Leon Longhair grinned at Shawn Young and said, "Mr. Young, do you know what people used to do here?"
Shawn Young was stunned for a moment and said, "Uh—didn’t you say this place was all thatched huts two years ago? The people here must have been farmers."
Leon Longhair chuckled and said, "Farming, yes—but not vegetables or fruit. They grew poppies!"
"Wait, you mean the spot we’re standing on used to be a poppy field?" Shawn Young said in shock.
Leon Longhair nodded. "That’s right, Mr. Young. Do you know how far we are from the Golden Triangle? We’re only a few dozen miles away."
Golden Triangle! Shawn Young was pretty familiar with those words, and every Chinese person knew the name. Back in the 80s and 90s, it was all over TV and movies as the drug capital of the world. But Shawn was only now realizing just how close this place was to the Golden Triangle!
"Oh! Is the Golden Triangle still covered in poppy fields?" Shawn Young asked curiously.
Leon Longhair shook his head and smiled. "You won’t see endless poppy fields in the Golden Triangle anymore. Just like here, most of the poppy fields have been wiped out. Years ago, international anti-narcotics organizations and soldiers from neighboring countries cleared out all the poppy here. The Golden Triangle also got hit with a massive cleanup. So Mai Zayan isn’t the drug haven it used to be. Without drug money, the Kachin Tribe couldn’t develop, so to survive, they found a new way to make money—casinos!"
"Oh, so that’s how casinos popped up! I bet none of the anti-narcotics folks saw that coming!" Shawn Young remarked with feeling.
"Yeah, wherever there are people, there’s trouble—conflict and tangled interests. It’s the same everywhere. Also, don’t go messing with the locals for no reason. They really don’t like Chinese people or other outsiders," Leon Longhair warned Shawn Young.
"Why? Did we do something to upset them?" Shawn Young asked curiously.
Leon Longhair laughed, "It’s like this: we basically wrecked their livelihood. Of course they hate us! Back when they grew poppies, they had enough to eat and wear. Sure, they lived in thatched huts, but they could feed their families. Ever since poppy growing was banned, they haven’t had a full meal. See all those sugarcane fields? Our country sponsored them, but they hardly make any money—just a couple thousand yuan a year. So now they’re always hungry. They think the sugarcane was forced on them by Chinese people and other outsiders, so they really hate us! If you wander around alone, you might get mugged or beaten up by the locals."
"Uh—well, that’s..." Shawn Young was at a loss for words. Somehow, all this resentment ended up aimed at Chinese people and outsiders.
"The casino money only ends up with Nick Carter’s people and the Kachin Tribe’s army. The locals don’t see a dime, so they don’t care about the casinos at all. But Nick Carter’s crew and the Kachin soldiers depend on casino income, so they protect the casinos like their lives depend on it," Leon Longhair explained.
Leon Longhair and Shawn Young strolled down the street, chatting as they went. Just then, a middle-aged man in his fifties came walking toward them. He was dressed plainly but was tall and well-built, with a square, handsome face—he must’ve been a looker when he was young. But now he looked down-and-out and weary, his hair at the temples already gray, his face marked by the hardships of life. He carried a wooden box, which turned out to be a simple shoe-shining kit.
"Excuse me, gentlemen, need a shoe shine?" The middle-aged man spotted Shawn Young and Leon Longhair and approached, clearly hoping for business. When he spoke, it was with a thick Shandong accent from inland China.
"Uh—well..." Shawn Young felt it was a bit unfair to have a middle-aged man shine his shoes, and he hesitated. But Leon Longhair stuck out his big foot and said, "Go on, make them shine!"
"Alright!" The middle-aged man got the job, but didn’t seem too happy about it. He quietly set down his box, took out his shoe brush and polish, and started carefully shining Leon Longhair’s shoes with a serious expression.
Shawn Young could tell this middle-aged man was no ordinary guy. He looked neither sad nor happy, neither humble nor arrogant, and he had a subtle air of authority about him. So Shawn decided to test him: "Uncle, you’re not from around here, are you?"
The middle-aged man kept shining shoes and, without looking up, said, "Yeah, I’m not from around here. I came here to strike it rich, just like you guys."
Leon Longhair burst out laughing and asked, "So, Uncle, did you strike it rich yet?"
The middle-aged man didn’t mind Leon Longhair’s teasing at all and simply replied, "Nope."
The more the middle-aged man acted like this, the more Shawn Young felt there was something unusual about him. How did someone like him end up shining shoes here?
Curious, Shawn Young asked, "Uncle, how did you end up like this? Don’t you have a son? What did you do before?"
But the middle-aged man didn’t answer. He seemed unwilling to talk about his past and just silently focused on shining shoes.
Soon, he finished shining the shoes. Leon Longhair casually handed him ten yuan and said, "Here you go, Uncle. Keep the change."
The middle-aged man didn’t refuse. He took the money without hesitation, thanked Leon Longhair, packed up his things, and turned to leave.
At that moment, Leon Longhair glanced at Shawn Young, then suddenly called out to the middle-aged man, "Hey, Uncle, we’re all out here hustling from the mainland. It’s rare for us to meet—how about we grab a drink together?"
"Uh—well... sure!" The middle-aged man clearly liked drinking, or maybe he hadn’t had a drink in ages. Hearing Leon Longhair’s suggestion, he looked at the two of them, hesitated a bit, then agreed.
So the three of them walked ahead and found a restaurant. Leon Longhair picked a private room, and the three men sat down together.
Shawn Young and Leon Longhair had just eaten at the restaurant, so they weren’t hungry at all. Shawn didn’t know why Leon Longhair wanted to invite the shoe-shining man for a meal and drinks, but he could sense Leon had something in mind. Shawn was also curious what Leon was up to.
They ordered five or six dishes and a few bottles of beer, plus several bottles of "Liquor Ghost." The three of them started drinking and eating. While Shawn Young and Leon Longhair chatted, the middle-aged man stayed silent, just drinking hard with his head down. His drinking surprised Shawn Young—he mixed beer and Liquor Ghost and kept pounding them, barely touching the food. After a few rounds, with Shawn and Leon finishing nearly a case of beer, the middle-aged man finally started getting tipsy.
Only then did Leon Longhair start to ask, "Heh—Uncle, now can you tell us what you used to do?"