Chapter 947

A young man with his hands in his trouser pockets arrived outside an alley. Just as he was about to walk in, two people leaning against the inner wall of the alley stood up and raised their hands to stop him.

"State your purpose, friend."

The young man took a step back. He took his hands out of his trouser pockets and then raised them slightly to the height of his chest.

"I'm here to buy something. I was... introduced by someone."

The two burly men stared intently at his eyes. Seeing the young man shift his gaze away, unable to bear it, one of the burly men finally cleared a space for him to pass.

The other person warned him, "Don't cause trouble here. You know the consequences of causing trouble!"

The young man nodded and took a deep breath, "Yes, I know."

"Can I go in now?"

The burly man nodded to signal that he could go in. Only then did the young man let out a sigh of relief, put his hands back into his trouser pockets, and walked into the alley.

From the outside, this alley looked like just an alley entrance, and inside it was pitch black, with nothing to be seen.

In reality, after walking about twenty steps and turning a corner, one could see a larger and more open space.

This place was similar to a place for selling stolen goods. The young man suspected that even higher-level elite figures were selling things here.

He didn't know for sure, but he had heard others say so—saying that those who sold grain were actually agents for big shots in high society.

They took the grain that was about to go moldy, piled up in the big shots' warehouses, and sold it here to exchange for money or gold, and then they planned to leave here for the Federation.

People always had many rumors they couldn't say where they heard from, and they were happy to spread these rumors, adding their own ideas and performing slight re-creations.

The young man's purpose in coming here was to buy some grain.

He had been lucky recently; two friends had found him, willing to give him a sum of money, but there was one requirement: they needed to hide at his house for a period of time.

They had known each other since they were children; they were all good brothers from the slums.

Don't look at the city of Zhuolan as the capital of Lapa; there were still many slums in this city, and the ones that occupied the most land were these slums.

The slums surrounded the city center of Zhuolan. It was like a yolk; the most essential part of the city was not large, and the large parts were the places where the poor lived.

The poor living here all worked for the rich in this city to earn some pay, or they exchanged their meager income by sacrificing their own health.

People would go out to find work as soon as they reached adulthood, while the children in the family would gather together to play. That was how they got to know each other.

They had known each other for over ten years and could be considered very good friends.

Even if his friends didn't give him a sum of money, he wouldn't have refused, as long as they brought some food themselves.

Now, not to mention that, they were not only willing to be responsible for their own affairs but also willing to give him an extra sum of money!

He had some guesses that these two brothers might have made a fortune somewhere, and now that the incident had broken out, they could only hide.

He didn't feel surprised by this situation; the lives of the poor were just like this.

Either like their parents, where the men engaged in the most menial work in the city and the women engaged in sex work to obtain the same meager income to maintain their own and their family's lives.

Or, they took another path—a path where no one knew the ending.

He felt a bit envious. Once the heat of the matter passed, he planned to chat with his two good brothers and ask if he could go out with them to make money.

For now, what he needed to do was buy some grain to take back.

There were many small vendors in this spacious open space, all selling things they had stolen or robbed. There were good things inside, and also some things that made people unable to understand.

After watching for a while, he found a guy selling wheat cakes.

Calling them wheat cakes, in fact, besides wheat flour, there were many other things inside, because that was the most cost-effective way.

Only those big shots in the city center would eat cakes made of pure wheat flour, and only they could afford to eat them.

The poor, it seemed, should be like this.

A one-pound cake cost ten dollars. When he heard this number, he couldn't help but show a grimacing expression.

"So expensive?" He picked up a cake to look at it and even scraped it with his fingernail.

The guy selling the cakes just rolled his eyes and glanced at him sideways, "If you scrape it again, you must buy it!"

Some people would use the excuse of "inspecting the goods" to scrape a little off, eat it, and then say it wasn't what they wanted, turning around and leaving.

There were quite a few people selling cakes and food here. If they scraped a little from every stall, they could fill their stomachs without spending money very quickly.

It was precisely because some people really did this that now, for food products here, if the stall owner didn't allow "inspecting the goods," people couldn't "have a taste."

The young man took out several ten-dollar and five-dollar banknotes from his pocket. They looked crumpled and somewhat blackened.

Lapa's currency was all like this; the surface was blackened, all covered in grease, also because of poverty.

Because poverty made their skin surfaces covered in all kinds of stains, just like those workers who cleared sewers.

They would crawl naked into the city's sewage pipes, working in an invisible environment, trying to find ways to clear the blockages.

For clearing a sewage pipe once, they could only get twenty or thirty dollars, risking their lives.

Every year, thousands of "plumbers" died in the sewage pipes, but the masters never cared about these things; instead, they would curse them for also becoming part of the sewer blockage.

When they luckily came up, the masters' servants would casually give them some pocket change and then turn and leave.

Because they were too smelly.

Those people wouldn't wash themselves; they would use their filthy hands to pick up the banknotes directly and then store them properly.

According to unofficial research, Lapa's banknotes were even dirtier than bricks in a toilet with yellow urine stones!

Looking at the banknotes pressed in the young man's hand, the stall owner finally showed some smiles. He took the banknotes and counted them, "I can give you four and a half."

The young man didn't object. Being able to get an extra half was already beyond his expectations; he thought there would only be an extra quarter, or it would be whatever it was.

He said "Thank you," which counted as reaching this deal.

He took out a cloth bag himself, and the stall owner picked up the wheat cakes and put them in.

He had observed each one; they were all decent wheat cakes. Some cakes still had some wisps of fiber-like things remaining; this was a type of edible crushed grass they added, which could increase the feeling of fullness.

After buying the food, he didn't plan to leave immediately but strolled around other stalls because his friends said they planned to give him a belt.

The leather of the belt wasn't actually worth much. Lapa itself was rich in various animal furs; this was the tropics, with primitive jungles and tropical grasslands.

What was truly expensive was the belt buckle. As long as it was metal and had beautiful patterns, the price could definitely go to the sky!

He went around several stalls and roughly figured out the price of belts. Those marked as imported belts from the Federation were basically between five thousand and six thousand dollars.

Because they were stolen goods, the price wasn't considered high.

If they bought them in a store, the cheapest would cost over nine thousand dollars.

Just as he figured out how much his "reward" was and was about to leave, the alley entrance suddenly became a bit noisy; it seemed someone had a conflict here.

A look of curiosity and the desire to watch the excitement appeared on his face. Watching the excitement was a human instinct deep in the bones, whether it was a university professor from the Federation or a poor person in Lapa who couldn't get enough to eat; they all had the desire to watch the excitement.

He walked to the alley entrance and looked out, soon discovering some situation.

Several foreigners wearing trench coats and fedoras were blocking the alley entrance. They were saying something to the two security guards maintaining the safety of this small black market.

It was obvious that the security guards didn't intend to let these foreigners in.

Every place had its own rules. In Lapa, the identity of a foreigner wasn't that useful everywhere.

Before, there had been foreigners who wanted to come in and take a look, but they were also stopped.

That foreigner insisted on coming in, and in the end, he was beaten up by the security guards here and thrown into the alley behind, and nothing happened. This further confirmed people's guesses—there was a backer behind this black market.

Of course, as people selling stolen goods here, they needed to pay an extra sum of money, a twenty-dollar stall fee, regardless of whether they sold anything or not.

Although this price wasn't low, those who could do business and sell here definitely weren't selling cheap things; this stall fee didn't count for much compared to the price of their goods.

The young man felt that these foreigners might not be able to find anything cheap here, but immediately after, he felt some unease.

The dispute between the security guards and those people began to escalate. The next second, one of the foreigners directly took out a very long dagger and stabbed it into a security guard's neck.

The moment he pulled the dagger out, the blood brought out sprayed onto the alley wall; he even heard the "pitter-patter" sound of blood splashing and spraying on the wall!

Everyone was stunned. Several of those foreigners even took out pistols. The few security guards who had rushed over, preparing to "fight" them, recognized the reality after a brief pause.

At this time, a foreigner who obviously looked like he had a higher status walked in from outside.

"Two young men killed a federal person near... the main street not long ago and stole his things."

"If any of you know who they are, or where they are hiding...", he looked around the surroundings and stepped over the security guard who was already lying on the ground as a corpse.

"Then tell us, and we will give you an unimaginable reward!"

"Now, let me see, does anyone here know about these things!"

Those foreigners began to appear in greater numbers and soon controlled the place.

The young man discovered that their attire was very uniform, and each person had a red armband on their left arm.

It looked like they should be an organization, or a gang?

He didn't understand this very well, but he knew these people were definitely a group.

Soon these foreigners came to his side and demanded he open his pocket; he did as told.

When the foreigner saw that there were only some wheat cakes inside, he left from in front of him.

They checked all the goods in this black market to ensure there were no things belonging to that federal person inside.

When leaving, the guy who looked like the leader said again, "Anyone who can provide us with clues, or lead us to catch these two criminals who killed the federal person."

"I guarantee, you will get a reward that satisfies you!"

He stepped over the corpse again and stood outside the alley.

Perhaps he thought of something, stepped back two steps, and returned, then took out a stack of money from his pocket, counted a few bills from the top, and threw them onto the corpse that was clutching its neck.

Subsequently, the group quickly left here, got into a car, and drove toward the direction of the next black market.

It was obvious someone was pointing the way for them.

The entire alley was silent, even after those people left.

"These people are so overbearing..."

Someone muttered, and immediately someone echoed, "Who says they aren't?"

"But they are foreigners, and they have guns in their hands; what can you do?"

"Lapa is getting more and more finished; sooner or later, all we have over our heads will be these foreigners!"

Some people complained in low voices. After about two minutes, the security guards finally let out a sigh of relief.

One of them walked to the side of the corpse, picked up the blood-stained money on the corpse, and put it into his own pocket.

Then he casually called two people and let them lift the security guard's corpse and throw it into the sewer nearby.

A life just disappeared in front of people's eyes, and it was cheap, without any compensation.

The money thrown down by the foreigners would undoubtedly be embezzled, but this was Lapa; this was the most real and cruel side of Lapa's lowest level.

Business continued, life continued. The stall owners chattered about things related to these foreigners and returned to their work and lives, continuing to sell the things in their hands.

The young man's eyes flickered slightly. He almost subconsciously thought that this matter might have something to do with his two friends.

At this moment, his heartbeat was constantly accelerating. It wasn't that he felt excitement or fear, but rather some exhilaration!

Because he deeply remembered that the foreigner said if anyone could provide clues, or lead them to find those two people, they would definitely be able to obtain a satisfying reward!

He didn't dare to show other expressions, fearing that this secret of making a fortune would be seen through by others. He soon came to the alley entrance and left here.

He still needed to go back and test them, test his good brothers, to see if this matter was done by them.

As for danger?

Was there any situation more dangerous than being poor?

No, there wasn't!

There was nothing more terrifying than being poor!

On the way back, he had already seen many foreigners. Usually, he hadn't seen so many foreigners, which also made him realize that if this matter was done by his two brothers.

Then they must have caused big trouble.

Besides foreigners looking for those two murderers, local police were also looking for those two murderers. On the way back, he was even searched once.

One of the four and a half wheat cakes was also taken away.

Fuck!

It was even worse; local gangs were also looking for these people.

This made the young man's mood become heavy. He no longer had the excited emotion from just now; replacing it was a kind of fear, terror!

If his two neighbors, with whom his relationship was very average and whom he only knew, were really the murderers who attacked and killed that foreigner, then if they were hiding in his house, would he be identified as an accomplice of these people?

Would he... also be discovered by those people, caught, and finally killed?

He didn't know, and he didn't dare to gamble. In a state of mental chaos, he returned to his house.

Seeing him return, the two good friends immediately greeted him. They took the wheat cakes out of the cloth bag, tore them off in small pieces, and swallowed them into their stomachs with water.

"Didn't you buy meat?", one of them asked.

He squeezed out some smiles, "I didn't see meat at the black market, and even if there was, the price wasn't cheap; it might cost fifty dollars a pound."

When grain was in short supply, although the price of meat also rose, the increase wasn't outrageous, unlike grain, which had already risen more than ten times.

The price of meat only rose by two times.

One of his two friends took out the money in his pocket, counted out one hundred and twenty dollars, and handed it to him, "Next time you go out to buy food, remember to buy some meat back."

He nodded, put the money into his pocket, and soon began to test them, "When I came back, I saw many police and gangs looking for people. They said someone killed a foreigner today and caused big trouble."

His two friends looked at each other. It was this look that made him immediately realize that they were the two people being looked for.

He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his body even began to feel slightly hot, and countless ideas and thoughts were boiling in his mind!

The more this was the case, the more he had to stabilize himself. He said with a joking tone, "It wouldn't be you guys, would it?"

His friends immediately smiled and brushed it off, "How could it be us?"

But the atmosphere that followed was a bit solemn.

The young man let out a sigh of relief, "It's good that it's not you guys; I thought it was you!"

He said this and began to do other things. There was still some worry in the two people's eyes, but considering their friendship of over ten years, they finally believed this friend.

One of them chased after him for two steps and stuffed some more money to him, about two hundred dollars, "We'll hide from the wind here at your place for a while. If there's anything you need help with, don't think it's too little."

The young man was stunned for a moment and didn't decline, "We're all friends; actually, there's no need for this."

Watching him accept the money, both of them let out a sigh of relief...

(End of chapter)