nyslfriends Chapter 679 Conspiracy (Part 1)
Chapter 679 Conspiracy (Part 1)
Chapter 679 Conspiracy (Part 1)
Night, Dengzhou, the headquarters of the Grand Canal Gang.
It was past midnight when Feng Shunfeng returned to his residence in the gang, reeking of alcohol.
Ever since Di Bujuan took Lao Hu to Wudang, Feng Shunfeng has gone out drinking and carousing until the wee hours of the morning countless times.
As the second-in-command of the Grand Canal Gang, he should have been more attentive to gang affairs when the leader was away, but the actual situation was quite the opposite.
So it's quite obvious... Lao Feng is "throwing a tantrum".
With whom?
It wasn't actually with Di Bujuan, but with Di Bujuan's nephew, Di Gui.
So what exactly did Di Gui do?
Ironically, he hadn't done anything wrong; he had simply "improved."
This kid used to be a typical spoiled brat. Spoiled by his mother and indulged by his "uncle," he spent his days eating, playing, and fooling around in Dengzhou City, surrounded by drinking buddies who only knew how to flatter him and take advantage of him.
Living like this for too long, coupled with his young age, he inevitably developed the illusion that he was truly "someone important".
However, this illusion was completely shattered at the Young Heroes Gathering four years ago.
His experience of being schemed against by the Tianqi Gang showed him the true dangers of the martial world; his defeat by Lin Yuancheng in one move showed him what a true genius was; and through Shuangxie, he witnessed the vastness of the world and the wonders it holds...
In just a few days, Di Gui, whose horizons were greatly broadened and whose values were violently impacted, suddenly "got it".
He couldn't help but wonder: without the background of the Grand Canal Gang, without those who sheltered him from the storm, what would he have left?
He didn't need anyone to lecture him; he figured it out on his own—he had been mistakenly taking the resources given to him by the previous generation as his own abilities.
Fortunately, he realized it wasn't too late...
After returning home from Luoyang, Di Gui seemed to have become a different person. The next day, he invited several teachers who had taught him when he was a child to come back and "tutor" him.
Of course, he wasn't abandoning martial arts for academic pursuits to earn official rank. At least at that point in time, Di Gui's goals weren't very high: he just hoped to pick up some of the basic knowledge and practical skills he hadn't learned properly as a child, so that he wouldn't make a mess of his letters to his fellow comrades or get ripped off because he couldn't even do simple arithmetic when running errands for the gang...
But once he truly "gets into it," his goals naturally rise accordingly.
From then on, Di Gui rarely went out... After all, she had finished her studies, and she still had martial arts to practice, right?
When someone is determined to make up for the time they've wasted, they'll never feel like they have enough time...
This is why, even though the "Seven Heroes Gathering" was held on the territory of the Canal Gang, Di Gui was nowhere to be seen making an appearance at the meeting.
Di Bujuan must have called him at the time, but the child said he wanted to study hard at home, so old Di could only respect his wishes and smile happily.
In the years that followed, Di Gui continued to improve himself day after day. Later, even his mother, Ruan Shi, was affected by her son's changes and stopped causing trouble for Di Bujuan, intending to live a peaceful life.
As for Di Gui's drinking buddies, they had long since lost contact with him and gone off to beg for food from other old men.
Then, in the blink of an eye, it's this year.
I don't know what got into Di Gui, he acted as if he had a "fourth-year internship" quota to complete, and one day he suddenly started interfering in the gang's affairs.
Especially recently, while Di Bujuan and Hu Wenzhi were on business at Wudang, Di Gui was able to put his skills to good use. In a short period of time, he made some very good reforms to more than ten unreasonable regulations that had troubled the gang for many years.
If you do this, what will happen to your two Uncle Fengs who are temporarily in charge of the gang?
To be clear, Di Gui is the only son of the former gang leader and the only nephew of the current gang leader.
As for the secrets, how could there not be some rumors circulating among the entire Canal Gang about Di Bujuan and Ruan Shi's affair?
Therefore, Di Gui's status as the "crown prince of the Grand Canal Gang" has always been very stable. The only question is whether he will have the ability to seize real power and win people's hearts after he "succeeds" in the future.
Previously, this "crown prince" was completely hopeless, and even his own mother subconsciously lacked confidence in him when she was causing trouble... So the two "powerful ministers," Feng Shunfeng and Feng Shunshui, were naturally more certain; on the surface, they could always generously declare that they would loyally assist Di Gui in the future, but who knows what the future holds? What if this kid dies before them?
But now, the situation has clearly changed...
Di Gui has worked hard for several years and now he really has some ability. Putting aside everything else, his recent contributions to the gang have won him a lot of support.
A rightful heir to power is now doing the right things and seems to be doing it well in the future... How can the powerful ministers sit still?
Unfortunately, even if I couldn't sit still, I had to sit down.
Ultimately, the Grand Canal Gang was not a real dynasty, but just a triad. Triads don't have a large enough political stage for you to strategize and manipulate.
Like Fat Cheung in the movie "The Mission," he was a veteran member, even one of the founding members, but what could he do when he was dissatisfied with the "father-to-son" succession within the triad? Aside from assassination, what political maneuvering did he have? Even if the assassination had succeeded, it would have been Brother Nan who took over, not Fat Cheung… If it had, how suspicious would he have been? And who would have respected him?
Feng Shunfeng and Feng Shunshui are in a similar situation now. Of course, they don't know that Di Bujuan has late-stage stomach cancer and that Di Gui hasn't officially taken over yet. So they are still in a stage of being very anxious about the future and having emotional outbursts.
In terms of venting their emotions, the two brothers had slightly different personalities: Feng Shunfeng liked to go out drinking and carousing, while Feng Shunshui liked to gamble.
Ten years ago, these two brothers would probably have stayed out all night, but now they're not young anymore, so while the one who gambles can stay out all night, the one who frequents brothels will come back in the middle of the night.
squeak--
The moment he pushed open the door, Feng Shunfeng sobered up considerably.
Because in that instant, he suddenly felt strongly that... in that dark room ahead, someone was waiting for him.
This person deliberately released his aura so that Feng Shunfeng would notice him; otherwise, given Feng Shunfeng's martial arts skills and his drunken state, he wouldn't have been able to detect this person even if he got within a step of his back.
"Who are you?" Feng Shunfeng asked the question into the house without moving forward or backward.
He didn't move forward because of fear.
He didn't back down because of fear.
"It's me." A man's voice came from inside the room.
From just two words, Feng Shunfeng immediately recognized the visitor's identity.
"How did you get here?" The next second, Feng Shunfeng asked in a low voice as he quickly stepped into the house.
After stepping over the threshold, Feng Shunfeng immediately turned around and peered into the yard a few times. Once he was sure no one was around, he quickly pulled his neck back and closed the door.
"There are some things I still need to talk to you about in person." Wen Yuzhai, sitting at the table inside the room, simply replied to him.
Despite the seemingly casual tone of Young Master Wen's words, his statement actually revealed some rather important information, though Feng Shunfeng didn't immediately grasp it...
"This is the headquarters of the Grand Canal Gang, there are many people and eyes..." At this moment, Feng Erdang had not yet shaken off his first reaction of feeling guilty, so when he came to the table and lit the oil lamp on the table, he was still speaking in a low voice.
“Heh…” Wen Yuzhai chuckled and replied in a teasing tone, “Can it be more chaotic than a brothel?”
His second response, besides pointing out the fact that "you bastard, you're either in the gang or in a brothel, I can only choose one," was also a warning to Feng Shunfeng, implying that he knew Feng's whereabouts very well.
At this point, some people might ask, "If I had to choose between two options, why can't I choose the brothel?"
Then you can think about it in conjunction with the information in the previous sentence of Young Master Wen: He said that the matter he came to talk to Feng Shunfeng about today must be discussed by him in person... This means that this matter cannot be resolved in a few words, and the two of them must have a secret environment and a process of discussion.
Similarly, communicating through letters or having someone relay messages is not an option.
Thinking about it this way, although the Cao Gang area is guarded, it is generally a controllable environment. As long as Wen Yuzhai is not discovered when sneaking in and leaving, he can chat with Feng Shunfeng in his room without worry.
But in places like brothels, there are far too many uncontrollable variables...
First of all, there are plenty of people in the martial arts world who know Feng Shunfeng and Wen Yuzhai. If someone sees them meeting, even if they don't have any ulterior motives, the next day there might be a misunderstanding about them being too famous to be noticed.
Secondly, even if Wen Yuzhai disguised himself, or if the two of them were not seen when they met, what if they were chatting when other martial arts figures in the same brothel got into a fight and started fighting, and then... some people practicing palm techniques, some practicing leg techniques, some playing with nunchucks... and somehow ended up fighting in their room? Wouldn't that be an unnecessary complication?
Furthermore, to put it more extremely, what if there happens to be a highly skilled listener experiencing "The Solitary Gourmet" near the room where they are plotting their scheme?
“Oh dear, Mr. Wen, please don’t pick on me like this at a time like this…” Feng Shunfeng was clearly a fool. He didn’t understand the hidden meaning in Wen Yuzhai’s two sentences at all, and thought that Mr. Wen was mocking him. “…I’ve been feeling annoyed lately.”
Upon hearing this, Wen Yuzhai still smiled in response, thinking to herself: If you weren't bothered, I wouldn't have come.
But he didn't want to explain further to such a fool, so he went along with what the other person said: "Heh... if I'm not mistaken, the thing that's bothering you, Second Master Feng... or rather, the person, is your young gang leader, right?"
Yes, he knows everything.
Back then, the seeds of "usurpation" in the hearts of Feng Shunfeng and Feng Shunshui, two veteran ministers of the Grand Canal Gang, were sown by Wen Yuzhai. How could he not understand their thoughts?
As for the changes in Di Gui over the past few years, it was no secret, and Wen Yuzhai had even less reason not to know.
But Feng Shunfeng's next reaction was still so pure, so pure that Wen Yuzhai didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
“Of course!” Feng Shunfeng exclaimed, his eyes blazing with anger. He then launched into a tirade against Di Gui’s reformed behavior over the past few years, much like a disgruntled woman…
(End of this chapter)