Only once Ning Zhe had him pinned down did the wild-haired young man realize he'd bitten off more than he could chew. His face went pale. "Brother, let's talk this out, no need to be rash!"
"The reason things ended up this way between us is because you were the rash one, not me." Ning Zhe's face stayed expressionless as he looked at him. "You lot, this is how you make your living? Shaking people down for protection money?"
"We're just doing what we have to, to get by. If you let me go today, I promise you, from now on, this stall's protection fee is waived. Deal?" The wild-haired young man understood well enough that a smart man doesn't fight a losing battle, all his earlier bravado gone.
Ning Zhe didn't answer the question. Instead he asked one of his own. "How many people are in your crew?"
"Just the five of us. If you want in yourself, then..."
"Squelch!"
Before he could finish the sentence, the knife in Ning Zhe's hand had already opened his throat.
Blood sprayed several meters, driven by the pumping of the heart, but neatly avoided Ning Zhe. As a hunter, he had plenty of experience handling a blade.
"Shit!" Seeing this, the bald guy on the ground scrambled up to run, but was quickly stabbed from behind by Ning Zhe.
Seeing Ning Zhe move, Lin Xun didn't hesitate either, moving quickly to finish off the rest.
Out here on the wasteland, a fight was always a fight to the death. Holding back was the same as suicide.
For a skilled hunter, killing a man was simpler than hunting a beast.
Within seconds, all five lay dead in the street, blood soaking into the yellow dirt road.
Passersby scattered out of the way, but that was all they did, just moved aside. Meanwhile, plenty of the other small vendors nearby had a flicker of grim satisfaction cross their eyes, though none of them dared let it show too plainly.
People died all the time in the refugee zone, for all kinds of reasons. On this lawless land, where only the law of the jungle held sway, dead bodies were simply too common a sight to dwell on.
Ning Zhe wiped his knife clean on the wild-haired young man's clothes and began going through the pockets of the bodies.
"Brother, you told me yourself, unless there's absolutely no choice, we don't kill." Lin Xun looked at Ning Zhe, unable to understand what had set off this sudden killing urge.
"Cut off a man's livelihood, and it's the same as killing his parents. What we just did already cost them their standing. With you and me as an example, others will start learning to fight back too, and once that happens, they'll lose the fear they need to keep collecting protection money. If we'd let them live, sooner or later it would've been you or me lying dead instead." Ning Zhe stuffed the few dozen yuan he'd found into his pocket. "Root out evil completely, that's the only way to rest easy."
"Tramp, tramp!"
Just then, the chubby young man came hurrying back, hauling a large bundle, and at the sight of five bodies lying in pools of blood, and Ning Zhe standing there with a knife still in hand, his arms started to shake. "Brother Zhe, you... you killed these thugs?"
"What, were they hard to deal with?" Ning Zhe met his eyes.
"These guys, they actually kill people! I saw it with my own eyes, them killing vendors who wouldn't pay up! Nobody around here ever dared stand up to them!" The chubby young man's gaze met Ning Zhe's, and he shivered again.
"They're dead now. You don't have to worry about them anymore." Hearing this, Ning Zhe found it hard to understand how someone this timid had managed to survive out on the wasteland for so long. "How do you handle the bodies around here?"
"Whoever does the killing does the burying. Bodies bring on plague, and the smell of blood draws beasts at night. If someone dies of sickness, you just have to wait for some kind soul to come bury them. I end up doing that a lot myself." The chubby young man didn't seem the least bit relieved that the thugs who'd been bullying him for so long were dead. If anything, he seemed to find Ning Zhe more frightening.
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Though in fairness, it wasn't just Ning Zhe. To the chubby young man, it seemed like just about everyone in the refugee zone was frightening.
"Whoever kills, buries. Fair enough, I suppose." Ning Zhe gave a small laugh at that, then turned to the chubby young man. "Come give me a hand."
Maybe because of the bodies lying in front of the stall, no more customers came by for the rest of the day, which suited Ning Zhe and Lin Xun just fine. The two of them ended up eating three rats and two lizards themselves. Ning Zhe insisted on paying, but the chubby young man refused to take a single yuan no matter what.
With the stock gone, there was nothing left to do but close up for the day. The chubby young man hugged his large bundle and followed the two of them back to their place.
Lin Xun eyed the bundle in his arms. "Fatty, didn't you say all your old stuff got burned? Where'd you get all this then?"
"These are bedding I bought these last few days. Sleeping out in the open's just too cold otherwise." The chubby young man explained, then turned to Ning Zhe. "Brother Zhe, all this stuff's second-hand, from someone who died. You don't mind, do you? Don't worry, the original owner starved to death, wasn't sick or anything."
"As long as it's usable, that's fine by me." Ning Zhe shook his head slightly. So-called "white goods," items that had belonged to the dead, were common enough in the refugee zone, where supplies were so scarce that families selling off a dead relative's belongings was nothing unusual.
Once they were back at the courtyard, Ning Zhe pointed to a room inside and told the chubby young man, "You can stay in this room from now on. Your brother used to live here too."
"Brother Zhe, thank you!" At the mention of Li Dongbao, the chubby young man's mood dipped again.
"Fatty, if you're Dongbao's real brother, how come I never met you before?" Lin Xun cut in.
"I've only had the roast meat stall going for about half a month now. Before that, I was working inside the stronghold, on the sewage crews, only three yuan a day. My brother wanted me to come hunting with him, but I was too scared, so I stayed behind in the refugee zone instead." The chubby young man explained, a little sheepish.
"I'm curious, how does someone as heavy as you manage to catch rats?" Lin Xun looked at him, puzzled. The rats these days were mutated too, quicker on their feet and faster at burrowing, hard enough to hit even with a bow.
"Honestly, I don't really know myself. About half a month ago, something changed, and I could suddenly sense small animals nearby. There was one day I was starving down in the sewers and tried to catch a rat to eat, and the thing just walked right up and stopped in front of me." The chubby young man explained, looking genuinely bewildered.
"Go on, pull the other one. You look like an honest guy, but you sure can spin a tale." Lin Xun rolled his eyes, convinced the chubby young man had just found some kind of rat trap down in the sewers.
"Come on, I'll take you around, show you the streets nearby." Ning Zhe finished setting up the bed for the chubby young man, then turned to head back outside. The moment he stepped out the door, he came face to face with a young man in his twenties walking toward him.
This one wore the same patchwork rags common throughout the refugee zone, but carried something of a scholarly air about him. Though thin and frail-looking, his eyes, beneath a mop of unkempt hair, were sharp and bright. Seeing Ning Zhe looking at him, he smiled, then flipped through some papers in his hand. "Hello, I'm the new warden for this district. My name's Su Fei. I was just on my way to your house to register you. The people living here would be Ning Zhe and Lin Xun, correct?"
"That's right. I'm Ning Zhe, this is my brother, Lin Xun." Ning Zhe nodded. He'd had plenty of fellow hunters stay over at his place before, but those had all been from the refugee villages outside the settlement, so none of them had ever been registered here. As it stood, only he and Lin Xun were officially listed as residents of this house.
"And this one..." Su Fei's gaze shifted to the chubby young man.
"Hello, Brother Fei! I'm Li Dongfa. Just moved here recently, staying at Brother Zhe's place for a few days. Is that all right?" The chubby young man spoke timidly, watching Su Fei's expression the whole time, clearly afraid of being turned away.
"Ha, that's fine. Plenty of people out here have lost their homes. I'm a refugee myself, I understand." Su Fei smiled at Ning Zhe and Lin Xun. "If there's ever anything you need help with, don't hesitate to ask."
"I've never seen you around here before. How'd you end up as our district's warden?" Ning Zhe looked him over again, frowning slightly.
"I came from another stronghold. One father, two stepmothers, four of us in the family, three starved to death. I was the only one left, all on my own. Saved up a bit of money these last few years and bought myself a warden's post. Figured it'd keep people from pushing me around. Anyway, you're all busy, I'll get going." Su Fei waved a hand and turned to leave.
"Something's off about that man." Ning Zhe murmured, eyes narrowed slightly.
"Why do you say that?" Lin Xun asked, curious. As far as he could tell, Su Fei seemed no different from any other refugee.
"His whole manner's different from any refugee I've ever met. And more than that, his clothes are worn and ragged, sure, but he doesn't smell." Ning Zhe watched Su Fei's retreating back. "Be careful dealing with that one. Don't let him fish anything out of you."
At that same moment, a young man in a sharp Western suit brushed past Su Fei and stepped into the courtyard, carrying a rolled-up burlap sack, walking fast, heading straight toward the group.
"Watch out!" Seeing this, Ning Zhe's hand went to his waist, and with the other he shoved the chubby young man behind him.
Years of experience with ambushes told him that whatever was rolled up in that sack, odds were, it was a blade.