"Yesterday you caught me stealing a phone. Why did you let me go?" Zhang Mengchan sat on the floor of Qing Chen's room, looking up and asking.
The room was crawling with bugs, but he didn't mind at all. Instead, he was interested in blocking their path with his hand.
The Ninth District has nearly a thousand pigeonhole buildings like this: broken elevators, clogged pipes, aging electrical wires.
These buildings are never cleaned, garbage piles up, naturally breeding many bugs and rats.
Sometimes, people die in their rooms and it takes a long time to discover it.
Ironically enough, they might be found not because there's anyone in the world who cares about them but because it's time for the gangs to collect protection fees.
Qing Chen glanced at the little boy and asked, "If someone else caught you, what would have happened?"
