Ten minutes later, Old Xie transferred the money into Old Ninth's account.
True to his word, Old Ninth smiled at the Matsai. "Old Xie may have done me and Tiger dirty, but that doesn't change our friendship. Leave the guns. Hi Dog, take the boys and see our brothers out."
The Matsai, who had been worried Old Ninth would slaughter them, all breathed a sigh of relief and dropped their weapons without another word.
Hi Dog abandoned his earlier swagger and walked to the door with a smile. "Sorry about this, brothers. Let's have a drink sometime. Come on, I'll see you out."
Once everyone had left, Brother Ren and Old Ninth sat together alone.
Brother Ren was Old Xie's second-in-command. Little White Tiger had been third, but Old Xie had already driven him out of the gang.
They had known each other for years. Old Ninth took out a cigarette and offered it to Brother Ren.
Brother Ren didn't take it. "Just ask whatever you want to ask."
Brother Ren knew Old Ninth must have had a reason for deliberately keeping him behind.
"Tiger and I fought to take half that street for Old Xie. I just don't get it. Even if he wanted to throw us away once we'd served our purpose, why the rush?"
Red Three Street was just an old street a few hundred meters long. Old Xie was somebody there, but across the whole of Ice Prefecture, he didn't even rank among the third-tier players.
With such a small territory, Old Xie could easily have kept using the two of them to expand. Why had he been so eager to move against Little White Tiger?
Brother Ren silently lit a cigarette, conflicted.
He worked for Old Xie, so betraying him wasn't right. But if he didn't talk today, Old Ninth probably wouldn't let him leave.
People were selfish. Besides, what Old Xie had done to Little White Tiger had chilled plenty of hearts.
Brother Ren let out a heavy breath. "You two were his pledge of allegiance. Old Xie's found himself a powerful backer."
"They set the terms. They want both of you dead, too."
"Why?" Old Ninth couldn't make sense of it.
"Remember three months ago, when Old Xie had you and Little White Tiger take a shipment out of the city?"
Brother Ren looked ashamed. "The shipment you took three months ago belonged to those people. But halfway there, you heard noises and found out it was a load of children, so you let them go."
Old Ninth slapped his forehead. Old Xie had indeed sent him and Little White Tiger out of the city with a shipment.
Outside the city lay a lawless wasteland abandoned by both the law and modern civilization.
There were no cops there, no moral restraints.
It also faced attacks from the Transformed, so all kinds of people mingled there.
When Old Ninth and Little White Tiger had discovered the children they were transporting, they had guessed what was going on.
What else could anyone want with children sold outside the city?
Those vile, depraved dealings that could never bear the light of day.
To Little White Tiger and Old Ninth, who had grown up in a garbage dump, those children were reflections of their younger selves.
Taking them out of the city would have meant pushing them straight into hell.
So the two had turned around and brought them back into the city.
"You two were already too fucking cocky. Who on Red Three Street could keep you in line besides Old Xie? Little White Tiger would have a few fucking drinks and even curse Old Xie out. Then you let the shipment go. Did you think the people behind it would spare you?" Brother Ren smoked quietly. "Those people have a lot of power in the city. They don't need Matsai like you. If you won't play along, they have to get rid of you. What they want is the warehouses on Red Three Street to hold their shipments temporarily. Understand?"
"You don't follow orders. What if you exposed everything one day?"
Brother Ren fell silent after that. He knew those dealings were utterly heartless.
But how easy was it to survive in the apocalypse?
Buying a wife for a thousand or a child for eight hundred was perfectly normal.
In an age when survival itself was difficult, only a few people still had a conscience.
"Brother Ren, what happens to those children once they're taken out of the city?"
Old Ninth exhaled heavily. God only knew how hard it had been for him and Little White Tiger to live this long.
There had been hundreds of people at their garbage dump. Only Old Ninth's group had survived to this age.
Brother Ren said nothing, but Old Ninth already understood.
The clever ones were trained as pickpockets, just as Old Ninth and his friends had stolen things on the streets as children.
The slow ones had their hands and feet cut off and were sent out to beg.
And failing even that, they would...
"Have you been involved in this business?"
Old Ninth lowered his head. His unhappy childhood had haunted him all his life, which was why he had never harmed a single child.
"What would I eat if I wasn't? You had a conscience, and you got pushed out. That's reality, brother."
Brother Ren defended himself. "I have a whole family to feed. Go look by the roadside. How many people die every winter? I just want my wife and kids to live well."
Old Ninth no longer had any interest in listening.
"Time to go, Brother Ren."
"Huh?"
Brother Ren froze. A continuous burst of gunfire came from downstairs, accompanied by agonized screams.
His expression changed drastically.
Old Ninth had never intended to let them go.
"This is the city. Kill this many people, and both the cops and the gangs will want you dead."
Brother Ren said it to save his own life.
Footsteps thudded toward the door.
Hi Dog walked in, covered in blood, looking like a demon unleashed.
"Brother Nine."
"Finished?" Old Ninth asked, pointing downstairs.
"Yeah. Left the driver alive so he could take the bodies somewhere deserted and bury them."
With the job done, Hi Dog stripped off his blood-soaked clothes and went into the bathroom to wash.
His whistling drifted out of the bathroom.
Brother Ren lost all hope.
"Brother Ren." Old Ninth offered him a cigarette. "If your own kids were kidnapped and taken out of the city, what would you do?"
Brother Ren, who had sounded so righteous moments before, was suddenly speechless.
Yes, his own children were children. What about other people's children?
Even in the apocalypse, someone had to keep a little conscience.
Old Ninth sighed. "Dog."
The bathroom door opened, and Hi Dog walked into the living room in a pair of hole-riddled underwear, steam rising from his body.
Bang.
Brother Ren's body jolted. Blood ran down from his forehead.
Hi Dog tucked the gun into his underwear and returned to the bathroom.
"We... were unwanted fucking kids who grew up in a garbage dump. Do you know how hard it was to survive?" Old Ninth sighed. "I gave you a chance to live. You couldn't take it."
With everything settled, the brothers hurried into the operating room.
The operating room had been converted from a bedroom, so it still had a window.
A rope was tied to the window, with Little White Tiger hanging outside.
Old Ninth had never taken Little White Tiger away at all.
"Brother... Brother Tiger's awake!"
Several of the brothers gathered around Little White Tiger. His eyes were already open.
The fur all over his body had vanished. Apart from being slightly bigger, he showed no other aftereffects.
The brothers helped Little White Tiger sit on the bed, and he and Old Ninth met each other's eyes.
The two brothers, each valuing the other's life above his own, gazed at one another in silence.
"Thanks for everything, buddy."
Little White Tiger grinned, trying to sound casual despite his hoarse voice.
He knew how hard things had been for Old Ninth while he was gone: saving him, getting revenge, and evading Old Xie's pursuit.
"Dumbass."
Old Ninth turned away stubbornly, his eyes reddening.
"Heh. I'll never repay what I owe you in this lifetime. I'll keep paying you back in the next." Little White Tiger watched Old Ninth's back.
With his back still turned, Old Ninth raised his middle finger. "Next life, I'm staying far away from you, dumbass."
"Haha, you stupid mutt. You can't get away. I'll be your brother in the next life, and the one after that." Little White Tiger sprang up and jumped onto Old Ninth's back.
"Get down, dumbass."
"Nope! Haha!"
"I'll fucking kill you."
"Haha!"
The brothers crowded together, laughing and roughhousing just as they had as children.
A long while later, they sat on the floor, out of breath. Little White Tiger looked at Old Ninth seriously.
"How many did we lose?"
Everyone fell silent at the question.
Guilt filled Old Ninth's face as he pointed at the people in the room. "There were over twenty of us. Now there are just twelve."
Those twenty-odd men had all been brothers who grew up alongside Little White Tiger in the garbage dump. Now only twelve remained. Pain stabbed through his chest.
"I'll make Old Xie pay back the hurt you suffered a hundredfold."
"We believe you."
Before you continue