"Name?"
"Lu Xin."
"Where did it come from?"
"Qinggang."
"What identity?"
"Qinggang Satellite City No. 2 The youngest manager of the business department of Deep Business West Branch."
"Um... where to go?"
"Kindling City."
"What to do?"
"... Final payment and visiting friends."
"..."
After arriving at the Land of Chaos agent, Lu Xin discovered that it seemed to be different from what he thought.
He thought that an agent was just an agent. He could just say something, pay some money, get the approval slip and be on his way.
But I didn't expect that the scale was actually quite large.
In a run-down town, there is a brand-new building with whitewashed walls. A group of men with guns are here to issue notes to people. Next to the town, there is a tall and strict checkpoint. After passing the checkpoint, there is a flat and spacious "cargo lane".
Pay the money, get the approval slip, and you can go straight on your way.
So he queued up honestly, came over to pay the money honestly, and answered the questions honestly.
"Closing payment and visiting friends?"
The person responsible for inspecting Lu Xin's car was a middle-aged man with his hat tilted and a gun in his arms. He had a cigarette in his mouth. It was the same man Lu Xin had just paid tribute to. I don't know if the buttons on the chest are intentional or something, but they are not aligned up and down, and they are crooked, and the temperament is very precise. While lazily asking Lu Xin various questions, he looked at his car.
He was slightly surprised when he heard Lu Xin's answer.
It seems that such a reason is rarely heard.
But he didn't ask any more questions. He just glanced sideways at Lu Xin and then continued to ask, "Do you have an official identity?"
"Official status?"
Lu Xin was startled for a moment, then shook his head. "No."
He is in Qinggang and belongs to the Special Pollution Cleanup Department, which is considered an official status.
But the existence of this particular pollution has never really been made public. So this identity is somewhat unconventional. In addition, his coming out this time was a private matter, not a business trip, and of course he was not in an official capacity.
His identity is the youngest manager of the business department of Qinggang Satellite City No. 2 Deep Business City West Branch.
"Without official status..."
The other party looked at him again and said, "Then do you have any faith?"
"Faith?"
Lu Xin is a little stunned again, how to answer this question.
He understood that what the other party asked should be something like True Church.
Land of Chaos originally had complex and diverse sects, but now it seems that being a believer has become an identity.
But strictly speaking, I have had some dealings with the believers of True Hometown, but I am not familiar with them, let alone believe in them, so I pondered for a while and could only honestly admit to them, "I don't have much faith..."
As soon as he answered this, the other party was a little surprised, and looked Lu Xin up and down again.
After a while, he asked, "Do we have any acquaintances here?"
"This..."
Lu Xin Subconsciously, I wanted to say yes. Aren't we acquaintances with the village chief who is nearly two meters away?
But then I thought about it, what was his name?
When the other party saw that he was speechless, he already agreed, and a strange smile appeared on his face.
He looked down at the record on the list, then looked up at Lu Xin, and said, "You have no official background, no faith, and no acquaintances here, and you drove here by yourself instead of following a convoy?"
Lu Xin was startled for a moment and said, "Is it against the law?"
"It's not against the law, it's not against the law..."
The crooked hat smiled happily and said, "We welcome you like this."
With that said, he lightly kicked Lu Xin's modified off-road kicks and said, "There are no contraband inside, right?"
"No, no."
Lu Xin immediately denied that he was not that kind of person.
There are a lot of guns hidden in modified off-road vehicles, but guns are not considered contraband in the wilderness, so this is also true.
The other party seemed to judge from Lu Xin's expression and felt that he was not lying.
Or, in other words, I didn't really care at all.
Therefore, after going around in a circle, he no longer checked, but raised his chin slightly and said directly to Lu Xin: "Three thousand."
Lu Xin didn't react for a moment. "What?"
The other party laughed, blew out a smoke ring, and said, "Toll, three thousand."
As he spoke, he spread his palms, moved them up and down, and said, "Pay the money, get the note, and get on your way."
"What the hell?
Lu Xin's head buzzed, and he couldn't believe it. "What's wrong, only three thousand?"
"I'm just alone..."
"I didn't bring any goods, and I wasn't going to do any business. I was just one person and one car, and the toll was so high?"
"..."
"Yes."
The other party looked at Lu Xin, who looked a little anxious, and narrowed his eyes when he smiled, and said, "It is precisely because you are alone, have no official background, do not belong to any sect, and do not even have any acquaintances here, that I accepted you three thousand..."
"But next time you come over, even if you have an acquaintance, come to me directly and you can get a discount..."
"..."
"You..."
Lu Xin also heard what the other party meant and felt angry, but suppressed it.
He kept calm, tried to reason with the other party, and said with a smile, "This doesn't comply with your rules, right?"
Since Tinder has regulations for agents to approve notes, Lu Xin believes that they must have a set of standards for how much and how to charge tolls. A single bicycle is just a ride on the road. How can it be possible to pay such a high fee all of a sudden?
But in response to his questioning, the other party suddenly became serious. "What I said is the rule."
Lu Xin stopped talking. He didn't like this kind of unreasonable conversation.
After pondering for a while, he finally gave in, took another cigarette and said, "Captain, please excuse me..."
"I really don't have that much money..."
"..."
"Haha, you said you don't have any money to drive a car like this?"
After listening to Lu Xin's words, Crooked Hat laughed twice, took another look at Lu Xin's off-road vehicle, and said, "The car is pretty good."
"?"
Lu Xin obviously didn't understand.
The crooked hat sneered, nodded his chin in the distance, and said, "Did you see that over there?"
Lu Xin looked along and saw dilapidated cars piled up against the wall.
Some tires were shriveled, while others had only an empty shell left.
The crooked hat smiled and said, "If you insist on saying that you have no money, we won't make it difficult for you."
"Keep your car and pick a drivable one over there and drive away. This counts as your toll.
"..."
"How does this work?"
Lu Xin frowned slightly, took back the cigarette that was passed to him, and held it in his mouth.
Then he took out the antique lighter given to him by his friend Central City Scalpel from his bag, and slowly lit it. That crooked hat is obviously someone who knows the goods. When he saw the Lu Xin lighter, his eyes became slightly straight.
"Captain, you are going a little too far..."
Lu Xin also lit a cigarette and thought slowly, "If you can't cross the road, you still need my car..."
The crooked hat sneered and glanced at Lu Xin: "What do you want?"
"I hope to follow the rules..."
Lu Xin said to him with his last hope.
"I'm talking about the rules."
Crooked Hat's face suddenly turned a little cold. He pulled the muzzle of the gun on his chest, pointed it at Lu Xin, and sneered:
"I've given you the opportunity, but you pretend not to understand. If you insist on refusing to hand it over..."
"Where do you think those unwanted cars on the wall come from?"
"..."
Lu Xin understood, looked up at the muzzle of the gun, and did not dodge.
His expression became serious, and he said slowly, "If you insist on doing this, then I will have to complain to your leader..."
"?"
The expression on the tilted hat was obviously confused.
They were all stunned for a moment before laughing, glanced at Lu Xin, and suddenly turned around and shouted, "Captain."
Not far away, on a hill where goods were stacked, a man wearing sunglasses and playing cards stretched his head and looked over.
Crooked Hat smiled and said, "Someone wants to report me."
Lu Xin also looked up at him and said, "Boss, he charges me 3,000 in tolls, otherwise he will detain my car."
The man wearing sunglasses was also stunned for a moment, glanced at Lu Xin, but did not answer his words. Instead, he looked at the crooked hat, spit out the cigarette butt in his mouth, and said, "Stop talking nonsense, you know the rules, I will bring you two thousand later."
"Okay, okay, Captain."
The crooked hat nodded, then looked at Lu Xin and said, "Did you hear that?"
"With your report, my three thousand has become one thousand, so your toll, which was three thousand, has become five thousand."
"..."
At the end of the sentence, his eyes, which were bloodshot from a hangover, had already narrowed.
swish swish...
Several people wandering around with guns saw something was going on here, so they all came over with smiles. Some people were playing with pistols, while others were looking around, picked up a wooden stick, and blew on the rusty nails on the stick.
It can be seen that there is some dark red powder on the iron nails. I wonder if it is dried blood.
The atmosphere changes all the time, and there seems to be a dangerous atmosphere floating under such a big sun.
"In this case..."
There was no expression on Lu Xin's face. He just lowered his head and pondered, as if he was going through some difficult thinking.
Then he said, "Can I not take this road?"
He looked at the crooked hat, as if making a final prayer to him.
The crooked hat's face was already full of impatience, the corners of his mouth twitched, and he opened his mouth to curse, but Lu Xin suddenly raised his hand and stopped him.
"No need to say it, I understand."
As he said that, he pointed to his cross-country and said, "Can I go up and think about it?"
Crooked Hat glanced at Cross Country, thinking he was going up to get money. In addition, there were so many roadblocks around, so I was not afraid of what he would do, so I nodded indifferently. But the submachine gun hanging on his chest was tightened, and the muzzle was pointed at Lu Xin's back.
Lu Xin was not afraid that he would shoot him in the back, so he calmly opened the car door and got in.
"Hehehehe, I can't talk about the rules anymore, what are you going to do?"
In the back seat of the car, my father's voice sounded cold and a little gloating, and he seemed to be looking at Lu Xin with some excitement.
"Rules are the crystallization of human wisdom. If people follow the rules, they can live well..."
Lu Xin sighed and inserted the key, his voice slightly confused. "But why don't they cherish such a good thing?"
"I can't survive anymore, so it's not too much to grab some..."
"Then it's reasonable not to abide by the rules of not giving people a way to survive, right?"
"..."
As he spoke, he suddenly started the car, pulled the gear, and stepped on the accelerator.