Chapter 15 Mobilization Order
Chapter 15 Mobilization Order
The sun was already hanging in the sky. It was getting late. It would be too late to go back now.
Chu Guang would rather stay in Bette Street for one night than travel at night.
He knew how dangerous it was after several unpleasant experiences. It was God’s will that he survived.
Chu Guang wrapped the iron pipe rifle he bought in a plastic bag and tied it to the sharpened water pipe behind him. No one could tell from the appearance that it was a gun.
Although Bette Street did not restrict survivors from carrying weapons, Chu Guang did not want the mayor’s eyes to find out that he had a private transaction with the caravan outside.
50g of blue parasol mushrooms were only exchanged for 1 point of chips.
It’s amazing that these blood-sucking leeches could think of this!
Passing through the gate of Bette Street.
Chu Guang saw that there was a crowd of people at the door of the recycling station, including men and women, old and young.
They were ragged, pale and thin, carrying woven bags or frames on their backs, and holding plastic buckets or other containers in their hands.
Their daily routine is simple.
They exchange the garbage they pick up for chips, and then use the chips to exchange for the necessities of life.
”New soap has arrived! It’s produced by the Boulder City Chemical Plant. It only costs 3 chips to wash away the disgusting odors on your bodies. Hurry up and buy one for your wife. There are only 30, first come first served.”
”Cooking oil, no matter what it is made of, it’s all fresh and good stuff, shipped from Brown Farm, only 10 chips per liter… It’s a bit expensive, but there is a reason for it. You’d better find someone to fight for it.”
”Let me see, by the way, there is also coarse salt! A piece the size of a thumb only costs 5 chips… Don’t care where it comes from, do you still want to eat more delicious food? Come and buy it.”
”There are also tobacco leaves, whether you smoke it yourself or use it to smoke meat, it’s also from Brown Farm… Forget it, you can choose it yourself, I’ll take a break.”
Old Charlie shouted lazily at the door, and his attitude didn’t look like a businessman at all.
In fact, this is indeed not a business, but more like a kind of charity from a master to a servant.
Don’t say it’s Bet Street.
Many things in this five-li area can only be bought here, and people living here have no right to choose.
Also, don’t think that five miles is short.
Although Qingquan City is located in the southern plains, it has long become a reinforced concrete cemetery that is more dangerous than the forest…
Old Charlie wiped his sweat and handed the job of collecting money to the shop assistant. He sat aside and squinted his eyes to rest.
At this time, a thin young man in a gray coat waved a wooden sign in his hand and walked to the crowd.
”Mobilization order! Mobilization order from the mayor!”
”Before the end of the month, each household must hand in 100 kilograms of firewood and 2 cubic meters of fur.”
”Tell each other!”
The crowd was in an uproar.
There were waves of complaints, but no one came out to resist.
After all, it was like this in previous years.
Bette Street does not collect taxes, but it does not mean that living here is free. In addition to soft exploitation of trading rights, the mayor will always collect a batch of materials in one way or another.
And the mobilization order is one of them, and there will be one in August and September every year.
As for what will happen if you refuse to collect it?
The punishment is also quite straightforward.
All men and women over the age of 16 in the settlement, regardless of whether they live alone or not, as long as they are not married, are considered a single household. After marriage, two people become one household.
If the supplies are not paid, the housekeeper who registers the household will cross the name of the household from the list, confiscate his shack on Bet Street, and expel him from the survivors’ base.
In this world where life is thinner than paper, losing shelter is no different from death.
Especially in the cold winter.
Although Bet Street is not rich, it is better than the Brown Farm next door. At least the survivors living here can still have a little pitiful freedom.
”It seems that the mayor is planning to make another fortune before the last batch of caravans come this year, and live a prosperous year with the supplies in exchange.”
Chu Guang thought in his heart, but did not take this so-called mobilization order seriously.
He will leave here before winter.
At that time, he will leave by himself without being driven away.
Bypassing the recycling station.
Chu Guang walked straight to his shack, but before he reached the door, he saw Yu Xiaoyu and a man standing at the door, arguing about something.
The man was about seventeen or fifteen, not tall, a teenager. Chu Guang was not familiar with him, but he seemed to be the third son of the Wang family, named Wang Defu.
His shack was in the corner of the settlement, diagonally opposite to the Yu family, and then the Wang family, and he usually didn’t visit there.
I don’t know what happened, but the third son of the Wang family actually found his place.
”Get out of the way.”
Wang Defu looked impatient, stretched out his hand and pushed Yu Xiaoyu who was blocking in front of him. The little girl staggered back, but still stretched out her arms like an eagle protecting her chicks, and didn’t give way.
”No, this is not your home!”
”It’s not your home either.”
”But he asked me to help look after the house!”
”What’s so good about a dead person’s house.”
”He’s not dead.” Yu Xiaoyu stared at him, her eyes like goldfish.
”Stop lying, that stranger hasn’t come back for four or five days.”
Wang Defu continued impatiently, “You Yu family just want a share of the spoils, I don’t plan to take it all by myself. So, the beams of the shed and this door belong to me, and you can take the rest.”
The house of a dead person is usually divided up by the neighbors if no one lives in it.
There is no definite news that a person is dead if he doesn’t come back for a few days, but generally if someone doesn’t come back for several days, everyone assumes that he was either captured by slave traders or plunderers, or taken away by alien species to feed their cubs.
No one can survive several nights in a row outside.
Even experienced hunters find it difficult to do so.
Yu Xiaoyu bit her lower lip until it turned blue, and her eyes stared like a little goldfish. She refused to move away, but she didn’t make any other moves.
Wang Defu didn’t want to wait any longer. If he waited any longer, the men of the Yu family would come back, and he couldn’t get any benefits by himself, so he was ready to push her away by force.
But at this moment, a hand was placed on his shoulder.
”Who said I’m dead?”
Wang Defu’s hair stood on end, and he jumped to the side, looking at Chu Guang with fear like a wild animal. Yu Xiaoyu quickly slipped behind Chu Guang and reported quietly.
”He came yesterday and wanted to demolish your house.”
”Thank you.”
Chu Guang looked at Wang Defu with a half-smile and continued.
”Do you want to leave by yourself, or do you want me to take you there?”
Wang Defu knew he was in the wrong and could not argue. He then glanced at the steel pipe with blood on the tip of Chu Guang’s back and finally left silently.
He was not afraid of the Yu family or this stranger, but no one wanted to offend a strong man.
Especially since this guy was alone and had no weaknesses at all.
Looking at the man’s back, Chu Guang suddenly felt a little sad.
Although some people are alive, they are no different from hyenas and vultures outside.
He had seen with his own eyes a mutant hyena biting off the neck of its injured companion and sharing its meat. At that time, he did not think much about it and just thought it was the law of nature. Now he actually felt a little empathy.
He had only been away for a few days, and these people were already ready to move.
Yu Xiaoyu, who was hiding behind Chu Guang, did not leave. She felt that if she waited a little longer, she might be able to eat the candy she had eaten that day.
She had never eaten anything so sweet before, and she almost chewed the plastic stick.
She noticed the big eyes looking at her.
Chu Guang was stunned at first, but then he realized what was going on. He smiled and took out a lollipop that he had forgotten to eat from his pocket and stuffed it into the little girl’s hand.
”Sorry to bother you these days.”
”No trouble!”
Xiaoyu happily tore open the plastic paper, stuffed the lollipop into her mouth, and said vaguely, “Anyway, I don’t have anything else to do. I can help you watch it when you go out.”
At this time, the men of the Yu family came back from the direction of the recycling station carrying the spoils. From the bulging packages, it can be seen that they have gained a lot.
Seeing her eldest brother, second brother and father, Xiaoyu hid back in the house.
Earning candy is just a side job, and keeping an eye on foreigners is the job that the elders have entrusted to her. Xiaoyu has not forgotten the elders’ instructions to her.
However, no matter how fast she moves, she can’t be faster than the hunter’s eyes.
The head of the Yu family, the healthy old man with wrinkles on his face, glanced at Chu Guang and said nothing. He went into the house with his eldest son who was carrying two bags of green wheat.
Yu Hu, the second son of the Yu family, stopped in front of Chu Guang.
Chu Guang recognized him.
People here didn’t pay much attention to him, and this boy of eighteen or nineteen was one of the few people who would take the initiative to talk to him.
However, this man always spoke directly, as fierce as his name.
”You haven’t been here for a few days, I thought you were dead.”
Chu Guang said.
”It seems that your intuition is not very accurate.”
Yu Hu was stunned for a moment, grinned and touched his head.
This outsider is quite interesting. His way of speaking is different from others. He always likes to beat around the bush.
He didn’t care and continued.
”I have to tell you that the mayor has just issued a mobilization order. Each household must hand in 100 kilograms of firewood and 2 square meters of fur before the end of the month.”
The Yu family has three adult men and needs to pay 300 kilograms of firewood and 6 square meters of fur. It is considered a “big taxpayer” on Bet Street.
The former is easy to deal with. There are vegetation everywhere in the city. In the far suburbs to the north, you can see large tracts of woodland. Even if there is no mobilization order from the mayor, they have to cut some back to prepare for the winter.
But the latter is not so easy to deal with. Six square meters of fur must kill at least four or even five mutant hyenas.
”I heard about it when I came back.”
”That’s good.”
Yu Hu didn’t beat around the bush and said directly.
”We were just discussing with the Li family and planned to try our luck in the woodlands in the north. It is said that there are traces of deer migration there. If we can catch two, not only the skin, but also the meat. Do you want to go together?”
”No, I’ll think of a way myself.”
Chu Guang declined politely, but he kept it in mind.
The scavengers on Bet Street planned to go hunting in the north, and Linghu Wetland Park happened to be a little west of the north. I hope I won’t run into them then.
Yu Hu naturally didn’t know what Chu Guang was thinking, so he just thought he was embarrassed and continued to persuade him.
”I can see that you are a capable person, but no matter how capable a person is, there are limits. The Wang family dares to bully you because they are outnumbered.”
”How about this, my sister will be old enough to get married next year, why don’t you marry her, then we will be a family.”
”If you are in a hurry, it won’t be a problem to hold a wedding tonight.”
Chu Guang was almost choked by this sentence and coughed.
”No need.”
What the hell?
How did the topic jump to this?
Besides, the marriageable age that these survivors can accept is not acceptable to Chu Guang, who comes from a civilized society.
After all, he is still young and it is too early to get married.
”Well, then.”
Yu Hu did not persuade him anymore, but expressed regret in his heart.
People who came out of the shelter are all smart, just like the old man named Charlie, who has been helping the mayor since he can remember, and is a big shot in the eyes of the neighbors.
Old man Charlie said that Chu Guang also came out of the shelter, so that should not be wrong, and he must be smart.
If he and his sister could have a son, the Yu family might be able to produce a big man like old man Charlie in the future.
He even planned to persuade his father.
But now it seems that he was just being sentimental.
He carried the things back home.
Yu Hu held his sister.
”Xiao Yu, brother asks you, are you willing to marry you to Brother Chu Guang next door?”
Xiao Yu still had a lollipop in her mouth and muttered.
”Sure.”
Anyway, it’s right at the doorstep, not far away.
In her eyes, the so-called marriage is just changing the place to sleep, which is not much different. Maybe she can get two more candies.
Yu Hu, who was originally planning to give up, said happily.
”Then brother will help you persuade him again.”
”Oh.”
Xiao Yu responded casually, just eating candy, not caring.
But Yu Hu was planning it with great interest.
”Okay, I’ll go talk to my elder brother and father, but don’t just sit there and wait. Go find mom and learn how to make pancakes when you have time… What are you eating? Let me have a taste of it.”
”No!”
Seeing that the second brother was trying to snatch his candy, Xiaoyu was instantly unhappy, and dodged and ran away.
(End of this chapter)
