Special District 9 Chapter 87: Cornered

On the road.

While driving a car, Qin Yu glanced at Old Cat and asked impassively, “You were together with Ma Lao-er yesterday night?”

“Yeah,” Old Cat replied.

“Didn’t I tell you previously that Ma Lao-er is in charge of the medicine route now, and that you shouldn’t keep asking him out to fool around? He’s not the type who can differentiate play from work properly…” Qin Yu berated in exasperation. “Look, now a major problem has really cropped up.”

“Bro, I didn’t force him to come out with me. That day, Old Lu from the Public Security Platoon is around too, so I wanted to introduce them to one another,” Old Cat replied innocently. “I made sure to ask him if he had anything up that day, and he said that… he was going mad from boredom…”

Qin Yu sighed deeply before saying, “Ma Lao-er is not a bad guy, but he lets play get in the way of his work. That damned dimwit actually can put everything on the line just to go to a gathering. I really have nothing to say.”

…

Half an hour later.

As soon as Qin Yu and Old Cat walked into Old Ma’s house, he saw Ma Lao-er sitting on the sofa with his head lowered, not saying a word at all.

“Say something! Why are you keeping your mouth shut now?” Old Ma’s hands were on his hips as he yelled at Ma Lao-er with a reddened face. “You knew that we were still releasing our goods, and you also knew that Zishu had something up that day. Why the fuck were you not in the warehouse?!”

Ma Lao-er scratched his head in frustration as he raised his head and replied, “Old Cat said that he’s going to introduce new connections to me, so I was thinking that…”

Pah!

Old Ma was trembling from sheer fury. He sent a vicious slap toward Ma Lao-er, causing the latter to fall off the sofa.

“You always have your reasons,” Old Ma glared at Ma Lao-er sharply. “I can turn a blind eye to you fooling around normally, but can’t you fucking draw the line when it’s time to be serious? It’s only a matter of time before you get all of our brothers killed with your fuckery!”

Ma Lao-er spat out a mouthful of blood by the side, but he kept his head lowered and didn’t say a word at all.

“When Ol’ Three contacted you, I already told you that you need to be exceptionally careful. I know Yuan Hua far too well. He’s not the type who would be willing to take a step back and share profits with us,” Old Ma pointed a shaking finger at Ma Lao-er as he bellowed.

“But what did you do? No matter the timing or the occasion, as soon as someone calls you to fool around, you’ll get your ass there right away. You’re already in your twenties, but your mind is still all on alcohol and women… If I were to suddenly die one day, what rights do you have to take over me? How are you going to get everyone to follow you? Don’t even talk about Yuan Hua now, you can’t even match a single finger of his!”

Ma Lao-er was a person who really valued his own face. Even though he knew that he wasn’t in a position to refute his uncle, he was still infuriated at being scolded in such a manner. He clenched his fists tightly and cursed, “The culprit better never show himself before me, or else I’ll grind his bone to dust.”

“Do you see that?” However, those words only served to inflame Old Ma even further. Pointing at his nephew, he turned to Liu Zishu and exclaimed in disbelief, “This idiot still doesn’t understand whose fault it is over here! Are you still drunk on alcohol, or is your mind only filled with women…”

Ma Lao-er lowered his head silently once more.

“If I don’t beat you up today, I’ll really be letting down all of the brothers who have been done in due to this incident!” Old Ma hastily took off his belt as he pointed to the ground. “Kneel down right now!”

“You… Can we talk about this later on? Let’s settle the problem first…” Ma Lao-er said as he glanced at Qin Yu and Old Cat with a reddened face. He looked incredibly awkward over there.

“I’m telling you to kneel down right now!” Old Ma shouted. He was too agitated to care who was around anymore.

Seeing that Old Ma was on the verge of fainting from anger, Ma Lao-er immediately kneeled on the floor obediently.

Piak! Piak! Piak…

Old Ma struck his nephew’s body with his belt mercilessly, and the latter simply kneeled there without dodging or complaining at all.

Qin Yu hesitated for a moment before stepping forward to stop them, “Uncle Ma, what’s happened has happened. Hitting him won’t resolve the situation…”

“I really don’t know what the fuck you were thinking. You knew how important the warehouse key is, but you still handed it over to an outsider. I’ll crack open your head and see what’s inside!” Old Ma berated as he continued whipping ferociously.

Ma Lao-er was struck to the point where there were lacerations all over his body, but as soon as he heard his uncle’s words, he still immediately spoke up, “The culprit is Little Qu? That son of a bitch!”

“Uncle Ma, I’ll be leaving if you continue this,” Qin Yu shouted at Old Ma. “Since the worst has already happened, we should be thinking of a solution right now. What’s the use of putting on this play right now?”

Old Ma panted heavily as he tossed his belt aside. He pointed his finger at Ma Lao-er and bellowed, “You really are trash. I, Old Ma, am afraid not of Yuan Hua, but I worry that there’ll be no one in the Ma Family to take over me!”

Veins popped up on Ma Lao-er’s neck upon hearing those words, but he still chose to hold his tongue.

“Let’s go over to that room and talk.” Qin Yu shot Old Cat a look before supporting Old Ma into the room.

Meanwhile, in the living room.

“Come, stand up first,” Liu Zishu said as he walked over to help Ma Lao-er up.

Ma Lao-er turned to Liu Zishu and asked with reddened eyes, “The saboteur is Little Qu, isn’t it?”

Liu Zishu sighed deeply before replying, “He took the keys yesterday. Who else could it be other than him? Furthermore, when trouble struck this morning, we found that we can’t reach his phone at all.”

With a vicious look on his face, Ma Lao-er spat, “I’m the one who caused this problem, so I’ll be the one to resolve it. If I can’t find the culprit, I’ll kneel at Dirt Street and pay my apologies to the deceased. Even if they want to take my life, I won’t retaliate at all.”

After saying those words, Ma Lao-er walked out of the house.

“Come back here!” Liu Zishu shouted as he chased after Ma Lao-er.

“I’ll go find Little Qu, you don’t need to care about it!” Ma Lao-er shouted back into the house.

…

Inside the room.

As Old Ma had gotten too agitated earlier, he started coughing violently as soon as he settled down. Seeing this, Qin Yu took a cup of water and placed it on the table, “Have a sip first. The problem has already occurred, and it won’t change a thing even if you get angry.”

“That useless brat! No matter how I lecture him, that trash just doesn’t mature at all!” Old Ma spat coldly before shaking his head in vexation. “He actually allowed our enemies to tamper with our goods in our own territory. I really don’t know what else I can say.”

“It’s my fault. I was the one who called him over yesterday night,” Old Cat took on some of the blame. “He thought that getting to know the commander of the Public Security Platoon will be of use to your operations.”

“That’s a load of crap!” Old Ma immediately berated. “Even if you don’t know what’s more important here, would he not know? That brat is just an idiot who doesn’t learn no matter how many times he screws up. He forsook all of his responsibilities just to fool around…”

Old Cat fell silent.

Qin Yu pondered for a moment before changing the topic, “Old Ma, let’s think about how we can bring the impact of this crisis down to the lowest instead.”

Old Ma contemplated for a while before speaking with a deep sigh, “The buyers have always only recognized the goods and not the people selling them. The reason why they backed me in the past was because they thought that my prices were fair and the medicine was effective, so they viewed me as their benefactor.

“But now that our medicine actually killed someone, how am I to face our customers? Even if I try to explain the situation to them, who would believe me? Moreover, the fake medicine wouldn’t just be those few boxes that we sold. Since Yuan Hua wants to get us, he would make sure to go all the way so as to destroy us thoroughly in a single move… I can already foresee that a huge portion of the medicine that was confiscated during the cleanup by the Police Headquarters has already been swapped.”

“Can we spend some money to get a runner to take the blame?” Old Cat asked. “Say that they secretly concocted their own medicine in order to get a bit more cash. As long as he takes the blame, we can pull some strings in the Police Bureau to protect him. That should resolve most of the problems, right?”

“Would you believe that if you were the buyer?” Old Ma asked. “Besides, there are fake goods in the pile confiscated by the Police Headquarters. How are we going to explain that?”

Old Cat thought deeply for a moment before shaking his head as well. “Yeah, that wouldn’t work. If we really do that, it might just worsen the situation.”

…

In the alley beside Dirt Street’s Majestic Palace Entertainment City, Ol’ Three smoked on a cigarette as he spoke, “Find that fellow and get rid of him.”

“1000,” a red-faced man standing before Ol’ Three replied deeply.

“I’ll give you 1500, so make sure to do it cleanly,” Ol’ Three said. He glanced around to confirm that there was no one around before adding, “Bring the corpse back to me, and I’ll give you your money.”

“Deal,” the red-faced man replied before leaving the alley.