Special District 9 Chapter 10: In Dirt Street, I Can Cover the Sky With My Hands

Inside the store.

The bald man who draped in a military coat stood on the wooden stairs as he gazed coldly at the well-built fellow who had been knocked out by Zhu Wei. With a voice that wasn’t too loud, he asked, “Who is the one who unleashed you dogs to mess with my store?”

Sweating profusely, Qin Yu glanced at the doorway and saw that more than twenty people had entered the store. The exit was completely blockaded by the crowd.

“We are from the Police Bureau,” Zhu Wei quickly recovered as he reached into his pocket to take out his identity token. Pinning it in front of his chest, he said, “Uninvolved personnel should stay out of this. We are here to investigate the peddling of smuggled medicine that has been happening in this area!”

The bald man sneered coldly as he asked, “Who is peddling smuggled medicine here?”

Zhu Wei pointed at the counter with his gun as he said, “We saw with our own eyes how these people were making a trade when we arrived!”

“You saw it? Do you represent the law?” the bald man scoffed. He gestured to the crowd around the doorway and shouted, “Ask them then. See if anyone has seen smuggled medicine being sold here.”

The twenty or so people standing by the doorway didn’t say a thing at all. They continued marching forward with weapons in their hands to surround the members of Squad 3.

Hearing those words, Zhu Wei stood awkwardly on the spot, not knowing what to say at all. At the same time, he felt a little intimidated. None of these twenty or so people who had rushed in looked easy to deal with.

Qin Yu hesitated for a moment before stepping forward to speak when…

“Goddamnit!”

At this moment, the well-built fellow whom Zhu Wei knocked out suddenly sat upright as he grabbed his bloodied head and cursed, “Who the hell hit me earlier?”

“Don’t move!” a young fellow standing beside Qi Lin shouted at him

“Don’t move? Screw you!” The well-built fellow immediately charged forth, and without any hesitation, he smashed his fist into Zhu Wei’s head. “Who do you think you are scaring with that broken gun of yours?”

Zhu Wei staggered three to four steps under the punch.

“What are you doing?!”

“You are assaulting a law enforcer officer over here!”

Squad 3 was still quite united when it came to protecting one of their own. When they saw that Zhu Wei had been struck, they immediately came forward to block the well-built fellow.

“I’m assaulting you right now, what about it?” Having nearly died from Zhu Wei’s attack earlier, the well-built fellow’s emotions ran wild. He picked up a knife that was used to open boxes from the counter and dashed forward as he roared, “You arrogant pricks! Even if Fat Li sends another five hundred people here, you still won’t be getting out of here alive!”

With a furious roar, the well-built fellow charged right into the group with his knife.

Qi Lin had been hiding all this while, but he didn’t think that he would become the first victim of the knife. This was because Zhu Wei had dodged to the side as soon as he saw the well-built fellow charging over with a knife, placing Qi Lin right in the line of attack instead.

“Shit!” Qi Lin cursed as he realized that it was too late for him to dodge. So, he could only put his arms in front of him in order to protect his vitals.

Pu!

Just as the knife was about to plunge right into Qi Lin’s body, Qin Yu squeezed through the crowd and grabbed the knife of the well-built fellow with his bare hands.

Blood immediately spurted out of his hand, splattering all over the floor.

Shocked by the sight, Qi Lin staggered two steps back as he looked at Qin Yu in horror.

There was a slight moment of silence before the well-built fellow cursed at Qin Yu, “You sure like playing hero to catch my knife with your hands. Why don’t you try catching it with your body too?”

The well-built fellow retracted his arm to stab the knife forward once more.

However, Qin Yu pinned down the well-built fellow’s arm with his left hand at lightning speed, preventing him from doing anything more. He then turned his gaze toward the bald middle-aged man on the stairs and said, “Bro, we aren’t here to mess with you. We received a report saying that someone is selling smuggled medicine here, so we had no choice but to investigate the case. But as soon as we entered the room, your friend reached out for his gun to attack us. My colleague had no choice but to retaliate in order to keep the situation under control.”

The bald middle-aged man leisurely sat down on the steps of the stairs as he took out his e-cigarette, not replying to Qin Yu’s words at all.

Still holding onto the well-built fellow’s wrist, Qin Yu continued explaining, “I have only arrived in Songjiang not too long ago, so I didn’t know the situation here at Dirt Street. Since it’s a misunderstanding, and there’s no smuggled medicine being sold here, we’ll return right away. Is that fine with you?”

“Since we aren’t selling smuggled medicine here, why did you hit my men then?” the bald middle-aged man took a puff of smoke before asking with a glint in his eyes.

Qin Yu was quiet for a few seconds before replying, “Bro, it’s due to all of you that we’re still able to make a living over here at Songjiang. None of us are having it easy here at all… So, let’s not make things difficult for one another, alright?”

“I want to make things difficult for you, what can you do?” the well-built fellow bellowed with ferocious eyes.

Meanwhile, the bald middle-aged man turned to the side and spat out yellow sputum, but he still didn’t say a word at all.

Qin Yu pondered for a brief moment before he added with the same smile as before, “Bro, I know that we can’t touch you here in Dirt Street, but don’t you still have to do business out of here too?”

The bald middle-aged man’s hands visibly froze for a moment before he finally spoke up, “Let them leave.”

“If we let them leave like them, wouldn’t I have suffered a beating in vain then?” the well-built fellow exclaimed indignantly. He looked at Qin Yu and the others with livid eyes as he howled, “If you want to walk out of here, sure. Take off your shirt and frog leap out of Dirt Street!”

“Hey, you better not push your luck!” the usually reticent Guan Qi of Squad 3 howled as he tightened the grip on his gun.

Pah!

Qin Yu quickly grabbed Guan Qi’s arm as he replied grimly, “We’ll do it. There’s nothing much about that.”

Guan Qi replied indignantly, “Squad Leader Qin, they will suffer too if they were to keep us here! What can they do even if they outnumber us?”

“I’m telling you to listen to my commands!” Qin Yu roared as he glared at Guan Qi.

Guan Qi gritted his teeth, but he eventually held his tongue and remained silent.

“Take off your shirt and frog leap out,” Qin Yu turned around and ordered his men.

Meanwhile, on the steps, the bald middle-aged man suddenly asked with a soft voice, “There are many others in our trade, why did you specifically target us over here at Dirt Street?”

Qin Yu was slightly surprised by the question, but he quickly replied, “We received a report, so our superiors got us to come here to look into this matter. I’m not too sure what the inside details are.”

The bald middle-aged man slowly rose to his feet before heading up the stairs once more. With his back facing Qin Yu, he said, “The situation over here at Dirt Street is a little chaotic, and we’re quite hostile toward outsiders. Stay out of here wherever possible. Number is power too. If each of us were to stab you once, how will your Police Bureau find the murderer?”

After saying those words, the bald middle-aged man disappeared from sight.

…

Five minutes later.

Eight policemen, including Qin Yu, formed a row as they leaped their way out of Dirt Street with their upper body bare.

There were dozens of bulky young men carrying lethal weapons watching them silently by the side.

Nearly every household living along the sides of the street had opened their windows. Some of them were smoking whereas others had their arms crossed, but all of them were watching Qin Yu and the others coldly as they leaped their way out of Dirt Street.

It was all silent till a person on the right side of the street suddenly shouted, “Fuck you all! Come here again and we’ll beat you to death!”

This furious howl rang for a long time in the night sky.

After that, glass bottles, medicine bottles, and all sorts of discarded objects were tossed out of the windows toward them.

“Run!”

Qin Yu ordered, and the crowd awkwardly dashed forth before soon vanishing amidst the darkness of the night.

…

On the second floor of the store.

The bald middle-aged man was seated on a rickety wooden armchair as he looked at the well-built fellow, who was currently bandaging his head, and asked, “Have our brothers scattered?”

“Un, they’re gone,” the well-built fellow, also known as Ma Lao-er, nodded.

“Get a few brothers over to transfer our stock,” the bald middle-aged man ordered. “For the next few days, we’ll rest for a while and stop releasing our good.”

Ma Lao-er was taken aback, “Third Uncle, are you afraid? That bunch of people earlier is clearly small fries who don’t know what they are getting themselves into! Do we really need to guard against them? Look at how the price of medicine has inflated out there! There are many poor patients over here at Dirt Street who are counting on us! With a shout, thousands of people will rush out of their houses to stand up for us! Do we need to be so bothered by them?”

“Just do as I have said. Don’t talk trash with me,” the bald middle-aged man replied. “Go and get two brothers over here.”

“I… I… Sigh! You are really getting more and more cowardly with time!” Ma Lao-er muttered indignantly beneath his breath. However, he couldn’t convince his obstinate Third Uncle, so he went out to call for some brothers.

…

Outside Dirt Street.

Qin Yu first wore his clothes before grabbing a First Aid Kit from the car to bandage his injured palm.

Standing by the side of the car, Guan Qi was still ranting in frustration with widened eyes, “It’s already shitty enough that we have lost to a bunch of criminals, but they even got us to strip our clothes and frog leap all the way out… This is hella humiliating! We’ll be a laughingstock if it gets back to the platoon!”

“We shouldn’t have given in to them! Even if we didn’t take off our clothes, would they dare to do anything to us?” Zhu Wei had already regained his spirit to complain about Qin Yu’s decision. “You are simply too cowardly. I tell you, there’s no one who deals with cases like that in Songjiang… You are the squad leader, you have to carry the team at crucial moments!”

After bandaging his injury with gritted teeth, Qin Yu turned to the group and said, “Come over, I’ll tell you our next plan.”

“What is it? Guan Qi asked.

“Come over!” Qin Yu shouted with a frown.

Everyone looked at one another. The squad’s morale was already very low by now, such that most people had impatient looks when they walked over to Qin Yu’s side.

“Check your ammunition. Those who haven’t worn their bulletproof vest yet, hurry up and do so. Jabi and Little Six, you are still in charge of the cars…” Qin Yu began instructing everyone.

However, he only received confused gazes in return.

…

Ten minutes later, in the store.

Ma Lao-er was ordering three brothers of the same age as him, “The car will be arriving a little later. Load the good into the car then check if there is still anything else left in Store 3.”

“Where are we moving the goods to?” someone asked.

“We’ll pull them back to the storage first,” Ma Lao-er replied before grumbling in displeasure. “Third Uncle is simply too timid. I tell you, he’s overreacting over the smallest of stuff. If it’s up to me, we’d have continued selling whatever that should be sold…”

Tap tap!

Right after saying those words, a series of footsteps suddenly sounded from the backdoor to their left.

Ma Lao-er turned around to take a look, only to see Qin Yu, wearing a green bulletproof vest and holding onto a 0.5 meters tall riot shield, rushing right into the store.

“Heck!”

Peng!

With cold eyes, Qin Yu raised his right leg to kick Ma Lao-er’s chest.

Sou!

Gudong!

Ma Lao-er was sent flying half a meter away. He crashed through three crates of stocks and fell into a slightly dazed state from the impact.

“Don’t move. I’ll blow off your head if you dare move a single step!” Guan Qi said as he pressed his gun against Ma Lao-er’s head.

Huala!

Without any hesitation, Qin Yu rushed through the door and dashed right toward the second floor.

In the second floor, radio noises sounded from a walkie-talkie before the voices of one of the medicine peddlers fleeing below echoed loudly, “Third Uncle, that bunch of people are back!”

Third Uncle was stunned for a moment before quickly rising to his feet. He swiftly reached for his gun.

Huala!

Qin Yu released the safety engagement notch and entered the room. He tilted his head at Third Uncle as he said, “Dirt Street is too complicated. We couldn’t get out of here even after leaping for so long. It seems like we’ll need you to come along with us to point a way out.”

Third Uncle stared at Qin Yu with his mouth agape before he muttered, “A feint…!”

Ma Lao-er is more of his nickname to indicate that he’s the second child in the Ma Family.