Around midnight, a thin, weak youth followed a dark-skinned, rugged-featured middle-aged man of about forty.
The pair, looking like a father and son, crossed a street, turned into an alley to retrieve something, and then arrived at a dimly lit alleyway ahead.
Perhaps having reached their destination, the middle-aged man stopped first. He looked at the few people standing or squatting in a corner and walked toward one of them.
Seeing this, the thin youth at his side stopped scanning the area ahead and followed silently, thinking, 'This must be the first checkpoint to get into the real black market.'
Sure enough, the middle-aged man went up and offered a cigarette to a young man leaning nonchalantly against the corner wall at the alley's entrance, a cigarette already dangling from his mouth.
This must be the so-called Brother Yan.
