Special District 9

“You’re at the Police Bureau?”

“You don’t know? I’m at the border to catch some food smugglers!” Old Cat replied as he wiped off the sweat from his face. “I have just finished, and I’m about to return to the bureau.”

Hearing that Old Cat didn’t know about the situation in the Police Bureau, Qi Lin didn’t go into elaborate details either. He gritted his teeth and got straight to the point, “Old Cat, I am in a bad situation now. I need your help.”

“What is it?”

“… It’s not convenient for me to tell you through the phone. Can you rush here and take my mother and little sister with you?” Qi Lin asked softly. “I won’t trouble you for too long. They’ll be with you for at most two hours.”

“What the hell is going on?” Old Cat was a little dumbstruck. Qi Lin had never talked to him with such a grave tone before.

“Don’t ask about the details. In any case, I can’t survive in Songjiang anymore, so I need to go,” Qi Lin said. He was afraid that those two eyeing him outside would grow doubtful, so there was no time for him to explain the whole matter. “I have no one else I can get help from, so I can only beg you.”

“Fine, I’ll head over right now,” Old Cat replied without any hesitation. “I’ll be there in around half an hour.”

“Old Cat, don’t tell anyone that I’ve called you.”

“… I won’t tell anyone.” Old Cat rarely gave promises, but once he did, he would never go against his words.

“My mother and little sister will head over to the North Station,” Qi Lin said. “Fetch them and put them in your car. I’ll call you once I’m done.”

Old Cat was silent for a moment before he suddenly asked, “Will Old Li be able to solve your problems? If so, I’ll give a call to him right away.”

Qi Lin’s eyes immediately reddened upon hearing those words. His lips quivered for a while before he finally spoke up with a hoarse voice, “He… He won’t be able to solve it.”

Gedeng! Old Cat’s words skipped a beat upon hearing those words. “There’s no need to say anymore. I’ll rush over right now.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank your ass! Keep in contact.”

“Alright.”

After the two of them concluded their call, Old Cat pulled the door of the car open and shouted to his colleagues, who were currently cleaning up the scene, “I have something urgent to deal with, so I’ll be leaving first. Call me when you reach the Police Bureau.”

“Did something happen, Vice Platoon Commander?” a colleague not too far away asked.

Weng!

Without even replying to those words, Old Cat stepped on the accelerator and disappeared into the night.

…

Back in Qi Lin’s room.

Qi Lin walked over to the back of the cupboard and stretched his hand into a crack between the cupboard and the wall. After fumbling around for a long while, he finally pulled out a round linoleum packaging.

He took the packaging over to the table before unwrapping it, revealing a P202 pistol inside.

This was a gun Qi Lin spent 400 dollars to buy from an underground weapon dealer three years ago. He intended to use it to practice his shooting during his rest time since the practice bullets provided by the Police Bureau were limited, and he didn’t have the money to bribe anyone for special permissions.

He was hoping to be promoted to a Tier-2 Police Officer on the grounds of his outstanding shooting skills, and the truth was that he was the number one shooter of the Black Street Sector Police Bureau and the top three in the entire district. But despite so, he was only awarded a lump sum as reward, allowing him to barely make up for the expenditure he spent for practice…

As for the promotion slots, it went to those who rarely even touched a gun at all.

Qi Lin swiftly inspected the gun to ensure that it was in working condition before filling two magazines up with bullets. After that, he slotted them into his pocket before heading out.

Walking to the entrance of the room, Qi Lin suddenly halted his footsteps. Standing before a cold, snowing world out there, he turned around to take one last look…

It was a small room with the most basic of furniture. These were the things that Qi Lin had bent his back to earn with great difficulty, but it seemed like he couldn’t bring a single one of them away with him at all…

There were numerous medals and trophies displayed on one of the stands, but it was a huge irony that he had never ever fired a single bullet in a major case before.

Qi Lin looked at his room quietly for a moment longer before finally walking out.

Walking through the metal door, Qi Lin walked over to his mother’s room and asked, “How is the packing going along?”

“Son, what did you get involved in? Why are we leaving all of a sudden…?!” an old lady was sitting on the bed as she asked with a trembling voice.

“Mum, I don’t have time to explain everything to you, but you don’t have to worry. I have already gotten into contact with Qi Long, and we’ll be heading over to look for him,” Qi Lin uttered a white lie with a helpless sigh.

The old lady rubbed her temples as she murmured, “It’s… all my fault… I have really gone senile… I shouldn’t have forced you to get a wife… Are we leaving because of her?”

Looking at his mother, Qi Lin suppressed the indignance he felt inside with clenched fists. He grabbed his little sister’s hands and pulled her over to the entrance of the room before squatting down to instruct her, “Sis, five minutes after I leave, I need you to bring mum over to North Station.”

“Got it.” Even though the young Qi Yu was unable to see, she was surprisingly calm. She nodded in response to Qi Lin’s words with a nonchalant face.

“You recall Old Cat’s voice, right? Get into his car when he arrives. I’ll fetch you two hours later,” Qi Lin instructed again.

Qi Yu was quiet for a while before she leaned over to whisper into Qi Lin’s ear, “I know that big brother returned the other day.”

Qi Lin was stunned.

“I have already lost a brother… I can’t lose you too.”

“… I’ll be back for sure,” Qi Lin replied with gritted teeth as he tried his best to hold back his tears.

“See you.”

“Wait for me,” Qi Lin replied. He stood back up and walked out of the room.

…

Five minutes later, Qi Lin returned back to the car.

The middle-aged man driving the car glanced at Qi Lin and asked with a frown, “What took you so long?”

“You didn’t hear?” Qi Lin asked impassively.

The middle-aged man was stunned for a moment. He reached out to pull the car’s clutch as he replied, “I heard some noises. Did you have a fight with your family members?”

“It’s nothing. Let’s go.”

“Where’s the stuff?” the middle-aged man asked.

“It’s with me,” Qi Lin replied nonchalantly. “Let’s go and find Platoon Commander Yuan.”

“Very well,” the middle-aged man replied as he stood on the accelerator and drove out of the alley near Qi Lin’s house.

…

Along a road in Black Street Sector.

Right after coming out of Songjiang’s Third Prison, Qin Yu drove here and waited for around half an hour before someone finally knocked on his car window.

Qin Yu raised his head and saw a bulky man standing outside the car. So, he opened the car door and walked out.

“Raise your hand,” the bulky man instructed coldly.

Qin Yu hesitated for a moment before raising his arm.

The bulky man began patting Qin Yu down from head to toe, and after ensuring that the latter didn’t bring any weapons with him, he finally said with a deep voice, “Follow me.”

Two minutes later, the two of them walked into a house by the roadside.

In a dark room located on the first floor, Qin Yu found himself standing before an old man seated on a chair—Old Ma.

“What business do you have with me?” Old Ma asked with a baleful look on his face as he fiddled with a pistol.

Qin Yu took out an e-cigarette and took a drag of it before he said, “I can settle Ma Lao-er and Damin’s case.”

Old Ma burst into laughter, “Hahaha! You shithead, did Yuan Ke get you here to play games with me?”

Qin Yu took his phone out from his pocket and played a recording in it.

Several seconds ticked by before Ma Lao-er’s voice sounded, “Uncle, we can negotiate with this fellow.”

Old Ma frowned upon hearing those words.

“When we caught Ma Lao-er and Damin, we managed to procure the evidence required to charge them. All along, your stance has been to resist interrogation and oppose the system, refusing to spit out anything regarding the case. You were hoping to get the two of them out together. However, this is not practical,” Qin Yu said softly as he took another puff of smoke. “Pick one. There’s still a chance that way.”

Old Ma stared at Qin Yu in bewilderment. He was unsure of the deeper intention behind this abrupt move.

“I have already said my piece. I’ll be leaving.” Qin Yu turned around and began walking away.

“Wait a moment!” Old Ma shouted out.

Qin Yu turned around and asked, “Yes?”

“What do you mean by this?” Old Ma dived straight into the point.

Qin Yu lowered his head to ponder for a moment before replying, “I don’t want to become a fool, offending all of the medicine peddlers and the poor folks relying on them for survival only to have the money fall into the pockets of other men. If you are a smart man, you would treat it as if I have never been here before… Let’s not meet again in the future.”

After saying those words, Qin Yu pushed open the door and walked out.

…

The car sped ahead, arriving at the vicinity of the Police Bureau very soon. The middle-aged man driving the car shot a look at Qi Lin as he called Yuan Ke’s number.

“Hello?” Yuan Ke’s voice sounded.

“He has retrieved the item. We’re arriving very soon.”

“Get him to head to my office. You two can return after this,” Yuan Ke instructed.

“Got it.”

The call ended over here.

Sitting inside his office, Yuan Ke began typing out a message for his older brother, “The supply route is on its way.”

“OK,” his older brother replied with a message.

On the car.

The middle-aged man turned the steering wheel left, and soon, the Police Bureau was right before them. He said, “You can head up on your own later on. Yuan Ke is waiting for you in his office.”

Pah!

Qi Lin suddenly took out his pistol and placed it against the middle-aged man’s head.

The two men in the car immediately turned their heads over to look at Qi Lin.

“That thing disappeared. I tried, but I really couldn’t find it…” Qi Lin said with a quivering voice. Despite so, his hands were extremely stable. “I can’t go back to bureau. I know that I won’t be able to come out anymore once I go in.”

“You are seeking your own death over here,” the middle-aged man replied deeply. “Your house is right here, where else can you go? Do you think that you can get out of Songjiang?”

“Still, I want to give it a try,” Qi Lin said as he gestured with his head. “Drive on.”

“You are really…!” the other middle-aged man on the passenger seat began cursing.

“Don’t force me, I am a cornered man,” Qi Lin interjected with reddened eyes. “Only if I live can you two live.”

The two middle-aged men fell silent.

“Drive on,” Qi Lin insisted while holding onto his gun tightly. “Go wherever I tell you to go.”

…

Roughly fifteen minutes later, the jeep finally stopped at a deserted road around five kilometers away from the center of the city.

“Stop here,” Qi Lin ordered.

The middle-aged driver glanced at Qi Lin before abruptly twisting the steering wheel, followed by a sharp brake.

Huaji!

The wheels produced a sharp screeching sound against the frozen road, and the jeep began charging uncontrollably toward a trench over at the left side.

“You are messing with me!” Qi Lin’s body swerved along with the movements of the car as he smashed the butt of the pistol against the head of the driver.

The driver protected his head as he shouted with a calm voice, “Not that anxious anymore, eh? What to do now? Do you need us to push the car out for you?”

Qi Lin glanced out of the window and saw that the wheels of the car were indeed deeply lodged inside the trench. With gritted teeth, he opened the door, got out, and pointed his gun at the duo inside, “Your weapon and phone, throw them out.”

The two of them glanced at one another before quickly taking out their phones and guns, and they tossed them out of the car window.

Bang! Bang!

Qi Lin swiftly shot two bullets to burst the two right wheels of the jeep. Then, he got into the car once more to pat down their bodies before ordering coldly, “Don’t chase me. If you chase me, we’ll just die together.”

After that, he picked up their guns and phones before running away.

“Damn it!”

After Qi Lin left, the middle-aged driver smashed his fist into the steering wheel as he roared in anger, “I’ve always been the one to hunt others down, but this darned canary dares to peck my eye!”

The other middle-aged man on the passenger seat opened up the items compartment and took out a cowhide envelope from inside, “… Hell, what are you panicking for? The phones for releasing our goods are still here.”

The eyes of the middle-aged driver immediately lit up as he urged anxiously, “Quick, open the envelope!”

…

On the road.

A police car was racing across the road when a dull thud suddenly sounded. The engine immediately died down as the car began to shake intensely.

Old Cat banged his head against the steering wheel as he cursed, “What kind of shitty luck is this?!”

…

North Station.

There was a shelter beside the road that led down to an underground passageway. Beneath this shelter stood Qi Lin’s little sister and his mother. They were waiting patiently for Old Cat’s arrival.