True to his word, Duanmu Huai headed to the requisitioned area to investigate after leaving the construction site.
Tezuka Renichi had already told Duanmu Huai about the area. Yōchin Town was divided into the New District and the Old District. The Old District had been the town center long ago, while the New District had been rebuilt after the advent of modern times. The two were separated by a river. Most of Yōchin Town's population currently lived in the New District, with fewer than eight hundred people remaining in the Old District.
That was also why they had chosen the area for development.
Although Duanmu Huai disapproved of the underworld's practice of forcibly seizing other people's land, once he arrived in the Old District, he felt that flattening the place outright... might not be a bad idea.
Although a bridge connected the New District and the Old District, the Old District had no roads wide enough for cars. Its buildings were also extremely unpleasant to look at. The mud-built walls and thatched roofs made it seem like an uncontacted tribe in some remote mountain forest that had never been touched by civilization. All the houses were quite short, and some had even collapsed. Narrow paths sprawled through the area in a tangled web, and an unpleasant stench hung in the air.
Calling this place the Old District was too generous. It would be more accurate to call it a cesspit.
"Ugh... it stinks."
Minme Satori immediately made a disgusted face. Duanmu Huai nodded as well. The stench was like vegetables left to rot for several days in a market, and it was thoroughly unpleasant.
According to Tezuka Renichi, no one had ever interacted with the people of the Old District. The people inside never crossed the bridge, and outsiders never