Chapter 1406: Chapter 851: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (Part 2)

"Okay."

Liu Zheng hung up and immediately called Jinzi.

"Zheng Chan~ You haven’t come by for days, did you forget all about us?"

Jinzi picked up in a second, then dragged out her voice to complain.

"How could I? I might forget anyone else, but I could never forget you guys. I’ve been busy with the Stinky Thick Soup these last few days, I was afraid it’d affect you."

Liu Zheng came up with an excuse.

"What’s Stinky Thick Soup?"

Jinzi asked.

"Hard to describe. I’ll just list the ingredients and you’ll get it. The gallbladder of a Stinky Snake, sludge from the sewer, old bandages from a hospital..."

"Stop stop stop, Zheng Chan don’t say another word, if you keep going I feel like even my phone is going to start stinking."

Jinzi hurriedly cut him off.

"Then I’ll drop it. There’s something I want to ask you about."

Liu Zheng said.

"What is it?"

"Do you know a guy called Shi Yidao?"

He asked.

"Sure I do. He used to be a regular at our bathhouse, pity he hardly ever comes since that incident."

Jinzi said.

"You mean when his only son got killed?"

"Yeah. So Zheng Chan you know about that too?"

Jinzi said in surprise.

"Tang Zi told me."

Liu Zheng replied.

"Oh. He used to be a good guy just like you, Zheng Chan. Such a shame. But it’s not like he’s turned bad now either, you could just say he’s lost all hope in life."

Jinzi sighed.

If you can’t protect your own family, what’s the point of protecting anyone else?

"Any clues who killed his son, exactly?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"That..."

Jinzi hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping.

"If it’s inconvenient then forget it, I’ll ask around through other channels."

He said immediately.

"If it’s you, Zheng Chan, then there’s nothing inconvenient about it."

Jinzi sounded like she’d made up her mind.

"Not long after Shi Yidao’s son was killed, I heard a customer say, ’Just like Boss Yamaguchi said, that blind man is finished now.’"

"Who’s Boss Yamaguchi?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"A half-human half-cat half-demon, and also the leader of the biggest Fusang Descendant gang, the First Group."

Jinzi said.

"What kind of grudge does it have with Shi Yidao?"

"Boss Yamaguchi once wanted to buy up all of Shou Town Street and turn it into some fancy high-end shopping street. Shou Town Street... Zheng Chan, you know Kowloon Walled City?"

Jinzi asked.

"Yeah."

Know it? He didn’t just know it, he knew it all too well.

"Mm, Shou Town Street is like that for Fusang Descendants, only on a much smaller scale. Lots of homeless people live there, if they leave Shou Town Street they’ve got nowhere to go."

"And the price Boss Yamaguchi offered wasn’t high either. Even if the Shou Town Street owners sold to it, they still couldn’t afford a place anywhere else. So with everyone banding together, Boss Yamaguchi’s demolition plan didn’t go very smoothly at first."

"But Boss Yamaguchi quickly ran out of patience. It was smart enough not to go after the property owners, and instead targeted temps, the unemployed, the homeless, debtors abandoned by their families. Before long, blood was flowing all over the streets of Shou Town Street."

"Boss Yamaguchi’s ruthlessness scared the property owners stiff. They held a street-wide meeting, planning to vote on whether to accept Boss Yamaguchi’s terms. But just as the voting ended and they were about to announce the result, Shi Yidao barged into the meeting and chopped the ballot box into countless pieces."

"He said he was also a Shou Town Street property owner, and without his vote the tally didn’t count."

"Turns out one night, one of the owners went out to buy medicine for his daughter and got mistaken for a homeless bum by the First Group people and killed. His daughter went to Shi Yidao and sold him their house for one yuan."

"From then on, any First Group thug who dared step into Shou Town Street would get their limbs broken by Shi Yidao and thrown back out. Boss Yamaguchi’s plan could only be shelved."

"Later on came the whole thing with Shi Yidao’s son getting killed."

Jinzi slowly recounted.

"So what’s Shou Town Street like now?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"It’s called First Street now."

Jinzi sighed.

"What about the daughter of that owner who got killed by mistake?"

He asked again.

"No idea. She’s probably dead too."

Jinzi replied.

"Got it, thanks Jinzi-chan, let’s grab a scrub together sometime."

"You’re awful, Zheng Chan, always talking and never actually coming."

After a round of flirting and banter, Liu Zheng hung up.

He’d already made up his mind, so instead of heading straight to the Ping’an City Gambling House, he first went to Deep Earth Workshop, one of the two workshops run by the clan that was Dwarf Yanxu’s mortal enemy.

"Welcome—oh. Bloody Restaurant!"

As he walked into the workshop, the Dwarf who was polishing merchandise was so startled he tossed away his rag and grabbed a Chain Whip off the rack, about to hurl it.

"Stop, I’m not here to deliver food, I’m here to buy stuff."

Liu Zheng was already used to this kind of scene and shouted to stop him.

"Who knows if you’re lying."

The Dwarf was half-convinced at best.

"Then just hold on to that crappy Meteor Hammer of yours, and once you’re sure I’m lying you can smash me with it, plenty of time."

He rolled his eyes.

"This is a Chain Whip, not a Meteor Hammer."

The Dwarf corrected him.

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say it is, it is. Can we talk business now?"

Liu Zheng asked impatiently.

"Fine, if you really are here to talk business."

The Dwarf hesitated, but still put the Chain Whip back on the rack.

"What do you want to buy?"

He asked.

"I want to buy some Silver Gemstone."

Liu Zheng said.

"Silver Gemstone?"

The Dwarf immediately grew wary again.

"What’s a human like you buying Silver Gemstone for?"

"Do you Dwarves do business this nosy all the time? You have to know what every customer’s buying things for? If they use your stuff to break the law are you going to take responsibility too?"

Liu Zheng shot back bluntly.

"No point grilling me, those are orders from above. If you can’t explain it I can’t sell you Silver Gemstone. It’ll be the same answer if you go to our other workshop."

The Dwarf shrugged.

"So troublesome. Fine, I’m buying Silver Gemstone to forge a weapon."

Liu Zheng said.

"Forge a weapon? You don’t look like any kind of craftsman."

The Dwarf gave him a once-over.

"I hired someone else to forge it. Master Ouyegan, you’ve heard of him?"

Liu Zheng said proudly.

"I’ve heard of him, a very skilled swordsmith."

The Dwarf nodded.

"At least you’ve got some taste. So can you sell me the Silver Gemstone now?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"How much do you want then?"

The Dwarf asked.

"Let’s start with a ton."

Liu Zheng said casually.

"A ton! You think you’re buying cement?"

The Dwarf was both shocked and speechless.

Now he was sure Liu Zheng wasn’t sent by the Flame Beard Sect—no one that clueless would be.

"What, is a ton a lot?"

Liu Zheng asked on purpose.

"It’s called Silver Gemstone for a reason, since when are gemstones sold by the ton? Master Ouyegan never taught you that?"

The Dwarf asked.

"Nope, I just heard Silver Gemstone was good material and took it upon myself to come buy some, is that not allowed?"

"Fine fine, you’re the customer, whatever you say goes. But the annual output of Silver Gemstone isn’t even a ton, even if you wanted that much we couldn’t sell it."

The Dwarf said. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"Then how much do you have?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"We’ve only got about fifty kilos in stock. If you want more I’d have to transfer from elsewhere."

The Dwarf said.

"I can’t be bothered to wait, then just give me the whole fifty kilos."

He said.

"You sure? One kilo of Silver Gemstone is ten thousand, fifty kilos is five hundred thousand."

The Dwarf said.

"Only five hundred thousand? That’s not even enough for me to get properly drunk."

Liu Zheng directly put five hundred thousand on the merchandise shelf.

"Hurry up, I’m on the clock delivering food. If you waste my time I’ll tear your shop down."

He urged.

"Delivery guys are this rich these days?"

The Dwarf muttered, scooped up the money, and went into the back of the workshop.

After a little over ten minutes, he came out dragging a big chest.