Yaoguang

Li Wei knew perfectly well that this deal would bring him far greater returns than the 30,000 in legal money offered as the mission reward!

Of the more than 12 million in debt, he would get half in legal money—that was over 6 million. The experience he gained would be enough to take him straight to level 8, or even level 9.

Even a complete idiot could figure out which was worth more: that or 30,000.

As for what Li Ming might think, that was beyond Li Wei's concern.

While the haze still lingered, a light drizzle fell from the sky. Li Wei brought Feng Zi to Station 76.

This wasn't a platform for labor trains, but a supply stop for transporting large quantities of cargo. A tall wall surrounded the place, and under normal circumstances, no one went near it.

Just as the two of them reached the outside of the wall, Li Ming was already there, pacing anxiously.

When he saw Li Wei and Feng Zi, some of the tension left his face. He hurried over and handed them two Labor Union uniforms.

"Change quickly. I can't stay here long. There's been too much going on lately, and if anyone with an eye for these things finds out I came here so early in the morning, they might get suspicious! I've arranged everything for you. You'll be in the last carriage, where there's no one on duty. Once you get there, you can hide inside. The train won't stop until it reaches the Radiance District. You'll have to figure out how to get off and slip out of the station yourselves!"

As he spoke, he pressed an envelope into Li Wei's hand. In his other hand, he held two sheets of paper.

"This has the information you asked for, along with the name of someone you can contact once you reach Yaoguang. We have two copies of our contract. I've stamped both with the Labor Union's official seal. Take a look, and if everything's fine, sign both. We'll each keep one."

Li Wei gave the contract a quick glance. Nothing seemed out of order, except that their original fifty-fifty split had changed to seventy percent for Li Wei and thirty for the Labor Union.

He looked up at Li Ming, who calmly explained, "The Union had already written these accounts off as bad debts. So the Union's thirty percent is enough to provide some security for those who are widowed or have no family."

Li Wei said nothing more. Since Li Ming was willing to give him an extra twenty percent, he had no reason to refuse.

He signed both copies of the contract, then kept one and left the other behind.

Feng Zi was curious about the deal they'd made, but she didn't press them for details just then.

After they'd changed clothes and made all the necessary preparations, Li Wei and Feng Zi used the passes Li Ming had given them to enter the station.

The freight train was already waiting inside, loaded with cargo. The workers, covered in dust, were hard at work loading coal. Li Wei and Feng Zi made their way to the last carriage and hid inside.

There was plenty of room, and the cargo didn't seem to fill the carriage.

Half an hour before the train's departure, more than a dozen officers thoroughly searched every carriage. Li Wei and Feng Zi temporarily hid on the roof to avoid them, then climbed back inside afterward.

As the train's whistle sounded, the wheels began to turn slowly. Through a gap between the carriage walls, Li Wei watched the shacks of Yuguang rush past.

Soon, Yuguang's distinctive shacks vanished from sight.

They were crossing an underground river bridge about a kilometer long. The underground river was specifically meant to separate Yuguang from Yaoguang.

The water rushed so violently that an ordinary person could never cross it. The only connections between the two banks were two railway bridges, one on each side of Sun City. Both were under extremely strict control.

Once they'd crossed the bridge, everything around them changed dramatically.

Unlike the vast, barren gravel flats on the outskirts of Yuguang, the outskirts of Yaoguang were covered with lush green grass and gardens.

A fine drizzle still fell from the sky, making the air feel even fresher and sweeter.

The suffocating haze that settled over Yuguang every morning was nowhere to be seen.

"When the weather's nice, people in Yaoguang love coming here for outings. They call this place Radiant Garden," Feng Zi said quietly. Faced with scenery that should have been relaxing, she seemed unusually downcast.

Li Wei raised an eyebrow.

"That's a great name. Much better than something like Barrier Field District."

After they passed the gardens, buildings began appearing here and there. Each little house was lovely, with white walls and a red roof. Every home had a small front yard, and almost all of them had two or three cars parked there.

All the roads were paved with concrete and kept clean and well maintained. Everything was pleasing to the eye.

As the expanses of grass and gardens gradually gave way, modern city buildings came into view!

Compared to the lifeless streets of Yuguang during the day, Yaoguang was much livelier.

The streets were full of leisurely pedestrians, cars waiting at traffic lights, and neat, clean, attractive detached homes. There were schools, hospitals, amusement parks, and every other facility one could expect.

Near the White Tower, which seemed to radiate sunshine, several skyscrapers rose into the sky. Some even had billboards playing video advertisements!

The sight made Li Wei feel as if he'd crossed into another era.

Separated by just a single bridge, Yuguang felt like little more than a slum from the steam age.

Yaoguang, on the other hand, seemed hundreds of years ahead, at the level of a modern society.

But after taking in the grand, beautiful buildings and the well-dressed, polished people, Li Wei soon lost interest.

It looked as if it would still be a while before the train stopped. He lowered his head and opened the envelope Li Ming had given him, taking out three sets of documents.

They were for three human resources companies. Besides handling some agency business in the Yaoguang District, their biggest source of income was the legal trafficking of people from Yuguang.

Those people, of course, weren't given any decent jobs.

Most of them, separated by gender, had only two possible destinations.

The women were sold to the red-light district, while the men were sold to shady factories in Yaoguang, where they were forced to do illegal work.

It was a highly profitable business. Since both places had extremely high death rates, the three companies could keep operating for years instead of making only a one-time profit.

Those thick stacks of documents alone revealed to Li Wei just how many blood-soaked bones lay buried beneath Yaoguang's glamorous exterior.

Li Wei put the documents away and looked toward the city center, at that ray of sunshine atop the White Tower—the very thing that even the lowest-ranking laborers, prostitutes, and beggars took pride in.

It was a beautiful city, far more beautiful than Yuguang.

But he was here to collect a debt!