Chapter 1486: Seeing Guests Out
For the same reason the little boy hadn’t dared to eat that biscuit at the start—if others didn’t have something, having it was a sin. Even if you swallowed it down, someone would still poison you out of jealousy, especially if you had no adult protection. Right now, it looked like the surrounding children had all eaten biscuits, so those two kids didn’t stand out. But without adults to care for them, they were weak, the lowest of the low in the slums. Now that they’d eaten biscuits, by nightfall they might be gutted and tossed into a trash bin.
If sharing food with their own kind didn’t cause strange diseases, they’d probably have died long ago.
In fact, they didn’t even make it to nightfall. Someone had already come out to snatch those two biscuits—all adults, one of them holding a knife.
Knowing full well that what didn’t reach your mouth wasn’t yours, the child who’d brought the biscuits back had already stuffed one into his brother’s mouth, saying, “Everyone has them, lots of people went to get biscuits…”
When the older brother gave in, the appearance of several adults plunged him back into fear. But before they could get close, the head of the knife-wielding man flew off, spraying blood onto the face of the person beside him. The group fled in panic.
The two children gained a brief moment of safety.
Because the biscuits had won the kids’ goodwill, when Xu Huo asked where to find water, they quietly told him.
There were several specialized water shops. Clean water was called first-grade water and was very expensive—you had to go pick it up yourself. Ordinary people drank second-grade water, which was piped to all households that had paid fees. The water shop released it on a schedule, and every household got the same amount.
As for those who couldn’t even pay the water bill, they could only collect acid rain to use. But because of the special environment, even acid rain wasn’t easy to collect—you had to queue up.
In reality, the cost of purifying groundwater contaminated by acid rain wasn’t high, but in District 026, where water was scarce, this had become a means of controlling ordinary residents.
Of course, this was also because the “big city” side controlled the water sources.
Before long, a tall, dark-skinned man appeared ahead of Xu Huo. The children scattered as soon as they saw him. The man looked at Xu Huo and said, “Since you’re so interested in our water shop, why not come sit for a while?”
Xu Huo followed him to the water shop located in the waist of the slums. It looked much cleaner than the lower areas. Inside a modest two-story building, ten players stood scattered between the upper and lower floors. Two water pumps sat indoors, labeled “First Grade” and “Second Grade.”
As he entered, a woman came to buy water. She adjusted her makeup with a small mirror and said, “Today is Master Ma’s birthday celebration, so give me a bit more water.”
Two players on the first floor went to fetch the water, calling out to the woman, “Secretary Bi, sit down and have some tea.”
The woman sat down with an air of pride, never taking her eyes off her mirror.
“Upstairs, please,” the tall, dark man urged Xu Huo.
Once on the second floor, the door closed, and six players surrounded him. The man sitting in the office chair turned around, a fake smile on his face as he stared at Xu Huo. “Friend from afar, you didn’t announce yourself, stayed on our turf for three or four days without a word, and now you’re poking around asking questions—that’s not appropriate, is it?”
Xu Huo hung his folded umbrella on his left arm and said calmly, “I was just surprised by how harsh the living conditions are here. I asked casually.”
“What you think doesn’t matter,” the man said, slapping a crude map on the table. “But we don’t have anything good to offer here. Half a day’s journey out is the city—a proper, decent place. Why not go take a look there?”
“I have no plans to leave for now,” Xu Huo refused outright. He added, “If no one comes looking for trouble with me, I won’t cause trouble for any of you.”
He was a C-grade player. To ordinary people, that might just seem like he’d barely touched the threshold of advanced players, but to those living day by day, he was still a strong player. Especially since Xu Huo appeared uninjured yet had uncharacteristically lingered here.
The water shop people had watched him for days without finding any weakness and didn’t dare act rashly. Today’s move was just a simple probe.
“A guest is a guest. We run a legitimate business and aren’t unreasonable people. As long as you don’t cause trouble on my turf, I can guarantee no one will threaten your safety!” the man boasted. “But favors are favors, rules are rules. Talk less, ask less.”
Xu Huo smiled, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. As the atmosphere grew more tense, a cry for help from downstairs interrupted them.
The people from the Underground Palace had followed them all the way. Seeing the young boy left alone outside and Xu Huo taking so long to come out, they couldn’t resist making a move to grab him.
Xu Huo walked straight through the wall of people and stood by the window, looking down. Ignoring the shock in the room, he said, “Isn’t this the water shop’s territory? Aren’t you going to handle it?”
“Bringing the Underground Palace people here has already broken the rules,” the man behind the desk said, suppressing his surprise.
“Such a small child, suffering since birth—how pitiful,” Xu Huo said, turning back to look at the people in the room. “If you lost your father, your children might end up just like him.”
“Are you threatening me!” The man slammed his hand heavily on the table, his eyes fierce. “I, Dong San, have been running things here for twenty years, and no one has dared to threaten me!”
“Is that so?” Xu Huo paid him no mind at all. He said, “That young boy downstairs is the first friend I’ve made since coming here. If something happens to him on your turf, then the ‘good for you, good for me’ arrangement is off.”
Seeing them exchange glances, he continued, “I know you have numbers, but I’m afraid you won’t last until reinforcements arrive.”
Xu Huo raised his hand, revealing the tangent lines woven through the room. The few by the door were fine, but the man behind the desk found three tangent lines looped around his neck. Even a slight shift could cost him his life.
The man stiffened his neck, not daring to move, and asked angrily, “What exactly do you want!”
Xu Huo sighed. “They’ve already gone far.”
Only then did the man realize he wasn’t joking. He had no choice but to order his men to retrieve the boy, adding a warning, “Two fists can’t beat four hands—you’d better be careful!”
Xu Huo returned to his seat, took the man’s kettle, and poured himself a cup of tea.
“Even the cleanest water still has a bitter taste,” he commented after a sip.
The man snorted coldly.
Soon, the boy was brought back, along with the water shop players. They escorted the boy upstairs, surrounded the water shop, and demanded Xu Huo release the man.
Xu Huo withdrew the tangent lines and, from a distance, pressed several people who tried to make a move against the wall. Then he looked at the man.
Meeting his gaze, the man felt an unprecedented pressure. After struggling for a moment, he gritted his teeth and said, “See the guest out!”
(Chapter End)