Special District 9 Chapter 128: Gone, Without a Warning At All

Ten in the morning.

Yuan Ke was heading out of Fengbei on a car, and he kept rushing the driver uneasily, “Hurry up, I’m begging you! Faster!”

…

Around half an hour later,

Old Ma was pushed out by the military doctor and tossed into an empty patient room. Meanwhile, Guan Qi was still being treated.

At the lobby below, Fatty Xing, dressed in a windbreaker, walked in with widened strides as he waved his arm, “Pleased to meet you, sorry for the trouble.”

A soldier went over to shake Fatty Xing’s hand before gesturing to the lift, saying, “Yuan Hua is on the third floor.”

“I’ll pay that old man a visit first.”

“Ah, he’s on the fourth floor!”

“Has he awoken yet? Can he speak?” Fatty Xing asked.

“He wasn’t shot in the vitals, so speaking shouldn’t be a problem,” the soldier replied.

“Thanks for the help.”

“It’s nothing much. I’m just following orders,” the soldier said as he escorted Fatty Xing up the lift.

A few minutes later, they arrived before the empty patient room. Fatty Xing, together with his second son and Peter, entered the room. As for the others, they stood outside the door and waited for them.

Inside the room, the pale-faced Old Ma was on an IV drip. His eyes were closed, and he was lying on the bed quietly.

Fatty Xing took off his leather gloves and smacked Old Ma’s shoulder, “Heh, despite being an old thing, it looks like your bones are still pretty tough!”

“They’re still not tougher than you capitalists,” Old Ma replied with a sigh.

Standing by the bedside with his hands behind his back, Fatty Xing glanced down at Old Ma and said, “Let’s cut the bullshit and get to business.”

“What do you want to talk about?”

“Don’t feign ignorance. Where’s my son?” Fatty Xing asked.

Old Ma looked at Fatty Xing for a moment before a grin formed on his lips. He asked, “Answer a few of my questions, and we can talk business right after.”

Fatty Xing frowned before nodding slowly, “Fine, ask.”

“The cost of your medicine is the same as ours, so why are you selling them for so expensively?” Old Ma asked.

“No, our cost is different from yours,” Fatty Xing shook his head as he replied. “You’re making money to feed a family, but I’m making money to worship the deities of all stratums of society. How can the cost you incur be compared to mine?”

Old Ma pondered for a moment before nodding, “Very well, I’ll concede on that.”

“What else do you want to ask?”

“You make money to worship the deities of all stratums of society, but what about us suffering at the very bottom? Do we not need to eat? While we have been selling our goods at Songjiang cheaply, our stocks are limited and we have never competed for your markets before… So why won’t you give us some breathing space to survive?” Old Ma raised his head and asked, “Is there a need to go all the way to destroy us?”

Fatty Xing breathed out impatiently. He contemplated for a moment before replying without the slightest quaver in his voice, “What I’m after is not the small slice of the pie that you have, but that your inexpensive goods will tarnish our reputation. This is not something our company can tolerate.”

“You work with local ruffians to sell medicine at exorbitant prices, sucking the blood of the poor to feed those corrupted officials. Yet, you still have the cheek to talk to me about reputation?”

“That can’t be helped. To a businessman, clean money and bloodstained money are still money,” Fatty Xing replied coldly. “My only priority is to ensure our company’s profit, and what you are doing has affected us. Since we can’t come to an agreement, it’s inevitable that we’ll have to fight it out and determine a winner.”

“Do you think that I have lost the right to negotiate now that I’ve fallen in your hands?” Old Ma asked.

Fatty Xing chuckled to himself and said, “There’s no need for me to speak to you at all. I just have to call your family members and tell them that you’re with me, and my son will be returned back to my side.”

“Hahahaha!” Old Ma burst into laughter upon hearing those words.

Fatty Xing looked at the old man before him with a frown as he asked, “Do you know why you lost in the end?”

Old Ma didn’t respond.

“That’s because you still don’t understand this era. Or rather, you haven’t grasped the role a businessman should take in this era,” Fatty Xing replied as he paced around the room. “A few guns, a few loyal subordinates, and a bunch of beggars fawning on you for your cheap medicine; do you think that you can build up your business with just those chips in hand? You’re underestimating the world!”

“Well, I think that you’re underestimating the world too,” Old Ma replied nonchalantly.

…

On the bottom floor.

Yuan Ke ran into the hospital and asked the receptionist with a flustered look, “Which room is Yuan Hua in?!”

“He’s on the third floor,” the other party raised his head and replied.

Yuan Ke immediately charged up the stairs at the fastest speed possible.

Tens of seconds later, on the corridor of the third floor, Yuan Ke shouted with a pale face, “Brother Baldie…!”

“Over here!” Baldie walked out from the bend of the corridor and beckoned Yuan Ke over.

Yuan Ke ran over and asked while gasping for air, “Is my older brother still in the emergency room?”

“Yes, you should quickly enter the room!” Baldie quickly dragged Yuan Ke over to the entrance of the emergency room.

With clenched fists, Yuan Ke walked in and looked at the bed in the center of the room.

“You are…?” the chief surgeon asked.

“I’m his younger brother.”

“… You’re finally here.” The chief surgeon took off his mask as he walked over. With concise words, he revealed the condition of the patient, “We have been trying our best to delay the inevitable.”

Yuan Ke suddenly felt as if the world was spinning around him upon hearing those words.

On the bed, Yuan Hua craned his neck slightly to look at his younger brother at the door.

Yuan Ke stared back at Yuan Hua in a daze. All of a sudden, he didn’t know what to do anymore.

Yuan Hua weakly raised his arm as he muttered softly, “… Lil’ Ke… You were right… Your older brother has been wrong all this while…”

Yuan Ke’s eyes blurred upon hearing those words. He immediately ran over to Yuan Hua’s side.

“Run our company properly, treat those who have been with me well… You’ll be… the head of the Yuan Family from now on…!” Yuan Hua said as he slowly closed his eyes. His arm fell limply by his side as he muttered, “I think… I can see dad and mom.”

Di di di!

A beeping sound suddenly sounded as the heart rate monitor suddenly fell to a straight line.

“Brother!!”

Yuan Ke kneeled by the bed as all of the emotions he had kept suppressed inside all this while burst out of him. His body twitched as he cried in agony.

…

Inside the patient room on the fourth floor.

Fatty Xing glanced at Old Ma as he asked with a frown, “So, are you going to spit it out, or do you need me to contact your family members?”

“Fatty Xing, you seem awfully confident.”

“I never do things that I’m not confident of pushing through.”

“Haha, is that so?” Old Ma laughed. He tilted his neck and said, “But there’s one thing you’re definitely not confident about.”

Seeing that Old Ma kept beating around the bush, Fatty Xing finally lost his patience. He turned around and began walking toward the door, saying, “Old Ma, you keep testing my patience. Forget it, you don’t have to say anything anymore.”

“Fatty Xing, I can tell you straight that there’s no way we can return your son to you. If you really want to meet him, I can tell you where he’s buried at!” Old Ma said nonchalantly on the bed.

Fatty Xing immediately turned around upon hearing those words. A cold smile crept onto his face as he asked, “Is this the game you’re playing with me now?”

“He’s dead. I killed him personally at the Ninth Special District’s Commemoration Square that day. There are eye-witnesses… We have tied them up in a military training field,” Old Ma said as he stared at Fatty Xing intently. “Your son isn’t anything good either. Seems like a fair deal to trade my old life for his!”

Fatty Xing’s face had already turned completely pale upon hearing those words. He couldn’t maintain his composure anymore.

“This is retribution, Fatty Xing! This is the consequence of you treating humans like pawns on a chessboard!” Old Ma said hoarsely.