Chapter 71: Land of Chaos

In the Police Bureau Hospital, the officer guarding Daxiong made two rounds upstairs but couldn't find any familiar doctors. The corridor outside the surgery department was full of police officers from Longkou District and arrested suspects.

"Hey, brother, what's going on today? Why are there so many people in the hospital?" the officer guarding Daxiong asked the person on duty in the police office.

"Well, with New Year approaching, there are quite a few small factories illegally manufacturing fireworks, and it's connected to a smuggled explosives case. The Longkou Police Department raided a den, but unexpectedly it exploded, injuring many people," the person in the police office replied politely.

"How long is this going to take?" the officer asked.

"Don't know, probably until midnight," the police office person asked in return: "You're here to get medical treatment for a suspect?"

"Yeah, a suspect got some injuries."

"If it's not serious, you'll have to wait a while. They're full inside."

"...Ah, getting caught up in this during New Year's, really fucking annoying," the officer guarding Daxiong cursed with a bad attitude before turning to leave.

The Police Bureau Hospital was busy today, with the surgery department full of emergency patients, so Daxiong, whose injuries weren't considered too serious, could only wait for his number. The four officers responsible for guarding him probably wouldn't be able to go home tonight either.

......

Around 8 PM, in the Xinaluo region about 200 kilometers south of Dragon City, Tang Baiqing and Xu Er led more than twenty people to the outskirts of a living village.

Although this Xinaluo region was very close to Dragon City, strictly speaking, it could be considered an ungoverned area.

Before New Era Year 42, due to climate effects, this had always been a frozen zone. As far as the eye could see, mountains and plains were covered in snow, a vast expanse of white, and local living conditions were extremely harsh.

After New Era Year 42, the climate began to stabilize, temperatures gradually returned to normal, and people here slowly returned to normal life, with various political powers emerging. They seized territory, formed governments, shouted various slogans, but whether due to different political views, or because many ambitious people wanted to rise with the wind, or due to external forces' intervention, wars began to break out frequently here.

This chaos was being replayed in almost every corner of the world after the climate returned to normal. Except for the Nine Districts established during the disaster period, which weren't much affected, the former planning zones and ungoverned areas were all staging dramas of seizing power and resources.

Why was Xinaluo considered ungoverned? Because it was mainly populated by blacks and whites, with Indian ethnic groups, Indo-European mixed race people, southern mixed blood people, and a small portion of Chinese people. Today someone might get support from external forces, raise a team and declare independence, establishing a regime, but possibly a month later, this new government would be taken down. So whatever laws and regulations were issued today might become invalid tomorrow. Judicial rules didn't work here at all - whoever had guns, people, and money was the boss.

Therefore, even though this place was just a step away from Dragon City, it was completely a different world. Because although Dragon City's political environment was relatively complex, its overall political stability was very solid, as it was backed by Zone One after all.

This living village where Tang Baiqing and Xu Er came was mainly populated by Chinese people, and there were reasons why these people couldn't enter Dragon City. They were either fugitives who had committed crimes in Dragon City, or people who had been expelled for political reasons, or those who wanted to take advantage of Xinaluo's chaos to deal in scarce resources and profit from war.

In short, this place was a mix of all sorts, with all kinds of people.

......

Outside the living village, Tang Baiqing sat in the car and turned to ask Xu Er: "Have you figured it out clearly?"

"Yes, figured it out," Xu Er nodded. "There are three people in the family, and he just returned home this afternoon."

Tang Baiqing paused before replying: "We need to set up surveillance, better not make any noise."

"I know," Xu Er looked down at his watch. "He's alone, we'll go in with five or six people, we can handle him steadily. The others can keep watch outside."

"Alright, I'll go in with you."

"Er Bao, bring the tools, we're going in," Xu Er called out on the walkie-talkie.

About five minutes later, six men including Xu Er and Tang Baiqing walked into the living village on foot and found the target compound on a street to the north.

It was a very ordinary two-story compound, with dilapidated buildings and extremely narrow space inside. To the left rear of the main gate, they could see a manually dug air raid shelter.

Although Xu Er and Xu Hu were brothers, their personalities were completely different. The latter was a calculating underworld veteran, meticulous in thought and decisive in action, but Xu Er was a vicious desperado who was extremely profit-driven and lacked humanity.

In terms of personality, the two Xu brothers were quite complementary. Xu Hu drew the lines, while the foolish younger brother wielded knives and guns and was responsible for reckless action, following the principle of killing anyone who didn't submit. This was how they could establish their position in the Zha'nan dock gang.

The group arrived at the compound's gate, and Xu Er pushed the door open and walked in, while a brother following behind him drew his gun and stood watch in the courtyard, looking around.

To be honest, the Yu family currently couldn't compare with the dock gang in terms of underworld methods. Any random person from their group could do business within the district and act as Thunder Boys outside the district, while the Yu family had to spend money to hire people for dirty work. However, this gap was caused by class differences. Before coming to Dragon City, the Yu family had been a proper political family, and when doing business in Zone One, they had no contact with groups like the dock gang at all, so they had their own strengths - background connections.

Inside the room, a young man sat in a chair, pointing at the large bag he had brought back and saying: "Dad, Mom, I bought you lots of things, everything you need. After dinner, take a look."

"You've made a fortune?" an old man in his sixties asked.

"Did some business with friends, earned some money," the young man lowered his head and took out an exquisite box from his bag, grinning as he said: "I even got you a watch! It's a brand name, would cost twenty or thirty thousand if sold in stores!"

The old man frowned: "You earned that much money? Are you doing something...?!"

"Oh come on, I have a friend who deals in smuggled goods, sold it to me very cheap... here, try it on," the young man said happily.

"Bang!"

Just then, the door was suddenly kicked open, and Xu Er rushed in with a gun.

The young man heard the noise and stood up shouting: "Who is it?"

Xu Er quickly entered the room, grabbed the young man's hair with his hand, and violently slammed his head onto the table, then turned to see the watch in the old man's hand: "Hehe, not bad, already wearing it."

"Don't move!"

Xu Er's brother entered with a gun, directly pressing it against the young man's father.

......

In the hospital, after waiting for several hours, the officer guarding Daxiong became really impatient: "How long do we have to wait for this fucking examination? Forget it, I'll call in a favor, get him checked quickly so we can go back."

On the chair, Daxiong blinked his dry, bloodshot eyes, suddenly feeling a bit better...