The middle-aged man lowered his head and curled up on the folding bed. He was too ashamed to look at them but had nowhere to hide himself.
Meng Chao sighed.
But Xiao Fanghua seemed to have seen a lot of such situations. She continued speaking patiently, “Mr. Li, Li Jue is still young. He doesn’t know how important cultivation is. But he’s a good boy who loves his parents, which is precisely why we must be careful while thinking about his future.
“Let me think about this. Right now, I can’t promise you anything, but there are a lot of members in Blue Home who would be willing to help someone as talented as Li Jue.”
“Ms. Xiao, I…”
Li Jue’s father looked up. His lips quivered, and he rubbed his hands together. He did not know what he should say.
Meng Chao then remembered that he had sounded a little harsh just now. He spoke up by the side as well. “That’s right, Mr. Li. You’re facing your toughest moments right now, but I believe that with the help from the Survival Committee and the Supernatural Tower, everything will become better.”
But it would have been better if he did not say this, because he seemed to have stomped on where it hurt for Li Jue’s father. His eyes turned bloodshot again, and he said resentfully, “Don’t even mention the Survival Committee and Supernatural Tower. What help can they give us?”
“Well…”
Meng Chao was a little stunned.
He seldom ran into normal citizens who would use this tone when they mentioned the Survival Committee and Supernatural Tower.
Or at the very least, he seldom saw anyone using that tone in this life.
“If the Survival Committee and Supernatural Tower really want to help, it would have been easy. They could just send our children to the schools outside the shelter,” Li Jue’s father said. “Even if the normal school lacks space and resources and each class is stuffed to the brim, the aristocratic schools for the rich must have space to help our children, right? Why can’t they send Li Jue and the others in there for a time being and let them make do for a few months?”
Meng Chao frowned a little.
He could not describe the feeling in his heart.
Li Jue’s father said angrily, “We’re not coveting the resources in those aristocratic schools, but at the end of the day, the Survival Committee and Supernatural Tower are responsible for why we ended up in this state, right?
“The ones living in those luxurious mansions in Dragon City No.1 are all superhumans above Heaven Realm. They have matchless power, so there is no monster who is stupid and blind enough to rush into Dragon City No.1. They’d be reduced to mince meat at any moment.
“There’s no need for places like Dragon City No.1 and the aristocratic schools affiliated to Dragon City No.1 to have defense systems. They don’t need any machine gun towers, anti-aircraft guns, electromagnetic towers, or high-voltage electricity nets. The powerful people only need to release their killing intent, and all the monsters would piss their pants.
“But the Survival Committee and Supernatural Tower just had to set up airtight defenses in those high-end residential areas. There are even layers to those defense systems!
“And look at the old residential areas of normal working class people. The last time we had a complete maintenance upgrade for our defense system was a few years ago. Many of the defense systems have not been maintained for a long time, they’re old, and we don’t have enough ammunition. When it’s distributed to the families, we only get a couple hundred bullets. How can we possibly fight against the monsters’ crazed charges like that?
“When you think about it carefully, it just doesn’t make sense. The ones staying in old residential areas are all normal people. Shouldn’t they give us better defense systems around our residential areas precisely because we can’t fight against the monsters? Why is it that the construction of those defense systems are all beside the houses of those high-grade superhumans?
“And look, when the fog descended, the monsters were intimidated by the presence of the powerful and didn’t dare to rush to places like Dragon City No.1. But it’s common sense that you always target the weak, right? So they rushed to old residential areas like ours.
“Not a single bullet was fired by the defense systems in Dragon City No.1, but the defense system in our area was brought down in no time at all. Even the school beside the residential area was destroyed by the monsters.
“There are plenty of specialists and smart people in the Survival Committee and Supernatural Tower. If they really wanted to help normal people, they would have taken better precautionary measures for just such an event. At the end of the day, the superhumans aren’t together with the normal people. They don’t care about the lives and deaths of normal people!”
Li Jue’s father vented his rage and indignation to his heart’s content.
But right after he said those things, he remembered that Xiao Fanghua was a superhuman. “I’m sorry, Ms. Xiao,” he said in embarrassment. “I’m not talking flack about you. You’re definitely a kind person through and through. You know that I’m talking about those high-and-mighty superhumans.”
“It’s fine.” Xiao Fanghua smiled at him. “Mr. Li, my husband is working in the defense system industry for residential areas. Based on what I know, the defense system for high-end places like Dragon City No.1 are paid by the residents themselves. They pay for the set up, maintenance, and upgrade themselves. They’ve never used a single cent from the taxpayers.”
“I-I know.” Li Jue’s father’s anger bled away from him, and his expression turned gloomy. “At the end of the day, the lives of the rich are much more valuable than the lives of the poor. This isn’t the fault of the Survival Committee and Supernatural Tower. I’m to be blamed for being useless, and that’s why Li Jue has such a bad life.
“Money… Right now, you need money for everything. If you want to fight against monsters, you need money. If you want to cultivate, you need money. But that makes sense. They say that when you’re poor, you can only be a scholar, but when you’re rich, you can be a cultivator. They say that cultivating can change your fate, but the poor don’t have the right to cultivate.”
He curled up on the folding bed and placed his poison-infested leg on the bed while he stared at the stains on the bandage dully and unwrapped it.
Meng Chao remained silent for a while before he suddenly asked, “Mr. Li, are you the one who thought about what you said just now?”
Li Jue’s father stared at him in puzzlement.
“The part where you said that superhumans are not one with the normal people,” Meng Chao said.
Li Jue’s father was taken aback for a moment before he said, “That’s what everyone says.”
“Everyone?”
“Everyone in the temporary shelter,” Li Jue’s father said in slight embarrassment. “I-I know that a lot of the superhumans are good people, like you guys and the volunteers who always help us. We’re grateful to you and have no other opinions about you guys. It’s true. If anyone says anything bad about you, then their hearts are really rotten to the core.
“But we couldn’t do anything when our houses collapsed right in front of us. We had to watch the ruins burn, unable to even rush in to save a few photos. The shock from that was too great. Everyone has bitterness welling up in us, and we have nowhere to vent it.
“Besides, the ones who are injured can’t serve as any labor power. We can only gather together without anything to do. So we grumble a bit, but please don’t take it to mind.”
“It’s fine. I won’t be bothered by it.” Meng Chao smiled. “But do you know who was the first person to make such complaints?”
“Who would know?” Li Jue’s father said. “When it comes to complaints, they spread like wildfire. No one can say who was the first to have some complaint. Anyway, that’s what everyone has been saying.”
Meng Chao wanted to continue asking, but Xiao Fanghua gently tugged at his sleeve.
Meng Chao thought about it. It was unlikely that he could get a lot of information from Li Jue’s father. Once he bade farewell to the man, he walked out of the tent together with Xiao Fanghua.
While they were on their way back, Meng Chao was contemplative.
“Plenty of the citizens here have PTSD,” Xiao Fanghua said. “They often start screaming at night due to nightmares, which creates a chain reaction through the entire shelter, just like how the soldiers of Imperial China would start shouting in a camp when one of them started screaming at night. Everyone is too tense, so it’s normal for them to complain. We’re already used to it. Meng Chao, don’t take it to heart, okay?”
“I’m okay with it. The fog this time has led to the monsters destroying dozens of residential areas, and this is definitely on the Survival Committee and Supernatural Tower. It’s not wrong for the normal citizens to criticize them a little.” Meng Chao cast Xiao Fanghua a glance. “Big Sis Ya, have you heard these complaints for a long time now?”
Xiao Fanghua nodded.
“Are there more?” Meng Chao asked. “Are there other types of complaints?”
“How could there not be?” Xiao Fanghua said. “Recently, aside from the temporary shelter in the east of the city, all the temporary shelters in all the cardinal directions are full of people with a lot of complaints, since they all lost their homes.
“Some people grumble like Li Jue’s father. They ask why the Survival Committee and Supernatural Tower set up defense systems that are as tough as nails around high-end residential areas for high-end superhumans but completely overlooked the frail defense systems that have not been maintained for years around the old residential areas of normal people.
“Some people also complain that the prices for all sorts of cultivation resources have increased recently. Even the gene medicine we bought at cost price from factories has become 20% more expensive. I heard that they’re going to increase further next month.
“The rich might be able to handle it, but to poor families like Li Jue’s, whose father lost his job and who originally could only perform manual labor, this no doubt means that their hopes for cultivation are crushed.
“Logically speaking, Dragon City just obtained a major victory on the northern frontlines, so they should be able to get more resources, right? So why are prices increasing nonstop?”
Meng Chao was silent for a while before he said, “Lately, Dragon City has been working hard on expanding, and it’s deploying soldiers in all directions. This requires several times the amount of resources compared to the past. It’s inevitable that there’s a shortage of resources in the city.”
“I know, right?” Xiao Fanghua smiled. “That’s what is mentioned on the news too. But there are plenty of people in the temporary shelters who don’t believe it. They don’t think that it’s because of expansion, but because there are people hoarding the resources and earning massive amounts of money because of price gouging during disaster.
“But let’s not talk about that for the time being. There are even people saying that the superhumans are the ones who lured the monsters here.”
“That’s…” Meng Chao was stunned. “What sort of absurd theory is that?”
“Meng Chao, didn’t you realize that the monsters have become smarter? The scale of the fog this time might have been huge, but it’s not as if we’ve never encountered something like this before. Still, the destruction caused by fog descents of similar scale pale in comparison to this one,” Xiao Fanghua said.
“Right now, there is an opinion among the people that there are a lot of sentient creatures among monsters. There was originally a chance that we could live harmoniously or at least not bother each other.
“But since the high-grade superhumans are ambitious and want to reach a state surpassing that of humans, they want to kill all of these highly intelligent monsters as quickly as possible, which is why we now face the vengeance of these highly intelligent monsters.
“The high-end superhumans are naturally not afraid of the revenge from the highly intelligent monsters. You heard just now that they live in places like Dragon City No.1 and are protected by defense systems that are as tough as nails, right?
“But the normal people end up suffering. They took the place of the high-end superhumans and faced the wrath of the highly intelligent monsters.”