Chapter 26: You’ve Milked Him Dry

After returning from the garden area with supplies, Butler Zhou heard about the incident from two maids and rushed to the fifth floor. He pushed open the door and found that the girl was gone.

A maid, seeing Butler Zhou’s grim face, reported, “Miss Wei had Captain Lu take her away.”

Butler Zhou: “Did you see it?”

The maid nodded but quickly explained, “But they were Miss Wei’s people, I didn’t dare to stop them…”

Butler Zhou’s face was a bit ugly.

The maid asked weakly, “But if Captain Ming comes back, he won’t blame Miss Wei, right?”

Butler Zhou was also unsure. After all, Captain Ming had instructed him to take good care of the girl before leaving.

But if Miss Wei was the one who did this, he really didn’t know what to do…

Miss Wei had caused trouble in the past, but she always got away with it. Everyone subconsciously assumed that she could get away with anything as long as she admitted it.

The girl was taken away by Miss Wei, they had no right to stop her, and Captain Ming never blamed Miss Wei, so naturally, there was no reason to hold them accountable…

So it should be… no problem, right?

…

Gangqiao City, Beizhou.

This area is more on the outskirts, and before the apocalypse, it was a university town with a vast and spacious area. So after the apocalypse, it was naturally transformed into a training camp for training team members.

Wen Yao was drenched like a drowned rat. She had asked for directions all day and finally reached the camp before nightfall. During her journey, she had also used a shovel to cripple the leg of a young man and robbed his backpack.

It wasn’t entirely her fault for robbing him. The young man with dyed blonde hair had bad intentions towards her, a young girl. She hit him with a shovel, and her stomach growled right after. So not only did the young man get injured, but he also lost his food.

It was 5:30 pm, the rain had stopped, but the ground was muddy, and the people around were dressed in rags, most without umbrellas, all wet.

Wen Yao held a shovel in one hand and a worn backpack in the other. She was also chewing on a dry piece of bread.

Her pristine white dress had turned gray-black, dirty beyond recognition.

She stood in a long line, followed by a young man with dyed blonde hair, trying to please her: “Grandmother, please return my backpack…”

Wen Yao ignored him and walked forward expressionlessly with the line.

The young man with dyed blonde hair limped along with her, “There’s really nothing in this bag, the stuff inside isn’t even good, some of it is expired…”

Wen Yao took another bite of her bread and remained silent.

The young man scratched his head for a long time, his brows furrowed into a frown: “I haven’t eaten for three days, that’s my last bit of food, if you take it, I’ll have nothing left…”

“Oh, my dear grandmother! I swear to heaven, I really don’t have any feelings for you, I just saw that you were a little girl, so I… I just asked why you were alone.”

“I was being kind, you gave me a shovel, that’s fine, but you also took my bag. You tell me, how can you be so unreasonable?”

Someone next to him shoved him: “Where are you standing? Don’t cut in line!”

The young man immediately moved to the middle of the line: “I’m not cutting in line, I’ve been following the girl in front, you can ask her!”

Wen Yao finished her bread, took out a mineral water bottle from her bag, took a small sip, and put it back.

The young man with dyed blonde hair stretched his neck to look around, watching her with longing eyes, wanting to grab it but not daring to.

Wen Yao took out a bag of small bread from her bag and handed it to him: “Are you from Gangqiao City?”

The young man with dyed blonde hair took the bread and nodded honestly: “Yes, my name is Qiu Zhi, I’m a local, a native resident. I lived here for over ten years before the apocalypse, and I’ve been hanging around here ever since the apocalypse…”

Wen Yao asked, “Then do you know what the requirements are for joining this training camp and becoming a trainee?”

Qiu Zhi was surprised: “You don’t know, and you’re still queuing up here?!”

Wen Yao’s voice was soft, but because of her composure, it carried a certain amount of intimidation: “Just answer me.”

Qiu Zhi: “Ten gold coins.”

Wen Yao: “Do you have gold coins?”

Qiu Zhi was stunned, he spread his hands in disbelief: “My bag is with you, you’ve milked me dry, where would I get gold coins?”

Wen Yao: “Can’t get in without gold coins?”

Qiu Zhi thought for a moment: “You can, but if you don’t pay, you go to Camp F…”

Seeing that the girl was from out of town and seemed oblivious, he tried to be helpful for the sake of his backpack and gave her a detailed explanation:

“The training camps in the Dongzhou’s fourteen districts are divided into five camps: A, B, C, D, and F. Camp A is for commander trainees, Camp B is for advanced training, Camp C is for intermediate training, Camp D is for basic training, and as for Camp F, it’s not even called a camp, there’s no training, it’s just pure free-range labor, you understand…”

To join Camps A, B, and C, you need to pass through layers of assessments and screenings. Camp D is open to the public, you can pay ten gold coins to become a basic trainee. All those who join will have uniform clothes, a trainer to lead them, and basic personal safety guarantees.

As for Camp F, they only provide food and it’s a chaotic survival mode. These people not only don’t get professional training, but they also have to risk their lives to go out of the city to do hard labor, such as mining coal, scavenging, or being taken for various research experiments…

In simpler terms, they are a bunch of cannon fodder, doing the hardest and most tiring work, getting the least pay, and always in danger of losing their lives.

But it’s not completely hopeless. If they perform exceptionally well or make some contribution, they will be rewarded with silver or gold coins by the management.

Once they accumulate ten gold coins, they can escape the misery and go to Camp D.

It seems that the training camp model in the Dongzhou is similar to that in the North Continent. The difference is that the screening mechanism in the Dongzhou is more brutal and they value human life less.

After understanding this, Wen Yao said, “Let’s go to Camp F together.”

Qiu Zhi didn’t understand: “If you want to go, go by yourself! Why do you have to drag me along? Camp F is hell, you have to go out of the city every day, I don’t want to die…”

Wen Yao: “You’ve lived in Gangqiao City for over ten years, and the apocalypse has been going on for seven years. You’ve been struggling here for so long, and now you’re about to starve to death. Do you think that’s a fulfilling life?”

Qiu Zhi was shocked, then he became a little defiant: “Sister, do you know what kind of world this is? The apocalypse has come, the human living space is shrinking, who knows if we’ll all be wiped out one day! Why should I have ambition, why should I have a way out? I’m already lucky to be alive…”

Wen Yao raised an eyebrow slightly, her face was dirty but her beauty was undeniable: “Then how do you survive? By bullying the weak and the sick?”

Qiu Zhi was speechless for a moment.

Wen Yao returned his backpack to him: “If you still have some backbone, go out and fight the zombies, don’t be a scrounger here.”

“Living like you is meaningless.”

Qiu Zhi hugged his recovered backpack tightly, unable to help but retort: “You’re just a little girl, how dare you lecture me?! Whether I live a meaningful life or not is none of your…”

Before he could say “business,” the girl in front of him turned around with her shovel, forcing him to swallow his words.