Chapter 491: Chapter 491 Lamplight at Lan Shan
From the very beginning, Chief Dou’s response wasn’t quite appropriate; he just wanted to flash his badge and scare the other side away.
Feng Jun’s response was rather sinister. You want money? Okay, I’ll give it to you first, and then deal with you once you’ve got the money in hand.
He even went as far as to haggle to lower the other party’s suspicions in order to lure them into the trap.
By the ti Yang Yuxin readily agreed to give the money, the other side started to feel that maybe… things weren’t as they had thought?
Feng Jun scolded her, and only then did the situation continue to progress.
However, due to Yang Yuxin’s intervention, the thugs insisted even more stubbornly on the full 50,000 yuan, inadvertently pushing themselves closer to their doom.
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At this mont, a hot-headed Chief Dou figured out what Feng Jun was up to, and if he hadn’t been so impulsive, he could have realized that—once the 50,000 yuan was handed over, the extortion charge would definitely stick to the others.
Otherwise, if extortion hadn’t succeeded, what big deal would that have been? But once it had succeeded, they could weep behind iron bars.
But at this point, the confused Chief Dou made another foolish move, he was so eager to put the other party away that he even offered to use his own money.
That’s why Feng Jun always believed that Chief Dou was a muddleheaded person; he knew what to do but beca thoughtless when agitated—you could end up being accused of “entrapnt.”
Chief Dou cleared his head again and patiently waited until the mont the other party got the money, then he flashed his badge—”Arrest them!”
He had co today to support his son’s store opening and had brought two colleagues with him, who, for well-known reasons, were not in uniform.
Now that he had revealed his identity, his two subordinates also roared, “Police!” and charged forward to make the arrests.
However, no matter how strong their montum was, with over a dozen people there, a push here and a shove there made it impossible to carry out the arrests.
Chief Dou was ard, but… it was an auspicious occasion for his son’s store opening. Was it really appropriate to fire a warning shot?
Just then, three figures charged forward, fists and feet flying—it was none other than Feng Jun, Gazi, and Gao Qiang.
There was no need to ntion Feng Jun—a punch for one, a kick for another; Gazi, too, was a High-Rank Martial Warrior, and his rciless blows left his victims vomiting blood with each punch.
Gao Qiang was still being observed, but he was a forr soldier and a hand-to-hand combat expert, sort of a half-bodyguard under Yuan Huapeng’s wing.
One thug pulled out a knife against him, but with a swift movent and a lift of his hand, he twisted the assailant’s arm into a break.
Just a few quick moves, fast as lightning, and a bunch of thugs were lying on the ground.
Three of them saw things going south and bolted; Feng Jun toppled one, Gazi pounced on another, and one of Chief Dou’s quick-thinking officers threw a half brick, knocking down a third with the sharp broken edge of the brick even slicing a gash in the man’s back.
However, knocking people to the ground was just step one as the threat from the other side remained tangible: temporary advantage did not equate to perpetual security, as one can’t be a thief for a thousand days and prevent thievery for just as long.
Feng Jun noticed that a car quietly moved away on the opposite side of the road.
Afterward, everyone herded these rascals into the storage room at the back.
Chief Dou made a phone call, summoning backup from the county, and then went out to continue greeting guests, leaving only two officers and Feng Jun and others to interrogate these n.
Though these guys had been caught, they were still brazen, with one sneering at Feng Jun, “You’re tough today, but we’ll see.”
“See my ass!” the two officers went at them with a flurry of punches and kicks, “Extorting 50,000, you’ll serve three years if I lose!”
Police aren’t prosecutors, much less a court, but they’re all part of the sa system, so such talk isn’t too much.
Soone started yelling, claiming they were just selling a tree for a steep price, but it wasn’t extortion.
The officers deal with these scoundrels daily and couldn’t be bothered to entertain their nonsense, thinking they were still too green to play the law ga with them.
One officer went straight for the jugular, sneering, “This is our chief’s son’s store you’re ssing with; you’ve really done it now.”
The thugs’ faces changed color as they realized they had indeed hit a solid wall!
They rely thought they were bullying soone from Chaoyang, having no clue that it wasn’t just soone who knew the police but whose father actually was the chief!
Feng Jun scoffed, “Speak up, who’s behind this?”
He had endured while others bullied him, treating him like a grandson, simply to make an accurate judgnt.
“No one sent us,” soone answered softly, “just here to ask for a lucky gift.”
Feng Jun glanced at the two officers, “Just do it, don’t mind .”
Just as they were talking, a skinny young man walked in. It was Magan, Feng Jun and Dou Jiahui’s old classmate from elentary school. He spoke softly, “Da Pang, another person has co, claiming they want to report sothing.”
A middle-aged woman arrived. At her first glimpse of Feng Jun, she spoke through gritted teeth, “I know who instigated them. You must not let the mastermind get away.”
In fact, there wasn’t much to say; it was the all-too-common jealousy among competitors.
The storefront that Dou Jiahui had chosen was on a street of lighting stores, which had ford spontaneously without any official governnt support and occupied sixty to seventy percent of Yunyuan City’s lighting market.
All the lighting stores wanted to be here due to scale effect—a concept well-understood by everyone. But with so many rchants on one street, all catering to the sa custor demand, competition was inevitable.
Dou Jiahui had been targeted from the mont he started renting and decorating his store. His investnt was substantial, more than most of the other stores on the street, which ant another big player had entered the market to snatch away the livelihood of existing stores.
Market competition is always brutal. Miss Dong, powerful as she was, even dared admit on dia that competitors stationed in Xiangshan to poach my people, so I sent people to beat them up.
Of course, Miss Dong, being a public figure, would have her own motives and reasons for saying such things. But for many ordinary people, no elaborate reason was needed; the word “market” was enough.
There were several stores on this street doing well, with their own respective backings, not stepping on each other’s toes, but they were all relentless in suppressing other competitors.
Among them was a particularly restless store called “Lan Shan Lighting,” which was originally called “lamps waning,” aning the dim lights at dusk—poetic and stylish, right?
Later, they realized that “lamps waning” referred to sparse lighting, and they were like… change the na!
Without going into detail, just by looking at the level of sophistication in naming, one could guess the quality of the owner.
Lighting store rchants have market segnts, such as brand, style, grade, and industry. While other larger rchants targeted their competition specifically, Lan Shan Lighting was different; they went after anyone they could.
The woman who ca to report was also in the lighting business on this street, and Lan Shan had persistently targeted her store. Acts like forcefully delivering “Fortune Trees” were just child’s play; the real harassnt would begin once she started operating.
The ans of harassnt included protection rackets and various nitpickings—all aid at one goal: to force her store out of business.
According to the woman, seven or eight stores had already been targeted by Lan Shan Lighting, with most unable to continue and relocating elsewhere. Two of them had even been acquired by Lan Shan, with their product lines taken over.
Lan Shan Lighting had attempted to open a second and third branch with these two stores, but when the other major rchants protested and pressured together, they managed to curb this trend.
So, while Lan Shan officially had only one store, in reality, it had a presence in three locations on this street.
The woman coming to report still had her shop running, but business was bleak. Her family had contemplated competing with Lan Shan, but it was futile; they just couldn’t beat them. Now they were waiting for the lease to expire before relocating.
Seeing that soone was dealing with the hoodlums, and that the boss even had police backing, the woman imdiately ca over to lodge a complaint.
These hoodlums truly belonged to the bottom of society, not directly under Lan Shan’s lighting’s influence, but the owner of Lan Shan could command them.
The woman was adamant: Lan Shan Lighting was behind this, and the hoodlums had been involved in sches like the Fortune Tree for quite so ti. They typically sold it for two or three thousand, ensuring one-month safety for the buyer. Whether you remained safe after that depended on how cooperative you were.
Those who were compliant would offer so cigarettes every month, ensuring at least no one would cause trouble. If you could befriend them, they might even back you up against troubleso custors.
They wouldn’t dare to demand a price of fifty thousand without soone pulling the strings.
Moreover, the woman was very certain that if they didn’t take action today, even if they paid the fifty thousand, the hoodlums would eventually drive them off this street.
It was all because their business was significant enough to impact others’ earnings.
The two officers were all too familiar with such situations. They could guess the outco just from the beginning. After she finished speaking, one of them sighed, “That Dou really should have inquired more when renting the place.”
The other officer scoffed derisively, chuckling coldly, “What’s the use of inquiring? Do you expect him to open a store on another street? He was intent on this location. Inquiry or not, the problems he’d face would be the sa… unless he decides not to sell lights.”
Feng Jun, having listened up to this point, interjected, “How about this, I have a bus. Why don’t you just take everyone back to Chaoyang?”
“We don’t need a bus,” the woman cut in from the side, her face alight with excitent, “These past two days, they’ve sohow acquired a brand-new minibus. Just get the keys from them and drive away… the keys are with that buck-toothed short guy.”
The minibus wasn’t far, parked in a yard just over three hundred ters away. The officers drove it over and one by one stuffed the people inside.
The hoodlums were reluctant to be taken away so easily; so shouted that they were injured, others cried out about a kidnapping, and so even tried to stoke regional tension: Chaoyang people coming to Yunyuan to cause trouble, bullying us.
However, no one accused the police of beating people or anything of that sort.
The attempt to incite regional discord was extrely low-level, given that Chaoyang was part of Yunyuan City. They would have been better off yelling, “Country bumpkins bullying city folk.”
Watching the hoodlums, one by one, being handcuffed and thrown into the minibus, most of the onlookers were thrilled—this troublemaking lot was finally being taken care of.
But so people were clueless. Two middle-aged n ca over and asked in a low tone, “What’s going on here?”
(Third update, calling for monthly tickets.)
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