I'm a Master in India

Getting Niya to change into a dress wasn't so easy; it seemed like an extremely embarrassing thing for her to do.

In India, women would never expose their bodies, not even to their husbands. For them, wearing jeans was already scandalous, let alone a dress.

Actually, Indian men are the same; they wear loincloths when they bathe. They can defecate in the street, but they must have a loincloth to cover themselves.

In short, it was very contradictory. Although Niya listened to Ron, this was the only thing that made her very embarrassed.

Of course, Ron didn't have a cross-dressing fetish; he was just teasing Niya with those words.

"By the way, Niya, how long have you been out?"

"What?"

"I mean, away from home, away from Uttar Pradesh."

"Baba, it's been more than half a year."

It was already the end of October, about to enter November, and unknowingly, Niya had been in Mumbai for more than half a year.

Ron's words seemed to evoke her memories. Although Uttar Pradesh was very backward, it was, after all, where her home was.

"Let's go back to Varanasi in a while."

"Go back?!" Niya was first a little surprised, but then her expression turned sad, "Baba, do you want me to leave?"

"What are you thinking? Who will take care of me if Niya leaves? We'll go back together."

"Go back together?"

"Yes, my parents and Uncle Abi's ashes, it's time to let them return to the sacred river."

According to Hindu customs, relatives are cremated after death, and their ashes must be scattered in the Ganges River.

Ron should have done this a long time ago; delaying it for so long was already considered a great act of impiety.

He himself didn't care, and he didn't pay much attention to so-called religion. But Niya burned incense and wiped away tears in front of the shrine with the ashes every day; this was her religious belief.

Although Niya was a maid, she was not of a low caste, and the master's family could not humiliate her excessively.

Abi was her father, and Ron's parents had treated her well. Seeing that their ashes could not return to the sacred river for a long time was a torment and blasphemy for Niya.

Fortunately, Ron was thinking of taking her back to Uttar Pradesh after the peak tourist season ended, which could be regarded as fulfilling a wish.

"Baba, that's great." Niya happily put her hands together and prayed silently a few times.

"But you have to wait a bit, until there aren't so many foreigners in Mumbai."

"It doesn't matter, Niya will wait for Baba."

"I say, brother, is this really okay this time?" Luca asked worriedly.

"Of course, we've cooperated once before."

"But this is over seventy thousand US dollars! What if he steals our money?" Luca, carrying a huge sum of money, felt unsafe wherever he went.

"There are no US dollars, only rupees."

"What?"

"Have you forgotten what business my company does?" Ron glanced back at him, "Foreign tourists, they come from all kinds of countries. The services I provide them include exchanging all kinds of foreign currencies."

"You mean to exchange my US dollars for rupees? No, that won't work, brother, rupees are useless outside."

"But here it can help you buy cheap medicine, and I'll give you an extra 10 points on the exchange rate."

"10 points? Oh, damn, you're saying I can exchange for 200,000 more rupees?" Luca's eyes went straight.

"That's right, that's more than six thousand dollars after conversion."

"Why? How can you have a higher exchange rate than the official one? Did you collude with the bank?" Luca couldn't figure it out.

"I can't control the bank's affairs, but I have the entire black market behind me." Ron smiled and patted him on the shoulder, "Buddy, Mumbai is a very complicated place."

Luca had also been in contact with all kinds of gray businesses in Brazil, but Mumbai was very different. Here, all transactions are carried out in broad daylight, whether legal or illegal.

For example, right in front of them at this moment, next to the Dharavi slum, two gangs were openly buying and selling marijuana on the street. And a few steps away was the Dharavi Police Station.

"Okay, I'm not worried about customs anymore; I'm sure the Indian government is already corrupt. But those drug merchants must be even more difficult to deal with than the officials, because they are the ones who corrupted the government."

"You still don't understand India." Ron led the way ahead, without even turning his head.

"Am I wrong?"

"The Indian government is not corrupt, because it is already like this, even better than any day in history. Can you believe it? It's getting better, and people are cheering for it."

"How bad was it before?"

Ron stopped and thought for a while, "Actually, it's not much different from now."

"What?" Luca's CPU was about to burn out.

It was very bad before, and now it's getting better, but the result is almost the same. Isn't that just minimal progress?

"Okay, stop worrying about India's social problems; the business at hand is the real deal. No one cares about those things; even the Indians themselves don't care."

"This place is heaven for people like us!" Luca suddenly fell in love with India, "Oh, it's just a little too smelly."

In the alley they passed, there were several piles of excrement of unknown origin in the corner of the wall. The two had to lift their feet and step on the stones by the wall to get past, otherwise they would be caught.

It was the same old place, in front of that small building. Ron knocked on the door, and was quickly led inside.

As soon as they entered the courtyard, the two felt that this place was unusual. The security guards under the tree were actually holding guns.

"Hey, my brother Ron, it's a pleasure to see you."

"Did something happen here? Should we not have come at this time?"

"No, just a little thing, no problem."

Pant was very enthusiastic, far more enthusiastic than last time. Before Ron and the others even entered the door, he stood at the door with open arms to welcome them.

"Want some paan?" After greeting them, Pant rolled up a banana leaf and stuffed betel nut into his mouth, and the splashing juice quickly stained his teeth red.

Ron shook his head, and Luca hesitated for a moment before also shaking his head. The hookah from last time was still vivid in his mind.

"It's okay, let's go inside and talk." He led the two into the house, and the security guards with guns outside were still vigilantly staring at the street outside the courtyard.

"How was it? Was there any problem with the medicine last time?" After the two sat down, Pant asked eagerly.

"It was pretty good, so we came again." Ron took the initiative to take over the conversation.

He and Luca had discussed it, and to avoid saying the wrong thing, he would be responsible for most of the communication.

"Then what kind of medicine do you want this time? I have everything here! Just according to the price we agreed on before." Pant's tone was urgent; he seemed to value this deal very much.

"Is there a list? I mean, the kind of list that is shown to customers, so it's convenient for us to choose the goods."

"Oh! Of course!" Pant waved his arms very happily; those who had this kind of demand were usually big customers.

Soon, at his loud roar, a servant handed over a tattered booklet.

"Look, I can get all the medicines on this!"

From the most common antibiotics to targeted drugs for treating blood diseases, there were many, and Ron himself was dazzled.

He handed the booklet to Luca, who quickly took out a notepad and began to carefully compare.

Luca was not unprepared; he had done research in Brazil. He had recorded what diseases locals often suffered from and what medicines were urgently needed.

This would ensure that after getting the medicine, he could sell them as quickly as possible.

After ticking and drawing, Luca tore off a sticky note, Ron looked at it and handed it to Pant.

"No problem! Guarantee no problem!" He shouted excitedly, "Just according to what we just said, the deal will be made at the price we agreed on last time, but I have one condition."

"What?" Ron asked.

"This kind, this kind... and this kind..." He pointed to several large and popular special medicines on the sticky note, "Must be in US dollars."

"Wait, why use US dollars? We didn't say that last time." Ron protested; US dollars were his business.

"US dollars! Must be US dollars!" Pant shook his head, refusing to budge.

"This is India, rupees are as good as US dollars."

"No! You, and you, you both have US dollars, I know what business you do, Ron." He pointed to the two of them, seeming to have them figured out.

"I..."

Pa! Pa! The sudden crisp sound startled everyone in the room.

"Quick! Quick! Damn, they're here!" Pant shouted!

Shit! Only at this time did Ron and Luca realize that it was gunfire just now.

"Damn it! Run, Ron! He wants to double-cross us!" Luca was the first to react; he had experienced this kind of scene in Brazil.

"Go out the back door! You go out the back door!" Pant shouted, he took out a pistol and waved his arms, telling Ron and them to follow his men to the back of the yard.

Without time to think, Ron and Luca ran for their lives.

"Three days later, same place, bring US dollars!" Pant shouted from behind.

Pa! Pa! The gunfire in the front yard became more intense.