Special District 9

Bam bam!

Qin Yu knocked on the door and shouted, “Open the door.”

“Who is it?” Bucktooth asked.

“You deaf? Hurry up and open the door!” Qin Yu shouted impatiently.

Around a minute later, a red-faced buzzcut lad opened the door and said, “Aiyo. Bro, you’re back?”

“Scram.” Qin Yu pushed aside Bucktooth’s face and walked into the house. He immediately spotted a young lady sitting on the bed, blinking her large eyes his way.

“Xiangxiang, this is my big bro,” Bucktooth introduced her to Qin Yu.

Xiangxiang got up and greeted Qin Yu, “Big brother, nice to meet you.”

“Where are you from?” Qin Yu asked.

“She’s from Hua-jie’s family… The two of us get along quite well,” Bucktooth butted in and explained.

Qin Yu walked over to Bucktooth and gave him a kick of the bottom as he berated, “I can see with my own damned eyes that the two of you get along well!”

“Big brother, I’ll be heading back first.” Xiangxiang appeared to be of the same age as Bucktooth, and she seemed to be a little shy around Qin Yu. In a flash, she had already dashed out of the house.

“Sis, I’ll visit you tomorrow to help you with your chores!” Bucktooth stood reluctantly by the doorway as he shouted after her.

Qin Yu directed a kick toward Bucktooth’s waist and sent the latter staggering forward before reprimanding, “Looks like you’re having quite a fulfilling life as a slacker! I haven’t even found a wife yet, but you’re already bringing people back to your house. Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself?”

“Hehe.” Bucktooth laughed awkwardly as he scratched his head. “We only got to know one another not too long ago.”

“But you still brought her back with you?”

“… She came here to help me with the chores,” Bucktooth said as he gestured around the room. “Look at how clean the place is after we worked on it.”

Qin Yu took a look at his surroundings and found that the interiors of the house were indeed much cleaner than they were before. The cupboards and floor had a slight sheen from how clean they were, and even Qin Yu’s dirty clothes and bedsheets had been changed and washed.

There was also an additional single bed that Bucktooth seemed to have got back from somewhere for himself. It was placed against the inner wall.

“This is the work of that young lass?” Qin Yu asked with a frown.

“I did the heavier chores while she did the lighter ones. We did it together.” After Bucktooth’s body slowly recovered, he still retained his streetlike way of behaving and speaking. However, it turned out that he was actually quite diligent. Whenever Qin Yu wasn’t around, he would always do whatever that was within his means to accomplish, be it sweeping snow off the entrance or cleaning up their outdoor toilet.

Qin Yu closed the door first before asking Bucktooth, “How did you get to know that young lass?”

“Only Lin-jie’s house has an indoor toilet in this residence. Our outdoor toilet is so clogged up with shit that it’s nearly reaching my ass when I do my business. I had nothing much to do anyway, so I went to clean it up, and I just happened… to meet her then,” Bucktooth said smilingly. “Xiangxiang’s mother operates a ‘meat store’, and she’s known as Hua-jie in this region. She has seven ladies under her… When they rest in the day, Xiangxiang would handle the chores there… We would often bump into one another, so over time, we got close to one another.”

“Close to one another… You still shouldn’t bring her back to the house! I heard outside that you were going to read her palm?” Qin Yu exclaimed. “Why do you seem even more desperate than Old Cat?”

“I wasn’t thinking so deeply into it… We’re just, you know, chatting idly,” Bucktooth replied.

“You always talk about how difficult it is for you to live to this day, but why are you so careless when it comes to this matter?” Qin Yu lectured. “Haven’t you heard of the phrase ‘a rabbit doesn’t eat the grass by his burrow’? Besides, you are still young, but you are already thinking about such stuff. I don’t know what you are planning to do, but make sure you show some restraint. They are neighbors with us. If anything happens, don’t blame me for not warning you in advance.”

“I get it, I won’t do anything reckless,” Bucktooth replied with a grin.

“Let’s eat.”

Qin Yu took out the dinner he had packed from his workplace and placed it on the table.

Bucktooth took the initiative to lay out the dishes nicely on the table. After that, he poured a cup of warm water for Qin Yu before finally running over to the chair by the window to wolf down his food.

“Where the heck are you sitting? Come here to eat!” Qin Yu beckoned him over.

“I’m fine here,” Bucktooth replied with grease all over his lips.

When Qin Yu first saved the boy, his clothes were old and his hair was long, making him appear ragged and dirty back then. However, now that his hair had been shaved and he was wearing fitting clothes, he still looked rather decent. He had a fair skin tone, and his eyes were gleaming with spirit. What particularly stood out about his face was his long eyelashes which gave him a little seductive touch.

Despite being only fifteen this year, his height had already reached 1.72 meters. It was just that his body wasn’t very well-built. He had a large skeletal frame, but it felt like he was just skin and bones.

Qin Yu would always observe the Bucktooth while they were eating. He realized that despite the boy’s seemingly boisterous personality, it was apparent through a few minor details that the latter was still treading carefully around him.

Whenever Bucktooth ate from the side dishes, he would never grab the food from the middle of the plate, always consciously picking from the corners instead.

He was also very silent when he ate. Whenever he accidentally made any noise while eating, he would immediately adjust accordingly.

It was the same when it came to sleep time too. As soon as Qin Yu got onto the bed, regardless of whether he was tired or not, he would turn off the lights and not make any sound at all.

The more Bucktooth acted so cautiously around him, the more uncomfortable Qin Yu felt. He was seeing shadows of his past self from Bucktooth. In those days when he was taken in by an old man in the Development District, his attitude and behavior were identical to this…

Putting on a brave front, yet constantly worrying about getting abandoned again. Being under someone else’s roof and moving so carefully as if treading on a layer of thin ice, having to even consider whether it was an appropriate moment to breathe…

Qin Yu looked at Bucktooth silently for a moment before calling him again, “It’s an eyesore for you to see you squatting over there. Come to the table.”

Bucktooth was a little taken aback.

“Let’s chat a bit,” Qin Yu said with a smile.

“Chat about what?”

“How about whether you are still chaste or not?” Qin Yu looked at the boy playfully.

Bucktooth jolted for a moment before his face flushed red. He quickly replied, “Of course not! I’ve tried all sorts of things ever since I was 13.”

“Oh?” Qin Yu remarked in astonishment. He quickly beckoned Bucktooth over as he exclaimed, “Come over here and share the details with me… I would have never been able to tell that you have such stories behind you.”

“Ah no, it was a slip of the tongue… I didn’t mean it that way…” Bucktooth replied as he awkwardly made his way over to the table.

“Haha, come here and sit down. You aren’t getting off the table till you share the details with me,” Qin Yu said as he grabbed two pieces of meat and placed them into Bucktooth’s bowl. “We’re all guys, you don’t have to be so restrained. Since I already told you that you can stay here, you don’t need to be so careful around me.”

“I’m not!” Bucktooth argued vehemently. “I am never restrained around anyone.”

“Okay okay. You can cut the bullshit now and spit out your story,” Qin Yu replied. “So, what positions have you tried?”

“Like I told you, that’s not what I mean!”

…

On a street along Black Street Sector.

Yong Dong was seated in his car. He turned to the young man seated beside him and instructed, “I need you to take note of which days he isn’t in the storage room and report it to me. Got it?”

-jie is a term for Big Sister in Chinese.

Lin-jie refers to Lin Nianlei, and it’s kind of similar to Big Sister Lin.