America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 114 Breaking Bad?

A pickup truck can't carry too many people. In order to bring the cans back smoothly, Zhang Ailun thought it over and decided to let the rest of the Beggars' Gang walk home, while he and Sig drove to the cabin in the suburbs.

On the drive to the suburbs, Faith grumbled and complained from the back, his head throbbing from the bumpy ride. "No women or Coco, fine, but there's not even a single leaf in the car. It's so clean you don't even smell secondhand smoke. How are you guys doing this?"

"Shut up, we're not like you." Zhang Ailun glared at him in the rearview mirror. "You live just to sleep with women and smoke opium?"

"Otherwise what?"

Fies retorted confidently.

"What else do you want me, this white piece of trash, to do? I'm a fucking cripple! Old and ugly! I get mistaken for a pervert when I go to bars to pick up girls!"

"Then you really are Frank himself," Zhang Ailun said sarcastically.

"What's Frank? I've been playing around much more than him all these years! Put cocoa in front of me, and I can tell what it's made of just by smelling it!" Faith Modern was not ashamed but proud.

"Then why don't you become a police dog?" Sig retorted sarcastically. "Maybe you'd get extra food every week!"

"Fxxk you! You big-headed soldier!" Fies cursed at everything and everyone.

"Fxxk you to!! You rotten drug addict!" Sieg didn't hold back. After the vehicle left the city and entered a suburban highway, he pulled out a gun and pointed it at Sieg's head. "If you say another word, I'll blow your head off!"

"Come on! Shoot if you dare! I don't believe you'd give up that $3000 can just to spite me!" Faith Modern glared at Sieg, looking like he was asking for trouble. He was just being stubborn.

Sieg was exasperated by his shamelessness. Seeing that he didn't fire, Fies continued to provoke him verbally.

Zhang Ailun immediately drew his gun, leaned out the window, fired a shot into the air, and pulled the trigger. Bang!

"..."

The two fell silent instantly.

Zhang Ailun holstered his pistol and glanced at the dumbfounded Faith through the rearview mirror.

"Call?"

"If you yell again, I'll really smash your head in! You can bet I'll do it."

"You're amazing," Fies replied honestly.

"Which way do we go at the next intersection?" Sig asked after driving smoothly for a while.

"Turn left. Turn right, then right again, go straight, follow the directional sign and turn right onto a small road. You'll see a small wooden house, that's it," Fez answered honestly.

Sieg drove the vehicle, twisting and turning, and soon arrived at his destination.

"Is this the little wooden house?"

Zhang Ailun got out of the car. Looking at the dilapidated house that was almost falling apart, he realized that houses like this were quite common in the suburbs and countryside.

"We used to plant leaves here, but that was a few years ago," Fies replied.

"Is someone inside?" Sig noticed a light flashing by.

"There are indeed people guarding this place, after all, it's our lifeline, but it will soon be yours." Fiss shrugged.

Zhang Ailun took out his pistol again. "Call the man out."

"Dude, it's just retrieving a jar! No need to act like we're dealing drugs!" Faith was really starting to lose his temper. "You guys are way too cautious! I've never seen anyone like you!"

"Now you see it."

Neither Zhang Ailun nor Sig paid him any attention. Sig, being more professional, simply took out a bulletproof vest and put it on.

Zhang Ailun hid behind the car, finding a good spot to set up his gun, ready to fire at any moment.

"A game with only one life? Who would joke with that?"

"Just consider me a coward." Zhang Ailun likes to tell the truth.

Who knows if a ruthless guy with a shotgun will suddenly jump out of a room in this high-level wilderness area and take you out with two shots!

Fez had no choice but to shout from afar, asking the people inside to come out.

Not long after, the light from the flashlight began to flicker inside.

"Don't you dare run away! It's me! I didn't bring a flashlight!" Fiss yelled into the house.

You still say you're not careful?

They hid a few cans, making it look like drug trafficking! They even used traffic lights.

Zhang Ailun and Sieg became even more certain that this kid was dishonest and there was a secret in the room!

The door was opened from the inside, and a middle-aged Black man wearing glasses walked out, carrying a shotgun.

"Hey!! Hands up!!" Sig instinctively ducked to the side, raised his hands, and shouted.

After seeing the other person's skin color and the weapon in their hand, Zhang Ailun was stunned for less than a second before firing!

Several loud bangs rang out, and flames shot out, but no one was hit. The bullets disappeared somewhere.

"Okay, okay! I'll put the gun down right now!! It's just a toy! There are no bullets inside!!"

Old Hei was terrified the moment he heard the gunshot. He raised his shotgun and knelt on the ground, yelling, "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!!"

"Oh shit!!" Faithmodern collapsed to the ground, clutching his head.

Sieg cautiously stepped forward, gun in hand.

He picked up the shotgun from the ground, examined it, and found that, as he said, it was indeed empty, and the rifling of the old shotgun was broken.

"What are you doing bringing out that piece of junk gun?" Sieg grumbled.

"To prevent others from provoking us." Old Black's face turned pale with fright, and he was sweating profusely. He was just a hair's breadth away from being killed.

I never said that doing this job would attract gangsters and assassins!

Zhang Ailun walked over and said with a sigh, "Dude, you're really lucky."

"Isn't it because your aim is terrible?"

Sieg harshly criticized, "Don't shoot at everyone you see! You're too excited! You're behaving like a rookie! Completely unqualified! If you did that in the army, you'd definitely be discharged. Looks like I'll have to give you some special training."

Zhang Ailun had nothing to say. He wasn't a professional to begin with, and his shooting skills were indeed those of a novice; all he knew was how to pull the trigger.

He's fine with one-on-one street fights, but if you ask him to shoot someone, all he can do is empty his magazine and kill the other person the moment they meet; he can't control anything else.

There's a shotgun on the other side! And it's a Black man! If I don't fire first, am I just going to wait to die?

I was thinking, since I've already chosen to fire, why should I leave him a few rounds of ammunition?

Because I am kind?

"Something's fishy about this room!!" After subduing the two, Sieg smelled a strong chemical odor as soon as he entered the room.

Zhang Ailun also recognized the smell. He walked over and lifted the black heat-insulating plastic sheet, where he found a proper beaker and some glassware. The bottles and jars contained blue liquids as well as other colorful ones, and the pungent smell was coming from them.

I understood what this thing was almost instantly.

Zhang Ailun turned to the two men who were clutching their heads and questioned them, "Are you growing dung here again? And are you also producing other drugs at the same time?"

"I only make some occasionally," Faith readily admitted. "Although this guy is Black, he's quite educated and knows some chemistry. He once tried to make some low-quality ice. But he could only use it himself; the quality was too poor to sell."

"You fucking Breaking Bad!!" Zhang Ailun was shocked. How could they make drugs in such a rudimentary environment?!

I didn't really want to get involved; I just wanted to grab the jar and leave as quickly as possible.

Get lost, and don't let your blood splatter on me.

Zhang Ailun turned around and kicked the table, scattering bottles and jars all over the floor and smashing them to pieces.

"No!!!" Seeing his hard work destroyed, the black man next to Faith screamed, immediately clutching his head and kneeling on the ground, hysterically wailing, "My $1000!!"

Fies rolled his eyes nonchalantly, showing no sign of heartache, and said casually as if nothing had happened: "Go ahead and smash it. Out with the old, in with the new."

Zhang Ailun suddenly began to admire him. Those who achieve great things don't concern themselves with trifles.

The Black man then launched into a tirade: "Of course you don't care, because I bought all the equipment and materials! I didn't earn a single cent with you, I even lost at least a thousand dollars!! Bullshit!!"

Fies gave an awkward laugh: "What could I do? They insisted on smashing it. Were I supposed to stop them from smashing it? Why didn't you stop them?"

"Nonsense, if I dared to stand up, he would have shot me right away!" Old Hei was quite aware of his own limitations.

"Are you two going to take the postgraduate entrance exam together?" Zhang Ailun was speechless.

Sieg quickly found the pile of jars. Although he didn't have Dominic's keen eye, he learned the essence of it and, after a rough estimate, came to the approximate value of the jars.

"If these cans were sold in bulk through a recycling machine, they could fetch around $3600! But if sold to a recycling center, they'd only get $2900-$3000."

"Then what are we waiting for! Take them all! Old Karl isn't in a hurry for the money. We'll only need to give him $1000, since he hasn't paid us our $2000 reward yet."

Upon hearing this good news, Zhang Ailun immediately beamed with joy. Isn't this a perfect opportunity for the middleman to make a profit?

He patted the other man on the shoulder, "Good bro, we're even. You keep eating your cheap ice, and we'll keep selling our cans. If anything goes wrong, you're dead meat!!"

"Okay..." Fies replied, feeling frustrated.

"Furthermore, I've taken over your territory. From now on, you're not allowed to beg or collect cans on the streets." Zhang Ailun made an outrageous demand to annex the other party's sphere of influence.

"Alright, you can have the cans on the street. Anyway, we only have less than ten people left, and we won't make much money picking up cans." After a brief consideration, Fiss agreed.

There's nothing we can do if they don't agree, is there?

The leader held a gun to his forehead, waving it back and forth in front of his eyes.

Those who understand the caliber are the heroes!

Don't let your hands shake!

"But the community cannot be handed over to you," Fies said.

Zhang Ailun frowned and immediately raised his right hand.

Fies felt a throbbing pain in his face and quickly covered it to explain, "Don't you know? There was a series of murders in the neighborhood we're responsible for! A sheriff died! It's been redeveloped and the sanitation work has been contracted out to the city government. Dealing with them is troublesome and complicated. We haven't gained any advantage."

"You can't really make any money collecting cans there. You can only occasionally sell some low-quality leaves in the community and resell some old furniture. Your business is so big, you probably wouldn't care about the profits from a few impoverished communities, right?"

Zhang Ailun genuinely didn't intend to deal with sanitation workers, nor did he want to go against the municipal bureau, lest he cause himself too much trouble.

After careful consideration, he decided not to take over the other party's community and asked, "How many streets do you currently manage?"

This guy handed over the territory so readily; he definitely has ulterior motives. Maybe he's still up to no good and wants to shift his business to drug trafficking?

"I only have nine blocks left now, and my territory is just two intersections away from yours, Lori Louis 19," Faith said helplessly. "I can give you all the cans on the street, but the only condition is that you can't stop us from doing other business there!"

"For example?" Zhang Ailun asked.

Fies rubbed his hands together and chuckled, "Of course, it's a money-making business. Besides leaves, cocoa, morphine, and sex work, what else brings in money the fastest?"

"Robbing banks makes more money, why don't you do it?" Zhang Ailun sneered.

There are still many unlicensed ATMs on the streets of poor neighborhoods; isn't that all a business opportunity?

In the middle of the night, they drove a dump truck and smashed through walls, dragging an ATM machine along the way, where it kept accumulating gold coins.

"This isn't a job we're capable of doing," Fies replied.

Have you ever seen a homeless person recklessly rob a bank? Zero-dollar purchases are done in groups, risking their lives and going to jail; going alone is a sure way to get into trouble.

"We can't agree to his offer. If this guy gets caught selling leaves on our turf by the police, the interrogation will definitely implicate our own people, and they'll start cracking down on homeless people in the neighborhood!"

Sieg immediately advised Zhang Ailun to refuse his request, lest he lose more than he gained.

Zhang Ailun nodded.

"Don't even think about it. If they're gang members, we can't control them selling drugs on the street or running bars and clubs. Maybe even the sheriff in charge of neighborhood security gets a cut. But homeless people aren't allowed to do that kind of work in my territory! You have to go to other neighborhoods to sell drugs." Zhang Ailun directly rejected the cooperation request, having never intended to agree to it in the first place.

"You guys are too domineering!!" Fiss was a little annoyed. "Do you want a piece of the pie too? Of course you can, as long as you invest some money in me! We can split the profits 30/70."

"How come it's only 70%?" Zhang Ailun asked, somewhat dissatisfied.

"Seventy percent of it is mine!!"

Fies retorted angrily, "You're just investing money to buy raw materials; the workers are all my people! A 30% return is already pretty good; it's difficult for me too!"

"Difficult? Then don't do it! If you want to attract investment, go find someone else. This is out of the question!"

Zhang Ailun remained unmoved. Glancing at the time, he realized it was getting late and immediately mobilized his free labor: "Go! Help us move all the cans onto the truck. And you, you educated black guy, you go too!"

"Hey! I'm disabled!" Fies complained.

"I have a name, this is racism!" the old black man muttered.

"If you keep nagging, I'll turn you into reptiles!" Zhang Ailun's threat worked, and the two immediately began operating the cans. But there were simply too many cans, each worth $3000, and even in their compressed state, their pickup truck couldn't hold them all.

"How did you manage to get the tanks here? Didn't you have a vehicle?" Zhang Ailun asked.

Sig also searched for vehicle tracks nearby, but obviously found nothing. There was nothing around; it was truly a desolate wilderness.

"Don't bother looking, we rented a truck to bring it here." Faith limped as he carried the cans onto the pickup truck, muttering, "Just wrap them with duct tape and rope twice! Okay? Like this!"

They quickly and efficiently secured the can to the pickup truck, fulfilling their duty.

"Use your brains! Okay? This is exhausting. If only I could have a cigarette right now, and if there were a girl with good oral skills, that would be the perfect reward for my hard work!"

Is the urge to criticize acting up again?

Zhang Ailun saw that he still looked like he was complaining about everything. When he was sober, his brain and hands were indeed quite sharp, but unfortunately, he was a poisonous insect.

It's a shame not to tighten the screws.

"Remember this: don't sell your goods on my turf, or you'll be spending your life in jail! That's the best-case scenario! If you don't listen, this land will definitely become your graveyard!"

After giving the other party a warning, Zhang Ailun and Sieg got into the car and turned it around.

He stepped on the gas and drove off the side road, speeding away.

"My luck is really bad," Fiss sighed. "How did I end up running into such a jinx?"

Old Hei looked up at the sky and sighed, "I think I should go back to teaching."

(End of this chapter)