Chapter 19 Chapter 19 Perhaps you can come to my base...
"Mind your own business and get out of the way." A man holding a stick pointed at Gu Yan and the others and said.
Gu Yan frowned and turned sideways to them and said, "Please do as you please."
Li Yi had a cold face. He moved a little and sandwiched Su Qing between him and Gu Yan. The three of them leaned against the wall, exposing the man behind them.
Seeing them like this, the man cried out loudly: "Help! They are stealing my money and want to beat me to death."
"Stinky boy, it's only natural to pay back your debts."
"I've already paid you back the principal and a lot of interest, and you're still adding interest on top of the interest. Aren't you trying to kill me?"
"If you can't pay the money, you can't keep your life."
Seeing that Li Yi and the other two were indifferent, the man turned around and tried to run away. However, he was caught by the group of people again after a few steps and dragged into the alley.
Su Qing looked at the people walking by and knew that there was nothing she could do about this kind of thing. The man's face was bruised and looked terrible. He was being dragged away while struggling and begging. Listening to his voice, she actually felt a little familiar.
After the group of people walked away, the three of them continued walking into the alley.
As they walked, Su Qing suddenly let out a sigh.
"What's wrong, sister?" Li Yi and the other person were walking in front. When they heard the voice, they turned around and looked at Su Qing.
"That person just now cheated me out of 5 new coupons." Su Qing finally remembered that the man was the prince who took her money and disappeared.
"What? He dared to lie to my sister! I'm going to catch him right now." Li Yi said as he was about to chase after him.
Gu Yan was somewhat helpless and pulled Li Yi to his side. "Don't be impulsive." Then he looked at Su Qing and asked, "Miss Su, what do you want?"
Su Qing could tell that Gu Yan didn't want to get into trouble over such a small sum of money. It really didn't matter to her. She said, "The people who arrested him don't look easy to deal with. There's no need to get into a fight if the money isn't big. I just remembered the voice that sounded familiar. Let's go."
Li Yi thought about it and gave up. Although he was not afraid of trouble, they still had important things to do. If they accidentally caused some trouble and ruined the boss's business, it would be a waste of time and effort.
He scratched his head and said, "Sister, I'll give you the money."
"Oh, it's nothing, why do I need your money?"
After a while, they reached the exit of the alley. There was a very inconspicuous small shop on the right side of the exit. Gu Yan stopped and said, "I'll go in and see if the boss has finished talking."
Not long after he went in, he opened the door and came out again, and several people came out behind him.
As soon as Lu Chen went out, he saw Su Qing standing with Li Yi. A hint of surprise flashed in his eyes. He nodded at Su Qing and then talked to the person in the lead behind him.
"Boss Chen, thank you for bothering me. I'll take my leave now."
"My dear Lu, the things you ordered will be ready tomorrow. I will have someone deliver them to the agreed location."
"Then I'll trouble you, Boss Chen."
Just as a few people were about to leave, the door of the shop was opened again and a person was thrown out from inside. The person lay on the ground motionless.
Lu Chen frowned slightly and took a look.
"Are there any rules? You are disturbing my distinguished guest." Boss Chen's face turned cold. He looked at his subordinates who threw the person out and scolded them harshly.
"Boss, I'm really sorry. I didn't notice you were at the door." The man was startled by the group of people standing at the door when he came out. He didn't expect the boss to be outside.
"Pack up quickly and get out of here."
"Yes, yes, yes."
Several people quickly came forward and dragged the person lying on the ground away.
Boss Chen smiled at Lu Chen and said, "Chief Lu, I'm sorry to have embarrassed you by showing off my lack of discipline."
"No, Boss Chen, we're leaving first."
Without paying much attention, Lu Chen turned around and left with Su Qing and the others.
As soon as they walked out of the alley, they saw the man who was thrown out again. The man was sitting on the ground leaning against the wall, cursing.
"Damn you loan sharks! If I didn't have a family to support, I would have fought you to the death! Oh my! It hurts like hell! Damn it! These people are so cruel."
It was the prince. Su Qing stopped and walked over.
Lu Chen and the others were a little confused as to why Su Qing stopped, so they followed him.
"Do you know him?" Lu Chen asked.
Su Qing didn't answer him and stood in front of the prince.
The prince was still cursing with his head down when suddenly it went dark above him. He shuddered, thinking the debt collectors had come again. He quickly knelt down and begged for mercy, "Gentlemen, I will go back and find a way. I will definitely send the money to you within two days. Please stop beating me. I really can't survive if you continue to hit me."
"Prince." Su Qing said.
Hmm? A woman's voice? The prince raised his head and tried to open his red and swollen eyes. Before him was a blurry figure of a woman. He blinked hard and said in surprise, "Boss, it's you."
"Where's my money?" This man was beaten so badly that Su Qing couldn't bear to look at the prince's bruised face.
"Hey, sister, is this the person who cheated you just now?" Li Yi rolled up his sleeves, "Boy, return the money and let's forget about it, otherwise!" He shook his fist.
The prince gave a bitter smile. "I'm really sorry, boss. I didn't mean to cheat you out of your money. As soon as I got to that alley, they held me down and dragged me away. They took all the money I had on me. I really don't have any money to give you right now."
Su Qing frowned, thinking about the truth in this person's words.
But seeing him beaten to a bloody mess, she sighed, "Forget it, let's go."
"Boss, if you give me a day to relax, I, the prince, will be at your service for three days. Your money will not be wasted."
"That's it. I won't be coming to this base again for a while." Su Qing waved to Lu Chen and others to leave.
Seeing Su Qing let him go like this, the prince gritted his teeth and shouted, "Hey, Boss! I don't owe anyone anything. Wait a minute, so you can come to my house. I have some money at home, and I'll give it to you."
Su Qing didn't stop, just waved his hand and said, "Forget it, I don't want it."
"Boss, wait a minute, oops."
There was a thud behind her. Su Qing turned around and saw the prince falling not far from her.
"I'm telling you, kid. My sister is being kind and not bothering with you, but you're still not letting it go, right?" Li Yi said.
"My home is not far away, boss, I can't take your money for nothing." The prince struggled to get up.
Su Qing felt helpless seeing the man with injuries all over his body refusing to let them go, so she had to follow him to his home.
On the way, she asked the prince how he had offended those people.
"Alas, I just arrived at this base two months ago, and my mother suddenly fell ill. At that time, all the money we had was used to pay for the base and rent an apartment. I had no choice but to borrow some money from them to buy medicine for my mother."
At this point, the prince's face suddenly lit up with anger. "These loan sharks! We originally agreed to lend you 300 new notes for two months, including principal and interest. I paid back the principal in one month, and then paid them the remaining interest within the deadline. But then they told me to charge interest on that as well. I disagreed, and I got beaten up. They even went to my house and smashed it up. I had no choice but to pay back another 100 new notes, but they still wouldn't stop."
"Is there no one in the base in charge?" Su Qing was a little surprised. Interest is charged on top of interest, which means it will be endless. This is too shady.
"Those people are only interested in exploiting the lower classes for their own pleasure, so they don't care about these things. Besides, their boss has a good relationship with the base leader, so no one here dares to go against them."
Su Qing looked at Lu Chen with a hint of suspicion in his eyes.
This guy has connections with those loan sharks... Could it be...
Lu Chen felt a little helpless after being looked at by Su Qing, and he explained: "I have only done business with Boss Chen a few times, we are not familiar with each other at all."
"I didn't say anything, no need to explain."
The look in your eyes is so obvious, doesn't it say it all?
"Hahaha, sister, we brothers can testify that although the boss is not a good person, he will definitely not go along with those evil villains." Li Yi wanted to laugh when he saw their boss being questioned, but he forced himself to hold back his smile and testify for Lu Chen.
Several people quickly arrived at the prince's house. It was called a home, but it was actually just a broken tent. There were many blue tents with words "disaster relief" written on them placed in the open space nearby. The people here were covered in dust and dirt, thin, with dull eyes and expressionless faces. There was a dead silence everywhere.
"We can save a lot by not charging accommodation fees here. I'm sorry, but we don't have enough space to accommodate you. Please wait a moment." The prince said as he went into the tent.
"Xiaoer, what's wrong with you? Why are you injured? Who is outside?"
"Mom, you're not asleep. It's okay. I accidentally bumped into something. My friend is outside."
"Friend? What are you going to do with the money? Are those bastards here to ask for money again? These bastards, do they want to let us live?"
"Mom, it's not them. Mom, what are you doing? Put the knife down."
There was a commotion inside, and then a man rushed out.
They saw a woman with disheveled hair, holding a broken kitchen knife and pointing it at them.
The woman looked at Su Qing and the others. They had peaceful faces and clean clothes, unlike the fierce and ferocious ones who came before...
"You...please let us go. We are really out of money. We have already paid back what we owed. What else do you want? Do you have to force us to death? I am an old woman with a worthless life. Take it, and let my son go."
Liu Yun's face was filled with excitement, and he kept gesturing with the knife in his trembling hands.
Lu Chen reached out and pulled Su Qing back a few steps, blocking her behind him. Li Yi said, "Auntie, don't get excited. We are not here to collect debts. That boy, come here and tell your mother not to be so impulsive."
"Hey, Mom, they are really not those loan sharks. They are my customers. The money they gave was snatched away by those debt collectors. I came back to get the money to pay them back." The prince quickly stepped forward and snatched the knife from his mother's hand.
"Are you really not here to collect a debt?" Liu Yun looked at the prince in confusion.
Su Qing poked her head out from behind Lu Chen and said, "Auntie, we really aren't that kind of debt collector. Look, which girl is being sent out?"
Liu Yun gradually calmed down and stared at them with half-belief and half-doubt. After Prince gave her a long explanation, she finally felt relieved. She smoothed her hair and straightened her clothes, then apologized to Su Qing and the others, "I'm so sorry if I scared you. I'm really scared by the debt collectors."
Su Qing stepped forward and said that it was okay and he didn't care. During the conversation, Su Qing learned that they originally lived in a small base. Later, the management of the small base was busy seizing power and ignored the zombies gathering around. Soon they were surrounded by zombies, and they were lucky enough to escape.
They stopped and walked along the way and changed several small bases. They all had the same seizure of power, resources, and exploitation of the lower class people. Later, they came here. As soon as they arrived here, Liu Yun caught a bad cold and a high fever that wouldn't go away. Before the end of the world, this was just a minor illness that could be cured by taking some medicine or getting a few injections, but now it was fatal. They had no money and could only borrow high-interest loans to treat the illness, and then they were endlessly blackmailed. They and their mother were weak and had no way to resist. The top leaders of this base also didn't care about the lives of civilians.
"What kind of world is this? There are zombies outside, and people are scheming against each other inside the base. There's no way for us ordinary people to survive." Liu Yun's eyes turned red as he spoke. "Our prince works day and night, doing all kinds of work, and gives most of his money away, and yet he still gets beaten for no reason."
"Mom, stop talking. I'm sorry to have wasted your time, bosses. Here's the money." The prince handed a wrinkled 5-yuan note to Su Qing.
"Alas, ordinary people like us just hope to find a safe place and survive on our own, but it's so difficult. We can avoid the zombies but we can't avoid the human heart."
Su Qing listened from the side and was silent for a long time before saying, "Maybe you can come to my base."
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