Urban Martial Saint

”Alright, you go ahead and clean up!” Lin Dade waved his hand, ”I need to take them to find the landlord first, they’ll be staying here for a couple of days too.”

”Oh, come over and sit for a while later.” The woman took the vegetables and ran into the kitchen to tidy up.

Meanwhile, Lin Dade called Ye Qing and Old Wang Ba to follow him, first heading to a room next door. At the doorway sat a little girl around five or six years old with black eyes that sparkled, looking extremely cute. Sadly, she was very thin; the face that should have been chubby was sunken. Covered in mud and with her face also smeared with dirt, she looked like a little beggar, which was heartbreaking.

Lin Dade bent down, squatted in front of her, and asked, ”Ding Ding, how is your mom feeling today?”

”It still hurts a lot,” the girl Ding Ding replied softly.

”Aiya, I told her to go see a doctor!” Lin Dade sighed, handed her the medicine, and said, ”This medicine was given by that uncle over there, take it back for your mom to apply, and she will be better very soon!”

Ding Ding hesitated for a moment, took the medicine, looked at Lin Dade and then at Ye Qing, and suddenly bent over to give Ye Qing a bow. Her polite manner touched Ye Qing, and even Old Wang Ba let out an almost imperceptible sigh.

After Ding Ding took the medicine back to the room, Lin Dade led Ye Qing and Old Wang Ba to find the landlord, lamenting along the way, ”Ah, what a good child, so polite, so cute, and she knows how to care for others. I just can’t understand what some fathers think, abandoning such a lovely child. People these days, really, are beyond words!”

Renting the place went smoothly and the price was very cheap; naturally, if they wanted to use the landlord’s bedding and such, the price would be a bit higher. But that wasn’t important anymore.

After getting the keys, Ye Qing bought a bottle of white liquor and carried it to Lin Dade’s house, where Lin Dade’s wife was busy cooking in the room. The smell of pork sizzling in the pan was so enticing that the three children, who stood at the kitchen door with drool flowing, looked as if they hadn’t had meat in a while.

”Go on, go play, stop blocking the kitchen entrance!” Lin Dade shooed the three children out, awkwardly smiled at Ye Qing and Old Wang Ba, and said, ”Kids are young, they don’t understand these things, don’t mind them. Come on, have a seat; the house is a bit messy because there are just too many things scattered around.”

The room Lin Dade rented was really small, with a tiny room that served as his and his wife’s bedroom. There was a bunk bed in the living room, probably where the three children slept. Then there was a small dining table, and that was basically all that could fit in the room. The kitchen too was partitioned with wooden boards and was extremely narrow.

However, even in such a simple room, Lin Dade and his family lived happily. Today, Lin Dade had made five hundred yuan, which was nearly half a month’s income for him, and his mood was excellent. He sat in the living room, chatting non-stop with Ye Qing and Old Wang Ba about the scenery in Xishan City, planning to take Ye Qing and Old Wang Ba out to see it in the afternoon. This honest man, having received five hundred bucks from Ye Qing, didn’t want Ye Qing’s money to go to waste!

Ye Qing wasn’t interested in the scenery and hinted several times about the subject of the guards, but Lin Dade was obviously very cautious and didn’t want to talk about it. Ye Qing could see that he wouldn’t get anything out of him for the time being, so he didn’t ask any further, afraid of making Lin Dade more suspicious.

After sitting in the living room for half an hour, a few dishes were placed on the table, and Lin Dade immediately invited Ye Qing and Old Wang Ba to sit down. The three children also rushed in excitedly, only to be sent into the kitchen by Lin Dade. He treated Ye Qing and Old Wang Ba as guests, not letting the children join the table.

Seeing the three forlorn children standing at the kitchen entrance, Ye Qing was reminded of his own childhood, watching others eat from the kitchen, and felt a wave of emotion, ”Let your sister-in-law and the kids come and sit too!”

”I don’t need to, you guys go ahead and eat!” Lin Dade’s wife called back from the kitchen.

”The kids won’t eat much even if they come to the table; they’ll just make a mess. Alright, you guys don’t worry about them, you eat first!” Lin Dade hospitably urged Ye Qing and Old Wang Ba, but Ye Qing still insisted that everyone join the table.

Unable to argue with Ye Qing, Lin Dade eventually let his wife and three kids come over. The children were of course thrilled and started to eat without reservation once they sat down. Lin Dade’s wife, who was clearly a virtuous type, gave Ye Qing and Old Wang Ba an awkward smile, not knowing what to say.

When Lin Dade introduced Ye Qing and Old Wang Ba, especially mentioning that Ye Qing paid five hundred yuan to rent his tricycle, Lin Dade’s wife’s eyes widened in astonishment. This amount was a shock to her, no wonder Lin Dade had bought so much food today.

Upon learning that her husband had made a great sum, Lin Dade’s wife became even more enthusiastic, offering tea and pouring water for Ye Qing and his companions, quite busy with hospitality. For this family, that amount was indeed significant.

After lunch, Lin Dade, Ye Qing, and Old Wang Ba chatted leisurely in the living room. Lin Dade’s wife, having cleaned up the kitchen, approached Lin Dade, hesitated for a long time before whispering, ”Old Lin, about the money we owe to Hei, how about we just pay it today? Otherwise, he’s going to give you trouble again tomorrow!”

Upon hearing the name Hei, Lin Dade’s expression visibly turned angry, but he still pulled out one hundred yuan from his pocket and handed it to his wife, spitting out, ”These bastards, they just bully us poor folks, never seen them going after the rich for money!”

”Enough, don’t say anymore; mischief comes from careless talk!” Lin Dade’s wife took the money, gave an embarrassed smile to Ye Qing and Old Wang Ba, and hurriedly went out with the money.

”What’s going on here?” Old Wang Ba looked at Lin Dade in surprise and asked, ”How come people are still bullying you guys?”

”Oh, it’s nothing much,” Lin Dade sighed, his face full of indignation. ”That Hei is just a local thug around here; us tricycle drivers have to pay him a fixed sum every month. If we don’t pay, we can forget about picking up passengers on the streets.”

”What? There’s such a thing happening?” Ye Qing frowned and said, ”This Hei is really too much, this is obviously extortion. Why don’t you report it to the police?”

Lin Dade waved a hand dismissively and said, ”Going to the police is utterly useless for this kind of thing!”

”Why is that?” Ye Qingqi asked, puzzled. Shenchuan City hadn’t had such low thugs, so why did the public order in Xishan City seem so much worse than in Shenchuan City?

”Young Brother Ye, let me tell you,” Lin Dade sighed. ”I used to pedal a rickshaw, and it’s really not easy for us in this trade to earn money. Even so, there are still some local hooligans who would come to us demanding ’protection fees’. We are all manual laborers and not few in number, so naturally we won’t let those guys push us around if we band together. Who could have expected that after we had a fight with those hooligans, the police immediately arrested several of us? We were locked up for a while and even had to compensate those hoodlums for medical expenses. All of us have families to support, elderly to look after, and children to care for. If we get locked up for a stretch of time, how are our families supposed to survive? So afterwards, we didn’t dare to confront those hooligans anymore. Over time, it became a rule to pay the protection fee every month. Just like me, I have to pay one hundred yuan each month!”

”To put it bluntly, if the police were really keen on dealing with these issues, how would those hooligans dare to mess with us? That time we fought them, several of us got injured as well. But in the end, it was us drivers who got arrested and us who had to pay the compensation. Given such a situation, what’s the use of reporting it to the cops?” Lin Dade continued, then he added in a lower voice, ”Moreover, I’ve heard some news. The leader of those hoodlums is the nephew of a deputy chief at the city police department. They have connections. If we fight with them, aren’t we just asking for trouble?”

”Really? Is that so?” Ye Qing frowned again. If this was true, then this was a serious issue of officials protecting gangsters!

”Heh heh heh…” Old Wang Ba chuckled coldly and said, ”What goes around comes around. These cops have done so much evil, they will get their just deserts sooner or later!”

”What do you mean?” Lin Dade looked at Old Wang Ba, baffled.

”He’s just spouting nonsense,” Ye Qing hurriedly replied.

Lin Dade looked at Ye Qing with suspicion and curiously asked, ”Young Brother Ye, you seem very interested in the police matters around here?”

Ye Qing smiled and said, ”You don’t know, I was extorted when I entered Xishan City today, at the toll booth, there was a police officer involved, so I’m wondering what on earth is going on with the police department here!”

Lin Dade said, ”Was it someone on a tricycle that hit your car?”

Ye Qing was astonished, ”How did you know?”

Lin Dade said, ”It happens often, many people from other places have been extorted that way. Most of them don’t dare to call the police, afraid that making a big deal out of it would land them in jail. Later on, some did call the police, but in the end, it all came to nothing.”

Ye Qing furrowed his brows. If what Lin Dade was saying was true, then the police department of Xishan City was truly corrupt through and through.

”By the way, where is your car?” Lin Dade asked with curiosity.

Old Wang Ba said, ”Don’t even mention it, I don’t know what happened but the license plate was covered in mud; now it’s still at the traffic police station, they told us to go pick up the car this afternoon!”

”Oh dear, this is a big problem!” Lin Dade shook his head and said, ”If your car ends up at the traffic police station, you won’t get it back without shelling out two or three thousand.”

”You seem pretty familiar with these matters, huh?” Ye Qingqi asked curiously.

”Ah, these things happen all the time,” Lin Dade said. ”Young Brother Ye, with out-of-town cars coming here, three out of ten will encounter something like this. Talking about license plates being covered in mud, it’s actually those people who smear the mud on quietly when they stop your car, and then they withhold the vehicle. Once it’s in the traffic police station, you have to pay, or you can forget about picking up your car!”