Lu Yun sat upright in the car. He naturally recognized the man struggling and shouting on the ground as Luojin, the nephew of his late wife, Luo Qinghe.
The Luo Family of Yun Port City, back in the day, weren’t fabulously wealthy, but they were a respectable and well-off family.
Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last. After Luo Qinghe’s father, Luo Zhengsheng, retired, the family business was handed over to his only son, Luo Qiaoyu—Lu Yun’s brother-in-law.
Luo Qiaoyu’s abilities were mediocre. He could maintain the status quo but lacked the ambition to expand, and so the family’s fortunes gradually declined.
Worse, his health was also poor. He passed away when Luojin was in his teens, leaving behind a widow, an orphan, and a dwindling family fortune.
As the Luo Family’s eldest grandson, Luojin was doted on excessively by his grandfather Luo Zhengsheng and his mother, causing him to develop a spoiled, willful personality, unable to endure hardship.
After his father, Luo Qiaoyu, died, there was no one left who could control him.
The Luo Family’s resources couldn’t withstand his squandering. Luojin soon started running with a bad crowd and even picked up the nasty habit of smoking opium.
Eventually, he became addicted to gambling, hoping to get rich overnight and turn his fortunes around, but instead, he only sank deeper into debt.
Out of respect for his late wife’s memory, Lu Yun had helped him out in the early days, even arranging a job for him at the Lu Family’s trading company, hoping he would turn over a new leaf.
But Luojin’s bad habits were incorrigible. He refused to listen to repeated advice and even embezzled funds from the company to gamble and smoke.
Finally, in a fit of rage, Lu Yun threw him out and declared he would no longer care whether he lived or died.
Now, Luojin was like a drowning man clutching at a straw, desperately shouting, "Uncle!"
He hoped that his once immensely authoritative and wealthy uncle would, for the sake of his dead aunt, save him just this one more time.
When the Cyan Dragon Gang thugs saw Yan Lintong’s extraordinary bearing, the nice car he drove, and heard him address the opium fiend as "Young Master," then heard the fiend shout "Uncle," they hesitated.
The few in the lead exchanged glances. They didn’t dare to advance for the moment, but they didn’t leave either, clearly wanting to see how the situation would unfold.
At this moment, Yan Lintong’s expression was complicated. He turned his head to look inside the car. This matter involved his master’s family affairs; he didn’t dare to act on his own.
Seeing Yan Lintong merely glance into the car without an immediate response, Luojin grew even more anxious.
He forced himself to his feet and stumbled toward the rear window of the sedan.
Through the glass, Luojin finally saw the dignified figure sitting upright inside.
It was his uncle whom he hadn’t seen in years, Lu Yun!
Toward this uncle, Luojin felt only a bone-deep fear, along with the reverence one feels for an unattainable, great figure.
But at this moment, all fear and reverence were suppressed by his instinct for survival.
He knew he had already broken his uncle’s heart long ago; just begging for mercy and playing the victim probably wouldn’t work.
Just then, as if remembering something, Luojin’s expression instantly shifted to one of utter grief.
"Uncle! Uncle! You’re finally here! Quick... go see my grandfather!"
"He’s... he’s not going to make it. He just wants to see you one last time before he goes!"
Then, he pointed at the Cyan Dragon Gang thugs behind him. "And! And my daughter! Yanyan! Your grandniece, Luo Yanyan, has been taken by these goddamned bastards!"
"They said... they said they’re going to sell my daughter to the Southern Ocean! Uncle, I’m begging you, please save Yanyan! She’s only twelve years old!"
Hearing Luojin twist the truth and turn on them, the Cyan Dragon Gang thugs immediately flew into a rage.
The scar-faced leader flew into a rage, pointing at Luojin’s nose and cursing, "You’re full of shit! Luojin, you motherfucker, stop your goddamn slandering and spouting nonsense!"
"It was you who went crazy gambling, racked up a mountain of bad debt you couldn’t pay, and signed the contract with your own hand to sell your daughter to cover it!"
"It’s in black and white, with your red thumbprint right on it! You bastard, are you trying to deny it?"
Luojin didn’t dare to confront the thugs. He just shouted even louder, "Uncle! Don’t listen to their nonsense! They’re all in it together! They’re bandits! Robbers! You have to believe me, you have to believe me!"
Just then, the scar-faced thug and a few of his sharper companions vaguely guessed the identity of the person in the car from how Luojin addressed him.
’The Luo Family’s son-in-law?’
’In all of Yun Port City, who else could be called the Luo Family’s son-in-law?’
A name that made their scalps tingle instantly surfaced in their minds: Lu Yun!
The legendary figure of Yun Port City, the top martial scholar of the former dynasty, an official who held the rank of Yun Port City Harbor Guard General, and the founder of the Lu Family’s import-export trading company.
And now he had a new title that struck fear into the hearts of all who heard it: Grandmaster of Huajin!
Any one of those titles alone was enough to crush low-level thugs like them as easily as crushing an ant!
The ferocity on the scar-faced thug’s face was instantly replaced by terror. He quickly signaled his men to shut up, while he himself adopted an incredibly respectful posture, bowing repeatedly toward the car window.
"It-it’s Lord Lu’s carriage! We were blind and offended you, Lord Lu! We deserve to die a thousand deaths! A thousand deaths!"
He shot a fierce glare at the collapsed Luojin and hurriedly distanced himself from the matter. "Lord Lu, please see the truth! This Luojin refuses to pay his debts and even signed a contract to sell his daughter. This is absolutely true; we are not framing him!"
"The contract is at the casino hall and is available for your inspection at any time, Lord Lu! This lowly one wouldn’t dare speak a single false word!"
Although Lord Lu had publicly declared years ago that he would no longer involve himself in the Luo Family’s rotten affairs and would let them fend for themselves, times were different now.
They had run into him by chance today. Who knew if this lord would suddenly change his mind on a whim and decide to intervene?
The scar-faced thug didn’t dare to take that gamble.
The man before them was a terrifying existence who could obliterate them all with a flick of his finger.
He had already made up his mind: first, he’d play the coward and see which way the wind was blowing.
If Lord Lu decided to get involved, he would immediately kick the ball to the Gang Leader and the Elders and patrons who were actually in charge of the hall to handle it.
’When the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up.’ All he had to do was maintain a deferential attitude and explain the situation clearly, and his job would be done.
If he didn’t get involved, then it was even simpler.
They would all pretend nothing had happened. He and his men would continue to "deal with" Luojin—collecting the debt and seizing the person as planned.
Lord Lu’s car would go on its way, and they would mind their own business. Everyone would be happy.
Lu Yun’s eyes shifted slightly. He glanced at Yan Lintong, who was standing outside. The latter immediately understood and quickly stepped forward to open the rear passenger door for Lu Yun.
Leaning on his Rosewood Walking Stick, Lu Yun slowly stepped out of the car.
He didn’t look at Luojin. Instead, he looked down on the dozen or so members of the Cyan Dragon Gang, who were all silent as cicadas in winter, bowing and nodding for dear life.
The Cyan Dragon Gang was indeed a large, deeply entrenched gang in Yun Port City. It was especially dominant in the western part of the city, its power and influence sprawling and complex.
Casinos, brothels, opium dens, and even the secret arms trade—it had a hand in all of them.
Therefore, the Cyan Dragon Gang’s power was even a cut above that of Xu Fei’s Yishun Hall, making it one of the giants of Yun Port City’s underworld.
Even these dozen or so seemingly ordinary debt collectors, upon closer inspection, had the faint bulges of hard objects under their clothes at their waists. They were clearly all armed with Mauser-type pistols or other handguns.

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