Special District 9

“Heh.” Hearing that answer, Old Cat suddenly laughed hysterically to himself.

The two of them looked at one another for a long while before Qin Yu sighed deeply and added, “I’m a human too. I need to eat.”

“Understandable,” Old Cat nodded.

…

The two of them drove on for more than ten hours before they finally arrived in the southern areas of the Development District. Fortunately, the climate here wasn’t as freezing as the northern areas.

The area where Qi Lin was hiding at was known as Feng’an. It was located in the midst of a plain, right beside a mountain. The locals would often venture into the mountain in groups to hunt for animals there. It was a source of food, and they could have someone to ship the excess hunts over to the Special District to earn some additional cash.

Due to such a stable source of food and income, the security in this region was much better than Three Snags.

Qin Yu had never really moved around Feng’an before as the people in this area were extremely hostile to outsiders. The hunts from the mountain were enough to feed a hundred people, but if the population were to grow to two hundred or three hundred, there might not be enough to go around. As such, it was very hard for outsiders to integrate into their community.

But while Qin Yu had never been in this area before, he had a friend who frequently dropped by this area and had quite a bit of influence here. That was why he was able to get Qi Lin settled down here.

The jeep stopped before a house made from wooden panels and dirt, and Old Cat and Qin Yu aligned from the vehicle.

“What the heck? Is this a place where a human should stay?” Old Cat looked at the slanted house and the barren land around, and he couldn’t help but shake his head and remark. “Special District 9 is really heaven compared to here. I finally understand why you were able to rise through the ranks so quickly right after arriving at Songjiang… If you can survive here, you can survive anywhere!”

“Don’t talk crap when we meet Qi Lin later on. His mood is already bad enough as it is,” Qin Yu advised.

“No worries. He’ll feel uncomfortable if I don’t scold him,” Old Cat replied casually.

“You are seriously…” Qin Yu heaved a helpless sigh as he walked toward the house.

Huaji!

The door suddenly opened. Qi Lin, having heard the whirring of the jeep’s engine, had come out to take a look, and he was taken aback to see the two of them.

Old Cat walked forward and slapped Qi Lin’s head, saying, “Bro, did you miss me?!”

“You… Why are the both of you here?” Qi Lin stuttered in astonishment.

“We have a request to ask of you but we couldn’t contact you, so we could only visit you ourselves,” Old Cat said before walking into the house by himself. “Auntie, Qi Yu.”

Little Sister Qi Yu walked out of the room upon hearing the voice, and she respectfully greeted, “Brother Cat.”

“Yo, it seems like you grew quite a bit? You look more fleshed out now!” Old Cat was the type who could talk crap with anyone.

“Old Cat is here?” the old lady, who was sitting on the house’s bed-stove, shouted over.

Old Cat walked over to passed over a big bag of food he and Qin Yu had bought over to Qi Yu, saying, “This is all for you. There are also other food and clothes on the car, I’ll get your brother to bring them in later on.”

“Thanks, Brother Cat!” Qi Yu received the heavy bag of food with a bright smile on her face. She quickly led Old Cat into the house with her walking stick.

Old Cat sat down on the bed-stove too and asked, “Auntie, how’s your body doing recently?”

“I’m doing fine.”

“Ah, that’s glad to hear. You really should cut down on the cigarette; you’ll be able to live a few more years that way. I’m going to become the superintendent of the Police Bureau soon, and by then, I’ll make sure that you and Qi Yu live a comfortable life!” Old Cat began chatting together with the old lady.

…

On the other side of the house.

Qi Lin beckoned Qin Yu over to the chilly bed before saying with a smile, “I’ll get some water for you.”

“There’s no need for that,” Qin Yu said with a wave of his hand. “Come, sit down.”

Qi Lin took a seat right beside Qin Yu.

“How are your injuries doing?” Qin Yu got straight to the point.

“I’m fully recovered now,” Qi Lin said as he moved his limbs around to show that he could move perfectly fine. With a look of gratitude on his face, he said, “I really owe a lot to your friend, John. If not for him, I might have already been dead… There’s no medicine here, so he specially got someone to deliver it here. He was also the one who prepared this house for us.”

“It’s good to hear that you’re doing fine,” Qin Yu replied with a smile.

The two of them chatted for a while before Qi Lin asked softly, “Did Yuan Family stir trouble after I left?”

“Un, the situation isn’t too optimistic,” Qin Yu replied frankly. “Too many things happened recently. Old Cat and I were also left with no choice, so we could only come over here to ask a request of you.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Did Ah Long tell you or leave you with anything other than the bag you spoke of? It can be anything, be it his friends, brothers, or anyone he associates himself with,” Qin Yu said.

“To be frank with you, the Ma Family is currently in a very bad state, and Old Li was forced to take a stand due to your matter. The only reason why Yuan Hua hasn’t taken revenge yet is because he caused a huge uproar in Dirt Street a while ago, so he needs to lie low and wait for the storm to blow over first. However, there’s no doubt that he’ll definitely make a move soon… Without the supply route, the Ma Family wouldn’t be able to recover from the blow, and Old Li wouldn’t be able to tap into his connections to back us. No matter what, we need the supply route in order to survive.”

After hearing Qin Yu’s explanation, Qi Lin stared at the ground with a dazed look, not saying a word for a long while.

“What’s wrong?” Qin Yu realized that there was something amiss with how Qi Lin was acting, so he asked.

After a long moment of silence, Qi Lin suddenly stood up, and lifted the bed cover. From beneath the bed cover, he quietly took out a black bag.

Qin Yu was taken aback. “I don’t get it.”

“Open the bag and take a look,” Qi Lin said as he passed the black bag over to Qin Yu.

The latter quietly opened the bag and swept its contents. From within, he took out a notebook.

Qi Lin sat back down on the bed and rubbed his cheeks. With a helpless tone, he said, “This is the bag that my older brother left for me back then. Before he left, he told me that there’s a contact number in there, and I should look for that person if I find myself cornered. Back then, I was too worried about his plight, and I still had a job at the Police Bureau then, so I didn’t think much about it then. After that, when my older brother died and Yuan Ke coerced me to hand over the supply route, I suddenly remembered about this bag…

“However, I had already passed this bag over the Bella back then, and when I returned to fetch it, I bumped into her having an affair like Tiger. I was very furious then, and perhaps out of fear, she lied that she had thrown away the bag. That was also why I thought that I have lost it.”

Qin Yu listened to those words in a daze.

“But when I got here with my mum and my little sister, I found that the bag had been with my mum all this while,” Qi Lin said with a wry smile. “Bella never threw the bag away. My mum is a very thrifty person, so she used the bag to store her own items. That night, when I told her and my little sister that we had to leave, my mum took a lot of things with her, and this bag happened to be one of them.”

Qin Yu fell silent.

“So, this is life… This is my life!” Qi Lin’s frustration and irritation were almost palpable. With a cold voice dripping with irony, he uttered, “When I was desperately searching for this bag, I was told that it had been thrown away. Yet, after I threw away my job, killed many people, sustained severe injuries, and escaped with my family out of desperation, it suddenly appeared by itself… Isn’t the heavens too cruel on me? Hahaha!”

Qin Yu watched Qi Lin quietly, and he suddenly felt that even though the latter looked the same as before, it seemed like something had changed within him.

“I looked through the notebook, and there’s only a string of numbers on it. It’s a contact number,” Qi Lin told Qin Yu. “However, I have no way of making a call here, so you came at a convenient timing. Let’s find my older brother’s friend together. No matter what happens, let’s re-establish the supply route.”

“You’re planning to…?” Qin Yu probed carefully.

“I looked down on my older brother in the past, thinking that he’s irresponsible to have only thought about himself,” Qi Lin said with a slightly sorrowful smile. “But now, I want to walk the same path as him. What he has done in the past, I shall do it too.”

—