Author: 冬瓜茶仙人 / Winter Melon Tea Immortal
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 154
In this dark and cramped space, five or six people were huddled together, resembling a nest of field mice suddenly unearthed.
“Peter, who’s he?” The person sitting at the outermost edge squinted suspiciously. They had lit a few candle stubs—cheap products made from scraps scraped off candleholders and reheated for reuse. These candles were full of impurities, dim, and smoky, making it hard to see clearly.
Peter pushed Jason inside. “Shh—keep it down. Can’t you see who he is? This is Jason!”
This answer immediately stirred the group. One man squeezed through the others. “Jason? Is it really Jason? I’m Luke, from the blue house by the garment factory.”
“It’s you, Luke.” Jason was genuinely surprised this time. He did know this man because his hands were naturally disabled and not very nimble, which made people reluctant to hire him. A few years ago, Luke had sought his help, and Jason personally took him on for a while. Seeing Luke’s diligence, the foreman eventually stopped rejecting him.
“What are you doing here?” Jason asked. “Have you been working in the inner city?”
Luke waved his right hand, where a few fingers were fused together, making it look like a strangely shaped lump of flesh, but he didn’t seem to care.
“They? Ha, they wouldn’t give someone like me a job,” Luke said. “I stole Old Blima’s clothes and came in at night—I know where Harvey and the others work. The warehouse district is a bit far from the central area.”
They made room for Jason in the murky, dim air. Inside, someone lay motionless, chest barely moving, almost like a corpse.
“They broke his head. He could talk at first, but now…” A sturdy man curled up in a corner seemed to be watching over him, shaking his head worriedly.
Jason felt a sinking feeling in his chest.
“What happened?” he demanded.
Luke, the most articulate among them, explained everything to Jason in detail. Recently, a list of the dead had spread through Paradise Island, naming those who had died in the past five years. The people on the island still had vivid memories and feelings about those listed. Some refused to accept this news and sought confirmation. They exchanged information through Aquinas’s gatherings and found that the people on the list were indeed dead. Some had even received compensation from the Wolf family.
The problem was that the notices accompanying the compensation were usually brief and cold. Outsiders didn’t want to spend a second longer on the filthy Paradise Island, often throwing down the money and leaving abruptly, forcing the grieving families to process their loss alone. They didn’t dare ask, or feel entitled to ask, how their loved ones had died. Long treated like silent livestock, the people of Paradise Island weren’t even sure they had the right to question. Until a few days ago, their whispered queries in the dead of night suddenly found answers.
Though disabled, Luke had a very clever brother who, imitating adults from a young age, spoke sweetly and became a mediator between Paradise Island and the inner city. Many found work in the inner city through him. Because of this, even though Luke had never been to the inner city, he knew the areas his brother frequented, as did Peter and others who entered the inner city through his brother.
“Four months ago, he brought in two young men and never returned. Everyone said he was taken in by a rich boss and living the high life inside,” Luke said bitterly. “But he was actually dead—someone told me he did nothing wrong but saw evidence of someone else’s affair on his way home. To keep their secret, the couple beat him to death!”
Luke’s family didn’t even receive compensation, nor did they hear of his death, simply because one of the illicit lovers was from the Monkey Family. To avoid implicating another family, the Wolf chose silence.
Luke, who had always felt inferior due to his disability, took great pride in his clever brother, the family’s hope. When he heard of his brother’s death, he was sleepless all night. Before dawn, he stole clothes and entered the inner city, where he met the recently dismissed Peter and his companions. Coincidentally, Peter had also gotten his dock worker job through Luke’s brother. They had been cautious and hardworking but were dismissed by Bravi for their “unpleasant accents”.
Already disgruntled, Peter and the others, upon hearing Luke’s story, were incensed. In a moment of impulse, they set a fire in the warehouse corner, intending only to cause some financial loss. But the fire spread uncontrollably. As they fled, they were spotted by Bravi’s lackeys. A scuffle ensued. A few managed to escape before the firefighters arrived, but two were captured, and one was severely injured, now on the brink of death.
They couldn’t stay in the inner city, nor could they return to Paradise Island and risk bringing trouble to their families. They had no choice but to break into an empty house and hide in its cellar.
After listening to their story, Jason’s face turned red with anger and then pale. He wanted to shout at them for their foolishness but restrained himself, thinking of Luke’s brother and the other dead.
Sensing Jason’s thoughts, Luke stiffened his neck. “I know it was reckless, but I don’t regret it. Who knows if Bravi was the one who killed my brother to hide his affair? Even if not, he’s no good.”
Peter and the others, though scared and regretful, agreed. They held deep resentment towards Bravi, who had tormented them on his rare visits to the warehouse. Once, in a fit of anger, he stomped on a worker’s fingers with his heel, breaking them, then dismissed him for his “shrill screams”.
“Do you think staying away will prevent trouble for your families?” Jason asked patiently. “They’ll track you down—”
“They might not,” Peter interjected. “We all got jobs through Luke’s brother. With him dead, Bravi and his men don’t even know our names.” In the warehouse, they were called “hey” or “that one”.
“We’ve planned it out. After the auction, many ships will leave. We’ll sneak aboard, and even if we’re thrown overboard, it’s better than being caught by Bravi.”
Jason, forgetting about his clean clothes, sat down on the dusty floor, feeling both shocked and saddened.
“Why…” He could barely speak. “Why would you rather risk this than return? Paradise Island is poor, but you can survive with effort.”
“No, we can’t survive there!” The men exclaimed. “This is the best time for us—young, strong, and healthy. But look at us. Even Bravi’s dogs live better than we do!”
Luke sneered. “If they wanted, many would willingly be their pets.” Rich people, bored with cats, dogs, and horses, sought more thrills, like keeping wild beasts or snakes. Luke’s brother once told him of a high-ranking person who built a two-story structure in his home to keep beautiful people. No one else but the owner existed there. The young men and women were naked, unable to stand or speak, treated as pets. Periodically, “aged” pets were discarded, their bodies bearing scars, but even the guards were indifferent.
Jason felt uneasy hearing this, not for any other reason but because his brother Jim had once told him that a young master liked him and promoted him to a personal valet. Though it restricted his time, it improved his living conditions.
Jason absolutely believed Jim wouldn’t sell his soul for luxury, but the scariest part of the inner city was that people like them often had no choice.
The example of Luke’s brother, dead for so long without his family knowing, deeply unsettled him.
Today, Jason had found the Green Shade Villa and met Jim’s friend, but the friend couldn’t say where Jim had been transferred. He seemed even more anxious than Jason, who ended up comforting him.
Jason hadn’t lied to Eugene. That introverted big guy did reveal more: Jim’s recent “fall from favor” was true. The young master was getting married, and while building a relationship with his fiancée, Jim, who had consumed much of the master’s attention, became a target. Marriage was more important, so Jim was discarded, returning to his original post—the master, thinking himself magnanimous, believed sending him back without harming him was generous. But they had no idea the cold looks and potential revenge Jim faced, having briefly risen and then fallen again, made his life very difficult.
At that moment, the man on the floor groaned weakly, startling everyone. They looked at him worriedly, but he made no further sound. The closest person patted him gently, but there was no response.
“He’s dying,” Luke said sadly.
Peter’s basket contained some cloth for bandages, but these were useless. Even if they were free, they didn’t know where to find a doctor, nor could they afford one.
Silence fell. Outside, the wind seemed to rise, shaking the cellar door without loosening it. The candle stubs burned low, the light dimming further.
Even this old, cramped, dusty cellar was better than many houses on Paradise Island, where some couldn’t find enough wood or stones and had to use leaves and grass to make shelters. With luck, only half would collapse in the wind or rain. With bad luck, the whole structure would fall apart.
If Jim hadn’t gone to the inner city, the two brothers wouldn’t have even had enough space to sleep at home—Jason was tall, and Jim wasn’t short either. Both at home meant there was no room to lie down.
“Why is it like this?” Peter’s voice broke the silence. He spoke softly, as if to himself, but everyone could hear him. “What did we do to deserve being born into this world like this? If the gods are always watching the continent, how do they decide who’s born rich and who’s destined to be poor?”
The author has something to say:
Cellar uprising (no).
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