Chapter Ten: Dirt Street, I Control Everything with One Hand

Inside the storefront.

A bald man, draped in a military coat, stood on a wooden staircase. He glanced coldly at the strong young man on the floor, who had been knocked down by Zhu Wei, and asked in a low voice, "Whose dog wasn’t tied up, daring to cause trouble in my shop?"

Kris' forehead broke out in beads of sweat. He turned to look at the door, seeing more than twenty people already entering and blocking the exit.

"We are from the police station." Zhu Wei snapped back to reality, reached into his pocket with his left hand, pulled out his badge, and placed it at chest height. "No one move, we're here to investigate a drug trafficking case."

"Heh." The bald man sneered, "Who’s selling counterfeit drugs here?"

Zhu Wei held his gun and pointed at the counter, shouting, "We saw these people in the act when we arrived."

"You saw? Do you represent the law?" The bald man stood motionless on the stairs, pointing to the people at the door and shouting, "Ask them, who saw anyone selling drugs here?"

As he finished speaking, the more than twenty people by the door remained silent. They simply carried weapons and stepped forward, surrounding the three teams in the middle of the living room.

Zhu Wei, hearing this, awkwardly stood still, not knowing what to say, while also feeling a bit scared. The people charging in didn’t look friendly.

Kris hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward to speak.

"Damn!"

At that moment, the strong young man who had been knocked down by Zhu Wei suddenly sat up with a grunt, holding his bleeding head and cursing, "Son of a bitch, dare to hit me here?"

"Don’t move." A young man beside Lin shouted at him.

"Don’t move? Damn you!" The strong young man immediately leaped to his feet and, without a word, swung his fist. With a thud, he punched Zhu Wei in the head. "What, you think your broken gun scares me?"

Zhu Wei staggered back three or four steps.

"Don’t make a move."

"Don’t move, this is assaulting law enforcement."

The three teams quickly reacted, surrounding the strong young man the moment Zhu Wei was hit.

"I’ll assault you, what are you going to do about it?" The strong young man, who had almost been knocked out by Zhu Wei earlier, was now full of rage. He turned and grabbed a box cutter from the counter, then lunged forward, shouting, "Fuck you, even if Fat Li sends five hundred more people, if I’m unhappy, none of you are getting out of here."

With a furious roar, the strong young man charged at the crowd, stabbing with the knife.

Lin had been dodging, but didn’t expect the strong young man to target him first. As Zhu Wei saw the knife, he quickly stepped aside.

"Fuck!" Lin cursed, realizing he had no time to dodge. He could only jerk his hips back, trying to protect his vital areas.

"Thud!"

Just as the knife was about to stab into Lin, Kris pushed through the crowd and grabbed the strong young man’s knife with his bare hand.

He clenched the blade, and blood immediately gushed out, falling in a steady stream onto the floor.

Lin, still shaken, took two steps back, his eyes wide in disbelief as he stared at Kris.

There was silence. After a brief pause, the strong young man, glaring with rage, shouted at Kris, "You can grab a knife with your bare hand? Are you invincible or something?"

He drew back the knife to stab again.

Kris, with lightning speed, grabbed the young man’s wrist with his left hand, then looked up at the man on the stairs and shouted, "Brother, we didn’t come here to make trouble. The station has received multiple reports of counterfeit drugs being sold here. We had no choice but to come check, but as soon as we entered, your brother pulled out a gun. My colleague had no choice but to defend himself and control the situation."

The bald man, wearing a military coat, bent down and sat on the stairs, not looking up as he pulled out an e-cigarette, remaining silent.

Kris, still holding the young man’s wrist, smiled and continued, "I’m new to Songjiang, so I don’t know how deep the water is on Dirt Street. If this is all a misunderstanding and there’s no drug dealing here, we’ll leave. How about it, brother?"

"If there’s no drug dealing here, then why the hell did you hit people?" The bald man, with a smile on his face, took a puff from his e-cigarette and asked.

Kris fell silent for several seconds. "Brother, it’s because of people like you that we have jobs. We rely on each other, and life isn’t easy for anyone… so it’s best if no one makes things difficult for anyone else. What do you think?"

"Make things difficult for you? What are you going to do about it?" The strong young man growled, his eyes full of hostility.

The bald man took another puff of his e-cigarette, turned his head, and spat out a mouthful of yellow phlegm, but still didn’t say a word.

Kris paused briefly, still smiling, then turned to the bald man and said, "Brother, we may not be able to solve the case on Dirt Street, but once we’re out, you still need to do business, don’t you?"

Hearing this, the bald man’s arm paused for a moment before he spoke, "Let them go."

"Just like that? So I got hit for nothing?" The strong young man retorted, his voice cold as he yelled at Kris and the others, "Want to leave? Fine. Strip your jackets off and frog jump out of Dirt Street."

"Don’t push it!"

The usually introverted Guan Qi, from the third team, shouted as he gripped his gun.

"Smack!"

Kris heard the shout, turned around, and grabbed Guan Qi’s arm, his expression serious as he said, "Let them jump, what’s the big deal?"

Guan Qi, feeling extremely aggrieved, replied, "Team Qin, if we don’t leave, how can they let us go? Damn, they have so many people..."

"I told you to listen to me." Kris shouted, his eyes wide.

Guan Qi gritted his teeth, said nothing, and stayed silent.

"Take off your clothes, frog jump out." Kris turned and shouted at his team.

The bald man, seated on the stairs, suddenly asked in a soft voice, “There are a lot of people in this business. Why are you investigating our Dirt Street shop specifically?”

Kris paused for a moment and replied, “We received some reports, and the higher-ups sent us to check it out. I’m not sure why it’s our shop, though.”

The bald man slowly stood up, took a step toward the upstairs, and, while still facing away from Kris, said, “Dirt Street is a bit chaotic and unfair to outsiders. In the future, stay away from this place. There are too many people here, and if even one of them stabs someone, how will you find the culprit?”

With that, the bald man disappeared up the stairs.

Five minutes later.

The eight police officers, including Kris, stood in a row with their shirts off, jumping in a frog-hop fashion toward the outskirts of Dirt Street.

Along the roadside, dozens of young men holding weapons watched silently, without saying a word.

The buildings on either side of the street had windows wide open. Some people were smoking, others with their arms crossed, all watching Kris and the others jump-hop away.

No one knew how long it had been quiet, but suddenly someone from the right side of the building shouted, “Fuck you, come back, and we’ll kill you all.”

The shout echoed through the night.

Moments later, a barrage of glass bottles, medicine jars, and other debris rained down from the upper floors, smashing everywhere.

“Run!”

Kris yelled first. The group scrambled and disappeared into the night.

Inside the storefront, second floor.

The bald man sat on a shabby wooden chair, frowning at the strong young man, who was wrapping bandages around his head. "Are the brothers gone?"

"Yeah, they’re all gone." The strong young man nodded.

"Get a few brothers to come and move the goods." The bald man spoke softly. "For now, don’t put out any more goods. Lay low for a bit."

The strong young man was taken aback. "You’re scared, Third Uncle? Those guys were obviously just small-time cops. Do we still need to be afraid of them? The price of the drugs outside is soaring, and all the poor sick people on Dirt Street are relying on us to survive. If I shout out loud, a few thousand people will rush out to help us. Why should we care what they think?"

"Just do as I say. Don’t argue with me." The bald man crossed his arms and spoke succinctly. "Go get a couple of brothers to move the goods."

"I... I... damn, the more I do this, the more cowardly I get." Ma Lao Er muttered to himself, frustrated. He couldn’t resist his Third Uncle’s order, so he left to gather some brothers and move the goods.

Outside Dirt Street.

Kris put his clothes back on, then pulled out a first-aid kit from the car and wrapped his injured hand with some gauze.

By the car, Guan Qi was cursing, his eyes wide. "Damn it, we couldn’t handle a bunch of criminals, and in the end, they stripped us and made us jump out like frogs... This is so embarrassing, if word gets back to the station, we’ll never hear the end of it."

"We shouldn’t have backed down. If we hadn’t taken off our clothes, what could they have done?" Zhu Wei, looking mighty, grumbled at Kris. "You’re too scared. I’m telling you, this isn’t how cases are handled in Songjiang. You’re the team leader, and in critical moments like this, you need to stand up and take charge."

Kris gritted his teeth as he bit down on the gauze, then looked up at the team. "Gather around, I need to say something."

"What is it?" Guan Qi asked.

"Come here!" Kris shouted with a furrowed brow.

The team exchanged looks. They were all in low spirits, some even visibly irritated, but they reluctantly gathered around Kris.

"Check your ammo, anyone without a bulletproof vest, get one from the car. Lao Hei and Xiao Liu, keep an eye on the cars," Kris said emotionlessly, giving instructions to the group.

Everyone listened, but their faces were filled with confusion.

Several minutes later, inside the storefront.

Ma Lao Er was directing his three brothers by the back door. "The truck’s going to take a while to arrive. Once you’ve finished loading this room’s goods, go check out the third shop. There’s more there."

"Where should we move the goods to?" someone asked.

"Back to the warehouse first." Ma Lao Er complained casually, "Third Uncle’s scared. He’s overthinking things. As for the goods, just leave them here. If they’re going to sell, let them sell..."

"Thud!"

As soon as he finished speaking, footsteps suddenly came from the left side of the back door.

Ma Lao Er, holding a cigarette, turned around. Kris, now wearing a light green bulletproof vest and holding a long anti-riot shotgun, suddenly stormed in.

"Fuck!"

"Bang!"

Kris’s gaze was icy as he lifted his right leg and kicked Ma Lao Er in the chest.

"Whoosh!"

"Thud!"

Ma Lao Er flew half a meter, his back crashing into three crates of goods, falling to the ground, disoriented.

"Don’t move, or I’ll kill you," Guan Qi shouted, holding his gun to Ma Lao Er’s head.

"Clink!"

Without hesitation, Kris rushed through the door and stormed up to the second floor.

Upstairs, in the room.

The intercom crackled with static, and one of the drug dealers running downstairs shouted loudly, "Third Uncle, those guys are back!"

Third Uncle paused, then stood up, reaching for his gun.

"Clink!"

Kris slammed the door open and walked in, casually looking at Third Uncle while saying, "The terrain in Dirt Street is too complicated. We jumped around for a while, and still couldn’t get out. Big Brother, you need to show us the way."

Third Uncle’s eyes widened in shock as he looked at Kris. "Are you coming back again...!"