novelraw Chapter 1304 - 1302: The Dark Side
Chapter 1304 - 1302: The Dark Side
Not long after, everyone gathered. At this moment, Huangmao cleared his throat and finally began to speak formally: "Each of your departments should choose a few children and take them along. No need for special care—just keep doing what you usually do. If the kids have questions, just answer them directly. Got it?"
"Got it!"
"Got it!"
...
The small-time leaders under Huangmao, upon hearing such instructions, could only immediately agree. Even if they didn’t understand, they had to act like they did. After all, wasn’t it just taking a few kids to do things? Nothing complicated—just do as they normally would.
After speaking, each of them walked over to the children, each leading a few kids away.
Once the children left, Huangmao then asked Lin Feng, "Boss, why are you suddenly doing this? My operations are mostly in the gray area. Having the kids witness all this isn’t good for their growth!"
Looking at Lin Feng, Huangmao couldn’t suppress his thoughts. He genuinely wanted to know Lin Feng’s intent in exposing the children to his line of work.
"The kids need to understand certain truths about the world—things that can’t be explained clearly through words alone. By seeing what happens at your place firsthand, they’ll gain a better understanding that this world isn’t solely filled with sunlight; there is darkness too. After experiencing such things, their hearts will settle," Lin Feng explained to Huangmao. This world doesn’t just have the bright side—there’s also a shadowy side. Only by making the kids experience both can they fully grasp the nature of this world.
"Boss, it hasn’t been very peaceful here lately."
"What’s been happening?"
"Some cultivators have been appearing nearby."
"They’re just loose cultivators. Don’t overthink it."
...
After that, Huangmao invited Lin Feng into his office, where they chatted. Recently, Huangmao had sensed something unusual, feeling uneasy deep down, as though something major was about to happen...
Meanwhile, the children split into several groups, each leaving with one of Huangmao’s subordinates. Specifically, Xia Jianping and a few other kids followed a tall, skinny man with a pale complexion devoid of blood. This man led them to a nightclub. The nightclub’s heavy metal music made the children uneasy; they couldn’t understand why such a chaotic environment drew so many people, all crazily dancing about. They couldn’t make sense of what those people were doing.
"Today, you’ll follow me. This nightclub is under our protection. Here, we only have to do two things: first, catch drug dealers—once caught, send them straight to the police station. Second, ensure no one causes trouble. That’s all," explained the man nicknamed Brother Ghost, noticing the children’s expressions. His duties were relatively simple and didn’t require much running around.
"We don’t understand what drugs are, but we get what it means to stop trouble." Xia Jianping genuinely didn’t understand what drug dealing was, but he understood the need to prevent disturbances there. This was something he knew how to handle. The other kids nodded as well—they could only grasp the general idea; as for the specifics, they’d have to learn as situations arose.
"Brother Ghost, can you tell us why people act like this? This environment is just too unbearable."
"Nowadays, society has many people who find life meaningless and seek thrills."
"This is considered thrilling?"
"Yep. They’re all venting their day-to-day pressures here."
"..."
...
With nothing else happening, Xia Jianping proactively chatted with Brother Ghost about the nightclub. Deep down, he and the other kids were still gloomy—they couldn’t understand Brother Ghost’s explanations. But judging by how happy the crowd seemed, they couldn’t fathom what was so enjoyable here.
When people got excited, drank too much, and lost control, incidents happened—just as Xia Jianping and Brother Ghost were talking, a fight suddenly broke out in the nightclub’s dance floor among five individuals.
"Let’s go," Brother Ghost said calmly, having seen such occurrences many times. He then led the children to where the fight was happening.
At that point, Brother Ghost’s subordinates had already separated the five individuals and pulled them aside to a nightclub corner, awaiting Brother Ghost’s personal handling. Looking at the combatants, Brother Ghost asked them calmly, "Explain, what happened here?"
"Those two were provoking us—they actually groped our butts!" A slightly chubby middle-aged man shouted. Being groped by a woman was one thing; being groped by a man—if he didn’t get angry at this, what would that make him?
"Exactly, they’re the ones! We caught them, but they said they wanted to sleep with us! Disgusting as hell!" added a slim, tall, and handsome young man in anger. He’d never encountered anything like this before and was baffled by what was happening.
"Those two are freaks—it’s all because of them!" lastly snarled a muscular, medium-built man, visibly furious. The whole situation disgusted him to his core. If it weren’t for the consequences of fighting here, he’d have physically dealt with those two creeps long ago.
Despite the outrage from the three men, the other two didn’t seem to care.
"Yep, we groped you. You three look great—name your price for spending the night with us."
"I just like you guys, especially that chubby one—you’re really sexy!"
The two somewhat effeminate men continued their provocative comments, brazenly ignoring the crowd. What was wrong with groping someone’s butt? They couldn’t help it—these three men were just too sexy with those shapely backsides!
Brother Ghost grasped the situation and signaled to his nearby subordinate. Huangmao’s men promptly rushed in, grabbing the two creeps and dragging them out of the nightclub’s back alley. No matter how much they struggled, it was useless—they were hauled away into the alley behind the nightclub.
"Sorry about this—they’re ours now. Carry on with your enjoyment," Brother Ghost said briefly to the three men after his subordinates took the creeps away. He then led the children to follow.
"Ah..."
"It hurts like hell, you ******..."
...
Before even reaching the alley, the chilling screams of the two creeps echoed in the children’s ears, sending shivers down their spines. They hadn’t expected people in the Secular World to dish out such harsh punishment. When they entered the alley, Brother Ghost’s subordinates stopped beating the men, waiting for his next orders.
Brother Ghost walked up to the two men sprawled on the ground, lightly slapped their faces with the back of his hand, and sneered coldly: "You’re bold, huh? Coming here to cause trouble and upsetting my customers. If I don’t deal with you, how will my clients feel safe coming here in the future?"
"We’re sorry..."
"Please, let us go..."
...
Their earlier arrogance was gone—they begged Brother Ghost for mercy, hoping he’d let them off.
"Let you go? Sure, but we need to leave something behind to remember you by. The usual rule!" Brother Ghost sneered and gestured for his subordinates to act.
Experienced in such matters, the subordinates pounced and thrashed the two men until they couldn’t move. Then, they stripped them of their clothes. With the weather turning colder, the naked duo crouched on the ground, shivering uncontrollably.
If they thought this was the end, they were sorely mistaken. To their horror, one of Brother Ghost’s subordinates pulled out a digital camera. The others held them down and began snapping intimate photos. The two men froze—those photos, if leaked, would be devastating.
As their faces turned pale, terrified by the implications, Brother Ghost’s subordinates finished taking the photos and released them. Brother Ghost’s voice rang out in the alley then.
"You can leave. Feel free to come back—but behave yourselves. If you act out again, these photos will spread all over Tianhai City within an hour. You know what I mean," Brother Ghost warned, making a dismissive gesture and walking off with his subordinates and the kids.
Just after leaving, Xia Jianping asked Brother Ghost, "Brother Ghost, why not just beat them up? Why did you need to take pictures?"
"Guys like them usually have some connections. With the photos, they’ll be cautious. It’s that simple. Without something to hold over them, they’ll act recklessly," Brother Ghost explained to Xia Jianping. It was his tried-and-true method for avoiding future trouble.
"Oh, so that’s how it works," Xia Jianping nodded, realizing Brother Ghost’s approach was indeed effective. With photos as leverage, people wouldn’t dare cause problems.
The group returned to the nightclub. After witnessing this incident, Xia Jianping and the other kids figured out how to handle future situations. They patrolled the nightclub, and at one point, saw a group of men taking away a drunk woman. Though they wanted to intervene, Brother Ghost stopped them, explaining that everyone is responsible for their actions. These situations happened daily—it was impossible to manage them all.
Gradually, the children became familiar with the darker side of the world and witnessed things previously unimaginable. Yet they started adapting to it...
Lin Feng, who was drinking tea in Huangmao’s office, monitored the kids’ progress through his Divine Sense. Pleased with their performance, he continued chatting and drinking tea with Huangmao.
Meanwhile, the other groups of kids experienced all sorts of things—going to collect debts and sealing off entire buildings to catch debtors, beating them until they were bloodied; engaging in gang fights to claim territories; catching solicitors who refused to pay after hiring prostitutes; encountering petty thieves straying into their area while patrolling; or dealing with cases of adultery.
All in all, countless scenes of human complexity unfolded, and the children were thrust into some of them. Witnessing such myriad aspects of life, their initial confusion and impulsiveness gradually gave way to calmness. As they came to understand the rules of the world, they learned how things are supposed to be done.