Chapter 33: Undercurrents
Mu Yue, the dead girl, wanted to follow, and said righteously that she was helping her mother watch her brother, lest he learn badly from the fox spirit and make Mu Chen's face inexplicable.
couldn't stand his sister's stalking, so Mu Chen had no choice but to take her to the Trek Bar with her.
The bar was filled with hungry refugees, gathered around a few black marketeers, trying to trade what they had for some food.
But those things and star coins that used to be worth a lot of money in their hands didn't have much value at all, and the black-hearted merchants just picked some of the most valuable things to trade, and the prices offered were often very low.
A small piece of jerky could be exchanged for a large box of precious jewelry, but the woman in shabby clothes did not have the courage to bargain.
There was also a poor woman, with a crying child in her arms, and kept begging the merchant to give the child a bite to eat, as long as the child did not starve to death, and she was willing to serve him as a slave.
But the black-hearted merchant had no interest in her, and waved his hand away in disgust, and said with a curse in his mouth: "Don't look at your own appearance, skinny and bones, when I am a dog that eats bones?" ”
The woman was pushed to the ground, crying helplessly, she had given up all her dignity, just to be able to give the child a bite to eat, but even then no one wanted it.
The little girl in her arms was only three or four years old, and she only knew how to cry when she was hungry, and she didn't understand the despair in her mother's heart at this time.
"Here, take." A cold voice sounded in the woman's ears, and a small piece of air-dried meat was handed to her.
The woman hurriedly grabbed the jerky in her arms, and without thanking him, she tore at the flesh with her teeth.
The air-dried meat was as hard as a piece of wood, and they were all boiled in water and then cut and eaten, but the woman bit it with her teeth, tore off a piece and crushed it in her mouth, and then took it out and fed it to the child in her arms.
Mu Yue was stunned on the side, she had never seen such a poor person, she opened her mouth to say something, but she didn't know what to say.
"Let's go, there's only so much we can do." Mu Chen pulled his sister, who was still in a daze, and walked in the direction of the bar.
"Aren't we going to help them?" Mu Yue gently took her brother's hand and asked in a low voice.
"Helping them will only bring us down," Mu Chen said lightly, .......
It's not that Mu Chen doesn't want to help, but I don't know how many people there are in the camp like this.
If you help one, a large crowd will come, and these people who have no ability to live will only eat them poor and devastated...... He helped one or two, but he couldn't help the thousands of refugees.
Mu Yue also understands that sometimes kindness depends on the situation, and now the food in the repair shop is not enough for so many people to eat, and once too many people are attracted, it may affect their safety.
"You shouldn't have saved her." Wang Jun saw the previous scene in his eyes, took a puff of cigarette, and said.
"Unless she eats that piece of meat in the bar, she'll die as soon as she goes out." Wang Jun saw Mu Yue's puzzled face, so he explained aloud.
"Why?" Muyue asked incredulously.
"Because she doesn't have the ability to protect food." Mu Chen said.
"You know you still give her meat?" Wang Jun also asked strangely.
"It's not much, just enough for them to eat all at once." Mu Chen whispered.
"You kid......" Wang Jun smiled and shook his head.
Following Wang Jun to his resting place, Wang Jun poured a glass of water for the two of them before he spoke: "Xiao Mu, is there enough food over there?" ”
Mu Chen nodded and gave a general explanation of the situation in the repair shop.
"Good fellow, you kid can kill a team of bounty hunters without saying a word? Amazing! Wang Jun heard what Mu Chen said about what happened in the field before, and said with admiration.
"It's also me who kept an eye in advance, otherwise it would be our side that would be unlucky."
"Either way, it's good to survive." Wang Jun patted Mu Chen's shoulder and continued, "I have something to do with you. ”
"Brother Dajun, you command, as long as I can do it, there is absolutely no problem." Mu Chen said without hesitation.
Wang Jun has always taken good care of him, he used to be like this when he was working in a bar, he gave him a salary increase at every turn, gave him some things every once in a while, and taught him all his fighting skills, Mu Chen has always been very grateful to him in his heart.
"That's right, one of the senior managers of the camp is a friend of mine, who came to me a few days ago and wanted to get some supplies from me."
Wang Jun handed Mu Yue a piece of candy, and this little girl looked very pleasing.
"You also know that I don't have enough food here, and if it weren't for the things you sent before, I'm afraid I would have stopped by now. But my friend said something, I think you can try it. ”
"Brother Dajun, let's not be polite, you can say whatever you have, I will never refuse." Mu Chen said neatly.
"Well, I'm too lazy to go around in circles, so I'll tell you straight." Wang Jun is also a simple person and does not like to beat around the bush.
In order to maintain law and order in the camp and prevent too many starving people, the administrators wanted to set up a porridge shack where everyone could go and get some food, so that at least the hungry people could last a few more days.
But the good times didn't last long, there were so many people who ran out of food, and the food stored in the camp was rapidly decreasing, so that even the food that the managers pulled out of the fighters would be eaten in two days.
It will take another 10 days for the transport ship to pick them up and bring them back to Earth, and if food is not replenished in time, at least thousands of people in the camp will starve to death.
Once this happens, those high-ranking managers will definitely be affected, and they will not want to go further in their political careers.
So the managers came up with a way to use civic honor to buy surplus food from the camp.
After all, there are still a lot of people in the camp who have good skills, whether they have accumulated in the past or gone out hunting after the crisis, they must have some food in their hands, and if they can buy it, at least they can let the refugees in the camp live for a few more days.
If they can hold out until the arrival of the transports, then the crisis will not affect their prestige, but will be a manifestation of their ability to govern and increase political capital for future progress.
"Xiao Mu, I also know that this kind of thing is disgusting to say, but it is also a good thing for the refugees in the camp, how to decide for yourself." Wang Jun said with some embarrassment.
"Brother Dajun, although I can't get used to the faces of those politicians, but in general, this is a way, it just so happens that I also want to mention the citizen level of my family, so that I can at least have a much higher social status when I return to the earth in the future." Mu Chen said understandingly.