Chapter 1502 Chinese Village (2/2)

”What happened then?” Zhong Da Pao shook his head. ”You've seen it yourself. Don't talk about striking it rich, these people's lives are worth nothing.”

Li Du said, ”I've seen all that. Just get to the point, tell me what you want to say.”

Zhong Da Pao said, ”We don't have much money with us now. However, there are so many mouths to feed and to keep alive. Hence, if they want to make money, what's the fastest way to do that here? To gamble on the stones! Hence, brother, do us a favor!”

Li Du smiled and said, ”Let me set the record straight, I'm considered a businessman…”

”You can't do business without some plotting, right?” The middle-aged bald man jumped in. ”You want profits, right? With your capabilities and our ways, won't it be easy to make money?”

Li Du said, ”No, I mean, as a businessman, why would I want to help the people here? Just out of pity?”

Zhong Da Pao looked at him sincerely and said, ”It's because we are all countrymen. We do not intend to kidnap you to make you make a donation or whatever. We want to work with you. You should have found out over the past two days that if you don't have someone trustworthy to work with, you won't be able to enter the field.”

Li Du looked at the people around them and asked, ”What happened to them?”

Zhong Da Pao said dejectedly, ”What do you think? They had money and came over in the hopes of making bigger money from stone gambling. In the end, they lost all their money, went to borrow more, cheated people to continue gambling. But they still lost the money. In the end, they can't do anything but stay here.”

Li Du frowned and said, ”That means to say, you think that I should help this bunch of gamblers?”

Zhong Da Pao shook his head. ”There are not only gamblers here. There are also many innocent people. Some of them were tricked into coming over, others were children left here by their parents. Someone has to help them. Can we just watch them die?”

Li Du asked, ”Are you considered a key person in this town? Are you the one taking care of them?”

Zhong Da Pao said, ”We take care of each other. I take care of them, they take care of me. In fact, they saved me and my friend some time ago. Hence, I'm here to do my part.”

In the past two days, Li Du had found out some information. He had learned about the existence of Dragon Town. However, the locals referred to it as 'Chinese Village', and Zhong Da Pao was the village chief.

Just as he thought before, Zhong Da Pao was a soldier. The hotel staff had told him that more than thirty years ago, some soldiers came over to carry out some missions. However, their identities were exposed after the mission failed.

The hotel staff did not know the exact details but surmised that those men had offended the boss and other key people in the various fields. Hence, they were brutally attacked.

At that time, the Chinese village already existed in Hpakant. When the villagers learned about the identities of the soldiers, they selflessly helped the men to escape. As a result, the village suffered great harm.

Less than two years later, a few of the soldiers returned to Hpakant. They had wanted to lead the people in the Chinese Village of Hpakant to do well. They wanted to take over a few of those fields and develop them.

However, the reality was nothing like in the movies. The territorial powers were complex and the people were unable to land any of the fields.

Fortunately, they were still rather strong back then. They managed to get the field bosses to give a written stipulation that they would not casually bully the Chinese or enter the Chinese village. At least, the Chinese would have their own territory. That allowed the Chinese who came over to have a place to stay.

It was only in recent years, when China grew in power and its economy prospered, that the jade businessmen from China slowly became a key power in the Hpakant business world.

That lifted the status of the local Chinese. However, it did nothing to improve their quality of life. The businessmen would never go to stay in the pitiful slums and those who arrived only brought more squalor into the place.

Hence, the situation of Zhong Da Pao and his Chinese Village became more difficult.