Chapter 907: 559. Fast-Paced Life

“Yesterday you caught me stealing a phone. Why did you let me go?” Zhang Mengchan sat on the floor of Qing Chen’s room, looking up and asking.

The room was crawling with bugs, but he didn’t mind at all. Instead, he was interested in blocking their path with his hand.

The Ninth District has nearly a thousand pigeonhole buildings like this: broken elevators, clogged pipes, aging electrical wires.

These buildings are never cleaned, garbage piles up, naturally breeding many bugs and rats.

Sometimes, people die in their rooms and it takes a long time to discover it.

Ironically enough, they might be found not because there’s anyone in the world who cares about them but because it’s time for the gangs to collect protection fees.

Qing Chen glanced at the little boy and asked, “If someone else caught you, what would have happened?”

“They would frisk me to see if I have any money, take it if I do, or beat me if I don’t,” Zhang Mengchan said. “So, people like you can’t survive in the Ninth District.”

“Then what kind of person do you think I am?” Qing Chen countered.

Zhang Mengchan thought for a moment and said, “Weak, good-tempered, won’t dare to speak up even if bullied.”

Qing Chen couldn’t help but laugh. If those Jindai soldiers in Hell heard Zhang Mengchan’s assessment, they might be furious enough to curse.

As of now, perhaps no one in the entire Federation would use these words to describe “Qing Chen.”

The most frequent keywords in people’s assessments of Qing Chen are “ferocious.”

Qing Chen asked Zhang Mengchan, “When I asked about your background, you didn’t tell the truth.”

Zhang Mengchan looked at Qing Chen with his crude mechanical eye, “Why do you say that?”

“In this Lower District, there aren’t many who can finish elementary school. Many people even write the radicals of their names wrong, but you can write a whole sentence without using pinyin,” Qing Chen said calmly.

Zhang Mengchan might not yet know who he is facing. This is the Inspector of Intelligence Department One, who has cracked cases across City 10, making it wail like a wolf pack. He wouldn’t overlook such details.

Qing Chen asked, “So, where are your parents, and why are you here?”

Zhang Mengchan lowered his head, “I didn’t lie to you. I used to live in the Sixth District, then moved to the Eighth District. That was when my father owed gambling debts to loan sharks. He tricked my mom to a black clinic for anesthesia and secretly sold her organs. The clinic promised to give her a prosthetic liver, but it was all lies. My mom died, and then my father sold her other organs too.”

Qing Chen stared at the boy stunned, “What’s your father’s name?”

“Zhang Jia,” Zhang Mengchan said, “He’s a famous gambler in the Sixth District.”

Qing Chen originally thought there might be some kind of secret hidden in the boy’s background.

However, in this world’s slums, there are no miracles, only pain and memories kept hidden.

“Sorry,” Qing Chen said.

The boy impatiently replied, “How come you’re so nice? I tell you something, and you just say sorry. I get beaten up, and you give me buns to eat. I say answering a question is one dollar, and you give me a hundred. Can you not be like this? You’re not anything to me, and you might suddenly leave someday.”

In this bottom-tier slum, a little kindness is magnified infinitely.

Zhang Mengchan is merely a 13-year-old child, and when he had his mechanical eye implanted, his tear ducts were removed, losing even the right to cry.

Meeting Qing Chen didn’t seem like much of a blessing to him. He instinctively moved closer to Qing Chen, yet feared getting too close.

Qing Chen smiled, “Actually, it’s not that complicated. You can hang out with me in the future. Of course, it might not be that easy to hang out with me.”

Zhang Mengchan didn’t know why he suddenly got angry. He stood up and walked out, “Hang out with you? What nonsense! You can’t even protect yourself.”

With that, he started running toward the stairs.

But when going downstairs, Zhang Mengchan clearly saw a group of people slowly coming up from below. He recognized the leader; it was the person in charge of managing this pigeonhole for the Black Water Gang.

The man carried a knife, his neck tattoo was ferocious.

The boy seemed to realize something and rushed back frantically, reaching Qing Chen’s doorway, “Run, hurry! I saw more than ten Black Water Gang members, maybe they’re coming for you.”

Qing Chen looked up and asked, “This building only has one emergency exit, and the elevator’s broken. Where can I run to? It might not be for me, after all, I haven’t offended them. I heard on the way here, today is the day Black Water Gang collects protection fees.”

“Collecting protection fees doesn’t require so many people. One person, all the tenants obediently pay. This time they’re coming with so many people, there must be something wrong. What if they’re really here for you? Lately, you’re the only new tenant here! Even if you have to hide in someone else’s room, it’s better than just being killed by them!” Zhang Mengchan urged anxiously.

But now it was too late to say anything; when he looked back, he saw those same people blocking the door.

The leader draped his jacket over his shoulders, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

The exposed parts of his body were all replaced with mechanical limbs except his neck and head.

The pigeonhole manager for the Black Water Gang looked at Zhang Mengchan and Qing Chen inside the room and laughed, “I remember this little boy; he’s been in the pigeonhole for a year now, right? Came in at 12, he’s 13 now? Even though the client only wants those over 14, 13 should be able to slip through. No need to explain about the big one, all over him is money.”

A young man beside him said, “Right, let’s get him! Damn it, made me squat all night at the Black Swan Entrance last night, nearly froze to death! This morning I woke up to find this kid had already run off without a trace! Makes me so angry!”

Saying that, the Black Water Gang members started walking into the room, the gang leader looked at Qing Chen and smiled, “You might not know what’s going to happen today.”

Qing Chen calmly shook his head, “None of it matters.”

“Not important?” The leader of the Black Water Gang was puzzled.

“What’s important,” Qing Chen pointed at Zhang Mengchan, “is that after he saw you guys, he came back to see me.”

The young man from the Black Water Gang was stunned for a moment: “What the hell are you talking about?”

…

“Do you not understand what I’m saying?”

Luo Wanya stood under the pigeon cage building, looking at Zhang Qinghuan with a mix of amusement and annoyance: “I said I’m going to dismantle this Lao Shi’s Black Water Gang in a while, is there a problem with that?”

Zhang Qinghuan felt a bit of a toothache: “There are many of them, and besides, for us to just go and take down a whole gang, shouldn’t we find some legitimate reason?”

This president of the art club had always been reluctant to compete with other clubs. Now that Luo Wanya and his group were here, they had just mentioned in the morning that the enemy was the Black Water Gang, and by noon they intended to deal with them completely.

This fast-paced life, Zhang Qinghuan was a bit unaccustomed to…

In the past, he would be taking a nap right now, then in the evening, have a nice time in the Fourth District.

Now, when Zhang Qinghuan said he was going to take a nap, Luo Wanya said, “Why bother sleeping much while alive, for after death you’ll sleep forever.”

It left Zhang Qinghuan utterly muddled.

“Even if we don’t find a legitimate reason, shouldn’t we get some weapons? We’re all bare-handed, is that really okay?” Zhang Qinghuan asked.

“No firearms, our initial actions have to be low-key and cautious.”

Zhang Qinghuan said indignantly, “You’re not being very cautious either!”

Luo Wanya glanced at Zhang Qinghuan, tidied his clothes, and seriously said, “Now you’re the big brother of the gang, and officially we’re all your followers. Could you act a bit more ambitious? Where did that viciousness you had when you wanted us to kill you go? Come on, be fierce!”

“How… how do I be fierce?!” Zhang Qinghuan said, “Aow… Aowu?”

As soon as he said that, Zhang Qinghuan turned his head and saw Luo Wanya’s shadow-black face, devoid of complicated expressions but strikingly fierce beneath its calmness.

The look in his eyes had changed, scaring Zhang Qinghuan back several steps.

“Talking too much doesn’t convey an aura of threat. Only when a person stops talking, forcing you to guess what they’re thinking, are they truly the fiercest,” Luo Wanya sighed, “Forget it, we don’t have much time to waste, just play your role well in a while.”

The Parents’ Meeting came here without legal status. If the city management officials took notice, they would investigate a bit.

The Black Water Gang had officials collecting their fees. They don’t care who’s paying, as long as internal matters are solved internally.

So, everything must be done in the name of the art club.

With that said, Zhang Qinghuan was pushed forward into the pigeon cage.

He gasped for breath as he climbed more than forty floors, while Luo Wanya and others seemed unaffected, something Zhang Qinghuan envied immensely. He had just injected a shot of the cheapest genetic potion, barely reaching F-Class.

Yet among those Luo Wanya brought, the lowest was D-Class. There had been talk of two being C-Class before, but Zhang Qinghuan later discovered that Luo Wanya had actually brought 4 C-Class individuals…

Thinking of this, Zhang Qinghuan’s mindset finally calmed a bit; it was just about dealing with the Black Water Gang…

Upon reaching the forties in floors, Zhang Qinghuan immediately saw people from the Black Water Gang, and he froze on the spot.

Luo Wanya nudged him with his elbow: “It’s your turn to say your line, I taught you just the one, don’t you dare forget it.”

Zhang Qinghuan came to his senses, shouted at the top of his lungs: “Take them down for me!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Wanya charged forward with his family members, his massive frame akin to a train barreling into the Black Water Gang’s members, knocking them several meters away, and visibly spitting blood—it seemed they wouldn’t survive.

Inside the room, Zhang Mengchan was hiding fearfully behind Qing Chen.

Suddenly, a commotion erupted outside.

The Black Water Gang members turned their heads, but before they could react, the entire situation was completely overwhelmed.

Truth be told, neither Qing Chen nor Luo Wanya had ever paid attention to such small gangs.

In the entire city number 22, apart from the gang called Dragon Pattern, the rest were nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs.

Luo Wanya felt that finally getting a chance to make a move in front of the boss should not be wasted with even a little hesitation.

Thus, the Black Water Gang’s members… collapsed remarkably swiftly.

The family members also displayed extraordinary bravery.

The family members didn’t even know the parents were inside the room, they simply had boundless energy daily, with no outlet to release it. Thus, when it came time to combat evil forces, naturally, they were quite relentless.

Luo Wanya stood in the filthy corridor, looking disdainfully at all the curious, peeking residents: “What are you looking at, get back inside.”

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