Chapter 297 — Letting Bygones Be Bygones
Years of Heartflutter · Page 4 of 5
"I didn't understand what the boss behind the scenes meant, or why he was so dead set on striking at the companies under your control in Songjiang, but since it was the boss's request, I could only comply," Tian Long said. "But I also knew that with only Liu Chan and Qu Daming, those two little shrimp, nothing much could be stirred up, and then I thought of how Jidun was also your property, so I hit upon the idea of joining forces with the Sui family of Jingshan to strike at your holdings!
Jidun had originally been the Sui family's territory; it was only because you had forcibly taken control of it that Sui Yuejin was burning with fury. So we hit it off at once: the Sui family, along with Qu Daming and Liu Chan, would deal with your company, while I myself would deal with Sun Lin..."
"Sui Yuejin is dead. Did you have anything to do with that?" Yang Xutang asked, having by now grasped the gist of the matter, which tallied roughly with what Sui Yuejin had said.
"What!? Sui Yuejin is dead? When did he die?" Tian Long was stunned, and asked in amazement.
Seeing that Tian Long's expression did not seem feigned, Yang Shuoxuan knew that this matter had nothing to do with him, and so he said, "The night before last, Sui Yuejin was shot dead, in the Sui Group building in Jingshan."
Sui Yuejin was a man of note in Jingshan; presumably the news had been suppressed over there, not to be released until there was some progress in the case. And Tian Long had likely been so busy these past few days that he had paid no attention to such matters—otherwise, even without any news reports, Tian Long should have learned of it through some other channel.
"Who did it?" Tian Long's face tightened as he asked.
"If I knew, I wouldn't be asking you." Yang Ce shrugged. "Go on about the boss behind the scenes."
"All right. The boss behind the scenes said that so long as I agreed to one condition of his afterward, he would provide me with financial support free of charge," Tian Long said. "I didn't pay it much mind and agreed outright. Later, when I was close to succeeding, I couldn't restrain my curiosity and asked the boss behind the scenes just what he wanted me to do, but he said he hadn't decided yet. When I pressed him, he said that if I could help him capture Yang Ce, he would ask nothing more of me!"
That was probably the boss behind the scenes' true aim—it wasn't that he hadn't decided, but that he had deliberately said so to Tian Long, Yang Lanxu thought. But he did not give voice to this, and merely said, "And then you set your sights on dealing with me?"
"Yes..." Tian Long said, somewhat embarrassed. "I thought of your connection with Tian Yan and wanted to use that to lure you in, but I never expected that brat Tian Yan would tip you off... Though now that I think about it, even if you had taken the bait, I might not have been able to handle you—today was no different; I was caught by you all the same, and my martial arts were destroyed..."
"So that's how it was." Yang Ce now roughly understood the boss behind the scenes' plan. Though it seemed a little hard to believe that the boss behind the scenes would come to Tian Long to deal with him, Yang Ce reckoned that the boss behind the scenes, having failed time and again to strike at him, had not known what else to do and so had hit upon this roundabout method of saving the situation; the money he had given Tian Long was a mere drop in the bucket to the boss behind the scenes, a matter of no consequence, and so the boss behind the scenes had had to pay no real price.
"Since you've seen the boss behind the scenes, do you have a photograph of him?" Yang Yanchuan asked.
"Not really..." Tian Long shook his head somewhat helplessly. "The first time I met him, it never occurred to me to take a photo of him, and afterward, whenever we met, it was always a very cautious rendezvous—there was no way he would have given me the chance to photograph him."