The machete’s blade was only two inches from Jiang Che’s fingers.
The chill from the steel seeped into his Skin.
Jiang Che sat in the seat of honor, the back of his shirt already soaked through with cold sweat.
Under the tablecloth, the calf of his left leg was cramping uncontrollably.
But he couldn’t dodge.
If he showed even the slightest fear, these men would pounce on him and devour him alive.
Jiang Che took a deep breath.
He swallowed a mouthful of saliva that tasted of tobacco.
He extended his right hand, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and set them against the cold back of the blade.
His fingers were a little stiff.
He applied a little force.
“Screee—”
The machete scraped across the solid wood tabletop as he pushed it half a foot away.
Xu Hu froze for a moment, his hand holding a Hongtashan cigarette suspended in midair.
Jiang Che picked up his glass tea mug, hiding his trembling fingers, and took a sip of cold water.
“Chop people up?”
He knocked the mug against the table, splashing water.
“Huzi, have you lost your mind?”
Jiang Che stared into Xu Hu’s bloodshot eyes.
“Times have changed.”
The meeting room was so quiet they could hear the exhaust fan humming.
Xu Hu drew the machete back a little and rubbed the stubble on his chin.
“Boss, if we’re not chopping people up, should we go collect debts?”
Jiang Che stood up.
His legs nearly gave way as he rose, and his knee struck the table leg.
He pretended nothing had happened, tugged at the hem of his shirt, and walked to the window.
“Collect debts, my ass.”
Jiang Che turned around and pointed at the smartphone billboard on the wall of the building opposite.
“The Municipal Public Security Bureau is cracking down so hard right now. Don’t you get it?”
“Brother Biao ran off and left us a pile of bad debts.”
“We don’t have a cent in the books. If we go out chopping people up, are you going to pay their families?”
The Hall Masters looked at one another.
Baldy Chen Dao scratched his scalp and stood up from the sofa.
“So what do we do? The brothers have to eat.”
Jiang Che walked back to the blackboard and picked up half a stick of chalk.
“That’s why we need to transform.”
He wrote four large characters on the blackboard: mobile internet.
The chalk characters came out crooked.
“Smartphones will become widespread in the future.”
“Whatever the business, it’ll be possible to do it on a phone.”
Jiang Che rapped the blackboard hard, sending chalk dust everywhere.
“This is the next big thing. Stand where the wind blows, and even a pig can fly!”
The dozen or so men below craned their necks, looking utterly baffled.
Lei Bao, in a floral shirt, leaned forward.
“Boss, you mean… we switch to telecom fraud?”
Lei Bao smacked his lips.
“I’ve heard of that. It does bring in money fast, but we’d need a few women with sweet voices.”
The half-stick of chalk in Jiang Che’s hand snapped.
He closed his eyes and rubbed his brow.
“Fraud your ass.”
Jiang Che flung the broken chalk at Lei Bao’s chest.
“We’re going to run a legitimate business!”
He braced both hands on the conference table and swept his gaze over the intimidating men.
“Starting today, the company is undergoing a complete restructuring.”
“All those shady places you run—the underground casinos—shut them all down.”
Baldy Chen Dao hurriedly stepped forward.
“Boss, if we shut them down, what are we supposed to eat…”
“Shut up and let me finish.”
Jiang Che grabbed the enamel ashtray from the table and slammed it against the corner.
“Clang!”
The sharp crack silenced the room.
“Everyone, get back to your gang branches at once.”
“Hand over every machete, steel pipe, cleaver, and homemade firearm you have.”
“Lock them all up in the underground storeroom. Anyone caught hiding even one will be dealt with according to the family rules!”
Xu Hu shot to his feet.
“Boss! Without our weapons, what do we do if another gang comes to take our turf?”
“This is a rule-of-law society. If anyone dares show up, report them to the police and have them arrested.”
Jiang Che replied without hesitation.
Coming from the mouth of an organized crime boss, “report them to the police and have them arrested” sounded so absurd it was a joke.
The meeting room fell dead silent.
Xu Hu stood there with his mouth open, not even noticing the ash fall onto his lap.
Ignoring what they might think, Jiang Che continued issuing orders.
“After turning in your weapons, each of you can collect two hundred yuan from accounting.”
“Go to the White Horse Wholesale Clothing Market in North City.”
“Buy suits.”
“Black ones. The plainer the style, the better. Just get the cheapest kind.”
“Tomorrow morning at eight, all the brothers are to gather downstairs at the company, dressed properly.”
The men below were completely dumbfounded.
Lei Bao tugged at his floral shirt, his face twisted into a constipated expression.
“Wear suits? They’re so tight you can barely move. How are we supposed to fight, Boss?”
“Who told you to fight?”
Jiang Che slapped the table.
“We’re going into the service industry, starting an intra-city delivery service!”
“Food delivery?”
The dozen or so men chorused, their voices rising in disbelief.
In 2008, the term “food delivery” was still unfamiliar.
Even where it existed, it meant a restaurant boy riding a bicycle to deliver boxed meals.
Jiang Che tried to explain it to them in the simplest terms.
“It’s running errands and delivering things for people.”
“Food, documents, products.”
“Whatever the customer needs, we deliver it and take a cut for each order.”
He pointed at the road outside the window.
“Our company has more than three thousand men. Each of you can buy a secondhand electric scooter.”
“We’ll monopolize the entire errand-running business in Songjiang City.”
“If we do this right, we’ll make a hundred times more than you do from protection money—and it’s legal!”
Jiang Che had talked until his mouth was dry.
He grabbed his tea mug and gulped down another half mouthful of cold water.
This was already his bottom line.
There was no way to get a bunch of thugs who only knew how to chop people up into high tech.
But for food delivery, all you needed was strength and the ability to find your way. Anyone could do it.
As long as they earned clean money, the authorities’ crackdown wouldn’t reach Ding Sheng.
That would at least keep their lives safe.
The meeting room fell silent again.
Several Hall Masters lowered their heads and exchanged glances.
Xu Hu pulled out a chair and sat back down.
He took another Hongtashan from the pack and lit it.
He took a long drag, let the smoke swirl through his lungs, then exhaled.
Turning his head, he murmured to Chen Dao beside him in a lowered voice.
“Baldy, did you understand what Boss meant?”
Rubbing his bald head, Chen Dao answered gruffly.
“Running errands and delivering things… Isn’t that a job for the underlings?”
Xu Hu sneered and flicked the ash off his cigarette with a bent finger.
“You really are a fucking blockhead.”
Xu Hu lowered his voice just enough for the Hall Masters to hear.
“The cops are cracking down hard out there right now.”
“Boss is putting up a smokescreen.”
Lei Bao leaned over, his eyes wide as saucers.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Brother Hu, spell it out for me.”
Xu Hu pointed at Jiang Che, then toward the door.
“Food delivery. Get it? Selling goods out there!”
“It’s code, brothers.”
Xu Hu looked smug, as if he’d seen through a grand secret.
“Boss wants us in black suits so we can pass ourselves off as respectable people and throw them off the scent.”
“We pretend we’re delivering boxed meals, but they’re actually packed with contraband.”
“Think about it: three thousand suited-up brothers riding electric scooters all over the city.”
“How could the police keep up?”
Chen Dao suddenly understood and slapped his thigh.
“Holy shit, that’s brilliant!”
Lei Bao gave a thumbs-up, his face full of admiration.
“So that’s why Boss said not to bring knives. We’d give ourselves away if we got stopped!”
“Once we distribute the goods, won’t that be like taking over all of Songjiang City’s turf by another name?”
The more the men talked, the more excited they became.
Their eyes even began to burn with fervor.
Standing in front of the blackboard, Jiang Che couldn’t make out what they were muttering.
But he saw the strange grins on their faces.
And Xu Hu’s smug, “I get it” look that made him want to punch him.
A sudden sense of foreboding rose in his heart.
What kind of nonsense had these illiterates cooked up in their heads?
Jiang Che gritted his back teeth.
Getting these people to go straight was harder than teaching pigs to climb trees.
Whatever. They could just get started first.
Once they’d taken their first food delivery order and earned their first legal income, they’d understand that it was a legitimate business.
Jiang Che turned around and picked up a rag.
In a few quick swipes, he erased the crooked characters from the blackboard.
He picked up a fresh stick of chalk.
Then he drew a huge rectangle on the blackboard.
It was a rough outline of Songjiang City.
Next, he used the chalk to draw a crisscrossing grid of horizontal and vertical lines inside the rectangle.
The chalk tapped against the blackboard in a quick, rattling rhythm.
The sound quieted the dozen or so men in the meeting room once more.
Jiang Che drew the final line and tossed the chalk stub aside.
He dusted the white powder from his hands.
“This is called grid-based management.”
He pointed at the dozens of blocks on the blackboard.
“Songjiang City has five districts and forty-eight subdistricts.”
“I don’t care how you divided up the gang branches before. We’re reshuffling everything.”
“We’ll divide the Districts by subdistrict, with each manager responsible for several grids.”
Everyone below sat up straight, holding their breath.
In their eyes, the blackboard wasn’t showing a food delivery grid at all.
It was the most detailed map of power in Songjiang City.
Jiang Che turned around and braced both hands on the lectern.
His tone left no room for discussion.
“The food delivery platform begins trial operations tomorrow.”
“I’m setting a rule for you. It’s called KPI assessment.”
No one below dared to speak.
Jiang Che picked up the eraser and slammed it down on the grid representing the city center.
It landed with a dull thud.
“The first month.”
“I don’t care what methods you use or how many brothers you send out to canvass the streets.”
“You must take over every street in Songjiang City, every restaurant, every office building.”
“All of them!”