Chapter 25: Brothers Got Beaten Up

  Hei Zi handed over the long-distance bus business to Da Kui and didn't care about it anymore. In his eyes, the casino was the main direction of development. Unexpectedly, just a few days later, Da Kui was beaten up and sent to the hospital.

  Da Gui lived in the staff hospital of the mine, when Hei Zi and Zhu Xiafei walked into the ward, Da Gui's old father was sitting on the bed talking to Da Gui, seeing two people coming in, he looked at them unhappily and didn't say anything.

  Heizi and Zhu Xiaofei had never met Da Kui's father before. Da Kui introduced Heizi and Zhu Xiaofei to his own father.

  Dà Kuí's father was an honest man, a miner, and his fellow workers called him Old Zhang.

  Dà Kuí introduced Hei Zi and Zhù Xiǎofēi to the guests, calling out to Zhang Bó in a polite tone. Old Zhang looked at them but still didn't speak, making Dà Kuí feel very awkward.

  Dà Kuí knew his father's temper and didn't say a word that wasn't pleasant to hear. He said to Hēi Zǐ and Zhù Xiǎo Fēi, "Hēi Gē, Xiǎo Fēi Gē, my dad is just like this, don't take it to heart."

  The two of them smiled and nodded, without saying anything, silently sitting on the two chairs beside the bed.

  Dai Gui's father came to Hei Zi, they didn't ask Dai Gui about the fight, just chatted for a few sentences. After Dai Gui's father left, the two of them asked Dai Gui in detail about what had happened.

  Da Gui told them that the first two days were still very smooth, and then he figured out the rule of pulling people. So he let the driver go according to his arranged time and place every day. As a result, one day he pulled in a lot of people, and the income was more than three times that of the previous day. In one day, the two cars earned more than 800 yuan.

  "Really, can a sports car earn so much?" Hei Zi asked curiously.

  Dà Kuí nodded and said: "Of course, if you run well, there will be even more."

  Hei Zi didn't think that running a car would earn him almost as much as he did at the beginning, if this was the case, then running well for a short while would quickly earn him enough money to buy a mine.

  "What happened next?" Hei Zi asked.

  Later, I don't know what happened, today we just arrived at the county town and were intercepted by a group of people. They didn't say anything and started fighting. I was afraid that Uncle Liu and the ticket seller would be beaten, so I let them run first. There were ten of them beating me alone, and they all had weapons in their hands.

  "Can you recognize those people?" Zhū Xiǎofēi asked.

  Da Kui shook his head and said: "I don't know them, they're all hoodlums from the county town, not a single one is from our town."

  Heizi and Zhu Xiaofei asked for a while but didn't get anything out of it. Heizi asked Da Kui for the address of Driver Zhao's house, and then the two went to Zhao's house again to ask about the fight. Zhao and Da Kui said basically the same thing. Heizi decided to follow the car personally the next day to see who was causing trouble. The matter of Da Kui getting beaten up must be taken seriously, and he and his brothers were trying to make a name for themselves, not get beat up.

  The next day was a fine day with a clear sky and no clouds in sight. The sun had just risen, and Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei came out to wait for the bus.

  Uncle Zhao drove the first bus, this route usually departs from the town in the morning with more passengers, and returns from the county seat in the afternoon. The highway from the small town to the county seat passes by the village where Heizi and his family live, so the two of them stood on the side of the road waiting.

  Heizi and Zhu Xiaofei waited for more than half an hour before the bus arrived. Heizi said to Xiaofei, "I'll get on this one, you take the next one. If there are too many troublemakers, don't come looking for me, just figure out who's in charge, we can talk about it when we meet up later."

  Xiao Fei nodded and said: "Don't worry about Lao Wu, he can handle three to five people, if there are more, I'll wait for you."

  Hei Zi got on the bus and took a look around. There were seven or eight passengers sitting in the bus, and Hei Zi sat down on the cover of the engine at the front of the bus.

  Driver Zhao looked at Hei Zi and said: "Hei Zi, those people are too difficult to provoke, you'd better be careful."

  Hei Zi chuckled and pulled out a cigarette, lit one for Uncle Zhao and one for himself. With a puff of smoke, Hei Zi narrowed his eyes and said: "Uncle Zhao, don't worry, I'm just going to take a look at the situation, not to stir up trouble."

  Uncle Zhao started the car again, and the two of them chatted all the way. Along the way, many more people got on, and by the time they arrived at the county town, the car was already full, with many people standing.

  On the road, Heizi learned that several thugs who ran cars in the town were very fierce. This group of people and another group from the county seat occupied this route, and others were picking up their leftovers. If anyone competed with them for passengers, they would be beaten.

  According to Zhao Shu, the most powerful among the racing gangs in town is Er Gen. Everyone else listens to him. When it's time to pick up passengers, all the cars are divided into different levels. Er Gen's two cars and Lao Cong's one car from the county seat go first, and only after they've left do the remaining cars get a chance to pick up passengers. The remaining cars also fight for customers, often quarreling until their faces turn red and sometimes even coming to blows.

  Hei Zi thought after understanding the situation that the town's thugs wouldn't easily move their own cars. It seems that the one who beat him up was Old Lao's man.

  It was already after 9 o'clock when they arrived at the county town. Zhao Shu pointed to several cars in the parking lot and said, "Those three are Er Gen's and Lao Congtou's cars. Their cars don't move, so no one else dares to leave the parking lot."

  "Hei Zi sneered and said: 'Uncle Zhao, when we go back, I'll drive the car, you sit beside me and watch, let's see how arrogant they are.'"

  At that time, the bus market was not standardized. The bus company only provided a parking lot, and the driver had to pay for parking every day. Other things were not managed by the bus company. Whether or not to pick up passengers depended on the driver's skills. The departure time was also determined by the driver himself. As a result, there were often cases of drivers cheating passengers, and the situation was very chaotic.

  Hei Zi and Zhao Shu stayed in the parking lot for a while, seeing that there were already over a dozen people waiting for cars on the road outside the parking lot. The few cars that came to run errands in the small town in the morning all stopped in the parking lot, not a single car went out to pick up passengers.

  "Hei Zi opened the car door and said: 'Uncle Zhao, call the conductor to get on the bus, let's go.'"

  "Hei Zi, don't be like this, we can't afford to offend them." Zhao Shu hastily said.

  Uncle Zhao only knew that Hei Zi was the car owner and didn't know much about his other circumstances. Since getting to know Hei Zi, he had been very respectful towards him, calling him Uncle Zhao with a smile, leaving a good impression on him. He worried that Hei Zi would get into trouble.

  "Heizi got on the car and started it, saying: 'Uncle Zhao, don't worry, we're not doing anything illegal, what's there to be afraid of?'"

  Uncle Zhao shouted for the ticket seller to get on the bus, and Heizi started the car without even closing the door and drove out of the parking lot.

  Hei Zi had actually calculated the time, they had been waiting in the parking lot for about fifty minutes, and the car that Zhuo Xiao Fei was following should have come down by now. As long as he and Zhuo Xiao Fei were together, dealing with ten or eight thugs shouldn't be a problem.

  Watching Hei Zi skillfully shift gears and step on the accelerator, Zhao Shu asked: "Hei Zi, you can drive too?"

  "It's okay, I was a scout in the army and have practiced driving all sorts of vehicles, just didn't get a driver's license. After a while when I'm free, I'll take one, it will be convenient for everything."

  The ticket seller felt a bit nervous after hearing Hei Zi's words and thought, "No driving license and still driving recklessly, aren't you afraid of getting into an accident?"

  After leaving the parking lot, the car was stopped at the side of the road, and the passengers waiting for the bus on the side of the road got on one after another.

  Hei Zi extinguished the fire and said: "Let's wait for a while and see if there are any other people."

  "How did you turn off the bus? When are we going to depart?" a passenger on the bus shouted.

  "Hei Zi turned his head and said: 'Ten minutes, just wait for ten minutes.'"

  Zhao Shu knew in his heart that if they waited for three minutes, someone would come looking for trouble: "Heizi, let's go."

  "Hei Zi took out a cigarette and handed it to Zhao Shu, saying: 'Zhao Shu, come on, have a smoke before you go.'"