I'm a Master in India

This was a diamond-shaped clearing, with many small huts built there.

These huts were not even as tall as Ron's chest, looking like small wedge-shaped tents shrouded in cooking smoke from a distance.

Upon closer inspection, they were incredibly dilapidated, even more so than the houses in the slums.

The huts were crudely constructed with bent branches as frameworks and cardboard and plastic scraps as building materials, tied together with thin ropes.

It was no exaggeration to say that any one of Ron's group could level the entire camp with just one hand in less than a minute.

But thirty or forty lepers lived here, which once again changed Ron's impression of the slums.

Their group approached without being stopped.

It wasn't until they reached a small hut near the center of the camp that the surrounding residents stopped what they were doing and stared at them, but no one spoke.

Abu greeted them skillfully, while Ron and Luca couldn't help but look around.

It was hard not to look at them, and once you looked, it was hard not to stare.

Some people had no noses, most had no fingers, and some were so severe that their lips and ears were starting to disappear.

For some reason, the female patients' physical disfigurement was much more severe than the male patients'.

Their attitudes towards outsiders were also completely different; the women were shy and appeared fearful, while the men were proud and confident, with aggressive eyes.

But they always stood far away, never approaching a step, and Ron and Luca also remained motionless.

"Damn it, when is that Abu going to finish greeting them? My leg is cramping," Luca said, not understanding Hindi.

"He's asking about the boss here, it'll be done soon," Ron also felt a bit intimidated.

This place was too bizarre, reminding him of scenes from a certain Resident Evil game.

Fortunately, one thing comforted him, and that was the children around them.

There were no signs of illness on them; they were all thin, but they looked physically sound and quite healthy.

Moreover, all the children worked very hard, their small hands taking on the task of grasping things.

Just then, a man crawled out from behind the small hut in the center.

He struggled to stand up to greet them, and two small children immediately appeared to support him.

He was also ravaged by leprosy, very short, only about as tall as Ron's waist.

His lips and the lower part of his face had been eaten away, leaving only hard lumps, and the place where his nose should have been was a hole.

"Abu, child," he said in Marathi, "Hello, have you eaten?"

"I'm very well, Ranjit Bhai," Abu replied respectfully, "I brought them to see you, we just ate, thank you."

Ron found it difficult to understand because the person named Ranjit had no mouth, and many pronunciations were unclear.

Some children brought stools for them to sit on, and they didn't refuse, sitting in front of Ranjit's hut. A small group of people gathered around them, sitting or standing.

"This is Ranjit Bhai," Abu said loudly in Hindi so everyone could hear, "He is the boss of the leper slum, the king here, the spokesperson for this Black Hat Club."

Luca was confused, but Ron understood a little. In Hindi, "black hat" is sometimes used to refer to thieves.

This is because convicted thieves in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail had to wear black ring hats, hence the name "black hat."

Considering what Abu had said about skilled people before, Ron guessed they were all master thieves.

Ranjit and the other lepers also readily accepted Abu's introduction; they even felt proud of it.

"Hello, Ranjit Bhai," Ron said in Hindi, "My name is Sur."

The crowd stirred a little, but Ranjit remained the same.

"Are you a doctor?" he asked.

"No!" Ron denied without hesitation, worried that the other party would ask him to cure these people of leprosy.

"Doctor Sur is a good person," Abu added.

Ron turned his head and stared at him blankly, "Thank you very much, Abu."

Some children brought them glass cups filled with water, and tea in chipped cups.

Ron and Luca waved their hands, indicating they didn't need it. Abu, however, gulped down the water without any hesitation.

Ranjit tilted his head back, and a child poured water down his throat.

"Abu told me you need medicine," this time Ranjit actually used English.

His teeth clicked together when he spoke, and because he had no lips to make sounds, many words were severely distorted.

Luca's eyes widened, but he still only half-understood.

At this moment, a child beside Ranjit, perhaps his son, repeated his words in a light and steady voice.

"If you have these medicines, we can buy them at a high price," Ron handed over a piece of paper.

The child took it and looked at it for a couple of seconds, then read the words on the paper softly into Ranjit's ear.

"No money needed, as long as you agree to one condition."

"What?" Ron was a little surprised.

Ranjit called a name, and a tall teenage boy walked out of the crowd and placed a canvas bag at Ron's feet.

He knelt down and opened the canvas bag, revealing a pile of injections and plastic bottles inside, some of which still had labels.

"Oh, this is..." Luca no longer cared about anything; he rummaged through the medicines in the bag, becoming more and more excited as he looked.

All of them! They were all the medicines he wanted, not a single one missing, and even a few extra.

"Where did they get these medicines?" Ron asked Abdullah.

"Stolen," he replied.

"Stolen? How did they steal?"

"Very skillfully stolen!" He smiled proudly.

"That's right, that's right," came the chorus of agreement from around, without a hint of humor.

They seriously accepted Abu's praise, as if the group was appreciating their collectively created artwork, the art of theft.

"How do they handle these things? I mean, these are not common medicines on the market."

"These are just extras from the theft; the useful ones are sold in the black market," Abu replied.

The useful medicines he mentioned were probably the common ones. These experimental drugs with only labels, on the other hand, became a burden, unwanted by anyone.

Lepers in every major city in India have their own sales networks and secret markets, and due to historical reasons, they have developed superb stealing skills.

They rely on this skill to survive to this day. Their clients are all criminals, armed groups, separatist forces, ambitious people, bandits...

Those people cannot buy medicine through legitimate channels because it would provide clues for the government to track them down and then wipe them out.

The lepers' medicine black market was established on this basis.

However, what Ron was really concerned about was not this.

"What was the condition you just mentioned?" he asked.

"Take Rajiv away," Ranjit looked at the boy who had just brought the canvas bag over.

"What?" Ron didn't react.

"He is healthy, he shouldn't be here."

The boy named Rajiv wanted to say something, but Ranjit stopped him with a look.

"Doctor Sur, you don't need to keep him with you, just leave here, just leave here.

We can give you a lot of medicine every week, top-notch medicine, really."

"Leave here?" Ron was puzzled.

"Give him a job, something that can support himself." This was Ranjit's only condition for the transaction.

Ron was a little silent; such a condition was not difficult for him to fulfill, but...

"Ron Baba," Abu suddenly said, "These people won't live much longer."

They were already terminally ill, surviving only by selling medicine, but this couldn't save them, it was too late.

Perhaps in a few years, most of the people here would disappear; they knew their fate and faced it calmly.

However, the children were innocent, and they were their only concern.

By '93, leprosy could be completely cured, which also explained why the children here were all healthy.

They were too young and could only live with their sick parents, hiding in dirty corners far away from cities and crowds.

But children also grow up; they can't be labeled as lepers forever, and their future is not here.

Ranjit had traded with many criminals, and without exception, each time he asked them to take away a child who was about to become an adult.

Some of these people were bandits, some were armed groups, some were ambitious people...

The children who went with them might be arrested, or they might die in some conflict, but so what? At least it was a glimmer of hope.

Ranjit also hoped that Ron would take a child, and he chose the smartest one here.

Ron's identity was extraordinary; he was a doctor, a noble and respected profession.

With his care, this child would have a high probability of settling down and surviving in Mumbai, and then the latter could bring more children out of the leper slum.

They needed a seed, and when it grew strong, it could shelter the remaining children here.

Then the leper slum would disappear, they would die, but everything would be just right, with no regrets.

The scene fell into a deep silence; everyone looked at Ron, hoping for a response.

Breathing sounds came from tooth-grinding, lipless mouths, and pairs of serious eyes stared at him, patient and full of longing.

"Rajiv, right?" Ron looked at the boy, "You follow Anand first."

The crowd erupted in cheers, and Ranjit laughed with a wheezing sound.

Anand also smiled; he stood on tiptoe and patted Rajiv's shoulder hard, looking like an elder.

Ron guessed he also knew about the existence of the leper slum, otherwise he wouldn't have been so calm.

Ranjit instructed every man, woman, and child here to touch Ron's feet; they came forward with difficulty, knelt on the ground, and touched the tip of Ron's shoe with their leather-like stumps, without actually touching him.

Of course, Ron wouldn't really keep the boy named Rajiv with him, nor would he just abandon him to Anand.

At least he would have to go to the hospital for a check-up, and then run a few trips to Brazil with Luca.

In the future, Rajiv would represent him in the medicine smuggling business, killing two birds with one stone.

They chatted with Ranjit for a while longer before leaving, taking the canvas bag with them.

"God, how did they do it? This is simply incredible," Luca said excitedly, completely free of the gritting teeth he had when they arrived.

"We don't need to inquire about their secrets; the important thing is that we got the goods."

"That's right, I'll have my brother load the goods tomorrow; we've found a treasure trove."

Rajiv would be picked up by Anand in a week, at which point Ron would talk to Luca about turning the commission into an investment.