Early in the morning, someone knocked on the door of the arcade. Two members of the Wolf Gang cautiously opened the door and, seeing a newsb
Early in the morning, someone knocked on the door of the arcade. Two members of the Wolf Gang cautiously opened the door and, seeing a newsboy standing outside, relaxed their guard slightly.
One of them made a downward pressing gesture to someone behind him. In a place the newsboy couldn’t see, the atmosphere instantly eased.
“You can put the newspaper in the paper box on the side, instead of banging on the door here!” the gang member at the door complained to the newsboy, hands on his hips.
He extended his hand as he spoke. “Give it to me.”
“What?” the newsboy was taken aback, “The newspaper?”
“What else!” the man retorted rudely.
The newsboy immediately took out three different newspapers and placed them in his hand. “Ten cents, sir.”
The man was stunned for a moment. He thought these newspapers had already been paid for, but looking at the newsboy’s innocent eyes, he helplessly took a twenty-five-cent coin from his pocket and tossed it over. “Keep the change.”
He was about to close the door, but the newsboy stopped him again. “Sir, a gentleman asked me to deliver a letter to a gentleman named ‘Professor’.”
The man was stunned, then his brow furrowed. He looked outside. There were some pedestrians, but he wasn’t sure if any of them were watching.
“What does the person look like?” he asked, while at the same time turning to point at the Professor’s room.
They had all been living here during this time. The Lance Family’s execution was very strong. If they were to split up, they could be taken out one by one.
Sticking together was the best option. The Professor believed this “farce” would end soon, and then they wouldn’t need to do this.
During this time, those small gangs had also developed some complaints against them. The original plan was for them to launch an attack on the Empire District together.
But now, it was only the small gangs fighting. They were suffering heavy losses facing the Lance Family alone. They hoped the Wolf Gang would also contribute, as they had agreed.
But neither the Professor nor Wolf dared to go out casually. Who knew if Lance and his crew were watching them?
Or rather, Lance and his crew were definitely watching them, just waiting for them to show a weakness.
The more it was like this, the less likely the Professor was to fall into Lance’s trap.
The man at the door looked back at the newsboy. “What does the person who gave you the letter look like?” At the same time, he added, “You can give the letter to me, and I’ll pass it to the Professor.”
The newsboy shook his head. “No, that gentleman said it must be given to the Professor in person.”
“You don’t know the Professor, so how do you know if it’s him?”
“For example, if I say I am the Professor right now, how do you know if I am?”
The newsboy shook his head and said nothing. “That gentleman looked very ordinary, nothing special…” He seemed to have thought of something and, under the expectant gaze of the Wolf Gang member, said, “If there’s anything special, it must be that he’s especially generous!”
“He gave me two dollars, just to deliver this. Will you give me extra money?”
Feeling that he had been played, the young man cursed, “You want some shit?”
The newsboy rolled his eyes. At this moment, the Professor was also getting dressed and coming out of his room.
The newsboy saw him, and his gaze seemed to lock onto the Professor.
“You know me?” The Professor could feel that the newsboy seemed to have decided that he was the intended recipient of the letter. He had heard the conversation between his subordinate and the newsboy.
The newsboy shook his head. “I don’t know you, but I think you must be the Professor. That man said you wear gold-rimmed glasses and look as scary as a teacher from school.”
The Professor couldn’t help but chuckle. He took two dollars from his pocket and handed it over. “I am also very generous. Can you give me the thing now?”
The newsboy was so surprised he couldn’t believe it was real. He was very excited. “Absolutely, sir, I’ll give it to you right now!”
He took an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to the Professor, then took the Professor’s money. “Goodbye, generous sir, and good luck for the day!”
He ran off without looking back.
The people around the Professor wanted to call out to the newsboy, but the Professor stopped them. “He’s just a delivery boy, he doesn’t know anything.”
He could tell from the newsboy’s shoes and pants that he was not in disguise.
And there was no need to risk a child. Why arrange for one of their own to do something that could be solved with two dollars?
He took the envelope back to his office, closed the door, and then opened it.
Inside, there was only one card with a number on it.
It was clearly a phone number. He frowned.
On the other side, Lance was also reading this morning’s news. More news about the strike was being disclosed in the newspapers.
For example, the unwritten rule of the Federation’s industries: a pay raise every six months to a year. But the dockworkers had not had a pay raise for more than two years.
The media generally believed that this was the truth of the strike. They were now discussing how long this strike could last. The Kodak Family had even started a betting pool on it.
Resolved within three days, within a week, within half a month, and over fifteen days—various solutions had different odds. It was said that quite a few people had placed bets.
Of course, there were also some sharp commentaries. Some believed that the workers’ strike was a “vicious means of achieving their own demands by disrupting social stability,” and that their behavior was despicable, unpopular, and not recognized.
Some also believed that it was the capitalists’ stinginess that caused everything to happen. If they were willing to give the workers a raise, there would not have been such a strike.
The Mayor, lying in the hospital, seemed to be being forgotten by public opinion, but this was also what he wanted.
Lance picked up a sandwich and took a bite. Today’s breakfast was a ham and egg sandwich, with some fried bacon and fried beef cubes, a little fruit and vegetable salad, and milk.
Scientists had recently discovered that long-term consumption of milk could significantly increase a person’s weight. They believed that milk contained something that could promote body growth and were encouraging people to drink more milk.
Some middle-class communities even used “providing free milk to resident owners” as a form of promotion, and the effect was quite good.
Now they were competing by providing milk. It wouldn’t be long before they started competing on the source of the milk.
All of this seemed familiar, yet also quite new.
“Is the breakfast not to your liking?” Lance looked at the two ladies sitting across the dining table. They hadn’t touched the things in front of them.
The breakfast was the same as Lance’s, an egg and tomato sandwich, with bacon and beef cubes.
The Professor’s wife was silent. His daughter, however, mustered some courage. “This… sir, that man has had nothing to do with us for a long time…”
Lance raised his hand, stopping her. “He was protecting you, so he cares about you more than you imagine.”
“Eat something. No matter what you have to face next, it’s always better to be full than hungry.”
“Wasting food is not a virtue, ladies.”
The Professor’s daughter looked at Lance, and finally picked up the sandwich and handed it to her mother. “Eat something…”
The two of them ate in small bites. After a few bites, the phone suddenly rang. Their gazes immediately focused on the phone, then shifted to Lance’s face.
Lance took the phone and gestured for the Professor’s daughter to answer it. She was a little hesitant.
The harsh ringing of the phone sounded continuously, making one very irritable.
Each ring seemed very long, and the interval between each ring was also very long.
After Lance gestured for her to answer the phone again, she finally picked it up.
“Who is there?”
A somewhat unfamiliar voice came from the receiver, but her eyes immediately turned red.
No matter how she usually said she didn’t care about this man, or pretended not to care, it was impossible for them not to care about each other.
Everyone knew why the Professor had divorced. He said publicly that it was his guilt, his self-blame, but everyone knew that wasn’t true.
She was afraid of crying out, so she covered her mouth with her other hand to keep from making a sound, but tears streamed down her face.
The Professor frowned. “If you spent two dollars just to have me call a number where no one speaks, then you’ve succeeded.”
Still no one spoke, but the Professor heard some subtle sounds. Inexplicably, he began to grow uneasy.
He tried not to let his emotions interfere, swallowed, “This is just a prank, isn’t it?”
The phone number was from Golden Port, but he didn’t know where it was from. He had never seen it before.
“If you don’t speak, I’m hanging up!”
He vaguely heard what sounded like sobbing. His thoughts became chaotic. He slammed the phone down, looking at it in disbelief.
The worst thought appeared in his mind. His hands pressed against his forehead and pushed back, his palms squeezing his scalp through his hair to release some pressure, but it was only a negligible part.
He repeated this action, and thus lowered his head.
After doing this several times, he suddenly slammed his fist on the table with a bang.
The things on the desk jumped. He muttered something under his breath. Wolf, who was already up outside the door, heard the noise, rubbed his eyes, and pushed open the door. “What’s wrong?”
The Professor shook his head. “Someone played a prank on me. He had me make a phone call, but ended up cursing me out.”
Wolf found this very amusing after hearing it. “Was it Lance’s people who did it?”
“He’s like a child. When we catch him, I’ll give you a chance to spank his butt.”
The Professor nodded forcefully. “We will!”
Seeing that the Professor had nothing else, Wolf prepared to leave. He hadn’t slept well yet.
He let go of his hand, the grainy sleep in his eyes had been rubbed away and fell to the floor. He tried his best to widen his eyes and looked at the Professor. “We are family. If you have any problems, talk to me, okay?”
“No problem, everything is fine!”
The two looked at each other for a moment. Wolf turned and closed the door. The sound of his footsteps grew more and more distant.
He was not, as others thought, a big fool. In fact, he knew, and could feel, that the Professor’s emotions were not right.
But he didn’t know how to persuade such a smart person as the Professor. He could only express his position and attitude, and then hope that the Professor would come out of his wrong emotions on his own.
“He hung up the phone,” the Professor’s daughter said, looking at Lance with a choked voice.
Lance put the receiver back on the phone’s base and said with a smile, “He’ll call back soon.”
Then he sat back down and continued to pick up the newspaper. He believed the Professor would call again, because he believed the Professor was a smart man.
Some scientists have done statistics. The higher the IQ, the more likely one is to be anxious, because high-IQ groups know too much, so they also worry about more things.
On the contrary, those fools have no worries. Even if you tell them that the world will end tomorrow, they will still have a good sleep tonight.
The old woman comforted her daughter. She looked up at Lance. “What grudge do you have against each other?”
Lance pursed his lips. “He killed some of my men, seriously injured my brother, and killed my brother’s father.”
The old woman found it hard to believe that the Professor had done all this. She murmured, “You are all gangsters… this shouldn’t…”
She wanted to say, isn’t this normal?
Lance did not refute this view, just looked into her eyes. “Yes, this is very normal. So, do you have any questions about why you are here?”
The old woman didn’t know how to answer this question. She also fell silent.
The phone suddenly rang harshly again. Lance folded the newspaper and gestured for the Professor’s daughter to answer it.
She took a deep breath, controlled her emotions, and picked up the phone. This time she still didn’t speak, but she was much stronger.
After a brief silence, the Professor’s voice suddenly came from the receiver, calling out her name. In that instant, her tears flowed uncontrollably, and she also made a crying sound.
The Professor’s voice in the receiver did not get louder, but the bass was deeper, and one could hear the fear and anger in his heart at this moment.
Lance was about to take the phone, but the Professor’s daughter held on to the receiver tightly and did not let go. She was actually trying to protect the Professor.
“Have you thought about the price of doing this?” he asked.
Lawn, who was standing against the wall, walked over. The old woman looked at her daughter, her expression sad. “Please!”
The old woman was very scared. She didn’t want to see her daughter get hurt. She looked at her with pleading eyes.
Under such a gaze and voice, the Professor’s daughter sobbed and let go of the phone.
She looked at Lance with fierce, red, tear-filled eyes. Lance just smiled back at her and then put the receiver to his ear.
“Mr. Professor.”
The moment Lance’s voice came from the receiver, the Professor’s blood ran cold.
Although he had already had such a guess, the moment the guess became a reality, he felt as if the sky had fallen.
It was like someone who is not feeling well tells himself, the worst that can happen is just cancer. Even if I get cancer, life still has to go on, right?
He seems optimistic to you, but if he goes for a check-up and finds out that he really has cancer, he will, like most of the people he thought didn’t have the courage to face tomorrow, lose all courage.
The Professor was like this. His body began to tremble. He held on to the corner of the table tightly with one hand, his nails even piercing the paint and about to break, yet he felt no pain.
He gripped the phone tightly, every word spoken with all his strength. “This has nothing to do with them!”
Lance seemed to agree with this view quite a bit.
“Yes, it has nothing to do with them, and it had nothing to do with Morris’s father either!”
The Professor was terrified, fearful. He didn’t know what was waiting for him. He could only try his best to explain, “It was an accident.”
Lance didn’t refute him either. “I admit, it was indeed an accident.”
“An old guy who had offended no one accidentally lost his life, and is now lying in a cold storage waiting for his son to come out in a wheelchair to offer him the first handful of earth.”
“It’s all an accident. Accidents happen every day. It happened to Morris, and it could happen to you, right?”
Lance sat back in his chair, crossed his legs, and lit a cigarette.
He looked at Lawn, then at the two ladies, gave him a look, and had him lock these two people up first.
Then he continued, “You are an adult, Mr. Professor. I heard you were even a high school teacher. You wouldn’t be as naive as your students, still thinking that every question has only one standard answer, would you?”
“When you decided to do this, you had to bear all the consequences and costs!”
“If you had won, that would be another matter. But now it seems, at least for now, you haven’t won yet.”
The Professor’s emotions became a little more stable. “What do you want?”
“This is Golden Port, not Fides. You outsiders have destroyed the order here. It shouldn’t be you asking me what I want.”
“You should ask yourself, what is the price you have to pay!”
He paused. “This farce should be over, Mr. Professor.”
The Professor took a deep breath. “What do you want?”
“My life?”
Lance said softly, “You and Wolf’s lives, and the lives of everyone who attacked Morris. I can let the others go.”
The Professor’s teeth were about to be crushed. “That’s impossible!”
“All the action plans of the Wolf Gang were formulated by me. Wolf is just a puppet. Killing me is enough.”
Lance chuckled twice. “You know what?”
“You’re not good at lying, Mr. Professor.”
“Actually… besides inviting your ex-wife and daughter, I also have your sister and brother, and your other family members.”
“Do you know that small valley west of the city?”
“You still have…” Lance glanced at his watch, “two hours.”
“In two hours, a small accident will happen, a small accident we all know about.”
He hung up the phone without waiting for the Professor to say anything.
Elvin stood by, asking softly, “Will they come?”
Lance nodded slightly. “They will.”
Elvin was very curious. “How can you be so sure?”
Lance smiled faintly. “Just believe me.”
A few minutes later, someone pushed open the door of Wolf’s office. Wolf, with a worried look on his face, looked at the person who pushed the door, and the child behind him. “What is it?”
“This guy said someone gave him two dollars to tell you something.”
Wolf glanced at the little guy, a newsboy, a common sight.
He leaned back, somewhat impatiently. “What is it?”
“A gentleman asked me to tell you that the Professor’s family is in the valley west of the city. In two hours, they will all be executed…”
Wolf flipped over the desk, grabbed the newsboy by the collar, and lifted him up. “What the fuck are you saying?”
(End of chapter)
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