Chapter 19 p2
End of August
The Extreme Cold Survival Alliance was established.
It wasn’t just Building 9. Qiao Huijun was quite useful. He directly united the four buildings in the property management group. Everyone had been in the same group for several years and were more or less familiar with each other.
After some tossing and turning, two of the building leaders and one deputy building leader did not participate, but everyone else did. After some persuasion, knocking, and coaxing of the masses, the survival alliance was established with more than fifty members.
The first thing they did after the establishment was to collect protection fees.
The other people in the building who had not participated had to pay protection fees to live there. It wasn’t much, just three jin of grain per family, to protect them from being bullied by people from other buildings or outside.
At first, everyone was unwilling and there were a few quarrels.
Until a few days later, a group of people came up to steal. The survival alliance had a dedicated night watchman. When he found out, he immediately called for help. Soon, someone was dispatched and caught the thieves in the act.
They had the numbers. The thieves were only three people and were immediately caught and beaten up. They were taken to their homes, which were then emptied, and then they were paraded through the community.
Two of them died during the parade, and one was barely alive.
Sensing that people had died, the people of the survival alliance were also afraid and naturally let the last person go. But after this incident, it was much smoother to collect protection fees.
They collected all the way up.
And they reached the fifteenth floor.
Qiao Huijun glanced at 1502 and suppressed the burning desire in his heart. It wasn’t time yet. He turned and led his men to knock on the door of 1501.
The Li family had long heard them and said with a bitter smile. Mr. Li held back his daughter and wife, telling them not to go out, and went to open the door himself.
“What’s coming can’t be avoided. If it really comes to it, we’ll just have to accept it. A loss of wealth can avert a disaster!”
They couldn’t resist so many people by force. In order not to let their family suffer, some losses had to be taken.
Li Yi smiled bitterly and did not refute.
People had to be realistic.
Their family had attachments, weaknesses, and no one strong enough to stand in front of them. So, they should admit defeat when they had to. They could always get through it.
Mr. Li opened the door and saw the crowd outside. He put on a smile. “Hey, Building Leader Qiao is here.”
Qiao Huijun also smiled warmly. “Old Li, with our relationship, let’s not beat around the bush. You said you didn’t want to join the alliance, and I agreed. But you have to pay the protection fee, right? Otherwise, our brothers would be protecting our building day and night for nothing.”
Mr. Li nodded repeatedly. “Right, right, we’ve prepared it. Do you think this is okay?”
With that, he took out the three jin of rice in his hand.
This was what their family had the most of. At the very least, they could still eat for half a year. They had very little of other things.
Qiao Huijun was satisfied. Seeing his positive attitude, he didn’t weigh it and just took the things. He turned around and called his group of brothers to go to the sixteenth floor.
From then on, the alliance was in full swing, and they did do some practical things. With them as intermediaries, a group of strong people would search for supplies together, which would definitely be smoother.
It was just that the supplies received were divided equally, so it was not known how many people were willing to search diligently.
But it was true that people from other buildings did not come to steal anymore.
If there were any minor frictions in the building, they would also shout for Qiao Huijun, and it would be resolved quickly.
However, this was all what Ji Yang saw.
During this period, there was also good news. The government had set up exchange points and called on the public to collect various supplies to exchange for points. The points could be used as money to exchange for various survival supplies.
When this news came, the survivors, who had been worried about finding less and less to eat, were all invigorated. They all ran out to look for supplies.
The Li family also ran out.
The building now had the alliance, which was much more reassuring. So, the family of three all went out, leaving only the two elders at home. They all wanted to find more things to exchange for grain to store at home for peace of mind.
—
When Ji Yang heard this news, she was also stunned for a long time.
In her previous life, she hadn’t heard of any exchange points until she followed the rescuing government officials to the base. But after the torrential rains and floods, the exchange points appeared.
But at that time, all the good things had been washed away, and there was very little to be found. The government had entered a long period of material scarcity.
In the end, the base that had been built with all their efforts was half-destroyed by an earthquake when she died.
It was a pity to think about it.
And these changes, which were different from her previous life, must have been made because they knew that there would be many more natural disasters in the future. Otherwise, the government would not have let people use those personal resources at will.
It seemed that her emails were really useful!
Ji Yang was a little excited. After the excitement, she also thought that because of the appearance of the government exchange points, the weather now seemed to be much more stable, and more and more people were willing to come out.
There were many who found all sorts of good things.
Therefore, the profession of a “daoye” also made a comeback, becoming another major force besides the various capital forces. Although it didn’t look like much, they could get you whatever you wanted.
As long as you could afford the price.
Ji Yang immediately put on her clothes, packed up, and prepared to go out.
Her space hadn’t had any activity for a long time. In the future, she could go to the vicinity of the exchange point to see. There would definitely be people setting up stalls to trade. She had grain and food in her hand, so she wasn’t afraid of not being able to trade for good quality jade.
Seeing that its owner was about to go out, Xixi also immediately spun around happily.
As a dog, it still liked to play outdoors. Although it was cold, it was free.
The house had limited its performance after all.
Ji Yang smiled and comforted it, “Alright, alright, I’ll take you.”
“Woof woof woof!” Xixi was even happier.
Ji Yang still wrapped herself up tightly, put a leash on Xixi, carried a large hiking backpack, and took out a snowboard. The human and the dog went downstairs briskly. Xixi was still a little unaccustomed to the feeling of a leash and frequently tried to kick it off. However, each time it was stopped by Ji Yang, and it gradually got used to it.
On the way downstairs, she also ran into many people from Building 9. Everyone in Building 9 had come to know Ji Yang. They knew that this girl was not short of supplies and even had a dog. They didn’t expect her to come out.
Someone whispered, “It seems this girl can’t hold out anymore and is coming out to look for supplies.”
Someone immediately sneered, “Who would complain about having too many supplies? Look at how fat that dog is. She’s definitely not short of supplies. She just wants to hoard more.”
“Exactly. Look at us, we’re all so thin. Before the disaster, my wife was 150 jin. Now she’s almost back to her pre-pregnancy weight.”
“Comparing people is really infuriating!”
Ji Yang accidentally overheard the whispers behind her, but since the other party hadn’t offended her, she ignored them.
After walking for a while, she reached a flat road, took out her snowboard, and tried to glide on the snow a few times.
The snow had been compacted by the people who had gone out, but snowflakes were constantly falling again. It was hard on the inside and a little soft on the outside. The snowboard felt very comfortable on it.
Xixi ran beside her.
Later, perhaps because it felt she was too slow, it directly accelerated and ran in front of her.
Ji Yang held the leash and felt a pulling force. She subconsciously adjusted her center of gravity, and her speed took off.
Ji Yang: …
Good grief!
You can play like this?
Now she wasn’t sleepy anymore.
“Xixi is so good! Turn, turn!” Ji Yang praised cheerfully. When it was time to turn, she pulled the leash in advance, and Xixi, being very intelligent, changed direction.
After being praised, its four legs pumped furiously!
The official exchange point was in a shopping mall ten kilometers away, near the city center, the place with the most people. Ji Yang had been worried about how to secretly take out her snowmobile with so many people around. Now, she didn’t need to.
With Xixi’s speed, ten kilometers took about twenty minutes.
It consumed a few pieces of meat.
After secretly feeding Xixi, Ji Yang put away her snowboard and led it towards the shopping mall. There were already people coming and going here. The extreme cold had killed many people, but the number of survivors was still very considerable.
Everyone hurried in and hurried out. When they went in, they had large and small bags, but when they came out, they only had a small package, hidden in their arms. After their friends had gathered, they would rush home with their heads down.
Everyone was like this, completely losing the leisure and calmness of the pre-apocalyptic era.
Because with the slightest carelessness, if their supplies were exposed, they might lose everything.
In serious cases, they might even lose their lives.
Ji Yang appeared, leading a half-grown dog that looked very strong and fat. She looked out of place with the surrounding people and naturally attracted a lot of attention.
However, under the eyes of the government, no one dared to do anything.
—