Special District 9

Ma Lao-er was the type of person whose strengths and flaws were obvious on sight. He had a reckless personality, and he never thought about the consequences before acting. But from another perspective, he was a very sentimental person who would never scheme and play mind games against those he considered as his friends. This made him a very trustworthy individual.

Had it been anyone else, after dealing with Yong Dong, he would have surely hidden outside for a few days to avoid trouble. However, Ma Lao-er didn’t even change his accommodations. He returned back home and had a hearty sleep, as if nothing had happened at all.

The following morning.

Old Ma arrived at his nephew’s house and sent a kick at his sleeping head.

“What the fuck? Who is it?” Ma Lao-er woke up groggily.

Old Ma’s livid face was staring back at him. “What the hell are you doing? Who told you to get Yong Dong?”

Ma Lao-er sat up from the bed, revealing his topless body. He blinked his eyes before replying impatiently, “They were the ones who attacked me first. Everyone in the music bar saw it. What else can I do? Turn a blind eye to it?”

“Do you think I really don’t know what happened at all? If not for you raising the price in the auction, would they have made a move on you?”

“Uncle, that matter at Dirt Street nearly destroyed our Ma Family, and even my nephew was caught by the police… How many people did we lose?” Ma Lao-er raged with reddened eyes. “We are men of the streets. If we keep our heads lowered for everything, who would want to work for us? Anyone with 5kg of medicine will be shot down, the risk is the same for everyone. Those working for the Yuan Family have pride and honor, but do we have to offer our men? Not only must they look out for the police, they still have to be worried about getting humiliated by our rivals… Don’t you find it frustrating at all?”

To be honest, Old Ma was a little moved by those words.

“I admit that I didn’t control myself well last night, but you can’t blame me either. If they hadn’t made a move, I would have just left peacefully,” Ma Lao-er replied. Then, he sighed deeply before continuing, “Uncle, I know what you are going to say. I’ll take note of what I do in the future, so don’t be angry anymore, alright?”

“You need to grow up. It’s not all about fighting and killing on the streets!” Old Ma also sighed deeply. “Didn’t Qin Yu tell you? Old Li has been reminding us to keep our heads low for this period of time. If you were to stir up any trouble at this juncture, those above would be too caught up trying to clean up your mess to bother protecting you.”

“Un, I got it,” Ma Lao-er replied. Having drunk for an entire night, he looked very wasted at the moment. His eyes were red, and his face was slightly yellowish.

“Look at your darned look,” Old Ma berated his nephew. “Hurry up and wash your face. You’ll be following me to the warehouse to do a stock count.”

“Got it, uncle,” Ma Lao-er nodded obediently.

…

The storm appeared to have passed just like that. There were still no movements on the streets over the next week. It felt as if Ma Lao-er’s act of forcing Yong Dong to kneel down hadn’t affected the dynamics between the Ma Family and the Yuan Family at all.

One afternoon.

Qin Yu, dressed in casual clothes, was walking together with Zhu Wei toward the food store opposite of the Police Bureau.

“Aiyo, Squad Leader Qin. Come join us over here!” A young lad in his mid-twenties stood up and waved to him.

Qin Yu took a look at him before walking over with a nonchalant expression.

“Squad Leader Qin, is it too noisy here? Shall we get a private compartment?” the young lad asked subserviently.

Qin Yu had never felt the convenience that authority had brought him, but ever since he officially took over Squad 3, he began to understand the importance of it.

This young lad was a residency broker whose job mainly comprised helping those in Development District obtain long-term visa inside Special District 9. However, his background was ordinary, so he had no choice but to pull many illegal moves in the shadows. As a result, one of the runners under him ended up getting caught by Zhu Wei a few days ago.

Later on, the young lad managed to get to Old Cat, and through him, he managed to find Qin Yu. His aim was to get Qin Yu to spare him.

After Qin Yu sat down, he gestured to the young lad and said, “You should sit down too.”

“Yes, yes.” The young lad took a seat before calling for the waiter, “Hurry up and serve the dishes I have ordered!”

Qin Yu watched the scene silently with his arms crossed.

“Squad Leader Qin, have you been busy recently?”

“It’s still okay.”

“I heard from the Police Bureau that there has been a manpower reallocation in the Police Bureau recently. I heard Ericsson has been transferred over to the Police Headquarters?”

“I was out during this period of time, so I’m not too sure,” Qin Yu replied impassively.

“…!”

The young lad kept trying to find a topic to interest Qin Yu, but Qin Yu would always give him short and snappy replies, leaving him in an awkward position. This, in turn, made the young lad a little intimidated by Qin Yu. This was because he was unable to discern what Qin Yu’s real intention was.

After a short cold war, the young lad took out a gift box and offered it to Qin Yu with a smile, saying, “I have to ask Squad Leader Qin to please give us some leeway for this matter. I’ll definitely avoid making the same mistake as I did in the future… Brother Cat has already reprimanded me sternly over this matter… Sigh, it’s difficult to make a living these days.”

Qin Yu paused for a moment before pushing the gift back, saying, “I won’t take your gift.”

“Squad Leader Qin, please give us a…”

“Hear me out first,” Qin Yu interjected with a frown. “Since Old Cat has already given me a heads up, I’ll settle the matter for you. However, I have a condition. In the future, if you continue buying the visas of dead people, fake them, and sell them at high prices to others, I’ll make sure to deal with you as well.”

“I understand!” The young lad nodded vehemently.

“What’s your name?” Qin Yu asked.

“You can call me Little Liu.”

“Alright, you can go back and wait for the results,” Qin Yu said with a nod.

“Thank you!” Little Liu’s eyes widened out of sheer joy. He quickly beckoned to the food and said, “Come! Let’s eat, let’s eat!”

However, over the next five minutes, Qin Yu barely ate a few mouthfuls before finding an excuse to leave. Before he walked away, though, he instructed Zhu Wei, “Stay back and discuss the case with him.”

…

After returning to the Police Bureau, Qin Yu was just about to call Qi Lin when Zhu Wei also returned back as well. He even brought the small gift box that Little Six had offered to him earlier.

“Why did you come back?” Qin Yu was stunned.

“You have already left, so what else am I supposed to do?” Zhu Wei replied in bewilderment. “Didn’t you get me to stay behind to take his gift?”

Hearing those words, Qin Yu heaved a deep sigh of helplessness and lamented, “You don’t get what I’m trying to do, huh?”

“Ah? What were you trying to do?” Zhu Wei was stunned.

“As a broker who puts himself at risk to deal with residency rights, how valuable can his gift get?” Qin Yu replied with a frown. “I got you to stay back to get to know him better. In our line of work, we need to have some eyes around on the streets. His standing might not be too high, but he comes into contact with people from all walks of life. Use him well, and he might prove to be an invaluable asset for us to crack cases in the future.”

“Ah! So that’s what you were trying to do!” Zhu Wei widened his eyes in realization.

Qin Yu glanced at Zhu Wei before he grabbed the gift box from him and took a look at the content inside. In there was an ordinary watch and 2000 Asian Dollars.

“Woah, he did give quite a bit,” Zhu Wei chuckled upon seeing the money,

“If you didn’t accept his money, he would never have been able to fathom you. But now that you have taken his gift, in his eyes, you’ll always only be worth 2000 dollars and a watch,” Qin Yu pointed out sharply before placing the gift box on the table.

Zhu Wei pondered over those words for a long while before finally nodding in agreement, “Makes sense.”

Qin Yu took the money out from the box and kept 500 for himself before saying, “I’ll be taking this. You can split the rest with our brothers.”

“I thought you didn’t want to accept the money,” Zhu Wei asked. “Why did you still take 500?”

“You have already taken the money back, so why would I not take it?” Qin Yu berated shamelessly. “I got a small kid at home now. I need to get him some medicine, so money is very tight for me.”

“What about the watch? Are you going to take it too?”

“Don’t wear a new watch in the Police Bureau, it’ll only bring trouble,” Qin Yu warned. “Find a place and have it sold.”

“Got it.”

“Remember what I told you,” Qin Yu said as he sat on the chair and instructed. “We need to build a network of connections on the streets. Don’t accept their gifts. Instead, we should be giving them some leeway wherever appropriate. You get my meaning?”

“Un.” It was only at this point that Zhu Wei finally understood what Qin Yu was going for.

…

Meanwhile…

Yuan Hua was seated in his office, looking at a chart as he hollered, “What the hell are you all doing? Our sales have dropped by 30% this week! Can anyone explain to me what happened?”