Chapter 90

Early in the morning, when it was just daybreak and the camp was still dark, people got up one after another and started working with their tired bodies.

A corner of the dirty, tattered tent was lifted up, and a man crouched down and crawled out from the gap, holding a plastic basin with a red and white koi pattern in his arms.

He was of sturdy build, with a crew cut, wearing a white vest, and was unkempt. A dark brown scar stretched crookedly from under his eyebrows to the other corner of his mouth, like a hideous centipede crawling there.

A long line of people lined up at the well to draw water, and next to them stood men in uniform, with guns on their backs and whips in their hands.

After people have finished drawing water, they carry the containers of water to the weighing machine.

Someone looked at the splashing water and reached out his hand distressedly: "Hey, sir, slow down a bit, it's spilled..."

The man with the scar was at the back of the line.

The people behind him saw him and looked away.

The queue was slow and the waiting time was a bit long.

I don't know what kind of conflict happened ahead, someone was curled up on the ground with his head in his hands, and he was whipped several times.

Hearing the miserable scream, the others immediately lowered their heads and fell silent.

The scarred man yawned lazily, put his hand under his yellowed white vest, and scratched his stomach intermittently.

"Hey, Cheng Bin!"

Someone called him from behind. It was a man with a mustache who approached him mysteriously and said, "Someone wants to take a ride. Do you want to take it?"

The scarred man said without even turning his head: "No work today."

"You have!" The mustache man was very upset, and his expression was a little anxious. "It's that steel factory. You have been helping them to transport things."

"Before, someone wanted to go there, and after several trips, he offered this amount of money as a reward! But you refused to take it, and let someone else take it away. Later, when my uncle was sick, he almost didn't have enough money to buy medicine. Have you forgotten?"

The scarred man paused, turned his head and looked at him expressionlessly.

The man with the mustache shrank back at the sight of those fierce eyes, and immediately changed his words: "The customer promised to give us ten kilograms of fresh fish and a piece of chocolate. If you don't want to accept it, forget it..."

"Who said I won't answer?"

The scarred man laughed and threw the plastic basin in his hand to the mustache man: "Lead the way."

Seeing his attitude, the mustache man warned him worriedly: "That person doesn't look simple. If the negotiation can't go well, just find a reason to refuse. Be tactful and don't cause trouble for me."

"rest assured."

The scarred man thought casually that he just wanted to take a look to see who was looking for death.

When they arrived at the place, they saw a young man standing by the road waiting from a distance.

The young man was not alone. There were three dumplings squatting beside him. The colors of the dumplings were a bit strange, blue, green, and grape purple, as if they had fallen into a big dye vat.

When the others saw those strange creatures, they were more or less afraid to approach them.

But when they saw the young man's appearance and dress, they could not help but approach him and interact with him enthusiastically.

"Is this friend visiting here for the first time? Does he need a tour guide?"

Seeing that the three strange creatures were still napping or licking their paws and did not suddenly attack, the other people also plucked up their courage.

"I just heard you say you want to go somewhere. Come find me. I know this area best. I can take you wherever you want to go!"

This is the intersection of the entrance and exit sections of the Desire Market, and is also known as the "ghetto". You can live here for a week with just a piece of compressed cookie.

Looking at the short and dilapidated buildings around, one can immediately feel that the place is simple, dilapidated and dirty.

The young man in front of him had fair skin, smooth hair, and was neat and tidy from head to toe. His chin was slightly buried in the lapels of his jacket, revealing an indescribable obedience and gentleness.

Compared with the big and strong men and women around him, he was like a little lamb that had strayed into a pack of wolves.

Wen Xin declined other people's invitations, and suddenly noticed a sneaky figure behind him.

The man pulled out a sharp blade from his sleeve and was about to cut his military backpack.

Wen Xin's expression changed, and he was about to take action, when suddenly a rough and powerful hand reached out, clamped the thief's wrist, and dragged him out without any courtesy.

The thief looked panicked: "What are you doing, ah!"

The scarred man expressionlessly exerted force, and with a snap, the blade in the thief's hand fell to the ground.

The thief wanted to fight back, but when he saw the scarred man's appearance, his face turned pale.

"Brother Cheng, I'm not, I..."

Before he could explain, the scarred man kicked him in the stomach and knocked him against the wall.

Scarred man: "Get lost."

The thief was almost kicked to a bloody pulp by him, and he ran away crawling.

Seeing someone offering help, Wen Xin withdrew his hand.

Turning around, he found that the people who had surrounded him just now had all retreated back to their original positions, whispering to each other.

Wen Xin got two blue pearls in total. His brother gave him one when he was saving the situation. After taking it, his physical fitness doubled.

There was another one that his sister gave him later, to thank him for saving someone. The village chief said that a person's physique could only withstand one blue pearl at most, and having more would be a risk of death, so Wen Xin put it in a small flowered cloth bag.

Now, with his improved hearing, Wen Xin can clearly catch the whispers around him.

"Did Cheng Bin take the wrong medicine today? He has such a good temper."

Wen Xin looked at the thief's staggering back and paused subtly.

When he looked up, he saw the scarred man looking him up and down, and asked in an ambiguous tone, "Are you going to the iron factory?"

Wen Xin looked at the man with the mustache.

Seeing people winking at him, he realized that the Iron Factory should be a nickname for the Aurora Ordnance Factory.

Wen Xin nodded.

The scarred man looked at him, not knowing what he was thinking about. He muttered silently, "Where did this student come from?" and reached out to pick up the bucket of fish in front of him.

"Let's go. The bus doesn't leave until noon. Let's go back and get ready first."

Wen Xin always felt that the tone of the scarred man's voice when he spoke to him was two points softer than before.

When the mustache man saw that the matter was settled, he secretly made a gesture of giving money to Wen Xin behind the scarred man.

But I didn't know that the person in front of me seemed to have eyes on his back.

"etc."

The scarred man stretched out a hand and forcefully broke out three pieces of bagged chocolate from the mustache man's retracted hand.

"He gave me four chocolates in total, and you just took three of them from me. You are so greedy, Lao Li."

The mustache man touched his nose and said sullenly: "If I hadn't introduced you, you wouldn't have this business, right?"

The scarred man snorted heavily, threw two pieces of chocolate to the other person, and put one in his pocket.

The man with the mustache walked away without stopping, cursing.

After everyone left, the scarred man reached into his pocket and threw the piece of chocolate back into Wen Xin's hand.

Wen Xin: “?”

"I'm in business for the long term. If you want to go to the steel mill or come back from the steel mill in the future, you can come to me directly without paying any referral fees."

After hearing what the scarred man said, Wen Xin felt that he seemed to have some idea in his mind. After thinking for a while, he did not refuse. He took the chocolate back and said calmly, "Okay."

The scarred man turned his eyes and looked at the three little ones following Wen Xin: "Are they the only ones following you? And you don't have anyone to serve you?"

Wen Xin looked at the scarred man's expression. It seemed that he had guessed that the dumplings were mutants, but he acted as if he was used to it.

He shook his head and said, "I'm not used to being waited on."

"That's great. I don't need to be waited on."

Wen Xin pondered over this sentence, not sure whether the scarred man was exaggerating or just making small talk.

The scarred man obviously realized that his words were ambiguous and coughed: "I mean, it's not easy for you to take care of yourself so well by yourself."

Wen Xin politely replied, "Thank you?"

Perhaps knowing that he had no talent for conversation, the scarred man remained silent.

When we arrived at the camp, many people living here had already gotten up.

Seeing the warmth of the outsiders, their eyes immediately lit up, like hungry monsters seeing the legendary flesh of Monk Tang.

It was not until the scarred man stood in front of everyone with a stern look and glanced back at them one by one that he was able to block out those prying and covetous eyes.

Wen Xin looked around and heard the scarred man suddenly say, "This is probably the first time you've seen a group of people like this."

He stretched out his hand and pointed at the long queue over there: "There is only one well here where you can draw water, but it costs money. People only use it for drinking. There is not much water left to take care of themselves. It looks particularly dirty."

"And you, who are clean from head to toe, will certainly attract their attention."

Wen Xin glanced at a skinny kid, then slowly looked back, frowning and saying, "But this is the southern region. It's not only close to the sea, but there are also many lakes."

"Who would dare to go to the sea when there is a ferocious beast there?"

The scarred man sarcastically said, "As for other freshwater lakes, they have long been divided up by the officials as their own private property. Can you imagine that people living by the lake would be short of water?"

Wen Xin: "Has no one ever resisted?"

Scarred man: "It's better to live than to die. Here we are."

In front of Wen Xin was a tent, which was slightly larger than the other tents.

The sound of an old man coughing intermittently was heard from inside. Someone heard the noise and came out. It was a weak young man wearing glasses, who looked a little younger than Wen Xin.

The young man with glasses looked at Wen Xin first, then called the scarred man, "Cousin."

The scarred man responded and introduced Wen Xin, "This is my cousin, Ting Xiaoshu. He was at the top of his class before the apocalypse and was very smart. Now he is self-studying his university major in chemistry and has already learned the chapter about...hiss, what machine?"

The young man with glasses whispered, "It's inorganic chemistry, entropy and Gibbs function."

Scar Man: "Yes, that's it!"

After saying this, the scarred man deliberately observed Wen Xin's expression.

Seeing that the man looked indifferent and had no expression, he wiped his face, put down the bucket of fish, and brought a small stool to put next to Wen Xin: "You sit here first, I have something to tell my family."

The young man with glasses was pulled into the tent by the man with the scar.

There were a lot of miscellaneous items piled up in the tent, and next to it was a small coffee table with several chemistry books on it, and a lot of notes densely written on it with ballpoint pen.

On the bed next to the table lay an old man, his chest rising and falling slightly, and he looked like he was asleep.

The scarred man tucked the corner of the old man's quilt and said to the young man with glasses in a low voice: "You saw that man just now. Does he look like a researcher?"

"Really?" the young man with glasses said in confusion, "He looks very young, like a college student who hasn't graduated yet. In terms of age, he's more like a graduate student."

The scarred man muttered, "That's it. He can also summon mutants. I just don't know what level those are. They shouldn't be very high."

The young man with glasses raised his head and asked, "Cousin, is it what you mentioned before, that you saw someone at the ironworks who could control mutants?"

“It’s not just limited to the steel mill.”

The scarred man paused for a moment, and his tone suddenly turned cold: "There are people like this in the market company, but that's not something we should worry about."

He patiently told the young man in glasses: "I will take him to the ironworks later. I saw the recruitment information released by the ironworks a few days ago. This person should be the latest researcher to apply for the job. I will make sure to build a good relationship with him and see if I can introduce you to a job there."

The young man with glasses opened his mouth, lowered his head, and clenched his fists in a forbearing manner.

The scarred man took another look at the old man's condition. Seeing that his breathing was steady, he felt relieved and stood up to walk out.

"Cousin." The young man with glasses suddenly called him, biting his lower lip and trembling, "But we all know that people are eaten in that factory. Even so... should I go?"

"Eating people?"

The scarred man subconsciously raised his hand, touched the scar on his face, and laughed: "Xiao Shu, tell me, where is there a place where people are not eaten now?"

"Let's not talk about others. The son of Aunt Wang next door went out to look for work some time ago, but he disappeared. Not even his body was found. Are there not many people like him? Tell me, are there not many?"

The young man with glasses bit his lips and could not speak.

"As long as you can get into the steel mill, you can at least be the eater instead of the eaten."

The scarred man sighed and said, "Take good care of your uncle at home. Remember to prepare those fish for your uncle to eat. You should also eat more. You have been studying hard recently. I'm leaving now."

"cousin!"

Before the young man with glasses could finish his words, the man with the scar had already slipped out.

Wen Xin was sitting on a bench, tearing dried fish into pieces and feeding a few dumplings. He raised his head when he heard the noise.

"Let's go. I'll have to excuse you to accompany me to load the goods."

Wen Xin shook his head and followed the scarred man to the center of the market, where people were moving containers with white seals.

Someone noticed the scarred man and asked in confusion, "Why are you here so early today?"

"How can you make money if you don't work hard?"

The scarred man said something casually and asked Wen Xin to wait beside him.

Wen Xin asked: "Do you need help?"

The young man at this time was wearing a sprint jacket and trousers, and tactical gloves that covered the fine lines on his palms. Apart from his upright standing posture, he looked like a powerless young man.

The scarred man smiled and said, "Thank you for your kindness, but these things are not allowed to be touched by outsiders. Just wait by the side."

Wen Xin waited.

After a while, the man with the scar brought him another stool. This time it was a blue plastic stool with a backrest, which was considered an excellent treatment.

Wen Xin sat on the stool, recalling the words he had vaguely heard outside the tent, and was a little hesitant about whether to confess to others.

Scaled Viper: "If you tell him now, what if he gets angry and doesn't want to take you with him?"

Wen Xin pondered for a moment.

When the scarred man came back, he asked, "You were delivering goods to the steel mill. Did you hear that there was a purple squirrel in it?"

"Purple squirrel?" The scarred man's expression changed instantly. "Why are you asking this?"

【Author’s words】

Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated me with nutrient solution during 2023-06-06 04:24:23~2023-06-07 00:13:07~

Thanks to the little angels who cast mines: JCY, puipuipui~ 1;

Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution: 47 bottles of Youbing; 30 bottles of SM; 10 bottles of Carrot Bunny; 9 bottles of Peggyliya; 5 bottles of Happy Sea Urchin; 3 bottles of Chrysler; 2 bottles of Puipuipui~; 1 bottle of Z, Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow, Anglerfish, Qinci, Qingqian 918, Purple Demon, and Greedy for a long time;

Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!