During the day, everyone except Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao is at work and not at home. This situation is quite difficult to manage.
Gu Yanzhi offered to have the three elderly people stay on the 16th floor during the day, and to move the large iron gate of the 17th-floor corridor down one floor to the 16th floor, and install an alarm on the 16th floor as well.
Even if bad guys manage to break through all the obstacles outside, they can sound the alarm in time, enough for Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao to hear the noise and come downstairs.
Even if Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao happen to be away from home, this iron gate can hold them off for a while.
No one really investigated where Gu Yanzhi got so many materials. At this time, the fact that someone was willing to share their own unique things without asking for anything in return didn't make them suspicious.
On the contrary, everyone was very grateful for Gu Yanzhi's generosity.
Gu Yanzhi had observed everyone in Building 10 for a long time and was certain that even if he were slightly exposed, it wouldn't put him in danger before he did this.
After all, it's not easy to have such worry-free and supportive neighbors at this time.
Besides, after knowing each other for so long, everyone probably knows that Gu Yanzhi's family used to be the richest in City C, or at least in the top three. It's not unusual for rich people to have a few quirks and hoard a lot of things at home.
They also agreed to go collect their monthly supplies together.
Yes, starting about six months ago, the supplies that used to be distributed every 10 days were changed to every two weeks. Last month, we were notified that supplies would be distributed monthly again.
When the supply was reduced to half a month, people found that the supplies provided for half a month were essentially no different from those provided for 10 days. Now that it's been changed to once a month, there's already a lot of complaining and panic, with people wondering if the supplies they receive will be reduced.
Since they started working, because their workplaces were not in the same place, everyone carried their own supplies and took them home after work. Looking back now, the security situation was relatively good before, so this approach was acceptable.
However, things are starting to get chaotic outside, so we need to work together. There's strength in numbers, and that's the only way to effectively prevent harm.
Upon returning to his unit, Gu Yanlin also reported Zhang Shu's discovery to Chu Guodong.
Chu Guodong astutely noticed that while the number of people outside was decreasing, the number of people receiving supplies each time remained unchanged.
This discovery was simultaneously reported to the military commanders in the eastern part of Chu.
The day before the next supplies were to be collected, staff members outside announced through a loudspeaker that the person collecting the supplies the next day needed to be present in person to re-register.
The person must be present in person. If they cannot come, their family members should notify the staff on their behalf, and the staff will come to their home to verify.
This re-registration indeed uncovered at least a hundred missing persons. Some of them had tragically died, and their families, in order to receive more supplies, simply concealed the fact that they had not reported it.
What shocked Gu Yanzhi the most was the old lady Zhang from the next building who had caused trouble downstairs in their building before.
She had previously gone to the shelter with her son and daughter-in-law, but life in the shelter was not the kind of life they had imagined, where everything was done for them and the house was always warm and cozy.
On the contrary, life in the shelter was extremely difficult. The huge shelter only had braziers in the four corners of the east, west, south, and north, and hundreds or even thousands of people lived in one large room.
The brazier is completely useless unless you can directly seize the brazier or earn your own heating supplies, otherwise you will still freeze to death.
What's even more disheartening is that you have to earn your own meals. You participate in government-issued tasks, earning different amounts of points depending on the difficulty of the task, and then use those points to exchange for food or your own heating supplies.
In order to improve her own life, Old Mrs. Zhang forced her son and daughter-in-law to take on high-scoring but also very dangerous tasks every day.
Finally, during a mission, her son and daughter-in-law were tragically crushed by the ice and never got up again.
Grandma Zhang became a completely lonely old woman, belonging to the lowest rung of society in the shelter.
The security situation in the shelter was not as good as imagined. Soldiers, police and other government staff were busy with rescue missions and searching for supplies every day, just to make life at least a little better for the people of City C.
We can only periodically inspect and issue warnings to the shelters; we don't have the resources to monitor them in real time.
Therefore, the shelter is also a place where the strong prey on the weak. The stronger you are, the higher you are at the top. As long as you can beat him, you can take anything he owns.
Originally, Old Mrs. Zhang's son and daughter-in-law were not strong fighters, just two weaklings. However, since there were three of them on their side, they often bullied those who were weaker than them and stole their food.
Moreover, the three were very cunning, behaving obediently in front of the patrolmen.
Now, only Grandma Zhang, a 70-year-old woman, is left. She has no fighting skills and is the easiest target to bully.
Many times, the food that Grandma Zhang had worked so hard to get was snatched away before she even had a chance to eat it.
It was no use telling the staff that the three of them were too tactless and had offended everyone around them. When the staff asked, the people around them only said that the old lady Zhang was trying to rob someone and then falsely accused them.
Moreover, those who had been bullied by the three women in the past would certainly not let go of the opportunity to take revenge when they saw Old Mrs. Zhang like this, making Old Mrs. Zhang's life in the refuge even more difficult.
He found an opportunity to leave the shelter and return to his original residence to ask for shelter.
When Grandma Zhang passed away, she boasted that she was going to enjoy a life of leisure and happiness, and that she would live like a fairy.
In addition, he wasn't a very good person to begin with, and had already offended everyone in the building. So he came back in such a sorry state, and was ridiculed by everyone. Everyone had their fill of being a laughing stock.
Old Mrs. Zhang was also flexible and persevering. She spoke well of everyone in the building, and finally one family was willing to take her in.
Of course, this family wasn't exactly good people either; they only took in Old Mrs. Zhang because of the supplies she had.
When the police from the next building came to check on people, Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao went to watch the commotion.
When Old Mrs. Zhang was carried out, she was so thin that she was just skin and bones; she had starved to death.
Gu Yanzhi noticed that several pieces of flesh were missing from Old Mrs. Zhang's body. He was surprised that someone around them was doing such a thing.
The neighbors only argued that Old Mrs. Zhang died of starvation because she was sick and couldn't eat, and that they shouldn't be treated this way because they kindly took her in.
However, his attempts to deny the charges were unsuccessful, and he was taken away by the police for investigation.
Similar incidents to that of Old Lady Zhang have occurred more than once. In other cases, girls are sold by their families, who not only exploit their bodies to make money while they are alive, but also do not spare them even after they die, freezing them and selling them off to anyone who needs them.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
