Chapter 15 Mobilization Order

  The sun is already hanging in the sky, it may be getting late, and it must be too late to go back now.

  Chu Guang would rather stay in Beit Street for one night than drive at night.

  Having had several unpleasant experiences, he is too aware of how dangerous it is, and it would be an eye opener to survive.

  Chu Guang wrapped the iron-pipe rifle he bought in a plastic bag and tied it to the sharpened water pipe behind him. No one could tell it was a gun from its appearance.

  Although Beit Street did not restrict the survivors from carrying weapons, Chu Guang did not want the mayor's eyeliner to find out that he had privately traded with the caravan outside.

  50g of blue umbrella mushroom is exchanged for only 1 point of chips.

   It's a good thing these blood-sucking leeches can figure it out!

  Go through the gate on Bate Street.

  Chu Guang saw that there was a dark circle of people surrounding the door of the recycling station, including men and women, old and young.

  They are ragged, yellow and thin, with woven bags or frames on their backs, and plastic buckets or other containers in their hands.

   Their daily routine is simple.

   Exchange the picked up garbage into chips, and then use the chips to exchange for the necessities of life.

"Newly arrived soap! Produced by the Boulder City Chemical Factory, it only needs 3 chips to wash away those disgusting smells on your body. Hurry up and buy one for your wife to use, there are only 30, first come first serve."

"Edible oil, don't care what it is refined, it's all fresh and good stuff, it's shipped from Brown Farm, and it only costs 10 chips per liter... It's a bit expensive, but there are reasons why it's expensive, you'd better find someone to fight for it .”

   "Let me see, by the way, there is also coarse salt! A piece the size of a thumb only costs 5 chips... Don't care how it came about, do you want to eat more good? Come and buy them all."

   "There are also tobacco leaves, whether you smoke them yourself or use them for bacon. They are also Brown Farm... Forget it, you can choose for yourself, I will rest for a while."

  Old Charlie yelled lazily at the door, his attitude was not at all like a businessman.

  In fact, this is really not a business, it is more like a kind of charity from the master to the servant.

   Not to mention Beit Street.

  In this five-mile radius, many things can only be bought here, and people living here do not have the right to choose.

   Also, don’t think that Wulidi is very short.

  Although Qingquan City is located in the southern Great Plains, it has already become a reinforced concrete cemetery that is more dangerous than the forest...

  Old Charlie wiped his sweat, and handed over the work of collecting money to the shop assistant, while he sat on the side, squinting his eyes to rest.

  At this moment, a thin young man in a gray overcoat walked up to the crowd, waving a wooden sign in his hand.

   "Mobilization order! The mayor's mobilization order!"

  "Before the end of the month, each household needs to turn in 100 kilograms of firewood and 2 square meters of furs."

   "Tell each other!"

   There was a commotion among the crowd.

   There were many complaints, but no one came out to resist.

   After all, it was the same way in previous years.

  Better Street does not collect taxes, but it does not mean that living here is free. In addition to the soft exploitation of trading rights, the mayor will always collect a batch of supplies in one way or another.

  The mobilization order is one of them, and it happens every August and September.

   What happens if you refuse to collect?

   Penalties are pretty straight forward as well.

   All men and women over the age of 16 in the settlement, regardless of whether they live alone or not, as long as they are not married, they are considered as the only household. After marriage, the two are combined into one household.

  If the materials are not handed in, the housekeeper who registered the household registration will cross the name of the householder from the register, and confiscate his shack on Beit Street, and expel the survivors from the stronghold.

  In this world where life is thinner than paper, losing your shelter is no different from death.

   Especially in the cold winter.

  Although Beit Street is not rich, it is already very good compared to the Brown Farm next door. At least the survivors living here can still have a little bit of poor freedom.

   "It seems that the mayor is planning to make another fortune before the last batch of caravans arrive this year, and spend a good year with the supplies he exchanged."

   Chu Guang thought in his heart, but he didn't take this so-called mobilization order seriously.

  He'll be out of here before winter.

   At that time, no one will chase him, he will go by himself.

   bypasses the Recycle Bin.

  Chu Guang went straight to his shack, but before he reached the door, he saw Yu Xiaoyu and a man standing at the door, arguing about something.

  The man is about seventeen five or sixteen, not tall, he is a teenager. Chu Guang didn't know him well, but he only remembered that he was the third son of the Wang family, whose name was Wang Defu.

  His shack is at the farthest corner of the settlement, diagonally opposite the Yu family, and then the Wang family, and he usually doesn’t stop by.

   I don't know what happened, but the third child of the Wang family actually found himself here.

"Step aside."

  Wang Defu looked impatient, and stretched out his hand to push Yu Xiaoyu who was standing in front of her. The little girl staggered backwards, but she still opened her arms like an eagle guarding a chicken, and did not let her go.

   "No, this is not your home!"

   "It's not your house either."

   "But he asked me to help look after the house!"

   "What's so nice about a dead man's house."

   "He's not dead." Yu Xiaoyu stared at him with eyes like goldfish.

   "Stop lying, that stranger hasn't come back for four or five days."

  Wang Defu continued impatiently, "Your Yu family just want a piece of the pie, and I don't plan to take it all by myself. In this way, the beams of the shed and this door belong to me, and you take the rest."

  The house of the dead is unoccupied, and it is usually divided up by neighbors.

  No one believed that a person would be considered dead if he didn’t come back for a few days, but usually no one came back for a few days, and everyone agreed that he was either captured by slave traders or predators, or was picked up by a foreign species to feed his cubs.

   No one can survive multiple nights in a row outside.

   Difficult to do even for experienced hunters.

  Yu Xiaoyu bit her lower lip until it turned blue, her eyes were staring like a little goldfish, she wouldn't move away no matter what, but she didn't make any other movements.

  Wang Defu didn't want to wait any longer, the men of Yu's family would come back after waiting, and he couldn't get any benefits by himself, so he planned to push her away forcibly.

   But at this moment, a hand was placed on his shoulder.

   "Who says I'm dead?"

  Wang Defu's hairs trembled, and he jumped aside suddenly, looking at Chu Guang fearfully like a beast. Yu Xiaoyu quickly slipped behind Chu Guang to hide, and whispered a report.

   "He came yesterday and wanted to tear down your house."

"Thanks."

  Chu Guang looked at Wang Defu with a half-smile, and continued.

   "Are you going by yourself, or shall I send you?"

  Wang Defu knew he was in the wrong, so he couldn't argue. Then he glanced at the blood-stained steel pipe on Chu Guang's back, and finally left silently.

  He is not afraid of the Yu family, nor is he afraid of this outsider, but no one wants to offend a man of strong physique.

  Especially this guy is alone and has no weaknesses at all.

  Looking at this man's back, Chu Guang suddenly felt a little sad.

  Although some people are alive, they are indistinguishable from the hyenas and vultures outside.

  He once saw a mutant hyena bite off the neck of an injured companion and share its meat. At that time, he didn't think much about it, he just regarded it as a law of nature, but now he feels a little empathy.

  I have only been away for a few days, and these people are already ready to move.

   Yu Xiaoyu, who was hiding behind Chu Guang, did not leave. She thought that if she waited a little longer, she might be able to eat the candy she ate that day.

  She had never eaten anything so sweet, she almost chewed the plastic stick together.

   Notice the big eyes looking at him.

  Chu Guang was taken aback for a moment, then came back to what was going on, smiled and took out a lollipop that he forgot to eat from his pocket, and stuffed it into the little girl's hand.

   "I have troubled you these few days."

"No trouble!"

  Xiao Yu happily tore off the plastic paper, stuffed the lollipop into his mouth, and said vaguely, "Anyway, I have nothing else to do. I can help you watch when you go out."

  At this time, the men of the Yu family came back from the recycling bin with their loot on their backs. It can be seen from the bulging package that they have gained a lot.

   Seeing his elder brother, second brother and father, Xiaoyu quickly hid back in the house.

   Earning sweets and eating is just a side job, and staring at foreign talents is the job entrusted to him by his elders. Xiaoyu has not forgotten the advice of his elders.

   However, no matter how fast her movements are, it is impossible for her to be faster than the hunter's eyes.

  The head of the Yu family—the old man with a healthy body and wrinkled face glanced at Chu Guang, said nothing, and entered the house together with his eldest son, who was carrying two bags of green wheat.

  Yu Hu, the second son of the Yu family, stopped in front of Chu Guang.

   Chu Guang recognized him.

  People here don't pay much attention to themselves, and this 18-year-old boy is one of the few people who will take the initiative to talk to him.

   It's just that this person always speaks straightforwardly, just like his name.

   "You haven't been here these days, I thought you were dead."

  Chu Guang said.

   "It seems that your intuition is not very accurate."

  Yu Hu froze for a moment, grinned and patted his head.

   This foreigner is quite interesting, his way of speaking is different from others, and he always likes to turn a corner.

   didn't care, he continued.

   "I have to tell you, the mayor just issued a mobilization order, and each household has to hand in 100 kilograms of firewood and 2 squares of furs before the end of the month."

   There are three adult males in the Yu family, who need to pay 300 kilograms of firewood and 6 square meters of fur. They are considered "big taxpayers" on Beit Street.

  For the former, it’s okay to say that the city is full of vegetation, and the outer suburbs to the north can see a large area of ​​woodland. Even if there is no mobilization order from the mayor, they have to cut some back to prepare for the winter.

   But the latter is not so easy to deal with. For 6 square meters of fur, at least four, or even five mutant hyenas must be killed.

   "I heard about it when I got back."

"That's good."

  Yu Hu didn't beat around the bush, but went straight to the point.

   "We were discussing with the Li family just now, and we are going to try our luck in the northern woodland. It is said that there are traces of deer migration there. If we can catch two, not only the skin, but also the meat, do you want to go together?"

   "I still can't do it, I'll figure it out myself."

  Chu Guang politely refused, but he silently remembered it in his heart.

  The scavengers on Beit Street are planning to go hunting in the north. Linghu Wetland Park happens to be a little west of the north.

  Yu Hu naturally didn't know what Chu Guang was thinking, he just thought he was embarrassed and continued to persuade him.

   "I can see that you are a capable person, but no matter how capable a person is, there is a limit to it. The boy from the Wang family dares to bully you because he has a large number of people."

   "Well, my sister will be married next year, why don't you marry her, so that we will be a family."

   "If you're in a hurry, it's okay to have drinks tonight."

  Chu Guang almost choked on this sentence, coughed and said.

   "No need."

  What the hell?

   How did the topic jump to this.

   Besides, Chu Guang from a civilized society cannot accept the marriageable age acceptable to these survivors.

   After all, I am still young, and it is too early to get married.

   "Hey, that's fine."

  Yu Hu didn't try to persuade him anymore, but only expressed regret in his heart.

  The people who come out of the refuge have good brains, just like the old man named Charlie. He has been helping the mayor since he can remember, and he is a big shot in the eyes of the neighbors.

  Old man Charlie said that Chu Guang also came out of the refuge, so there should be nothing wrong with that, and his brain must be very good.

  If he can have a son with his sister, maybe the Yu family can produce a big man like old Charlie in the future.

  He even made plans to convince his father.

   But now it seems that he is being self-indulgent.

  He carried his things back home.

  Yu Hu grabbed his sister.

   "Xiaoyu, I ask you, marry you to brother Chu Guang next door, are you willing?"

   With the lollipop still stuffed in his mouth, the little fish cooed.

"all right."

   Anyway, it's just outside the house, not far away.

  In her eyes, the so-called marriage is nothing more than sleeping in another place, which is not that bad, maybe you can even get two more candies.

  Yu Hu, who was planning to give up at first, said happily.

   "Then brother will help you persuade him."

   "Aww."

  Xiaoyu responded casually, only caring about eating sweets.

   It was Yu Hu, who was enthusiastically summing up.

   "Okay, I'll talk to Big Brother and Dad, but don't just wait there. If you have time, go to Mother to learn how to make pancakes... Give me a taste of what you're eating."

   "No!"

   Seeing that the second brother wanted to grab his candy, Xiaoyu was instantly unhappy. The cat dodged and ran away without a trace.

  (end of this chapter)