Chapter 40
The rabbit housekeeper was startled. He shook his paws silently, struggled to jump off Wen Bei, and continued to pick up the glass fragments on the ground.
He looked like a pitiful little thing that had been frightened.
Wen Bei looked up at Qiu Ting suspiciously. The man turned his head away and looked at the scenery outside the window. His profile was very cold, as if he had not seen anything just now.
Wen Beiquan was still very afraid of Qiuting when he was the rabbit's housekeeper. He rubbed the rabbit's head and said, "I'm going to sleep."
After saying that, he went straight to his room.
This community was a wealthy area before the end of the world. The houses were large and beautifully decorated. Wen Bei sighed that he finally didn't have to squeeze into the same room with Qiu Tinge.
He sat on the bed, blowing his wet hair, thinking about his meeting with the base leader tomorrow.
Wen Bei was so tired after running around all day that he couldn't help but squinted his eyes and yawned with his hair still half dry. Tiny tears fell on his curled eyelashes and were quickly rubbed away.
Wen Bei rubbed the soft bed and fell asleep smelling a somewhat unfamiliar fragrance.
Maybe because it was an unfamiliar environment, even though the bed became very soft, he still couldn't sleep well.
In a daze, he seemed to feel a dark shadow approaching, slowly drying the still wet ends of his hair. But before he could open his eyes, his limbs suddenly became unable to move, as if he was a trapped prey waiting to be slaughtered, or as if he was suffering from sleep paralysis. His slender fingers were spread apart, sinking deep into the bedding as if he was forced to interlock fingers with someone.
The black hair was obediently pressed against the fair face, the nose tip was slightly red with closed eyes, and the cat ears that had not disappeared yet trembled in grievance, and then were touched by the rough palm.
The shaking got even worse...
...
When Wen Bei woke up the next day, he was still a little dazed. The illusion of his cat ears being bullied in his dream seemed to still exist. He touched it, and the furry feeling disappeared.
Wen Bei sat up with a somersault and looked in the mirror. Sure enough, he found that the disguise technique had failed and he had changed back to his original form.
Was last night really just a dream?
Wen Bei smoothed his slightly curly black hair, looked at the standing little hair, and his heart gradually calmed down.
Just a dream.
He stayed in the bathroom for a while before coming out. As soon as he came out, he found the rabbit housekeeper making breakfast.
The rice in the porridge was blue. I don't know what was added to make it sticky.
Rabbit Butler: "Would you like some sticky porridge?"
Wen Bei: “…No need.”
He picked up a piece of compressed biscuit and took a bite with water.
I would rather eat these tasteless foods than touch the weird mutated foods in the apocalypse.
After breakfast, they soon met Captain Lan, and with him were the leaders of other lawful forces.
They all stood outside the door, looking at Wen Bei with surprise.
"Surprisingly, he has black hair and black eyes, and his pollution level seems to be very low."
"It feels like it's even less polluted than my sister-in-law's newborn baby."
"Is that hotel really that magical? If I go there often, can I return to my original state?"
"The distortion is fixed, just like your ability, and will not recover even if the pollution level decreases." Team Lan glanced at the person who had just spoken.
Although they were all at the same level, he looked particularly prestigious standing among these people.
The person who just spoke was Xuan Yi. His fiery red hair stood up slightly, as hot as a real flame, but it could not burn anything.
Xuan Yi smiled, extended his hand to Wen Bei, and introduced himself.
Wen Bei shook it quickly and then took it back, nodding slightly: "Hello."
His eyes were very calm and did not change when he saw so many high-level polluters at once.
Xuan Yi secretly admired it in his heart and sighed that it was indeed unusual.
Everyone here has to be carefully selected to become the leader of the Orderly Army. They maintain the order of the base and also provide a bottom line guarantee.
Xuan Yi and Team Lan quickly took Wen Bei to the base leader's office. Unlike what they had imagined, it was just an ordinary-looking office building.
The floor where the leader is located is not the highest one, but the sixth floor in the center.
Xuan Yi knocked on the door, and an old voice came from inside, inviting him in.
While riding the elevator, Wen Bei thought of many possibilities, but he never expected that when he opened the door, there would be a seemingly ordinary old man inside.
He was about sixty years old, sitting there in a black coat. When he saw him coming, he stood up and moved very agilely.
Only his feet were deformed, growing out like tree trunks.
The leader smiled, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes showing the traces of time: "Are you surprised that I'm an ordinary person?"
Wen Bei paused: "Unexpected, but not surprising."
The leader made tea for him, using the normal pre-apocalyptic tea leaves that he himself was reluctant to drink, and then waved his hand to signal others to leave.
Captain Lan was worried, and the big and strong-looking Xuan Yi also wanted to stay, but was stopped by a look, and finally both of them left.
Wen Bei didn't hesitate and started drinking. He noticed the nervousness of these lawful soldiers, so he asked Qiu Tin to leave as well.
The man rarely disagreed with him and just walked away.
There were only two ordinary people without special powers left in the room, and the atmosphere became a little more relaxed.
Leader: “Why not?”
He seemed easy to talk to and didn't seem like the leader of a large base. Instead, there was an inexplicable sense of familiarity in the conversation.
Wenbei: "I don't quite approve of your base's strict requirements for dealing with polluters."
He had already said this very tactfully.
The base leader, instead of getting angry, asked openly, "Are you referring to those travelers?"
A hint of contemplation crossed his brows. "Come to think of it, today is the day the travelers are leaving the base. Under special circumstances, I will always go and see them off and participate in the ceremony."
Wen Bei had some guesses in his mind, but he still asked, "What do you mean by special circumstances?"
"When there are polluters with a pollution level exceeding ninety-five."
Wen Bei: "Even if that person did nothing wrong, and the pollution level just reached 95, is this still the case?"
He didn't question, but asked calmly.
This problem has been bothering him for a long time.
Inexplicably, he recalled the slogan he had seen when he first entered the base: [The overall interests of mankind are supreme.]
The slogan next to this sentence is [Don't be afraid of death]. If it were in the past, he would just think it was ridiculous. Survival is the instinct of all living things, and humans are no exception.
But in today's environment, this sentence has become a slogan, something that stabilizes people's hearts.
The leader was silent for a moment. He took a sip of tea and only took a sip. "You think it's cruel?"
Wen Bei answered honestly: "I don't know."
He was not qualified to judge, he just wanted to see the attitude of the base leader.
The leader smiled. "Back when there wasn't this rule, the base tried several times to take in polluters whose pollution levels exceeded the standard. They all made great contributions to the base, but when they were completely polluted and turned into filth, they personally killed the people they once protected."
"I was the first to propose this proposal, and it was met with protests from all polluters. As long as they are polluters, pollution levels will eventually exceed standards, so they went on strike en masse to protect their future. If the polluters go on strike, the base, which had just been under construction, will be paralyzed. Many ordinary people also joined the protest on the polluters' side."
Wen Bei blinked: "And then?"
Leader: "Unfortunately, on the day of the protest, a polluter with a pollution level over 95 believed in a certain kind of meat that was rumored to reduce pollution. He cooked soup at home and ate it, causing severe contamination, turning him directly into filth."
"An orphanage near his home had just been built a few days ago. On that day, he bit dozens of children and staff members to death. Blood and flesh were almost all over the walls of the orphanage."
Wen Bei was silent for a moment. Even though he couldn't see the scene, he could feel the despair just by imagining it.
Leader: "On the day the orphanage was built, in order to inspire these orphaned children, they specially invited the polluter to demonstrate his powerful supernatural powers. He acted like a superhero and promised the children that he would protect the base."
Having said this, he suddenly stopped talking.
Wen Bei was considerate enough not to ask any further questions, and the atmosphere in the room began to become heavy.
What happened afterwards was a completely different turn. Ordinary people made up the majority of the base. They protested in the streets, demanding that polluters and ordinary people be separated. Some of them had relatives or friends who were polluters, and they would suddenly start fighting with them in the streets. The Orderly Army had to deal with dozens of such disputes a day.
The word "filthy person", which is extremely insulting to polluters, also appeared at that time.
Some radical ordinary people feel that there is almost no difference between polluters and filth, and that it is only a matter of time before they become filth.
This has led to a sudden intensification of the conflict between polluters and ordinary people.
Human relations within the base deteriorated to the point that even the most basic construction could not proceed. Polluters were unwilling to work with ordinary people, and ordinary people did not dare to talk to them.
In the end, the Traveler's proposal was passed.
The two of them drank tea in silence, and no one spoke again.
When Wen Bei was about to have his drink refilled, the leader slowly said, "Do you know who were the first group of travelers who died simply because of excessive pollution?"
Wen Bei looked up at him and shook his head slightly.
"My own brother."
Wen Bei's eyes widened a little, with a bit of daze.
He hadn't expected this answer.
The leader saw his reaction and put down his teacup: "I'm sorry, the topic has been so heavy."
Wen Bei: “No, that’s what I came here to hear.”
He wanted to know what the base leader thought about the pollution level. It seemed that he was carrying far more than he had imagined.
The chief stood up and walked in front of him: "So your hotel is very important to us."
When he said this, he suddenly became excited and his hands were shaking.
"When people get old, they tend to be greedy... What I want is that the existence of the hotel can truly put an end to this endless traveler plan." The leader stared at Wen Bei, wanting to see his reaction.
The existence of the hotel is so important that he is eager to find out whether Wen Bei is a friend or an enemy.
Wen Bei finally smiled for the first time since arriving here: "What a coincidence! I also have ambitions."
…
Wen Bei chatted with the chief for a long time until night fell.
They discussed many conditions directly, and all the knowledge Wen Bei gained from visiting the Snow Flower Factory and the base breeding center came in handy.
Knowing the approximate development scale of the base, the requirements he put forward were within the acceptable range for both parties.
The base must provide the hotel with raw materials for making food. These raw materials can be transported from the breeding center, and the hotel will receive kickbacks from them.
In order to make portable food from the hotel's restaurant and transport it back to the base, it is necessary to build a cannery of the same size as the Snow Flower Factory near the hotel, and the cost and manpower will be borne by the base itself.
It is still a bit difficult to build a factory outside the base.
Wen Bei showed his determination as a businessman to maximize his interests.
The base not only has to provide him with the cost, but also has to buy it back at the same price as normal trading after the production is completed.
Fortunately, the rooms in the hotel are expensive, but the food is cheap.
The base leader thought about it for a moment and agreed.
Both sides felt they had made a huge profit.
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