Special District 9 Chapter 80: Yong Dong Offers a Plan

Yuan Hua widened his eyes in disbelief upon hearing those words. “They’re cheaper than us by so much?”

“Yeah, I didn’t think that it’s possible either.” The bald man gnashed his teeth hatefully. “I really don’t know what that senile twat, Old Ma, is thinking of. If he wants to compete with us, he can just put a price slightly lower than us. If he were to play like this, isn’t the whole market going to crash and burn? Also, I just can’t figure out where the hell did they get their goods from. It’s like they don’t need to pay for them at all!”

Yuan Hua looked at the report once more as he paced around the room in irritation before finally instructing, “Tell those responsible for the distribution of the goods to come over here right away for a meeting.”

…

Two in the afternoon.

More than ten individuals who were supervising the distribution of medicine entered the meeting room. This included Yong Dong, who just had a conflict with Ma Lao-er not too long ago.

On the main seat of the meeting room, Yuan Hua smoked his cigarette as he eyed everyone in the room coldly, “Our sales have dropped by 30%. Tell me, what do you plan to do to resolve this?”

This room plunged into a short silence after those words were spoken.

Shortly after, a slightly younger man in the room raised his hand and said, “I received news that the supplier has given Old Ma a specific target. They need to buy at least 200,000 dollars worth of goods from the supplier each month in order to receive a discount. That’s why the Ma Family has gone mad right now, frantically trying to clear their stocks… It’s due to the discount they have that they can afford to lower their prices so drastically.”

“What the hell? 200,000 dollars worth of goods every month? Is Old Ma trying to eat half of the Black Street Sector’s market for himself?!” a crude-looking man cursed. “If they continue going at the market like that, our sales won’t just drop by 30% next month. We’ll really close down at this rate!”

“Should we just wage a price war against them?” one of the men proposed. “We can lower our prices too.”

Yuan Hua immediately rejected the idea. “Only a fool would lower his prices to sell his goods. Putting aside how such a competition would affect the market, our existing clients wouldn’t be able to accept this either. Think about this, if you used to buy medicine from a supplier for 2 dollars, and all of a sudden, the price fell to 1 dollar, how would the old clients think? They will resent you for overcharging their hard-earned money all this while… So, even if we drop our prices down to the Ma Family’s level, they would still choose to buy from them instead rather than to do business with you. What do we do when that happens? Lower our prices even more to satisfy them?”

Everyone fell silent.

“Can we find a way to get the Ma Family through the law?” the bald man suggested.

“That’ll be hard to do,” the young man shook his head as he replied. “The Ma Family was done in badly the last time around, and that has really put them on their guard. They don’t release their goods inside Dirt Street openly anymore, and they have closed down all of their previous stores too. They are passing their medicine down through a chain system, and clients can only make orders by privately liaising with their runners. The location where the exchange is made changes every time, and they only allow small purchases. Even if we manage to get their men, they would only be sentenced to a year or so in jail.”

Those words made everyone’s complexion turned awful, and the room plunged into silence once more.

Around five minutes later, just as Yuan Hua was going to pressure the crowd once more, Yong Dong, who had been silent all this while, suddenly spoke up, “Yuan Hua, I would like to ask something.”

“Go ahead,” Yuan Hua replied.

“Can you tell me what’s your current attitude you have toward the Ma Family? Do you want to get them by force, or are you intending to tolerate their actions for the time being?”

The whole room nearly burst into flames after those words were spoken.

“Do you even need to ask that? Of course we have to bring them down by hook or by crook!”

“Aren’t you asking the obvious? The market will be destroyed under their actions at this rate, and that’ll spell the end of us! We won’t be able to earn any money as long as they are around! Our men wouldn’t be able to accept this either!”

“We need to think of a way to get them. The Black Street Sector is only this big, and they want to clear 200,000 dollars worth of medicine every month. That will mean a smaller share of the pie for us!”

“…!”

Even before Yuan Hua could speak, the others in the room had already expressed their stand. Their profits were at stake over here, after all. The declining sales number on the chart had really shocked them as well.

Yuan Hua pondered for a moment before urging with a frown, “If you have anything to say, go ahead. Don’t beat around the bush.”

“I have a plan that can oust the Ma Family out,” Yong Dong said with a smile.

Eyes in the room widened in astonishment as they turned to look at Yong Dong.

“What is it?” the bald man asked anxiously.

Yong Dong pondered for a moment before he stood up and said, “I can only discuss the details of this plan with Yuan Hua privately.”

Yuan Hua was slightly surprised to hear this.

Ten minutes later.

Yuan Hua told everyone to rest for a moment whereas he and Yong Dong headed into his office. After shutting the doors, they began their discussion.

“What’s your plan?”

“I think that we can do it this way…” Yong Dong began discussing discreetly with Yuan Hua the idea he had in mind.

…

Eight at night.

Along the streets of one of Songjiang’s residential areas, Qin Yu, dressed in a thick military coat, was sitting in the passenger seat of a car. He glanced at Old Cat, who was driving beside him, and asked, “I heard that you have been hanging out with Ma Lao-er every day these days?”

“Ma Lao-er is a great person,” Old Cat replied haughtily. “Ever since I came to know him, my pants have been down every single night!”

Qin Yu was rendered speechless by those words. “You really baffle me. We’re all men, so I can understand that you have your own needs. But I’ve really never seen anyone as thirsty as you… Are you sure you can take it playing around every night?”

“I’m also quite baffled as well. I’ve been playing every day, but not only do I not feel tired at all, I think I’m getting more and more revitalized,” Old Cat replied shamelessly. “Look, I’m getting a reaction just by talking to you. It’s weird, right?”

Qin Yu was dumbfounded. “Yeah, I take my hats off to you.”

“I also want to hold myself back, but my body doesn’t allow me to rest.”

“You’re really full of bullshit,” Qin Yu reprimanded. “Can you show some restraint? Stop looking for Ma Lao-er every day. He has just started taking over the medicine route, so there are many things he needs to look out for. Don’t hold up our business over play.”

“We won’t! Look, even though I’ve been playing around too, it doesn’t affect my performance at all. I still come back on time to go on patrols with you,” Old Cat replied earnestly.

“Not everyone is like you. There are people who can’t control themselves once they get in the mood,” Qin Yu replied. “Anyway, just try to hold yourself back a little.”

“Fine, I got it,” Old Cat replied with a nod.

“You continue first, I’ll go down to clear my bladder,” Qin Yu said as he got down from the car.

Beneath the moonlight, at the opposite end of the street, a man with a ponytail happened to get onto a car right in front of Qin Yu. As he settled into the car, he even shouted out, “See you!”

A hint of astonishment flickered across Qin Yu’s eyes as he witnessed this sight.

With the whirring of an engine, the car that the man with a ponytail got onto departed into the distance.

“What’s wrong?” Seeing that Qin Yu hadn’t left yet, Old Cat asked him from the car.

“Why does that man look so familiar?” Qin Yu muttered beneath his breath.

“Who?”

Qin Yu had to ponder for a long time before he turned to Old Cat and said, “… He looks like one of the fixers who kidnapped Kang-ge back then.”