It seems that the villain is targeting me.

It is remote, hidden, and the back door is next to a complex alley. Even the locals living here can easily get lost, not to mention people from outside - if the police come to arrest him, he can also notice it in time and escape through the back door.

Brother Dao usually eats, drinks, defecates and urinates in this shop. He basically doesn't go out unless he has something to do. He lives a secluded life and his style of doing things is very low-key. He is almost like digging a hole in the back mountain to live in seclusion.

He didn't have many people around him, only two or three familiar guys who would help him and act as couriers between him and those drug addict buyers.

Apart from this, Brother Dao seems to have no connection with the local gang that dominates Jiangcheng.

This is not difficult to understand: the principle of "when people leave, the tea gets cold" applies to most situations. When you are no longer useful, the originally lively crowd around you will disperse.

Without the huge profits from drug trafficking, Brother Dao, who used to have countless friends around him, would become a lonely man.

But even so, he still has three or five close friends around him - or in a sense, they can also be called a group of brothers in distress.

Gu Yilan has already established a rule: in order to prevent gang members from causing trouble, everyone is prohibited from engaging in drug trafficking, violent assaults, and the like, and their focus is shifted entirely to doing business.

Some were responsible for opening game halls and entertainment film studios, others specialized in investment and real estate, and there were also many already operating entertainment centers and nightclubs...

Strictly speaking, these businesses are not clean - after all, gangs are rotten to the core, and the dirtiness of their primitive accumulation is even worse than that of capitalists.

In any case, Gu Yilan is indeed thinking about leading the gang onto the open road. She is very cautiously judging the future trends and trying to have more legal businesses.

But not everyone is convinced by her approach, at least those who are left out are definitely not convinced.

Just like the people around Brother Dao - these people are unable to adapt to the gang's transformation for various reasons, and they were greedy for comfort when they were young, and their skills were too distorted - they are stuck in the middle very awkwardly, neither high nor low, and they have narrowed their own path.

"Brother Dao."

One of the shop assistants picked up the thick envelope on the table, opened it and looked inside.

Inside was a thick stack of banknotes, roughly estimated to be at least hundreds of thousands, which was not a small amount in that era.

But that is relative to the perspective of ordinary people. For those who have truly experienced what it means to live a life of luxury, this amount of money is really nothing.

The clerk stretched out his hand and counted the pile of bills very swiftly, and after a while put it back in its place.

He looked at his boss and said, "Brother Dao, are you just going to let that guy go like this?"

After years of getting along, the guy believes that he knows his big brother very well.

Even though he and Gu Tianjiao were talking alone just now, he still guessed what Brother Dao was thinking deep down.

At least one thing is clear: Brother Dao will never choose to stand on Gu Tianjiao's side just because of the so-called "only child in the Gu family."

He is a man who values his life very much - this can be seen from his low-key demeanor and the remote place he chose to live - how could such a person casually choose allies for himself?

Or a guy like Gu Tianjiao who has nothing.

Brother Dao did not reply immediately. After Gu Tianjiao left the room, he sat down in the leather armchair and threw aside the glass bottle with a little wine left in it.

He gestured gruffly to the waiter, who understood immediately, fetched an ice box and a clean glass bottle from behind the bar, and refilled his half-full glass of Dalmore.

Brother Dao took the wine glass and said to the waiter nonchalantly, "I'm free anyway, so I'm just teasing a kid."

Of course, he didn't really want to support Gu Tianjiao in seizing the position of the head of the family. He was simply happy to see the internal strife between mother and son, and simply hoped that Gu Yilan would be killed.

"From a personal perspective, I have no hostility towards her. On the contrary, I admire Gu Yilan very much. Not everyone has the courage to clean up a mess that is about to collapse."

"When the old man died, the minds of the various factions in the family suddenly became unstable. Brothers who were eating together at the table one second were about to beat each other to pieces the next second... In the end, Gu Yilan stepped forward and calmed everyone down."

Brother Dao still remembers the scene at that time. He met the old man earlier and was of the same generation as Gu Yilan's father, so he knew of her existence very early.

At that time, no one called her Sister Lan. When Gu's father occasionally mentioned her, he just called her A Lan with tenderness in his eyes.

When he was young, Dao Ge only regarded her as his big brother's treasure.

My daughter, my little sister, doesn't swear and doesn't want to get involved in bloody and dirty things. I will send her to a good university abroad in the future.

Later, when A Lan had grown up, she broke into the messy ancestral hall. She pushed through the chaotic crowd, drew out her knife in front of several hall masters, and chopped off several rolling human heads like chopping chickens, and rolled them together with the offerings to Guan Erye.

When the blood spurted onto his face, Brother Dao recalled that his elder brother had once taken him to the school to watch a cultural performance, where A-Lan was reciting English poetry on the stage.

There was not much change in the facial features of A Lan at that time and Sister Lan later. She was still as white and beautiful, and against the backdrop of bloody death, she looked like a green-faced demon.

Brother Dao shook his head and took another sip of the cold wine.

"My desire for her to die is purely a business matter: Gu Yilan doesn't like the white powder business. She's too cautious, and her unrealistic concerns are blocking her path to wealth. I can't tolerate this."

"Drug trafficking will be the most profitable business in the future. It's an enduring trend, and everyone involved can make money. That's the most important thing. She can't stop me from doing business and making money."

"Even if we don't do it, others will. The profits from drug trafficking are extremely lucrative, and rival gangs will expand rapidly, and eventually they will turn around and compete for our industry."

Brother Dao didn't know that in a few years all gangs with more than three people would be wiped out, and he was still worried about the threat from rival families.

It would be better if Gu Yilan was not in the position of head of the family.

If Gu Yilan died and the family was inherited by her son or anyone else, the other party would not have the courage and popularity to resolutely ban drug trafficking in the territory.

Anyone else who manages gang affairs would not set such strict restrictions on drug trafficking: the profits involved are simply too great, and no one will let go easily.

Gu Yilan had actually become an obstacle preventing this business from continuing - she had indeed been the subject of many assassination attempts and targeting because of her actions, including four or five shootings, and she always had bodyguards with her wherever she went.

This is also a very simple truth: blocking someone's financial path is like killing their parents.

Brother Dao didn't want to deal with Gu Yilan himself. He couldn't afford such a risk. He didn't want to see a situation where he would lose everything if he made a mistake.

That's why he acted as if he fully supported Gu Tianjiao: if there was a fool willing to work for him, what was wrong with agreeing?

If the situation develops better, Gu Tianjiao will have brought down his own mother and is unable to control the gang. At this time, he can stand up and reap the benefits.

Even if the other party fails, Brother Dao will not take any risks - because he has no intention of fulfilling his obligations as an ally from the beginning, and is only prepared to watch coldly from behind.

After all, from beginning to end, the two people only made verbal promises.

And how can such a thing be believed?

Brother Dao slowly took another sip of the cold whiskey. He looked at the back door that had just been closed and couldn't help but reveal a cruel smile.

It felt good to be able to stay out of it. Hell was a river of blood, but he didn't have to be there.

--------

-

At the same time, it was still that alley.

The alley was still empty, and a bored wind was running across the ground, kicking the garbage from time to time, raising large amounts of dust.

I don't know how long it took, but a girl who seemed a little surprised appeared from the corner of the alley.

Lu Zhiqing clenched the weapon hidden in her palm, her knuckles turned white and her face was obviously tense.

This was indeed the first time she did something like this.

In the matter of tracking, Lu Zhiqing fully demonstrated the clumsiness of a novice. Not only did she almost lose the track, but she was also nearly discovered several times. Fortunately, Gu Tianjiao was also a half-baked person who was wandering around aimlessly, otherwise she would have definitely been noticed.

Lu Zhiqing did this on his own will without being instructed by anyone.

She was temporarily free from the control of her family, and because of her compromise with her father, she gained a certain degree of freedom and could act according to her own ideas without attracting Lu Weiren's attention.

Lu Zhiqing did not intend to sit and wait for death. She knew very well that if she did not find a way to save herself, she would be squeezed dry of all her value in the future.

This was not something that could be discussed with teachers or classmates, and she didn't know who to turn to for help.

Lu Zhiqing can only rely on himself.

She didn't know the specific details of the transaction between Gu Tianjiao and Lu's father, but she could easily deduce the information she wanted through some details:

Not long after his father proposed that he get engaged to Gu Tianjiao, he dropped out of school - and the times when conflicts broke out between him and his father seemed a bit strange when he thought about it carefully.

It is obvious that there is something wrong with Young Master Gu.

In fact, it was a coincidence that he ran into him on the road today. Lu Zhiqing had originally gone out to purchase school supplies, but who would have expected to see Gu Tianjiao in disguise outside the small commodity market.

Wearing a black jacket, a baseball cap and a mask, if they had not lived together for several years, she might not have recognized that the man was the young Master Gu who had dropped out of school.

Lu Zhiqing instinctively felt that he was doing something shameful - no decent person would dress like this - and then he thought of what he had done before.

He stopped in hesitation after deducing clues from the details.

She looked at Gu Tianjiao's receding back and followed him as if possessed by a ghost.

Due to her lack of experience, Lu Zhiqing did not dare to get too close and just watched from a distance. The alley was too dark and she almost made a mistake. She carefully observed in the dark for a long time before she vaguely confirmed the location.

Fortunately, there are not many shops in this unfortunate place, so even if you only know the approximate location, you can still find the right place.

Her intuition told her that there was something dangerous there.

Lu Zhiqing was not in a hurry. She waited patiently for a long time, and only walked out of the corner where she was hiding after Gu Tianjiao left the alley.

She walked forward.

Judging from the outside, you can't even tell that there is a shop there. The narrow door is covered with so much rust that it almost blends in with the bumpy wall.

Lu Zhiqing moved closer. There were no obvious signs like house numbers here, and there were no cameras around except at the entrance of the alley, so it was easy to make a mistake.

If only I could hear what they are talking about in the room, Lu Zhiqing thought to himself with some annoyance. This door looks shabby, but it is actually a very thick iron door, and there may be sound insulation material stuffed in the middle.

She suddenly met Gu Tianjiao on the way, so she didn't make any preparations in advance - if possible, she would have brought the recorder here secretly.

Just as she was thinking this, the door in front of her suddenly opened a crack.

Lu Zhiqing was suddenly startled and broke out in a cold sweat.

She subconsciously raised her head and suddenly noticed some reflection above her head. When she looked again, she saw that there seemed to be something like a glass cover in the railing above the iron gate, with a faint red dot in the darkness.

It's a surveillance camera.

Who would have thought that in such a deserted place where it looked like there might not even be electricity, there would be a camera installed at the door.

Lu Zhiqing unconsciously took a half step back, and his left hand hanging behind him unconsciously clenched.

"What are you doing?"

The person inside the door asked in a muffled voice. He did not open the door completely, but only pushed the gap a little wider, and did not even untie the security chain.

In just a few seconds, countless thoughts flashed through Lu Zhiqing's mind.

She steadied herself and tried her best to act nonchalant. "Do you live here? My friend and I are lost and I need directions."

Lu Zhiqing casually mentioned a nearby place name and pointed to the entrance of the alley, as if she had a companion waiting there.

The person in the room glanced in the direction of Lu Zhiqing's finger - of course, because of the door panel blocking his view, he couldn't see anything.

Generally speaking, no one would really go out of their way to check it out.

Sure enough, the guy in the room quickly lost interest and impatiently asked her to go somewhere else to ask for directions.

Having said that, the other party closed the door.

Lu Zhiqing showed a regretful expression as if relieved. She took a few steps back and walked towards the entrance of the alley.

At first she maintained a steady pace, but later her steps gradually quickened.

The cold air coming from the narrow gap in the door seemed to freeze her heart. Lu Zhiqing tried hard to regulate her breathing, trembling slightly because of the adrenaline rushing into her veins.

It must be said that this was a complete failure of surveillance.

Let's stop here for now. She has already memorized the location. Lu Zhiqing has excellent spatial imagination and will never make a mistake in a road he has walked on once.

Next time, next time, she will...

and many more.

etc--

It felt like a cold wind was blowing across my back, giving me goose bumps.

Lu Zhiqing belatedly realized that someone was following him.