This is a very spacious room. On the north wall, a lifelike Buddha statue is placed in a niche. On the offering table in front of the niche are fruits, vegetables, and half a fresh pig's head.
Four prayer cushions were placed on the ground in front of the table, and four people knelt on them, each holding a lit stick of sandalwood incense and chanting incantations. After chanting for a while, they inserted the incense into the incense burner on the offering table.
A column of wisps of smoke rose gently, dispersing into a thin mist before the Buddha, swirling around his head, making the Buddha's smile come alive, as if it had come to life.
The four men stood up, bowed solemnly before the Buddha again, then let out a long sigh, exchanged smiles, and sat down at the large round table in the room. Behind each of them stood four or five bodyguard-like figures of varying heights and Tushu, but all with fierce and menacing expressions, their sinister eyes constantly watching the others warily.
Then, the inner door opened, and someone came out with three little girls, pressing them down onto the prayer mats in front of the Buddha statue, making them kneel with their backs to the Buddha.
The girls were clearly terrified; tears streamed down their faces, but they dared not utter a sound.
A tall, burly man with long hair stepped forward and said to the four men at the round table, "The person is right here. You can choose."
A large, fat man said discontentedly, " Decha. Didn't we agree on four?"
Decha said, "There were originally four, but Mu Ka took one back with him."
The fat man cursed, "Fuck Mu Ka, are you kidding us? Taking back the chicks you brought out to sell? Haven't you ever seen a woman before?!"
Decha said, "Watch your words."
"What? Who do you think you are! You're nothing but Mu Ka's dog!" The fat man stubbed out his cigar on the table, and the man behind him stepped forward, his hand reaching for the gun at his waist.
However, the people around Decha had already raised their AKs.
Tensions were high on both sides, and the smell of gunpowder overpowered the sandalwood scent in the room.
At the round table, a slightly older, bald man tried to smooth things over, saying, "Hey, we're all on the same side, why make things unpleasant over such a small matter?"
The fat man said, "Usually there are dozens of chickens, but this time there are only three. There are four of us, how are we supposed to divide them?"
Decha said, "Three is already pretty good. Do you think it's easy to catch chicks in mainland China these days?"
The bald man also said, "Yes, yes, the controls on the mainland are strict now, it's not as easy to bring chicks over as it used to be. And local chickens don't fetch a good price."
The fat man seized the opportunity to back down, telling his bodyguard to put his weapon away, and complained, "How expensive can a mainland chicken be? You don't make much money from a single chick!"
The men at the round table chimed in, "Yeah, they already earn so little. You Decha Mu Ka to bring that one over too; he doesn't lack women."
Decha said, "That one has caught the eye of General Wu Suotun; you can go and get it yourselves."
Upon hearing Wu Suotun, these people fell silent.
The bald man stood up and walked over to several girls, lifting their chins and looking them over one by one. After he finished, he said, "The quality is alright, I can make a few thousand yuan, but I have too many men to share it all, so I'll Decha your prices a bit. I can't charge as much as last time."
Decha snorted, "You can make at least several thousand dollars by selling a white pig's virginity in Yangon or Chiang Mai. If you run into a fool, you can make tens of thousands of dollars. Add in the seven-day mourning period, and it's not much less than selling heroin! You can make money from that for several years to come!"
The fat man said, "Go away! It's just the first night and the seventh day after death. That kid Mu Ka uses chicks for drug experiments; it's hard to say whether the stuff you produce will even survive a year."
Just as the fat man finished speaking, gunshots rang out in the courtyard, three shots in quick succession.
"What's going on?" Everyone in the room was startled.
"What could possibly be wrong? This is General Wu's territory. Even if the police and government troops want to come here on business, they'll have to let General Wu know first," Decha said casually, then instructed one of his men, "Go and check it out."
Decha's words, the others calmed down. Although they were engaged in shady businesses, they had Wu Suotun's protection, so even drug trafficking was done openly. Besides, they only ran gambling dens and brothels.
But after a while, Decha team came back to report, and people began to have doubts about the Tushu.
Just then, the sound of footsteps came from the stairs, sounding like someone climbing the stairs in slippers.
Who is that? The person who just went down was clearly wearing sneakers!
The fat man subconsciously looked at his own feet and the feet of everyone else in the room; none of them were wearing slippers.
The door creaked open.
A disheveled young man appeared at the door, wearing an old trench coat, his hands in his pockets, and slippers shuffling as he strode in.
"Who are you?" Decha and the other four bosses asked almost simultaneously, and their men all raised their guns.
"Oh, I'm Qingmu. I'm looking for someone Decha." Qingmu walked in lazily, not even glancing at the people. He walked straight to the Buddha statue, first looking at the three little girls kneeling on the prayer mats, then looking up at the high Buddha statue, and then yawned.
"I just need to Decha. What do you want from me? Tushu?"
Although there were more than a dozen pistols and two AKs pointed at the man in front of him, Decha still felt a strange sense of panic. Moreover, he felt that he had seen this person somewhere before, and he had heard the name somewhere before.
"You're one of Mu Ka's men, aren't you?" Qingmu asked.
"Yes. And who are you from?" Decha asked rhetorically.
"What about the girl Mu Ka brought from China?" Qingmu asked.
Decha squinted and asked, "Why are you asking this?"
Qingmu said, "Of course we'll take her back!"
The people in the room seemed to understand and burst into laughter.
"Take him back?" Decha laughed so hard he almost cried. "So you're from the mainland! Are you a policeman or the child's father? Oh wait, the child's father died a long time ago."
"Alright, alright, whoever you are, I admire your courage! Look at yourself, these three girls are all from the mainland, which one do you want to take?" Decha said, pointing to the girl on the prayer mat.
Qingmu said, "Although these aren't the ones I'm looking for, since they're all China, I'll definitely bring them all back with me."
"Want both?" the fat man interjected. "Your appetite is a bit too big."
Decha waved his hand and said, "It's alright, we're fair. If you can offer a high enough price that satisfies everyone here, then you can take them all."
Qingmu asked, "How much?"
"Ten thousand US dollars each," Decha said, glancing at the others. "Are you all satisfied?"
The fat man and the others nodded happily. "That's good, that's good. Although it's a bit less, it's still nice to have this much peace of mind."
Qingmu said, "Okay!"
He kept rummaging in his pocket, as if he had a lot of loose change hidden in his empty pockets.
"Do you have any? Is your pocket some kind of treasure trove like Ali Baba's? Should I shout 'Open Sesame' for you?"
The fat man mocked, and the others watched Qingmu as if he were a joke.
"Don't worry, I'm very rich!"
As he spoke, Qingmu actually took out a wad of money and placed it on the offering table.