"Name?"
"Lu Xin."
"Where are you from?"
"Qinggang."
"What's your identity?"
"The youngest supervisor in the Business Department of the West Branch of the Deep Business City in Qinggang Satellite City No. 2."
"Hmm... Where are you going?"
"Kindling City."
"What for?"
"...To collect the remaining payment and visit a friend."
"..."
Only after arriving at the agent's office in the Land of Chaos did Lu Xin realize that things seemed rather different from what he had imagined.
He had thought an agent was simply an agent: say a few words, pay some money, get a permit, and hit the road.
He had not expected it to be such a large operation.
In a dilapidated town stood a freshly painted building, where a group of armed men specialized in issuing permits. Beside the town was a tall, heavily guarded checkpoint. Beyond it lay the flat, spacious "cargo route."
Pay the money, get the permit, and you could head straight out.
So he obediently joined the queue, obediently came over to pay, and obediently answered the questions.
"Collecting the remaining payment and visiting a friend?"
The man inspecting Lu Xin's vehicle was middle-aged, wore his hat crookedly, and held a gun in his arms. A cigarette dangled from his mouth—the one Lu Xin had just offered him. The buttons on his chest were either deliberately or accidentally misaligned, hanging crookedly and sloppily, perfectly capturing his air. He lazily questioned Lu Xin while sizing up his vehicle.
He seemed slightly surprised by Lu Xin's answer.
Apparently, he rarely heard a reason like that.
But he did not ask further. He merely glanced sideways at Lu Xin before continuing, "Do you have any official status?"
"Official status?"
Lu Xin paused before shaking his head. "No."
In Qinggang, he belonged to the Special Pollution