Chapter 206: 206 – Bottom Line

Wing Bo woke up from his stupor and lifted his chin after he noticed the off-brand dress shoes from the man sitting across from him. 

“The cops?” Wing Bo thought. “No, not something a normal government official would do. The secret police from DSS?”

By instinct, Wing Bo shifted his head around the room, a lightly furnished living room with windows facing an alley, two small doors, and an entrance door likely leading into a hallway. He felt lost, or appeared like he was lost, and then confused when he realized that his hands were unrestrained. 

Did he faint, and someone helped him up? But if he had fainted, he should be in the hospital, not in a living room. However, if it was the DSS, they would have restrained him.

The man in front of him remained silent, simply watching with an expression of patience, as though waiting for Wing Bo to drop his act. Getting a better look at the man with a fading scar beneath his left eye, Wing Bo relaxed his arms and waited to see what the man wanted from him.

“Lawyer Wing Bo?” Li Yun asked from a chair five feet apart.

“Who are you?” Wing Bo asked. His hands were unstrained, but it didn’t mean he could simply run away. The man in front of him was confident enough to talk to him without a mask or physical restraint. He could run out of the door, but who to say there weren't gunmen waiting behind the door?

“My name is Li Yun,” Li Yun didn’t believe keeping his identity a secret will convince Wing Bo to join them. Some people had a sense for sincerity, and Wing Bo’s skepticism line on his face was more defined than Fenki. As someone with trust issues, Li Yun needed Wing Bo to believe in him.

"What do you want?" Wing Bo asked in a straightforward tone. Normally, he would pretend to be a meek lawyer, but Li Yun didn't look like someone who would believe it.

"I need your assistance to deal with the five horsemen and the Midnight Sky Bar."

“What happened to Shudi and Fenki?”

“They are fine, waiting at their club,” Li Yun responded. 

Wing Bo raised his eyebrow in skepticism, deepening his lines near his temple after discerning what had happened. “You have convinced Fenki?”

Shudi was someone outside of the organization, so him giving in was obvious. However, Fenki had been with the organization for ten years. It wasn’t easy to compromise him. Although many members would likely say they would betray the organization given the chance, it was difficult to follow through with it. Despite the harsh punishment, there were also rewards.

A part of Wing Bo realized that if the organization didn’t exist, he could have been a poor pathetic weakling or at best a working class salaryman. The organization had given him an education and valuable lessons in human nature. Did he enjoy his work? No, but after a few years, life and death had become meaningless.

“If you’re trying to convince me to join you, then you have overestimated your ability,” Wing Bo had figured out that was likely the reason.

“Don’t you want to hear what I can offer?” asked Li Yun.

“Freedom? Normalcy?” Wing Bo sneered bitterly. “Just an illusion humans have created. No humans are absolutely free from fate and life. Even if the organization is destroyed, what’s next? Prison? Work for a company that valued money more than people?”

Everyone in Blue Moon was used to climbing a rope leading up to what seemed like heaven, but there was no visible view to the top or the bottom. The number of people Wing Bo knew who had jumped off the rope wasn’t low, but the reason he was able to continue was quite simple; it was simply a job. How different was it from any other job that regularly people had? Some people had ladders, but it was still the same endless path. Some of the unfortunate ones were on tread, working, but never going anywhere. At least on the rope, Wing Bo had gained better strength to endure, and to climb higher.

Wing Bo’s thought process made him the candidate for promotion within the organization. Given a few more years, he would become a trainer, someone who would recruit new assassins to continue on with the organization.

“No, I’m not offering you freedom, normalcy, or even revenge, I’m offering you something else much more interesting,” Li Yun replied with a smile.

Wing Bo thought he could see through most people, but the man in front of him was interesting. He couldn’t understand what he could offer that would make him defect from the Blue Moon.

“I’m offering you a job at Abyss.”

Wing Bo chuckled. “Interesting, a job offer?”

“Yes, I can offer you a better deal than the Blue Moon,” Li Yun elaborated. “It’s project-based pay, you can decline if it doesn’t suit you, and you can quit if you want to. There are no basic health benefits, but I’m sure you don’t have that at Blue Moon either.”

Wing Bo roared out laughing. Of all the reasons, he never thought that Li Yun would offer him a job.

“What sort of project do you see me performing?” Wing Bo was curious.

“You’re a lawyer, so you can retain that title unless the Blue Moon decides to release information about you,” said Li Yun. “If you can’t work in the public sphere, there is plenty of work to do, like running the Abyss.”

“You want me to run your organization?”

“Yes, you see, I am a rather busy person, I’m a surgeon, researcher and part time treasure hunter. I don’t really have time to run an underground organization.”

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“And what is the purpose of the organization?” asked Wing Bo.

“Just to scare away the Blue Moon for now,” said Li Yun.

Wing Bo wasn't able to guess if Li Yun was a fool or overly confident. "No, he either has a really strong backer, or there is a larger organization behind him," Wing Bo thought. Wing Bo's eyes roamed over the entrance door, and then back to Li Yun. He should attack, but his instinct held him back. "Is he really confident?"

“I’m not confident you will agree,” Li Yun responded as though he could read Wing Bo’s mind. “But I’m confident you will make the best decision for yourself.”

“Why me?” Wing Bo assumed Li Yun knew his profession from Fenki.

“Because you have a bottom line,” Li Yun had checked up briefly on Zhangmi and knew she wasn’t raped that night. Although it was cruel to make her think that she was, it had kept her safe for a while.

“Are you sure about that?” Wing Bo himself wondered if he had a bottom line? He couldn’t remember the last time he had looked at someone's face and felt a sting of regret and pity. Was it the 5-years boy happily sitting on his mother's lap, not knowing that an accident was about to end his life? No, it was better to end his life, so he wouldn’t suffer with the loss of his parents. If the boy had survived, he would probably wish he was dead like his parents. Or was it that girl from the other day? “I’ve killed many people, women and children.”

“Some things are worse than death.” 

Wing Bo burst out laughing. “You sound like you have experience, but you don’t know what it’s like to suffer a fate worse than death.”

“You’re right.” Li Yun grew up from an average family. He had experienced loss before, from Elder Pei to his patients, but it seemed trivial to someone like Wing Bo, who had experienced torture of all kinds. Even his experience as the fetus ghost paled in comparison to Wing Bo’s experience. “But I know you’re suffering from your own guilt, and not even aware of it.”

“I have not felt guilt in a while.” Wing Bo had trained himself not to think or feel anything. 

“You don’t think you feel guilty, but you feel it from the core of your soul,” Li Yun remarked. Inside Wing Bo’s dantian, the darkness was slowly making its way to his body. It was the type of darkness that was eating him from the inside out, which was also the same as Fenki.

If Wing Bo felt less remorseful, his dantian would be similar to Shudi, where there was no darkness in the dantian. People like Shudi felt like they did nothing wrong, and accumulated little darkness. It was why Li Yun didn’t trust or rely on Shudi. 

Wing Bo snorted out a chuckle, masking a bit of contempt for himself. Was that why he spared that girl? That he somehow felt guilty? But his intention wasn’t to save the girl, it was to save himself from being implicated in the future. He knew the room was being filmed by Mr. Bai, and he easily tricked the camera.

“What makes you think I have a conscience?” Wing Bo asked, curious about what Li Yun saw in him.

Li Yun wasn’t sure of the exact reason Wing Bo had let Zhangmi go free until he met Wing Bo in person. Wing Bo hated to see people suffering, and what better way than to end it quickly for them? He wasn’t a loose cannon, but an extremely sharp double-edged sword. Every moment that passed by, Li Yun could sense Wing Bo waiting and planning to spring up from his chair to attack.

“You’re a lot more sensitive to suffering than most people,” said Li Yun. “To don’t want to feel or inflict on others. I don’t think you have realized it yet.”

Wing Bo laughed. “Are you sure you aren’t a therapist, doc?”

“Giving you free therapy is a lot cheaper than paying for your funeral or hiding your corpse.”

“Are you sure you’re not going to regret killing me?” 

“And if I kill you, isn’t that the easy way out? You’re more useful alive.” 

“All right, humor me,” Wing Bo thought Li Yun was an interesting person. “How is your organization any different from the Blue Moon?” 

“There's really no corporate ladder to the top," said Li Yun. "You can consider yourself the boss. Your challenge isn't to climb, it is to gobble up as many underground organizations as possible."

Wing Bo didn’t think it was a bad offer, but it would be tricky to deal with the Blue Moon. Esther would call for his termination if he didn't check in every 24 hours. “How are you planning to deal with the Blue Moon?” 

“I want you to send them a straightforward reply,” said Li Yun. “Tell them that their involvement had caused unexpected harm to someone they shouldn’t touch. As punishment, the Abyss Organization will take over the management of the three regions of Angao, Qinbei and Yide.”

“You want to make the first move?” Wing Bo thought that if they completely disappeared and remained in the dark, the organization would send out people to investigate. If Li Yun made a big power play, the Blue Moon will immediately know who they were up against and would investigate to confirm the existence of the Abyss. Although the two paths seemed similar, they had two very different outcomes.

If Li Yun remained completely in the dark, the Blue Moon would begin a broad investigation, uncovering many things in the process of investigating an unknown threat. However, if they know that there was a group actively going up against them, they would focus their resources solely on confirming the existence of the Abyss and its potential threat. The focused research was faster, but they would act cautiously to avoid direct conflict. It would also deter them from investigating things like the previous Qinbei’s gang and Qi Sho.

"You're banking on them not willing to take the risk of a full-scale war?" Wing Bo asked, but he was also thinking about how the organization would react. If the organization was run by an ego-maniac, their ego may be bruised, and they would attempt to go up against the Abyss. However, territorial wars were usually the last resort. Blue Moon operated very methodically and would likely back away to avoid casualty.

Wing Bo was amazed by Li Yun's thought process. If he took the job offer, life would not seem as meaningless.

“I’ll take the offer.”

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