Chapter 162: The Ear in the Box (2/2)

I couldn’t bear to watch Baldy getting hurt anymore, so I shouted, “That’s enough!”

The man stopped kicking Baldy and grinned at me, saying, “I know you’re with the police, so I won’t bother you. But I’m only teaching my underling a lesson here.”

He then slipped a business card into my pocket.

“Call me before dawn,” he crowed. “Otherwise, I’ll split Baldy’s skull in half.”

“I will hunt you down!” I shouted. “I’ll make sure you rot in prison!”

The man chuckled and bent down to pat Baldy’s face.

“Who got you into this state, Baldy?” he asked.

“No one…” answered Baldy. “I… fell down the stairs…”

“Did you hear that?” sneered the man. “You know nothing about the underworld. Even if Baldy gets killed, his ghost wouldn’t dare tell the police who did it! Now let’s go!”

The men lifted Baldy up and carried him away. Baldy stared at me with pleading eyes as he was leaving. He looked both sad and helpless, but above all, I could see that he was begging me not to say Chu Yan’s name under any circumstances.

Once they left, Dali jumped out from behind the door and asked, “What the hell just happened, dude? Did they hurt you?”

I shook my head wordlessly. I was at a loss about what to do and felt depressed. I contemplated the matter for a long time, then called Xiaotao to ask her opinion.

“You’ve landed yourself in a hot mess, Song Yang,” she told me after I explained the situation to her. “There really isn’t much that you can do now. The underworld has their own rules, and the police can hardly do anything when it comes to matters like this.”

I couldn’t go to sleep that night. The thought of Baldy being tortured hurt as if a knife was plunged into my heart. We weren’t exactly friends at the time, but I felt solidarity for him knowing that he would rather endure pain than let harm come to Chu Yan and her father. Besides, Cao Da’s son was using him to intimidate me.

After much deliberation, I called Sun Tiger and asked him if he could rescue Baldy.

“I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do, kiddo,” he answered. “They may be gangsters, but we can’t do anything to them without a proper warrant.”

“But they’re torturing Baldy as we speak!” I argued.

Sun Tiger sighed. “If he’s found dead, then we’ll open an investigation to find those who killed him. But until then, all we have is a verbal threat. We can’t do much with that. Don’t forget, kiddo, Baldy chose to walk this path himself. In fact, he was involved in many illegal activities too. You shouldn’t feel too sorry for a guy like him. He’ll meet an ugly end sooner or later anyway.”

I hung up the phone in despair. I finally realized how restricted the real world was with its rules and regulations. Even a director like Sun Tiger, or perhaps someone more powerful than him, couldn’t cross some lines.

Take Xiao Lanlan’s death for example. No one could bring justice to her murderer, not even the police. In the end, it took a girl like Chu Yan to avenge her death!

I couldn’t sleep a wink that night. As I was about to get up from bed the next morning, I heard a knock on the door. Dali was brushing his teeth. He answered the door and rushed back in, holding a plastic box in his hands. The surface of the box was wet with beads of condensation.

“It’s a delivery for you, dude,” Dali told me. “Did you order seafood or something?”

I didn’t recall ordering anything online lately. Dali urged me to open the box and check out what was inside. He told me someone probably sent me some fresh crabs. They were in season at the time.

I pulled up the lid. Dali immediately screamed and collapsed to the floor. Almost half of the box was filled with ice, and it was stained red. On the pile of ice sat a single human ear.

I noticed the earring on it which looked very familiar. I wondered for a while where I had seen it before. And then, it all came back to me…

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