The Soulless

Apartment 5- Li Xiuying's bedroom

Li Xiuying put her phone on her bedside cabinet; she turned her attention back to the report and started reading.

The man who Li Xiuying referred to as Dragon tattoo was creatively nick-named Dragon, legal name Deng Bojing. The report went as far as detailing Deng Bojing's childhood.

Deng Bojing had been an aggressive and violent child, when he was just 9 years old he had stabbed a fork into another child's hand.

His father worked in construction and his mother was an elementary school teacher. After the stabbing incident they had forced Deng Bojing to see various therapists, counselors and even psychiatrists. They also signed him up for anger management programs.

Nothing made a difference; Deng Bojing's behavior became more violent and he started engaging in petty crimes. In order to try and reform him, his parents sent him away to a Boarding school for troubled teens when he was 13 years old.

He stayed at the boarding school for 3 years. When he was 16 the school had stated that Deng Bojing was fully reformed and that he was ready to become an active and contributing member of society.

2 months after his return to the family home, his parents had been murdered in an attempted burglary. They had been strangled, decapitated and had their bodies mutilated.

Deng Bojing was cleared of murder charges; his alibi was that he was staying with a friend for the last several days. His friend and the friend's family corroborated the story.

Deng Bojing then went to live with his grandmother just on the outskirts of the city. 6 Months later, a neighbor found Deng Bojing's grandmother's dead body in an arm chair in the living room. The coroner ruled it as a death by natural causes.

Li Xiuying frowned at the document in her hand; the more she read the more disgusted she felt. How could someone be so evil from such a young age? There was no doubt in Li Xiuying's mind that Deng Bojing had murdered both his parents and his grandmother.

Li Xiuying continued reading.

At the Age of 18 Den Bojing joined the Phantoms. Den Bojing had been conveniently walking down the alley where Phantom the Overlord of the west side had been ambushed by a group of armed men. Deng Bojing had taken a bullet for Phantom. Phantom in return allowed Den Bojing to join his syndicate.

Deng Bojing rapidly rose up the ranks. He was known for being cut throat and cruel. He didn't even blink when taking a life. He raped, stole, abducted, killed, tortured, you name it he had done it there was no end to the list of his crimes.

In 2007 he was banished from the Phantoms and there were multiple rumors circulating as to the reason why. "The most widely believed was that Deng Bojing raped and killed a junior member's girlfriend and made him watch." Li Xiuying read the last sentence out loud.

Li Xiuying forced herself to read on...

No one truly knows why Deng Bojing was banished but it was a fact that Phantom had beaten Deng Bojing to within an inch of his life.

When Deng Bojing was banished, four others followed him and left the Phantoms. Deng Bojing became the leader of the pentad; which he aptly named The Soulless.

Li Xiuying's frown deepend as she read the next few sentences.

Deng Bojing made connection with various members from the upper echelons of society; from politicians to the heir's of conglomerates. The Soulless became thugs for hire; but they weren't cheap their fee's started from a minimum of $100 k and went up into millions.

Li Xiuying was curious about how Deng Bojing was able to make connections with such prominent people.

Li Xiuying skim read the next page about Deng Bojing; it contained more details about his individual criminal activity.

Li Xiuying had a quick flick through the next pages. The next 15 pages detailed various people who had hired The Soulless and the 'jobs' they had wanted completed, along with the price.

Li Xiuying started looking through the list starting at page 1, she quirked her brow when she saw Chen Wei's name on page two next to his name was written 'cripple research partner' 200 k.

She continued skimming and came across Li Mei Wu's name on page four, next to her name was written 'Humiliate the Lu family's daughter' 450 k.

Li Xiuying wanted to know what her 'aunt' had paid The Soulless to do.

The list contained a myriad of jobs like "rape and torture step-sister", "destroy the shop", "steal deed to the house" etc. There were even minor jobs like 'Wu Shing - escort to school. 100 k'

Li Xiuying made a mental note to memorize the list.

Li Xiuying put the pages about Deng Bojing and the list of 'jobs' back in the the A4 Envelope.

She looked back at the report, there was a head shot of face scar. Li Xiuying put the report to the side and got out of bed. She needed a break.

Li Xiuying stood up and then stretched, she picked up her phone and walked to the kitchen. She put the kettle on and took a mug out of a kitchen cupboard.

Li Xiuying looked at her phone, Ren Daiyu still hadn't replied to her earlier message.

Li Xiuying sent another message: "Daiyu, Everything okay?"

She received an instantaneously reply.

Ren Daiyu's message: "YingYing, I'm so sorry for my late response. I'm fine, I arrived home safely. I'm just in the middle of discussing the blind date with my dad. He just doesn't seem to want to listen to reason and logic, he insists I attend the stupid date even after seeing the message! I definitely wouldn't hire him to be my lawyer."

Li Xiuying smirked and wrote back: "Hire him he's currently winning."

Ren Daiyu's message: "Who's side are you on?!"

Li Xiuying was in the middle of typing up her response when Ren Daiyu sent another message: "YingYing I'll fill you in on the situation later. I'm going to go and try to persuade my mum and uncle to help."

Li Xiuying made herself a cup of lavender tea and returned back to her bedroom to continue reading the report.