Chapter 1007 — Earning Recognition

"Gah! Gah!" Watching Black Bear's victory, An Jianwen burst into loud laughter. "Not bad at all — he actually won! This Black Bear is something, he's got potential. Next time we can dress him in a new skin and keep him as our hidden trump card!"

"Young Master Wen, this Black Bear can only be used once," Dr. Yin said with a smile and a shake of his head.

"Oh? And why is that?" An Jianwen was startled.

"He has held out this long purely on the drug's potency. The moment it wears off, he's a dead man — most of the organs inside him have been smashed to pulp. There is no chance of him living," Dr. Yin said.

"I see... What a waste, then." A flicker of something like pity crossed An Jianwen's face. "Ah, what a tragedy."

"Young Master Wen, you are a man meant for great things. One or two deaths — what is there to pity in that? Do not grieve over it," Little Mule consoled him carefully. He was a subordinate the Fire Wolf Gang had sent to assist An Jianwen — and in truth, the man who would be shoved forward to take the blame if anything went wrong.

Only, the Fire Wolf Gang did things generously: Little Mule's family had already been taken care of, leaving him with no worries behind him.

"Who says I pity him?" An Jianwen rolled his eyes and waved a hand. "What pains me is the organs in his body — smashed to bits! That's another million or so gone!"

"..." Little Mule's face twitched twice. This Young Master Wen was truly ruthless — so it was the ruined organs inside Black Bear that he regretted, because they could no longer be sold for money...

"Hurry, get someone to carry Purple Wolf and Black Bear off and see what organs in them are still intact. Cut them out and sell them — that's a nice bit of extra income!" An Jianwen waved Little Mule away.

"Yes, sir!" Little Mule nodded and hurried off to see it done.

An Jianwen was a bold and ruthless man. Though he ran an underground fight pit, he had stumbled onto yet another road to riches: cutting out and selling the organs of fighters killed in the ring! In the past An Jianwen had sold only kidneys, but now he took the whole set — corneas, kidneys, heart, and the rest. Anything that could fetch money was cut out and sold, and the leftover corpse was tossed straight into his crocodile pond to be digested.

So from a single night of fights, what An Jianwen gained was far more than the fights themselves — and that was precisely why the Fire Wolf Gang valued him! He had slipped up once before, but the Fire Wolf Gang was not afraid. It had men to spare; scapegoats were easy to find. So long as you had the ability and could bring in money, that was enough!

Some of the fighters in An Jianwen's underground pit were professional pit-fighters he had recruited off the internet; others were drifters, security guards, migrant workers and the like, lured in by the promise of big money — told that a single match could earn them a hundred thousand, win or lose, a guaranteed hundred thousand, with another hundred thousand in bonus if they won. And so the men came pouring in without end.

Men of this sort had one advantage: their whereabouts were never fixed. Many security guards were temp workers, on the job today and gone tomorrow, quick to move on. The same went for migrant workers — lose one or two, and no one would ever notice.

And the small-time thugs even more so. Many of them were already preparing to skip town over some petty crime, so when one of them suddenly vanished, even his own companions could not say whether he had run off because of trouble.

Of course, even if they knew, it hardly mattered. If anyone actually came looking for An Jianwen, he could simply say that the man had made his money in the ring and gone off to some other city to enjoy life.

So the underground pit never lacked fighters, nor spectators. So long as the police never set their sights on it, it was a business that raked in gold daily — and a business that cost him nothing at all! And of course, An Jianwen's greatest talent had always been for businesses that cost him nothing.

"Young Master Wen, apart from one ruined retina, all of Purple Wolf's organs are intact! As for Black Bear, only his two retinas and his left kidney are good; everything else is finished!" Little Mule came running back after a while to report to An Jianwen.

"Mm... Black Bear's dead, then?" An Jianwen asked, nodding.

"Not quite dead yet, but he's already been wheeled onto the operating table," Little Mule said.

"Good, so there's still something useful in him. Mm, these should be worth a few hundred thousand." An Jianwen nodded in satisfaction. "Tomorrow, you and Master Li go out on the streets again and talk more people into coming here to fight for me. I'm off to enjoy some women."

"Yes, sir. Take care, Young Master Wen!" Little Mule nodded hurriedly and saw him off.

An Jianwen had made no small amount of money these past few days. Wei Zhao's sudden recovery of his strength had left him thoroughly displeased — he had failed to seize the moment and marry Gu Mengyao while she was at her weakest, and it weighed on him. But until Master Li came out openly in support of him, he did not dare to stand against Wei Zhao. Fortunately, he had been making money: he had booked several virgins at the Starlight Splendor Hotel and went with Su Taizao every day to enjoy them, which went some way toward making up for his discontent.

Only, in An Jianwen's eyes, pure as these virgins might be, they were nothing beside Gu Mengyao. His dream was still to have Gu Mengyao beneath him! Hmph — Gu Mengyao, you will never escape the palm of my hand. Once I have built up a place for myself in the Fire Wolf Gang and have a host of skilled hands to command, what is Wei Zhao but a hair on a head?

Though An Jianwen was only the lowliest money-making front man of the Fire Wolf Gang, he had still learned a thing or two about the gang from his father. The Fire Wolf Gang was a top-tier great gang, full of skilled hands, more formidable than even the hidden aristocratic families. An Jianwen had even heard that behind the Fire Wolf Gang stood a power of the most terrifying order. He did not know exactly what it was, but since it surpassed the hidden families, it must surely be something extraordinary.

Master Li was the skilled hand the Fire Wolf Gang had sent to An Jianwen. Possessed of the outer strength of a mid-stage Mystic Rank, he was a fighter of no small renown — seldom seen in the mundane world, and to be found only within certain families.

For the time being, however, there was no place for Master Li to take the stage; after all, he had been sent to hold down the arena and overawe the crowd, to be thrown in only against opponents who truly could not be handled. Ordinarily, Master Li, like An Jianwen, spent every day eating, drinking, and amusing himself.

But having such a skilled hand at his side — even if he never needed to use him, even if the man did nothing day after day but eat, drink, and play — pleased An Jianwen greatly. After all, a man like that was a real asset; with such a fighter beside him, his sense of security grew considerably stronger.

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