Chapter 186 Happy Sugar Soup
"Don't... don't shoot, please follow me."
The man was trembling, his face was pale, and his skinny body looked like a living dead.
Su Xia nodded: "Let's go."
“Yes, yes.”
The man led the way in front, not daring to look back. Because his legs were trembling, he did not walk very fast.
Su Xia was not in a hurry and did not urge anyone. She just watched everything here quietly.
This slum was much more crowded than he had imagined. There was no normal construction plan here. Countless low and dilapidated houses were built with gray asbestos tiles, dark blue plastic sheets, rusty iron plates, broken wooden boards, etc. Many of the houses could not even shelter people from the wind and rain, and could just barely provide a place for people to sleep.
The deeper you go, the narrower the road becomes. The muddy roadsides are littered with broken plastic bags, rotten cardboard, wood blocks and other garbage. It looks dirty and chaotic, and a foul smell is fermenting in every inch of land.
This is a maze built by poverty that prevents people inside from ever getting out.
"call……"
When the wind blew, the tattered door curtains of the low houses on both sides were lifted, and the people curled up inside to rest could be clearly seen. They were skinny, with sallow skin and sunken eye sockets, like skeletons barely covered by rough human skin.
Contrary to what Su Xia thought, the people here lived even worse than those in the refugee camps. At least the refugees still had some hope, with the promise of the Coral City government, even if that promise was a long way off.
But there is no hope here anymore. Hunger, disease and death have torn apart and devoured the original hope, leaving only a dim starry sky.
Su Xia had an indescribable feeling in his heart. He himself was not living a good life, but he had to endure such difficulties. It might be due to his experiences since childhood.
Many people say that what makes us human is our empathy.
"Have you ever thought about leaving here?"
Su Xia put away the gun, turned off the safety, and asked the man.
In his personal panel, he saw the description of the man and discovered that he had never hurt anyone. The only few robberies he had committed were just bluffs. His crime was not punishable by death, and a proper education should be enough to make him change his ways.
The man was still trembling, and he shook his head with difficulty, whispering: "Leave here...where else can I go?"
"You're not feeling well, what medicine have you taken recently?"
"No, I didn't take any medicine."
"Stop first."
Su Xia spoke in a serious tone, walked up to him and observed him carefully.
The man's body was shaking uncontrollably, sweat was dripping down his pale face, and the sunken circles under his eyes were very dark. He was only in his early twenties but looked like a man in his forties or fifties.
His back was hunched, and he lowered his head, not daring to look Su Xia in the eye. He was so thin that he seemed like he could be blown down by a gust of wind.
"No wonder they came to rob us of our money."
Su Xia understood, and directly took out a third-level healing potion and stabbed it into his arm.
The man screamed and felt a sharp pain in his arm. He stumbled to the ground, curled up into a ball, covering his arm, foaming at the mouth, and shaking more and more violently, as if he was having a seizure.
Many poor people around were awakened by the scream, but they did not dare to open the door. They just huddled in the corner of the house and prayed that people on the street would not target them.
Su Xia sat on a gray brick, waiting quietly.
After a while, the man finally stopped twitching, his face became a little rosy, and he struggled hard on the ground for a few times. It took him two minutes to slowly get up.
The weakness caused by long-term medication has diminished a lot, replaced by a clear mind and unprecedented ease.
"So, that's a potion?"
The man shook his head. He had no formal education, but he had some knowledge about potions in his poor mind.
He could guess that what Su Xia had injected into him just now must be a very expensive medicine, and ordinary medicine could not have such power.
The price of one bottle of this medicine might be enough to provide food and lodging for a family here.
Su Xia stood up and did not answer, but just said: "Keep leading the way."
“Yes, yes…”
There was a little more light in the man's eyes, and although he still kept his head down , his steps became lighter and his body no longer trembled.
From his limited knowledge, Su Xia is a good person, an absolutely good person.
"What medication have you been taking?" Su Xia asked the question again in a calm tone.
"Sir, I... my name is Ma Zhu." He said his name first, with a humble look, hoping to leave an impression on Su Xia, and then answered: "That is not medicine, it is a kind of sugar water."
"What kind of sugar water?"
"It's black, in a small tube. Drinking it makes you feel happy. Many people drink it, but if you don't drink it for a long time, you will feel uncomfortable all over..."
"oh."
Just as Su Xia thought, it is an addictive drug.
The people here are already very poor, but at least they are still alive, and as long as they are alive, it means there is money to be made.
When a person is weak, the whole world is full of malice, and anyone can bite off a piece of flesh from him. There are a large number of weak people gathered here, so they are targeted and become slaves of this drug, and they are willing to rob or even kill for this.
"You know what's wrong with that sugar water?"
"I know." Ma Zhu nodded, "But I can feel happy..."
"Um."
Su Xia understood and stopped asking.
Ignorance is actually the greatest happiness.
When the war subsided and society became stable, classes gradually emerged. They were not obvious in the early stages, but became more and more obvious as time went on.
Children born here will not receive a good education. They will inherit the poverty of their ancestors, use low-level thinking to obtain cheap happiness, and live a mediocre life.
As long as the children of the elite class do not have major problems, they can go further with the help of their parents, become the new generation of elites, and stand at the top of the entire city.
They will even take the initiative to produce many movies, novels, TV dramas, etc. that criticize the rich and the government, making the social elites look ignorant and stupid, so that ordinary people at the bottom who watch these works can get psychological satisfaction.
What popular culture works present to the public is just what they want to see, and it doesn’t matter whether it is true or not.
The city is gradually moving in that direction.
The underground of the slum used to be a drainage system, but most of it was abandoned after the war. Most of the pipes are over three meters in diameter and are interconnected. There is no worry about wind or rain, so it is a good place to live.
"Sir, we are here."
Ma Zhu stopped at the end of an alley and, in the faint moonlight, opened a rusty manhole cover.
This is one of the entrances to the underground slums, known to many who live here.
What appeared before Su Xia was a metal ladder that extended straight down into the darkness.
"I'll go ahead." Ma Zhu seemed to be worried that Su Xia would suspect him, so he moved quickly, climbing down the ladder little by little, and soon disappeared into the darkness of the sewer.
Perhaps due to long-term malnutrition, his night vision was not very good. After entering, his movements became much slower, and he slowly groped each step of the ladder.
Su Xia said nothing, but just jumped.
