Cyber ​​Ghost Record

Chapter 94, Section Ninety-Three: Betrayal
The dealer turns over the third set of community cards, which is the 3 of clubs.

Qian Yun glanced down; he held a pair of Aces in his hand. The community cards were a mess: besides the 3 of clubs, there was a 6 of hearts and a jack of diamonds. This meant he was almost certain to win, but his stack wasn't substantial. He decided to feign weakness to entice his opponents to continue betting.

"Five kilograms of traphenazine."

“I’ll offer 8,400 grams.”

The bald man across the gambling table flicked his thumb, and the virtual chips vanished at his fingertips.

Qian Yun was a little worried about his opponent's raise. If his opponent could make a set with the community cards, Qian Yun would lose, but the probability was very small. He called, and the fourth community card was revealed—a 3 of diamonds. Qian Yun's heart skipped a beat. As long as his opponent had a 3, his hand was already outmatched. He had to raise to probe his opponent's hole cards.

"Ten kilograms of trophenazine."

Fourteen kilograms.

His opponent raised the bet without hesitation, a deliberate act that reassured Qian Yun. The pool already held 50 kilograms of raw materials; if he won this round, he could resolve the shortage.

He called the bet, and the final river card was revealed.

Another 3, the 3 of spades.

Qian Yun felt as if the card had drained all the blood from his body. He tentatively placed his bet and glanced at his opponent. The bald man looked at the 3 of spades, a barely perceptible smile playing on his lips. Qian Yun was almost certain that the expression was feigned; his opponent didn't have a strong hand. Yet, he felt inexplicably uneasy.

"Ten kilograms of trophenazine."

"Sixty kilograms." The opponent placed a heavy bet.

Qian Yun paused and looked at the cards in the other person's hand.

"You have a very strong hand."

“You won, all of these are yours.” The opponent smiled.

Qian Yun shook his head and dropped the cards in his hand.

"Why have you become so timid? Either don't gamble, or if you do, you have to go all the way." The opponent laughed smugly, showing his hand: a 2 of clubs and a 5 of clubs. He used this pitifully small hand to scare Qian Yun away.

Qian Yun felt extremely remorseful, but he didn't show it. He simply praised her, saying, "You played well."

"Are you scared by all this lately?" the opponent asked.

"Afraid?" Qian Yun raised an eyebrow. "Who have I ever been afraid of?"

"I heard you're out of stock," the competitor said. "Many people don't want the Yingchuan market to be disrupted, and many of your distribution channels have been cut off."

"That's not true." Qian Yun shook his head as if he had heard a joke. "With Lugu Group around, how could I be short of goods? I've already negotiated with them. They plan to open a bio-modification hospital here first. I'm so busy that I can't even take care of my original business."

……

After the gambling game ended, Qian Yun left the card room of the illegal pharmaceutical factory.

He walked down the stairs, through the workshop, where the pharmaceutical factory had ceased operations due to a lack of raw materials. Signs of vandalism were visible everywhere, and a worker was nailing cardboard to a shattered window. He walked along the wire mesh corridor towards his office.

Before entering the office, Qian Yun hesitated for a moment.

The office was already packed with people, mostly his drug dealers, who looked like they had been waiting for quite a while.

"We're out of stock." The speaker was Huang Sheng, a bartender at the Night Moth Bar. He had only joined Qian Yun's gang five months ago.

"Wait a little longer." Qian Yun strode in, sat in the leather seat salvaged from an old car, put a traditional cigarette in his mouth, and said indistinctly, "Once the Lugu Group matter is settled, you won't need to make this little bit of money anymore."

Everyone looked at Huang Sheng. After two seconds, Huang Sheng said again, "Many people rely on immunosuppressants to survive."

Qian Yun lowered his head to light a cigarette, glancing sideways at Huang Sheng.

“They don’t know any companies or understand the market. If they run out of medicine, they’ll buy it from someone else,” Huang Sheng said. “I’ve been working with moths for three years and have accumulated quite a few customers. But if this continues, I can’t satisfy them. In less than a week, they’ll become someone else’s customers.”

"You can't bear to lose these few customers?" Qian Yun curled his lips in disdain.

"I don't have that kind of vision," Huang Sheng shrugged. "Either Moth Bar replaces me, or I'll have to get my supplies from someone else." "From whom? White Ghost, or someone else?" Qian Yun narrowed his eyes, scanning the others. "And you guys, you all came together, is that what you mean too?"

The group looked at each other, speechless.

Qian Yun's face turned cold. He examined his subordinates one by one. After a long while, he said, "I'm giving you a chance. Anyone who doesn't want to work here can leave now, and I won't pursue it. But once you leave this door, don't even think about coming back."

As soon as he finished speaking, Huang Sheng left the room without looking back. Some of the others hesitated, while others apologized to Qian Yun. One by one, they also left the room. In the end, only the dentist remained in the room besides Qian Yun. He was wearing a neat shirt, was thin, had dark skin, and wore silver-rimmed glasses.

"A bunch of short-sighted trash." Qian Yun looked at the office door and sneered. "They'll always be rats. Only you can see the bigger picture."

The dentist remained silent.

Qian Yun looked at him and smiled, "You're not like them, are you?"

“That Su Xing might not be reliable,” the dentist said. “He didn’t give us anything concrete.”

“He wants to discuss business with Zhiren.” Qian Yun shook his head. “No one can find Zhiren, so his only partner can be me. I will help him leverage the advantages of the Xingling Society to expand the market in Yingchuan City.”

The dentist sighed. "I called them."

"Who?"

Qian Yun was stunned for a moment, then realized that it was his most trusted confidant who had instigated the collective betrayal just now. His gaze turned cold as he stared intently at the dentist.

“A lot of people have died recently,” the dentist said.

“Many people die here every day,” Qian Yun said coldly.

“We’ve been dying even more lately,” the dentist said. “Many people have developed severe immune responses due to medication shortages.”

“We are smugglers, not the pharmaceutical bureau, so no one can guarantee a stable supply of medicines.”

“We’ve been doing business here for many years, and they trust us.” The dentist paused. “The woman who made beetroot soup at the street corner is dead. You loved her cooking because she sometimes added margarine and wild bay leaves to the soup. The old man who collects garbage on the east side is also dead. He took you in and cared for you for a month after someone removed your prosthetic body and threw you into the landfill.”

"This wasn't my fault." Qian Yun's tone remained calm. He took the cigarette out of his mouth, put it in the ashtray, and stubbed it out. His fingers trembled almost imperceptibly. "If I continue to stay here, I'll end up like them, dying an unexplained death sooner or later."

“There are some things I’ve always wanted to tell you,” the dentist said. “Everyone has their place, and every place has its own rules. Your smuggling business is doing well, and many people here depend on you for their livelihood—that’s your value. But you’re trying to put yourself in a place that doesn’t belong to you; you’re trying to get away from here… You’ve messed everything up.”

"I thought at least you would understand me." Qian Yun looked at the dentist with disappointment. "You're going to be a traitor too, aren't you?"

The dentist remained silent.

Qian Yun took a deep breath, pursed his lips, suppressed his anger, and waved his hand, "Get lost."

"I just……"

"Get out of here!"

Qian Yun suddenly stood up and smashed the ashtray on the ground.

The dentist gave him a deep look, then turned and left.

Qian Yun stood there, watching the dentist's figure disappear.

He scanned the empty room, and through the glass wall, he could see the desolate pharmaceutical factory below.

He spaced out for a while, then sat down in the chair, sent commands to the brain-computer interface, savored the beetroot soup in his memory bank, and reminisced about the days of the black pharmaceutical factory's development.

He sat there until late at night, the only sound in the dark pharmaceutical factory the hum of the ventilation system. He got up, picked up the dented ashtray, and lit another cigarette.

Suddenly his hand trembled, and the red glow of the cigarette butt quietly fell away.

A message caught his eye.

The sender was none other than Su Xing, who had been out of contact for two days.

(End of this chapter)