The layout of Nanqing is similar to that of most large shelters.
There are core areas, commercial areas, and the 'Mercenary Street' that developed around the mercenary union and gradually formed an industrial chain.
The core area belongs to the inner city, and is mostly populated by high-level people, leaders of big forces and their relatives. Ordinary awakened people cannot buy properties in the core area and must either live in the business district or in the mercenary street.
However, large shelters such as Nanqing also have areas that are often overlooked but are equally large in area.
Ghetto.
Officially called the Relief Area.
The slums occupy about one-fifth of the shelter, but are home to more than 80% of the survivors.
There are tube buildings one after another, with almost no gaps, no sunlight, the roads are as cramped as the rooms, and an unpleasant smell permeates the air. Occasionally, you can see a few ragged people lying in the corner, and from time to time, there are rumors that someone has hanged himself. Or death by jumping from a building.
This is the ghetto.
An area that awakened people seldom mention, and are even less willing to enter.
The Ministry of Intelligence has a stronghold in the ghetto.
Lan Qingya put on rough and worn clothes and put on makeup, followed Uncle Hai into the slums, and came to a stronghold in a tube building. Everything she saw along the way made her frown.
Hai Honghui smiled and said, "The situation you see now has improved a lot compared to when I first came here two months ago. There are food sold by our green shade to shelters like Nanqing, and food from the slums." The survivors can eat a little more than two meals a day. Of course, it is impossible to eat enough with the relief food. Even if they work, the treatment in Nanqing is far from comparable to that in our shelter."
Lan Qingya shook her head and sighed, "I know, it's just..."
As an intelligence officer, she was able to restrain her sympathy, but only strengthened her determination to take away the survivors of the Southern Qing Dynasty.
…
Under the operation of intelligence personnel, certain news is quietly reaching the ears of some survivors in the slums.
Tang Wenliang walked out of the labor market with dull eyes and weak steps. He staggered and instinctively walked towards the house he was assigned.
Like The Walking Dead.
Area B, Building 13, 5th floor, Room 517.
In a small room of less than thirty square meters, more than twenty survivors lived together.
Especially the height of the fifth floor, every time he climbed up, he would consume most of his strength.
Tang Wenliang couldn't remember how long it had been since he had eaten enough.
At first, when the city wall of the Nanqing Shelter was under construction, he could still get a job in the labor market carrying bricks and sandbags. At that time, with the wages and the relief grain he received, he could barely live on. Belly life.
However now,
The city wall of Nanqing has been completed, and the construction work of the shelter has become very minimal. The labor market opens early every morning, and there are fewer and fewer jobs hanging on it.
For nearly a month, he failed to secure a job.
Not having enough to eat every day, and getting up very early every day to go to the labor market, and climbing up and down the five-story building many times, Tang Wenliang's body became weaker and weaker. He could meet the requirements of the job types in the labor market. , are becoming less and less.
The survivors in the same room all persuaded him not to waste his efforts.
Most of the poor people live in a haze. At one o'clock every day, they go downstairs, line up in a long line to receive relief food, then walk back to the room mechanically, and lean against the wall...
Repeating the same life every day.
Tang Wenliang was unwilling to give in.
He used to be a well-fed person. At most, he had two or three kilograms of grain hidden in his pocket.
But now...
A trace of clarity returned to Tang Wenliang's eyes, and he felt that his body was empty, his strength was almost gone, and he gradually fell into despair.
Maybe, they were right, there was no hope.
He looked up and counted the building numbers, looking for the one he lived in.
Suddenly, with an unconscious glance from the corner of his eye, he discovered that there was a small advertisement posted on the telephone pole next to him.
new.
Tang Wenliang remembered clearly that when he came out in the morning, there were no small advertisements pasted on the telephone pole that smelled of urine. He had a very good memory.
In the slums, there are no advertisements at all.
Somehow, even though he didn't have much strength, Tang Wenliang still dragged his heavy body to the telephone pole and looked at the advertisement.
It's a job advertisement.
The strange thing is that there is nothing about work on it. It just mentions that survivors who participate in the recruitment, regardless of whether they are selected or not, will receive a pound of food.
"It's quite formal."
He didn't believe it, but the dazzling fonts of "One pound of grain" were imprinted in his mind and he couldn't get rid of them.
He laughed at himself in his heart: Tang Wenliang, Tang Wenliang, why haven't you recognized the reality yet? There is no such thing as pie falling in the sky, and even if it is, it's not in the slums.
I want to take steps forward, but it feels like I have taken root.
Two voices in his mind, one on the left and one on the right, kept impacting him.
"Fake, it's all fake!"
"A pound of grain."
"I didn't even write down my work content, and I didn't even try to be real when it came to acting. It must be fake!"
"A pound of grain."
"I heard that there are cannibals in the slums, luring survivors to the door. This must be a trap set by those cannibals... "
"A pound of grain."
…
Like a demonic barrier, two voices buzzed in his mind.
quite a while,
Tang Wenliang gasped, and a cruel look finally appeared on his unpredictable face, "Fuck! Either have a full meal, or have it delivered to your door and be treated as human flesh and food, and I accept it!"
After staring at the small advertisement for a few moments, he took a staggering step towards the address above.
behind,
Some survivors in ragged clothes were surprised by Tang Wenliang's behavior. They walked to the telephone pole and looked back and forth for several minutes, but they still could not see the difference in this telephone pole.
He could only mutter "crazy", then shake his head and leave.
…
The address is in the ghetto.
The distance was not far, only a few hundred meters, but Tang Wenliang walked for nearly twenty minutes.
Standing in front of a narrow alley that could only accommodate two people walking side by side, he hesitated for a moment, then walked in.
The alley seemed extremely long. Tang Wenliang walked for several minutes without reaching the end.
There are tall tube buildings on both sides, with few rays of sunlight coming through, and without street lights, it looks dark and deep.
Like a frightening beast.
Tang Wenliang almost lost consciousness. There seemed to be a voice and a will in his mind, driving his body to move forward instinctively toward the invisible end.
…
The roof of Tongzi Tower.
Hai Honghui was a little surprised, "A highly talented person has come so easily? There doesn't seem to be anything special about that little advertisement, right?"
Lan Qingya smiled slightly when she heard this, "We are awakened ones, and we are awakened ones with strong spiritual power, so we can easily see that small advertisement, but the survivors here are just ordinary people who can pass the first screening When I get here, my natural mental strength and my ability to perceive runes are already strong."