Gang trouble in Guangzhou 2

Meanwhile, Gumei, with Jian Nanfeng reluctantly on his tail, had chased clues concerning the head of the Black Tortoise gang to Nanhai. Although the Water Dragon gang had been around for long and the current head came into power long before Gumei began his rampage on the underbelly of Guangzhou, Gumei had always had misgivings about them and went all out to subdue them, but they had always behaved appropriately, so he had no angle to confront. However, that was until recently, when the gang began to stir up trouble.

When Gumei met the Water Dragon gang leader for the first time at that restaurant, he was convinced the man was not a native of Guangzhou or even a Southerner at that, and coupled with the fact that the man was harassing foreign merchants at the docks, he was spurred to take action. As for the Black Tortoise gang, he suspected they were in some sort of conspiracy with the Water Dragon, seeing that they attacked different occupations, but he could not find their point of connection yet.

Even since the various gangs had pledged fealty to Gumei after he had thoroughly terrorized then, he had come to consider Guangzhou his turf, and as long as they did not cross his bottomline, he would not make things difficult for them. This was evidenced in how he treated both the businesses and the gangs; the gangs needed the businesses to survive while the businesses wanted the services the gangs provided, so he became a middleman for both sides, and balance prevailed. It was this very balance that the Water Dragon and Black Tortoise gangs threatened, so he had to uproot them.

The noble families of Nanhai had always envied the robust economy of Guangzhou and wanted a piece of the pie. Talk about being greedy. Their economy didn't come to be out of nothing; it took decades of effort on the part of the city lords and people of Guangzhou to prosper their city, but other cities, instead of investing in their own economies, wanted to steal the wealth of Guangzhou. And this probably wasn't the thought of the cities in their Lingnan circuit alone. Guangzhou was a city with semi-autonomy, which was an anomaly and a source of envy if one wanted to disregard their wealth. Many forces have tried to abolish it, but the founder of Guangzhou's major contributions to the founding of the Taiping dynasty firmly propped up the city. Anyway, that was none of Gumei's problems; the city lord mansion would have to deal with it.

Seeing that they had come to Guangzhou, Gumei decided they would stop by the Rulai pavillion. Gumei's eyes twinkled with mischief as he pushed open the simple doors of the Rulai pavillion. This pavilion was opened by the young master of the Shangguan family of Nanhai three years ago, and Gumei was opportuned to be there; he even wrote the calligraphy hung at the entrance of the pavilion, and since then he has become a regular.

The manager, hiding the terror of seeing Gumei deep in his heart, greeted them with an obsequious smile. Since this was not Gumei's first time in Rulai Pavilion, he had a preferred private room, which he frequented, and this was the room the manager led them to. As they followed him, thoughts of his investigation filled his mind.

The manager knew it was him, and that was why he welcomed them at the door. It seemed that the Shangguan family spies were still following him around; he could use their help in finding those gang leaders, though. He had to find their scared cat of the young master first to get approval.

Once seated, Gumei leaned back in his chair and chose dishes from the menu the manager brought. "Xiao Nanfeng, aren't you glad you used the excuse of a contest to follow me? See, I even brought you out of Guangzhou."

Jian Nanfeng ground his teeth; if this continued, his teeth would be no more! He dragged his seat far away from Gumei, but that didn't stop his voice from reaching his ears.

"Don't worry; be good and continue following me. I'll broaden your horizons."

Perhaps Gumei could do that, but that didn't stop a bitter taste from rising in Nanfeng's throat. As they waited for their food to arrive, Nanfeng looked out the window, and his eyes fell on Li Xin, who was hurrying down the street with someone else in tow. He called Gumei's attention to Li Xin and asked him to call him up, so Gumei came to the window to see who he was referring to.

A smile suddenly adorned Gumei's face, and he turned to leave the private room. "Rather than calling him up, why don't we go to him? I saw an old friend I would like to catch up with too."