Chapter Text
The scene is nothing but embarrassing for The Thumb’s Capo IIII Lei Heng, heavily injured, out of soldato’s, out of gas, and out of options. So he makes the one reasonable choice anyone would make in such a situation, he begs for his life.
“Awright, lemme be straight with y’all, Any way I get to walk outta alive?”
Lei Heng’s voice is surprisingly self-assured as if his very life isnt in the hands of Jia Qiu, The Pinky’s Tiangang star.
“.......”
But of course, Jia Qiu had zero reason to show him such mercy after all that he did. Especially after harming and leaving Zilu near death. And yet he slams his staff down with a loud boom and spoke.
“I will make you the same offer as you did to Zilu, take one singular blow and I’ll let you live.” The calmness in Jia Qiu’s voice made it sound like this was casual conversation.
“I aint even worth unwrappin’ that staff of yours, am I?”
Lei Heng sounded surprisingly solemn, but he lets out a hollow laugh and took a cigar out from his pocket, biting off the end and carefully lit it up.
“...Hit me.”
Jia Qiu places the staff on his shoulder, warm rings of light manifest around the staff, with a ring resounding for each one produced until there is eventually five of them.
“The five mangs of the Tiangang Star? Ain’t that a real motherr-”
Before Lei Heng could finish his words, Jia Qiu gently brings down the staff diagonally. Dismantling and destroying Lei Heng’s torso, what’s left of the upper-half of his body lifelessly falls onto the floor as his legs remain in place.
Everything goes black for Lei Heng,
Time doesn’t seem to be a thing anymore, yet everything burns like hell for who knows how long until suddenly…
“Be glad I got you some life insurance before you were sent on that mission. Would’ve been a real crying shame to have lost a powerhouse like you.”
There you were, Lei Heng’s Sottocapo standing before him in the meeting room where you would usually issue orders and on occasion, tear out the tongues of those who dared to look you in the eyes without permission. He was speechless, he thought he had died when Jia Qiu used the five mangs of the Tiangang Star on him.
“Hwat in tarnashion… ‘Life Insurance?’ Ya seriously got life insurance fer me?!-” Lei Heng patted his shoulder, an expression of both pain and confusion growing on his face.
“Hwell, not like I ain’t thankful for yer help.”
You stare at Lei Heng for a long dragged out moment.
“Lei Heng. That mission was a total and absolute failure. Not only did all of the soldatos under your command die, but you also died AND let Jia Xichun ascend to the throne as the family hierarch.” You said in a dead serious tone, leaving no time for usual jest.
“Hwell not much I can say ‘bout that-”
You quickly cut Lei Heng off before he can say anything further.
“Although it was an utter catastrophe, i’ll let you off the hook. Mostly” Your tone lightened slightly, and a smirk grows on your face.
Lei Heng lets out a sigh of relief before raising an eyebrow “Mostly? Whaddya mean by that…?”
“I’m reducing your pay by 25%, you can say goodbye to all those high-end luxury cigars you always smoke.”
You turn your back to Lei Heng, walking to your desk and pulling out some papers from a drawer.
“Hah… Wouldn’t expect to just get away scott free like that.”
Lei Heng frowned slightly, but didnt dare protest since he knew there were much more things that could happen for such a screw up on his end.
You looked up at him before looking back down at the papers and beginning to work on them, mostly signing off deals, protection forums, payments, and most importantly, Lei Heng’s pay docking.
“There’s still things we need to do, Lei Heng. You are to wait outside my door, I will fill you in on such details later.” You waved your hand in a shoo’ing motion, signaling Lei Heng to leave.