Chapter 148: Swift Action

It seems entirely true that women genuinely love shopping—leaving aside objective reasons such as being too old to walk comfortably, or being so young they are still nursing and might frighten others or damage their own tender minds, or dinosaurs. From the age of eight to eighty, the inclination is basically identical. One simply has to concede that men and women are innately different, and not just in physiological terms.

Xiao Tianci had never actually accompanied anyone shopping before. The last time, he was on the streets with Huofeng for a negotiation; this time, he was tagging along with Huofeng and Little Princess as they shopped and bought things. He had no fear of making a spectacle. Wherever they went to shop, his people would first go ahead to clear the area, isolating onlookers and even directly sealing off entire streets so the trio could browse at their leisure.

Although Huofeng felt that this approach lacked the spontaneous joy of ordinary shopping, her spirits remained exceptionally high. She dragged Little Princess and Xiao Tianci from one boutique to another, buying items incessantly, especially since she did not have to pay the bills herself.

While accompanying Huofeng, Xiao Tianci was frequently asked whether the outfits they tried on looked good or not. In truth, what he wanted to say all along was: why bother trying them on when it is so troublesome? Just pack the entire store up and send it back. Why go through all that fuss?

What was genuinely on his mind was the attitude of the Japanese towards his arrival. Not a single person had stepped forward to offer even the slightest gesture of courtesy or welcome. With streets being sealed off like this, the switchboards at the local police precincts were probably jammed with calls, yet absolutely no one had come to interfere or ask what they were up to.

Accompanying them on shopping sprees was not even the most exhausting part; what truly tired him out was being forced to try on clothes himself.

The two of them would pick out items they deemed suitable and insist that he wear them. After a few rounds of this, Xiao Tianci finally lost his patience. He firmly expressed his refusal, leaving the two women with no other choice. Having lost interest in browsing any further as dinner time approached, they headed straight back to the hotel to eat.

Xiao Tianci did not say much about it. He knew he had the finest image consultants at his disposal, and all of his clothes were custom-made and individually designed specifically for him. By rights, Little Princess and Huofeng could enjoy that exact same privilege, just as they did in every other aspect of life. Relatively speaking, how could the goods available here possibly compare to those back home? It was truly baffling why they found it so appealing.

After dinner, both Huofeng and Little Princess were all set to listen to Xiao Tianci expound on the fundamental nature of Japan, but before he could even begin, his phone rang. It was Fatty.

"No way. Isn't this moving a bit too fast?" Fatty announced that they would be making their move tonight and told Xiao Tianci to get ready. Xiao Tianci had not expected Fatty to be in such a rush.

Fatty had a perfectly sound rationale: this sort of operation required a swift, decisive battle. He had long since paid heavily to gather intelligence on every facet of the Cherry Blossom Group, had already planted numerous men of his own in strategic positions, and was determined to deal a devastating blow this time around.

The Cherry Blossom Group could never have anticipated that a minor syndicate like theirs, operating out of the United States, would ever dare to launch a retaliatory strike against them.

"Big Brother, hurry up! Sister Huofeng was pacing anxiously back and forth in the room just now... tee-hee..." Little Princess chimed in happily as she saw Xiao Tianci walk in from outside.

Huofeng's face flushed crimson, and she scolded, "Little Princess, if you talk nonsense again, Sister Huofeng won't play with you anymore."

Little Princess stuck her tongue out at Huofeng. Xiao Tianci walked over and patted the increasingly mischievous girl on the head. "All right, I'm afraid today won't work out. Little Princess, stop acting up; the fighting is about to begin in a moment."

"Really?" Little Princess looked up at Xiao Tianci with great excitement. Xiao Tianci replied, "It really is true, but you must behave yourself. Do you remember what you promised me?"

Little Princess lowered her head in resignation, nodded, and murmured, "Mhm, I know."

Looking at Little Princess, Xiao Tianci himself could not tell whether dragging her into this was right or wrong. It was dangerous enough for him alone, yet Little Princess had insisted on coming along. When Xiao Tianci had warned her of the perils, she had replied then: "Big Brother, if something happens to you, Little Princess certainly won't survive either. Just take me with you." Her words had wrung his heart. She was no longer a child; soon, Huofeng was going to start guiding her in martial arts training, which, combined with her marksmanship, made her formidable.

Truth be told, Little Princess was in some ways more capable than he was. Over this past period, she had grown taller, and the firearms she used had grown considerably heavier. While she was more cheerful and playful than ever, she looked less and less like a child.

Xiao Tianci raised his head and looked at Huofeng. "Huofeng, I'm leaving Little Princess in your hands."

Huofeng nodded and said, "Don't worry, I won't let anyone hurt her."

***

Watching Big Brother still arrange for Sister Huofeng to look after her specifically, Little Princess stood there, repeating internally over and over: *I'm not a child, I'm not a child, I'm not a child...*

Aside from night markets or certain specialized districts, most places grew profoundly quiet by three or four in the morning. Even the streets that experienced the worst traffic jams during the day saw only the occasional vehicle speeding past.

Nevertheless, various lighting displays illuminated the advertisements and roadways brightly. The lights inside Xiao Tianci and the others' rooms had long since been turned off; this was the prime hour for deep sleep.

"Old Five, dammit, get ready! My end is falling apart over here, hurry!" Suddenly, Fatty's frantic voice crackled through the comms, startling even Xiao Tianci. The reckless fatty was yelling like a banshee without even asking what the situation was.

"Alright, I've got it. How are things on your end? How many did you take out?" Fatty had led his men to meticulously eliminate pre-targeted objectives. This time, his goal was to deal with seventeen administrators of the Cherry Blossom Group and blow up several of their commercial fronts.

Mentioning this, Fatty cursed furiously, "Damn it, don't even fucking mention it! The Japanese Cherry Blossom Group isn't just blowing smoke. Aside from two guys who were out partying and got picked off by snipers, out of the other fifteen groups, only two operations succeeded—and both of those only because they triggered their explosives at the very last second to go down together with the targets. I'll be damned if I expected the Cherry Blossom Group to be this strong! Now the other enemy columns are converging on your location; you'd better get ready too. If things get too hairy, we'll fight and fall back together."

"Alright, don't worry about my end. Hurry over here and be careful," Xiao Tianci replied, standing up and walking over to the window to look outside.

The Cherry Blossom Group was proving significantly more formidable than either he or Fatty had estimated. They had originally anticipated that such a surprise assault should easily wipe out over fifty percent of the targets, especially since they were armed with heavy weaponry. The men Fatty deployed had been trained over many years specifically for assassinations, and every single one of them was utterly fearless. Yet despite all that, they had only managed to eliminate four targets—or more accurately, two.

Assassinations using snipers boasted a high success rate, but they could not all be executed simultaneously. Therefore, snipers had been positioned to adapt to changing circumstances; unless the entire lot of targets happened to be out carousing together, it was impossible to eliminate them all in a single sweep.

Among the personnel Xiao Tianci had brought along, the bodyguards were elite marksmen handpicked for their sniping prowess. The Chief Steward had put them through intensive refresher drills, followed by the Russian and American contingents, and finally, Vajra and his crew. Xiao Tianci trusted that with Vajra and Success working in tandem alongside so many skilled sharpshooters, they would encounter no issues even if a retreat became necessary.

As he was pondering, the lookout posted upstairs reported, "Boss, Leader Tong and his men are charging toward our position from two directions. There are quite a few vehicles tailing them, and both sides are exchanging gunfire continuously."

They had finally arrived. Xiao Tianci issued his command: "Wait until all of them enter the kill zone, then cut off their retreat."

Xiao Tianci had already mapped out this area beforehand. Surrounded by high-rises, he had deployed dozens of snipers precisely to lie in wait for the enemy.

Crouched inside a vehicle, Fatty repeatedly thrust his arm out the window to fire blinding bursts of suppressing fire—anything to check the enemy's firepower. He cursed under his breath, silently thanking his lucky stars that he had listened to Old Five's advice and acquired a bulletproof vehicle, otherwise he would truly be done for. Dammit, out of all his men, only his own vehicle and one other team had managed to fight their way back. The thought left a bitter ache in his heart; these were his most trusted veterans, men he had not even been willing to deploy during his bitter turf wars with the Cherry Blossom Group in the United States.

He had originally intended to launch a lightning-fast surprise attack, never imagining it would degenerate into this stalemate. Though they had taken out four Cherry Blossom executives, he had practically sacrificed his entire homegrown assassination squad in the process.

"Damn you little Japanese bastards!" Cursing, he thrust his arms out again to fire blindly. He certainly didn't dare lean his whole body out like they did in the movies—doing that was a surefire way to get killed.

More than a dozen Cherry Blossom vehicles were frantically chasing Fatty's group. If Fatty felt frustrated, the men of the Cherry Blossom Group were practically bursting with murderous rage. For decades, when had anyone ever dared to launch an assault on the Cherry Blossom Group, let alone open fire across the board and sacrifice four executives? The severity of the offense was immeasurable.

Per Xiao Tianci's orders, the moment the pursuers entered the designated killing zone, the snipers opened fire. Sharpshooters positioned at multiple vantage points fired simultaneously, instantly flipping the lead vehicles. The cars behind them failed to brake in time and piled into the wreck, causing several more to overturn while others managed to stay upright, only for their drivers to be picked off the second they popped their heads up.

The Chief Steward, Lin Jian, focused his fire exclusively on the fuel tanks, blowing up the vehicles one by one. Even those that escaped direct detonation were thrown into utter chaos. From his vantage point, Xiao Tianci could already survey the brewing carnage below.

"Boss, there's a helicopter!"

"Shoot it down."

Two newly arrived choppers barely closed in before they were blasted out of the sky. Hearing that Fatty had reached the ground floor, Xiao Tianci immediately moved out, accompanied by Huofeng and Little Princess; he could not afford to take unnecessary risks. Under these circumstances, particularly deep within enemy territory, hostile reinforcements would soon converge from all directions.

Though he had already planned their extraction route, he intended to withdraw alongside Fatty outside the enemy's encirclement ring, where additional forces lay in ambush. He would let the enemy believe all their targets were concentrated right here and swarm the building; once the slaughter reached its peak, his forces would crush them from both the inside and the outside.

Descending the stairs and seeing Fatty's grim expression, Xiao Tianci walked over and patted his shoulder. "Let's go. These things are bound to happen."

Fatty nodded grimly. "Yeah, I know. Let's fucking move..."

The group promptly boarded a pre-positioned cargo truck and evacuated the central sector before the enemy could form a complete perimeter. Xiao Tianci was well aware that the Russian and American intelligence assets dispatched to protect him would not initiate offensive actions on their own initiative, so he had to force their hand. A little later, when they crossed paths with the enemy, he would simply claim they were being relentlessly pursued by hostile elements right through the front door—let's see if those handlers could afford to sit idly by then. At that exact moment, those handlers were still peacefully standing guard and resting.

Barely had Xiao Tianci's group cleared the area when the Cherry Blossom Group's rear echelon arrived. Clearly cognizant that numerous snipers lurked in the vicinity, they refrained from a reckless frontal charge, opting instead to seal off the approaches from every flank.

Initially, a few martial arts adepts and agility specialists refused to accept the situation; relying on their superior footwork and speed, they attempted to rush the positions, but under the terrifying marksmanship of the Chief Steward, those experts were systematically picked off one by one.

It soon became apparent that these fallen operatives were no ordinary grunts, for once they were killed, no one else dared to throw their lives away by charging blindly.

Vajra and Chief Steward Lin Jian formed one sniper team, while Success and Tang Bing formed another, operating from two separate elevated vantage points. Vajra accepted a cigar handed to him by the Chief Steward and flicked his lighter to ignite it.

Smokers fell into several distinct categories: those with neither cigarettes nor a fire source, those with a flame but no tobacco, those with tobacco but no flame, and those equipped with both. Each condition reflected a different state of mind. Seeing Vajra produce a lighter, the Chief Steward smiled wryly and muttered, "Hah, not bad. Your old habits are creeping back in."

Vajra took a drag, glanced around the surroundings without answering the Chief Steward, and instead asked, "When do you think they'll launch the assault?"

The Chief Steward checked his watch. "There's still an hour and a half before official daybreak. They're bound to attack right before dawn—isn't that how the underworld always operates?"

Vajra murmured, "If it were up to me, I'd have drawn the police and the military directly into this. I wouldn't even need to lift a finger, and with a ruckus that big, the opposition wouldn't stand a chance of escaping."

The Chief Steward shook his head. "It's different for them. Aside from wanting results, they also care deeply about saving face. Otherwise, given the sheer power of the Cherry Blossom Group, it's impossible that they don't have deep ties with the government or the military."

Saving face... Vajra did not press the matter further. He still had enough time left to finish his cigar, and turning his gaze toward another rooftop in the distance, though details were obscured by the gloom, he seemed to perceive everything clearly.

Tang Bing leaned against a parapet nearby. Both he and Success held sniper rifles, and he was thoroughly familiar with a wide array of weaponry—to say nothing of Success, whose marksmanship, while perhaps falling slightly short of the Chief Steward's, was nonetheless exceptionally high.

With no movement from the enemy side for a prolonged period, Tang Bing lowered his rifle, slumped back against the wall, and grumbled, "Hey, who knows when these bastards are actually going to make their move? In my opinion, we might as well get some proper rest. Honestly, making me play sniper is far less satisfying than letting me get down there for some close-quarters combat."

"Say, Success, your shooting isn't half bad either..." he trailed off, turning his head to address his companion.

Looking over at Success, he saw him locked in the textbook sniper stance, his eyes glued unwaveringly to the scope, completely absorbed. Success displayed not the slightest reaction to Tang Bing's words, standing rigidly in place like a stone sculpture without moving a muscle. Tang Bing nodded vigorously in grudging admiration. "Remarkable."