Chapter 69: There’s Always a Rascal Trying to Fleece You
The group parked their cars a little further away, looking towards the villa area.
The villa area looked like it had the same level of management as the residential area where Lu Weiyi had lived, all based on individual communities spreading outwards. The difference was that the surrounding courtyard walls had all been reinforced and heightened, and the collapsed areas had been repaired. Looking from afar, apart from the people queuing to enter at the entrance, there were also many makeshift shelters built outside the high walls.
“So many people are queuing to enter?” Gu Qingyue looked over there. “I wonder what the requirements are to get in.”
“Only a portion are going in,” Xu Sa lowered his binoculars, his expression not very good. “Those in the shelters probably aren’t qualified to enter.” He had already seen that the people living in the shelters were all kinds—men, women, old, and young—gathered together, each with disheveled hair and a gloomy complexion, their clothes tattered, worse than beggars before the apocalypse. It had only been less than twenty days, and they had already become like this…
Li Zhuang also saw the situation clearly at this time. He handed the binoculars to Antonio beside him. Antonio looked at it without saying anything and then passed it to Gu Qingji beside him. After the group had a rough look, they looked at Lu Weiyi again. “Are you sure you want to go?”
“Go,” Lu Weiyi said without hesitation. Zhuang Mingxu and Zhuang Ai Yi needed a safe place to rest.
Although Zhuang Mingxu hadn’t made a sound throughout the bumpy ride, Lu Weiyi had still sensitively noticed that he was enduring something. He didn’t know what the wound looked like, and he wanted to get someone to check it for him as soon as possible. Moreover, they didn’t lack weapons or supplies, so they weren’t afraid of giving gifts or resorting to force.
“Qingyue, you, Ning Yuan, and Lin Yimu go over and inquire about information,” Li Zhuang said.
“Okay,” Lin Yimu replied, looking around with Zhuang Ai Yi asleep in his arms, hesitating whether to give him to Lu Weiyi. After all, everyone could see that he wasn’t very fond of the child. In fact, Lu Weiyi had already turned to talk to Zhuang Mingxu in the car, not noticing the child’s issue at all.
Just as Xu Sa was about to hold his newly declared godson, Li Zhuang took him over, smiling. “Let me try. I haven’t held a child before.”
Lin Yimu helplessly and carefully handed him over. Li Zhuang gently took the child, a genuine smile on his face, his voice a little lower. “So small, still smells of milk.”
“Is there something wrong with your nose?” Although Xu Sa also agreed he was small and his cuteness couldn’t be hidden despite being dark, he really didn’t smell any milk.
Li Zhuang ignored him, carefully cradling the child in his arms, using his arm to shield him from the crisp morning wind, and looked at the others. “How many days will we stay here?”
Everyone here was seeking shelter in the Qingyuan safe zone. To put it bluntly, they were all refugees. Except for Lu Weiyi, whose home was there, they naturally weren’t in a hurry. They could only look at Lu Weiyi. “Me?” Lu Weiyi glanced at Zhuang Mingxu. “He has a fever. I want to wait until he’s better before we leave.”
If he stayed, then Lin Yimu and Ning Yuan would definitely follow. Once Xu Sa agreed to stay, Liu Rui would definitely follow too. As for the others, they were all looking for a safe place anyway. Rather than going to the unfamiliar Qingyuan alone, it was better to stick together, so they would have acquaintances to look after each other.
“Then let’s all go together,” Li Zhuang decided.
Before long, the three who had gone to inquire returned. Gu Qingyue said, “To enter the base, you need to pay food. They accept rice, flour, instant noodles, anything edible.”
“What’s the standard?” It couldn’t be the same amount for everyone.
“Rice and flour are twenty catties per person, instant noodles are thirty packs per person, and bread and the like are calculated by weight, twenty-five catties per person,” Gu Qingyue said.
“So much per person. With so many of us, that’s hundreds of catties. It’s not cheap,” Xiong Jie said.
“Paying with water is cheaper, only five bottles of mineral water per person. Gasoline is even cheaper,” but they couldn’t hand over gasoline, so Gu Qingyue didn’t mention it. “People without supplies are gathered in the large sheds outside the safe zone. It’s considered a temporary place.”
“Mmm,” Lin Yimu continued, “This place was established by a Police Bureau Chief from Yongping City. Now, besides the Police Bureau Chief Zhang Xun controlling most of the police power and having a lot of say, there’s also a wealthy businessman Lin Jun, who has a large amount of supplies, and a security company person Liu Qiang, who has a group of security personnel under him. The three parties are now in a subtle three-legged standoff, all wanting to overwhelm the other two, but there’s no opportunity yet, so it’s still relatively stable inside.”
Lu Weiyi didn’t have the mind to care about these things at this time. Zhuang Mingxu was already showing signs of falling asleep. He waved his hand and took out a dozen bags of rice and flour, saying to the others, “Let’s go in.”
Li Zhuang shook his head helplessly. “Bring out two cases of mineral water,” he added another bottle in. He looked at Xiong Jie. “Brother Xiong, take another hundred catties of flour and eighty catties of rice together. We’ll ask later if the amount can be reduced for the child.”
“Any cigarettes?” Li Zhuang turned to ask Lu Weiyi.
Lu Weiyi directly threw out several cartons.
“No need for so many,” Li Zhuang smiled and picked them up, impolitely opening a carton first, lighting one for himself, and throwing a pack to each of the old smokers whose eyes had clearly brightened. He kept two cartons and threw one each to Gu Qingyue and Ning Yuan. “Keep these for gathering information, put the rest away.”
“Put a generator in the back of the car, one set of pots and pans, and then leave some food—rice, flour, oil, snacks—put a little of everything, enough for passersby to see we have supplies, but not so much as to make people envious…” Li Zhuang instructed one by one, and Lu Weiyi quickly changed the supplies in the trunk. When it was almost done, the group drove towards the entrance.
Before they even got close, a group of children surged forward, standing directly in front of the car. If Li Zhuang hadn’t braked in time, they would have been hit. Although the speed wasn’t fast, with a child, you never knew what might happen.
“Ai Yi?” The sudden jolt woke Zhuang Ai Yi up. He was startled at first, then immediately looked up. Lin Yimu called his name, and he slowly recognized who it was, calling out softly, “Uncle Mu.”
As soon as he spoke, he quietly looked around and his eyes lit up when he saw Zhuang Mingxu sleeping in the back seat. “Big Papa!” he called.
“Shhh, don’t be loud,” Lu Weiyi didn’t know if Zhuang Mingxu was unconscious or just asleep, so he wasn’t in the mood to deal with the child. He glanced at him and lowered his voice.
“Little Papa,” Zhuang Ai Yi called out carefully in a low voice, as if he had done something wrong.
“Mmm,” Lu Weiyi replied casually, glanced out the window, and saw a group of children kneeling in a row around their car, shouting, “Kind people, please give us some food.” Not far away were men and women watching the commotion, their eyes fixed on them, wishing they could come over and take a bite.
There were people in every base who couldn’t afford the entrance supplies. Most of them would gather in groups like this on the outskirts of the base, staring at everyone who arrived later, trying to find ways to get a piece of them.
The most common thing was this, using children as an excuse to beg for things.
“Ignore them, just drive on,” Lu Weiyi was anxious to get inside to check Zhuang Mingxu’s body and didn’t want to stop.
“Mmm,” Li Zhuang opened the car window, poked his head out, his usually amused face now tense and quite intimidating. He looked at the men and women not far away who were constantly watching them. “Half a minute, tell them to get lost, or they’ll die under the wheels.”
The group who had been observing them whispered to each other. Some immediately shouted a few times, and the few children kneeling on the ground ran away upon hearing the voices. But there were still a few who kept shouting to ask for something.
When half a minute was up, Li Zhuang stepped on the gas, the car lurched forward, then suddenly stopped again. In that brief forward and stop, the children who had been kneeling on the ground scattered completely. Li Zhuang started the car again and drove past.
He got through, but the few behind him weren’t so lucky, especially Xiong Jie in the last car. Xi Shi and the Gu Qingyue brothers were in their car. Xi Shi was timid and soft-hearted, especially when facing a group of children.
“Shall we give them some food?” Xi Shi asked for the Gu Qingyue brothers’ opinions.
Gu Qingyue was a doctor before the apocalypse and naturally couldn’t bear to watch. Someone spoke up and he immediately nodded. Xiong Jie’s words of stopping them were blocked in his throat. The two brothers immediately took out all the bread and biscuits from their four backpacks and threw them out the window.
More than a dozen children immediately scrambled for them, finishing the food in an instant and running off without even a thank you. What was even more infuriating was that before Xiong Jie’s car could start again, a group of old people surged out from the refugees and blocked the vehicle, clamoring for the “kind people” to give them something.
“This…” Xi Shi didn’t know what to do for a moment, turning his head to look at Xiong Jie, who was driving, for help.
“Drive past them,” Xiong Jie didn’t speak, but Gu Qingyue took the initiative to say. He had been watching those children just now and had personally seen them get the food, only to have it snatched away by the onlookers, and some even actively gave it to those adult men and women. Presumably, these old people were the same…
They were all adults, and no one’s life was inherently more valuable than another’s. The food they had painstakingly risked their lives to find was okay to give to pitiful children, but if other adults took it, it was a bit unreasonable.
“If you give any more, we won’t go any further,” Xiong Jie said.
Xi Shi was a weak and overly kind person, but he had a quirk that was neither good nor bad: he listened to Xiong Jie. As long as it didn’t violate his principles or bottom line, he wouldn’t object to Xiong Jie’s opinions. Seeing that Xiong Jie also disagreed, he immediately sat up straight and didn’t say anything more.
They hadn’t been together for more than ten years, and every time Xi Shi showed a bit of trust and reliance on him, Xiong Jie would be happy for a long time. He immediately comforted Xi Shi. “The world is already like this. It’s okay to pity a child, but as for others, we don’t have the ability to help them all.”
Xi Shi knew his own limitations very well. He had survived all along by relying on Xiong Jie. Giving things to too many people now would be making things difficult for Xiong Jie. Although he pitied others, it was on the premise of not causing trouble for Xiong Jie. He immediately nodded to show that he understood.
Xiong Jie smiled at him, preparing to learn from Li Zhuang at the front. He opened the car window, glanced out, and shouted, “If you don’t move, I’ll run you over!”
As soon as he shouted, before the car even moved, an old man lay down in front of them, shouting loudly, “They’re hitting people! They’re killing people! Everyone, come and see! They’re driving into people!”
