Special District 9

Qin Yu asked with a smile, “Lin Nianlei, what are you doing here?”

“I’m here to look at houses,” Lin Nianlei replied as she tucked her hair to the back. At the same time, she casually asked, “What about you?”

“What a coincidence,” Qin Yu replied. “I’m here to look at houses too.”

“Hm?” Lin Nianlei looked at Qin Yu with her beautiful, big eyes. “Doesn’t the bureau provide its policemen with accommodations too?”

“Heh, there are too many people inside the room. I can’t get used to that, so I wanted to rent a house for myself.”

“Oh.”

Lin Nianlei nodded a little. She stretched her hand out and said, “Since we happen to meet each other again, shall we get to know one another? I still don’t know what your name is.”

“I am Qin Yu.”

“Brother Qin Yu… Thanks for saving me that day!” The reason why Lin Nianlei took the initiative to talk to Qin Yu was to say these words to him.

Qin Yu knew of Lin Nianlei’s intention, so he cleared his throat and replied with a feigned deep voice, “That’s where my duty lies. You need not thank me.”

Lin Nianlei chuckled softly as her hand shot up to a salute, “Haha, yes sir!”

“Shall we head in to take a look?” Qin Yu actually didn’t have much resistance toward attractive ladies but due to the difficult life he had previously, he couldn’t afford to flirt even if he wanted to.

But now that things had finally stabilized for him, he had started thinking about such matters as well. At the very least, he thought that it would be good to have a beautiful lady to chat with from time to time.

“I’m already done looking around, and I have made a reservation too. My colleague went out to buy some stuff, and I’ll be leaving after she returns,” Lin Nianlei replied warmly. “If you were to rent this place too, we’ll be able to meet each other often in the future. Once I get my first salary, I’ll treat you to a meal.”

“Well, then I should first look around to see if the house is suitable.”

“I’m working at an online radio company at the moment, so it’s likely that I’ll drop by the Police Bureau occasionally in the future. Can I drop by to pay you a visit?”

“Sure, sounds good to me.”

After chatting for a while, Qin Yu walked into Residence 88. Before he could even ask for Lin Nianlei’s contact number, the latter had already left with a female colleague.

…

Inside the residence.

Old Cat was seated on a stone chair, and he beckoned to Qin Yu with a shout, “Qin Yu, over here!”

“Coming,” Qin Yu replied upon hearing that voice.

“I heard that you were talking to someone earlier by the entrance. Who is it?” Old Cat asked. “Is Qi Lin here too.”

“That’s not it. I met the young lady who was kidnapped the other day, so we chatted for a bit.”

“???” Old Cat was stunned. “You met that young lady? Where is she?”

“Can you not look as if you are going to eat someone whole? She has already left.”

“What is she here for?” Old Cat asked out of extreme interest. “Who is she with? What did she talk to you about?”

“She works in an internet radio company not too far away from our Police Bureau, so she came here to look at houses. We only met one another by coincidence,” Qin Yu replied impatiently. “Why are you asking so many questions?”

“She rented the house here?”

“I think so.”

“…!” Old Cat pondered for a long while before he finally asked, “Hey, are you still lacking a roommate? I can cook.”

“You really are a creature of lust,” Qin Yu was speechless.

“I’m really interested in her, bro,” Old Cat exclaimed. “Let’s share rent and live together, shall we? I’m telling you that I…”

“Let’s look at the house first and talk about that later,” Qin Yu waved his hand and said. “I have stuff to do at the bureau later on.”

“Fine fine, let’s look at the house first.”

So, the two walked into the living room of the house.

The house that Old Cat was showing Qin Yu was roughly 30 square meters large. There were a few simple pieces of furniture inside, and the walls had been painted too. Overall, the room looked quite clean. The only issue was that the house was on the pricier side. The landlord was demanding 300 a month, and she wanted him to pay half a year’s worth of rent as the deposit.

The price was not cheap, but it was reasonable. Residence 88 was located where most of Songjiang City’s government departments were located. It was close to the broadcasting station, internet radio station, Police Bureau, Transportation Department, and various other key functions.

And the reason why Qin Yu was able to meet Lin Nianlei was because their workplaces were simply close to one another. Even if they hadn’t met one another here, they would still have plenty of opportunities to cross paths in the future.

The currency that was in use in Special District 9 was the Asian Dollar, which had been printed not too long ago. The other Special Districts also had their own currency, such as the Euro Dollar in the European region.

However, the currency that was universally accepted in the world was the Confederate Dollar distributed by the subsidiary organizations of the Confederate Government.

The exchange rate was roughly 1 Confederate Dollar to 6 Asian Dollar.

As Asian Dollar had only begun distribution not too long ago, its purchasing power was extremely high. Making a rough estimation, 1 Asian Dollar would be roughly worth 10 RMB in the past. As such, 300 Asian Dollar was equal to 3000 RMB. Qin Yu’s current salary was only 500 Asian Dollar a month. If he were to rent this house and factor in food cost, he would basically be left with nothing by the end of the month.

This was also a reflection of the life of those who were in the bottommost hierarchy of Special District 9. Cost of living was increasing day by day, but all sorts of resources were swiftly drying out with time. There were more people than there were jobs, so the wages in the labor market were pushed down. That was also the reason why everyone wanted to be promoted—that was the only way wages would grow.

Old Cat saw that Qin Yu liked the house but was hesitant after hearing that the monthly rent was 300, so he said, “Over at the Police Bureau, other than cowards like Qi Lin who focus their attention on bootlicking their superiors, most don’t have the intention of living solely off their wages. I can tell that you aren’t a particularly honest man. You’ll definitely find plenty of ways to bring in gray income in the future…”

“Do you have gray income too?”

“Of course. How could I not have one?”

“What do you do?”

“I specialize in dealing with procurers, you know, those pimps and madams. If they don’t split their money with me, I’ll deal with them within moments!” Old Cat replied shamelessly.

“…!” Qin Yu was speechless.

“Don’t think so much about it, just rent it. I can also come by to stay here from time to time,” Old Cat persuaded.

Qin Yu pondered for a moment, and he felt that it was unlikely for him to find something that was better and cheaper than this in the short-run. Besides, this residence was indeed quite close to the Police Bureau. So, after a moment of hesitation, he nodded, “I’ll rent it for half a year first.”

…

In the afternoon, at work…

In Squad 3’s office area, which was less than 50 square meters large, nine men dressed in uniforms were standing at attention in a neat formation.

Yuan Ke looked at the group of men before him as he began speaking, “I’ll just say a few words. Even though Qin Yu is a newcomer, it’s a fact that he has killed the criminal, Matsushita, and solved a kidnapping case. So, after careful consideration from the Police Bureau, we decided to appoint Qin Yu as the interim leader of Platoon 1 Squad 3.”

The men were silent for a moment before roaring applause finally broke out.

“We have already sent in an application for Qin Yu’s Third-class Merits up, so his rank will be raised in the near future too. So, you all need not think too much about this. Like I have told you before, as long as you prove your capabilities in Platoon 1, I’ll do my best to fight for whatever that you are entitled to. This applies to every one of you.”

After finishing his piece, Yuan Ke pulled Qin Yu over and told him, “You should get to know everyone too.”

Hearing those words, Qin Yu took a step forward. He was wearing a neat green police uniform, and there were two bars on his shoulder. He saluted to the men and shouted, “I am Qin Yu. Do take care of me in the future.”

Amidst the crowd, Qi Lin looked at Qin Yu in a daze as he felt indescribable bitterness in his heart.

It was not too long ago that he welcomed this newcomer to the team, but within less than two days, the latter had already become his leader. Such a feeling… wasn’t too nice.

“I’ll just reiterate it again. Since we are all wearing this uniform, we must obey the rules of this place. Qin Yu might be new, but if anyone dares to take advantage of him and affect the job, I won’t hesitate to take action against you,” Yuan Ke instructed sternly to the crowd before passing it over to Qin Yu, “Alright, I’ll leave it to you now.”

“Alright,” Qin Yu nodded. Thanks, Platoon Commander Yuan.”

“Like I said, there’s no need for you to be so courteous with me,” Yuan Ke said as he left.

In the working space, Qin Yu took a look at the squad as he took out a box of Chunghwa, which he usually couldn’t bring himself to smoke, and smiled at them, “It’s a coincidence that I bumped into something good and ended up as your interim squad leader, but in terms of experience, I’m aware that I’m lacking to most of you. So, I’ll have to ask you to guide me along for future cases. Come, take a rest first and have a smoke.”

Qin Yu’s opening words were quite courteous, and he didn’t put on any airs. He was hoping to close his relations with the rest of the squad through it.

A young man standing at the leftmost of the formation casually grabbed a cigarette from Qin Yu’s hands and skillfully tore open the packaging as he said, “Oh? Brother, you have quite the goods with you. You are able to get such smoke too?”

Qin Yu was slightly surprised by how informal the young man was before replying with a smile, “A good friend gave it to me.”

The person who had talked with Qin Yu went by the name of Zhu Wei. He was a veteran of Squad 3. It had been four to five years since he joined the squad, but as he was a little dull in the head, he had never been promoted all this while. However, if Qin Yu hadn’t come, there was a good chance that he would have been selected to become the squad leader in an internal selection.

After all, his experience was there for all to see, and he got along fairly well with Yuan Ke as well.

Zhu Wei lit the cigarette and took a puff from it. Then, he passed the packet on to the others.

“Come, sit down,” Qin Yu said.

Pah!

At this moment, Zhu Wei suddenly reached out and slapped Qin Yu’s arm, saying with a chuckle, “Haha, this smoke sure is addictive! I’m getting the feels from smoking it. Bro, I like your style!”

There was nothing wrong with what Zhu Wei said, but the area he struck happened to be where Qin Yu’s injuries were. Just the other day, while dealing with Matsushita, he ended up being scraped by a passing bullet, and it hadn’t fully healed yet.

Tsss!

The pain from the strike made Qin Yu take a step back with a tight knit on his forehead. He turned over to look at Zhu Wei.

“Brother Wei, our squad leader is injured.” By this moment, Qi Lin had already changed the way he addressed Qin Yu to squad leader.

“Crap, seriously?” Zhu Wei exclaimed in astonishment. He turned to Qin Yu and asked, “Where are you injured?”

Qin Yu took a look at Zhu Wei before replying with a smile, ‘I was scraped by a bullet while dealing with Matsushita.”

“A scrape? Cheh, that’s nothing then. You just need to get some ointment on it at the infirmary later on!” Zhu Wei replied heartily. “Don’t get the injection though. You won’t die from a scrape anyway. A measly injection will eat up half of your salary just like that.”

Hearing those words, Qin Yu nodded quietly before beckoning the others to take a seat too.

Just like that, the ten people of Squad 3, including him, sat down together and began chatting with one another.

Through their conversation, Qin Yu was able to get a good grasp of the situation in Squad 3.

All in all, there were three Thais, one African, and six Chinese. As Special District 9 was located in Northeast China, Mandarin became the official language over here. Most of them had lived here for quite some time now, so the Mandarin they spoke was quite fluent as well. Furthermore, they even carried the accent of northeasterners as well.

After getting to know one another, the group began to look through the documents regarding the medicine smugglers.

…

Nighttime, Qin Yu had just finished checking the state of the two old police cars of Squad 3 before returning back to the office. Most have already left, leaving only Qi Lin and the African brother behind.

“Where are the others?” Qi Lin asked.

“Brother Zhu brought them out to settle some stuff,” Qi Lin replied.

Qin Yu frowned, “I said that we’ll have a meeting at night in order to discuss the details of the case, so where did he bring everyone to? Is there some other case?”

“That’s not it. He seemed to have taken them away to settle some private issues.”

“It isn’t after working hours yet, but he took them away without even giving me a heads up?” Qin Yu muttered to himself.

Qi Lin didn’t respond to Qin Yu’s words.

Qin Yu took a seat on the chair and glanced at the office telephone as he tapped his finger lightly on the table.

What did Zhu Wei mean by this?

Was this an act of resistance?

On the very first of taking on Squad 3, Qin Yu found himself faced with a challenge.

Renminbi (RMB) is the currency of China. To give a rough gauge, official statistics in China put earning 5000~10000 RMB to be ‘relatively high income’.