At this point, Chu Tian also spoke up. He first politely asked what they should call the man, then said, “Let’s start with the children and women.” He lifted his chin and glanced at the children over there.
Quan Xiaoyu silently sat down behind Chu Tian as well, without saying a word. The eldest brother glanced at Quan Xiaoyu before looking back at Chu Tian and answering, “My surname is Zhou. Those who know me well call me Old Zhou.”
Then he looked back at the children and women huddled off to one side. Only after that did he turn around with a bitter smile and say, “I understand. From your perspective, Old Zhou here is engaged in the business of selling people. And that’s true, but it’s not the whole story.”
He brought the unopened cigarette pack in his hand beneath his nose again and took another deep sniff.
“They all came willingly. Or rather, they begged us to find buyers for them.”
Seeing the look of surprise on Bai Mingxi’s face, the second brother promptly picked up the explanation.
“Just looking at you young gentlemen, it’s obvious you’re no ordinary people. We don’t know what things are like down south, but life up north is difficult these days.”
This man was much more eloquent than the eldest brother, and he also understood that these young men had probably never seen people being sold with such cheerful expressions before. That was likely why they had come over to ask about the situation. So he began recounting the whole story in detail.
“After this goddamn disaster happened, everyone went crazy, and things were in chaos for quite some time. But back then, the government was still around, and so was the military. Gradually, things settled down a little. It was just that there were more and more monsters outside.”
The second brother was quite the storyteller. Before long, he had pieced together most of what had happened in the north since the apocalypse began.
The north was vast and sparsely populated. Because of the climate, crops were cultivated in many places, but yields were not particularly high. However, since the national capital was located there, the military-industrial sector was extremely well developed.
After the apocalypse, things were chaotic for more than half a month at first. Gradually, however, the government managed to maintain a reasonable degree of control, and the man-made turmoil began to subside. Unfortunately, the monsters and zombies outside continued to multiply.
Two or three months passed, and food, water, and all kinds of supplies became increasingly scarce. More and more people began leaving their homes to search for supplies.
As a result, disputes over resources started erupting frequently.
The north was different from the south. Its military and heavy industries were highly developed, but light industry and food production were scarce. Before the apocalypse, the north had relied largely on supplies from the south. Its agricultural industry had never been particularly strong, and after the apocalypse, crops could no longer grow normally. Consequently, there was no longer any regular harvest of food.
Food became the fuse that ignited the chaos.
The situation was especially severe in the cities, where things were even worse than in rural villages, where individual households had their own food stores.
Thus, after the government had managed to keep things under control for two or three months, society descended into chaos once again.
At that point, a large number of refugees poured in from the south. They said that southern cities had been overrun by huge numbers of monsters, and they had fled north alongside the military.
Even more conflicts erupted as a result.
The first to bear the brunt were the military units retreating from south to north. By then, the government had already fractured into several competing factions and was unable to accommodate them. The soldiers could not simply sit around and wait to die, either. So they formed factions of their own and joined the struggle for power and resources.
Then came the conflicts between people from the north and south, fighting over territory, supplies, and every other opportunity to survive.
Back then, people died almost every day.
Compared with the south, the north did indeed have fewer zombies. But after all the fighting and chaos, the people who died also turned into zombies.
Now, in addition to fighting other people every day, everyone had to guard against the ever-growing number of monsters, as well as increasingly bizarre weather.
During that period, the population died off on a massive scale, and most of those deaths were not caused by zombie attacks.
Eventually, the powerful figures in the capital finally realized that things could not continue this way. Only then did they join forces and begin restoring order to the thoroughly chaotic world.
By that time, people with supernatural abilities had also been discovered, and they were being recruited into the various major factions.
After several months of consolidation, the chaos gradually subsided, and the relative strength of the major powers began to take shape.
Generally speaking, there were now three major factions in the north.
The largest was the Capital Base. However, the Capital Base had deep-rooted connections and a complicated internal structure. Someone like the second brother could not explain its workings in any meaningful detail.
The second was Qiguang Base. Its leader was supposedly a former general who had troops under his command. He could not get along with the people in the capital, so he had established his own faction.
At the same time, Qiguang represented the consolidated forces of the north.
The last was Dawn Base. It had been established by the military units that had fled from the south, together with people from the southern regions. It now represented the southern forces operating in the north.
These were the three major powers that had emerged in the north after the chaos.
As for everything else, there were numerous settlements and small bases of varying sizes, all struggling to survive in the cracks between the major powers. They were not worth mentioning.
However, the business conducted by the four Zhou brothers was closely connected to these bases and settlements, large and small alike.
“Although things aren’t as chaotic as they were at the beginning, there’s still nothing to eat!” The second brother smiled bitterly. “They call it consolidation, which sounds nice, but all it really means is that the good stuff has been concentrated in the hands of the people at the top.”
He pointed upward with the index finger of his right hand.
“Crops can’t be grown, and the abandoned cities have been picked clean over and over again. Every place has been searched more than a dozen times. People have even dug up cockroaches and rats to eat. They’re practically one step away from digging three feet into the ground.”
“Life is just too difficult for ordinary people. Later, someone discovered that certain mutated plants were edible, and that the meat of mutated beasts wasn’t poisonous either. That gave people another way to survive.”
“But there are still plenty of people who can’t make it. These days, the elderly are almost all dead. Next, it’ll be the children and women. What can anyone do about the state of the world?” The eldest brother could not help interjecting.
At that point, however, the second brother let out a cold laugh.
“The world has come to this. People starve to death every single day, but those noble bigwigs at the top still have the leisure to find ways to amuse themselves!”
Then his cold laugh took on a hint of self-mockery.
“Still, that’s given people like us a way to survive, too.”
“Selling people is a wicked business that goes against every moral principle. If we weren’t desperate just to stay alive, who would want to do it?” The eldest brother was practically unable to resist opening the cigarette pack, but he forcibly restrained himself again.
“The big bases have built entertainment cities these days. Though they don’t even call them entertainment cities anymore. They call them ‘Centers for Spiritual Healing.’ They keep beautiful women and children there, and the people who come and go are all prominent officials and wealthy nobles of the present day…” The eldest brother sighed and seemed unable to continue.
So the second brother picked up where he left off.
“They don’t forcibly snatch people, either. They provide food and drink. You can eat until you’re full every day, stay warm, and take a bath. What a luxury! So plenty of people in the cities volunteered to go. Later, as the place became more famous and more people went there, they started buying people from outside.”
“The Captain Qiao you saw earlier was the pimp who helped them recruit people. As for us…” The second brother pointed at the four of them. “We’re the ones who go out and look for people.”
“How do you find them?”
Quan Xiaoyu, who had not spoken a single word until now, suddenly asked the question, startling all four men.
His dark eyes stared straight at the second brother. The icy glint in them made the man shudder.
“Young sir, please don’t misunderstand!” the second brother hurriedly explained. “We absolutely don’t steal, rob, or deceive anyone! More and more people out here can’t survive anymore. The Spiritual Healing Center provides food and shelter. We just explain the situation to them, and most people agree to go willingly. It’s better than starving to death out here. If they still have family members at home, we even give them some food.”
The second brother spoke quickly and anxiously. He had caught the flash of murderous intent in Quan Xiaoyu’s eyes. Although the young man looked refined and delicate, he had been firmly gripping a katana the entire time.
Seeing this, the eldest brother immediately joined in to explain.
“They all go of their own free will. If you don’t believe us, call someone over and ask them yourself. They were nearly starving to death before they came with us. We feed them along the way. Even if they’re going to that sort of place, at least they get to stay alive. And if they’re lucky, they might even—”
He had originally wanted to say that if someone powerful took a liking to them and brought them home, their lives would become even better. But the second brother hurriedly signaled him to stop, cutting him off before he could finish. Those words were unlikely to go over well with the young men in front of them.
No one could tell what Quan Xiaoyu was feeling at that moment from his expression, but Bai Mingxi was absolutely furious.
He had understood how some people operated since childhood. But he had never imagined that even after the apocalypse, those people would remain exactly the same, still finding the time and inclination to indulge themselves!
Thinking about it that way, even the people at Tianze Base did not seem quite so detestable anymore.
Among them, Chu Tian had already returned to his usual calm demeanor, a faint smile still on his face. He raised a hand and waved it toward the eldest brother.
“Old Zhou, there’s no need to be nervous. We’ve only just arrived, and we’re simply trying to learn a little about the situation. I believe what you’ve told us.”
As he spoke, he reached over and took Quan Xiaoyu’s hand, giving it a gentle squeeze to reassure him.
The four men breathed a sigh of relief.
For some reason, these young men looked like the pretty, pampered boys kept by powerful men in their homes. Every one of them was clean and handsome. Yet when they sat there, they naturally exuded an enormous sense of oppression.
After that, Chu Tian did not ask them to continue their story. Instead, he asked for the locations and directions of the three major bases, how to get there, how to enter the cities, and a whole series of other questions.
The four men answered every question without holding anything back.
After chatting for another half hour, Chu Tian finally stood up and brushed off his clothes.
“My pants are wet.” Bai Mingxi looked thoroughly displeased. In truth, he was still seething with anger at those people who occupied positions of authority without doing their jobs. Why couldn’t even the apocalypse change the way they behaved?
Chu Tian smiled, pulled Quan Xiaoyu closer, and whispered something into his ear.
Quan Xiaoyu nodded and headed toward the vehicle.
When he climbed inside, Li Nan had already been waiting for a long time. Xie Mingxuan, meanwhile, was being disobedient and kept wanting to climb out.
“You’re only allowed to go outside and play if you promise not to take off your clothes or your mask!” Quan Xiaoyu first negotiated terms with Xie Mingxuan.
These days, Xie Mingxuan could more or less understand instructions like that. He had been cooped up inside the vehicle for too long and wanted to go outside, so as soon as Quan Xiaoyu said this, he immediately nodded.
Quan Xiaoyu sighed inwardly. He was still torn over whether he should give Xie Mingxuan Nizi’s crystal core to eat. He would rather Xie Mingxuan remain as he was now than have him return to being the lawyer Xie he had been when alive.
Quan Xiaoyu went back into the vehicle and let the two little ones out. There was nothing particularly dangerous outside, and those people were no threat to them, so he let all three of them out to stretch their legs.
He also took two of the three mutated beast carcasses that the trio had hunted earlier and stored in his space without eating.
The meat from these creatures was too gamey for them to enjoy. But the three little ones liked it, so whenever they hunted more than they could eat, they would leave the excess as snacks and provisions for the trio. After removing the beast cores, they stored the carcasses in their space.
Chu Tian had just instructed him to take two of them out as an extra meal for the women and children. They had already brought out several good things. Bringing out any more would attract too much attention. Mutated beast meat was just right.
Quan Xiaoyu prepared everything inside the vehicle before opening the door.
The two mutated roe deer had grown to about the size of lynxes. He carried one in each hand with effortless ease, stepped out of the vehicle, and tossed them in front of the four men.