Chapter 160 Death and Serenity
Yanlan leaned back and looked up at Lin Cai, tilting her head slightly in confusion. "We're indoors now."
Although the shed looked dilapidated from the outside, it was surprisingly warm inside, especially for taking care of the children, as the temperature was kept very comfortable.
Lin Cai shook her head: "I'm just cold," she said softly.
“And Lanlan, the Inner World is full of these kinds of people,” Lin Cai paused, swallowing back the word “inferior species” that almost slipped out, and replacing it with a gentler word, “refugees. It’s quite normal.”
During the time she was wanted and traveling the world collecting spiritual powers, Lin Cai visited many places in the underworld.
Almost every city-state has similar shantytowns, areas that are ignored by the city-state's rulers.
For an ordinary person with meager knowledge of inspiration and practically zero combat skills, no matter how much they have, they can't come up with any new tricks.
Yanlan's expression turned serious: "Lin Cai, this is not normal. They can't even be considered refugees."
“Refugees are still people.” She paused, her gaze returning to the boss sitting opposite her. “But these people, without identification codes, are not even considered ‘people’.”
Yanlan's expression was mocking.
“The other world is wrong,” she murmured, her voice low but undeniably firm.
Lin Cai: "But it can't be changed, Lanlan."
She explained to Yanlan very seriously: "The Inner World is very large, and it exists in almost all human cities. In addition to human territories, there are also non-human territories."
"You can't save him."
“How can you know the outcome if you don’t try?” Yanlan laughed. “What I hate most is the impossible. Nothing is impossible.”
Lin Cai looked at her silently, and the familiar feeling of helplessness washed over her again.
She interrupted, "Lanlan, what does death feel like?"
Yanlan looked at her with a puzzled expression.
Yanlan's Undead Halberd had already been put away after entering the house.
Lin Cai asked again, "Lanlan, what does death feel like?"
Yanlan: "Death is the feeling that everything is over."
"It's over." Lin Cai repeated the word slowly. "Isn't that scary?"
“How can an ending be scary?” Yan Lan laughed. “An ending is the final outcome of everything.”
You've ended it all, but what about those left behind?
Lin Cai moved her lips but didn't make a sound.
Yanlan turned back to continue her conversation with the boss.
Lin Cai stared at her for a long time.
Because death is not frightening to Yanlan, she can face death directly and, while mastering the art of death, she does not feel the same fear as the ordinary deceased.
How could she hate this world? Yanlan loves this world so much.
But Lanlan, my dearest friend.
If you love this world so much, even if it's the worst it can be, why can't you cherish me a little more?
---
Lin Cai's condition is not right.
As the shantytown owner tearfully recounted his situation, Yan Shi listened while simultaneously keeping an eye on Lin Cai's movements.
Ever since Lin Cai knelt down before her boss, her presence vanished instantly.
It seemed to blend into the night.
Although she was still standing behind Yan Shi, she was not noticeable unless you looked closely.
The feeling Yan Shi got was similar to that of the bodyguards who reportedly followed her closely during one of her previous business trips.
This is certainly not normal.
Those who were sent to follow Yan Shi were all members of the Execution Department who had been selected through multiple rounds of screening and whose main abilities and combat methods were individual stealth, assassination, and protection.
Lin Cai couldn't control her aura so perfectly. At least, she couldn't right now.
Is Lin Cai using a substitute player again?
Yan Shi was somewhat puzzled.
So after Lin Cai finally spoke, Yan Shi raised his hand to signal his boss to stop his presentation and turned his gaze to her.
Yan Shi asked the boss about the situation in the shantytown purely out of curiosity.
Lin Cai's cautious tone and disagreement with Yan Shi's intervention in the shed area were equally interesting.
Before Yan Shi even realized what he had said, his rebuttal had already slipped out.
Yan Shi: ...
Although Lin Cai's judgment about the shantytown was wrong, the residents living in the shantytown were definitely not good people either.
Yan Shi was fully aware of this.
They couldn't possibly be good if they wanted to survive. To be precise, there are no good people in the underworld.
Therefore, Yan Shi was very wary from the moment his boss opened his mouth.
Yan Shi did want to change some of the current situation.
The main target is the boss's claims that money can allow unregistered people to set up stalls and do business in the city, and that money can make the devil turn the millstone—all completely illegal behaviors.
It's time to crack down on a group of corrupt officials who are not doing their jobs.
Moreover, in the short time she had accompanied the boss to the shantytown, so many people had already gathered to ambush her; the news spread too fast.
The entire city, like her headquarters, was leaky.
Negative review.
Yan Shi was already planning where to start making changes after the Novano Port incident ended and the Foreign Affairs Bureau took complete control of Novano Port. The boss sitting opposite her was introducing the situation in the shantytown, his eyes becoming redder and his emotions more and more agitated as he spoke. By the end, he was sobbing uncontrollably.
“Sir…” she choked out, her words broken, “Thank you. We struggle to survive, ignored like this, unregistered since birth, with no living being to give us a choice. This is the first time someone has said that this is wrong.”
"Thank you... sir." She lowered her head as she spoke, trying her best to hide her embarrassment.
Yan Shi: "Mm."
We also need to thoroughly investigate the matter of the Freedom Alliance collecting protection money in the shantytown.
As a gray area in the underworld, the shantytown is inhabited by unregistered residents who naturally do not pay taxes.
The protection fee paid to the Freedom Alliance was essentially a disguised form of the Freedom Alliance collecting taxes on behalf of the Freedom Authority for the shantytowns.
While reasonable, from the perspective of the Special Administration Bureau, it represents a relinquishment of some power.
It needs to be rectified.
If the case is successful, there are countless such zones in the Otherworld, and the Bureau of Extraterrestrial Affairs' financial report next year will definitely look very good.
A good-looking financial report deserves a raise for the entire bureau.
She really loves her job.
Yan Shi applauded himself in his heart.
Because of Yan Shi's cold response, the boss's subsequent question about asking for money got stuck in his throat.
"By the way," Yan Shi asked, "besides food, clothing, housing, and transportation, what other major expenses do you usually have?"
Let her take a look and see if there's anything else that needs special attention during the rectification process.
Seeing an opportunity, the boss hurriedly said, "And there's tuition too."
Yan Shi: "...Can I go to school without an ID code?"
She found that she still did not have a clear understanding of the current chaotic management model of Port Novano.
The boss sensed the sarcasm in Yan Shi's ambiguous smile and immediately stopped talking. "Of course... no, it's just a small classroom that we set up ourselves in the shantytown."
"For our cubs, this is what going to school means."
The residents of the shantytown mainly practice speaking human language to humans and ghost language to ghosts.
Yan Shi sensed the problem in those words and his gaze returned to the certificate of merit of the boss's daughter, Bu Shuo, which was pasted on the wall.
The certificate is stamped with the school's official seal.
Novano Port Third Primary School
Yan Shi: "Wow. A small classroom set up by the shantytown itself, what a coincidence, it shares the same name as the primary school in Novano Port."
boss:...
A sorrowful expression froze on his face.
Lin Cai also looked at the certificates on the wall and burst out laughing.
The shed fell silent for a moment.
Yan Shi's phone suddenly vibrated.
Yan looked down and saw Yu Youguan.
[Night Without Dreams: Yanlan, where are you?]
Yan Shi casually opened the Lingxin chat box to reply.
[Yanlan: Slum area.]
[Night Without Dreams: Yanlan, are you in the shantytown right now?]
[Night Without Dreams: It's quite complicated there. Aska tried to manage it before, but got ripped off for a huge sum of money.]
[Night Dreams: If Director Yan wants to get involved, I suggest he talk to the Freedom Alliance first.]
[Night Dreams: If you're just looking for someone to do something for you, you've come to the right place. With the right money, they can do anything here.]
[Nighttime Dream Watching: They're all a bunch of lunatics.]
[Yanlan: Can they do anything? Aren't they all just ordinary people with barely any spiritual senses and very low strength?]
[Not observing dreams at night: therefore, they are audacious and unscrupulous.]
That's quite interesting.
There is no doubt that urban institutions that can trade with those in the shantytowns must be rectified, and the shantytowns cannot be left unattended.
Yu Youguan said that Aska had been swindled out of a large sum of money in the shantytown before.
Yan Shi estimated that, besides Aska and Lin Cai, there were many others who had been scammed in the shantytown.
At the same time, judging from the interior decoration of this boss's house, it can be said that the boss is not rich, but he is by no means particularly short of money.
So, the fact that the residents of the shantytown have money and still want to live there means that they can no longer move into the city.
The only problem is a lack of status and ability.
Choose one of the two.
This is also the starting point for understanding the shantytown area.
Author's Note: Chapters 159-164 have undergone major plot revisions and are now complete.
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