However, one newspaper was a real standout.
At the very top of the *Spark Grand Daily* was a headline in bold, enlarged font that took up nearly half the page: "GOOD RIDDANCE! A CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION!!"
The subheading read: "See How the Wa Country’s Lackey and the Great Traitor Reaped What They Sowed!"
The article itself was an undisguised display of gloating, using a sharp, satirical tone to "recount" the various evil deeds committed by the Cyan Dragon Gang’s Gang Leader after he defected to the Wa Country, as well as the long list of atrocities committed by the people of the Wa Country within the concession and its surrounding areas.
The article concluded: "A wicked life is doomed to a wicked end! The two claps of thunder last night were perhaps the heavens themselves, unable to watch any longer, delivering divine retribution!"
"We hereby extend our most profound respect to the unknown hero!"
As soon as it hit the stands, the paper caused a massive uproar. Some people bought it secretly and cheered in applause, while others denounced it for "lacking perspective" and "fanning the flames."
In a crowded, dilapidated civilian shantytown in the old district of Yun Port City, low, crooked wooden houses were packed together in dense rows, and the narrow, filthy alleyways only had enough space for a single person to pass through sideways.
The air was a mixture of must, coal smoke, and the smell of cheap food.
Two young men, looking about nineteen or twenty, were dressed in faded, coarse-cloth work clothes, their faces still holding a trace of boyishness.
Each of them carried a simple package wrapped in oil paper, containing a few wilted greens and a small piece of fatty meat.
The two squeezed their way with difficulty through the narrow passages, finally stopping in front of a particularly low, dilapidated little wooden shack.
The shack was only a few square meters, barely partitioned into two "rooms," a front and a back, that resembled pigeon coops.
"Mistress! Junior Brothers, we’re back! We bought some groceries!" the slightly older young man called out in a low voice, knocking on the flimsy wooden door.
But the inside was silent. There was no response.
The two exchanged a glance, a sense of foreboding rising in their hearts. They knocked harder on the door and called out a few more times, but still, no one answered.
The younger one was more impatient. He rammed the door with his shoulder, and the force was enough to snap the already rotten latch. The wooden door creaked open.
What met their eyes was an empty room.
The few simple pieces of furniture were still there, but their Mistress and two Junior Brothers were gone.
"Where’s Mistress?" The color drained from their faces. As if struck by a sudden thought, they spun around and rushed toward the smaller adjacent room, which was normally used for storage.
"Dad! Dad, where are you?"
Shoving it open, they saw a middle-aged man tightly bound with coarse hemp rope, a rag stuffed in his mouth, curled up amidst a pile of junk.
It was their father, the same rickshaw puller who had twice given Lu Yun a ride—Wen San!
"Dad!"
The two cried out in alarm, lunging forward to frantically untie the ropes and pull the gag from his mouth. "Dad! Who did this? Where are Mistress and our Junior Brothers? Where did they go?"
Once freed, Wen San looked at his two frantic sons and let out a dark sigh. "Who else could it be... It was that ’poor Mistress’ you’re always talking about."
The two young men stared with wide, disbelieving eyes, as if struck by lightning. "What? That’s impossible! How could Mistress..."
Wen San cut them off. "How could she not? How many times have I told you!"
"I gritted my teeth and scraped together the money to send you to the Wind-Splitting Falcon Xingyi Fist Martial Arts Hall, and what did you learn in those few days?"
"Did you really think that dead Ma Sanlie and that wife of his were some kind of righteous, loyal people?"
"They were just using you two foolish boys’ sympathy and that flimsy pretense of a master-disciple relationship to find a free place to hide and some errand boys!"
He pointed at the ropes that had bound him. "Do you see clearly now? Last night, while you two were out looking for work, that woman knocked me out with a club and tied me up. I bet she took her two sons and fled by water before dawn!"
"It’s obvious now! She was leaving the three of us here to be her human shields!"
The two young men stood frozen, the world spinning around them.
It had all been a lie. They were just pawns, to be used and then thrown away.
"AHH!"
"Help!"
Suddenly, from the narrow alley outside the shantytown, came the terrified screams of men and the dull thuds of heavy objects hitting the ground.
Before Wen San and his sons could react, the already rickety door to their shack was viciously kicked off its hinges.
A young woman in a long black dress, her face cold and beautiful and her presence imposing, strode inside.
Behind her followed more than a dozen powerfully built men with high, bulging temples.
They blocked the doorway completely. Who else could it be but Gong Ning and the members of the Gong Family?
Her gaze swept quickly around the room, passing over Wen San, who was collapsed on the ground, and his two sons, who were trembling with fear. Understanding the situation instantly, the corner of her mouth lifted into a cold smirk.
"So they were tricked."
At that moment, one of the burly men behind Gong Ning bowed and reported, "Sect Leader, the woman from the shantytown who ran to us in a panic this morning to report suspicious individuals..."
"She must have been bribed by that woman to deliberately mislead us and buy time."
Gong Ning nodded slightly, her expression unruffled. She said with utter confidence, "No matter. She won’t get away. My father has already gone to the waterway to personally await her."
"As for these few... never mind. The Gong Family does not kill nobodies."
As Gong Ning turned to leave, one of the Gong Family members behind her snorted coldly. "Hmph. You little punks are lucky. If this were the Eastern Province, I’d have thrown you to the tigers long ago."

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