Special District 9

“But even with the Ma Family is gone, we still have to deal with the official medicine suppliers. They are still a competitor,” the middle-aged man on the left wiped his mouth as he spoke.

“Heh, official medicine suppliers? The ones we are working with are the official medicine suppliers!” the plump man replied with hearty laughter. “We have already settled everything with the pharmaceutical companies. They’ll be raising prices by another 30%, and that will make us the cheapest of all. Those medicine junkies will have no choice but to come to us if they want their goods!”

“Ah, looks like everything is in order,” the skinny and frail-looking man seated on the right chuckled. He raised his wine cup and said, “Let’s toast to the early death of the Ma Family!”

“Cheers!”

The three of them chuckled as they clinked their wine glasses together.

All of a sudden, a series of footsteps echoed below. A young man cloaked in snow came up from the stairs below.

The plump man glanced over at the entrance and asked with a frown, “Who are you?”

“I am Qi Lin,” the young man replied concisely as he patted off the snow from his body.

The three of them were stunned for a moment before slowly placing their wine glasses back onto the table.

Qi Lin walked up and glanced at the dip-boil mutton on the table. A smile curled on his lips as he took a seat on the empty seat around the table. “Fine wine and a fine spread of food.”

The plump man was silent for several seconds before he grabbed the packet of tobacco on the table. He took out a stick and placed it in his mouth as he berated, “That useless Zaka is really getting out of line. He’s playing mahjong downstairs again; he didn’t even realize that a rat has slipped in.”

After saying those words, the plump man picked up his lighter and lit it.

Hu!

With his hands inside his pockets, Qi Lin leaned forward and blew the flame on the lighter out.

The plump man’s eyes widened in surprise at Qi Lin’s abrupt action for a moment before he tilted his head to look at Qi Lin, saying, “I just heard of you today. There’s just one thing I don’t get. What does someone like you think that he is able to achieve by coming here?”

“You are Yuan Ke’s older brother?” Qi Lin asked.

The plump man tossed the tobacco stick in his mouth away as he replied, “I’m his uncle, Yuan Wei.”

A hint of disappointment flashed across Qi Lin’s eyes as he replied, “I thought I found the root of the problem.”

“Heh!” Yuan Wei clicked his tongue as he pointed at the stairway and said, “You want to hold me hostage? Do you know where we are at? I just need to shout, and a dozen people will rush right up here with guns!”

Qi Lin stared at Yuan Wei intently as he asked, “You have a lot of brothers?”

“Haha, look at what this little friend over here is talking about!” The middle-aged man on the left burst into laughter. He raised his hand and smacked Qi Lin’s head as he said, “How can the Yuan Family rise to prominence in the Black Street Sector if it doesn’t have any brothers? Don’t waste our time with that act of yours. Take out that stuff and dismiss yourself. Do you know how many people are counting on this for a living? You are really…”

Qi Lin took out his gun and pointed it at the middle-aged man’s head as he replied nonchalantly, “My family was torn apart because of this, and you still want to talk about making a living with me?”

Bang!

With a gunshot, the middle-aged man collapsed. A mixture of red and white bits splattered all over the table, adding to the vibrant colors of the boiling mala hot pot.

Yuan Wei and the other skinny man were startled. The middle-aged man, after being shot, had fallen to the ground together with his chair, and after convulsing for a short moment, he stopped moving altogether.

Holding onto his gun, Qi Lin leaned slightly frontward as he stared at the plump man and asked, “Don’t you have a lot of brothers? Call them up.”

Yuan Wei’s lips twitched a little. He picked up a hand towel to wipe off the blood on his face as he turned to the stairway and shouted with a dazed expression, “Someone’s here!”

And the truth was that there was no need for him to shout either. As soon as the gunshot sounded, seven people had rushed up from the mahjong room below with guns in hands. There were flustered looks on their faces.

“What’s wrong, Brother Wei?” the young man leading the pack asked with widened eyes.

“Just them?” Qi Lin asked as he picked up the cup of white wine beside him and gulped it down. Then, he stood up and walked over to the entrance.

“Get him!” Yuan Wei stood up and bellowed.

By the stairway, the seven people raised four pairs of guns in a fluster.

Bang bang bang!

The sound of gunshots and whizzing bullets echoed loudly in the dark night.

Standing still on the spot, Qi Lin pulled the trigger as well without bothering to dodge at all.

Four seconds later.

Four people by the stairway had collapsed. On the other hand, Qi Lin was shot in his left abdomen.

The stench of blood diffused all over the room. There were still three people standing by the doorway. They had guns in their hand, but their legs were trembling in fright. Those who had collapsed on the floor had been struck in their vitals. They struggled in futility for a moment or two before their bodies went completely limp.

Yuan Wei and his friend, seated around the table, were astounded by this turn of events.

“Is this all you got?” Qi Lin gazed at the stairway as his face slowly turned pale. “Useless. Do you want your life or money? AH?!”

The subordinates gathered in the stairway were intimidated by Qi Lin’s sudden roar, and they instinctively retreated two steps.

Qi Lin began to walk forward, looking as if he would rush right at them, and the subordinates immediately scrambled down the stairs to run away.

Over at the table, Yuan Wei was looking at Qi Lin, and he didn’t look as calm as he was before.

While holding his gun with his right hand, Qi Lin gouged the gun wound in his left abdomen with his left hand and pulled out a distorted bullet from it. Padah! He dropped it onto the table of food as he asked Yuan Wei with the same composed, steady tone, “You have any more brothers?”

Yuan Wei couldn’t say a thing at all.

“If not, pick up your phone and get Tiger to send my little sister here within ten minutes. Just ten minutes.” As Qi Lin spoke, he used his bloodied left hand to pick up a bottle of white wine. Gudong gudong gudong! He took three gulps of it before cursing beneath his breath, “Fuck, so shooting a live person isn’t any tougher than shooting targets.”

The current Qi Lin didn’t have resentment in his eyes anymore. All that was left were just numbness and an air of viciousness.

…

A minute later.

Tiger dragged Qi Yu up onto a car as he spoke on a phone, “That nitwit Qi Lin went over to the villa. Your Little Uncle was there, and he has been held hostage.”

“He called you?”

“Yeah, I’m bringing my men over right now.”

“What bloody nonsense did you feed him to push him that far?” Yuan Ke asked in agitation.

“I didn’t,” Tiger argued. “I talked to him in a normal tone.”

“Shit! Hurry up and get over there. I’ll be heading over as well,” Yuan Ke was in no mood to argue with Tiger. He hung up the phone and rushed out of his office.

On the road, three vehicles raced through the streets alongside Tiger’s car, rushing toward the three-storey villa, which wasn’t too far away, at maximum speed.

Meanwhile, on the second floor of the villa.

With a slightly reddened face, Qi Lin switched the magazine of his gun before turning to the skinny man seated beside Yuan Wei, asking, “Do you know me?”

The skinny man was slightly taken aback by the abrupt question.

“Listen well, I am Qi Lin.”

Bang bang!

Right after saying those words, gunshots sounded, and two spurts of blood gushed out from the skinny man’s chest. With eyes filled with bewilderment, he fell to the ground.

Yuan Wei looked at his bloodstained surroundings, as well as the corpses lying all around him. All of a sudden, he felt his stomach churning from sheer disgust. He bent down and vomited out the dip-boiled mutton he had just eaten.

…

In less than ten minutes.

Four cars swiftly parked at the entrance of the three-storey villa. Tiger opened the car doors and pulled out a FMG beneath the car seats before shouting, “Everyone, charge in. I’m going to skin that idiot alive today!”

Hulala!

Twenty people rushed out of the four cars and rushed up the stairs with their guns.

Di ling ling!

At this moment, Tiger’s phone suddenly rang. Seeing the caller id on it, he quickly picked up the phone and said, “I’ve arrived. Wait for me.”

“I’m not in the villa,” Qi Lin said.

Tiger was stunned.

“Get all your men into the house and have them stand by the windows on the third floor,” Qi Lin instructed calmly.

“You bloody…”

“Thirty seconds. If I don’t see them on the top floor, I’ll send Yuan Wei down to hell.”

“You don’t want your little sister anymore?” Tiger spat as he started walking over to his car.

“I’m dead meat anyway, what do I have to fear?” Qi Lin replied coldly. “Shoot her to death then, I’m looking. If she dies, I’ll be leaving right away with Yuan Wei.”

Tiger froze in place.

“You have twenty more seconds,” Qi Lin said with an unhurried tone.

While holding onto his phone, Tiger suddenly turned to the villa and bellowed, “All of you, run to the third floor right now! Now!”

After a moment of daze, the twenty men immediately dashed to the third floor with their guns.

Qi Lin watched everything happening with his own eyes from the opposite building. After all of the twenty men were gathered on the third floor, he pulled Yuan Wei out together with him.

“Tiger,” Yuan Wei called out with a meek voice.

Tiger turned around, and he immediately found himself faced with Qi Lin.

By the roadside, Qi Lin was holding Yuan Wei by his neck with his gun pointed at the latter. He looked at Tiger and said, “Come here.”

Tiger hesitated for half a second before walking over to open the car door, seemingly trying to pull Qi Yu out.

Bang!

A gunshot.

“AHHH!”

Yuan Wei was shot in his abdomen, and he kneeled to the ground with a tragic howl, “Tiger, don’t move! Don’t move! He has already killed others in the villa!”

Tiger’s vein popped out. He hesitated for a brief moment before closing the car door.

“Come here,” Qi Lin repeated again.

Tiger could only buck his courage and walked over to the center of the road. With a quivering voice, he said, “Qi Lin, I surrender, alright? I’ll surrender to you. Let Brother Wei go, I’ll come with you… I’ll send you out of Songjiang, alright?”

Qi Lin looked at Tiger without saying a word.

“You kidnapped Brother Wei so that we can talk, right? There’s no need for us to put our life on the line for this… What do you say?” Tiger said as he anxiously walked forward.

Bang!

All of a sudden, yet another gunshot sounded. Tiger, who was just eight meters away from Qi Lin, was shot in his right arm, causing the FMG he was hiding behind his back to drop to the ground.

“You dipshit!” Tiger roared as he reached behind him to grab his pistol.

“You still want to move? Move once more and I’ll blow your head off!” Qi Lin bellowed furiously.

Tiger froze on the spot. Clenching his fist tightly, he roared, “What the hell do you want? Are you going to make your mother and your little sister die because of you? Can you really live with that?”

“Live? Have I ever been living?” Qi Lin released the shot Yuan Wei and walked up to Tiger. “I have already kneeled down to you and let you all order me around like a dog, what more do you want from me?! Fine! Since you aren’t going to let me off no matter what I do, I’ll do things my way then. I want to live like a human. I want to become someone who stands above others. I’ll start off by killing you to steel my resolve. I’ll stand up and take back what I have given to you kneeling.”

“You lunatic…”

Bang bang!

Qi Lin pointed his gun at Tiger and pulled the trigger twice. The latter tried to get up and run, but the bullet pierced through his body, causing him to collapse onto the snowy road. Blood flowed down the street for meters and meters.

By the side, Yuan Wei kowtowed on the hard, cold ground desperately, crying, “Brother… Brother Qi Lin, I’ll kneel to you… Please, I’ll give you everything I have. I swear on my head that I’ll help you get out of here safely…”

“You better beg with King Yama. Beg him not to give me, Qi Lin, a chance. If I survive this, if I get an opportunity to rise back to my feet, I’ll fill the ground around Songjiang with the Yuan Family’s graves!” Qi Lin bellowed in a mixture of despair and fury as he pulled the trigger.

A gunshot sounded. A gray wisp of smoke lingered in the streets as Yuan Wei died amidst a fresh puddle of blood.

After the job was done, Qi Lin quickly got onto the car, pulled the clutch, and left.

Ten minutes later, on the road.

Qi Yu lowered her head as her eyes glistened with tears. With a trembling voice, she said, “… Brother… Mum and I should have died long ago… We have been nothing but a burden on you… Sorry, I’m really sorry.”

“Qi Yu, if you aren’t here, I would have no reason to live either…” Qi Lin’s vision slowly turned blurred. Blood was still flowing from his abdomen, and his face had turned ghastly pale.

Guangdang! His head knocked onto the steering wheel.

The car immediately lost control and knocked into a nearby alley.

Qi Yu shook her head as she struggled up. She fumbled around for a long time before she finally got to Qi Lin’s body. “Brother, what’s wrong? Say something!”

“C-call… I have a friend… He can send… you and mum away…” Qi Yu closed his eyes as he spoke with his last bit of strength.

Several seconds later.

Old Cat received a call, “Hello?”

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FMG refers to foldable machine guns that are smaller in size than machine guns and can be concealed on one’s body.

For those who are unfamiliar with weapons, machine guns are fully automatic weapons, which means they fire continuously once you hold the trigger down. They have really strong firepower, which can make them hard to deal with. Imagine dealing with something that guns down everything that stands in its line of attack.

Qilin, or Kirin in Japanese, is one of the legendary beasts in Chinese mythology. It usually symbolizes the arrival of an illustrious ruler or a wise sage.