NOVPUB61: Chapter 49 Hiding and Not Reporting
61 -49 Hiding and Not Reporting
During the day, besides Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao, everyone else had to go to work and was not at home.
This situation was quite troublesome.
Gu Yanzhi took the initiative to suggest that from now on, the three elders should stay on the 16th floor during the daytime, and they should move the large iron gate on the 17th floor down a level to the 16th floor, and also install an alarm there.
This way, even if the bad guys broke through the multiple obstacles outside, they could immediately sound the alarm, which would be loud enough for Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao to hear the commotion and come down from upstairs.
Even if by chance Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao were not at home, the iron gate could still hold back the intruders for a while.
No one delved deep into where Gu Yanzhi got so many materials from.
At this time, when someone was willing to share their belongings without seeking anything in return, it was not something to be suspicious of.
On the contrary, everyone was very grateful for Gu Yanzhi’s generosity.
Gu Yanzhi also made this decision after observing the people in building number 10 for a long time, ensuring that even a slight exposure would not bring danger to himself.
After all, it was not easy to have such reliable and capable neighbors at this time.
Moreover, after being together for such a long time, almost everyone knew that Gu Yanzhi’s family was once the richest in C City, or at least among the top three.
For a wealthy family to have a bit of an odd habit and to stock up on more stuff was nothing out of the ordinary.
Everyone also made an agreement to go collect the supplies together every month.
Yes, starting half a year ago, the once every ten days supply distribution changed to once every half month.
Then, last month, it was notified again that supplies would be collected only once a month.
When it changed to every half month, everyone found that the amount of supplies given for half a month was actually no different from that for ten days.
Now, with it changing to monthly collections, there was already complaining outside, people were panicking, not knowing whether the supplies they would receive would be reduced further.
Ever since they started working, because their workplaces were not the same, everyone had been collecting their supplies independently and bringing them home after work.
Thinking back, when the public security was relatively good, this was acceptable.
But now, with the predictable onset of chaos outside, it was safer and more effective to collect supplies together, as there was strength in numbers.
After returning to the military, Gu Yanlin reported Uncle Zhang’s findings to Chu Guodong.
Chu Guodong shrewdly noticed that if the number of people outside was decreasing, the number of people collecting supplies each time had not changed at all.
This discovery was concurrently reported to the military leadership by Chu Guodong.
The day before the next supply collection, staff outside were again making announcements through loudspeakers, declaring that the individuals themselves must be present for the supply collection and re-registration.
Personal attendance was mandatory, and if someone couldn’t make it, their family members had to inform staff, who would then come to check in person.
This re-registration indeed revealed at least a hundred missing people, some of whom had unfortunately died, and their families had concealed the deaths in order to collect more supplies.
What shocked Gu Yanzhi the most was Mrs.
Zhang from the building next door, who had previously caused trouble under their building.
She had gone with her son and daughter-in-law to the refugee shelter, but life in the shelter wasn’t at all like what they had imagined—where everything would be provided at their beck and call, and the rooms would always be warm and cozy.
On the contrary, life in the shelter was extremely difficult.
In the vast refuge, only the four corners—east, south, west, and north—had fire pits, and one large room housed hundreds of people.
The fire pits were practically useless unless you could directly take over one or earn your warming supplies.
Otherwise, you would still be freezing to death.
What was more distressing was that meals had to be earned by oneself.
Participating in government-assigned work tasks, obtaining different points based on the task difficulty, and using these points to exchange for food or individual heating supplies.
To better her own life, Mrs.
Zhang constantly pushed her son and daughter-in-law to take on tasks that had high points but also high danger.
Eventually, in one task, her son and daughter-in-law were tragically crushed by ice and never got up again.
Mrs.
Zhang completely became a lonely elderly woman, essentially at the bottom of the shelter’s hierarchy.
The security in the shelter was not as good as she had imagined; soldiers, police, and even other government workers were busy every day with rescue missions and searching for materials, just to make the people of C City live a little better.
The shelter could only be patrolled occasionally with a stern warning; there was no capacity to monitor it constantly.
As a result, survival of the fittest prevailed inside the shelter; the stronger your force, the higher your status.
As long as you could defeat someone, you could take anything they owned.
Originally, Mrs.
Zhang’s son and daughter-in-law were not strong in combat, just two weaklings, but with a group of three, they usually bullied those weaker than themselves and robbed their food.
Moreover, the three were cunning and acted very obedient in front of the patrol.
Now, with only Mrs.
Zhang left, a 70-year-old woman with no real fighting strength, she became the easiest target for bullying.
Many times, the food that Mrs.
Zhang had managed to exchange for was snatched away before she even had a chance to eat it.
It was futile for Mrs.
Zhang to report to staff; they were too unlikable and had offended everyone around them.
When staff inquired, the neighbors simply said it was Mrs.
Zhang who had tried to rob others, falsely accusing them.
Furthermore, those who had been bullied by the trio in the past would certainly not miss the opportunity to take revenge seeing Mrs.
Zhang in such a state, making her days in the shelter increasingly difficult.
She found an opportunity to leave the shelter and return to her original home seeking refuge.
When Mrs.
Zhang left, she boasted immoderately about her supposed upcoming fortune and the divine life that awaited her.
As her personality was not great to begin with, and she had already angered everyone in the building repeatedly, her return in such a sorry state was ridiculed by all, as people enjoyed the spectacle.
Mrs.
Zhang could be humble as well as arrogant, and after flattering her neighbors in the same building, finally one household agreed to take her in.
Of course, that family was not kind either; they took in Mrs.
Zhang solely for the sake of her supply quota.
When the police came with neighbors next door to check for people, Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao went together to watch the excitement.
When Mrs.
Zhang was carried out, she was nothing but skin and bones, having been starved to death.
Even so, Gu Yanzhi noticed with sharp eyes that several pieces of flesh were missing from Mrs.
Zhang’s body.
He hadn’t expected that even amongst their own neighbors, some had started to do such things.
The neighboring family argued that Mrs.
Zhang had died because she was ill and unable to eat, that they were kind for taking her in and should not be treated this way.
But excuses were futile, and they were still taken away by the police for investigation.
Similar incidents to Mrs.
Zhang’s were not isolated; some were cases of girls being sold by their families.
While alive, not only were their bodies exploited for money, but even in death, they did not let go of their bodies, freezing them and selling their flesh when needed.
