In a penthouse on top of the tallest building in the city, a tall, dark figure laid back on a dark leather couch. On a table next to the figure stood a tall, half-empty bottle of champagne. Overlooking the vast and dazzling scene of the night city below him, the middle-aged man slowly drank from his glass and revealed a bittersweet smile. He had smooth dark hair and was clothed in a typical black business suit, the surroundings of the room he sat in were lavishly decorated.

The sound of a phone ringing broke the quiet atmosphere.

The man looked at the phone sitting on the table with a solemn expression for a while before eventually picking it up.

"Boss, not good, they are here!" a panicking voice sounded from the phone. Hearing this, the man stood up urgently and put the glass of champagne down.

"Slow down, who is here?" The man questioned in a loud tone.

"The Liang family, Hei Long you need to.. Aaah!" The voice from the phone was cut off by a loud sound.

"Ye Ran! Hello??" Static coming from the phone was the only reply. His calm composure violently shifted and immediately after, Hei Long hung up and dialed another number with shaking fingers.

"Hello, you reached voicemail. Please leave a message after the..." It was evident that he was too late.

"F*ck, I don't have much time" Hei Long cursed and put away the phone into his pocket. Hei Long scrambled to his bedroom as fast as he could and opened the closet. His fingers found a hidden indent in the wall and he opened a secret compartment. A soft golden glow shone on Hei Long's face. In the compartment were some golden bars and also a loaded pistol.

Seeing this, Hei Long exhaled in relief and stuffed the contents into a random duffel bag he found in the closet. This was his backup plan in which he would flee and could use the money from the gold to start another life. He did not expect to use it so soon, however. Just as he walked out of the bedroom a knock came from the door.

"Sh*t" Hei Long's face blackened. Luckily, the door to the penthouse was fortified and it would stop the intruders for a bit. He quickly ran to the entrance and looked at the video monitor which showed what was outside the door. He saw four men wearing black suits and one of them was carrying a briefcase.

The guards from the security company which were posted at the door previously were now gone.

"Zhang He?" Hei Long's shocked voice spoke into the monitor. Hearing his voice, the men in the suits all looked over at the camera in the corner of the hallway.

"We heard some reports of murders taking place in the neighborhood, and we headed over here with extra guards to ensure your safety. Would you like us to stay in the cold out here, or protect you in your iron fort." The one in the front spoke with a joking tone.

A moment of silence passed by. Hei Long hesitated deeply and eventually withdrew from the door. An unknown amount of time passed by and the man with the suitcase glanced at Zhang He. In response, he shook his head.

Click

"Please come in Mister Zhang" The door to the penthouse slowly opened and the men stepped in. Hei Long turned around and slowly walked down the hallway with the men.

"If I’m being honest, these sudden attacks have gotten me more than a bit spooked, especially right after my acquisition of a company today. I feel like the Liang family might be after me, so thank you for taking the effort of coming here with your guards in order to help me!" As Hei Long continued talking while facing away from the group, the four men exchanged glances and nodded. Just as Zhang He put his hand in his coat pocket, a whistle sounded.

"That must be the tea. When I heard you were coming over here, I immediately started making that tea you like." Hei Long's voice sounded as he walked into the kitchen. The four men looked at each other with puzzled expressions, finally after some hesitation, Mister Zhang took back his hand and they followed Hei Long. Coming into the luxuriously decorated kitchen, Hei Long took off the boiling kettle off of the stove. Soon, a set of teacups was placed on a golden platter along with the teapot. The five men sat down at the dark wooden table and drank the tea.

Nobody spoke, but instead sipped their tea slowly, creating a tense atmosphere.

"Mister Hei, thank you for the tea but there is another reason we came here," Mister Zhang smiled faintly after some time.

Hearing this Hei Long calmly glanced at his watch "Yes, the famous and expensive Da-Hong Pao tea indeed was very delicious. Such expensive tea is made only a few times a year, but you shouldn't thank me. Instead, satisfy my curiosity, I wonder if my head is worth enough for you to drink it every day of the year?"

"What?!" The four men instantly stood up and reached for their coat pockets. Instantly, four pistols were aimed at Hei Long who just smiled and looked at them calmly.

"Naturally I have to have my means, however, I’m curious, how many of you have ever heard of the Hei Zhong poison?" Hei Long shifted his gaze towards the men calmly while occasionally looking down at his watch.

"What the f*ck? What is this Hei Zhong poison? What's more, we drank from the same teapot, how could you have poisoned us!" Mister Zhang looked a little worried and the faces of the other men paled. Despite only half believing him, the men were still scared. They realized that he had already understood everything, in their eyes Hei Long seemed like a cornered venomous snake, wanting to kill its enemy even in its own death.

TONG TONG TONG

A loud sound was suddenly produced from another room. Mister Zhang and the others turned around as fast as possible. At that moment Hei Long reached down and took out his pistol which was holstered at his shoe.

BANG BANG BANG

Instantly, two men went down as they were shot in their backs completely unprepared. All of these actions were performed in the blink of an eye and caught the men with their guards lowered. However, despite the sudden assault, the men were after all trained security guards and reacted quickly.

BANG BANG BANG BANG

The shots sounded once more as Hei Long managed to instantly kill the other guard but only managed to hit the shoulder of Mister Zhang. On the other hand, the two managed to turn around and fired two shots which hit Hei Long in the right arm and in the stomach. Luckily, even though everyone was close to each other, the two turned around rapidly and as such did not hit Hei Long too accurately.

In a couple of seconds, the tables were instantly turned. The only obstacle to Hei Long's escape was Mister Zhang. Unfortunately, Hei Long was right-handed so upon getting shot there he could no longer attack with his pistol. He quickly dove down and avoided the next line of fire from Mister Zhang. In retaliation, he flipped the wooden table onto him which made Mister Zhang stagger and fall down. The teapot, which was still half full on the table, exploded and the hot water poured on Mister Zhang's face.

"ARGH" He desperately pushed himself from under the table. Eventually, he was able to extricate himself and finally opened his eyes. At the moment his face was covered in second degree burns.

"F*CKER" The pain was not what made him scream out, instead it was the approaching foot which came down and instantly ended his life. After that, Hei Long came to the two people he first shot and saw that one was still on his last breath.

"How did y-you know?" A weak voice asked.

"I didn't," Hei Long smiled. Indeed, he asked the provoking question about the Liang family not just to distract them but also to ascertain his thoughts. Fortunately, Ye Ran called him earlier which allowed Hei Long to understand that something was off. Beforehand, he set an alarm in the next room for a certain amount of time and when used in conjunction with his provocation it made the guards drop their guard. Naturally, there was no such thing as Hei Zhong poison, he just used that to stall for a bit.

"Ughh" As the adrenaline ran out, Hei Long felt a stinging pain from the gunshot wounds. Not wasting any more time, he quickly picked up his gold bag and ran outside.

Seeing Hei Long run out of the building, two men in a black car watched him from around the corner of the street. One man spoke some words to his phone before closing it. Having done that, they drove off in his direction.