Volume I, Chapter 8, Descendants of the Masked Man (I), July 2111

Soon after Qingming, Zhang Xiaozhu received a transaction arranged by Li Gouzi, and drove to the transaction location with Ah Liang and some bodyguards. Along the way, some messages and advertisements from the Xchange Chamber of Commerce were played in the car: "Cloud Apartment, Supreme Abode!" Contact number......"

The Xchange Chamber of Commerce is the Xchange Chamber of Commerce. Zhang Xiaozhu vaguely remembers that this chamber of commerce was a small website operating in the grocery industry four years ago, and according to Li Gouzi, the man named Chen Guangbiao still came to him like a dog to borrow money, and he didn't expect that this person was now developing high-end real estate projects. It's only been a few years? And what about "Rim Pacific International"? The business has stagnated for several years, and it seems that it can only do some small underworld business.

In fact, Li Gouzi has always been obsessed with the underworld business, but Zhang Xiaozhu is different, he has been silently thinking in his heart that he wants to "launder" the underworld business and do the underworld business, not for anything else, just for one point: the white business can get the support of righteousness and corruption, and the development speed of the business is of course much faster than the underworld business.

For some reason, he always wanted to fit into the society of normal people......

Soon after the vehicle was moving, the place of trading arrived, which was in a speakeasy. When you get off the bus, the midday sun can't penetrate the thick haze, but the city and the world are still in a hazy light. Zhang Xiaozhu and his entourage stepped into the speakeasy, where the lights were bright and green, and the smell was mixed...... As a result, the light vanished, and the time in the city seemed to enter the night again in an instant.

This trading location, Zhang Xiaozhu is not the first time to come. This speakeasy is one of the "old places" where mutants trade on the black market. Zhang Xiaozhu knew that there were many people in the outside world who ridiculed mutants as rats, feared the light, and liked to gather in the dark underground. This has always made him unhappy, no one wants to live like this, and no one wants to be ridiculed like this.

When he returns to his own secret office, he also thinks of such irony.

There are a lot of people in the speakeasy, and there are people sitting at the bar counter and wine table. When Zhang Xiaozhu and his party came in, the bar owner "Fei Ning" came forward to greet him warmly. Fei Ning is an obese mutant, of course, obesity is not his "mutated trait", and he does not show obvious mutant traits on his body, and it is said that he also discovered that he is a mutant because he was unable to produce offspring - most mutants can only be like this.

Compared with mutants with obvious characteristics, mutants with inconspicuous characteristics are less likely and more likely to be treated unfairly, but because country C entered the era of so-called "massive data" more than 50 years ago, personal information is almost impossible to keep secret, and it is sold in large quantities on the Internet. The leakage of genetic information is only unknowing. There is no guarantee that each mutant is safe, and the only result of paralysis is a sudden disappearance, then an experimental operating table in a laboratory, and then a new genetic sequence on the black market. There are many mutants who have taken a call from a gene dealer and agreed to sell their genes and have not ended well.

Fei Ning found a table for Zhang Xiaozhu and his party, arranged for them to sit down, and served drinks and snacks. There were also a few people at the table next to Zhang Xiaozhu's seat, and judging from their eyes, they were all mutants.

Of course, not everyone can tell whether the other is a mutant from their eyes, but Zhang Xiaozhu feels that he can: from the eyes of mutants, he can always perceive something, like some dark and chaotic power, rooted in the depths of his soul. That dark atmosphere is like this dark bar, like my own dark office, like the kind of dark starry sky without stars that can rarely be seen in a hazy country.

He couldn't understand this intuition, but he felt that it was also part of the "gift".

Zhang Xiaozhu's brothers always have a sense of security when they are with Zhang Xiaozhu, because they find that Brother Zhu seems to know whether that person is a mutant or not just by looking at each other. Brother Zhu can see things that they can't see on their own.

Zhang Xiaozhu is not as good as Li Gouzi in this regard, and his business ability is average, but he has repeatedly seen in the process of trading that the traders are not mutants, but undercover policemen - he is the most reliable person to ensure the normal transaction.

Zhang Xiaozhu quickly observed all the people next to him, and the brothers noticed that he had done so. He then told his brothers with his eyes that it was safe and that there were no "cats" mixed in - he didn't like calling the police "cats" because it meant being rats - but the trade could begin.

So the other table sat down - the trade partner. The men were holding a suitcase in their hands that looked like a box of cash. When the box was opened, it was indeed a large amount of cash bills.

Zhang Xiaozhu's man took out the money counter. This machine is not an ordinary money counter, and at the same time, it will generate block nodes in the blockchain network to record transactions. The money counter itself is a block machine. In this way, it is possible to do business in the black market network outside of corruption.

In this era, Bitcoin has already evolved deeply, and Zhang Xiaozhu feels that the fate of Bitcoin is sometimes like the fate of mutants, who were expelled and excluded by the "white road" currency, and finally found a world that belongs to it. In the world of mutants, as well as other black markets, blockchain network settlement is nothing new.

Behind a small money counter is a network of black market blockchains that spread across the globe.

While Zhang Xiaozhu was busy trading, in Feining's bar, other drinkers were watching dance performances and listening to piano music. Of course, these drinkers are not idlers, they come here to have fun when they have nothing to do, and they are all here to participate in various transactions, but after the transaction is completed, it is common to drink and have fun by the way.

At some point, the drinkers watching the performance suddenly started to laugh. Zhang Xiaozhu didn't like the noise around him during the transaction, but he didn't expect everyone to be good children, especially these people, and he saw that the eyes of the drinkers were looking at the catwalk and the steel pipe on the catwalk, where the five women in the bar danced the gangpipe - the woman fainted.

Soon, several drinkers rushed up and took the initiative. The groping pigs, the "helping" bar owner Fei Ning carried the fainted girl into the lounge. The moment this woman was carried to the door of the lounge, Zhang Xiaozhu suddenly saw her eyes open for a moment, and a sly smile appeared on her face - she was, pretending?

In any case, now there are no dancing women, and a group of drinkers are coaxing again, and the female luthier who must play the piano must come out to dance.

Zhang Xiaozhu saw the female pianist from afar, a woman with a very beautiful face. However, when the woman turned the other half of her face, Zhang Xiaozhu saw that her other half of her face was covered with fine scales like snake skin, like a mysterious mask with half of her face - of course she should be a mutant.

The female luthier dragged her tired body, walked onto the catwalk under the coaxing and drive of Fei Ning, and began to writhe her body awkwardly. She has the waist of a water snake, but she doesn't seem to be able to dance. Zhang Xiaozhu saw her tired eyes and heavy dark circles - she had been playing piano music since Zhang Xiaozhu and his party entered the bar, and she never stopped.

The sound of the piano was certainly not poetic, but numb, with a mechanical repetition - it seemed that she had been sitting there since a long time ago, as an appendage to the piano.

The female pianist had tears in her eyes, obviously, this was her first time, she had not yet gotten used to the violent road in front of the stage, the violent road in the greedy eyes of the men. Perhaps she had long been accustomed to hiding behind the piano, hiding in the unreliable shadow of the piano, burying her head between the keys.

However, she was smiling. That kind of smile, as if it was a heartfelt, self-deprecating laugh.

At some point, Zhang Xiaozhu was moved by her strong and painful smile. She could have "fainted" like the woman in front of her and then carried into the lounge, but she didn't, she still dragged her tired body, writhing awkwardly, and tried her best to make herself smile - the five women in front of her didn't smile when dancing, the woman was numb, and she completed her every movement efficiently like a machine, and even looked at the audience as if there was no one in the audience.

And she didn't, she was smiling, as if looking for some kind of strength to keep herself from numbing.

When her gaze swept over, Zhang Xiaozhu inexplicably felt that she was just smiling at herself. He realized that she was a different kind of person, someone who needed a higher, more positive spirit to support herself, and even in the face of adversity, she did not succumb to numbness and death, but continued to fight against fate, unless......

"She's a stupid woman." Zhang Xiaozhu said in his heart, a little unable to sit still, but still restrained himself, he guessed that she had never known that the woman who danced just now had a habit of "fainting", because she couldn't see the woman's sly smile.

"Hold your clothes, support your clothes......" Someone in the audience coaxed, obviously, these people were extremely dissatisfied with her clumsy "dancing", so they wanted to seek other and additional stimulation from her.

In the laughter of everyone, she was stunned for a moment. Obviously, she was not mentally prepared for the excessive demands of these people. She glanced at the bar owner Fei Ning pleadingly, and her eyes seemed to say, I am just a piano master, I am not a girl who supports clothes. I'm not...... Please ......

However, as Zhang Xiaozhu expected, Fei Ning did not pay attention to the pleading in her eyes, but responded to her with a stern gaze. The customer is God, Fei Ning's eyes seem to say that even if they are actually devils, they are also God. No one here, Fei Ning can't afford to offend.

On the catwalk, there was the colored light rotating lamp, which emitted alternating red and green stage lights, which rhythmically swept over her body and her face, so that Zhang Xiaozhu saw her eyes. When the first light swept over her eyes, they were pleading. When the second ray of light swept by, the look was still pleading, and the third ray, pleading, the fourth...... Suddenly, when a ray of red light swept by, Zhang Xiaozhu saw that the pleading in her eyes disappeared, and in its place was a kind of grief and determination, like a fire burning in her eyes.

She lowered her head slowly, no longer looking at Fei Ning, and the smile on her face actually became brighter. Soon, amid the laughter of the audience, she raised her trembling hands and unbuttoned the first button of her shirt on her chest.

The men in the audience were excited.

When the second button was unfastened, Zhang Xiaozhu saw a pendant hanging around her neck, which shone brightly under the strafing of the stage lights—it was a metal product.

At this time, Zhang Xiaozhu realized something, he reconfirmed her eyes and smile, and glanced at the pendant on her chest again—no, it was not a pendant. That's a sharp blade! The blade has not yet exposed its tip, and it can be deduced that the blade is not short, and it should be able to slice deep through the skin limb and pierce the body...... The blade reflected a red-green glow and rested on her tender neck, but no one seemed to notice.

"Wait a minute!" Zhang Xiaozhu stood up suddenly. The people next to him were shocked. However, the people who were in the bar did not hear Zhang Xiaozhu's shouts.

Her hand unbuttoned the second button and slowly grabbed the end of the "pendant", slowly but firmly. Up until this point, the people in the audience were still unaware of what was about to happen, and were expecting her to unbutton the third button on her chest.

Zhang Xiaozhu quickly pulled out the gun on Ah Liang's waist and fired three shots at the rotating light on the ceiling, the gun of this era is an electromagnetic pistol, there is almost no gunshot, and it does not play a warning role. However, the chandelier on the ceiling was shot down.

The chandelier, with its dazzling light, spun and smashed down heavily, right next to her. This unexpected startle made her movements stop.

Zhang Xiaozhu quickly rushed forward, jumped onto the catwalk, and in her astonishment, he snatched the necklace and pendant from her hand - only then did he realize that her pendant was indeed a sharp blade.

Up to this time, there were still many people in the audience who were still expecting her to unbutton the third one, and the falling rotating lamp had not been able to distract them, as if in their consciousness, the chaotic lights, the falling lights, and other chaotic things were all for the sake of the pleasure of the moment, and all the light, shadow, and noise were all wood added to the fire of greed and [valley owing] hope, just to make the fire burn more vigorously.

The more chaotic the environment became, the more distorted the light, the more persistent they became—perhaps some of them had already seen the blade in her hand, but they still wanted to see the next tragic but exciting result.

Zhang Xiaozhu stood on the catwalk, he knew that they were people in the audience, but in reality, they were not. This group of offspringless [Hezhong] is just a victim of the genetic market like himself—so Zhang Xiaozhu doesn't blame them for their ignorant madness.

Soon after the madness, the scene gradually fell silent.

Zhang Xiaozhu was still standing on the catwalk, condescending, looking down at them, and suddenly, a certain ideal that he had always been firm in his heart became even more firm. He held the pendant tightly in his hand, and seemed to feel no pain at all, allowing the blood to drop, in the silence, drop by drop, and dripping continuously.

In the darkness, splashed small blood flowers that were not seen.