Reborn in 1993, Dark Sea

2 a.m.

As the hustle and bustle of Baoshan District gradually subsided, most of the night market stalls on the street were left with only one or two tables of diners drinking and chatting loudly about the international situation.

The small vendors, who had been busy all night, were counting their day's earnings. After counting the money in their cash boxes, they would take out a 5-yuan bill and place it under a brick before pushing their various carts home, exhausted.

Five dollars is today's protection fee. It's not much, but it's not little either. However, the vendors are willing to pay this money because the person collecting the money can indeed provide them with protection.

Once you pay this 5 yuan, no one will dare to cause trouble in front of your stall, and even if you arrive late the next day, no one will dare to take your spot.

Of course, you can choose not to pay. If you don't pay the protection fee, no one will bother you. But if you accidentally get into trouble, no one will stand up for you either. You'll just have to fend for yourself.

Doing business outside, especially at night, always involves some troubles. It's always best to have someone look out for you. Anyway, it's not too expensive, and everyone is satisfied. This is much better than before.

In the past, groups of thugs would come one after another to collect protection money. Even if they took the money, they wouldn't necessarily do anything. They would often bring people over to eat and drink for free, which made normal diners avoid them and greatly affected the business.

That's considered good. It's not uncommon for someone to hold a knife to your neck and rob you of all your money on your way home from your stall.

Nowadays, such things have almost disappeared in Baoshan District, and the street thugs seem to have vanished overnight.

The young men who come to collect protection money every day are all neatly dressed, speak very politely, and sometimes even help the stall owners pack up their stalls. They always pay for their food and never bother other customers.

Thugs from other districts who dare to cause trouble in Baoshan District will definitely not have a good time, which makes the nights in Baoshan District much more prosperous.

Two Jetta cars slowly drove by and stopped outside a remote urban village.

After getting out of the car, the savage jogged around and opened the back door, then together with Acha, helped An Xiaohai, who was sitting in the back seat, out of the car.

Meanwhile, Mai Xiaoyu stopped her motorcycle across the street, found a small stall, ordered a bowl of wontons, and watched An Xiaohai and the others walk into the shadows of the urban village.

A person walked towards them and was startled when he saw An Xiaohai and his group. He was about to greet them with a look of surprise on his face, but An Xiaohai stopped him.

This man's surname is Wu. He is one of Wang Bulai's brothers. He is quite old, probably in his forties. He used to sell lamb skewers on the street, but somehow he ended up hanging out with Wang Bulai and his gang, and he has been following him around ever since.

"Old Wu, what happened to your head? Who hit you?" An Xiaohai frowned as he looked at Old Wu, whose head was wrapped in gauze, and asked in a low voice.

Old Wu held a fairly high position among Wang Bulai's group, and logically speaking, no one in Baoshan District should dare to mess with him.

"My wife beat me up, hehe!" Old Wu chuckled slyly. "I just went out to wash my feet, and that wild woman at home smelled it, grabbed a frying pan, and cracked my skull open. What bad luck! I'm going back to deal with her right now, hehe!"

An Xiaohai almost laughed, but then thought it might be inappropriate: "You too, you squander every penny you have. Can't you just live a simple life?"

"Hehe, Brother Hai is right, Brother Hai is right!"

"Hey Hai, you better watch out! I saw your wanted poster on TV during the day—a nationwide manhunt! ...But Hai, how did you get involved with drug dealers? Is there some misunderstanding?"

Although Lao Wu hesitated, he still asked the question that had been on his mind. He remembered that An Xiaohai had repeatedly emphasized that you could do anything, but you must never sell drugs, and that anyone found to be involved in drugs would be expelled from the party.

How could Hai Ge possibly be a member of a drug trafficking organization?

"It was definitely a misunderstanding. I was going to take down those drug dealers, but then the police showed up, and... what a damn bad luck!"

"Oh, I see. That's good, that's good!"

"What are you saying? Didn't you know Hai-ge was injured? You're alright? What do you mean, alright?!" The savage shoved Old Wu, wanting to punch him, but was stopped by An Xiaohai.

"Fine, he means it's okay since I'm not involved with drug dealers, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes! That's exactly what I meant! I'm so sorry, Brother Hai!" Old Wu finally realized his grammatical error and was so startled he almost broke out in a sweat: "Brother Hai, are you going to see Doctor Yu?"

"Yes, he's here, isn't he?"

"Yes, I just came from there. There's no one there right now!"

"Okay, you go back and settle accounts with your wife. I'll go find him and see."

Don't tell anyone I'm here, including A-Lai and the others. I'm involved in something serious, so you guys shouldn't get involved. Don't get everyone involved, understand what I mean?

"I understand, but Hai-ge, everyone is worried about you, especially A-lai and Xie-dan. Aren't you really going to tell them?"

"No, I'm going to see Dr. Yu and then I'll be leaving Shenhai City. I don't know when I'll be able to come back. Let's leave it at that, so as not to make everyone sad."

"Well... okay, Hai-ge, be careful and take care!"

"I'll be careful, go back now."

After saying goodbye to Lao Wu, An Xiaohai continued walking towards Dr. Yu's clinic with the help of Yeren and Acha. Just as they arrived at the entrance of Dr. Yu's clinic, they bumped into Dr. Yu opening the door and carrying a rather large travel bag.

When Dr. Yu realized that the person in front of him was An Xiaohai, he trembled violently, a look of fear flashed across his face, and he dropped his travel bag to the ground.

An Xiaohai stared at Dr. Yu for a while, then looked at the travel bag lying on the ground, and smiled: "Dr. Yu, it's so late, where are you going?"

"I...I...I'm visiting a relative!" Doctor Yu forced himself to suppress his panic and answered somewhat incoherently.

"Oh, visiting relatives? I got a little injured and wanted to see you. I hope that won't interfere with your visit?"

"No...no, Brother Hai, please...come in..." Dr. Yu quickly opened the clinic door and turned to walk into the clinic, even forgetting to pay attention to the travel bag on the ground.

An Xiaohai gave the wild man a wink, and the wild man bent down to pick up the travel bag that Doctor Yu had left behind, and helped An Xiaohai into the clinic.

Upon entering the treatment room, An Xiaohai took off his coat, and Dr. Yu began to treat his wounds.

After Dr. Yu began treating the wound, he quickly calmed down. His slightly trembling hands gradually became steady, and his panicked expression quickly disappeared, replaced by the composure and calmness characteristic of a doctor.

An Xiaohai couldn't help but nod in approval. Dr. Yu was a true doctor; his professionalism and ethics had helped him overcome his fear in such a short time.

The infected area of ​​the wound was quite large. Dr. Yu first cut the sutures, carefully cleaned the pus with disinfectant, and then applied some medicine to the wound before starting to suture An Xiaohai's wound again.

Dr. Yu's technique was extremely skillful, and the entire procedure was completed in less than half an hour.

The work was finished, but fear once again overcame his focus and rationality. Dr. Yu's expression became extremely unnatural, and his body trembled slightly again.

"I'll go get you some medicine," Doctor Yu said, getting up to go to another room to get the medicine, only to find that the door was blocked by the Wild Man and Acha, both with strange smiles on their faces.

Dr. Yu was startled and turned to look at An Xiaohai with a look of horror on his face.

"Brother Hai, don't worry, I will never tell anyone that you came here, believe me! All these years, I've never betrayed anyone, trust me, Brother Hai!"

An Xiaohai did not answer, but looked at Doctor Yu with a half-smile. After a few seconds of stalemate, Doctor Yu finally could not hold on any longer and knelt down in front of An Xiaohai with a thud.

"Brother Hai, please let me go! Please let me go! I really won't tell anyone! Waaah..." Doctor Yu covered his mouth and cried bitterly. Even though he was crying, he was suppressing his sobs and making a loud noise.

An Xiaohai stared at Doctor Yu without saying a word until he had cried for a while and his emotions had calmed down a bit. Then he waved his hand and said, "You guys go outside and wait for me. I have something to talk to Doctor Yu about alone."

The savage and Acha nodded, walked out of the room together, and closed the door behind them.

"You're afraid of me," An Xiaohai said with a smile.

Dr. Yu nodded vigorously.

"Why are you afraid of me?"

"I saw the news. You killed a lot of police officers. You're a wanted criminal. I'm afraid you'll kill me to silence me."

"No, that's not it!" An Xiaohai waved his index finger. "You're afraid of me not because I'm a wanted criminal, but because after seeing the news, you suddenly realized that this 'Brother Hai' of Apojiao Village is actually An Xiaohai from there, right?"

"Ah!..." Doctor Yu let out a miserable cry and collapsed to the ground.

------

Outside the clinic, a dozen people had gathered at the fork in the road leading to the clinic. Wang Bulai, Peng Li, and Xie Dan were among them.

Although An Xiaohai had told Lao Wu not to tell anyone about his visit, Lao Wu dared not keep quiet! If Wang Bulai and his gang found out later, he would definitely be beaten to death!

Old Wu had a hunch that offending Brother Hai might offer a glimmer of hope, but offending Wang Bulai and his gang would surely lead to a terrible end.

Between two evils, choose the lesser; Old Wu decisively betrayed An Xiaohai.

However, this was because Lao Wu firmly believed that Wang Bulai and his gang would never harm An Xiaohai, which is why he dared to do this. If it were the police or other gangs, they would never say a word.

Wang Bulai didn't dare to disturb An Xiaohai, so he just squatted by the roadside smoking. They now felt that this was very unseemly, but they were used to it and it was really hard to change.

Wang Bulai would take a drag of his cigarette and glance towards the alley entrance, waiting for An Xiaohai to come out so he could meet him and exchange a few words. Everyone knew that once An Xiaohai left, no one knew when he would return.

Just then, Tang Xiaobo and several young police officers in plainclothes sat down at a nearby night market stall, ordered some food, and began to eat.

"Ah Lai, what should we do?" Peng Li nudged Wang Bu with his elbow and asked.

"Don't rush, ignore them for now. They might leave after they finish eating. Old Wu!" Wang Bulai said in a low voice, gritting his teeth, and gave Old Wu a wink.

Old Wu immediately understood and left in another direction. Once he was out of Tang Xiaobo and the others' sight, Old Wu took off running and circled around towards the small clinic.

puff!

Seeing Old Wu with a bandage wrapped around his head, running fast with his big belly, Mai Xiaoyu, who was eating wontons across the street, couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of soup.