Chapter 382: Social Structure and Silencing (2)
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The shopkeeper cried out in pain, “I’ll fight you to the death!”
He found an inkstone on the table and rushed towards Lin Yan. Unfortunately, Lin Yan snatched the inkstone halfway and smashed it into his head.
The two of them fell to the ground and whimpered. Lin Yan went to the door first and closed the two open wooden doors. Then, he turned around and pulled the two of them to the backyard.
At this moment, the two of them finally recovered. When Xiao Yi saw that the two wooden boxes were still intact on the donkey cart parked in the backyard, he immediately said in disbelief, “Impossible! I saw you go in with my own eyes!”
Lin Yan ignored him. Instead, he untied the hemp ropes around the wooden box, moved one of the wooden boxes down, and opened it. He raised it high and poured it out.
The lid of the wooden box was removed, but nothing was poured out.
However, Xiao Yi and the shopkeeper felt their scalps tingle as a chill ran down their spines.
There were actually several human hands and legs hanging from the upside-down box!
Upon closer inspection, there were actually four people stuffed inside. The wooden box that only had a small space was filled to the brim without any gaps!
It was also because of this that the four of them were stuck in each other’s bodies and could not fall out. Lin Yan carried the wooden box and poured it four to five times before the four of them fell out and rolled to the ground.
Xiao Yi and the shopkeeper were even more shocked. No wonder they could be stuffed into wooden boxes. It turned out that the four people’s limbs, waists, and other bones had been forcefully broken and bent before they were folded into a small size to be stuffed into a box!
Looking at two of them, it was obvious that they were hardly breathing. The other two were also trembling. It was obvious that they were hopeless.
Lin Yan turned around and opened another wooden box. Here were the two people who had been stuffed into the box previously. They were squeezed in safely and were still unconscious.
Lin Yan clapped his hands and turned around to walk to Xiao Yi and the shopkeeper. “Tell me what happened.”
The two of them were already ashen.
Lin Yan’s method of stuffing four people into the wooden box, and his disregard for their lives, had completely frightened them.
“Hero! Hero! Please spare us. We were forced!”
Lin Yan looked at the two of them seriously. “I want to know why you’re the only ones hiring on the entire street?”
Lin Yan didn’t think it was a coincidence that he couldn’t find a job along the way and that the job he finally found was a trap.
The old shopkeeper said shakily, “Hero! We didn’t want it either. It was Master Qian! Master Qian forced us to do it!”
As the two of them explained, Lin Yan gradually understood that the social situation of this dock area was far harsher than he had imagined.
Some of the merchants along the street were already so busy that their feet did not touch the ground, but they still refused to hire him. It was not that they did not want to, but they did not dare!
Old Master Qian had stipulated that all merchants who wanted to recruit workers could not do so independently. They had to go to the factory under his name to recruit people. In other words, they could only recruit Old Master Qian’s people.
If they hired someone else, once it was discovered, Old Master Qian would immediately take back the house and stop them from operating it. In the entire B16 Pier District, 99% of the houses and land belonged to Old Master Qian alone!
When Lin Yan heard this, he was shocked and then found it unbelievable.
However, after asking in detail and hearing the explanation, he felt that it was reasonable.
Due to the fog, there were very few exchanges of people between the dock area and the outside world. It looked like steamships were coming and going, but in fact, the place was extremely closed. Usually, there were only one or two people from the outside area who came here all year round.
District B16 was close to the sea and had abundant aquatic products. However, most of the land was not suitable for farming. Food and necessities had to be bought and transported back from the outer district.
Therefore, the lifeline of District B16 was in the hands of Master Qian’s dozen or so steamships. They caught fish from District B16 and transported them to the outer districts. Then, they transported the necessities and food back from the outer district.
Gradually, the assets of the entire region were appropriated, either reasonably or unreasonably.
Speaking of this Old Master Qian, he had become a legend.
It was said that more than ten years ago, District B16 was not like this at all. At that time, the fishermen were the most common in District B16. They caught fish and dried them. Then, they drove small fishing boats to other districts to sell when the fog opened.
At that time, Old Master Qian was just a small fisherman. Later on, by chance, it was said that he saved a big shot from District A. From then on, he soared. He relied on steamships obtained from the big shot to snatch all the other fishermen’s businesses. Then, he gradually became bigger and bigger. Until today, he had all the assets of District B16 in his hands.
“In my previous life, it was indeed impossible for a person to appear and occupy almost all the assets of a town. At most, he would occupy a portion of the main assets like Hong Kong.
“However, the fog in the prefecture capital sealed every area into a small isolated world. With the Matthew Effect, the strong became stronger and the weak became weaker. Naturally, this guy plundered almost all the assets of District B16.”
This reminded Lin Yan of a novel he had read in his previous life. A highly developed civilization had gathered all the assets and supplies on the planet into one person’s hands because of the Matthew effect. Everyone else had become poor. They even had to pay for a breath of fresh air.
Due to the special geographical environment of the isolated island, District B16 also formed such a special social structure.
Therefore, along the way, Lin Yan did not find any merchants that were hiring. Only Liang’s provision store, which specially provided piglets for Old Master Qian, was visited because of his bad luck.
After understanding the social structure here, Lin Yan was even more speechless. “So, you can’t find a job here at all?”
The old shopkeeper smiled apologetically. “What are you talking about, hero? If it’s just those dirty bumpkins, they can only register at the docks and wait for Master Qian’s orders.
“But with your powerful strength, as long as you go to Old Master Qian’s residence, you will immediately be treated as an esteemed guest. There’s no need to compare yourself to those bumpkins!”
Lin Yan was speechless. It was precisely because he wanted to keep a low profile that he wanted to find a low-profile job to do. If he wanted to use his strength, why would he need to find Master Qian to do anything?
“Alright, 1 understand…”
“Hero, hero! We really didn’t do it on purpose! If we had known your strength, we definitely wouldn’t…”
Bang! Bang!
After two consecutive punches, the old shopkeeper and his son trembled. Their heads were turned into mush by Lin Yan and they fell to the ground.
“I killed two more. It hasn’t even been four hours since I arrived at the prefecture capital, but I’ve already killed so many people…”
Lin Yan himself found it baffling, but things happened just like that.
Since two of them had already died, Lin Yan didn’t care about a few more. He killed the four half-dead people as well.
Lin Yan also used the Golden Bodhi Scripture to check on the two unconscious people. He realized that one of them had also planted the Spirit Marrow!
However, after some thought, he did not kill them. Instead, he picked them up and threw them back into the shop in front.
If he was not wrong, there might be even fewer people in the entire prefecture city who did not plant Spirit Marrow than those who did.
This was because ungraded and first-grade Spirit Marrow could be used without additional Spirit Transformation items. The more hopeless an ordinary person was in martial arts, the more likely they would plant a Spirit Marrow to strengthen themselves.
Therefore, if he silenced every person he encountered who planted Spirit Marrow, he would probably have to kill the entire prefecture capital.
After confirming that the two of them were still unconscious and couldn’t monitor him, Lin Yan returned to the backyard and checked the few of them first. Indeed, other than the old shopkeeper’s son, Xiao Yi, and Manager Hu, the rest had Spirit Marrow planted in their bodies.
Since they were already dead, they naturally didn’t have any spirituality. Naturally, he didn’t have to worry about the corpses discovering any abnormalities.
Lin Yan dug out the Spirit Marrow and found a few money bags. He carried a corpse at a time and activated the Black Tortoise Divine Armor to sink into the ground, sinking these corpses a hundred meters underground.
Presumably, no one would be able to discover such a scene.
After doing all of this, Lin Yan was about to open the few money bags to take a look when a creaking sound came from the shop in front.. Someone had entered the shop!