Liu Ren: 'We Have No Choice! This Is the Only Way!'

Inside a heavily guarded villa in Brooklyn, the men who had arrived one after another gathered in the office. Hurriedly shutting the door, Lundin eyed Robert with deep suspicion. "Fuck, Robert, what the hell happened? Why did you call us out here in the middle of the night?" Confronted with Lundin's questioning, Robert's face flushed crimson, looking thoroughly embarrassed. Seated on a plush armchair, Liu Ren rested his chin on his right hand, legs crossed. "He couldn't keep it in his pants. Now a woman is blackmailing him, and it's going to ruin his campaign." Hearing Liu Ren's words, Lundin stared in disbelief. "What the fuck? Robert! Tell me this is a goddamn joke!" Looking sheepishly at Lundin, Robert mumbled awkwardly, "Sorry, Lundin. I guess I got a little carried away." "Ha! Unbelievable, man. Do you have any idea how much effort we put into this campaign?" Glaring at Robert in fury, Lundin roared with indignation. After all, Robert only needed to look polished and glamorous on the podium. All the messy business underneath had been handled by him and Liu Ren. Aside from bankrolling the campaign, securing voters' ballots required their networking. Lauren had already contacted the prominent families long ago, trading favors and interests to secure their tacit approval for Robert's rise! Yet now, just when everyone was ready to push him to the top, Robert had gotten caught up in this kind of scandal. Wasn't that just slitting his own throat? "Getting angry won't help, Lundin. Calm down," Liu Ren said placidly. What was done was done. Rage solved nothing; it only clouded judgment and led to bad decisions. Liu Ren wasn't one to stew in anger—if he ever had a temper, he'd unleash it on the spot! At Liu Ren's words, Lundin seemed to realize he had lost his composure. He immediately sank into an adjacent sofa to settle his nerves. Taking cigars from a box, Liu Ren tossed one to Lundin and another to Robert, then leisurely began to toast his own. The moment the match flared, a heavy, oppressive silence fell over the room. Slowly exhaling a thick plume of smoke, Liu Ren looked at Robert. "Go on, tell us what happened. We only have tonight to take care of this. Once the newspapers get wind of it tomorrow morning, we're done for." Staring at the cigar in his hands, Robert began recounting how he met the woman, got to know her, and fell in love. Giving Robert the squinting look of an old man trying to read a phone on the subway, Liu Ren felt a strong urge to smash the cigar into his face and tell him that this wasn't love—he was just lusting after her body, the cheap bastard! Still, Liu Ren spared Robert's feelings and kept the thought to himself. Lundin, on the other hand, listened with stunned disbelief written across his face, as if thinking: *Are you fucking kidding me?* Thanks to Robert's gift for oratory, what had originally been a sordid transaction had been dressed up into love at first sight, an eternal romance... "So, this woman now knows about certain hidden accounts of yours, and they're tied to the Silver Rock Group?" Liu Ren spread his hands and tilted his neck. Just how colossally stupid did someone have to be to let something like this happen? Clutching his forehead, Lundin looked ready to pass out from a throbbing headache. "That's... right," Robert admitted sheepishly, looking between Liu Ren and Lundin. "Fuck!" Liu Ren couldn't help letting out a curse in Chinese. Even his composure was beginning to fray. What time was this? They were on the brink of an election for state senator! For Robert to let a woman get her hands on fatal dirt—and drag the Silver Rock Group into it—was utter madness. Liu Ren could already picture the fallout if the woman, having been turned down by Robert, marched into a newspaper office tomorrow with the incriminating documents! "Fine. I get it now. We have to find her and eliminate everyone who knows about this." Liu Ren spoke slowly, his yellow-brown eyes glinting with resolve. At a moment like this, supreme wit was useless; only brute force could do the trick. After all, physical deliverance left no loose ends! "Are you crazy? Do you know what you're saying?" Robert stared at Liu Ren in shock. Even knowing Liu Ren wasn't above getting his hands dirty, he hadn't expected him to be this ruthless. "Fuck, Robert! If not for your stupidity, we wouldn't have to do this at all!" Hearing Robert still looking for wiggle room, Lundin lashed out angrily. He fully backed Liu Ren's plan—it was the only smart choice! "We have no choice! This is the only way! Or do you want to gamble on her not handing the documents over to the press, letting your scandal smear across all of New York, and tarnishing the group's reputation?" Glaring at Robert, Liu Ren rebuked him sharply. Not even Liu Ren himself would ever dare jeopardize the Silver Rock Group's name, yet here Robert was, creating such a mess! Granted, in this day and age, none of the tycoons had clean reputations—Rockefeller turned machine guns on workers, the DuPonts blew people to kingdom come, and Carnegie mobilized the National Guard... But the Silver Rock Group could not afford to be dragged into an election scandal! This wasn't like crushing strikes or protests; this was a political disgrace! Certain rules were unwritten yet understood by all, but you couldn't let them spill into the open. That broke the code! After a brief conference, they swiftly reached an agreement. Relying on various intelligence channels, Liu Ren managed to track down the woman before dawn. Yet when Liu Ren arrived in person with his men, heavy panting could be heard from inside. Tilting his head suspiciously, Liu Ren looked at Gatsby in confusion. "Are you sure?" "Yes, sir, I'm certain she's inside. As for who the man in there is, I have no idea!" Gatsby gave an awkward look, completely bewildered. "I really should have brought Robert along. His expression would have been priceless!" Liu Ren couldn't resist mocking the situation with a wry grin. "Oh, darling, you're amazing... so much better than that useless loser!" Lying tenderly across the man's chest, the woman's face flushed with afterglow. Hearing her words, the man asked, "Do you really have the dirt on him?" "Of course, darling. But when I asked him for a hundred thousand dollars, he actually turned me down. Damn bastard!" Though venting in annoyance, her face remained full of coquettish charm. Before either of them could say another word, the door was violently kicked open. Shocked, the man instantly threw up his hands in terror, looking as if he wanted to beg for mercy. Liu Ren gave him no chance whatsoever and pulled the trigger. *Bang!* As blood splattered across the wall, the woman shrieked and burst into tears. Striding forward, Liu Ren grabbed her by the hair and slammed her head against the wall. "Where is it? Tell me!" Confronted by Liu Ren's brutality, the woman could only sob hysterically, unable to utter a single word. "I'll give you ten seconds. Answer me! Crying counts toward the clock!" "One, three, six, nine..." As Liu Ren skipped numbers, the woman stared at the cold muzzle of the gun and screamed in sheer panic, "In the drawer! The drawer!" Liu Ren motioned to A Chao, who opened the drawer and pulled out a dossier. After glancing over its contents, A Chao nodded at once. "Was that so hard? Why the hell did you have to waste my time?" Releasing her hair, Liu Ren turned and walked out. The moment he stepped through the doorway, A Chao raised his gun and pulled the trigger without a second thought. Whether they found the documents or not, this woman was never going to live to see tomorrow!