Chapter 304 Mission Follow-up
Boom boom...
There was thunder in the sky, dark clouds gathered, and the rain was getting heavier.
The work on the ruins has not stopped yet. The noise from the construction is extremely noisy, mixed with the deafening roar of machinery and the hoarse voices of people. Even the heavy rain cannot cover it up .
"We are still carrying out construction in such heavy rain. Aren't you worried about safety issues?" Su Xia asked again.
"Alas, there is a requirement from above, so I have to do this."
"What if someone dies?"
"How much is a human life worth?" The worker laughed self-deprecatingly. "Many people were recruited from slums or refugee camps . Some workers' salaries don't even meet the required minimum monthly salary. They come here just to have enough food to eat."
"Can you eat enough?"
"Yes, the canteen provides unlimited food, with plenty of oil and water. You can also pack an extra portion every day to bring back for your family."
"That's not bad..."
Su Xia nodded slightly . It was indeed a good thing to be able to eat enough.
Coral City is now facing a serious food shortage problem. A large amount of fertile farmland has been abandoned and the land is vacant. Every once in a while, it has to trade food with other cities.
If not for this, there wouldn't be so many people supporting Su Xia when he was causing trouble under the identity of the masked weirdo.
On the night of his first battle with Yu Tuo, several granaries in the city were captured by the refugees.
A fool like Qi Lang would never have thought of this method of using work for relief. All he thinks about every day is how to keep his position as city lord . It was probably proposed by his secretary named Chai An.
After chatting for a while, Su Xia asked again: "Did you encounter any problems when you demolished this area before?"
"Of course there is a problem. This is where people live. If the people above forcefully demolish it, we can only drive them away."
“Aren’t there any quotas for resettlement housing for them?”
“I heard that he gave some money.”
"Is there anyone who doesn't want to leave?"
"This... I don't know about this."
The worker's face changed slightly, his eyes wandered, and he shook his head to say, "I can't say that."
Su Xia understood what was going on, so she asked, "Where did all the people who lived here go?"
"We went to the slum further inside." The man pointed to the distance. There was a larger slum in front of this area.
"Okay, thank you."
Su Xia thanked him, opened her umbrella, and continued to move deeper into the slums.
The rain made the road muddy, and the turbid mud mixed with dirty garbage. Every step felt like stepping in a dirty ditch.
Behind Su Xia, the worker looked at him and murmured in a low voice: "Strange, he looks familiar, have you seen him somewhere before?"
Recently, all major media in Coral City have spared no effort in reporting on Su Xia and the small pharmacy, and posters of Su Xia are posted on many streets.
The worker had seen Su Xia's poster before, but he couldn't remember who it was at the moment and just felt that he looked familiar.
Su Xia walked along the edge of the construction site. Before he had gone far, his trouser legs were splashed with dirty water, his shoes could no longer be seen in their original state, and his black coat was half wet by the raindrops that drifted into the umbrella.
Looking around, this slum is full of low and dilapidated houses. Many of the roofs are old asbestos tiles, which make dull sounds when hit by rain.
Su Xia thought of the old house in her hometown and felt complicated.
Ever since his parents passed away in a car accident, he seldom went back to his hometown, except to visit during the Qingming Festival every year.
At this moment, the sound of an engine suddenly sounded behind him.
“Buzz—buzz—”
An old engineering motorcycle was struggling to move forward on the muddy road. Its two wheels were spinning rapidly, throwing out countless mud spots, and the lower half of the body had been dyed mud-colored.
There were two construction workers sitting in the car, and the logo on their clothes was exactly the same as the one on the construction site not far away.
When passing Suxia, they slowed down to avoid mud and water splashing on Suxia.
"This horrible weather, it rains all the time and there are few sunny days." The worker who was driving complained as he passed by Su Xia, shaking the rain off his hands.
"Oh, stop talking, let's go over and take a look. The relatives of the dead are still making a fuss. The boss asked us to go over and support them and find a solution as soon as possible." said another worker.
"How else can it be solved? Isn't it just giving money?"
"I heard they don't want money, so we have to deal with it fairly."
"Those poor bastards don't want money?"
"Don't scold them like that." The worker behind him frowned and said, "We are all poor people. It's not easy. Aren't we the same?"
“That’s right…”
The two people slowly walked away, and their voices were gradually covered by the sound of rain.
Su Xia looked thoughtfully at the direction where the two men left with a deep gaze, and then sent a team of nanorobots to follow them.
If his guess was correct, the target of the mission might have died in the violent demolition of the slum.
This kind of thing happens in every world and is not uncommon.
The more you see it, the more numb you become.
Now the mission has failed.
Su Xia couldn't make up for anything by coming here, he could only seek justice for the mission target.
He had originally planned to search carefully in the slums further inside and ask people who originally lived in this area, but the two workers who had just passed by gave him some clues, which saved him a lot of time.
Around three o'clock in the afternoon, Su Xia followed the two men deep into the slums and came to the outside of an old cathedral.
"church."
Su Xia stopped with an umbrella and looked up.
This cathedral is the tallest building in the entire slum.
During that war-torn era, this area suffered severe bombing. Even half of the cathedral collapsed, and the statues were broken and destroyed, losing their original sacred glory.
The collapse of the church made people realize that even God could not protect himself in the midst of gunfire and smoke.
Today, the remaining half of the church has become a shelter for many poor families.
“Wuwuwu… Wuwuwu…”
Su Xia heard crying, faintly coming from the rain.
The sound came from the church.
In addition to the crying, there were also some noisy shouting, quarreling, and fighting sounds, all mixed together and blended into the rain.
The nanorobots sent out by Su Xia have arrived at the door of the church, providing him with vision.
"So many people died." Su Xia frowned.
A careful count revealed that there were more than seventy bodies covered with white cloths lying in the cathedral, and many of the cloths were stained red.
This number is shocking.
Many people lay on the corpses and cried bitterly, their eyes were red and swollen, many of them were children.
At the entrance of the cathedral, a group of adults confronted more than a dozen workers in construction uniforms, arguing and cursing at each other.
"Why did you tear down our house in the middle of the night?" one of them yelled, "Everyone was asleep, how many of them had time to escape?"
"Didn't I inform you of the time?"
Across the street, the leader of a dozen workers in construction uniforms stepped forward and said something indifferently.
He glanced at the more than 70 corpses indifferently, without any fluctuation in his eyes. It was obvious that he often did this kind of thing. He said indifferently: "Fifty thousand for one dead person, how about it?"
"Get out! We never agreed to move out!"
"It's already come to this." The leader shrugged. "Your house has been demolished anyway, so you can't go back even if you want to. Can't you just use the money to buy a new one?"
"Money? Can money buy life?"
Everyone was furious and glared at the leader with red eyes.
But the man actually nodded, looked at everyone, and answered very seriously: "Yes, money can indeed buy life."
"you……"
These poor people in the slums could never imagine that the person opposite them was so indifferent to life and equated human life with a stack of cold banknotes.
Su Xia stood outside the cathedral, listening quietly to their argument.
Things turned out almost exactly as he had guessed.
The indigenous people living in that area refused to move away, so in order to save time, the construction team chose to take drastic action and used heavy machinery to tear down all the houses in the middle of the night.
Many people were crushed to death in their sleep, and the seventy corpses in front of us were not all of them.
There were more than a hundred cold corpses lying in the rooms under the cathedral.
This kind of thing happens frequently on Earth, but only one or two people die each time, and the attention is often overshadowed by other news.
Even Su Xia couldn't have imagined that nearly two hundred people died here.
The level of violence was far beyond his imagination.
This is not a construction project at all; it is clearly a destruction project.
"Are the people working on the construction also Su Jianshe's subordinates?" Su Xia suddenly thought of this question.
Through the nanorobot's vision, he saw the name on the man's badge, which was "Wang Hong" and his position was project manager.
Anyone who is from the urban construction department should be Su Jianshe's subordinate.
Given Su Jianshe's personality, would he actually tolerate such a person in his department?
"We want to report a crime!" An angry roar came from the entrance of the cathedral. The anger of the crowd could no longer be suppressed.
"Report a crime?"
Wang Hong suddenly laughed, but no one knew what he was laughing at.
After a while, he put away his smile, exhaled a breath of cold air, and said to everyone: "If we solve this matter now, you can get the money and we can get peace, which is good for both sides... If you report the case, remember my words, remember them seriously, you will not get a penny, and some people will have to spend the rest of their lives in prison."
"What do you mean?"
"Literally." Wang Hong spread his hands, "I just don't like trouble. I feel sorry for you, so I want to give you some money."
"you……"
It has been said since ancient times that the people do not fight against the officials, and this is not just talk.
Su Xia walked around and entered the building through a gap at the back of the cathedral.
The sound of rain was blocked out by the tall buildings, and the rest of the sounds of the world became much clearer, including the crying in the church.
In this world, Su Xia has become accustomed to death and is mentally prepared for the death of anyone around him.
But these ordinary people are different. Death comes too suddenly and they cannot accept it for a while.
Su Xia put away her umbrella, shook off the rain, stood in the corner, and carefully looked at the corpses in the cathedral.
【Li He's Corpse】
【Luo Ziyu's Corpse】
【Zhao Ming's Corpse】
【……】
Names appeared before his eyes one by one, and each name corresponded to a corpse covered with white cloth.
Soon, he found the target of the Last Wish mission.
[Yu Mei's Corpse]
Su Xia sighed lightly. He guessed correctly. Something had indeed happened to the target of the mission.
Yu Mei is Zhao Qin's wife, and the person Zhao Qin entrusted to Su Xia before his death. If there really is an afterlife in this world, the couple might have been reunited.
Next to the corpse, there lay a little boy with red and swollen eyes, tears rolling down his eyes.
Su Xia's mind moved slightly and she read the little boy's name.
【Zhao Xiaobai: The Child of Zhao Qin and Yu Mei】
They also had one child left behind.
Su Xia immediately walked over, slowly squatted beside the child, and said nothing.
After a while, Zhao Xiaobai realized Su Xia's presence, turned his head and looked at him, sobbing: "You... who are you?"
"Are you Xiaobai?" Su Xia asked.
"Um."
"I'm your mother's friend. I heard that something happened to her, so I came to see her."
"But, but I don't know you..."
"I live in the south of the city and rarely come here." Su Xia said in a gentle voice, "She often mentioned you and said you were a good child."
“I…I…”
When talking about his mother, Zhao Xiaobai suddenly burst into tears again. He cried uncontrollably and was heartbroken. He lay on his mother's body and cried heartbreakingly. His voice became hoarse and his crying was heartbreaking.
Times are tough, and it's already difficult for a mother and son to survive on each other in a place like this.
Now that his mother has passed away, Zhao Xiaobai has become a complete orphan.
The murderer who killed his mother was from the city lord's faction, the largest force in the entire city.
For an orphan like him from the lower class, it is a problem how he will survive in the future, let alone take revenge.
Su Xia didn't say much to comfort him. He just let the child cry first. Only after the child had cried enough could they continue talking about the future.
In the cold cathedral, there was a continuous cry of weeping.
Right next to them, another little boy was lying on top of two corpses, crying non-stop, almost fainting: "Dad... Mom..."
This was a man-made tragedy. If Su Xia hadn't come over today, he would never have known about this. This kind of thing would never appear on the morning news every day.
At the entrance of the cathedral, the dispute between the two sides continued, and there was even a physical conflict.
Almost every family has lost relatives, and these people's anger and grief have reached a peak.
Wang Hong's attitude was so indifferent, as if he was looking down at the ants under his feet, and he said casually: "What are you still making trouble for? Isn't it just that you think the money is not enough? OK, 100,000 for each dead person, how about it?"
He snorted and said calmly, "One hundred thousand. You can't earn that much money even if you work hard all your life. If someone dies in your family, you can get that much money. I wonder how many people will rush to die!"
"You...you bastard..."
The people in the cathedral were shaking with anger, their eyes were red, they pointed at him, and their lips were trembling.
In addition to being angry, many people felt a sense of despair. What could ordinary people like them use to fight against others?
Perhaps, accepting the cold and icy 100,000 yuan and letting the matter disappear silently is their best option.
But at this moment, Su Xia's voice suddenly rang out from the church: "One hundred thousand? Do you think one hundred thousand can buy a life?"
Wang Hong didn't bother to see who said it, and replied calmly: "Isn't it?"
"I have 100,000 here too. How about giving me your head?"
"you……"
A trace of anger flashed across Wang Hong's face, and he shouted, "Who is talking? Come out!"
"good."
Su Xia calmly stood up, took her umbrella, and slowly walked towards the door.
Behind him, Zhao Xiaobai's crying became quieter. He wiped his tears with his wet sleeves and stared blankly at Su Xia's back as she walked away.
"I want to see who dares to speak to me like that!" Wang Hong looked inside the church with a cold face, but when he saw Su Xia's face, he suddenly trembled, took a breath of cold air, and hurriedly forced out an ugly smile: "Isn't this Master Su? How come you have time to come to a place like this?"
Su Xia did not answer, but asked calmly: "Why are you so arrogant at first and respectful later?"
