Hidden Moth

Chapter 644 377: Seeking Rites Outside the Court (New Opening)_2

What is an abandoned district? It's a no-man's-land!As numerous factories shut down and unemployment rose, the original residents gradually moved away or disappeared, while a large number of outsiders flooded in. This area became the territory of various gangs, who fought over the turf.

The government essentially gave up on public services, various infrastructures ceased to be maintained, and the residents were left largely to their own devices. Police scarcely stepped into this area for law enforcement, and order was mainly maintained through gang self-governance.

The Shi Family also used gang-like methods to seize this territory, deploying a group of Sorcerers to eliminate and expel local gangs. After establishing a foothold and integrating one district, they went on to annex two adjacent districts.

Once they controlled these three districts, their territory ceased to expand. Or, in other words, they had reached some sort of limit under the current conditions, so they entered a relatively stable development phase.

Most of the current residents here are newcomers, or rather, "accommodated" by the Shi Family after organized, planned, and purposeful screening.

This large-scale change in residential population structure was accomplished in a gradual manner, without making much noise, almost imperceptibly.

The controllers of this place are the Shi Family, who migrated from the Eastern Country, which is why the locals call this district Stone District.

According to the plural form in English, it should be called Stones District. However, the Shi Family leaders do not favor this grammatical form, so it remains Stone District, and the forces established by the Shi Family are called Stone Gang.

The Shi Family leader infused value into this name, claiming it symbolizes "unity as one."

In reality, there's no such organization as Stone Gang, only a school of loose cultivators led by Shi Family Sorcerers. After the demise of the Huiming Shi Family, this branch of the clan may be referred to as the Luoshan Shi Family.

The sorcerers here, based on the latest data, number 101. Among them, ten are high-tier sorcerers. The current family head Shi Hao holds the rank of Tier Five, and the elder members Shi Zhigao and Shi Zhiping are also Tier Five cultivators.

The two elders are relatively old and usually do not bother with trivial mundane affairs. They devote most of their energy to guiding the younger generations in technique cultivation. Most ordinary residents have never heard of them; they serve as stabilizing forces.

Shi Zhiping deserves a separate mention. He is eighty-two years old, having previously worked within the Eastern Country system, holding vice positions and top positions in villages and counties. His highest position before retirement was as a deputy in a certain prefecture-level city.

The dual bond of clan and technique sect naturally endows them with organizational capacity and execution power, but what other ways do they use to control the operations of local affairs?

Of course, through various grassroots organizations, including various business entities.

First is the simple and unadorned Owners' Committee and Property Management Company.

This area had long been an abandoned district. Many houses, along with the land they stood on, had been listed for years due to unpaid taxes, yet no one took over because they were in ruinous condition, and the public security environment was extremely poor.

Even houses that were still livable would be so dangerous to settle in because of occupations by unknown individuals. If you insist on living there, it would be tantamount to gambling with your life.

Initially, the Huiming Shi Family organized many people, under various identities, to buy these properties at dirt-cheap prices, then expelled the previous gang forces.

Afterward, the Shi Family established a property management company, having people transfer their properties to this company and thus took over these derelict real estates, then began large-scale repairs and renovations.

Technically, such houses cannot be repaired at will, as obtaining construction permits involves extremely complicated procedures. However, in such neglected districts, procedures are not an issue; ignoring them is how it's done. The more troublesome concern is property tax.

If public security improves, along with enhancements in public facilities and services, and houses are newly refurbished, their assessed values would sharply increase, and Shi Property Company, being the largest landlord, would face massive annual property tax liabilities.

Although nonpayment is an option, the property management company is a legally registered owner after all, and losing apparent legal ownership is a hassle the Shi Family would rather avoid.

Therefore, the Luoshan Shi Family borrowed ideas from the Eastern Country's cultural relic protection approach—restoring the old as the old.

The potholes in the roads were filled, but no thorough repaving was done. While driving was unimpaired, visually the roads remain patchy and pot-holed. Many areas along the sides were left tangled with wild trees, seemingly untouched on the surface.

Water, electricity, and gas lines were all completely re-laid, yet the old, abandoned pipelines remained. The exposed parts above ground still looked like weathered relics.

The exteriors of most houses were largely preserved, undergoing only interior renovations; in some cases, even the traces of large holes on the roofs remained, appearing as if barely patched.

Unlike the common standalone wooden houses elsewhere, this area featured numerous brick-and-concrete structures, typically three or four stories high with several dozen units per floor, resembling the corridor-style dormitory buildings from the Eastern Country in the eighties.

Such structures are almost unseen in today's United States. They were built during the post-World War II period, long becoming dilapidated. However, they have now undergone internal refurbishing and reinforcement, with newly installed pipeline systems.

In many cities in Europe, laws also require maintaining original facades during renovations for classical urban style and tourism aesthetics. Here it is purely to avoid absurd property taxes.

Even though the Shi Family has many other means to resolve problems, surface appearances still need to be maintained.

Furthermore, they also arrange occasional incremental real estate transactions annually, selling at very low rates and paying taxes. This isn't for anything else but to anchor assessed values.

Shi Property Company is nearly the sole major landowner locally, with most residents renting from them. There's also a grassroots management institution named the Owners' Committee.

Unlike the Owners' Committees and Property Management Companies familiar to Eastern Country people, the Owners' Committee here has absurdly large powers, directly interfering in residents' lives.

For instance, no planting vegetables or hanging clothes in yards, compulsory lawn maintenance, specifying which brand of mower to use, and which seeds and fertilizers to purchase, etc., are all dirty work traditionally handled by the Owners' Committee.

In reality, the Owners' Committee and its affiliated property management department exercise control similar to gangs, or, in the American sense, an alternative kind of gang.

The Luoshan Shi Family directly controls all Owners' Committees in this region and has integrated them. A district's Owners' Committee does not independently exist but is subordinate to a larger scope of Owners' Committees.

Using a method similar to fraternal organizations, the Luoshan Shi Family established a district-wide General Owners' Committee for Stone District, implementing zoning management, equivalent to setting up branch offices at the grassroots level.

Compared to the local decentralized governance structure, this exhibits strong organizational capacity.

The "Patrol Team" and "Command Center" where Shi Yunfeng is found, is actually the core security department of the General Owners' Committee, with most of the five hundred peripheral members being staff from various grassroots Owners' Committees.

They not only possess legal firearms but also conceal illegal heavy weaponry, although some aspects are not openly shown.

**

PS: Happy New Year on the fifth day of the first lunar month, wishing you prosperity!