Safe City.
B District, 19th Building, second floor.
Mr. Wang climbed out of bed and stretched.
Crack, crack, crack.
His joints popped continuously.
Standing in front of the mirror, Mr. Wang almost didn't recognize himself; his hair was messy and long, his beard was stubbly, and he looked disheveled.
Mr. Wang thought for a moment, then rummaged through a pile of cluttered items for a while, finally finding a dagger.
It still had some bloodstains on it, which Mr. Wang found somewhat distasteful.
He then picked up the dagger and slowly walked towards the window.
Whoosh~
The window was opened, and Mr. Wang, as usual, scooped snow into a basin.
The sun was strong, and he felt the temperature in the air.
It seemed much warmer.
He closed his eyes, feeling the sun's rays, and after a while, he carefully felt a faint warmth spreading over his body.
For the past two months, whenever the sun came out, he would run to the balcony, close the window, and bask in the sun.
Suddenly, he squinted his eyes and saw seven or eight people passing by downstairs.
Mr. Wang quickly opened his eyes and looked closely; this group of people looked somewhat familiar.
When he first entered Safe City, he had seen Captain Tao, who was on duty at the gate, interacting with this group.
The weathered man leading them had almost gotten into a conflict with Captain Tao when they first entered Safe City.
At that time, it was because these people had gone out to search for supplies, and when they entered Safe City, the protection fee was too high, leading to an argument with the duty captain.
Mr. Wang looked at this group, somewhat curious: where were these people going?
These people were carrying weapons and walking towards District A.
Mr. Wang's eyes narrowed slightly, and a thought flashed through his mind, but he wasn't sure.
Clang!
The iron basin he was holding suddenly fell to the ground, overturning and spilling snow onto the floor.
Mr. Wang stood there, thought for a moment, then collected some more snow and walked towards the small room.
He felt sticky all over; he had always wanted to take a bath, but in the previous days, he hadn't dared to take off his clothes because the weather was simply too cold.
Now that the temperature had risen so much, although it was still below zero, he felt his body could withstand it.
However, this amount of water certainly wasn't enough for a bath; he could only wipe himself down.
As usual, after burning a bed board brought from downstairs, the water finally heated up. Mr. Wang took the knife and first rubbed it in the outdoor snow for a while.
After most of the bloodstains on the surface were reduced, he took a little water from the iron basin with hot water and poured it into another small basin.
He then cleaned the dagger.
He had forgotten whether this dagger had been used to stab people or zombies.
To be safe, it was better to wash it.
After the dagger was clean, Mr. Wang used a cloth to wipe the water off its surface, then used a lighter to heat it for a while.
Once the dagger cooled down, Mr. Wang used it to cut off his messy and long beard and hair.
Then, he scooped up a handful of water from the hot water basin to wash his face and looked up.
In front of the mirror, Mr. Wang looked at himself in the reflection:
He was so thin that he was almost unrecognizable, the skin on his cheekbones was directly against the bone, his face looked completely devoid of flesh, and his eyes showed fatigue.
Mr. Wang let out a long sigh: “At least I survived.”
After washing his face, he wet a towel, took off his clothes, and wiped his entire body.
When he took off his clothes, his entire body was emaciated, nothing but skin and bones.
With just that little bit of water, Mr. Wang wiped his body, which hadn't been cleaned in several months.
The water in the iron basin he had brought in earlier had turned pure black and turbid, emitting a foul odor.
After wiping his body, Mr. Wang felt refreshed, and his overall mental state seemed much better.
Remembering the people he had just seen walking towards the villa area, Mr. Wang's eyes flickered.
He thought for a moment, put on his overcoat, and then took his pistol and dagger.
He left his home.
He decided to go and see.
After leaving his home, he saw some people on the road, but they were all in a hurry.
The closer he got to that area, the more he could hear the noisy sounds.
When he got closer, he found that several hundred people were gathered around the central plaza of the villa area.
The sound was chaotic; many people were talking, and Mr. Wang couldn't hear clearly for a moment.
Inside the plaza, there were four factions, the same ones Mr. Wang had known about before.
Old Wu, led by the military.
Hua Chuanlong, leading the black forces.
The boss, Ke Hanyu.
And the weathered man he had seen at the gate earlier, along with a few others.
The four sides were engaged in a fierce argument.
Mr. Wang's position was behind the largest group of ordinary civilians.
Mr. Wang patted a man next to him and asked, “What are they arguing about?”
The man Mr. Wang patted turned to look at him, feeling somewhat unfamiliar, but seeing Mr. Wang's thin appearance, he assumed he was also a civilian.
In fact, Mr. Wang was indeed a civilian, but he lived a reclusive life and rarely went out, so most people didn't know him.
The man said, “Isn't it warmer now? And everyone's supplies are used up, so they all need to go out and find supplies, and they're fighting over the distribution!”
“According to previous custom, Old Wu's side protects our base and needs to take 50% of the protection fee;”
“That man, you see that man in the big fur coat, Hua Chuanlong, takes 30% of the protection fee;”
“The one with glasses is called Ke Hanyu, and they take 20% of the protection fee.”
“And all these protection fees are collected from us ordinary civilians.”
At this point, the man still felt some anger. They worked hard to search for supplies outside, and after returning, they still had to hand over more than half of their supplies.
But if they didn't hand them over, they couldn't enter Safe City. They would have to face zombies alone outside.
The man continued:
“Originally, we were all willing, at least with so many zombies outside, entering Safe City could protect our safety, right? Old Wu and his people would protect us when they encountered zombies.”
“It's understandable for us to pay this protection fee.”
“However, it was agreed before that after entering Safe City, there would be no Looting supplies or murders.”
“In these past few months, when we ordinary civilians had conflicts, they didn't manage or control it, which is one thing.”
“But Hua Chuanlong and Ke Hanyu's groups even came to loot, and even one of our civilian representatives was killed by them.”
“Now only Lao Zhuang, Lao He, and Lao Sun are left among us. We must unite to overthrow them.”
“We can't be bullied just because we don't have guns, right? Now they're talking about the distribution of protection fees.”
Hearing this, Mr. Wang generally understood; it was nothing more than a problem of profit distribution.
It was about the capitalists dividing the cake, and there was a problem with the cake's distribution.
And also, the people who produced the cake didn't want to make cakes anymore because they didn't get paid for making them.
In other words, these civilians provided the supplies, but this Safe City was no longer safe!
The scene was noisy! A buzzing sound filled the air.
Suddenly.
Bang!
A gunshot. Old Wu fired a shot into the sky.
The scene suddenly fell silent.
Old Wu looked around, his eyes sharp.
Instantly, everyone around stopped talking.
Seeing that the scene had quieted down considerably, Old Wu slowly began to speak:
“I understand everyone's emotions. First, I want to apologize, apologize because many people died during this cold winter, and I deeply apologize for not protecting everyone during this cold period.”
“This is our negligence!”
“But we promise here that such incidents will not happen again.”
“We hope everyone will trust us again.”
“I believe everyone understands the situation this time; the weather was simply too harsh. I know everyone's hardships.”
“It will be fine once we get through it. We have already gotten through it. Now the temperature is gradually rising, and we must look to the future.”
“Besides, don't you all want a safe place in the future?”
“Will you all live rough outside, constantly worrying about zombies every day, even at night?”
“Do you want your family and loved ones to live in fear?”
As soon as he finished speaking, Lao Zhuang, the weathered middle-aged man from the civilian faction, said:
“How can you guarantee that? So many people died this time; can a simple apology make it all go away?”
“Not many of your people died; can you just say a few light words and move on?”
“Also, Hua Chuanlong's subordinates have robbed our people several times; can that just be brushed aside?”
“It's unfair!”
Behind him, the civilians heard these words and instantly became furious, shouting in unison: “Unfair!”
The sound was immense, forming a wave of voices.
Hua Chuanlong heard Lao Zhuang mention him and said unceremoniously, “Don't you yourselves also rob each other? Your own people are fighting, and you're still talking about us.”
Lao Zhuang said, “That's our internal matter.”
Hua Chuanlong sneered, “Internal? Isn't Safe City just us? Why divide it into internal or external?”
Lao Zhuang's face showed anger, and he said stiffly, “In the past, we were the ones who paid the protection fees.”
“You three parties collected them. This time, during the cold weather, you did nothing. We are unwilling to accept the previous distribution rules.”
“I propose.”
“That the protection fees be reduced from half to one-tenth.”
“Otherwise, we will all leave Safe City.”
Hearing Lao Zhuang say this, Old Wu suddenly became somewhat passive. They were the biggest beneficiaries in Safe City; if all these people left,
Where would they get people to pay them protection fees? This was unacceptable.
So Old Wu quickly said, “Xiao Zhuang, it's like this, look, before the temperature plummeted, weren't you living inside Safe City, ensuring your safety?”
“I've already said that the past few months were an accident. How about this, we suggest that the protection fee be reduced to one-third in the future, what do you think?”
Hearing this, Lao Zhuang suddenly looked at a person next to Old Wu, who was none other than Captain Tao, who had been on duty at the main gate before.
Lao Zhuang then said:
“Heh heh, you said before that you would only collect half, but what happened? This Captain Tao collected three-fifths from me every time I came in. How do you expect us to live?”
Old Wu was surprised to hear this. He had repeatedly emphasized not to embezzle or extort, but he didn't expect that the people below still wouldn't listen.
He knew that such things were common before the apocalypse, let alone after it.
