Thomas Gilbert, a small-time gang agent on the streets of Birmingham who is not picky about business and has absolutely no limits, overseas trade speculator, careerist, lobbyist...

This man was invited into Chen Yan's ship and sat at the restaurant table on the third floor below the deck. In front of him was a vegetable burger that had been eaten with no leaves left. He held a warm hamburger in his right hand.

The wooden water cup, the newly lit cigarette held in the left hand is emitting a beautiful dim red light.

Chen Yan sat across from him, tapping the table lightly and slowly with his index finger, without disturbing the other person's silence.

The atmosphere did not become awkward in the silence, and both men seemed to enjoy the silence.

Chen Yan's thoughts wandered to nowhere in such silence.

In fact, when he first saw Li Shoucheng, Chen Yan thought of his third uncle.

Li Shoucheng and his third uncle have similar temperaments. They are both like completely harmless uncles next door. They are relatively calm when speaking, and they even make people feel close to each other when their true colors are not revealed.

But there are too many differences in essence - Li Shoucheng is not as patient as the third uncle at all, and more vicious than the third uncle. There is no possibility of bargaining in front of him. He came here tonight just to show Chen Yan his ruthlessness and use.

Chen Yan’s value to complete the business.

And the third uncle...

Chen Yan missed his third uncle a little because he could talk about anything in front of his third uncle. His third uncle would even answer every stupid question he had and come up with solutions that at least seemed reasonable.

The badness of the third uncle is internal, unknown, and deeply hidden. Before being tricked by the third uncle, he would not feel that the third uncle is a bad person at all - most people can only think about the third uncle when facing the third uncle.

Let him be at his mercy, and face his third uncle with a heart that is grateful to him.

Thinking of this, Chen Yan recalled the startling glimpse at the zoo last night——

He saw his third uncle's face at that time. It was a pure dead face. Chen Yan had seen such a face when he was in school. It was soaked in formalin solution in the school's anatomy teaching room.

The corpse that had begun to rot in the container had that look on its face.

The third uncle became a tour guide at the zoo. The third uncle was alive, but not fully alive. And which third uncle was this third uncle?

Was it the third uncle who entered the zoo with him on the morning of the first snowy night and was later imprisoned in the cleaning car? (Chapter 115 Cleaning Car)

Or is it the third uncle who was killed by Chen Yan with Ogami's tears as a white skeleton named after a dragon? (Chapter 287 Crimson Blood)

Or...

Chen Yan couldn't understand because what happened to his third uncle had exceeded the limit of his cognition.

And now...

Chen Yan thought about himself and found the fact to be ridiculous and terrifying - after a normal Asian enters Yanan City, regardless of his previous identity, most of them will be labeled by Asian gangs. According to normal circumstances,

He should be a member of the gang, openly or secretly, in various capacities, controlled by gangsters like Uncle San, and make the greatest contribution to the gang's criminal activities.

He tried his best to avoid this situation, and succeeded due to luck and various reasons. He even killed his third uncle, the guy who was theoretically supposed to be his slave master.

After arriving on Days Island, he embarked on a path that he had tried hard to avoid.

At this moment, time seemed to go back to when he first came to Yanan City.

Is it fate?

But Chen Yan doesn't believe in fate. He only knows that everything that happens to him is the result of the arrangement and influence of various objective things and relationships.

“The burger is good.”

Thomas Gilbert's words interrupted Chen Yan's recollection of the past.

What he said next seemed to make him lose interest, because he put out most of the remaining cigarette butts on the plate.

"The gangs here do things differently from those in Yanan City."

The man spoke slowly. He leaned back on the back of the chair and stared at Chen Yan with his light blue eyes. There was no emotion or anger in his calm eyes.

"Uncle Li is different from the gangs in Yanan City."

He emphasized the matter again.

"He was one of the first immigrants to Dys Island. I heard that he originally planned to take a ferry to Yanan, but was attacked by pirates on the way and was forced to dock at Dys Island... It's all luck, Mr. Chen, it's all...

destiny."

As if to repay Chen Yan for his hospitality tonight, Thomas Gilbert spoke more than usual.

“For this island, the degree of power is nothing more than the difference between landing first and landing last.

Those mud-legged people - throwing a stone at the port of Yanan City can kill a bunch of rotten people. They were inspired by the primitive environment of the island to become ferocious in their hearts, and they owned the first street of Days Island.

They opened their own bar, and they made a living by forcing female waitresses to perform, sell contraband, and prey on new immigrants. They called themselves the Tie Gang."

Chen Yan repeated this awkward name:

"Tie Gang..."

Thomas Gilbert was silent for a few seconds, then lit a second cigarette.

While puffing away his breath, Thomas Gilbert said:

"Yes, Tie Gang, this is their method of punishment - they will slit the throat of those who disobey them and pull out the tongue from the wound, making it look like they are wearing a tie."

Chen Yan felt extremely mentally unwell.

Ever since he was able to develop synesthesia with people's emotions, his "feelings" have become very sensitive. Until now, he can even be stirred up inner changes by descriptions without emotional fluctuations. This may be because he has just been in the C-17 area.

Caused by loss of control?

Thinking of this, Chen Yan was a little overwhelmed.

The loss of control is irreversible. Only promotion can save him. But the next promotion is getting harder and harder, and there are no clues at all. How can he complete the promotion before the loss of control accumulates and corruption breaks out?

Like something impossible to do.

Thomas Gilbert did not have Chen Yan's ability, and obviously could not feel Chen Yan's changes in mood. He was still talking about what he thought he must tell Chen Yan:

"Methods like this are very effective, people will be afraid... most people will be afraid, even those pioneer teams sent to the island by the empire. After they know the methods of the Tie Gang, they will not easily come to the door to cause trouble, unless they come from

There is a conflict between the empire's orders and the interests of the Tie Gang, but such situations are rare. The captain of the pioneer team from the imperial capital is a confidant of a powerful person in the empire. The scope of autonomy in his hands is very wide, enough to allow

He made the decision not to conflict with the gangs and to give away some of his benefits."

Chen Yan said:

"It wasn't him who paid the price... he was the same thing as them."

Thomas Gilbert shifted his vision to Chen Yan's eyes.

He couldn't find the look he wanted to see.

So he continued the conversation according to the idea just now:

"Yes, Mr. Chen, he is the same thing as them. To them, people like us are just leeks that can be harvested at any time and grow every time."

Thomas Gilbert would say such words and have such understanding, which was really beyond Chen Yan's expectation.

"In such a disorderly environment, the Tie Gang's first business was a big success because of their methods - they obtained the license to recruit the second batch of immigrants on Days Island through coercion and inducement. Now Yanan City

The agency companies called those things 'licensed immigration consultants,' but at that time, Days Island's management was chaotic, and because the authority scale was relatively liberal, licensed immigration consultants at that time could basically be equated with black agents."

Chen Yan muttered:

"Is it the same thing as Tai Shenghe?"

Taisheng and the Asian gangs in Yanan City have focused on the immigration business for decades, and have already formed a complete black industry system based on squeezing the property, labor force, and body and mind of the new immigrants. Even those with impaired intelligence and limbs can survive as long as they leave.

They can also arrange this line clearly.

"Much worse than Tai Shenghe."

Thomas Gilbert smoked a cigarette and even couldn't help but shake his head slightly.

"We all have a misunderstanding, Mr. Chen. We think Tai Sheng He has no bottom line, and think that what Tai Sheng He did to you Asians is inhumane - this is a misunderstanding of them."

"In fact, Taishenghe respects the value of people. They will not deliberately destroy a person's own value, but find ways to bring out the value of people, and even use some relationships they have spent a lot of money to open up to release and develop

The value of a person.”

Chen Yan twitched his eyes and disagreed with Thomas Gilbert's statement.

"But gangs like the Tie Gang... they're terrible, Mr. Chen, they're terrible. I don't see any humanity in what they do. Even some of the things that gangs like me in Yanam City do - you say it's all about money."

A small gang that can even sell its own mother - when you watch some of the things they do, you will feel incredible."

He seemed a little anxious, and while puffing away his words, he mentioned some "business" that Chen Yan from the Tie Gang could not even imagine before.

He called those things business, but Chen Yan seemed to have nothing to do with business at all.

Thomas Gilbert's words seemed to be telling things that happened in another world. Those things sounded absurd and unruly, completely unacceptable and impossible to understand.

Chen Yan was obviously very disgusted, but he used his reason to force himself to listen. He wanted to know what kind of suffering people had experienced on this island, and he thought he needed to understand these sufferings.

That is a more outrageous reality than the origin of the "tie gang".

Thomas Gilbert's murmuring voice entered Chen Yan's cochlea along with the attenuated sound of waves lapping against the hull and entering the cabin through the hull. Those frightening and ubiquitous sounds seemed to come from the devil.

Accompanied by whispers——

After nightfall, there were wind and waves on the sea. Maybe it was due to the tide. The ship was shaking a little under the waves. Fortunately, the ceiling lights on the ship were fixed in the wall, so the light in the room did not shake. Chen Yan could only see

Get the swirling smoke and hear the vicious whispers coming through the smoke.
To be continued...