Chapter 198 Human Bait
It was freezing cold, and although the temperature in the sewer was warmer than outside, we still needed to light a fire to keep warm.
Each family has one stove, and there are at least a dozen or even more than twenty stoves in a sewer section, which can easily cause a fire if you are not careful.
In order to avoid fires, the authorities strictly require that all people living in sewers must place a bucket of water next to the stove so that they can pick up water and put out the fire at any time if a fire occurs.
The sewer has been open for such a long time that there have been fires before, but each time the fire was put out by nearby residents before it even started.
But this time the fire was caused intentionally, which led to the fire not being extinguished in time, causing huge losses to the people living in that section of the sewer.
"The arsonist was a middle-aged man. His wife died in the flood, and he lives alone with his children."
"One day he took the tanned rabbit skins to the trading point to exchange for supplies. When he came back, his son was gone. He asked everyone around him, but they all said they didn't know where his son had gone."
Wang Shijin sighed and continued, "Later I heard that his son was captured and used as bait."
"What is human bait?" Sun Qing asked.
Xia Xiaoman explained, "Human bait refers to people who are caught and bled to attract steel-toothed rabbits."
Although she stayed at home all year round, she had heard of human bait.
Those who wanted to catch the steel-toothed rabbits were afraid to use lanterns to catch them because of the skuas. But in order to catch the steel-toothed rabbits and exchange them for supplies, some people came up with a crooked idea and specifically caught those people who were alone outside, using them to attract steel-toothed rabbits, thus catching a large number of rabbits.
Wang Shijin continued, "Most of those who were captured as bait ended up with no remains left. The arsonist searched for several days and found his son's jade safety buckle next to a corpse..."
"After seeing his son's tragic death, he went crazy and searched for the murderer everywhere, shouting every day that he wanted to avenge his son."
"Once, Fu Baiwei and her group were outside catching steel-toothed rabbits. He saw them and thought they were the ones who caught his son. Without saying a word, he rushed over with a knife and chopped them up."
"Fu Baiwei and his team had seven or eight people, and he rushed forward alone and was courting death. Fortunately, Fu Baiwei and his team showed mercy, otherwise he would have no chance to set the fire."
"Wasn't it Fu Baiwei and her gang who did it?" Xia Xiaoman asked.
Wang Shijin looked at her with a look of "are you kidding me?" "How could it be Fu Baiwei and the others? They only target evildoers and would never do something like catching a child as bait."
Xia Xiaoman didn't say anything. What is an evildoer? If we judge by the standards before the natural disaster, everyone present would be an evildoer.
Wang Shijin didn't notice her expression and continued, "The arsonist searched for a long time but couldn't find the murderer. One day when he went back to the sewer, he heard a neighbor couple quarreling and let something slip. They said that his child didn't run away on his own, but someone kidnapped his child."
"Most of the people in that section of the sewer saw the whole process of his child being abducted, but no one wanted to get involved and get into trouble, so no one tried to stop the traffickers."
Sun Qing frowned upon hearing this, but said nothing. In this situation, the bystanders cannot be blamed entirely. If anyone is to blame, it can only be blamed on this cannibalistic world.
Wang Shijin took a sip of water to moisten his throat. "After that man knew the truth, he became silent. He took orders to deal with steel-toothed rabbits every day without hesitation. He could deal with 20 to 30 rabbits a day."
"His neighbors saw how hard he worked and thought he had gotten over it. Who knew he was working so hard just to save up some rabbit grease and rags so he could burn them all to death?"
"On the day of the arson, he deliberately set his own bed on fire first. When the people around saw the fire, they all picked up the buckets of water placed next to the stove and ran to put out the fire."
"While everyone else was trying to put out the fire at his place, he set a cloth soaked in rabbit oil on fire, threw it onto someone else's bed, and kicked over the stove..."
The sewer was narrow, and many flammable items were piled together. The arsonist threw the burning cloth onto someone else's bed, and the fire immediately ignited the bed, and the raging fire burned violently at lightning speed.
By the time others wanted to put out the fire, the fire had already spread completely and the entire section of the sewer was burning.
After listening to this, Sun Qing sighed, "It seems that I don't know whose fault it is."
Wang Shijin pursed his lips and said, "I can only say that they are all at fault! After the arsonist was caught, he took advantage of the guards not paying attention and hit his head against the wall and committed suicide. Looking at what he did, I guess he didn't even think about surviving."
"I just feel sorry for my co-workers who were affected for no reason. When the child was kidnapped, they were all working on the farm and had no idea about it at all."
Xia Xiaoman said, "If your coworker doesn't know, then his family should know, right? If his family knows but chooses not to say anything, then he is not innocent either."
Wang Shijin fell silent after hearing this. He didn't know whether his coworker's family knew about it, but all the information about the arsonist was told to him by his coworker. If his coworker didn't know about it, how could he know so much?
Oh, forget it, after I sell this batch of rabbits, I will just treat those workers as ordinary colleagues in the future! Otherwise, I won’t know that I was sold by someone.
Suddenly, he remembered something and said, "Boss Sun Er, have you guys in Yuancheng made any moves recently?"
Sun Qing was confused by his question, "What action? Can you explain it more clearly? What do you mean?"
"Do you have any plans to recruit retired soldiers to go to the capital?"
"Heading to the capital?" Sun Qing frowned. "Veterans are recruited. After the tsunami, Yuancheng required all veterans to return to the army. But heading to the capital... I haven't heard about it yet. What's going on? Fucheng plans to recall veterans to the capital?"
Wang Shijin nodded. "In addition to recalling retired soldiers, I heard that they are also preparing to recruit soldiers. I wanted to sign up to join the army, but if joining the army means going to the capital, I don't really want to go."
Xia Xiaoman asked, "Why? The capital is where all the talents gather, and there are many military bases nearby. It's much safer to go to the capital than to stay in the floating city."
Wang Shijin said helplessly: "I also know that the capital is good, but the higher-ups send new soldiers to the capital not to station them there, but to let them explore the way."
"From the floating city to the capital, you have to go around half of Xia country. Not to mention the dangers along the way, if there is a blizzard in the middle of the journey, it will be a dead end."
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