“What are you talking about? No, you cannot do that!” Shawn was a bit scared but he maintained his posture and asked the two men in matching jackets: “And what did you do to Yewei?”

“Who?”

“Jacob, his English name’s Jacob! Jacob Wu!” Shawn pointed at Yedong Wu: “His brother! His older brother!”

“Oh, him. Yeah he’s at the Zhangs’ place.” one of the men in matching jackets said: “Just know this - we’re here as a courtesy and a polite request. You should submit some samples from your inventory and the Zhangs will evaluate how much you’re worth as local associates. So you better listen up and just give us the goods. We don’t have all day.”

“No. I demand to talk to the one in charge of this area. And let me speak with Jacob.” Shawn almost backed off.

“Bang!” this time, the man in a jacket inside whose pocket Jianmen saw a bulge earlier slammed the counter with his fist, breaking the wood frame of the counter top and shattering the glass, but his hand was totally unscathed: “Enough! We are not here to negotiate with you! This is Lok’s turf no more. It belongs to the Zhangs. And while the Zhangs are not here, we represent them. And if you’re disrespecting us, you’re disrespecting them. So think about what you’re gonna do carefully and watch that attitude, grocery boy!”

“I need to speak with Jacob.” Shawn insisted and tried not to look at the broken countertop.

The two men in matching jackets exchanged looks, then as one of them intended to reach for something in his jacket. But Shaw was quicker in his actions - he whipped out a small hand gun from the back of his pants and pointed at the two men in front of him: “Freeze! Don’t move!”

Jianmen was not expecting this, and he was a bit stunned at the moment as he did not know what to do - all the knowledge he gained from some time ago did not prepare him for this kind of situation. But his guts told him that in this case he probably should have waited on the side and let things work out however they would.

“Listen up Shawn, you are making a terrible mistake here.” the man on the right slowly raised his hands up: “You don’t want to piss us up. And you sure don’t wanna piss the Zhangs up.”

“Shut up and get the fuck outta my store!” Shawn yelled: “You came into MY store, and you dare threaten me with your fucking bullshit requests?! You get outta my store! You get outta my fucking store now!”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Calm down! Calm down!” the man in a jacket extended his hands at Shawn: “What the fuck are you thinking pulling a gun here like this?”

“Shawn, calm down. Don’t do anything stupid.” Yedong said with a trembling vice: “It’s true, they took over the whole turf, and Yewei’s at their place but he’s okay. He asked me to come here on behalf of him and took his goods. He said he would be very happy to work with the Zhangs.”

“That doesn’t sound like him, you fucking useless imbecile!” Shawn became more agitated and pointed his gun at Yewei: “You think I don’t know what you’re up to? You jealous little fuck! You sold him out didn’t you!?”

“Shawn, you’re fucking nuts!” Yedong yelled: “He’s my brother! How can I ever harm him?”

“Oh is that right? What about your fifteen thousand dollar debt at Reno Tahoe? What about your five thousand dollar credit card debt huh?” Shawn seemed way more angry at Yedong than at the two men that brought him here.

Just this moment, the men who had something in his jacket pocket reached inside his jacket, and took out a silver grey pistol. And without thinking too much, Jianmen threw his phone from over the counter at the man.

Jianmen’s phone was cheap and had very limited functionalities, but it had a thick and smooth shell, a thick and scratch resistant screen and a very sturdy keyboard. Jianmen had been using it for a while and found that the only thing not reliable about it was its signal reception. Combine this with Jianmen’s inhuman strength and aim, the phone landed at this man’s wrist, knocking the pistol out of his hand and almost dislocating his wrist.

The pistol fell on the ground, its handle hit the ground and somehow triggered the hammer and caused a misfire on the level of everyone’s ankle. The bullet did not hit anyone, but just went through the wooden wall and penetrated the side of a garbage bin with metal and hard plastic exterior, and just stayed inside the bin.

“Hey! What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” Shawn was not hurt, but he was startled by the gunshot and he immediately pointed his gun at the two men with matching jackets: “Thank you Jianmen, you’re a good friend. Now all of you, get the fuck out! Get out now!”

The man hit by Jianmen’s phone peeked at Jianmen with anger and resentment, but now he did not have a gun and Shawn was the only one with firepower. So both of them went out the door with arms raised above their heads. And before they left, they still remembered to leave a threat: “This isn’t over. You’ll be hearing from us soon. And next time, we won’t be so friendly.”

“Shawn, Shanyi. My big brother. Why are you doing this?!” Yedong still tried to talk to Shawn: “You’re killing me here! And you’re killing Yewei! You better prepare to apologize!”

“Out. OUT!” Shawn lowered his gun, but still pointed at the door while staring at Yedong in the eyes.

“Boss. What are you involved with?” when the two men with matching jackets and Yedong Wu all left and Jianmen were sure they were far enough away, Jianmen asked: “The ‘cigarettes’ are not actually cigarettes right? What are they?”

Shawn sighed and shook his head: “It’s not something you should worry about. Let me handle this for now. You just need to watch the store and prepare dinner today.”

“Okay. ” Jianmen also sighed and pointed at the gun on the floor: “What about that?”

“Let me take care of it. You just go and wipe the security camera footage.” Shawn retracted his hand into his sleeve and picked the gun up with his hand wrapped in his sleeve so that his fingerprints wouldn’t be on the gun: “It’ll take me at least the whole day today. Just call me if you need any help. And thanks again for what you did.”

Jianmen nodded and did not say anything. For some reason, he had a really bad feeling about everything that happened.