Xi Luo well, and they answered loudly and enthusiastically.
"Alright!" I nodded in satisfaction. "Then, shouldn't the person who deserves the most credit be the first to strike, taking the first blow to kill the enemy?!"
"should!!"
Amidst the resounding response of the crowd, I shoved the dagger into Xiluo's hand without a word and said in a deep voice, "Xiluo, do it!"
Xiluo's face flushed red, clearly agitated and at a loss. I gently patted him on the shoulder and whispered, "Go easy on him, don't kill him with one blow. There are many brothers waiting in line!"
Xiluo gripped the dagger tightly, strode up to Da Ruan, grabbed his hair and lifted him up, then plunged the dagger into his shoulder…
Da Ruan shuddered, clearly about to scream, but his mouth was taped shut, and he only managed a muffled groan...
A shadow of gloom crossed Lei Hu's face as he stood there somewhat awkwardly. I glanced at him, smiled, and said calmly, "Uncle Lei, if this guy isn't dead, you'll naturally have your chance to act. For now, let the brothers vent their anger."
When Da Ruan was being stabbed nineteen times, one of the brothers, who was too heavy-handed, accidentally killed him. After all, these men weren't experienced executioners and didn't know how to use their strength. Then I had Da Ruan's body dragged to the front, his heart was ripped out, and placed in that silver basin on the incense table!
The floor of the mourning hall was already covered in blood, and the air was thick with the stench of blood. Everyone present was filled with righteous indignation; these men, accustomed to daily battles, were now consumed by their own rage and their emotions burned like fire!
After offering my heartfelt tribute to the deceased, I announced that arrangements could be made for the funeral home to come and cremate the remains of my deceased brother tomorrow.
Afterwards, I issued a gag order, forbidding anyone from publicizing Da Nguyen's death. It was better than nothing, though; I knew the news would inevitably leak out. But it didn't matter. The police wouldn't interfere with these underworld feuds. The Vietnamese were completely ruined; Da Nguyen's death would only further enhance the Big Circle's reputation!
Lei Hu had already stepped aside and wouldn't come out again, simply watching coldly as I made a series of arrangements. I calmed my agitated subordinates, gradually winning them back. I bet that old guy wasn't feeling too good inside.
As the people in the mourning hall dispersed, Lei Hu gave me a cold look: "Little Wu. Well done."
I smiled noncommittally, stopped Lei Hu who was about to leave, and said slowly, "Uncle Lei, there's one more thing. Please take a look with me."
"Is there anything else?" Lei Hu frowned.
I didn't say anything, then led Thunder Fox to the secret room behind me. Fatty hadn't said a word in the mourning hall all night, just standing and watching. Now I'd pulled him along too.
The secret room was much quieter, and there were far fewer people. It was just me, Xiluo, Hammer, Fatty, Leihu, and his bodyguard.
The small, enclosed room suddenly felt crowded with so many people. The atmosphere was also unusually oppressive!
If I presented a more composed demeanor in the mourning hall, then once I entered the private room, my face was already clouded with sorrow!
On the floor of the secret room were two burlap sacks, and inside each sack were two people! Their mouths were sealed shut, their hands and feet bound, and both wore expressions of utter despair.
I know these two people much better; they were originally brothers from the same auto repair shop!
This is what Da Nguyen told me about the traitors the Vietnamese had bribed in my inner circle when we made our deal! And these two are the traitors!
For tonight's operation, I deliberately had Xiro select six more men from the auto repair shop, in addition to the paratroopers and my own trusted brothers! Aside from the other four, who are all skilled fighters and good swimmers, these two were chosen by Xiro with special attention!
All four men participated in the operation tonight, but these two were immediately arrested by Xiluo and his men as soon as they boarded the ship and set sail! They were tied up and stuffed into sacks!
I have my own reasons for doing this.
Inside the secret room, Hammer brought over a chair, and I sat down in front of the two burlap sacks on the floor. Xiluo and Hammer stood beside me. Fatty and Thunder Fox, on the other hand, looked somewhat bewildered.
I waved my hand, and Hammer and Xiluo went over, each taking on one of them, and ripped the duct tape off the two traitors' mouths.
My face was filled with murderous intent, and I slowly said in a chilling tone, "Do you know why I brought you here?"
Neither of them spoke; both kept their heads down.
"Hmph!" I sneered, "A real man should be responsible for his actions! Now that you've been brought here, if you have the guts, answer me loudly! You've done something wrong, but you don't dare to admit it?"
The man in the sack on the left trembled, raised his head, and gave me a deep look: "Brother Wu..."
"Shut up!!" I roared, jumping up and kicking him to the ground. "You're not my brother! You have no right to call me Brother Wu!"
I kicked the man to the ground. His face was pale. He coughed twice and struggled to kneel up.
I took a deep breath, looked at the two men, and gritted my teeth, saying, "Originally, I wouldn't have bothered talking to you. I could have just killed you one by one, it would have been easy... But I just can't swallow this! I just want an explanation!!" I leaned forward and slowly said, "What exactly made you betray your brothers of so many years?!"
Part Two: The Road to Success, Chapter Sixty-Five: A Request
The two men glanced at each other but didn't speak. I could see some hesitation in their expressions.
I suppressed my anger, sat back down in my chair, and gave Hammer a wink. Hammer immediately took out a cigarette and lit one for me. I gestured to the two guys in the sack, "Light them up too."
"Thank... thank you, Fifth Brother," a guy stammered.
I said calmly, "Even death row inmates get a decent meal before they die." I waved my hand. "Go ahead and smoke, this is probably your last cigarette." Hearing this, the man on the left trembled, and the cigarette he was holding fell to the ground. The man on the right was deathly pale and trembling, but he managed to stay upright. However, when he picked up the lit cigarette and tried to put it in his mouth, his hand trembled uncontrollably, and he couldn't get the cigarette into his mouth…
When people are truly facing death, this is usually the case.
Seeing that the two of them finally managed to smoke a cigarette, I flicked off the ash and said coldly, "Do you know why I brought you here instead of publicly punishing you in the incense hall?"
"I...don't know." The person on the right could still manage to speak, while the one on the left was clenching his teeth so hard that they kept making a clattering sound.
“Because I need to save face for our big circle!” I sighed, looking at the guy in front of me with undisguised disgust and contempt in my eyes, and said coldly, “What I hate most in my life are traitors who betray their cause! If it were up to me, I would want to open a shrine and burn you all to ashes!” I gritted my teeth and said, “You know very well what you’ve done.”
Xiluo, who was standing nearby, watched the two of them coldly and then interjected, "Xiao Wu, our rule is that traitors are not to be burned alive."
"Oh?" I asked, "So how is it usually handled?"
Xiluo's face was cold and stern, his eyes filled with undisguised murderous intent. I knew that if I hadn't strictly ordered him to bring these two back, he probably would have thrown them into the sea to feed the fish long ago.
“According to the rules, for traitors, the eldest brother bestows the punishment of ‘death without bloodshed.’” Xiluo spoke each word clearly, and the two men below, who had been barely holding on, were now terrified! The man on the left, especially weak-willed, immediately collapsed. Suddenly, a resolute glint flashed in the eyes of the man on the right…
Seeing that things were going badly, I rushed over and grabbed his chin. With a forceful pull, I dislocated his jaw.
"Trying to bite your tongue and commit suicide?" I sneered. "But given what you've done, dying won't be that easy!"
I turned to Xiluo and asked, "What does 'dying without bloodshed' mean?"
Xiluo's face was grim. Before he could speak, the fat man, who hadn't said a word all evening, suddenly sighed and said, "Uncle Lei used to be in charge of punishments at home. Let's ask him to explain."
Lei Hu gave the fat man a deep look, his eyes filled with an indescribable complexity. He slowly exhaled and said in a low voice, "The 'no-blood-death' punishment is specifically used to punish those who were once brothers in the organization but later betrayed us. 'No blood-death' means, as the name suggests, it's to show that even traitors were once brothers, and even if they eventually became enemies, we can't bear to see them shed blood. This is to embody the concept of 'righteousness'; even if they are executed, we don't want to see our former brothers bleed… So…" Lei Hu's voice suddenly weakened, and his expression became increasingly strange.
"So... they put them in sacks, sealed them, and beat them with wooden sticks!"
A thought struck me, and I gave Lei Hu a deep look...
What ruthless methods!
They shoved the person into a sack, sealed it, and then beat them to death with wooden sticks! With each blow, because the sack blocked their view, they didn't know which part of the body they would hit... If they were lucky, a blow to the top of the head or some vital spot would kill them instantly, sparing them a lot of suffering.
But if you miss a vital spot... who knows how many bones will be broken, how much excruciating pain will be inflicted! How many bones would it take to kill someone with torn skin and broken flesh?
Later, I overheard that most of those who suffered this "bloodless death" punishment were not killed by being hit in vital areas... most of them had countless bones broken and died from the excruciating pain!
Imagine someone being stuffed into a sack, their mouth sealed shut, their eyes blinded, utterly helpless! In such a situation, they'd be beaten mercilessly, unable to even utter a sound...
Such a cruel method is actually being brazenly called "righteousness"?
No wonder those two guys broke down immediately upon hearing about this way of dying.
What a powerful word, "righteousness"!
I didn't comment, but just smiled and looked at the two of them: "Although this method is a bit cruel, it at least shows that the person who sentenced them back then understood human psychology and hated traitors to the extreme."
I casually grabbed the man on my left by the collar, gently wiped the foam from the corner of his mouth, and said calmly, "I don't want to scare you. I don't need to use this 'righteous killing' method on you. You two aren't stupid; stupid people wouldn't do something like this, treacherous infiltration. You should understand that you're going to die tonight. If you're willing to speak honestly, I promise to give you a quick death!"
The man on the left was a little less timid. After hearing my words, his face brightened slightly, and he looked up at me, asking, "What...what do you want to ask?"
"Sigh." I sighed, looked at him, and tilted my head to think for a moment. "Hmm, I remember you. Your name is... Lu... Lu Suo, right? It's a rather strange name, so I remembered it... Originally, you've been here longer than me. Hey, there are nearly two hundred brothers here, and I haven't even met them all yet. Although I've been here for a year, I was recently sent out by Master Ba, and before that, I was constantly undergoing training. There are still many brothers I haven't had much contact with..." I spoke these words very calmly, and the person in front of me became even calmer.
Then, I changed the subject, looked intently at the man, and said, "I remember you. It's because on the day the incident happened at home, I rushed back from Toronto and saw my brothers fighting amongst themselves when I walked in... If I remember correctly, you were one of those people cheering them on, right?"
The man shuddered. He wanted to lower his head to avoid my gaze, but he didn't dare.
I chuckled softly. "Hey! When I came back, Eighth Master was seriously injured in the hospital. Old Huang and the others were dead, and without anyone in charge of the family, the brothers turned on each other and started fighting. And you... I remember you seemed really indignant, very emotional, like you were urging everyone to grab weapons and go out to fight the Vietnamese, right?" I patted his shoulder lightly, a half-smile on my face. "Good! You're quite the actor! You really put on a good show back then! Even I thought you were a righteous and indignant hero... Hehe! Now that I think about it, it was probably the Vietnamese who made you do that, right? They wanted you to take advantage of the chaos at home to incite people to go out and cause trouble, the bigger the trouble, the more likely the Big Circle would become a target, a prime target for the police, right? A clever scheme! A clever scheme indeed!"
I simply squatted down, right in front of him: "If you had succeeded back then, and really stirred up the brothers' anger, and they had beaten our own men half to death first, and then led a bunch of people out to fight and kill, it probably wouldn't have been long before the police sent people to wipe us out! I'm asking you... you're also from the Big Circle, the brothers in the auto repair shop, whether you know them or not, whether you're close or not... they've all been brothers for years... do you know that this would kill them?"
There wasn't a trace of anger in my tone; I spoke as if I were calm and collected, which surprised the fat guy and the others behind me.
The guy looked ashamed, but I didn't expect an answer. I continued talking to myself, "Yeah, you know. You know everything. You should know that since you've become a traitor, you're bound to die sooner or later. You should also know that your actions will kill many brothers, cause many brothers to die, to shed blood, and even the best outcome is imprisonment!! You know all of this... but you still did it, didn't you? That day, you looked so righteous, calling on everyone to seek revenge against the Vietnamese, to go out and fight... and then you got arrested by the police, your whole family was wiped out by the police... you know all of this... but you still did it anyway... right?"
"Fifth, Fifth Brother..." he began in a trembling voice.
My gaze immediately turned cold, and my sharp eyes startled him so much that he quickly shut up.
I shook my head, my tone flat: "Don't call me that, I don't deserve it! I don't consider myself a good person, but for someone like you to call me 'brother' just makes me feel disgusted."
Then I thought for a moment and said, "Well, Li Datou is your accomplice, right?" When I said that, he trembled, but then deflated, which meant he had admitted it.
I slowly explained, “That night, Lao Huang and the others went out with Li Datou, but none of the four of them came back. Yeah, chaos erupted in the Big Circle, and then Eighth Master was ambushed and seriously injured, ending up in the hospital. The group was leaderless… Your mission was to take advantage of the chaos to sow discord and resentment within the group, to escalate the situation as much as possible, to bring about a complete upheaval!” I patted his shoulder. “That’s undeniably ruthless, but that’s not what I admire… because this plan wasn’t yours, it was the Vietnamese’s. What I admire is your heart… I just don’t understand, we’re all born of the same parents, why can you be so cruel, capable of such ruthless methods against your own brothers…”
"Don't...don't say anymore, Fifth Brother..." He was filled with shame.
“You called me the wrong name again.” I said coldly, “I told you, don’t call me brother. I don’t deserve to be your brother. Okay, today I just want to ask you one question…” I grabbed his shoulders with both hands and said through gritted teeth, “Why!”
He gritted his teeth and remained silent.