Chapter 22: Zuan Community
Levi lives in a Zaun community adjacent to the factory area of Piltover, which is some distance away from Piltover University in the wealthy area.
The Zaun community, as the name suggests, is of course a community where Zaun people live. Most of the people living here are Zaun apprentices who are not even Piltover citizens, and a few Zaun immigrants who have spent all their money to get Piltover status and have no money to move to other places for the time being - or new Piltover people - they prefer to call themselves that.
In short, the people who live here are all poor people from Zaun.
Piltover emphasizes community autonomy. When a community is filled with poor people, it will naturally become a "ghost town."
Even the most basic public services are not provided here. No one sweeps the streets, no one maintains the roads, there are no hospitals, schools, or public transportation, and even law enforcement officers are reluctant to come here.
The walls on the street were covered with Zaun-style graffiti, and the road surface was covered with spider-web cracks that no one had repaired.
The floor-to-ceiling windows of the shops were nailed with heavy wooden boards, and the owner sat at the door with a shotgun in his hand, warmly welcoming regular customers while being vigilant against any strangers passing by.
The trash cans on the roadside were all overflowing, and the overflowing garbage was spreading like a mudslide.
The heavy, wet, bulky ones clumped together and stuck to the ground like psoriasis.
Those light, dry and small items clump together and float around on the road like tumbleweeds.
Any Piltover native who came here would frown in disgust.
This of course includes Seraphine.
She was so focused on finding Levi as quickly as possible that she didn't have time to feel nauseous while running all the way.
Now that Levi was by her side, walking on the streets of the Zaun community again, she could not help but notice the extremely poor sanitary conditions here.
"Ah~" Seraphine stood on tiptoe and took small steps, trying to avoid all kinds of garbage flying in the wind on the road.
But even so, from time to time, bags, rags and the like would be blown past her by the wind, rubbing against her white stockings, her gold-embroidered skirt, her delicate skin, and even her beloved long pink hair.
This made her feel so sick that she got goosebumps.
So Seraphine walked more carefully and slowly.
"Can you walk faster, Miss Seraphine?" Levi couldn't help but urge.
His teammate moved too slowly, and he was so anxious that he wanted to buy her a wheelchair.
“No, sorry… There’s too much garbage here, and…” Seraphine tried to move her sore and sweaty toes in her expensive but uncomfortable high-heeled boots: “I really can’t walk anymore, Mr. Levi.”
"How about..." As she was talking, she suddenly became excited: "Mr. Levi, can you carry me for a while? This way we can walk faster, and you can even sing for me!"
"No!" The girl was always thinking about the songs in his mind.
But Levi doesn't want to be Seraphine's automatic wheelchair and car player.
What if when he was having physical contact with her, he was not only thinking about singing but also thinking about other things...then how would he have the face to go out and see people and preach to them in the future?
"Let's walk faster. Once we get out of the Zuan community, the environment will be much better. There's also a tram stop over there, so we can take a ride and rest once we get there."
"We'll talk about music and stuff when we get there."
"Okay..." Seraphine was a little disappointed. But after getting the promise that she could listen to the music when she got there, she still tried to speed up her pace and followed Levi silently.
However, after taking a few steps, she suddenly widened her innocent blue eyes as if she had discovered a new world, and tugged at Levi's sleeve from behind.
"Mr. Levi, look—"
"Why is there a person there, sleeping in the garbage?"
"Huh?" Levi was also a little curious.
Then he followed Seraphine's gaze and looked into the "garbage dump" on the side of the road.
"That's not a garbage dump..." Levi's mouth twitched: "That's his 'house'."
"House, house?" Seraphine said in surprise, "Isn't that just a pile of cardboard ? Can cardboard be used as a house? Wouldn't it be cold to live in it?"
"Why does he live here?"
Levi didn't know how to explain it.
Why? Of course it’s because we are poor!
Who would come to live in the Hoover hut if they weren't poor?
So Levi couldn't help but ask back: "Seraphone , have you never been to a Zaun community in your life?"
"Well... my father never lets me come here. He says that the people who live here are bad people and it would be dangerous if I come..."
Levi: “…”
He instinctively wanted to complain, but looking at the surroundings... Mr. Irwin was actually not wrong.
If he had a daughter, he certainly wouldn't want her anywhere near here.
"Let's go, Seraphine. Why does that man have to live in a broken cardboard house? Go out more often, and you will understand."
"Hmm..." Seraphine nodded ignorantly.
However, not long after, she discovered something out of curiosity:
"Mr. Levi, is that also a 'house'?"
“No…” Levi glanced at it: “That’s the garbage dump.”
"Then why are there people sleeping in there? There are several people lying together..."
Seraphine instinctively wanted to move closer to take a look.
"Stop!" Levi stopped her with a dark face.
No wonder Mr. Erwin didn't let her come. Given the young lady's naivety, if she had come to the Zaun community alone, something would have happened long ago.
"Don't go near them!"
"Why? They were sleeping in the garbage . They looked so... pathetic."
"Pathetic ass!" Levi cursed with disgust: "Did you see those needles and empty medicine bottles? They are a bunch of lunatics who are high on drugs! You'd better stay away from them!"
"Glimmer?" Seraphine was a little surprised: "Is it that kind of banned drug? My father said that thing is very expensive..."
"So what if it's expensive? These people are willing to sell their wives, children, and even their own lives just to escape reality for a while with this thing."
"But what's the use? When the effect of the medicine wears off, all that's left is a more miserable reality."
"People can be poor... but they can't live in such a twisted way."
Levi had no sympathy for these drug addicts and just urged Seraphine to follow him.
Seraphine was still worried.
Because as she walked, she realized that there were many glimmer addicts like the one just now on the roadside.
Some of them were unconscious, some stood there in a daze, and some even twitched and crawled on the ground, like a group of infected zombies. But they were clearly still alive, and that was the most terrifying thing.
"Mr. Li, Mr. Levi..." After a while, Seraphine gently pulled his sleeve again.
"What's wrong?" Levi didn't even bother to turn his head this time: "You didn't see any 'garbage dump' again?"
"Hmm..." It turned out to be true: "Mr. Levi, look at that...is it a garbage dump or a house?"
“…That ’s the garbage dump!”
"But there's someone sleeping inside."
"Is there?"
"Yes... a foot is showing."
Levi: “…”
He took a serious look and helplessly held his forehead:
"That's not sleeping in it..."
"That's death inside."
“Eh?” Seraphine’s face turned pale: “Corpse, corpse?”
"What are you surprised about..." Levi sighed, "There are always people here who die of illness, exhaustion, or being beaten to death by gangs because they have no money. When they die, their bodies are thrown into the garbage dump and burned with the garbage at regular intervals."
"how so……"
"His family, won't they send him to the cemetery for burial?"
"Who told you that he has a family?" Levi sighed helplessly: "Family is a luxury in Zaun, do you understand?"
"And even if we have family members, if they die, we still dispose of the bodies like this... At most, we spend some effort to move them to the port and throw them into the sea, which can be considered a 'sea burial'."
"Otherwise, you have to spend money on the cemetery, coffin, funeral, and tomb sweeping. The people of Zaun can't afford to spend such face money."
"Is it... is it the same in Zaun as well?"
"No, no one in Zaun leaves bodies around."
"Only the Zauns in Piltover would do this."
"That's good..." Seraphine released her lips that had been bitten white, and she breathed a sigh of relief for someone unknown.
"Bullshit!" Levi cursed, "Zuan has a special alchemy shop that collects corpses and uses them as experimental materials for those Frankensteins."
"Wouldn't it be a waste to throw away a good corpse?"
Seraphine: “…”
