48 Hours a Day

Chapter 837: Changes

With the death of Black Mamba, the clean-up officially came to an end. As promised, Zhang Heng appointed Soap as the new boss and took over the gang left behind by Iron Handcuff. On the other hand, Marcus was responsible for communicating with Soap.

Both knew that Zhang Heng intended to make Marcus the actual boss of the gang. However, since Marcus was still a patrol member, he was unsuitable to take over the gang. That was why Zhang Heng assigned Soap as the new boss. With that, Zhang Heng could guarantee the safety of Marcus to a certain extent.

Neither of them had any objections.

From a lowly thief, Soap had turned into a gang boss overnight, breaking away from the life requiring him to steal every day. It was definitely a huge jump and transition for him. What Marcus valued more, however, was not the newly minted power but getting Zhang Heng to notice him. He seemed to have made up his mind to bet everything he had on Zhang Heng. When the time came, he could withdraw from the patrol and take charge of the gang.

But Zhang Heng did not agree to his request, at least not now.

While waiting to end this matter altogether, Zhang Heng looked up, and Dadatis was long gone.

Zhang Heng retracted his gaze and clapped his hands to attract everyone’s attention. He then said, “I’m very grateful to everyone for helping me tonight. All of you have fought valiantly and defeated a lot of enemies. I am proud of you. To express my gratitude, I want to invite everyone for drinks. I wonder if anyone is interested.”

“Now?” Aris was surprised. “Although we won the battle, many of us still have injuries…”

Before he could finish, he heard someone say, “Those injuries are nothing. We have just endured such an epic battle. How can there be no alcohol?! Don’t blame us for breaking your wallets later.”

His words immediately triggered the approval of many. After this battle, the patrol team’s confidence had increased tremendously, as if they were reborn from ashes. All that accumulated frustration was now gone, and everyone’s faces were filled with confidence and pride. Not only did they show no signs of exhaustion, but they even seemed to run out of places to spend their extra energy. So, Zhang Heng suggested buying them drinks to let the alcohol drain all that unused strength.

In the end, Aris did not get to say that they still needed to patrol the street tomorrow. And he did not want to make everyone unhappy. However, when Aris looked at his team members again, he found out that he suddenly found out that they looked like strangers to him.

Especially Marcus and others, the looked at Zhang Heng was as if they worshipped him. After all, anyone clever enough would know that although the patrol team performed well tonight, the key to victory was that Zhang Heng got rid of Iron Handcuff and Broken Finger. And at the same time, he had put enough fear in Black Mamba and other gang members to care only about themselves and eventually flee this place. Zhang Heng predicted almost every step that Iron Handcuff and others made. From there, he formulated a corresponding plan to deal with them. Coupled with his previous outstanding performance in the tavern, he quickly gained his first batch of hardcore followers.

Aris knew that Marcus’s small group still respect him. However, if his order conflicted with Zhang Heng’s order, Marcus and the others would definitely choose to obey Zhang Heng.

If they acted in such a way, what about the others? Perhaps they were still willing to obey his orders now, but if this went on, Aris was sure that it would not be long before he lost all his power as a captain.

Still, Aris chose not to say a word about it because he had neither the ability nor the intention to prevent this from happening. When he was the captain of this patrol team, the patrol team was the embarrassment of this place. Although external environmental factors contributed to such a failure, Aris, as a captain, was partly responsible for it.

Now that someone was more qualified than him to captain the patrol team, he was more than willing to take a step back. However, Aris did not know how Zhang Heng would shape the team’s future and what would become of them.

The change had already begun tonight.

After Zhang Heng promised to buy the team drinks, he pulled Soap aside and whispered something into his ears. Immediately, Soap had a shocked look on his face. And he kept on nodding after that.

Soap did not expect that Zhang had no intention to stop after taking over Iron Handcuff’s gang. Immediately, Soap was given a second goal, and he only had two days to settle down his gang members. It was at that time that Soap felt the pressure bearing down on his shoulders.

Only then did he realize that it was not easy to become a puppet. He figured that he might need to go through a battle of a larger scale in the future. And he did not know how long he could live. Soap was reminded of Black Mamba’s surprised look before his body slowly fell to the ground. He could not believe that he felt sad for Black Mamba.

Would this be his fate in the future? Since he had entered this line of work, he now had to endure the dangers that came with it. Only by constantly and relentlessly climbing up would he have a sense of security.

After realizing this, Soap felt that he had to make some changes as well. Perhaps after dodging Black Mamba’s attack, his mind had undergone some subtle changes. He was very close to Skinny Monkey and the others, and although they were not blood-related, they were like brothers. In order to save Skinny Monkey’s sister, he had gone against Iron Handcuff’s orders and used the stolen money to pay for her treatment.

However, when Soap looked at Skinny Monkey again, it made him wonder if Skinny Moneky would stab him if he too went on the path like Black Mamba one day.

Soap thought that Skinny Money would not do it for the money. However, if someone placed more bargaining chips on the scale… Soap shuddered, and he did not want to think about it anymore.

Skinny Monkey, on the other side, felt happy that their lives were transformed. He was dancing and singing happily. When he saw Soap looking over, he smiled and shouted at him. He then winked. “Boss, what are we going to do next?”

“Marca and his men run the prostitute business at the two streets nearby us. Our next goal is to absorb them.” Soap tried hard to recall the way Iron Handcuff behaved and talked, and he unconsciously imitated it. However, in actual fact, he wanted to emulate Zhang Heng. Unfortunately, Zhang Heng’s temperament was too unique, hence Soap felt it more logical to imitate Iron Handcuff.

“Marca and his thugs are very powerful, and they are way stronger than ours.” Skinny Monkey was startled when he heard the plan, and he was worried.

“It doesn’t matter if they are more powerful than us. We will always find a way to defeat them,” Soap said afterward as though patting himself on the back. After that, he repeated it again, with a firm tone. “We will definitely find a way.”

…

Iron Handcuff and his gang of thieves were just an inconspicuous, tiny force. Hence, the change of boss in the gang did not attract too much attention. After Soap took over the position, he did not reduce the gang members’ income. So, it did not matter to them who the boss was anymore. However, the changes in the patrol team were witnessed by many residents.

The main reason was that they had changed their spirits. When they patrolled the street, they were no longer fearful of the thugs. Instead, they hold their heads high, and they even got themselves a set of new weapons and armor. Now, and they finally looked like a formal patrol team.