Leaning against the doorway, Li Yan took drags from his cigarette butt as Ah Xiu's hair dripped wetly inside the room. She had changed into a loose garment, one Li Yan had borrowed from Black Swallowtail in the building.

"You stay here for the next few days. I'll figure something out and get you out of Fortress Village after a while."

"I don't need you to bother. I don't want to see you again," Ah Xiu's voice was hoarse from crying.

Li Yan couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"Alright, you keep that up."

He thought to himself, "I won't be around much longer either."

Li Yan, a bandage wrapped around his waist, flicked through the contacts on his phone, his gaze shuttling between the numbers of Li Yao Guang and Judy.

He had a decent impression of the police commissioner with the half-grey hair, but that was the extent of it.

In the end, his eyes settled on Judy's number. Just then, his phone began to vibrate—it was Judy calling.

Li Yan answered with a complex expression, "Hello?"

Silence came from the other end.

"Cough cough, how have you been these days? My prescription..."

"I flushed it down the toilet," came the cold response.

"Oh~ good to let out some steam," Li Yan scratched his eyebrow.

"Really?" Judy's voice was tinged with mockery, "So it wouldn't matter if I flushed all those weird, worthless papers too?"

Li Yan was taken aback: "What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean."

"Where did you hear about that?" A shadow crossed Li Yan's heart. Of the five Fragmented Manuscripts, he held four, and the remaining one should be...

"Humph."

Judy hung up the phone without hesitation.

Li Yan, frowning, tried calling back, but no one answered.

He rushed down the stairs, asking the people of Fuk Yee Mansion to look after Ah Xiu, then left Fortress Village for Judy's usual residence, a small villa.

After hanging up, Judy snapped her phone shut and fixed her phoenix eyes on the man before her.

He wore a dark pinstripe suit and gold-rimmed glasses, devouring the cake in front of him with a ravenous hunger.

No one could tell that this man was the hotshot of Consecutive Victories, a man known on the streets as Ah Yu.

"The money can be given to you at any time, but what about the thing I want?"

Ah Yu glanced around. Li, along with several female bodyguards, watched him with detached scrutiny.

The deep crimson glow in A Fleeting Glance reminded Ah Yu that these women were not only dangerous but also hostile towards him.

Ah Yu licked his lips, "Shall we talk price first?"

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"One hundred thousand, per piece."

Ah Yu remained silent, apparently not satisfied with the offer.

"Two hundred thousand." Judy didn't even blink.

"This..." The man hesitated.

Judy let out a cold laugh, "Li, let's go."

She stood up, giving the man a glance, "So you're the Consecutive Victories' Ah Yu, huh? Such greed, you're bound to have a promising future in the underworld. I've got my eye on you."

"Wait, wait." The man hastily got to his feet as if he'd choked on cake, coughing embarrassingly for a while.

Li watched the man desperately guzzling boiling water, a hint of disdain flashing in her eyes.

"Two hundred thousand, then."

"Hand over the goods, take the money, and leave."

Judy was all business.

"I wouldn't carry something worth two hundred thousand on me."

The man grinned, revealing a row of eerily white teeth.

"What do you suggest?"

Judy's smile was ambiguous.

"Come to my place to get it."

The man said casually.

Judy sized up Ah Yu, then suddenly burst into laughter.

"Fine by me, no problem."

If she ran into trouble, the entire Consecutive Victories would be dragged down with her. A gang leader who could be found dead on the streets any day wasn't worth a second thought to Judy.

"Lead the way."

Ah Yu agreed, but then was blocked by a tall figure.

"Wow, a beauty, I almost dropped the ball there."

Ah Yu whistled frivolously.

Li, standing at an imposing one meter seventy-eight, smiled as she wiped the cream from the corner of his mouth, leaning close to Ah Yu's ear.

"Just a friendly reminder not to get any funny ideas."

Ah Yu glanced at the half-exposed gun barrel deliberately shown off at Li's waist.

A Belgian M1923 Browning, a real man's gun.

The man swallowed hard.

"Understood, understood."

...

Before Li Yan obtained the Third Fragmented Manuscript from Zhang Mingyuan, he had encountered someone who also possessed a Fragmented Manuscript. That person had sparred with him for several days, always active in the cold streets of Fortress Village, a place teeming with gangs. Li Yan surmised that his disguise must have been as a gang member. During the encounter with Zhang Mingyuan, when two Fragmented Manuscripts appeared simultaneously at Fuk Yee Mansion and subsequently changed hands, it was only logical that his own identity would be deduced.

It was interesting that after the Consecutive Victories' Entry into the City Incident, this individual had silently departed from the Nine Dragons City stronghold, exceeding the five-kilometer detection range, and had not been seen since.

Li Yan had been confident that sooner or later the man would show up of his own accord, but now, as a month drew to a close, the man had vanished without a trace, as if swallowed up by the sea.

Unexpectedly, the next news of this person came through a phone call from Judy.

Li Yan never underestimated his opponents, especially one as patient as this.

And now, the angle this adversary had chosen indeed posed a challenging predicament for Li Yan.

The routine security work for Judy was handled by a security company registered in Singapore, and the several women around her were exceptionally skilled; even armed with a pistol, Li Yan would have no choice but to flee. But when the prepared face the unprepared, the outcome is not so certain.

For the present, he could only hope that the woman who usually held hands with Judy, yet faced him with such icy disdain she looked ready to shoot him on sight, was of exceptional quality.

"Sir, ahead is private territory, the taxi can't go any further."

The driver turned to Li Yan and said.

"What's the use of putting on such airs?"

Li Yan tossed a banknote, cursing as he jogged towards the villa district.

Five minutes later, when Li Yan reached the fence and gate, he pressed the buzzer.

"Hello, sir, may I ask who you're looking for?"

The voice from the speaker was polite yet distant.

"Is Miss Judy in?"

"I'm sorry, we can't disclose the boss's whereabouts. It's a matter of professional ethics."

Li Yan composed himself, "If I'm not mistaken your voice, you're... Banana?"

The woman facing the surveillance camera crossed her arms, smirking incessantly.

Of course, she recognized Li Yan; Judy had nearly turned his photo into a target for shooting practice these past few days.

"Where is she? I have something very urgent to discuss with her."

"Sorry, without the boss's orders, we can't say anything."

"I'm not joking. Your boss could be in danger."

Out of professional composure, the woman didn't laugh aloud.

Men, huh, heh.

"Sir, if you have something to say, you might as well say it now. I'll pass the message along."

Li Yan pursed his lips, looked around, and then fiercely hurled a brick at the iron railing!

"Security, security!"

Banana screamed in alarm.

In no time, several burly guards approached, their faces stern, electric batons crackling with sparks in their hands.

Li Yan spat disdainfully, his eyebrows knitting together in frustration.

**********

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