Chapter 907: 559. Fast-Paced Life
“Yesterday you caught stealing a phone. Why did you let go?” Zhang ngchan sat on the floor of Qing Chen’s room, looking up and asking.
The room was crawling with bugs, but he didn’t mind at all. Instead, he was interested in blocking their path with his hand.
The Ninth District has nearly a thousand pigeonhole buildings like this: broken elevators, clogged pipes, aging electrical wires.
These buildings are never cleaned, garbage piles up, naturally breeding many bugs and rats.
Sotis, people die in their rooms and it takes a long ti to discover it.
Ironically enough, they might be found not because there’s anyone in the world who cares about them but because it’s ti for the gangs to collect protection fees.
Qing Chen glanced at the little boy and asked, “If soone else caught you, what would have happened?”
“They would frisk to see if I have any money, take it if I do, or beat if I don’t,” Zhang ngchan said. “So, people like you can’t survive in the Ninth District.”
“Then what kind of person do you think I am?” Qing Chen countered.
Zhang ngchan thought for a mont and said, “Weak, good-tempered, won’t dare to speak up even if bullied.”
Qing Chen couldn’t help but laugh. If those Jindai soldiers in Hell heard Zhang ngchan’s assessnt, they might be furious enough to curse.
As of now, perhaps no one in the entire Federation would use these words to describe “Qing Chen.”
The most frequent keywords in people’s assessnts of Qing Chen are “ferocious.”
Qing Chen asked Zhang ngchan, “When I asked about your background, you didn’t tell the truth.”
Zhang ngchan looked at Qing Chen with his crude chanical eye, “Why do you say that?”
“In this Lower District, there aren’t many who can finish elentary school. Many people even write the radicals of their nas wrong, but you can write a whole sentence without using pinyin,” Qing Chen said calmly.
Zhang ngchan might not yet know who he is facing. This is the Inspector of Intelligence Departnt One, who has cracked cases across City 10, making it wail like a wolf pack. He wouldn’t overlook such details.
Qing Chen asked, “So, where are your parents, and why are you here?”
Zhang ngchan lowered his head, “I didn’t lie to you. I used to live in the Sixth District, then moved to the Eighth District. That was when my father owed gambling debts to loan sharks. He tricked my mom to a black clinic for anesthesia and secretly sold her organs. The clinic promised to give her a prosthetic liver, but it was all lies. My mom died, and then my father sold her other organs too.”
Qing Chen stared at the boy stunned, “What’s your father’s na?”
“Zhang Jia,” Zhang ngchan said, “He’s a famous gambler in the Sixth District.”
Qing Chen originally thought there might be so kind of secret hidden in the boy’s background.
However, in this world’s slums, there are no miracles, only pain and mories kept hidden.
“Sorry,” Qing Chen said.
The boy impatiently replied, “How co you’re so nice? I tell you sothing, and you just say sorry. I get beaten up, and you give buns to eat. I say answering a question is one dollar, and you give a hundred. Can you not be like this? You’re not anything to , and you might suddenly leave soday.”
In this bottom-tier slum, a little kindness is magnified infinitely.
Zhang ngchan is rely a 13-year-old child, and when he had his chanical eye implanted, his tear ducts were removed, losing even the right to cry.
eting Qing Chen didn’t seem like much of a blessing to him. He instinctively moved closer to Qing Chen, yet feared getting too close.
Qing Chen smiled, “Actually, it’s not that complicated. You can hang out with in the future. Of course, it might not be that easy to hang out with .”
Zhang ngchan didn’t know why he suddenly got angry. He stood up and walked out, “Hang out with you? What nonsense! You can’t even protect yourself.”
With that, he started running toward the stairs.
But when going downstairs, Zhang ngchan clearly saw a group of people slowly coming up from below. He recognized the leader; it was the person in charge of managing this pigeonhole for the Black Water Gang.
The man carried a knife, his neck tattoo was ferocious.
The boy seed to realize sothing and rushed back frantically, reaching Qing Chen’s doorway, “Run, hurry! I saw more than ten Black Water Gang mbers, maybe they’re coming for you.”
Qing Chen looked up and asked, “This building only has one ergency exit, and the elevator’s broken. Where can I run to? It might not be for , after all, I haven’t offended them. I heard on the way here, today is the day Black Water Gang collects protection fees.”
“Collecting protection fees doesn’t require so many people. One person, all the tenants obediently pay. This ti they’re coming with so many people, there must be sothing wrong. What if they’re really here for you? Lately, you’re the only new tenant here! Even if you have to hide in soone else’s room, it’s better than just being killed by them!” Zhang ngchan urged anxiously.
But now it was too late to say anything; when he looked back, he saw those sa people blocking the door.
The leader draped his jacket over his shoulders, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.
The exposed parts of his body were all replaced with chanical limbs except his neck and head.
The pigeonhole manager for the Black Water Gang looked at Zhang ngchan and Qing Chen inside the room and laughed, “I rember this little boy; he’s been in the pigeonhole for a year now, right? Ca in at 12, he’s 13 now? Even though the client only wants those over 14, 13 should be able to slip through. No need to explain about the big one, all over him is money.”
A young man beside him said, “Right, let’s get him! Damn it, made squat all night at the Black Swan Entrance last night, nearly froze to death! This morning I woke up to find this kid had already run off without a trace! Makes so angry!”
Saying that, the Black Water Gang mbers started walking into the room, the gang leader looked at Qing Chen and smiled, “You might not know what’s going to happen today.”
Qing Chen calmly shook his head, “None of it matters.”
“Not important?” The leader of the Black Water Gang was puzzled.
“What’s important,” Qing Chen pointed at Zhang ngchan, “is that after he saw you guys, he ca back to see .”
The young man from the Black Water Gang was stunned for a mont: “What the hell are you talking about?”
…
…
“Do you not understand what I’m saying?”
Luo Wanya stood under the pigeon cage building, looking at Zhang Qinghuan with a mix of amusent and annoyance: “I said I’m going to dismantle this Lao Shi’s Black Water Gang in a while, is there a problem with that?”
Zhang Qinghuan felt a bit of a toothache: “There are many of them, and besides, for us to just go and take down a whole gang, shouldn’t we find so legitimate reason?”
This president of the art club had always been reluctant to compete with other clubs. Now that Luo Wanya and his group were here, they had just ntioned in the morning that the enemy was the Black Water Gang, and by noon they intended to deal with them completely.
This fast-paced life, Zhang Qinghuan was a bit unaccustod to…
In the past, he would be taking a nap right now, then in the evening, have a nice ti in the Fourth District.
Now, when Zhang Qinghuan said he was going to take a nap, Luo Wanya said, “Why bother sleeping much while alive, for after death you’ll sleep forever.”
It left Zhang Qinghuan utterly muddled.
“Even if we don’t find a legitimate reason, shouldn’t we get so weapons? We’re all bare-handed, is that really okay?” Zhang Qinghuan asked.
“No firearms, our initial actions have to be low-key and cautious.”
Zhang Qinghuan said indignantly, “You’re not being very cautious either!”
Luo Wanya glanced at Zhang Qinghuan, tidied his clothes, and seriously said, “Now you’re the big brother of the gang, and officially we’re all your followers. Could you act a bit more ambitious? Where did that viciousness you had when you wanted us to kill you go? Co on, be fierce!”
“How… how do I be fierce?!” Zhang Qinghuan said, “Aow… Aowu?”
As soon as he said that, Zhang Qinghuan turned his head and saw Luo Wanya’s shadow-black face, devoid of complicated expressions but strikingly fierce beneath its calmness.
The look in his eyes had changed, scaring Zhang Qinghuan back several steps.
“Talking too much doesn’t convey an aura of threat. Only when a person stops talking, forcing you to guess what they’re thinking, are they truly the fiercest,” Luo Wanya sighed, “Forget it, we don’t have much ti to waste, just play your role well in a while.”
The Parents’ eting ca here without legal status. If the city managent officials took notice, they would investigate a bit.
The Black Water Gang had officials collecting their fees. They don’t care who’s paying, as long as internal matters are solved internally.
So, everything must be done in the na of the art club.
With that said, Zhang Qinghuan was pushed forward into the pigeon cage.
He gasped for breath as he climbed more than forty floors, while Luo Wanya and others seed unaffected, sothing Zhang Qinghuan envied imnsely. He had just injected a shot of the cheapest genetic potion, barely reaching F-Class.
Yet among those Luo Wanya brought, the lowest was D-Class. There had been talk of two being C-Class before, but Zhang Qinghuan later discovered that Luo Wanya had actually brought 4 C-Class individuals…
Thinking of this, Zhang Qinghuan’s mindset finally cald a bit; it was just about dealing with the Black Water Gang…
Upon reaching the forties in floors, Zhang Qinghuan imdiately saw people from the Black Water Gang, and he froze on the spot.
Luo Wanya nudged him with his elbow: “It’s your turn to say your line, I taught you just the one, don’t you dare forget it.”
Zhang Qinghuan ca to his senses, shouted at the top of his lungs: “Take them down for !”
As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Wanya charged forward with his family mbers, his massive fra akin to a train barreling into the Black Water Gang’s mbers, knocking them several ters away, and visibly spitting blood—it seed they wouldn’t survive.
Inside the room, Zhang ngchan was hiding fearfully behind Qing Chen.
Suddenly, a commotion erupted outside.
The Black Water Gang mbers turned their heads, but before they could react, the entire situation was completely overwheld.
Truth be told, neither Qing Chen nor Luo Wanya had ever paid attention to such small gangs.
In the entire city number 22, apart from the gang called Dragon Pattern, the rest were nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs.
Luo Wanya felt that finally getting a chance to make a move in front of the boss should not be wasted with even a little hesitation.
Thus, the Black Water Gang’s mbers… collapsed remarkably swiftly.
The family mbers also displayed extraordinary bravery.
The family mbers didn’t even know the parents were inside the room, they simply had boundless energy daily, with no outlet to release it. Thus, when it ca ti to combat evil forces, naturally, they were quite relentless.
Luo Wanya stood in the filthy corridor, looking disdainfully at all the curious, peeking residents: “What are you looking at, get back inside.”
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