Black Flag Army

Bai Xiuling saw Di Xiong put on a suit and was about to go out, so she quickly asked, "Where are you going?"

Di Xiong said, "It's time to go to work. I have to go to the police station. Your injury is not healed yet, so don't run around. If you are bored, ask Uncle Fu to go to the study to get you some books. If you need to buy something, just tell Uncle Fu. I have already told him. There are also 20 dollars in the drawer for Wu Chunlei's treatment. He tried so hard to save you, so you must have a deep friendship. You can't let him die from his injuries."

When Di Xiong walked into the office in the afternoon, he saw several detectives looking at him with strange eyes. One detective said to him, "The inspector is looking for you!"

The inspector's name is Ma Hong, who is friends with Di Xiong's late father. It was Ma Hong who helped Di Xiong become a detective. Di Xiong walked into the inspector's office and saw Inspector Ma smoking with a frown on his face.

He saw Di Xiong coming in and sighed, "Di Xiong! I have something to inform you. You have been fired!"

Di Xiong's heart sank, thinking: Could it be that I committed a crime in the detention center? That's impossible. When I took action, those three people didn't see me! He asked calmly: "Uncle Ma! Why did you fire me? Did I do something wrong?"

Ma Hong said, "You sent a thief to the detention center this morning. After you left, Liang Mazi and two other guards were attacked and seriously injured. They are still lying in the hospital. The thief is also missing. Liang Mazi is the brother-in-law of Director Huang Pangzi, and he is also the favorite concubine of Huang Pangzi. Now that he can't find the murderer, he is angry at you, saying that if you hadn't sent the thief, this might not have happened, so he fired you."

Di Xiong said innocently, "This is so unfair. I sent the person in and left. I didn't do anything. It's none of my business at all."

Ma Hong said, "If it was you who did it, it wouldn't be as simple as being fired. You would be dead. Fatty Huang has always had the final say in the West City Police Station. Even if you are wrongly accused, there is nothing we can do. You are not the only one who has been wronged. Patrolman Li Fei was also arrested and tortured as a suspect because he had a quarrel with Liang Mazi a few days ago. He is still in the detention center. I tried my best to plead for you, but I only got you two months' compensation salary. You stay home first, and I will try to find another job for you."

He put ten silver dollars on the table and said, "This is your two months' salary. Take out your pistol and police ID."

Di Xiong sighed, took out his pistol and police ID and placed them on the table, then took out a silver dollar and said, "I bought a restaurant today and it will open tomorrow. I was planning to take a day off tomorrow, but now it seems that I won't have to."

Ma Hong was very happy when he heard this and said, "So you already have a job. This is the best. Opening a restaurant and being the boss is much better than being bullied in the police station. If the business is good, I will also invest a little in the shares."

When Di Xiong was about to leave, Ma Hong stopped him again, took out two sealed rolls of silver dollars from the drawer, handed them to him and said, "We have just opened a restaurant, so we must have spent a lot of money. Take this hundred dollars first, and it will be my investment."

Di Xiong accepted the money and thanked him repeatedly. In fact, the money was a bribe just given to Ma Hong by a big opium dealer. Ma Hong was just doing a favor. He never expected that he would reap huge rewards later.

In the afternoon, Di Xiong went to the restaurant to help clean up. He cleaned the doors and windows, pasted the newly bought pink window paper, and purchased a batch of items such as steamers and flour. He was busy until the evening before going home. The waiters and the cooks were very touched to see the boss personally helping with the cleaning, and thought that a good boss had come.

Shopkeeper Wu looked at Di Xiong's departing back and said to Du Magan and Zhang Heimian, "From the first time I saw him, I realized that he was a capable boss. Your good days are coming."

"I'm sorry! I caused you to lose your job!" Bai Xiuling said sadly when she learned that he was fired.

Di Xiong smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. I didn't want to do it anymore."

Di Xiong brought dinner to Bai Xiuling's bedside, a plate of scrambled eggs with leeks, a bowl of braised pork with fermented dried vegetables, and leftover chicken soup from lunch. Bai Xiuling praised the food highly and even ate two bowls of rice. She only put down her chopsticks when her stomach was bloated.

Di Xiong said, "You can sleep in my room tonight. I will sleep in Uncle Fu's room. Tomorrow you will be able to walk. If you don't want to stay here, you can leave at any time. I am no longer a policeman and have no right to detain you."

Bai Xiuling was shocked when she heard this. She originally thought that Di Xiong rescued her and brought her home and treated her so well just to possess her body. She had also prepared herself mentally for this, but she didn't expect that Di Xiong had no intention of doing so at all.

Bai Xiuling asked somewhat disappointedly, "Brother Di! Do you think I'm ugly? Or do you already have a beautiful wife?"

Di Xiong smiled and said, "You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, and I don't have a beautiful wife either."

Bai Xiuling blushed and said, "Then why aren't you attracted to me? If you want my body, I'll give it to you right now."

Di Xiong said, "It would be a lie to say that I'm not attracted to you, but a real man never takes advantage of someone in distress. If I take your body now, what's the difference between me and Liang Mazi and the others? To others, it's just four men fighting for one woman."

Bai Xiuling was silent for a while before she smiled and said, "You are such a good person. I was planning to leave here after my injury healed, but the food you cooked was so delicious that I don't want to leave anymore. What do you think we should do?"

Di Xiong said, "We are friends now. Of course you can live here. My hotel needs help. But there is one condition: you must leave the Feiying Gang and stop being a thief. I have been robbed many times before and I know the pain of being robbed."

In the dim old house, Wu Chunlei was lying on the dirty, broken bed. The pain from his wounds was almost driving him crazy. He wished he could just bang his head against his head and die to avoid suffering here. He hated the young policeman who had injured him, but if he wanted to take revenge, he believed he was no match for him. He knew that he was seriously injured and would most likely be abandoned by Boss Zhang, just like the other soldiers who had been abandoned before. Boss Zhang would never spend a large amount of medical expenses on a dying soldier.

He suddenly smelled a cheap cigarette, and looked up to see Leng Hanbing coming in with a cigarette in his mouth.

Leng Hanbing, with a gray face and cold eyes, walked to the bed, extinguished his cigarette, held a few pills and said to him: "This is the painkiller I stole from the hospital, you should take it quickly!"

Leng Hanbing is only sixteen years old. He has lived in the bottom of society for a long time and has experienced many hardships. He looks like he is in his twenties. He is Wu Chunlei's best friend. It was Leng Hanbing who found Wu Chunlei lying on the street and carried him back to the small old house. This is a temporary den of the Flying Eagle Gang in Beijing.

Wu Chunlei said, "I'm already dying, why bother to take the risk of helping me steal medicine? If the boss and the others find out, they will beat you up again."

Leng Hanbing said, "The eldest master wouldn't know. He and the second master went to the brothel in Changping County to have fun with their lover, and the third master sent the fourth master to the hospital. Only Chunfeng and Tianlie know. You should understand that they won't tell."

Wu Chunlei said: "Sister Bai was captured by the police. That guy has a red mole on his forehead!"

Leng Hanbing said, "I know that Chunfeng has found out where this man lives. Tomorrow I will take Chunfeng and Tianlie to find him, kill him to avenge you, and then rescue Sister Bai."

Wu Chunlei said: "That guy is very skilled in Kung Fu. Even Master Fei Si was seriously injured by him."

Leng Hanbing said, "I know. I was also the one who took the Fourth Master to the hospital. The doctor said that he had three broken ribs. But it's easier to dodge an open attack than to defend against an arrow from the dark. Tomorrow I will bring my flying knife with me and will not confront him head-on."

In the morning, amid the sound of firecrackers, the "Zhu Ji" restaurant on Xihe Street reopened, but the sign on the door had been changed to "Wei Li Restaurant". People who came to see the excitement saw that the buns, siu mai, and noodles sold in the restaurant were cheaper than those in other restaurants, and they were larger and had more stuffing, so they came in one after another to have breakfast. For a while, the restaurant was overcrowded, and Du Ma Gan and Zhang Hei Lian were so busy that their backs and legs ached. The silver coins and copper coins paid by the guests piled up in front of the shopkeeper Wu, who was very happy.

Di Xiong saw this when he walked in, and said to Shopkeeper Wu with a smile, "It's just a few small amounts of money, and you're so happy?"

Wu Zhong said to Di Xiong, "The boss is really a natural businessman. Last night he asked Ma Gan and Hei Lian to post the opening notice and price list at every alley entrance, and also on many rickshaws. Business is booming today."

Di Xiong said, "It's just advertising. The products must be really good and cheap, otherwise we won't be able to keep the customers."

When a middle-aged customer came to the counter to pay, he said to Wu Zhong, "I've eaten breakfast at your restaurant before. How come the breakfast now tastes much better than before?"

Wu Zhong looked at Di Xiong and smiled at the middle-aged man, "Because the breakfast recipe has changed, since Boss Li likes it, you can come and patronize it more often in the future."

After seeing off Boss Li, Wu Zhong said to Di Xiong, "In fact, when Boss Zhu was here, the restaurant business was also very good. However, the government collected too many taxes and levies. Xihe Street is the junction of the two major gangs in Beijing. The Qinglong Society and the Ghost Shadow Gang both come to collect protection fees. In addition, a group of Beiyang soldiers often come to eat for free, so there is no profit. Last month, Boss Zhu couldn't stand it anymore and asked the group of soldiers who often came to eat for free for meal money. As a result, a conflict broke out and the soldiers shot and killed Boss Zhu. Mrs. Zhu reported it to the government, but there has been no result so far. We only know that it was the soldiers from the Third Town. Boss, you are a policeman yourself, so of course you don't have these troubles."

Di Xiong said: "It seems that if you want to gain a foothold in Beijing, you must have a certain level of strength." He did not tell Wu Zhong that he was no longer a policeman.

Around ten o'clock in the morning, Defoe was about to go out to take out the trash. As soon as he opened the door, he saw three strange teenagers standing outside the door, which scared him. The three teenagers were all wearing worn-out black cotton coats. One of them, a purple-faced teenager with a fierce look, reached his hand into his arms as if he was going to take something out, but was stopped by another gray-faced teenager. The gray-faced teenager seemed to be the leader, and he winked at a white-faced teenager next to him.