The First Order

When Ren Xiaosu was asleep, Xiaoyu suddenly pulled Yan Liuyuan aside and asked, “Why didn’t you tell your brother what happened at school?”

“Big Sister Xiaoyu, keep your voice down.” Yan Liuyuan said as he dragged her out, “I can’t tell him.”

“Why can’t you tell him? You should let your big brother teach those little bastards a lesson. What gives them the right to call you and Dalong names and ransack your belongings?” Xiaoyu said furiously.

Yan Liuyuan whispered, “If they need to be taught a lesson, I can do it myself. But it wasn’t easy for my brother to decide to come here for Big Sister Xiaojin’s sake, so how can I trouble him at a time like this?”

After Yan Liuyuan started attending school, his classmates immediately figured out he was a refugee. That was because he had a different understanding of how daily lives went.

Yang Xiaojin had selected the best school in Stronghold 88 for Yan Liuyuan to attend. The students there were not ordinary people, and many of the students’ parents were extremely well-connected. So they already knew about these refugees enrolling into the school.

At the beginning, the students bluntly called Yan Liuyuan a refugee. Later on, as the others started joining in on the name calling, someone even called him and Wang Dalong riff-raff. After all, there was only a syllable[1] of difference between the two.

The teacher forced Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong to sit in the last row and even deliberately left the seats next to them empty.

But from the beginning to the end, Yan Liuyuan did not show any retaliation. Ren Xiaosu had already done a lot for Yan Liuyuan, so it was not a big deal to make some sacrifices for Ren Xiaosu.

Early in the morning, Ren Xiaosu brought Yan Liuyuan out to shop for clothes. Since they had been invited and there were also instructions for them to be dressed formally, he wouldn’t be deliberately contradictory.

For this reason, Wang Fugui specially handed all the money he had recently exchanged to Ren Xiaosu. Although he did not know where Ren Xiaosu had gotten his gold from, Old Wang knew Ren Xiaosu still had a lot left in his possession. And it was much more than he could imagine.

Xiaoyu even reminded Ren Xiaosu repeatedly to not be thrifty and to make sure they dressed nicely.

But when they arrived at a well-known tailor shop in the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu realized they did not have any formal clothes here.

“Bossman,” Ren Xiaosu called the owner over, “do you have any formal wear? We’d like to try them on.”

An old man came out with a measuring tape dangling around his neck and two sleeves hanging off his arm. “You wish to buy formal wear?”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Do you have anything suitable for us?”

The old man examined Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan and then said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t sell you any suits.”

“Wait a minute.” Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, “Why not? I have the money!”

“It’s not really about money.” The old man explained patiently, “The stronghold regulations state that only people in public office can buy formal wear. Moreover, the suits have to be custom-made here at our shop. Both of you must have an event to attend tonight, right? A custom-made suit will take more than 20 days to be ready. Even if you order one now, you won’t be able to wear it tonight.”

The old man sounded very polite and did not portray himself in a high and mighty way. However, the objective facts he stated made Ren Xiaosu feel very helpless.

At first, he thought the Yang Consortium wanted to flex their financial might by inviting him and Yan Liuyuan to the function. They might have thought that as a refugee, he couldn’t afford a suit. But it wasn’t until now that he realized the Yang Consortium was just trying to flex their status.

Ren Xiaosu led Yan Liuyuan out of the shop. He went to look at the route information at the streetcar station to find out if any streetcars went to the Yang Consortium’s manor.

However, he couldn’t find a streetcar that stopped at the Yang Consortium’s manor even after looking at the information board for a long time.

Ren Xiaosu asked a pedestrian next to him, “Hi, do you know which streetcar goes to the Bronze Ram Manor?”

That pedestrian was slightly taken aback. “The Bronze Ram Manor? You guys are going there? Why are you two going there?”

Ren Xiaosu explained, “We’re attending the gala organized by the Yang Consortium tonight.”

“Haha.” The pedestrian laughed and said, “You’re really funny. Anyone who attends a gala there should be chauffeured to the event. Why would anyone take the streetcar there? Those who live there don’t need to squeeze into streetcars like us every day!”

Ren Xiaosu understood no streetcars could bring them there. If they wanted to get there, they would have to take a streetcar to the vicinity of the manor and then walk for more than ten kilometers before they could reach the place.

The custom-made suits and cars that were a prerequisite to attend the galas were essentially the difference between the refugees and those from the consortiums.

Under that stronghold regulations, the differences in the hierarchy of humans was like a natural divide that even money couldn’t surmount.

In the eyes of an organization, money flowed through their hands like quicksand, while power was a fortress that guarded their wealth.

“Bro,” Yan Liuyuan said gloomily, “they must be doing this on purpose, right?”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded.

The Yang Consortium had probably anticipated that they would not be able to get a fitting suit for the gala. The organization used their brains to suppress the people. This was akin to cutting meat with a blunt knife.[2]

Yan Liuyuan thought the stronghold would slowly start to accept them now that Yang Xiaojin had brought them here. So he didn’t mind bearing with it for the time being even if he felt oppressed, thinking that things might improve after a while. But he realized the people in the stronghold were only going to get more unreasonable. Yan Liuyuan asked in a whisper, “Why don’t we just skip the function?”

Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “No, why should we skip it? Before we leave the stronghold, we should go and have a look at the feast of the organization.”

At noon, they made a trip back home where they saw Luo Lan feasting in the yard. When Luo Lan saw them, he was amused. “Didn’t you say you’d be attending the dinner party? Why are you back so soon?”

Ren Xiaosu was also amused. How did a proper gala event end up sounding so crass when it came out of Luo Lan’s mouth?

Ren Xiaosu was not embarrassed and said, “We went out to buy suits this morning. But when we got there, we were told the suits had to be custom-made in advance and only people in public office in the stronghold could buy them. Also, there’s not even a streetcar that goes there.”

Luo Lan frowned in response. “They didn’t invite you in advance or send a car to pick you up?”

“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head.

“Those bastards must be deliberately making trouble for you.” Luo Lan banged on the table and stood up. “This is too outrageous. I’ll go with you all later. We’ll dress in our casual wear, take the streetcar, and then walk our way in! Let’s see which bastard dares to talk behind our backs! I received the invitation too, but I wasn’t planning on going!”

Then Luo Lan flashed an invitation that looked the exact same as theirs out of his bosom.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan with a smile. “What are you up to this time?”

“I can’t just keep freeloading off of you, right?” Luo Lan wiped his mouth. “Besides, we’re friends, really good friends!”

“Aren’t you afraid that you’ll be looked down on if you’re seen with us?” Ren Xiaosu chuckled.

“Hehe,” Luo Lan laughed. “Even though I’m a hostage right now, I’m the most valuable hostage in the entire Southwest. Everyone knows what kind of person Qing Zhen is. It’s understandable why the Yang Consortium would take me as a hostage, but if some insignificant characters try to put me down, they still have to be qualified enough to do so. Even if I kill someone in this stronghold, they won’t dare to do anything to me. The current head of the Qing Consortium is Qing Zhen, the vengeful Qing Zhen! And he’s my little brother!”

[1] Refugee in Chinese is 流民 (Liú mín), and riff-raff in Chinese is 流氓 (Liú máng)

[2] Causing imperceptible harm to people, psychologically.