Chapter 141 — Old Buffon's Origins
Years of Heartflutter · Page 206 of 214
Of course, "boss" here did not mean his own boss, but the heavyweight figures above—that is, the several underlings of Baolin and Houlin.
"I wouldn't call myself in the game. My boss is Yang Ce—know him?" Li Dagang said, taking a shot in the dark.
"Yang Ce? Who's that?" The underling was baffled. But there were too many small bosses in the gang to know them all, so he said, "Where's he based?"
The underling did not know him, but the leading thug shuddered all over, frightened out of his wits. He rushed over in two or three strides and gave his underling a kick. "Damn it, if there's no room, we go eat somewhere else! Who do you think you are, showing off?"
The underling went sprawling face-first, not knowing what was going on, when he heard his boss say to Li Dagang with great deference, "Brother, my apologies. My underling doesn't know any better—just wait till I get him home, I'll fix him good. Sorry to disturb your meal. This one's on me—I'll pay the bill."
"That won't be necessary. We haven't finished yet, and we'll be ordering more in a bit," Li Dagang said. He had not expected Yang Cenbin's name to carry such weight—a casual mention, and the matter was settled.
"No, no, I insist." The boss pulled out his wallet, took out five hundred yuan, and handed it to Old Wang, the barbecue stall owner. "I'm paying for these two brothers. Refund the difference or charge more as needed—here's five hundred as a deposit."
"No problem." Old Wang knew the boss and quickly took the five hundred. No matter how much two people ate at a barbecue, they could not put away five hundred yuan worth. And even if they did, Old Wang knew that a man of standing like the leading boss would never welch on the bill.
Lately, the thugs on Songjiang's streets had noticeably become more law-abiding—they paid for their meals and drinks, and there was much less trouble-making. Old Wang, who scraped by at the bottom of society, was fairly well-informed and knew that the underworld in Songjiang had changed. A relatively upright boss had risen to power and had imposed much stricter discipline on his men.
People in business only wanted stability. They did not much care about the monthly protection money—what they feared was these people taking the money and still eating and drinking on the house, which they could not afford.
The current situation gratified them. They paid the protection money of their own accord each month, and these underworld types really did fulfill a protective role. Moreover, they now operated very formally, nominally as security company guards maintaining order in the market.
With these people around, the riffraff in the market who welshed on bills and brawled had quieted down considerably. All things considered, it was the business people who benefited.
Seeing how solicitous the leading boss was, Li Dagang found it hard to decline further. He nodded. "Then I'll thank you."
"No need for thanks—we're all our own people," the leading boss said. "My name is Zhang Penbai. This whole night market area is my turf. If you ever need me, brother, just say the word."
Zhang Penbai had hesitated again and again before telling Li Dagang his name. If Li Dagang spoke ill of him in front of Yang Ce, he would be finished.
Then again, even if he did not tell him, as long as Yang Ce wanted to know, one casual inquiry about whose turf the night market was would reveal his name—which would be even worse. Better to confess outright. Who knew—perhaps through Yang Juehuan's connections he could climb another rung.
And this Zhang Penbai was the very Zhang Penbai from the Immortal Resort back then, who had been fired for ruining Sui Guangqi's good deed.
At the time, Yang Ce and Zhou Yanning's analysis had been correct: Sui Guangqi had directed two of Zhang Penbai's underlings to put on a little show, but he had never expected Zhang Penbai to barge in and botch the whole thing.