ch.6

Walking inside, I inspected the warehouse that was currently being used as a hideout by Zheng and his group. In the middle of the warehouse was a line with blankets thrown over it that could divide the warehouse in two when needed, one side for the girls and the other for the boys.

The blankets were drawn back allowing me to see the whole warehouse, and that everyone was already awake.

I stayed at the entrance awkwardly not wanting to intrude without Fang's permission, not wanting to start the conversation on the wrong foot, so to say.

Zheng walked past me calling for Fang, but not before stopping amongst the group to tell everyone I brought food with me.

Little bastard!

Before everyone could rush me to get to the food, Fang stood up from where he was working on something in the back, and just like that it became orderly before chaos could fully erupt.

Fang walked up to me suspiciously taking everything in, the new clothes, the bag with food, and how clean I was. With every new thing he noticed I saw his guard rise higher and higher.

At the same time I was doing the same, I had seen Fang before but that was through the eyes of an 8 year old. He was tall for an Asian of his age of 17, standing just shy of 6 feet tall with black hair and eyes. Having grown up in a rich household until his whole family was killed, he didn't suffer from the same stunted growth as the rest of us.

There was a brief moment of silence where neither of us said anything, before he broke it.

"Who are you working for?"

He may have posed it as a question but we both knew what it really was…an order, I could have taken exception and made a stink about it, but I knew he was just taking precautions to protect his family.

"Someone new," I answered with a frown to let him know I didn't appreciate his order disguised as a question, "Someone that pays good money for work." I lied blandly.

Fang narrowed his eyes dangerously at me, coming from the streets he knew that there was no such thing as free lunch, and if it is, you usually end up paying in other ways. Someone offering people like us good work was either a setup or the kind of work you don't want to be caught doing.

"What sort of-"

"Before that let's eat," I cut him off, once again raising the bag of food up, "I brought enough for everyone."

Fang looked like he wanted to refuse, but seeing all the hungry faces around him, he couldn't bring himself to and ended up nodding reluctantly.

After giving everyone a container filled with scallion pancakes and a pork bun, including Fang, I just sat with them and talked to Zheng, who I was the most familiar with while everyone ate.

The younger kids fell on the food like ravenous wolves, eating as fast as they could, not even pausing to breathe. The older kids on the other hand ate more slowly and some rare ones ate only a little bit and saved the rest of the food for later.

Zheng was just telling me about how he got a job off the books unloading at the docks, when Fang got my attention, he was already done, being one of those that only ate a little bit and saved the rest for later.

"Now that you have buttered us up, what is it that you want?" Fang questioned, "Or rather what does your boss want?"

The rest of the group stopped talking and in some cases even eating when they heard Fang speak up, and put their attention on me.

Standing up, I took 10, 100 Yuan bills out of my pocket, before showing it to them.

I wasn't worried that they would rob me, this was one of the better groups around. That didn't mean that Fang was weak, no nothing of the sort, you don't survive to his age on the streets without gang protection by being weak. I have heard stories about Fang breaking bones and even killing someone but what all the stories had in common was that it was always to protect his group, his family.

He just doesn't have it in him to rob kids, that is why he was here helping the younger kids instead of being a hired thug for one of the gangs. And even if he did have it in him, you don't steal from people you know nothing about, like my non-existent boss, at least you don't if you want to live a long life.

"My boss is searching for addicts that can't pay for drugs, for each one you find you get 200 Yuan," I continued after giving them a moment to gather themselves after seeing that much cash.

Fang just looked at me, trying to figure out what I need broke addicts for, it clearly wasn't for organ or human trafficking, there were way better targets for those than used up addicts. In the end he gave up and just asked, "What is he planning to do with them?"

"He wants them to sign some things for drugs," I answered easily, letting him make his own assumptions, probably identity theft or credit card fraud, "and if you do good work, I will have more work for you paying just as good as this one," I added as a bonus.

Fang scrutinized me for a few seconds more before agreeing.

"Are you taking them here?" I asked.

"No," Fang answered, looking at me like I was stupid for even suggesting bringing a broke addict to their hideout, "I know a place, Zheng will take you there from here."

"Ok, I will meet you guys in 3 hours," I said quickly, flushing a little from Fang's admonishing look.

"better make it 4 hours, it's going to take a while to persuade them to come with us,"

Fang started walking to the back of the warehouse, mumbling all the while to himself. I took that as my cue to leave. I said my goodbyes to Zheng and the group, getting heartfelt thanks for the food and goodbyes back from them.

Going to my hideout to get the rest of the cocaine would take a little under an hour for the round trip, I had a few hours to kill before my meeting with the group and money in my pockets to kill it with. So I eventually settled on having fun, something I really needed after all the shit I have been through the day before.

'I can't believe that it has only been 1 day since I have been reborn, it feels a lot longer'

I walked around the more wealthy places around Macau made for the rich population and tourists, wasting time sightseeing, going in attractions, playing games at the arcade and buying every food that caught my attention, burning up cash like there was no tomorrow, knowing that I could easily get my hands on more now that I had a soul to use and would get more in a few hours.

I got a few weird looks from the guards and vendors for being a 8 year old but with all the money I was throwing around I couldn't be anything else than a kid from a wealthy family in their mind, therefore they kept their mouths shut unless I brought trouble to them.

If you haven't caught on yet, there is only one rule in Macau, money is power and power makes right. The casinos run the city and the bigger gangs control the casinos. You could do and buy anything here if you have enough money, from buying people to paying off corrupt police and government officials.

To rule Macau, you need to control the gangs and pay off the government.

It was a dirty, unfair, and corrupt city, but it was also ready for the taking by someone with real power and not just money.

Someone like me.

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I changed my schedule, starting next week i will release one long chapter every friday, today I will release the last two normal sized ones that were already released on my pat-reon.