"I am the consul of Great Britain, William Harris!"
Consul Harris straightened his back and addressed Captain Zheng and the crowd of guards before him, "I want to see the person in charge here!"
The moment he said this, Captain Zheng felt his scalp tingle with dread!
"Fools! A bunch of fools! What are you standing around for?"
Captain Zheng’s expression immediately became fierce and menacing. He turned to his stunned subordinates and barked, "Quick! Open the gate for the Consul! Clear the way!"
Cursing under his breath, he personally joined a few guards who had snapped out of their daze, and together they scrambled to heave the heavy iron gate open.
The moment the gate was open, Captain Zheng scurried over to Consul Harris. His face was plastered with an obsequious smile, and he bowed so low his back was nearly parallel to the ground. "Mr. Consul! Your esteemed presence honors us! My sincerest apologies for not being here to greet you properly! Please, forgive me!"
"May I ask... is there something important that brings you to the docks personally? Please, just give the order!"
Consul Harris glanced at him, then raised a white-gloved hand and pointed a finger nearly at Captain Zheng’s nose. He commanded in his stiff, broken Chinese:
"You! Immediately! Take your men! All of you, leave this port! This is Mr. Lu Yun’s property! He is a business partner I have worked with for many years!"
"I will not permit you to interfere with their normal operations, and I certainly will not permit you to affect the security and transport of my goods!"
The smile on Captain Zheng’s face froze instantly, replaced by a pained grimace.
"Ah... about that... Mr. Consul, you may not be aware! Locking down the port... it’s really not a decision that people like us can make!"
"We’re just following orders! Perhaps you could ask our superiors first?"
He passed the buck directly to Gan Wen Yao, who was still holding down the fort in the office building.
"Have your superior! Come and see me! Now! Immediately!" Consul Harris refused to listen to any explanations, his voice suddenly rising in pitch.
"Otherwise, I will consider this a grave provocation by the Daxia government against me personally, as well as against the commercial interests of Great Britain!"
"Yes, yes, yes! Please calm down, Mr. Consul! I’ll see to it right away! Right away!"
Scared out of his wits, Captain Zheng roared at a quick-footed guard beside him, "What are you standing there for? Get to the office building! Tell Special Envoy Gan that Consul Harris of Great Britain is here in person! He demands to see him immediately! Go!"
The guard didn’t dare to delay, scrambling and stumbling toward the office building inside the port.
Inside the office building, Gan Wen Yao listened to the guard’s frantic report: the Lu Family had brought the Consul of Great Britain, who was demanding they withdraw from the port at once.
He frowned, quickly grabbed the phone on his desk, and dialed the direct line to Special Commissioner Feng, who was still at the hospital.
"Reporting, Commissioner! The Lu Family brought the consul from Great Britain! He’s at the port entrance right now, demanding that all our men withdraw immediately!"
On the other end of the line, Feng Yuan was silent for a few seconds before a low growl, thick with suppressed rage, came through: "Don’t you move! Not one person is to withdraw! And don’t worry about those damned foreigners!"
"Tell them this is an internal affair of Daxia, and they have no right to interfere! I’m on my way now! I’d like to see what other tricks the Lu Family has up their sleeves!"
"Yes, Commissioner!"
After hearing Feng Yuan’s firm instructions, Gan Wen Yao commanded the guard, who was still waiting for a reply, "Go out and tell them! Without my order, no one is to abandon their post! Special Commissioner Feng will be here shortly!"
Receiving his clear orders, the guard didn’t dare ask any questions and jogged all the way back to the gate.
"Captain... the Special... the Special Envoy said... we can’t leave... and... and that Special Commissioner Feng is on his way..." the guard reported, panting for breath.
"Damn it all to hell!" After hearing the report, Captain Zheng’s vision went black, and he nearly fainted on the spot.
’I curse Gan Wen Yao’s and Feng Yuan’s ancestors back eighteen generations!’
’Those goddamn bastards, making a little captain like me stand up to a foreign consul? Are they trying to get me killed?’
Consul William Harris, standing to the side, had heard Captain Zheng’s reaction and the guard’s report loud and clear.
His expression instantly soured even further, his gray-blue eyes practically spitting fire.
"What!"
Consul Harris was utterly furious now. He pointed at Captain Zheng’s nose and berated him in an even sterner, almost threatening tone, "You dare to ignore my legitimate request?"
"Fine! Very fine! I am going to file the most solemn warning and formal complaint with your Yun Port City’s City Affairs Bureau! I will condemn this behavior of yours—disrupting normal commercial order and harming the interests of investors from the Western World!"
Just as the atmosphere at the port entrance grew tense enough to snap, three more all-black Ford cars came speeding toward them.
The cars had barely screeched to a halt when the rear door of the middle vehicle was impatiently shoved open.
A portly, ruddy-faced middle-aged man in a well-tailored black suit with slicked-back hair hurried out of the car.
The moment he got out, his eyes quickly locked onto William Harris.
An incredibly enthusiastic smile immediately spread across the middle-aged man’s face. He strode forward to greet him, extending both hands from a distance and calling out in fluent, if heavily accented, English.
"Hello! Hello! Mr. Consul Harris! We meet again! I never expected to run into you here!"
The newcomer was none other than the Deputy City Manager of Yun Port City, Shadakang!
William Harris turned at the sound of his voice. Upon seeing Shadakang, the anger on his face subsided slightly. He spoke in a mix of his stiff Chinese and English.
"Sand Affairs Chief, you’ve come at the right time! Your men are doing a very bad job! It is seriously affecting my business cooperation!"

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