When Qi Ling Shan was dragged away by two burly men, he could only shout loudly, hoping for rescue. However, no one stepped forward. Finally, he was taken to the foot of a distant city wall. This section of the wall was not being repaired, so there were no people around to see.
At this moment, Qi Ling Shan was filled with regret. Why had he caused trouble? If he had known he would be treated so unreasonably, he wouldn't have stepped forward. Who could have imagined that these people would disregard all reason? He was a returnee, an outstanding high school student from a country with a high welfare system. How could they treat him like this?
"Brother, I was wrong, I was wrong, please spare me!" Qi Ling Shan no longer cared about human rights or dignity and began to beg for mercy.
Unfortunately, Qi Ling Shan's pleas were clearly ineffective. He was soon tied to a street tree. One of the soldiers smiled and said, "This kid is too arrogant, daring to instigate trouble. I say, there's only one way to deal with such people: execute him!"
"Execute him, let others see what happens to those who disobey!" another soldier chimed in with a smile.
Qi Ling Shan was filled with despair. He couldn't understand why his education had always promoted freedom and equality, but why did this approach no longer work? Had the education he received abroad actually been a deception?
"Bang," a gunshot rang out. Qi Ling Shan closed his eyes and knelt on the ground. Suddenly, he felt a warmth between his legs. He assumed it was blood flowing out. However, there was no pain as he had imagined.
"This kid wet himself!" one of the soldiers pointed at Qi Ling Shan.
Qi Ling Shan opened his eyes and realized he was not dead. The bullet had not hit him. Looking down at his crotch, he saw it was damp. It turned out the warmth was not blood, but that he had been so scared he had urinated himself.
"You're lucky, kid. Our City Lord doesn't like killing. Although you were a bit arrogant, you weren't rebelling, so he's decided to give you a chance to reform. Come with us!" the soldier said with a smile.
Qi Ling Shan dared not object. He let the ropes binding him be untied and was then taken to a school dormitory. Several young people armed with weapons were guarding the place.
"He's here to clean. Let him clean the environment for the prisoners in the jail. Don't be too polite, don't reason with him. If he doesn't listen, beat him," the soldier said with a smile.
From this, Qi Ling Shan finally confirmed where he was. It turned out that the dormitory building had been converted into a prison, and he would be responsible for cleaning it. This was truly humiliating.
The two soldiers immediately returned to their patrol. Qi Ling Shan's eyes darted around, and he quickly said, "Brothers, I have money. I'll give you money, and you let me go, okay? I also have the latest mobile phone, and I'm wearing tens of thousands of yuan worth of sneakers!"
At this moment, Qi Ling Shan wanted to leave and started hatching a plan. If he could bribe the prison guards, wouldn't he be able to leave? He believed he could survive in Luzhou with his health intact, as long as he didn't stay here, everything would be fine.
"Pah, go clean!" The prison staff ignored Qi Ling Shan's words. They grabbed his arm and pushed him into the dormitory building, saying, "If you don't work, you don't eat. Hurry up and get to work."
Qi Ling Shan reluctantly picked up a broom and shovel and began to clean. As he walked, he overheard people talking behind him:
"Is this guy an idiot? The banks have collapsed. What's the use of money now? Food is the most important thing. Without food, nothing matters."
"That's right. Now, transactions in the black market are all bartering. Who would be foolish enough to use money to buy things? Sneakers and the like are for fools."
"If you buy with money, is it still called a black market?"
"Isn't the black market called that because it has no regulation? Your definition is wrong."
"I heard the black market also has special services. After work, shall we go have some fun?"
...
Among those who came from Yuzhou were over two hundred orphans, all of whom were sent to the orphanage. They were all children under fourteen years old, and the caretakers were several middle-aged women. The youngest among them was Xu Xing, who was responsible for looking after the children of all ages. The work wasn't tiring, but she easily got angry. It wasn't that she disliked taking care of children; it was that she couldn't stand hearing a bunch of kids call her "Auntie" every day. She was a young woman not yet twenty, so how could she become an "Auntie"?
So, Xu Xing asked a few children, and she learned that in their eyes, anyone who took care of them was an "Uncle" if male and an "Auntie" if female. Although Xu Xing was only seventeen, not much older than some of the older children, being called "Auntie" was still acceptable.
Xu Xing was particularly helpless about this. "Auntie" it was, then. At least these children were very obedient. However, the reason they were so obedient was likely because their parents had died unexpectedly. These children lacked a sense of security, which made them so compliant, fearing abandonment.
It could be said that children are not born lawless. Most mischievous children tend to observe their parents' expressions. Now that their parents were gone, the mischievous children dared not be so. They were as obedient as could be.
After the orphans from Yuzhou were sent to the orphanage, it quickly became noisy. Some children fought over toys, some shouted loudly, and others, relying on their strength, bullied the other children. These incidents greatly annoyed Xu Xing.
When she had free time, Xu Xing liked to lean on the wall and look at the sports stadium in the distance. Faintly, she could still hear gunshots. She had heard that girls could also join the army, serving under the Deputy City Lord, Chang Jianyi, who would directly command them and participate in battles when necessary. Unfortunately, this matter had nothing to do with Xu Xing.
To get a better view of the distance, Xu Xing specially found a pile of wooden boxes and stacked them by the wall. She was currently leaning by the wall, gazing into space.
Just then, two young girls, about ten years old, also ran to the boxes and looked at the boring scenery in the distance together. They were very attached to Xu Xing, as for them, she was someone of their own age, and communication would not be particularly difficult.
"Auntie, what are you looking at? There's nothing over there!" one of the girls asked curiously.
Xu Xing heard the question and shrugged helplessly, saying, "I'm looking at a dream, a dream that's hard for me to achieve."
Another girl also saw the samurai sword Xu Xing was holding and asked, "Can I see this sword?"
"No!" Xu Xing tightly held the samurai sword and said, "This is something the City Lord gave me. You can't see it. When you grow up, you'll have whatever weapons you want. Why are you looking at my sword?"
"We don't want to grow up!" The two girls couldn't help but sigh upon hearing this. For them, their biggest worry at the moment was growing up, because growing up meant having to work, otherwise, they wouldn't have food. Sometimes, they even had to fight zombies, those ferocious zombies. Just thinking about it made them incredibly scared.
At that moment, a child in the yard started crying. A little girl sat on the ground and cried loudly. This forced Xu Xing to get down from the boxes and walk over to the little girl, pulling her up and asking softly, "Why are you crying? Do you miss your mother?"
The little girl was only about six or seven years old. While crying, she pointed at a boy next to her holding a toy car and said, "He snatched my toy car and pushed me."
Xu Xing heard this and immediately glanced at the little boy. The boy immediately ran away with the toy car, completely ignoring the crying little girl.
Seeing this, Xu Xing could only shake her head helplessly and say, "Don't cry, don't cry. These bad kids have no homes. In a month, they will be sent back. Think about it, aren't they very pitiful? Just let them play with your toys. After a month, they'll be leaving!"
It turned out that the little boy who had snatched the toy was one of the orphans sent from Yuzhou. Because he coveted the toy car in the little girl's hand, he snatched it to play with. Xu Xing did not intend to mediate, because if she snatched the toy car back, the boy might start crying again.
The little girl heard Xu Xing say this, then raised her head and asked, "Auntie, we don't have homes either."
"Who says? Luzhou is your home. You can grow up here with peace of mind. Those children will be sent back to Yuzhou later, letting them suffer hardship outside. In the future, they will absolutely have no good end!" Xu Xing quickly comforted the little girl.
Hearing these words, the little girl immediately became happy. She hopped and skipped to the boy who had snatched the toy car and said triumphantly, "You are all pitiful. You have no homes. I'll let you play with my toys for now, since you'll be leaving in a month!"
After saying this, the little girl walked away. But the little boy, upon hearing these words, burst into tears. His sore spot had been touched. In fact, what he feared most was being helpless. Now, hearing that he would be sent away, he couldn't help but cry.
"Why are you crying again?" Xu Xing touched her head, thinking helplessly.
Afterward, Xu Xing ran over to the little boy and comforted him, promising not to send him away. Only then did the little boy stop crying.
Wang Xi Qiang was running around the yard with a group of little boys. Following him were the children rescued from the repair shop near the fishing village. After experiencing the terrifying events, they had united, seemingly feeling like brothers after enduring hardship. This small group was the most mischievous.
Most importantly, Wang Xi Qiang had worked in the logistics department of the Self-Help Association for a few days. He really wanted to join the City Lord's Mansion, but Shen Feng thought he was too young and told him to wait two years. Therefore, Wang Xi Qiang was determined that he would definitely enter the City Lord's Mansion when he grew up. This was what the City Lord himself had said!
His sister, Wang Xi Ran, was not in the orphanage because she had become a little follower of Yu Ren Shu, following her around everywhere. Occasionally, Yu Ren Shu would teach her to read or do arithmetic. There were no schools at the moment, so to learn knowledge, one could only seek private instruction. Of course, Wang Xi Ran was still sent back to the orphanage by Yu Ren Shu to sleep at night.
Wang Xi Qiang pointed at another person in the yard and said, "You brats, you'd better behave. No more snatching our toys from now on, or I'll bring my people to beat you!"
At this moment, Wang Xi Qiang had become the leader of the orphanage children. He considered himself the boss of everyone, and now that his brothers and sisters were in trouble, he naturally had to step forward and resolve the matter.
Wang Xi Qiang's words immediately provoked resentment from the children who came from Yuzhou. Originally, only a few of them cared about these toys, and only a few children snatched the toys from the other side. Now, Wang Xi Qiang was threatening them with force, which immediately angered these children. One boy stood up and shouted, "Who's afraid of you?"
Wang Xi Qiang did not tolerate this and called out to the people behind him, "Brothers, let's go!"
The children from Yuzhou had been living in fear. Now that they saw the other side ganging up to exclude them, they began to fight back. Immediately, the children started fighting. The teenagers who were over ten years old had not participated, but some of them saw their younger brothers and sisters fighting and, fearing they would be at a disadvantage, joined the fray.
As the older children from Yuzhou joined the fight, the older children from Luzhou couldn't stand by either, so they let out a shout and joined the battle. Within minutes, the orphanage was in chaos. Xu Xing was stunned by the scene, never expecting these children to have such boundless energy, capable of starting an argument with just a word. She immediately took a whistle from her pocket and blew it loudly, trying to stop the fighting.
The final outcome was that both sides were punished equally. The children involved in the fight were not allowed to eat dinner that night, and the day's events were reported to the City Lord's Mansion.
Shen Feng, who was processing documents in the City Lord's Mansion, casually put the report aside. The children's scuffles in the orphanage were a minor matter, but the brawls within the city could not be ignored. The locals in Luzhou felt that the people from Yuzhou were coming to snatch resources and looked down on them. The people from Yuzhou believed they were already working and had not offended the locals of Luzhou, so the two sides looked down on each other and often arranged fights.
In response, the City Lord's Mansion could only mediate. The conflict between locals and outsiders had existed long before the zombie outbreak, not just now. It could be said that xenophobia existed everywhere, and the more urban the area, the more severe it became. Some would even say that outsiders came to beg for food, treating themselves as benevolent benefactors.
"They're just too full, that's why they're causing trouble!" Shen Feng said helplessly.