Chapter 915: A Belly Full of Malice

Some say that beyond seven steps, the spear is faster; within seven steps, the blade is faster. In reality, this saying is pure nonsense.

Of course, it's not entirely nonsense. To be precise, the first half—"beyond seven steps, the spear is faster"—is fine. The problem lies with the second half.

Because the second half should be changed to: "within seven steps, the gun is both faster and more accurate."

Take this guy called Leizi, for example. His reaction speed was very fast, and as he scrambled toward the window, he had instinctively raised his gun to fire back.

However, because he had lost the initiative from the start and the distance inside the room was too short, he was still hit in the thigh by a bullet.

But it had to be admitted that this kid's marksmanship was indeed impressive. Even while firing under such a sudden ambush, he still managed to kill the person who shot him in the thigh with a single shot.

With marksmanship like that, even Wang An might have given him a thumbs-up.

However, the exchange of fire between these two instantly ignited the gunpowder-like atmosphere in the room.

The dozen or so people leaning toward the west and the remaining three sharpshooters leaning toward the east simply stopped caring and all opened fire.

Even Big Brother Wei Cheng, who was standing right in front of those three, did not escape. Whether those dozen people did it intentionally or not, several bullets struck Wei Cheng.

It must be said that no matter how legendary your marksmanship is—even if you never miss a shot—when a heap of gun barrels are all pointed at you and firing, your "legendary" skill is completely useless.

After a very brief exchange of fire, Big Brother Wei Cheng and the three remaining sharpshooters all collapsed in pools of blood.

Of course, the remaining dozen people didn't have it easy either. Aside from the one killed by Leizi, two more were killed by those so-called sharpshooters before they died.

Among those who perished, the most wronged was likely Big Brother Wei Cheng.

Mainly because he hadn't even figured out whether he should surrender or how to escape safely, and then—lo and behold—he was muddledly shot dead by his own subordinates.

It had to be admitted that in this era, not a single person who lent money at usurious rates was a good person; every single one of them was filled with filth.

It was only then that the man who had been urging everyone to surrender couldn't help but shout

"Who shot the Boss? Huh? What the hell are you guys doing?"

As soon as he asked this, several pairs of eyes looked over at him. For some reason, after glancing at him, these people said nothing, but all glared at him fiercely in unison.

It wasn't hard to tell from their expressions that they were despising the kid.

Clearly, this man shouting loudly was playing the "thief crying stop thief" game with a straight face.

Fortunately, the man was quite tactful. Noticing those unfriendly glares, he immediately changed his tune

"They say bullets have no eyes. Why did Big Brother keep running straight into them? Isn't that just ridiculous?"

While he was muttering, someone beside him suddenly interrupted

"Enough, stop fucking playing the fool here. He deserved to die. Who among you dares say they don't owe that old bastard money? Fuck, if it weren't for owing him money, who would do this dog-shit business?"

Another person beside him added

"Exactly. The money I owe him now—even my grandsons wouldn't be able to fucking pay it back. He even hired four sharpshooters to keep us in check. How many sharpshooters does one bastard need? Fuck, this idiot... *cough*... die!"

After speaking, the man spat a thick glob of phlegm at Wei Cheng's corpse.

And it had to be said, his aim with the phlegm was quite accurate; it landed right on Wei Cheng's forehead.

However, from these words, a lot of information was immediately revealed: this so-called Big Brother Wei Cheng truly had no humanity at all; he would screw over even his own men.

No wonder he gave himself the nickname "Pi Xiu." With his way of doing things, he was even more of a Pi Xiu than an actual Pi Xiu.

Thus, after everyone took turns cursing Wei Cheng's corpse, the room gradually quieted down.

The man who spoke earlier said

"Let's go, brothers. Let's just hurry up and go out and surrender, and fuck whatever happens."

Just as everyone was nodding and preparing to walk out together, someone suddenly shouted

"Shouldn't we look for the IOU notes we wrote back then? I have a feeling those things will be a disaster sooner or later. We can't have someone blocking us with an IOU after we've finished our time in the slammer and come out."

This person's words instantly reminded everyone, and they all responded in agreement.

However, what was most admirable was his phrase "finished our time in the slammer and come out."

Because this showed he had a very clear understanding that after they surrendered, they would definitely be spending some time behind bars.

The reason it was admirable was because of his utterly nonchalant attitude.

He was just too damn calm!

Consequently, the large group of people began searching through every room in the house.

Outside in the yard, Wang An and the others frowned upon hearing the dense gunfire from inside.

Mainly because Wang An and the others could never have imagined that this gang of loan sharks would have an internal conflict—and such a severe one, that their leader, Comrade Wei Cheng, was shot dead in the chaos.

Who had ever heard of a group killing their own leader the moment things went south?

Subconsciously, Sun Nian asked Wang An

"Xiao An, what do you think is going on? I heard several different types of gunfire."

Wang An pondered for a long time before frowning and saying

"This is bad. We might have to fight a hard battle. They've probably killed off everyone who wanted to come out and surrender."

Although the facts were the exact opposite of Wang An's guess, his reasoning wasn't entirely wrong.

Because after the gunfire stopped, the survivors didn't choose to come out and surrender immediately; instead, they were searching for the IOUs they had written.

Hearing this, Sun Nian nodded slowly, but his eyes were full of worry.

After all, no one likes facing a situation where people are shooting each other. Bullets have no eyes; it's a disaster regardless of who gets hit.

And if such a thing happened, Sun Nian, as the current highest commander, would have to bear significant responsibility.

Of course, even putting the issue of responsibility aside, no one wants to see colleagues and subordinates they interact with daily fall in battle.

Yet, driven by responsibility and professional duty, the officers in their caps could not retreat, so the feeling was truly unpleasant.

After thinking it over, Sun Nian said to Captain Zhou, who was still shouting commands

"Tell them that if they don't come out and surrender within three minutes, we will launch a forced assault."

(End of Chapter)