Chapter 34, A Beam of Light
Ossena looked around and saw a large construction site.
The Governor's territory, the 'land of salvation' claimed by that kind man, seemed to be different from what she imagined.
After the end of last winter, a large-scale wave of mutant monsters broke out in Ossena's hometown, which was called the "Southern Provinces" by the people of Renaissance City.
It was a huge disaster and many settlements were completely destroyed.
We finally managed to survive the wave of mutant monsters, but that doesn't mean the disaster is over.
There was no time to plant in the spring, and because of the winter, and the fight against alien monsters... various factors, people lost a lot of food reserves. Hunger and shortage of supplies flooded the southern provinces.
What will people who can't survive do?
Will become a demon.
Ossena and her brother originally lived a comfortable life. The land in the southern provinces was relatively fertile and less eroded by the waste energy storm, so many settlements here could make a living through agriculture. In fact, the southern provinces were originally very important food production areas. Fuxing City, including the inner and outer cities, with hundreds of thousands of people, mainly relied on food imported from the south.
Ossena's father was a plantation owner. Before everything collapsed, their family's plantation had a population of over ten thousand. When the harvest was good, it could not only feed everyone, but also had a lot of surplus to sell in exchange for industrial products.
As you can imagine, Ossena's living standard is like that of a little princess, far exceeding that of most people in this wasteland.
But all this collapsed at the turn of spring and summer.
A large number of looters from outside laid siege to the plantation; then a riot broke out inside.
Under the protection of the guards, the family tried to break out and escape from the plantation at the last minute. Many people who did not participate in the riot also tried to escape together.
But in the chaos of war, she was separated from her father.
Hiding their identities, smearing dust on their faces, cutting their hair…
She took her brother and followed the group of refugees, and arrived at Fuxing City in a daze.
In the meantime, she suffered a lot.
For a bite of food, she was willing to do anything, even if it was just a small job, in exchange for a little food. She would even go so far as to beg, fight, steal, and cheat...
Before everything fell apart, she was taught to be a good lady, and she never thought she would be like this.
But she persevered.
She had been starving for the past few months, and her younger brother, who was just over ten years old, was malnourished.
But at least they are all still alive.
But she often gets confused.
If she had never seen beauty, she might have been trapped in darkness forever. But she was still a little princess a few months ago, the apple of her father's eye. She worried every day about the appraisal and restoration of the pre-war artworks she bought at a high price, and helping her father manage the estate and calculate the accounts.
Now she is hesitating about what to eat tomorrow.
What’s more important is that there’s no end in sight for this kind of life, there’s no hope, and no light at all.
She felt like she couldn't hold on any longer.
She had thought more than once that living in such a terrible world, wouldn't it be easier to die?
But every time she saw her brother's eyes, she would put the thought back and grit her teeth to continue suffering.
Strangely enough, in the past she was not very close to her brother who was seven years younger than her, and she even often found this naughty kid annoying.
However, during these few months, she would rather die than not take care of her brother. One time when her brother was kidnapped, she bit him like crazy and refused to let go even after being beaten until her head was bleeding.
She herself didn't know why, she only knew that she would fight with anyone who dared to harm her only remaining relative.
But she still sadly understood that they were not going to survive.
The chaos in the southern provinces had a huge impact. The shortage of food imports caused the price of food in Fuxing City to continue to rise. She relied on odd jobs to feed herself and her brother.
Recently, even worse news came: it was said that the largest grain merchant in Fuxing City had disappeared. Immediately afterwards, the city's grain prices became even more volatile.
At this time, a traveling merchant opened a free porridge shop in the slums outside Fuxing City.
Anyone can get a bowl of hot porridge in the porridge shop, provided that they listen in full to the declaration made by the planet's governor, Mr. Gu Hang, on his first day in the wasteland.
She had a fight with someone and finally managed to grab a spot with her brother.
The so-called Governor's proclamation was a very long paragraph. At the time, she only wanted to read a few sentences and start eating quickly. She could not remember much about what the Governor's proclamation said.
There was only one sentence that she remembered clearly: The Governor would ensure that everyone who submitted to him would have a good life.
The next day, the porridge shop was still open, and she came again. But this time she was told that people who had eaten once would not be allowed to eat again, unless they were willing to follow the caravan to the governor's camp and become his subjects.
Without much hesitation, she pressed her fingerprint on the paper.
After waiting for a few days, she came here with her brother when the caravan set off.
Following the caravan to the Governor's camp was certainly due to the pressure of life, but wasn't there also a desire to change the status quo and seek some light and hope?
She thought she would see a well-developed city, but she saw large areas of dust instead. There were many simple cement buildings that had been built, but many more were still under construction.
However, looking at the large-scale construction going on throughout the camp, there should be no shortage of job opportunities.
But with my small body, can I be a construction worker?
With her mind in a mess and not knowing what the future would be like, Ossena held her brother's hand and followed the team to the registration place.
When it was her turn, the person registering asked some basic information.
Name, age, what you are good at, what you want to do...
She answered according to the facts.
"Huh?" The person registering opposite suddenly asked, "Can you read?"
"Uh... yes."
"That's great!" The man was overjoyed. "Go to that table and fill out another form. Congratulations, you will get good treatment."
Ossena looked over in confusion.
There were not many people at that table.
She filled out a form and was assigned two jobs: during the day, she worked as a clerk in the textile factory that was about to be established, arranging and executing production plans, counting production results, and managing production processes...
The second job was to teach in night school literacy classes.
The work content made her feel relieved. This was something she was really good at. When she was at the manor, she would help her father with some management work. Although it was agricultural production management at that time and now she has to be a clerk in a textile factory, it is still better than doing manual labor by herself.
Especially after hearing about the treatment, she was even more excited.
According to the work point calculation method, the daily rations she received were more than enough to support herself and her brother, and she could even save a lot.
Although everything was incomparable to when she was a little princess, it was the only ray of light she saw during the months of wandering.
(End of this chapter)
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