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Chapter 371: Chapter 369: The Huaxia Anchor, Heh.

It was just before dawn at the dock, where a tiny silhouette of a ship arose on the sea’s horizon, its bow slicing through the waves, leaving behind a deep blue water trail.

“Boss, it’s Sisko and his men!” One of the lookouts, having recognized the boat’s insignia, shuddered with excitement and immediately turned back to shout at the hulking figure in the passenger seat.

Upon hearing this, Monsa Arnol put down his phone, half his body leaning out of the SUV window, resting on the roof while squinting toward the horizon. He chewed unconsciously on his cigarette holder until, as the boat’s silhouette drew closer and he could make out its waterline, Monsa grinned, snuffed out his cigarette bud, and ducked back into the vehicle.

“Quick, quick, quick, to the dock! Let’s greet the big star!”

“Wow, a big star!”

“To think you can become famous even in our line of work. Boss, you think I’ve got a chance? I want to be a star too; it pays way better than what I’m making now!”

“Sure, of course, you can. Tomorrow I’ll send your criminal record to the police station. Look forward to jail time, haha!”

“Then make sure you send me back home for trial, so I don’t get sentenced to death! And remember, Boss, you gotta bail me out!”

On the sea, Sisko, standing at the bow of the boat, likewise saw the procession of vehicles roaring toward the dock, his brow furrowing slightly.

The leading cars were all muscle cars—the kind favored by beefy thugs, their engines rumbling so loud it seemed to carry across ten nautical miles, followed by cargo vans splattered with mud.

Just by looking at this display, Sisko knew who had come.

“Sir, it’s Monsa and his crew. They seem to have ill intentions and must have been waiting here since early morning.”

“It’s not that they seem to have ill intentions; they do. To wait for us before dawn, it must’ve been tough for him. But really, does that guy never worry about his gas-guzzlers breaking down in the middle of the grassland?”

Sisko’s tone carried a hint of irony, but his heart sank slightly. Even though he knew the cargo vans must be empty, just by the numbers he could tell that his adversaries must have come back with bountiful spoils.

While the success of his own voyage was secondary to getting rid of his tail, who could have expected such an unexpected encounter? Monsa was not the type to welcome him without a reason.

As expected…

No sooner had Sisko stepped onto land than he was greeted by a shrill burst of laughter, loud and unbridled.

“Look, it’s Sisko. Just got back, huh? Guess what I’ve found? Can you believe it, Sisko? Is this really you on here? You’ve actually become a big star? Ah? Hahaha! Who would’ve thought, hahaha, I can’t even—ahahaha.” The burly man waved a newspaper, pointing at Sisko’s image and laughing out loud, the sound even overwhelming the noise of the tides.

Veins throbbed in Sisko’s forehead as he ignored Monsa’s provocation and led his men away without another word.

Watching Sisko leave as if he wasn’t there, Monsa wasn’t annoyed; instead, he laughed heartily. “Sisko, if you can’t manage, why not let one of my underlings take over for you? It’s just steering an empty boat—anyone with hands can do it, right? Will you still be able to carry out missions? With a big star’s face like that, oh, I forgot, you’re… damn, he’s gone.”

Watching the unyielding Sisko, Monsa spat on the ground and then touched his crew cut. “Shit, why does it still seem like there’s little hope?”

“Can’t be, right? After such a big slip-up, Sisko still has a chance?”

“What do you know?” Monsa frowned, a spark of wisdom flashing between his brows that belied his muscular build. “This guy was a top X in the central military forces and even served as an instructor for snipers. I’ve seen him shoot a rabbit dead with a rifle from 300 meters away!”

“So what? Couldn’t you do the same, Boss? I remember seeing you shoot a deer dead with a rifle.”

Monsa slapped the back of the lackey’s head. “Bullshit, I used a sniper rifle; he used a regular one, with iron sights! Hand you a rifle and you couldn’t hit shit from fifty meters.”

All three sidekicks around him gasped in amazement. Bloody hell, a rifle with iron sights at 300 meters?

To think that some rifles have an effective range of only 300 meters!

The target was even a living rabbit—how was that even humanly possible?

The last man to follow, Jerry, his eyes spinning, piped up: “Boss, should we perhaps throw in a bit more flattery with the head honcho?”

Monsa glanced back at Jerry, who was trailing behind, and kicked with irritation, “You little shit, took a bribe from Sisko, did you?”

Jerry scratched his head, not quite grasping Monsa’s drift.

“Do you think I’m a fool? One shake is enough; keep it up and you’ll only show how little ambition you have. Let’s go, let’s go, once this job’s done we can have a few days off. I’ll take you guys out for some fun!”

“I’m getting ten!”

“You? Ten? You’d probably be found dead the next day, lying in…”

“Hahaha!”

…

Ferreira, observing the boisterous group on the dock, didn’t find it humorous, only noisy.

“`

“Can’t figure it out?” Sisko took off his gloves, seeing the confusion in his subordinate’s eyes at a glance.

Ferreira nodded, always feeling something off about Monsa, even if he was prone to mockery; waiting on the dock before dawn just to exchange a trivial greeting was not his style.

“It’s simple, Monsa has a daughter now.”

“He’s short of money? Wants to gobble up the Asian market?” Freyra connected the dots with the latest news, and suddenly it all made sense.

“Something like that. In our line of work, no one complains about having too much money, not even one billion, ten billion is enough.” Sisko pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking that if Monsa wanted the Asian market, so did he.

“Wait, what’s going on with Asia?” The young man following on Sisko’s right side was somewhat lost in the conversation between the boss and Freyra.

“Ansen Huang is in trouble.” Sisko did not elaborate, and Ferreira naturally took on the role of explainer.

Chewing gum, the young man blew a bubble, “Then why not just fish him out? Pay some bail? Hasn’t it always been like that before?”

“This time it’s a bit different, the East Asian government is hell-bent on putting him behind bars.”

Ferreira patiently explained, the turn of events had caught everyone off guard, even Huang Ansen himself had never imagined the police would escalate things this far.

“So this Huang’s a big deal?”

With a helpless gesture to his forehead, Ferreira said, “Do you know anything about the business you’re in?”

“I’ve never seen this as a job, you think I’m up for 996?”

“996? What’s that?”

“Nothing, it’s a popular term online, something you old folks wouldn’t understand. It’s a dreadful way to work, with no overtime pay.”

Ferreira drew a sharp breath, feeling the temperature rise several degrees, unable to tell if it was the greenhouse effect worsening or summer arriving early: “Overtime without overtime pay? My God, that’s worse than being sent to jail.”

“So who exactly is Huang Ansen?” Alucard blew another bubble.

“A longstanding partner of the company.” Sisko explained calmly, returning from buying a newspaper at a nearby stand, “This man remotely controls Asia’s largest-scale wildlife trading organization. The Luhe Wildlife Company he manages conducts most of its shady dealings almost openly, legally wholesaling countless reptiles every year, and the origin of most snakes, lizards, turtles, and frogs traded in pet stores in Ugly Country can be traced back to him.

He also owns a private zoo, which he uses as a front to sell contraband, like snow leopard fur, panda skin, rhino horns, rare birds, and even Komodo dragons.

From South American squirrels to elephants, he smuggles endangered wildlife from Oceania, Huaxia, Madagascar, Old Eastland, Nanmei, and other places, and then sells them in the markets of Europe, Japan, and Ugly Country.”

Alucard drew in a breath, the gum stuck in his throat, coughing nonstop as he looked at Sisko’s profile: “Fuck, black and white skin? Boss, you’re not kidding me, are you?”

Sisko cast a sidelong glance at Alucard, “Do I need to lie to you? It’s true. Mr. Huang himself has told me that it’s a breeze for him to acquire black and white skins, and because of that, our company has always cooperated with him. Apart from him, no one else can get black and white skins.”

Alucard was speechless, it took him a while to come back to his senses: “So how did he get caught?”

Sisko shook the newspaper and did not respond; Ferreira continued the story.

“Because of a suitcase.”

“Had goods in it?”

“Last month, a lock on a suitcase at Kuala Lumpur Airport broke, which wouldn’t have been a problem, except it contained nearly 100 juvenile pythons, two venomous snakes, and a South American turtle. And its owner was none other than Ansen Huang.”

For someone who can control such trade, facing prison over a suitcase full of pythons was akin to Mexico’s Poison Bird being arrested for a few marijuana cigarettes in his pocket.

“The company has long coveted the Asian market but never had the opportunity to get involved. Now that Huang Ansen is arrested, we can’t let this pass. You know, in Huaxia, the profit from one black and white skin can exceed the earnings from many of Monsa’s expeditions. We need to shift at least a hundred shipments to match it. And the boss here was the perfect candidate, but unfortunately…”

There were many Hunter Teams like theirs in the company, active around the world, forming an unimaginable huge web of interests.

Sisko’s Hunter Team was the largest and strongest within the company.

“Unfortunately, we screwed up this operation, huh?”

Alucard, ever blunt, realized what he said as soon as the words left his mouth and covered his mouth with a hand, cautiously looking at Sisko, afraid he’d stepped out of line. After a couple of glances, Alucard realized that Sisko wasn’t paying him any mind.

Sisko’s brow furrowed as he looked at the photograph on the newspaper, his own face seeming strangely unfamiliar.

After a while, Sisko’s expression softened and he crumpled the paper into a ball, tossing it into a trash can with a sneer.

“Huaxia newscasters, heh.”

“`