Chapter 951: Chapter 951

"Do you know much about the Prisoners’ Gang?"

He Ao walked beside the man and asked.

The man paused slightly, looked around a few times to make sure there were no people around, then lowered his voice and whispered, "They’re dangerous. Everyone in the nearby districts knows that the Prisoners’ Gang kills without blinking. If you’re thinking of messing with them, old man, I’d advise you not to."

"Is this street also under the control of the Prisoners’ Gang?"

Watching the man carefully surveying his surroundings, He Ao asked softly.

"It’s not just this street,"

The man lowered his voice and said, "Like I told you, old man, the Prisoners’ Gang is the biggest gang in the southern part of the Nevus District right now. Several nearby districts are under their control,"

He paused, a flicker of fear in his eyes,

"You see these districts now and think nothing is happening, but honestly, you haven’t seen them when they kill. This district used to be managed by a gang called the Rust Gang. One day the Prisoners’ Gang just burst in, started killing without a word,"

He swallowed nervously, glanced at the dilapidated railing beside him, on those dimly rusting iron bars, you could vaguely see the dried dark bloodstains. The man’s voice trembled as he continued,

"I’ll never forget that day, my colleagues and I hid behind the glass door, watching the Rust Gang’s bodies spread across the road like a carpet, all the vehicles along the way were completely blocked by the bodies, blood even splattered on our glass door,"

He seemed still a bit shaken, "We wiped for a week, just to clean up the bloodstains around the store entrance and nearby."

"This area has always been chaotic, hasn’t it?"

Sena asked softly from behind.

The man carrying the bread looked up at He Ao and Sena, made sure once again that there was no one else around, and then continued in a hushed tone,

"People outside always have some misconceptions about the Southern District; even many who have just arrived think that the area is always on fire and involved in violence. Although there are shootouts and killings, it’s not as frequent as people imagine.

"In fact, for the majority of the time, the Southern District is very stable. The territories of which gang controls which districts are well defined, and even if there are conflicts between gangs, they are settled privately. Large-scale shootouts are rare.

"It’s only in the past few years since the rise of the Prisoners’ Gang, that things have changed. The people of the Prisoners’ Gang don’t care about anything; once the fighting starts, they kill like mad dogs and even take pleasure in it."

"Wouldn’t this provoke widespread anger?"

Sena looked at the man and asked softly, "He’s slaughtered one gang, wouldn’t the other gangs band together to deal with him? After all, who knows if they’ll be the next gang to be slaughtered? Isn’t such instability something that should be eradicated first?"

"By rights, it should be,"

The man replied slowly, "I’ve heard from the elders on the street that there used to be similarly crazy gangs, but they were quickly taken down by the other gangs from the Southern District. However, the Prisoners’ Gang is the exception..."

He paused slightly, then continued,

"The smaller gangs in the Southern District once united against them, only to be crushed by the Prisoners’ Gang.

"Shortly after that, some bigger gangs, rumored to be backed by consortia, from the central districts of Nevus or even other areas, started withdrawing from the Southern District en masse. Those remaining smaller gangs were no match for the Prisoners’ Gang,

"Consequently, these gangs either surrendered or were killed. Over the past few years, resistance has dwindled, and most of the Southern District has fallen into the hands of the Prisoners’ Gang. At least, the few districts I live and pass through are managed by them."

Hearing the man’s words, He Ao nodded lightly.

The information he had received this morning from the mind of the thin man who tried to assassinate him was that the original underground gang of Yilan had tried to teach the Prisoners’ Gang a lesson, but eventually gave up under the interference of the consortium backing those gangs.

This could also be linked to those consortia withdrawing their gangs from the Southern District of the Nevus Area.

They essentially handed over the area to the Prisoners’ Gang.

The group continued forward, and a rusty bus stop sign gradually came completely into their field of view.

"Do you know much about the organizational structure of the Prisoners’ Gang?"

He Ao lowered his head and asked softly.

"I rarely interact with them..."

The man hesitated a bit, continued walking, and said, "Even when I do interact, it’s only with some peripheral members."

"Peripheral members?"

"They’re members from other gangs that they’ve absorbed,"

the man explained. "After they expanded, they absorbed many members from the surrendered gangs to help manage their businesses. These people are the ’peripheral members’ of the Prisoners’ Gang. The original ’core members’ of the gang seldom show themselves anymore."

He slightly relaxed his tone, "But that’s also a good thing. These ’peripheral members,’ though equally vicious, are not like those core members who are brutal and kill people at will."

Then, his expression turned somber, "I heard that someone once asked a core member for directions and was killed on the street. Not only that, but these core members laugh maniacally while killing, like madmen."

Hearing this narrative, He Ao’s gaze sharpened slightly.

The Prisoners’ Gang seemed extremely vicious on the surface, but in reality, they also knew to absorb former gang members to work for them, acting as a ’buffer’ between themselves and the ordinary people of the Southern District, thereby controlling the area.

This showed that they were not truly just a group of lunatics who killed for pleasure, but they also had needs for operation and growth.

Murder was just one of the methods to establish their power.

Of course, this extremely vicious method of establishing power also suggested that they might inherently have a certain desire for ’killing.’

Amidst these thoughts, the three had reached the rusty bus stop where several people were already waiting.

The man standing next to them, upon seeing these waiting people, shut his mouth and stopped discussing the Prisoners’ Gang.

"Do you need to take the bus?"

Seeing the fear in his expression, He Ao asked softly.

Relieved that He Ao had changed the topic, the man nodded slightly and said, "I need to get off at three stops, over by the Low-rise District. My home is there."

Then he hesitated, looked at He Ao, and whispered, "Are you headed there?"

He Ao opened his mouth, asked softly.

He was asking if the Prisoners’ Gang was also there.

the man hesitated briefly, nodded gently, and said in a very low voice, "It’s a larger population center nearby, and they... are quite numerous there."

The numbers of the Prisoners’ Gang were indeed larger there.

There are usually some key figures in such important areas.

Thinking of this, He Ao gently nodded and smiled, "Would you mind taking me to see it?"

The man hesitated for a moment, his hand touched his trouser pocket where he still carried two 20 federal coin bills.

Finally, holding the bread, he nodded gently, "The environment there is very bad, much worse than here, if you don’t mind."

He Ao smiled and shook his head.

At this moment, Sena seemed to realize something, leaned over to He Ao’s ear, and whispered, "Mr. Lin En, shall we drive there? It might be quite far."

He Ao glanced at the dilapidated bus stop sign, shook his head, and then softly said, "I’ll send you the location, just in your car."

"You’re taking the bus?"

Sena was startled, and his eyes showed some concern.

At this time, He Ao simply patted his arm and smiled, "It’s fine, go ahead, I’ll be safe here."

Sena hesitated for a moment, then seeing He Ao’s gentle but firm smile, he finally nodded, "Then I’ll go get the car, but you must be careful."

Then he turned and walked towards the way he had come.

"Is it okay for him to leave ?"

Watching Sena leave, the man standing next to He Ao whispered worriedly, "The districts around here are not very safe."

He seemed to realize that Sena was He Ao’s "guard."

He Ao turned his head to look at Sena’s disappearing figure and shook his head.

The man looked up at He Ao and finally slowly said, "Is this your first time in the Southern District?"

In the past, Lin En’s free clinics had only reached the central part of the Nevus District and never the Southern District.

"Don’t be fooled by the peaceful appearance here,"

the man looked around at the quiet streets and quickly said, "thieves and robbers are everywhere here, especially people like you from the Saint Ilan District, who are most likely to be targeted. We must be guarded, the Prisoners’ Gang won’t protect our lives."

He Ao glanced at the man, knowing he was being reminded in various ways, then turned his head to look at Sena’s departing back and softly said, "That young man will always ."

Hearing this response, the man looked at Sena, now near the black SUV, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Just then, he covered his mouth and started coughing violently.

"Do you have a problem with your lungs?"

He Ao patted him on the back and looked at his complexion, asking.

the man hesitated for a moment and replied softly, "I used to work in the Kopace Mining minefield and contracted some occupational diseases. Later, I couldn’t do heavy work and got kicked out of the minefield, but fortunately, it wasn’t too severe. I can still do some basic jobs, barely enough to eat."

"Do many people around here choose to go to the minefield?"

He Ao withdrew his hand and asked softly.

"We don’t belong to the lords of Saint Ilan, no money for school, no qualifications, cough..."

The man coughed lightly, seeming to catch his breath a bit, and smiled,

"Only the minefields and factories want us, though it’s tough and tiring, the wages are slightly higher. Most of the young people here either go to the mines or enter factories, and when they get sick or can’t work anymore, they look for some common jobs. By then, they’re almost dying and won’t live much longer."

He coughed lightly twice, seeming slightly out of breath, leaning on the rusty bus sign while gasping and gazing at the distant tall buildings shimmering with light,

"Let me tell you, I have never been to Saint Ilan in my life. I heard it’s all neon-lit skyscrapers, magnificent and brilliant, with lights that never go out at night, shopping malls filled with dazzling items everywhere, and thrilling music continuously playing, cough..."

"In a way, it is like that."

He Ao calmly turned his head back, also gazing at the tall buildings that occupied only a small part of the night.

"Cough, it seems you are not satisfied with that place,"

the man stood up, coughed lightly, "but spending money there must be like water flowing... Only the rich can truly enjoy life in Saint Ilan,"

"I had a good friend who also worked in the mines, he got much sicker than I did, pretty much unable to do anything. When he was close to death, he got someone from the Prisoners’ Gang to help him fake his identity, took out a large loan from Nord Bank, and spent a day splurging in Saint Ilan."

He paused, looking in the direction of those skyscrapers,

"That morning, he climbed to the top of the Nord Bank building, video-called me, showed me the glittering skyscrapers of Saint Ilan, pointed me in the direction of the Southern District,

"Only then did I realize that standing among those towering skyscrapers, you can’t see the Southern District."

He withdrew his gaze, looked at He Ao, and sighed softly, "Then he jumped off the rooftop of Nord Bank,

"It’s said that not a single part of his body was intact, it took the Federal Bureau of Investigation half a day to collect all his remains and put them in the crematorium."

A seemingly old bus was slowly approaching in the distance, the man continued, "A month later, when the loan was overdue, Nord Bank’s people madly sought him out, asking for repayment, the calls even came to me, eventually they stopped."

"Are there many who do this?"

He Ao withdrew his gaze, asking in a low voice.

In Lin En’s memory, jumping off skyscrapers to commit suicide in Saint Ilan was not an uncommon thing.

the man’s expression relaxed a bit, continuing,

"That’s why later, loans whose network addresses are nearby Southern District, have strict identity checks by the banks, and getting a loan in Southern District also became more difficult,

"But it doesn’t really affect us much. People in the Southern District are hardly able to get low-interest quality loans, either it’s a salary loan backed by gangs, or usurious loans directly from the gangs.

"Even if using fake identity to defraud loans from consortia, gangs would take seventy percent as ’commission’."

As he spoke, the old bus stopped in front of the bus stop.

The man paused, glanced at the bus number, looked at He Ao, and quickly said, "This is the bus."