Published: March 1, 2025
The military vehicle driven by Kuang Liu moved smoothly through the Outer City.
Wen Yu silently observed the scenes outside the window.
The streets of the Outer City were quite spacious, likely retaining the layout of Beijing City before the apocalypse.
Of course, since Wen Yu had never been to Beijing City before, he was completely unfamiliar with the buildings here.
However, he could still identify some issues, such as the dilapidated shanties and tents lining the streets.
These were the homes of the refugees struggling to survive...
Seeing the military troops passing by, a trace of envy and jealousy flickered in the eyes of these people.
After just a glance, Wen Yu turned his head, squinting his eyes as he began to rest.
According to Kuang Liu, the gathering place in Beijing was quite large, having undergone more than a month of reconstruction.
Combined with the original remaining structures, the entire gathering place was now about half the size of Beijing City before the apocalypse.
As for the vast Outer City, it was enormous. At the speed of the military vehicle, it would take at least an hour to reach the location where Sun Xuewei and others were.
Noticing Wen Yu's squinting expression, Kuang Liu chuckled and asked,
"What's wrong? Is the Beijing gathering place different from what you imagined?"
Wen Yu shook his head.
"To be precise, it’s identical. If the entire Beijing gathering place allows even these powerless ordinary people to live well, I really have to reconsider switching my nationality when the demonic disaster strikes."
Upon hearing Wen Yu's words, Kuang Liu chuckled twice.
"Don't switch nationalities; if you do that, my dad will definitely tear me apart!"
Then, Kuang Liu fell silent for a moment before slowly speaking again.
"These people are living very poorly, extremely poorly. Do you know what a black coal mine was like before? Their lives are just like those sold-off laborers, barely getting enough food to avoid starvation each day while bearing heavy labor burdens. Tsk tsk..."
Kuang Liu sighed a couple of times and continued,
"But we also provided them with another way out: joining the military. Joining the military not only grants a salary but also the right to reside in the Inner City. Unfortunately, there will always be some people who are frightened by the military's death rate, unwilling to fight, or dare not kill zombies and mutated beasts. You see, those are those people."
Kuang Liu pointed outside with his mouth.
Wen Yu followed the direction Kuang Liu was pointing to see a large group of people about a hundred meters away from the roadside, scrambling for a large pot of thin porridge.
There was not much porridge, and it looked clear and watery, making Wen Yu seriously suspect whether the staff responsible for this area had secretly taken away most of the rice.
But these were the essentials for survival for these refugees.
Wen Yu even saw two emaciated children fighting over a bowl of thin porridge!
The soldiers standing nearby simply watched with smiles, occasionally pointing and laughing.
At this moment, Kuang Liu continued,
"In the beginning, I also wanted to provide these poor people with more security, but something interesting happened!"
"Initially, we would give them a large bowl of white rice every day. When these poor guys received that bowl of white rice, their expressions were... how should I put it? That was the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen, a heartfelt gratitude!"
"But the consumption of food was just too great!"
"You have to understand, right now there are about 50 million survivors in the entire Beijing gathering place! This number is actually quite terrifying, the amount of food consumed daily is incalculable! Not to mention those professional workers with big appetites."
"And currently, the Beijing gathering place has just resumed farming; it’s not yet harvest season, and due to the invasion of demonic energy, whether we can grow food for people is another matter! Right now, all food is taken from the strategic material reserves."