Chapter 240 — The Tombstone Appears

"An assassin? Brother Yang, are you all right?" Bao Lin was greatly alarmed. "Brother Yang, was the assassin after you?"

"Mm." Yang Yuting nodded. "But that assassin is acquainted with Yan, so he called off his assignment. According to him, though, his next assignment was to assassinate you and Hou Lin!"

"What!" Bao Lin had already been shocked to hear that Yang Ce had met an assassin; now, hearing that the man was coming for him and Hou Lin as well, he was stunned beyond measure!

"That's right. But he has called off that assignment too, so for the time being you and Da Hou are out of danger," Yang Yanzhou said. "What I don't understand, though, is why anyone would hire an assassin to kill you two. Have you offended someone lately?"

"Offended someone?" Bao Lin was taken aback. "Brother Yang, you know as well as I do that we've gone legitimate—we haven't touched that underworld business in ages. How could we have offended anyone?"

"That is strange, then. If there is no grudge between you, why would anyone move against you and Dahou?" Yang Xutang denied it flatly, and his puzzlement only deepened.

"That assassin—did he not say who hired him?" Bao Lin did not understand the rules of the assassin trade, so he asked outright.

"Assassin contracts are all posted anonymously through a job platform!" Yang Jincong laughed. "If we knew who commissioned it, this would not be nearly so much trouble!"

"So that is how it is!" Bao Lin said, a little embarrassed. "Could it be that some people feel that after Dahou and I unified Songjiang's underworld and brought it into legitimate business, they cannot stomach our methods?"

"That is possible too!" Yang Xutang nodded in agreement once he heard Bao Lin's words. "You two may not feel anything amiss, but what of your men? Perhaps some of them long for that life of blades and shadows, and mean to do away with you and seize the chance to rise!"

"I understand, Brother Yang. Tomorrow I will begin investigating both inside and outside. This matter must have a conclusion—better to fear the thief who comes than the thief who watches and waits. If this person is not found, neither Dahou nor I will have any peace," Bao Lin said.

"An investigation would be good." Yang Ce suddenly recalled that time he had encountered Liu Cha in the elevator; the man's arrogance was still fresh in his memory. "Especially the few senior figures inside the group—best to look into all of them together and see if there is any problem. That fellow called Liu Chan—his son is quite full of himself!"

"What? Has Liu Cha offended you?" Bao Lin knew Liu Chan's son as well, and knew what Liu Cha was usually like, so when he heard Yang Ce bring him up, he asked at once.

"Offended me? Not exactly, but the boy has designs on my cousin's girlfriend. Last time he even tried to seize the chance to abduct her and do heaven knows what..." Yang Yanzhou trailed off there and sighed. "Leopard, I know some of these men have followed you since the old days and are still with you now. But the conduct of their children is truly too arrogant. You may have gone legitimate, but what those children do seriously damages the group's image..."

"I understand, Brother Yang! I will deal with it." Bao Lin was no longer as blunt as he once had been, and he grasped most of what Yang Ce meant at a single word.

Yang Ce had long wanted to clean up the group's interior; he had simply never had a fitting occasion to bring it up. After all, these were founding figures who had followed Bao Lin, and Bao Lin could hardly be too ruthless with them—that would put him in a very awkward position.

Now, however, just such an opportunity had presented itself, and so Yang Ce passed the words directly to Bao Lin without it seeming abrupt.

"If you have news, contact me," Yang Ce instructed. "Be careful in all things. I will begin investigating on my end as well, but until the results are out, neither you nor Dahou should go out casually. I fear whoever commissioned this may try some new trick."

"Understood, Brother Yang!" Bao Lin answered at once.

Wang Yanqiu had already gone upstairs to bathe. After days of travel and rushing about, she was dusty and grimy; Wang Yanqiu had always been fastidious, and so the moment she was home she headed straight for the bathroom. Yang Ce waited to bathe after her, and so in this idle stretch he had time to think over the matter of Wang Kejin coming here to assassinate him.

Tian Long's chief target was Yang Ce, not Sun Lin and Sun Jie. Once the Sun family's holdings in Donghai had all been transferred into Tian Long's name, Sun Lin and Sun Jie would pose no threat to him whatsoever.

On the surface, Sun Lin appeared to wield great power in Donghai, but that power, plainly put, was all controlled in Tian Long's hands! In the gangs and in the group alike, Tian Long had planted his own people everywhere!

In other words, once Tian Long truly held the reins of power, Sun Lin would never be able to stir up any storm again.

After his attempt to talk Tian Yan into seducing Yang Ce had failed, Tian Long had no choice but to think of another plan. Very quickly, however, he hit upon a substitute: have Sun Jie telephone Yang Ce.

And this call, naturally, could not be made by forcing Sun Jie to place it—given Sun Jie's character, she would never submit. Tian Long understood Miss Sun's temperament well; Sun Jie was fierce and unyielding, absolutely not one to be manipulated.

That he had been able to lure her here at all was pure coincidence! By any reasonable measure, with Sun Jie's intelligence, she would never have been fooled by such a petty scheme—but Tian Yan had played on her feelings!

An elder who had watched Sun Jie grow up, a man who had loyally served her father all along—how could Sun Jie possibly have been on her guard against such a person?

With her father in trouble, Sun Jie's instinctive thought had been of the people close to him she could trust: apart from Third Uncle Sun, there was Tian Long! And so it was that Sun Jie, without any guard against Tian Long at all, had been deceived by him.

This was not because Sun Jie was careless; anyone at all, in such circumstances, would have been deceived.

But such trust could be exploited only once, never a second time. Now, whatever Tian Long said, Sun Jie would likely believe none of it.