Bloodline Group

"Selling blood?"

"What does our District 13 have to do with selling blood?"

Wen Shiyan's words left Lu Zhan utterly confused.

Instinctively, he recalled something Xu Dayong had once said.

District 13's circumstances were unusual, making recruitment extremely difficult.

"Lu Zhan, you probably weren't born and raised in District 13!"

"Otherwise, there's no way you'd know nothing about selling blood."

"I don't know why you signed up to enlist in District 13, but since you aren't from here, I feel much more reassured."

Seeing Lu Zhan's bewilderment, Wen Shiyan finally relaxed completely.

Anyone Xu Dayong recommended should be trustworthy, but having no ties to District 13 was even better.

"As you've probably noticed, the District 13 Recruitment Office is practically defunct."

"Recruitment isn't going smoothly in the other districts either."

"But none of them are like District 13, where we're almost bankrupt."

"Especially considering District 13 has the largest population of poor people. That makes even less sense."

Wen Shiyan began explaining what made District 13 unusual.

Although this fell outside the scope of her "orientation duties," it would help deepen the trust between them.

"Normally, when poor people have nowhere else to turn, they choose to enlist."

"City folk may care about keeping up appearances, but pride won't fill an empty stomach."

"That's how it works for the poor in every other district. Only District 13 is different."

"Because the poor in District 13 can choose to sell blood, and the price they get is far higher than the usual compensation for donating."

As Wen Shiyan explained it,

the poor in District 13 had never truly reached a dead end precisely because they could sell blood.

In District 13, selling just 100 milliliters of blood earned enough for a single man to lounge around without a care for an entire month.

The return was absurdly high.

Forget enlisting-some poor people didn't even want to work anymore.

There was a reason District 13 ranked dead last in economic development.

"What?"

"Poor people in District 13 can earn 600 yuan every time they sell blood?"

"That's more than I earned driving screws for a whole month."

"If I lived in District 13, I wouldn't work either."

Wen Shiyan's revelation stunned Lu Zhan.

He had worked from five in the morning until nine at night every day, and his take-home pay had only been 500 yuan!

The shock was so overwhelming that he exclaimed aloud, startling a little calico cat passing by.

"Meow, meow, meow!"

The little calico angrily waved a paw at Lu Zhan, then swiftly scampered away.

Perhaps he was imagining it, but Lu Zhan felt that "ugly cat" had been cursing at him.

What kind of decent cat had a multicolored head and a body as black as coal?

"Wen Shiyan, as far as I know, Yero City strictly prohibits buying and selling blood."

"Even if you donate at a blood bank, you only get 100 yuan in nutritional compensation for every 300 milliliters."

"Even on the underground Black Market controlled by criminal gangs, 300 milliliters of blood only sells for 250 yuan."

"And those transactions can only happen on a small scale. They wouldn't dare expand openly."

"Isn't the blood trade in District 13 a little too massive?"

Having come from the Wutu Gang, Lu Zhan was hardly ignorant about the blood trade.

If selling blood had been profitable, the Wutu Gang would have raised orphans like him as blood slaves long ago instead of selling them to factories.

More importantly, the blood trade was something of a taboo in Yero City.

The vast majority of gangs would rather engage in extortion, loan-sharking, and trafficking banned drugs than touch that business.

According to Wen Shiyan, District 13's blood trade had even affected military recruitment.

Its scale was downright shocking!

Hadn't the authorities cracked down on it?

"Doesn't it seem unbelievable?"

"But that's the reality in District 13!"

"On paper, buying and selling blood is still prohibited here."

"But behind the scenes, no one does anything about it."

Wen Shiyan wasn't surprised by Lu Zhan's shock.

Anyone who learned of District 13's current situation would have their worldview shattered.

District 13 had become a blood pit!

"Wen Shiyan, which faction is running things in District 13, to the point that even the Military turns a blind eye?"

"And why would they offer such a high price?"

Logically speaking, selling blood had nothing to do with him.

But Lu Zhan simply couldn't suppress his curiosity.

Besides, he now had a "stigma" hanging over him.

"Lu Zhan, do you really want to know the inside story?"

"Sometimes, knowing too much isn't a good thing."

Wen Shiyan looked at Lu Zhan teasingly, and he sighed silently.

Did he even have a choice now?

"Lu Zhan, do you know how the outer city's thirty-six districts came into being?"

Although Lu Zhan looked eager to learn, Wen Shiyan didn't give him the answer directly.

Instead, she asked a question he hadn't expected.

"How the outer city's thirty-six districts came into being?"

Although Wen Shiyan's question seemed rather out of the blue, Lu Zhan actually knew the answer.

Because the matter had a slight connection to him-or rather, to his parents.

Twenty years ago, Yero City had already been powerful enough to count as the hub of the surrounding cluster of cities.

But its outer city had consisted of only twelve major districts.

Only after that massive monster uprising destroyed every surrounding city and survivors flooded into Yero City had the other twenty-four major districts come into existence.

The Wutu Gang, to which Lu Zhan belonged, had been incorporated into District 9 at that time.

Rumor had it that the division into thirty-six major districts had involved all sorts of struggles.

The hundreds of orphans produced within the Wutu Gang alone offered a glimpse of that.

Unfortunately, that was all Lu Zhan knew, and even that had come from listening to the gang's old-timers.

"Since you already know, Lu Zhan, that saves me some explaining!"

"In short, the Yero City authorities' control varies from district to district."

"In District 13, their control is only superficial-or, to put it another way, out in the open."

"The ones who truly control District 13's underworld are an alliance of gangs led by the Bloodline Group."

"The Bloodline Group is the one running District 13's blood trade."

"But their blood-buying operations are confined to District 13. They haven't expanded beyond it at all."

"They won't even accept blood from people who come from other districts."

"I don't know whether that's some sort of tacit agreement they've reached with the authorities."

Wen Shiyan revealed all of District 13's hidden secrets in one breath.

Selling blood in District 13 had never been limited to the poor.

Perhaps to encourage people to sell blood, the Bloodline Group had introduced a special benefit.

Anyone who sold blood thirty times would receive a free Talent Assessment.

That was why people with talents in District 13 were regarded as "blood sellers"!