I just pulled Song Laosan up, and I used up all my strength. My arms feel like they don't belong to me anymore.
Before I could catch my breath, I saw the man rushing towards me slash with his knife. I immediately dodged to the side, grabbed his wrist, and pushed him to the other side.
"Bang! Bang!"
I grabbed the young man's wrist, and while he was fighting back, he was also pounding my face with his other fist. After a few blows, I felt my face swelling up badly. In desperation, I bit the young man's arm.
His knife was aimed at my head, clearly meant to kill, so I used a lot of force when I bit him.
"ah!!"
The young man's skin was broken by my bite, and he let out a hysterical scream. He instinctively tried to break free, and his arm spasmed in pain.
My mouth was filled with the taste of blood. I felt the young man's strength waning. With all my might, I pushed him to the ground and slammed his wrist, which was holding the knife, against the ground.
Just as I was about to grab the knife, another person rushed up and raised his knife, slashing at me.
Song Laosan reacted quickly, lunging forward to try and push the man away, but he was a little too slow. Although the man's knife avoided my vital points, it still left a wound on my right shoulder.
The person beneath me took advantage of my tilted body, grabbed my shoulders, and violently slammed his forehead into my nose.
"Bang!"
The young man bumped into me, and I immediately felt dizzy. Then he ripped me off.
Another man rushed over and, taking advantage of my open stance, slammed a stick down on my chest: "You little bastard! You're asking for it!"
Seeing the other person's actions, I instinctively raised my arm to try and block their stick, but the monkey rushed up and pinned me down.
"Crackling and popping!"
At this point, the seven or eight people who caught up started hitting and kicking us, except for two who were dealing with Song Laosan. I was afraid that Monkey would get hurt, so I pulled him down and lay him down with me.
Just when I thought we were definitely going to die here today, a shouting and cursing suddenly came from beside me. Then a group of people rushed up and instantly started a melee with the attackers.
One of Qinghuai's young men recognized me and quickly helped me up: "Mr. Duan, are you alright?"
At that moment, I was in pain all over my body. When I saw the monkey with its eyes closed and its face covered in blood, I panicked and cried out, "Don't worry about me, save my friend first!"
The young man bent down, picked up the monkey, and waved to the people around him: "Protect Mr. Duan well, let's go down the mountain first!"
...
The fierce battle at Hanzhu Ridge left Monkey with a moderate concussion. Although I was not fatally injured, I had a lot of scratches and knife wounds. On the contrary, Song Laosan was the least injured. Apart from the scrapes from falling off the cliff, he only had some bruises and no other wounds.
Because what happened that night was so bizarre, Qinghuai was afraid that we would be harmed again, so he did not take us to a public hospital, but instead sent us to a private hospital.
After my wound was treated in the emergency room, I felt like my whole body was falling apart, with bruises all over.
When Song Laosan saw me walk out of the treatment room, he stood up from his chair: "Are you alright?"
I shook my head: "They're just minor injuries, they won't affect your mobility. How's the monkey?"
"He has a concussion and is still unconscious. He's on an IV drip, and the doctor says he needs to rest for a few days."
Qing Huai reeked of alcohol, his eyes filled with guilt as he looked at me: "Mr. Duan, I once boasted that I would guarantee your safety, but I never expected that such a thing would happen on our first mission... Don't worry, if the problem really lies with me, I will definitely not let that mole get away with it and will give you an explanation."
"Now is not the time to talk about these things, but the problem today is very likely on your side, so we can no longer use your people for the next operation."
When I came up with this plan, I hadn't originally included Qing Huai in my calculations. I used this as a reason to exclude him from the inner circle, and at the same time, I asked Song Laosan, "We didn't lose anything, did we?"
Old Song looked dejected: "Don't even mention it! All the unearthed chime bells were stolen, leaving only some broken copper pieces. Luckily, I had the one with the inscription in my hand, otherwise I would have lost a lot tonight!"
My heart skipped a beat: "What about the others?"
"Everything else is here..."
Old Song only said half of what he meant, without revealing it to Qinghuai, but the implication was that no one would steal their bags of soil.
I frowned slightly: "Could the problem lie with the people in the drilling team?"
"Impossible. The three members of the drill team were also trapped at the scene. The middle-aged man who was in charge was blinded in one eye, and the other two were also badly injured."
Old Song responded confidently, "If they really wanted to double-cross us, they wouldn't need to put on such a self-inflicted injury act. The price is too high, and they certainly wouldn't come back with us! Their people just called me, demanding compensation from us!"
Qinghuai stepped forward and said, "Our Qing family will take responsibility for the compensation. It is our responsibility that we failed to ensure safety."
Hearing Qinghuai say that reminded me of something: "We were rescued by your people at the scene, didn't they catch any of the other side's people?"
"Those seven grandsons of the other side are also very clever. They left people to keep watch on the mountain road. When they saw my people coming up the mountain, they all retreated. They did manage to capture two henchmen. These people were all from out of town. They were hired layer by layer, like peeling an onion. They had no idea who their employer was."
Qinghuai rubbed his hands together: "What you did was something that couldn't be done in the open, so I had someone give them a good beating and throw them at the highway exit."
"In any case, tonight was a close call. From now on, we can't let your people have any contact with us. We'll handle things ourselves."
I glanced at the monkey's ward: "Our friend will be in your care for now."
"Don't worry, there won't be any more mistakes this time!"
Qinghuai pointed in the direction of the stairwell: "This hospital has a back door, which is specially prepared for some patients who can't be seen in public during examinations. Even the grassroots medical staff don't know about it. I'll take you out from there."
...
Song Laosan and I left through the back gate of the hospital and got into an old Jetta with a fake license plate.
Old Song started the car and looked at me: "The preparations for opening the kiln are complete. Shall we head over there?"
"Who do you think will attack us tonight?"
At that moment, my mind was completely focused on the attack: "Those attackers were ruthless. Even if they weren't aiming to kill us, they were at least trying to cripple us! But tonight's operation only involved us, the Qing family, and the Drill Team. Now that the Drill Team has been cleared of suspicion, Qing Huai wouldn't betray us. Although he wanted to take a bite out of Su Jialiang's business, this matter hasn't spread yet. Even if his men betrayed us, Su Jialiang's first reaction should have been to protect his position. It couldn't have been him who did this!"
Seeing my bewildered look, Song Laosan lit a cigarette: "Xiao Duan, there are some things I can't say in front of Qinghuai. Actually, while you were treating your wounds, I received news that the Wei and Qu families have also arrived in Luoyang."
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