Chapter 122: The True Boss

"Talking about harmony in a place like this? You must have lost your mind." Long Four chuckled. "Here's a piece of advice: plenty of people in Myanmar speak Chinese. If someone heard you spouting such harmonious nonsense, they’d hang you up in public just to mock you."

Mo Fei looked left and right, letting out a sigh of relief only after confirming no one was paying them any mind.

Sometimes, being able to speak in code feels liberating, but once you realize that the code has been cracked, there's always an inexplicable sense of guilt that follows.

At a nearby card table, a blond man with a toothpick dangling from his lips slammed a hand of cards down, his face flushed with joy as he gestured wildly, shouting something in Burmese.

Mo Fei cast a questioning glance at Long Four.

Long Four lowered her head and smiled. "It's obvious he just won some money."

"And a significant amount, too," Long Two added, stealing a glance. "He's gambling with his life."

Mo Fei followed his gaze, his eyebrows arching in sudden realization.

The blond man had been cheating, and his technique was far from subtle.

This, too, was a gamble—though not on the cards themselves, but on whether the casino staff would notice his sleight of hand.

The odds of this succeeding must have been quite high; after all, his technique was so amateurish that even people like them, who rarely gambled, could spot it. Surely the professionals wouldn't miss it?

Sure enough, the blond man hadn't been celebrating for long before a man emerged from a back room.

The man wore a leather jacket and looked relatively clean—at least, he seemed decent compared to the pack of gamblers around him.

He walked up to the blond man’s table, waved the woman dealing the cards away, sat down, gathered the cards, shuffled them, and slapped them back onto the table. He spoke a string of Burmese.

As soon as the man in the leather jacket finished speaking, the blond man’s expression shifted.

The man in the leather jacket smirked, flipped the cards over, spread them out, and plucked two Hearts of 3 from the deck.

There was no need for a translator; the atmosphere in the room shifted instantly.

The blond man bolted, trying to make a run for it, but he was on someone else’s turf. He didn't even make it two steps before he was pinned down.

The man in the leather jacket stood up, walked over to him, and shouted something. The entire room fell into a dead silence.

By the time he finished speaking, the blond man on the ground was still frantically begging for his life, but the man in the leather jacket had already taken a gun from one of his subordinates and aimed it at him.

His marksmanship was decent; he shot the blond man right in the back.

A shot to the head would have ended it instantly, but that clearly didn't serve the purpose of killing the chicken to scare the monkey.

By shooting him in the back, the man would experience the agony before the end.

Mo Fei nodded to himself.

Lesson learned.

Not that learning such things would be of any use to him.

"Long Four, I want to ask your opinion on something," Mo Fei said, frowning. "We’ve only been here a few minutes and two people are already dead. Is this place always like this, or did we just pick a bad time?"

Before Long Four could reply, the man in the leather jacket approached them, speaking Mandarin with a heavy accent. "It’s definitely a local specialty."

"But it’s rare for people to dare cheat here. You two just happened to catch it." The man looked quite young, not much older than Officer Xu.

If he weren't in a place like this, he would look like any ordinary young man.

He reached out a hand toward Mo Fei. "Hello, I’m the floor manager here. You can call me Xiao Bai."

"Xiao Bai?" Mo Fei shook his hand. "You don't look all that 'white' to me."

He seemed dark through and through, especially his methods.

Xiao Bai’s eyes crinkled with a smile. "Just a nickname. Is this your first time here? Would you like me to show you around?"

"No, I’m not interested in this sort of thing," Mo Fei rejected him firmly.

"That’s fine, I can always find something that interests you." Xiao Bai ignored Long Two and Long Four entirely, leading Mo Fei deeper inside. "Whether it's drugs or girls, this place has more to offer than just gambling."

Mo Fei felt uncomfortable and stopped in his tracks. "No, I'm not interested in any of that."

"Not interested in any of it?" Xiao Bai stopped too, looking at him with amused interest. "Then why are you here?"

"This is an underground den. Don't tell me you just got lost."

He lit a cigarette and sized Mo Fei up. "Or are you one of *those* people? What are you doing out here instead of playing house?"

"Would you believe me if I said I’m just out for a stroll to buy some supplies?" Mo Fei replied with a serious face. "Actually, there are a few things I need to ask the locals about if I want to find them."

Xiao Bai grew intrigued. "Tell me about it."

Mo Fei leaned in to whisper with him, while Long Two and Long Four stood behind, watching this familiar scene unfold.

Long Four let out a heavy sigh. "I knew it would come to this."

"If he's here, then *that person* probably isn't far behind," Long Two said, his expression grim. "We ran into Li Momo just yesterday."

"If we really run into him, it’s going to be a lot of trouble."

"I'll tell him to hurry up," Long Four said, walking forward.

As they drew closer, they could hear what Mo Fei and Xiao Bai were whispering about.

The two were discussing everything from the manufacturing methods of incendiary bombs to the mixing ratios of crude explosives, including—but not limited to—how to produce an explosion using only regulation-compliant materials in a limited environment, and how to cut open empty gas cylinders, attach tail fins, and fill them with gunpowder to create fireable artillery shells.

Xiao Bai had a small interest in such things himself, but he had never imagined a gas cylinder could be modified into a bomb. He was listening with rapt attention.

"Let me tell you, while this kind of gas cylinder shell lacks precision and range, the power is undeniable. The materials are easy to source, the modifications are simple, and it’s an absolute weapon of mass destruction for close-quarters urban combat," Mo Fei said, covering his nose and coughing. "Can you put that cigarette out? It’s choking me."

Xiao Bai snuffed the cigarette out with his fingers and pondered. "What’s the cost of one of these shells?"

Mo Fei did some quick math. "Gunpowder is cheap here. If you can get a welding torch to cut and modify them yourself, and collect some scrap gas tanks from around the area, you could keep the cost under fifty."

Xiao Bai pressed further. "Can you make one?"

Before Mo Fei could answer, Long Four yanked him back. "Shut up! People who talk nonsense get carried off by ghosts."

Mo Fei’s rebellious streak was suppressed before it could even surface, and he obediently clamped his mouth shut.

Long Four glanced at Xiao Bai and dropped a blunt statement: "He’s a fool. Nothing more to say. Goodbye."

With that, she dragged Mo Fei away.

Xiao Bai didn't think Mo Fei was a fool at all.

He pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

"Boss, I’ve made contact with the person Sister Momo met the day before yesterday. He doesn't seem like he works for the government."

"I did some checking, too. He’s a bit-part actor who hasn't been famous for years. He shouldn't be 'one of them' either."

After hearing what the person on the other end had to say, Xiao Bai sighed helplessly. "Boss, Da Fei has always been weird. It’s not like he’s only had a grudge against Sister Momo for a day or two. You really trust him?"

"Besides, Golden Tooth knows the two bodyguards he has with him. It wouldn't be worth investigating him over something like this."

The person on the other side of the phone laughed. "Are you trying to tell me how to do my job?"