Special District 9 Chapter 100: The Card Dealer Appears

In the office building of a military barrack.

When the crowd was preparing to leave the area, Old Ma suddenly called out, “We can’t head out like that.”

Qin Yu turned around to look at him.

“That Xing fellow went out first. He doesn’t dare to cause a ruckus in the barrack, but he’ll surely get his men to keep a lookout in the area,” Old Ma explained his point of view. “We need to guard against him.”

“Yes, that’s right,” Old Cat nodded in agreement.

…

On the car.

Xing Zihao dialed Peter’s number with a livid look on his face. With a courteous tone, he spoke, “Mr Peter, I have to trouble you not to mention what happened yesterday to my father.”

“Hao, I hope you understand that Prosperous Dragon Pharmaceuticals belongs to everyone, not just your father,” Peter replied frankly. “May the lord bless us that we’ll be able to devote our manpower and effort into developing the company, not to deal with bar brawls.”

Xing Zihao gritted his teeth as he replied, “I won’t do it again.”

“Your words don’t sound very clear, so I suspect that you might have suffered a heavy blow to your mouth area. You should head to the hospital to have it checked. I pray for your early recovery,” Peter said before hanging up the call.

Xing Zihao threw the phone on the chair as he cursed, “That damned Caucasian! He’s the one who suggested to the old man to have my older brother take charge of the equipment replacement… One day, I’ll get him to leave the company with nothing at all!”

Yong Dong looked at Xing Zihao with a troubled frown, and after a long moment of hesitation, he finally reminded meekly, “Young Master Xing, we shouldn’t get our men to eye the barracks right now. Our targets are close to Lin Nianlei, so they would surely be able to find a way to get away safely. We should focus our efforts on eyeing Wen Tao and nabbing Little Qu. Ma Lao-er hasn’t appeared all this while, so I suspect that he might be….”

Pah!

Xing Zihao was currently at the peak of his anger with nowhere to vent his emotions. He slapped Yong Dong’s face as he howled, “If not for the mess you got into, would I have gotten beaten up by those soldiers? You bunch of useless trash! What’s the use of our company giving you so many leeways to do your job? You can’t even get something as simple as this done!”

Yong Dong was utterly stupefied by the slap. His face flushed red as he clenched his fists tightly. Veins were popping on his temples.

“What are you looking at? Is there anything wrong with what I have said, huh?” Xing Zihao glared at Yong Dong furiously.

Yong Dong suppressed his feelings down as far as he could before replying with a deep voice, “Young Master Xing, I hope that you can understand that a partnership is built upon mutual agreement. If there are better choices in Songjiang for your company to choose from, we wouldn’t have been given so many leeways either.”

Xing Zihao was stunned by that lecture.

On the other hand, Yong Dong looked at Xing Zihao’s face with an urge to return the slap to him. However, his rationality was pulling him back, yelling at him that he had no choice but to tolerate this in order to a better tomorrow.

He was someone who could tolerate humiliation to an extreme degree in order to rise through the ranks. That was why he chose to kneel down when Ma Lao-er held him at gunpoint, carefully plotting his vengeance afterward. So, after a moment of silence, he changed the topic and said, “Young Master Xing, I hope that you can consider what I have just said.”

“Screw all of this!” Xing Zihao cursed furiously. He took out his phone and dialed a number.

“Hello, Young Master Xing.”

“I tasked you with a job, but I haven’t heard anything from you in the last few hours. Do you take my words to be nothing?” Xing Zihao spat coldly.

“I’ve already found what you need, but I couldn’t get to you when I called you yesterday night,” the other party replied with a wronged tone.

“Speak! Have you gathered information on Wen Tao yet?” Xing Zihao pressed on.

“Yes, we have managed to find his personal particulars.” The other party quickly organized his train of thoughts before reporting, “Wen Tao has no relatives in Fengbei. The place he lives is some distance away from Duke Carnival…”

…

In a tube-shaped apartment building built by a charity organization, Wen Tao was sitting on a wooden chair with a thick coat wrapped around his body. He looked at Little Qu with a frown as he asked, “What the heck have you been up to? Haven’t you been faring well in the Ma Family so far?”

Little Qu ate a mouthful of food and took a sip of alcohol before replying, “Well my ass. Do you know how strict Songjiang is regulating the distribution of medicine these days? I can only sell five boxes of medicine a day. Even if I manage to tide through the day safely, I can only earn a hundred bucks a day, and as soon as something crops up, I’ll have to squat inside the gallows for a few years. If the Ma Family and the Yuan Family were to clash again one of these days, I might even be hacked to death on the streets!”

Hearing those words, Wen Tao could only sigh deeply.

“Bro, even if we’re willing to slave off for others, we should earn something worthwhile from it,” Little Qu said with a frown. “There’s no future with the Ma Family. It’s only a matter of time before they are slaughtered by Yuan Hua. I might as well take this opportunity to take away as much as I can.”

“That’s true. It’s hard to make a living these days, so who cares about loyalty?” Wen Tao agreed with a nod.

“Tao, we might be of different surnames, but we are brothers who have been through tough times,” Little Qu mumbled under the influence of alcohol. “I’ll be honest with you. I brought some cash with me this time, so listen to me and quit your job at Duke Carnival. Let’s do something else together. I’ll fork out the money.”

“Quit my job? But I’m doing well now!” Wen Tao exclaimed in astonishment. “As long as I work hard, I don’t have to worry about having nothing on my plate.”

Little Qu was silent for a while before saying, “I want to do guns, but I don’t trust anyone else. If you want to have a better life, join me. I know some connections from my time in Songjiang.”

Wen Tao fell into deep thoughts.

“Is there a need to think at all?! As a card dealer, you can only live at the whims of another’s mercy. If you want to live like a human, you need to make it on your own!” Little Qu exclaimed passionately. “Listen to me and quit your job. Let’s strike it rich together.”

Wen Tao put down his chopsticks as he asked, “How much money do you have? Is it enough?”

“It’s not enough to do it big, but it’ll suffice if we start small.”

“Fine, let’s do it together,” Wen Tao shouted as he slapped his thigh. “If it doesn’t work out, we can just go back to working as card dealers. I am friends with the manager at Duke Carnival, so he’ll take me back in as long as I ask for it.”

“Fuck, we haven’t even started yet and you’re already thinking of failing?” Little Qu was rendered speechless. “Trust me, we definitely can do it!”

“Yes, we can do it!” Wen Tao exclaimed as he raised his wine cup. “I’ll drop by Duke Carnival later on and give a heads up to the manager.”

Little Qu said with a frown, “Why are you heading there? Can’t you just make a call?”

“My earning for the month is still there. I need to head over to take it.”

“… Don’t go,” Little Qu was a little worried. “There are quite a few people in Songjiang who know that we’re close with one another. I’m scared that they’ll send someone over.”

“Don’t worry, I’m just heading there to take my money and give a heads up. It won’t even take an hour,” Wen Tao replied leisurely. “Besides, I’ll get someone to drive over to get me. I’ll be fine.”

“You need to be careful. The Ma Family has gone mad looking for me right now.”

“Looks like you are starting to lose your guts? We’re at Fengbei! Let’s not say that they haven’t appeared yet, even if they pop up right now, what can they do to me at Duke Carnival?” Wen Tao remarked as he raised his wine glass. “Come come, let’s toast!”

…

In the early evening, Wen Tao had a friend from Duke Carnival to drive him over. Wearing a duck cap, he entered the venue quietly.

In the hostel opposite Duke Carnival, Ma Lao-er was just about to contact Qin Yu when his phone suddenly rang.

“Hello?”

“I’m playing cards inside now,” Liu Zishu said softly. “Wen Tao is here.”