As soon as the sun rose, the boy got out of bed. Having stayed here for nearly two months, he seemed to have gotten used to everything here.

He put on his slippers and went to the bathroom. He would wake up naturally at this time every day. The word "sleepy" had nothing to do with him. As long as he opened his eyes, he would be as awake as a wolf.

After washing his face and brushing his teeth, he heard the familiar sound of the door opening, which made him nervous for a moment.

As soon as the adult man came in, the bathroom, which was originally quite large, suddenly became much smaller.

The boy lowered his head and waited quietly until a hand was placed on his head and rubbed it gently, then he raised his head.

The man with a messy hair smiled at him through the mirror: "You wash first, I'll wait for you outside."

This conversation happens every morning. The boy shakes his head and says, "I'm done. You can use it."

Ye Zhou looked in the mirror and was amused by his messy hair. He pulled his hair and said, "It's time to get a haircut."

He used to get a haircut every month, but he had been lazy in the past two months. His hair grew fast to begin with, so now he just tied it below his ears. Ye Zhou combed his hair from his forehead to the back of his head. When he looked in the mirror this time, he actually thought this hairstyle looked quite handsome.

The boy left the bathroom while Ye Zhou was admiring himself.

He walked into the living room as usual, and Cao'er had already prepared breakfast.

Cao'er's cooking skills are limited. After all, she doesn't have the time to learn like Aunt Li, so she only makes simple breakfasts.

For example, sandwiches, fried eggs, and steamed buns were all wrapped by Aunt Li and steamed in a pot, and they could be eaten right after they were served.

"Have a glass of milk first." When Cao'er saw the boy coming out, she put down the work in her hands and brought out a glass of fresh milk.

The immortal said that milk is nutritious and drinking a glass every day would be good for the boy. So without the immortal's instructions, Cao'er poured milk for the boy every day.

The boy obediently drank a glass of milk and then went to help Cao'er take things out of the kitchen.

After breakfast was served, Sarah got up.

Sarah yawned and went to the bathroom. There were two bathrooms in the house. Ye Zhou and the boy used the one in the master bedroom, and the two girls used the one outside. When she came out, everyone was already sitting at the dining table.

While eating breakfast, Ye Zhou would look at Zou Ming from time to time.

Sometimes Ye Zhou felt like he had raised a son, and because he met the adult version of Zou Ming first, it felt even stranger.

The boy was also used to Ye Zhou's gaze, and he knew why Ye Zhou was looking at him.

——Because there was a period of time when he couldn’t bear to eat and always wanted to save the food. It was Ye Zhou who stared at him and made him finish his share.

After breakfast, Caoer went to work and Sarah went back to catch up on her sleep.

Ye Zhou first gave Zou Ming a cultural lesson.

The so-called cultural courses are just Chinese and mathematics. Other subjects have not been taught yet. As for English, there is no need to learn it.

After all, English is not needed in this plane, and there will be translators to use when doing work in the plane in the future.

The morning class lasted four hours and ended at exactly eleven o'clock. After exercising for half an hour, we could have lunch.

Cao'er would eat in the supermarket. Ye Zhou would cook lunch himself. His cooking skills were not much better than Cao'er's, so he used semi-finished products. The vegetables and seasonings were already prepared. Ye Zhou only needed to put them in the pan in order and stir-fry them evenly.

Usually Ye Zhou would cook two dishes and one soup, and make a special portion of blood sausage cooked with chili for Sarah.

After taking a nap at noon, Ye Zhou began to teach Zou Ming Sanda and fighting at two o'clock. Zou Ming is young now and has not even grown yet, so the training intensity is not high. An hour is enough. Zou Ming will run on the treadmill for an hour after the teaching.

Usually after running, Zou Ming would watch TV with Sarah, but today Zou Ming didn’t go.

"What's wrong?" Ye Zhou took out an unopened blanket from the room, ready to let the two "children" cover themselves with it while watching TV. He felt the air-conditioning was a bit low, but the children were unwilling to turn it up, so he could only force them to cover themselves with the quilt, even if it was only to cover their bellies.

The boy stood in front of Ye Zhou. The sun was shining brightly outside and it would take at least three hours before the sun set.

"I want to go out and take a look." The boy lowered his head.

Ye Zhou thought for a moment and said, "I'll accompany you."

The boy pursed his lips, and finally raised his head to look at Ye Zhou's face: "I want to be alone."

This made Ye Zhou frown: "It's too dangerous outside."

If it were his own plane, a boy of Zou Ming's age would already be old enough to run around outside, and his parents would give him a certain degree of freedom, but this was not a peaceful plane, and Ye Zhou was worried.

"I'll follow you." Ye Zhou discussed with the boy, "I won't disturb you. You can do whatever you want and meet whoever you want. I'll just watch from a distance to ensure your safety."

But the boy still shook his head. It was rare for him to say such a long sentence: "Before you came, nothing happened to me."

Probably because he felt that this was too blunt and was afraid of hurting Ye Zhou's feelings, he added: "I can protect myself. I know what to do."

"If I didn't know, I would have died long ago." The boy looked into Ye Zhou's eyes.

Ye Zhou: "Then what about the day I met you?"

He was almost taken away and turned into "cargo".

Ye Zhou simply didn't dare to imagine what would happen to Zou Ming if he hadn't shown up, or had shown up too late.

No matter how powerful he becomes when he grows up, he can't even resist an ordinary adult when he is young.

The boy was silent.

But he still insisted: "I am wearing clothes like this now, no one dares to touch me."

Ye Zhou and the boy were in a stalemate for more than ten minutes, and finally Ye Zhou compromised.

He sighed: "Wait a minute, I'll go in and get you something."

Since Zou Ming said that the past cannot be changed, it means that the boy can grow up healthily. At least nothing happened to him until Zou Ming left. Ye Zhou comforted himself in this way, and then went to get the boy a pistol of the same model as Sarah's, but there was no sticker on the gun.

"Take it, find a place to put it, and remember how to use it, right?" Ye Zhou taught him.

The boy nodded. He took the gun and hesitated for two seconds before saying, "Thank you."

Ye Zhou, who was a little angry at first, was dispelled by this thank you. This time, he did not rub the boy's hair, but patted the boy on the shoulder: "Go, I say again, be careful, don't force yourself, run if you can, if you go to the slums, run to the supermarket, do you hear me?"

Ye Zhou kept on talking, always worried, but the boy had a faint smile on his face, but he lowered his head so that Ye Zhou could not see his expression clearly. He whispered, "I heard it."

Watching the boy take the water and snacks and leave the building, Ye Zhou stood on the balcony and was filled with worry.

Even if nothing serious happens, what if I get beaten?

Why.

Ye Zhou rubbed his face and felt like he was both a father and a mother.

·

The boy was walking on the road. He hadn't faced the sun outside for a long time. Less than ten minutes after he appeared outside, he was sweating profusely and his skin felt tingling. This had never happened before. Maybe it had happened before, but because it happened all the time, he didn't notice it.

But the boy didn't think so, he just thought he had become "weak".

This was an area he had never set foot in. Even though he was born in this base, he always wandered around the outskirts of the base, such as the slums, and had no chance to set foot in places where only the upper class could settle.

But now that he was walking here, he discovered that this place, which seemed extravagant in the eyes of the lower class people, was actually just that.

Most of those tall buildings are only four stories high, and many houses don’t even have glass windows. People walking here also can’t wear clean and tidy clothes, except that their clothes are not torn.

On the way out, some strangers actually greeted him.

These people all had smiles on their faces.

He was still the same person, he just changed his clothes, and the people around him became full of kindness.

It seems like a different world.

The boy didn't respond and continued walking out, his backpack stuffed with six bottles of water and eight sandwiches.

He remembered the people who had given him food since he was a child, and there were also people who helped him before his "mother" adopted him.

Although at most it was just a small piece of potato.

But the boy knew that without that small piece of potato, he would have died long ago.

He doesn't know what it means to be grateful, he only knows that if others give him something, he should give back.

As for the man who saved him...

The boy pursed his lips. He didn't know how to repay him. Everything he had now came from that man, but he had nothing that belonged to him except his flesh and blood. Everything he had was a gift from that man, even the fact that he could have enough food to eat was because of him.

Asking for something in return seems a little ridiculous.

"Is that the one?" Someone looked at the boy's back as he left, and said with a bit of envy and jealousy, "I don't know what's so good about this kid. He's well fed and well fed. Look at the clothes he's wearing, they're obviously new."

People around him also said: "Is there something wrong with the supermarket owner's brain? Why does he like a little brat?"

"I think I'm not bad." The man turned his head to look at his butt. He even patted it and said with satisfaction, "It's pretty perky too."

The person next to him rolled his eyes, but he didn't see it.

They have no sense of shame, let alone "male self-esteem". In their opinion, it is normal to pay a price to have enough food to eat without working hard and to live in a house like that. But the price of the buttocks is already very light, so light that it can be ignored.

"His backpack is quite bulging." The man patted his butt and said meaningfully.

The other person didn't respond: "You can go if you want, but I'm not going anyway."

No matter why the boss kept this kid, he had invested so much in him. If he really robbed the kid, he would be in trouble unless he killed the kid and took away all his things.

What those big shots hate most is others touching their things. Not to mention stealing, even if someone touches their things, they might think that it is a challenge to their authority, and then they will be in big trouble.

"How come he is so lucky?" The man looked at the boy's back and gritted his teeth uncontrollably.

The boy didn't know that someone was talking about him behind him. Just as he thought, because of this outfit, no one dared to mess with him even in the slums, and no one even dared to look him in the face.

He walked along the street and saw the row of cages still standing on the roadside.

Normally he would always walk past the cage and would never look at the "goods" inside.

But today he stopped in front of the cage.

He looked at the person in the cage in front of him.

He couldn't actually remember what this person looked like. He only remembered that this person lived with his father before he was locked in the cage. When his father was still alive, they didn't need to sell themselves. Once, he even got a small piece of potato and a bottle cap of water from them.

Later this man's father died.

He couldn't do the work of two people, so he had to sell himself.

Later, he was put in a cage.

The boy walked into the room behind the cage, opened his bag and took out two bottles of water - this was the market price.

The man sitting behind the counter did not recognize the boy. He squinted his eyes and soon realized from the boy's clothes that he was not someone he could afford to offend. The man walked out from behind the counter with a warm smile on his face: "You came here by yourself? The adults are not coming with you?"

The boy didn't say anything, so the man said, "Two bottles of water, you have to go back and ask your family, otherwise your parents will come to trouble me, and I won't be able to handle it."

He could easily take out two bottles of water. If such a family wanted to deal with him, he would not have any reason to be wronged.

The boy then opened his mouth: "I did."

Man: “Are you sure?”

The boy nodded.

The man was relieved. He smiled and said, "Okay, which one do you want? I'll give you the key."

The boy asked again, "How much does the tin house cost?"

This is a big customer! The man immediately ignored the fact that he was a child and said, "A bottle of water."

The boy took out another bottle from his bag, and now there were only three bottles of water left out of the six.

The man personally took the boy back, took out the key and asked the boy to open the cage himself. The boy did not move. He looked up at the man. The man cursed in his heart and could only kick the person sleeping next to him: "Get up."

The sleeping man got up. He was as thin as a skeleton, but he was considered "strong" here.

"Get those people out," the man ordered, "take them to 131."

The man who got up lowered his head and said obediently, "Yes."

After giving both keys to the boy, the man smiled at him and went back into the house.

The people in the cages were unconscious. They would be tortured every night, so they were almost always in a coma during the day. Even when it was almost dark, they would still be in a coma unless they felt pain, and severe pain.

"Don't wake him," the boy said to the man who opened the lock.

The man nodded slowly. Even though he was so thin, he was still very strong. He got the man out of the cage and almost carried him to 131.

The boy remembered that an old woman used to live in 131, and her son worked as a thug for a big shot in the inner city.

Now her house is empty, either she is dead or her son is dead.

The birth and death, coming and going of people in the slums are normal, and no one wants to delve into it, not even the boy.

After entering the iron house, the man threw the "goods" onto the "bed" and then left.

But the boy said aloud, "Find him something that can serve as a bed, and a lock."

After saying that, the boy took out a sandwich from his bag and threw it to the man. The man's eyes, which had been numb, suddenly became sharp. He reached out to catch the sandwich and stuffed it into his arms eagerly. While backing out, he said, "I'll be there right away!"

Although potatoes can now be exchanged for "money", food is still hard currency.

If people in the slums have two potatoes, they are considered rich. How can they have so many extra potatoes?

But because potatoes can be exchanged for money, water, which cannot be bought with money, has become the only hard currency now.

Water is not cheap! You can’t buy it with money. Even if people in the slums have money, they still don’t dare to use it, for fear that one day water will become more expensive and they will have to use more things to exchange it.

After the initial excitement wore off, the supermarket returned to its deserted state.

The man quickly brought in a "mattress" that had been discarded by the upper class. It was made of hay and seemed like it would fall apart with a slight tap, but such mattresses were very rare here. The man also brought a lock and key and installed the door before leaving.

The boy squatted on the ground and looked at the "cargo" that was moved to the bed.

He couldn't tell how old the man was. He recalled the scene when he first saw this man. At that time, the man looked very young and short. He looked at him as if he was a robber. After all, if the boy ate one more bite, he would eat one less bite.

The boy just sat there in a daze until the sun went down, and then the eyelids of the "cargo" moved.

He would be violently awakened at this time every day. In order to avoid being beaten, most of the "cargoes" would wake up on their own at this time.

The "cargo" raised his head slightly. He had no strength and even raising his head found it difficult.

He looked at the boy with unfocused eyes.

The boy unscrewed the water bottle next to him and put the mouth of the bottle close to the "cargo"'s mouth. The water at this time had a hint of coolness from the refrigerator. The "cargo" had not yet regained his consciousness, but he had already opened his mouth instinctively and drank a few sips. Perhaps he felt that the boy poured the water too slowly, so he struggled to pick up the bottle and pour it into his mouth.

He usually drinks at most two bottle caps of water a day, but this time he drank a whole bottle in one go.

After the bottle was "stolen", the boy squatted aside and looked at the "goods" calmly.

"Who are you..." the man asked the boy in a hoarse voice. He couldn't help coughing after saying only three words, and soon his coughing became heart-wrenching.

After he calmed down, the boy said, "Your father gave me a potato."

The man obviously couldn't remember. He covered his chest and gasped, "What do you want me to do?"

He didn't believe that the boy was willing to save him for a piece of potato, so he gave him a bottle of water. The slums couldn't accommodate such people.

People like this would have died long ago before they grew up to this age.

Sure enough, the boy said, "I want you to take good care of your health."

There was no light source in the tin house, only the firelight coming in through the gap in the door.

The boy was sitting on the ground, the faint firelight illuminating half of his face. Half of his face was slightly bright, and the other half was completely hidden in the darkness.

"Accompany me to kill someone."

·

On that rare evening when she didn't need to entertain guests, the woman used a table to block the door. She even lit a small desk lamp in the house to illuminate her little world. The woman paced back and forth excitedly, looking through her inventory over and over again.

She still enjoyed Yang Yue's blessing - she found a new job.

To help the supermarket deal with its garbage, she carries the supermarket's garbage to the landfill every day.

Occasionally she could find something usable from the trash, just like the two folding stools in the house now, which she found from the trash and could be used after "washing" them with yellow sand.

She doesn't want money, she just wants water, which is a benefit only for employees! Even though she is just a temporary worker.

She gets half a bottle of water every day, and since she started working, she has saved up two bottles of water.

She would get two big meat buns every morning, but she would only eat one and ask the supermarket staff to remember the other one for her to save.

The woman was no longer jealous of Yang Yue. She was busy every day, but her busy life was fulfilling.

When you are busy, you won’t have time to be jealous.

She began to enjoy today's dinner. After carefully pouring two bottle caps of water into a plastic cup, the woman took out a box of self-heating rice, which contained a heating pack and a water pack. No extra water was needed, but the woman still felt heartbroken every time she used it.

So she only used half each time and poured the other half into the bottle.

Half a bag is barely enough to heat up the rice.

While waiting for the meal to be ready, the woman took out her money and counted it slowly.

She now has more than a thousand yuan in savings, and then she put the money back into the plastic bag and buried it in the yellow sand.

The meal was ready soon. The woman wolfed it down and collapsed on the ground when she was done. She looked up at the roof of the tin house and felt that she was living the best life ever. She didn't need to do business or face those men.

This was the first time in her life that she felt her life was so easy.

So dignified.

Just as she was getting ready to go to bed, there was a knock on the door.

The woman immediately became alert. She stood up and walked over carefully, but she didn't dare to ask who it was. She just waited for the other person to speak.

"It's me." The boy's voice came in.

The woman finally breathed a sigh of relief. She moved the table away and opened the door.

The boy was still carrying the bag. He turned his back to the crowd and the fire outside and walked into the house.

After closing the door again, the woman asked carefully, "What's the matter?"

The boy didn't exchange pleasantries with her. People in the slums didn't have the habit of exchanging pleasantries. He went straight to the point: "Will Zhao Lei come to see you again?"

The woman thought for several seconds before she remembered who Zhao Lei was. She had so many customers that she only remembered the characteristics of many of them but not their names.

But she remembered Zhao Lei. Too many women had died at his hands, and they were all afraid of meeting him.

The woman shook her head and told the truth: "I don't know. He hasn't come to see me for a long time."

Every time she came, she had to lie in the tin house for three days.

The boy didn't seem disappointed either. He took out the last bottle of water from his bag and said, "I need your help with something."

He and Zhao Lei didn't know each other.

But he knew that "Mom" died at the hands of Zhao Lei.

He doesn't know how a normal mother and son should get along.

But as a "son", he should at least avenge his mother.

The boy looked into the woman's eyes and showed a cruelty and coldness that was not in line with his age. He said, "I want him to die more miserably than the people he killed."

He couldn't let Ye Zhou follow him.

Ye Zhou must not be allowed to know that the person he saved was a murderous little monster.