Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

“Enough.” Tuku took a deep breath, revealing an inscrutable and complex expression. He transformed from an enraged brute into a calm and composed man, as if two different versions of himself were existing in the same body. “Let’s not talk here. Let’s find a more respectable place.”

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Zhang Renfeng smiled. "You decide."

"Come to my house for a casual dinner at six tonight." Tuku casually put away the gold nuggets and stood up decisively. "Someone will take you there."

----

Despite being called a "home," it was actually more like a heavily guarded fortified watchtower or outpost.

Interestingly, even in such a chaotic and barbaric environment, they still subconsciously imitated the world-famous details. Tucus's house, like Chedel's, was situated high up, overlooking the small kingdom he ruled.

The horse's hooves pounded on the muddy ground, and it moved step by step. As it got closer and closer to the watchtower, Xiaomei nervously swallowed hard.

As expected, in such a remote place, there was naturally no way a master chef would be making high-class cuisine. But the ingredients were very fresh, all hunted in the mountains, genuine "wild game." This time, no one asked them to hand over their weapons. The three of them passed through the heavily guarded wooden watchtower and entered the blockhouse. It was much more spacious than it appeared from the outside, backed by a cliff, easy to defend and difficult to attack, indeed a very good stronghold.

Next to the watchtower is the Thunder Gang's stable. Just as advertised outside, all the horses have a blue ribbon tied to their legs to signify their identity.

The door opened, and they stepped into the most dangerous room within a hundred miles.

……

"Let's start with introductions." Tuku remained calm, chewing on fresh venison. He preferred to eat with his hands rather than a knife and fork, revealing his rugged nature. "Who exactly are you?"

"is it necessary?"

“...Generally speaking, there’s no need for that; I’m always open to everyone. But you guys are a bit too... hahaha…” Tuku sucked on his finger and laughed heartily, “Do you understand? You guys look too strange. I can’t feel comfortable cooperating with you without getting to the bottom of things.”

A very reasonable request, as reasonable as a well-mannered businessman.

Zhang Renfeng and Mike exchanged a glance. In the end, it was Mike, who was older, who spoke, as it would be more convincing.

"Simply put, this guy has a special skill called a 'compass,' something like Eastern mysticism, which can find gold underground. I pay him to dig up the gold, and then we split it among ourselves, that's how it is."

He explained his group's identities in very concise words. The persona should be as short as possible; the longer it is, the easier it is for the flaws to be detected. "We came from Redstone Town in the south, rested briefly in Windblown Sand, and then rushed this way. We have finally arrived here. You call it... 'Grey Wolf Mountains'?"

"Is there gold on my land?" Tuku asked with a grin.

"Yes," Zhang Renfeng nodded, "and there are many."

“After asking around, we learned that this is your territory,” McWind said hesitantly. “It would be rather unfair of us to take your gold without informing you, wouldn’t you say?”

“…A little.” Tuku tilted his head, narrowed his terrifying eyes, and scanned Xiaomei back and forth. “Excuse me, old man, as I just said, please introduce yourselves. There are three of you here, but you’ve only introduced two.”

"What does this young girl do?"

“She used to study in school and knows a little about geology,” Mike said, making up a story with his eyes wide open. “She can judge whether the area is suitable for mining based on the condition of the soil and rocks. She can read some complex maps, which is somewhat useful to us, so I brought her along.”

"So, she's got some talent," Tuku chuckled maliciously, sniffing nonchalantly as he chewed his food. "Seriously, how long did it take to come up with this lame story? I haven't heard anything this ridiculous in ages. I..."

"when!"

The most convincing thing was undoubtedly letting him see the gleaming gold smashing onto the table with his own eyes. The quality and feel of it were simply unbeatable, cutting off all the words he had prepared.

To convince Tuku, Zhang Renfeng used a knife to cut the enormous piece of gold into several pieces. Even so, it was still quite large, and Tuku's two eyes were glued to it, their eyes gleaming with greed.

It's more than enough to use as bait to catch these desperate criminals!

“My partner has only told part of the truth. The real situation is… we lack manpower,” Zhang Renfeng continued. “The local gold prospectors are very closely united. Once they know there is gold here, they will flock here and fight with us for the gold nuggets.”

"You just took down twenty of my men," Tuku said in a deep voice, clicking his tongue.

“Twenty unarmed men,” Zhang Renfeng corrected. “If they had guns, it wouldn’t have been so easy, right?”

"Don't complicate things, Mr. Tuku. It's actually quite simple: we've discovered a gold deposit with enormous potential, far larger than we expected. But with just three people, we can only take a small portion of it, and we also risk conflict with the local gold prospectors, so..."

"I'd like to borrow the reputation and manpower of the Thunder Fury Gang."

Chapter 28: Too, too, too, hard!

"Why should I cooperate with you?" Tuku picked up his fork and, like a child, rolled and twirled the noodles on his plate into the shape of a bird's nest, asking, "I could have easily killed you all after finding out where the gold was buried, couldn't I?"

“Because this isn’t a one-off deal.” Zhang Renfeng shook his head. “New Elizabeth State is a land of hidden gold, and we plan to explore it all. My partner told me that your Thunder Gang has the most men and the most guns in this area. If we can reach a long-term cooperation with you, it will be more beneficial for us.”

“Ha! So…” Tuku swallowed the noodles in one gulp, leaned on the table, and looked at him with a sneer, “You guys want to become the gang’s ‘Amigo’ (friends)?”

"As long as we can make money, we don't care what you call us." Mike stared at him with dead fish eyes, not intimidated at all. "We know the rules. If we really dig up gold and make a lot of money, we split it 70/30."

"Don't rush to talk about splitting the money, old man, I haven't said I agree yet."

Tuku calmly picked up his glass and took a sip of red wine.

His drinking motions were anything but elegant; he gulped down the liquor like a cow drinking water, simply to quench his thirst. "Although what you've said sounds quite convincing, well... I've run into a little trouble..."

He raised his hands, making a quotation mark gesture, as if he himself found it ridiculous.

Since we're both talking nonsense, let's just keep talking nonsense to the end.

"What do you mean?" Zhang Renfeng frowned slightly.

“Red Center.” Tuku sneered, then suddenly turned his gaze to Xiaomei—the one among the three who was least able to withstand pressure.

Fortunately, Xiaomei handled the situation exceptionally well, managing to cover her tracks without showing any surprise, and simply continued mechanically eating what was on her plate. This is her character in the story: a little girl who knows a bit about geology and never gets involved in business matters.

……

The atmosphere at the dinner table turned incredibly tense almost instantly.

Zhang Renfeng smiled without saying a word, Mike remained expressionless, and Xiaomei buried her head in her rice; the three of them were busy with their own things.

All of this was observed by Tuku, who brazenly scrutinized their reactions and licked the grease off his hands.

Outside the window, crows cawed and flapped their wings, the sound blending into the forest and making it even more noisy.

"...Red Center?" After a moment of silence, Mike was the first to speak.

“The Red One, the famous Red One.” Tuku pointed at Zhang Renfeng and said with a smile, “By the way, is this guy a foreigner? Does he know the legend of the Red One? Hahahaha… That guy is a madman. These days, you don’t often see anyone crazier than me.”

"So, this 'red center'..." Zhang Renfeng carefully chose his words, "is it related to us, or is it related to gold?"

“They’re all related,” Tuku said with a smile.

"Oh?" Zhang Renfeng raised an eyebrow and placed his hand on the edge of the table. "Could it be that he's in this Scarface Village?"

"Here." Tuku picked up the roasted lamb ribs in front of him and chewed them with his shark-like teeth, making a crunching sound and dropping bits of meat. "...He's not here either."

Zhang Renfeng and Mike exchanged a glance, and, perfectly in line with their characters, burst out laughing.

"That has a philosophical flavor to it."

“Haha, that’s right. Saul said too, sometimes I’m like a philosopher.” After finishing the meat, Tuku crushed the bone with his teeth and sucked on the marrow. “Do you understand what I do?”

"Bandits?" Mike said, staring with dead fish eyes.

“Correct.” Tuku shook his head, realizing the absurdity of the situation, and said, “I robbed those self-important rich kids, trains loaded with goods, bank wagons full of cash, and those…unlucky passersby. The last business was mainly done by my men. These young men had so much energy they had nowhere to vent, they always needed to find something to do. These good days lasted for about a month.”

"That guy named Hongzhong appeared out of nowhere and robbed me."

"Is that so?" Zhang Renfeng stared straight at him, a forced smile on his face.

“Absolutely right.” Tuku patted his stomach, even showing a wronged expression. “Eight out of ten times, the things I risked my life to get back were stolen by him. That guy went crazy in White Torch Town, slaughtering the Nordlin family like pigs, and killing the second young master of the Colin family, causing a huge uproar in the town.”

"Now, he's roaming near my territory... I always feel a chill down my spine; he'll make his move on me sooner or later."

"So, this Hongzhong must be quite wealthy." Mike glanced at Zhang Renfeng casually. "Is that so?"

“Never heard of it.” Zhang Renfeng shook his head.

“You see, that’s where things get complicated. If it weren’t for this ‘Red Center,’ everything would be fine. We could cooperate and make money as usual. But now, he’s lurking in the shadows of the mountains, ready to kill me at any moment. This morning, my night patrol team didn’t come back; they might have been taken care of by him.”

"Maybe he has already infiltrated our gang under some identity."

Tuku's gaze was somewhat unfocused, like a wolf lurking in the bushes, its eyes fixed on its prey, fierce yet cunning. "So, Amigo, in my opinion, things are quite simple... Either you help us with the Red Center and actually dig up gold, we can split it 50/50. Or you'll have to leave here and find someone else."

They established the Red Cross.

Where can I go to do this?

Mike was momentarily speechless; this wasn't part of their pre-arranged story. He was unsure whether Zhang Renfeng's identity had actually been exposed, or if the guy was just playing a trick.

But clearly, Zhang Renfeng wasn't buying it. He pulled out a knife and slammed it into the table with a clang.

Beneath the curtain, from around the corner of the room, a large group of henchmen suddenly emerged, pointing guns at them, but they were ignored.

Zhang Renfeng remained unfazed, staring at the other man's fierce face, gritting his teeth, and continued his performance, "What Red Central? Never heard of that country bumpkin. I don't know anything about the Red Central, I only know one thing: anyone who dares to block my way of making money, whether they're red, yellow, blue, or green, they'll die!"

"boom!"

Tuku slammed his hand on the table, seemingly oblivious to everyone else, and gave him a thumbs-up. "Tough guy!"

Is it hard enough?

"Too, too, too hard!" Tuku took a deep breath, braced himself on the table, stood up, and said with a forced smile, "You, Amigo, are definitely mine now!"

“We’ll talk about whether it’s tough or not later. Right now, I only have one thing on my mind. Let’s get rid of that stumbling block completely, and then we can happily dig for gold and make a fortune! If all else fails, we can split up.” Zhang Renfeng’s tone was incredibly sincere. “I’ll stay in Scarface Village and be your bodyguard. My two companions will lead the team, along with your strong young men, down the mountain and dig up the gold.”

"If Red Center dares to come, I'll take him down!"

……

Tuku didn't say anything, just stared at him for a long time.

As if the delay had finally passed, a strange burst of laughter suddenly erupted, the laughter sounding very unnatural, as if it were deliberately being forced out.

"That's it!"

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Rent Isn't Paid in Vain

The meeting was scheduled for a week later, just as Zhang Renfeng had said: he would stay in Scarface Village, while Mike and Xiaomei would lead a group of people to dig the gold out of the ground.

The reason given by the gallery was that digging tools were hard to find; they couldn't expect the gang's underlings to dig with their bare hands.

The nearby town of Baiyang is famous for its weapons, but they don't sell these. We'll have to go further to Hongshi Town, where there's a large general store; maybe we can find what we need there. Besides, it's impossible to mine all the gold in a day. We need to prepare food and supplies for the people and horses in advance. Roughly calculating, a week wouldn't be unreasonable.

Tuku invited them to stay at his house, which they naturally refused outright. When he heard that they planned to settle in Alana's house, he gave a knowing smile.

“Be careful, that girl is no pushover. She’s nowhere near as good as yours.” He smacked his lips and said maliciously, “Even if you force her to kneel down, she’ll bite your thing off. That’s just how she is.”

……

On the way back, we passed that bar again. It was still bustling with debauchery and revelry. The hole in the wall hadn't been patched up yet, and the sounds of frantic howling, mixed with rude and vulgar curses, poured out from inside. It was as if the conflict that afternoon was just a dream, and nobody cared about it.

If it were Mei who had just arrived, she probably would have frowned involuntarily, but right now, she had already walked through the most dangerous part of Scarface Village. Although she wasn't the one who directly confronted Tuku, just sitting at the same table with such a ruthless monster would take all the courage a 15-year-old girl could muster.

She no longer had the energy to care about what kind of environment she was in.

"That guy just mentioned you." After making sure no one was around, Mike spoke up. "What happened? Did you have a grudge against the Thunder Gang before?"

“I never get too involved with gangs.” Zhang Renfeng shook his head. “Except for a brief collaboration with the Yellow-Clad Men once, when we robbed a bank and it made the newspaper. But back then I wasn’t called Hong Zhong yet, so they probably thought I was some nobody.”

"Then...then when he suddenly mentioned Hongzhong's name at the dinner table...did he discover us?" Xiaomei's voice trembled slightly. "Mr. Hongzhong just committed such a serious crime and is wanted throughout the state by the Cheder family. They might have already..."

"No, no, he's bluffing. In that area of ​​Windblown Sands, there are only three people who know I'm Red Center: Chuck, you, and Mike. Everyone else is dead. My wanted poster doesn't even have basic information like height, weight, or gender. What makes him so sure I'm Red Center?"

Zhang Renfeng spoke with certainty, but earned him a glare from Mike.

"Do I need to know? In the whole world, you're the only weirdo who uses two volcano pistols, one black and one white. He might just be suspicious, not sure yet, so he's testing your reaction."

At this point, Mike sighed helplessly, "Indeed, this alone is not enough to draw a conclusion. But you don't really think that a ruthless thug with a problem in his head would act logically, do you? If he feels you are a threat, the best way is to shoot you dead."

"It's just that the gold you described was too tempting, temporarily piquing his interest. After a week, you'll be useless to him."

“He’ll be useless after a week,” Zhang Renfeng said casually, a single sentence that sent chills down Xiaomei’s spine.

"..." Mike's face twitched slightly, but he quickly regained his composure and chuckled with a hint of sarcasm, "That's quite a surprising statement, Red Center. Being in the enemy's lair, you're lucky to even get back alive. What else are you planning to do?"

“We’ve put up half a gold coin as cost, we can’t just let it go like this, can we?” Zhang Renfeng turned around, glanced at the watchtower standing at the end of the darkness, and his eyes flashed with a few inches of shrewdness. “I don’t believe it. A gang of this size must have a place to hide treasure. Knowing Tuku’s personality, it might be in a mezzanine in his room, or buried somewhere nearby.”

“I will have time to gather information over the next week. On the day I leave, I will make him pay me back with interest.”

Zhang Renfeng said in a very relaxed tone, "Anyway, this money is definitely not from a legitimate source, so we'll just take it."

The idiom "snatching food from a tiger's mouth" is no longer sufficient to describe him.

Mike couldn't find a more suitable proverb, but he felt that this guy was extremely confident in his abilities, to the point of arrogance.

If he had known that the morning after killing Colin, this guy had wandered around the Cheddar family's large estate and successfully found the cellar entrance, he probably wouldn't have reacted so strongly. He's truly taken the saying "fortune favors the bold" to the extreme—and judging from his words just now, he doesn't even intend to spare Tucus himself.

Mike's actions and expression showed utter helplessness. He didn't try to persuade Colin; if persuasion had been effective, he wouldn't have killed him in the first place.

“Don’t forget why we’re here,” Mike reminded him. “We still haven’t heard from Giselle.”

“He will appear in five days.” Zhang Renfeng was full of confidence. “With so much gold, if he doesn’t come down the mountain himself, we’ll have to send someone who can keep things in check. According to that fat man, Gisele is the second-in-command of this stronghold, and with his prestige, he is the only one who can take on this mission.”

"In other words, Giselle is definitely not in the gang right now. That's why Tuku is dragging his feet and even bringing up the 'Red Center' thing to delay as much as possible, just to wait for him to come back."