The middle-aged man covered his head and curled up on the camp bed. He looked so ashamed that he wanted to crawl into a hole.
Meng Chao sighed in his heart.
But Xiao Fanghua looked as if she had seen this many times before. She still said patiently, "Mr. Li, Li Jue is still young. He doesn't understand just how important cultivation is. He's a good child who cares for his parents. It's precisely because of this that we have to consider his future carefully.
"Let me think about this slowly. Right now, I can't promise you anything, but I have a lot of members in Blue Home who are willing to help a good seedling like Li Jue."
"Ms. Xiao, I …"
Li Jue's father looked up. His lips trembled, and he rubbed his hands together. He did not know what to say.
Meng Chao remembered that his tone just now had been a little harsh, so he said, "That's right, Mr. Li. We're currently in the most difficult situation, but I believe that with the help of the Survival Committee and the Supernatural Tower, everything will become better."
It would have been better if Meng Chao had not said it, because once he said it, he seemed to have touched Li Jue's father's sore spot. His eyes turned red, and he said angrily, "Don't mention the Survival Committee and the Supernatural Tower. What can they do to help?"
"That's …"
Meng Chao was a little stunned.
He rarely met normal citizens who spoke in this tone when they talked about the Survival Committee and the Supernatural Tower.
At the very least, he rarely met such people in his life.
"If the Survival Committee and the Supernatural Tower really want to help, it's very simple. They just need to send our children to schools outside," Li Jue's father said.
Li Jue's father said, "Even if regular schools are short on space and resources, and every class is filled to the brim, those schools for the rich will definitely have places for our children, right? Why can't we temporarily settle Li Jue and the others there for a few months?"
Meng Chao frowned a little.
There was an indescribable feeling in his heart.
"It's not that we're greedy for the resources in the noble schools, but at the end of the day, the Survival Committee and the Supernatural Tower are responsible for us ending up in this state, right?"
Li Jue's father said angrily. "The people who live in mansions like Dragon City No.1 are all superhumans who are above Heaven Realm. They're clearly powerful, so if any monster is stupid enough to rush into Dragon City No.1, they'll be reduced to a pulp at any moment.
"Places like Dragon City No.1 and the aristocratic schools affiliated to Dragon City No.1 don't need to set up any defenses. There's no need for machine gun towers, anti-aircraft cannons, electromagnetic cannons, or high-voltage electric nets. As long as the powerful release their killing intent, it'll be enough to make the monsters piss their pants.
"But the Survival Committee and the Supernatural Tower just had to set up airtight defenses around these high-end residential areas. They have three layers inside and three layers outside.
"The last time the defenses in the old residential areas that normal office workers lived in were fully maintained and upgraded was a few years ago. Many of the defenses were in disrepair, and their structures were old. They didn't have enough ammunition either. When they were given to each family, they only had a few hundred bullets. How could they possibly stop the monsters' frenzied attacks?
"Now that I think about it, it doesn't make sense. The people living in the old residential areas are all normal people. It's precisely because we can't win against the monsters that we should have set up tight defenses around our homes. Why did they have to build the defenses next to the high-grade superhumans' houses?
"In the end, when the fog descended, the monsters were intimidated by the powerful's presences and didn't dare to rush into places like Dragon City No.1. They picked on the weaker ones and charged straight into our old residential areas." The defenses in Dragon City No.1 didn't even fire a single shot, and our defenses were already in shambles. Even the schools beside our residential areas were taken down by the monsters. The Survival Committee and the Supernatural Tower have plenty of experts and smart people. If they really wanted to help normal people, they would have prepared for a long time ago. At the end of the day, superhumans and normal people aren't of the same mind. They don't care about the lives of normal people! "
Li Jue's father vented his anger and indignation.
The moment he said those words, he realized that Xiao Fanghua, who was standing in front of him, was also a superhuman. He said awkwardly, "I'm sorry, Ms. Xiao. I'm not talking about you. You're definitely a good person. You know, I'm talking about those superior superhumans."
"It's fine."
Xiao Fanghua smiled and said, "Mr. Li, my husband is in charge of setting up defense systems in residential areas. Based on what I know, high-end residential areas like Dragon City No.1 have their defense systems set up, maintained, and upgraded on their own. They don't use taxpayers' hard-earned money."
"I-I know."
Li Jue's father instantly became dejected. His expression turned gloomy. "At the end of the day, the lives of the rich are more valuable than those of the poor. I can't blame the Survival Committee and the Supernatural Tower. I can only blame myself for being useless.
"Money … Money … Everything needs money nowadays. If you want to fight against monsters, you need money. If you want to cultivate, you need money too. That makes sense. The poor are scholars, while the rich are martial artists. They say that cultivation can change fate, but how can the poor have the right to cultivate?"
He shrank back into the camp bed and placed his poison-corroded leg on the bed. He stared at the stains on the bandages with an absent-minded expression. The stains spread out one by one.
"Mr. Li …" Meng Chao thought about it for a while.
Meng Chao thought about it for a moment before he suddenly asked, "Did you think of those words just now?"
Li Jue's father looked at him in surprise.
"You're the one who said that superhumans and normal people aren't of the same mind," Meng Chao said.
Li Jue's father was stunned. "That's what everyone says."
"Everyone?" Meng Chao asked.
"Everyone in the temporary shelter," Li Jue's father said in embarrassment.
Li Jue's father said in embarrassment, "I-I know that many superhumans are good people, just like you and the volunteers who help us every day. We're only grateful to you, and we don't have anything against you. Really, if anyone dares to say anything bad about you, they'll have their hearts broken.
"But our homes collapsed right in front of us, and we couldn't do anything. We could only watch the ruins burn. We couldn't even rush in to snatch a few photos. The blow was too great. Everyone had a lot of grievances in their hearts, and they had nowhere to vent it!
"Besides, we're injured and disabled. We don't have the ability to work, so we gather together every day. We don't know what to do, so we just grumble. Please don't take it to heart."
"It's fine. I won't take it to heart."
Meng Chao smiled. "But do you know who was the first to grumble?"
"Who knows?"
Li Jue's father said. "Grumbles spread like wildfire. No one knows who was the first to say it, but that's what everyone is saying now."
Meng Chao wanted to continue asking, but Xiao Fanghua tugged at the corner of his shirt.
Meng Chao thought about it. He might not be able to get a lot of information from Li Jue's father. Once he bade farewell to him, he walked out of the tent with Xiao Fanghua.
On their way back, Meng Chao fell into deep thought.
"Many of the citizens here are suffering from PTSD. They often scream in their nightmares at night, and it causes a chain reaction in the entire settlement. It's just like the howling in the camp in ancient times. Everyone's mental pressure is too great, so it's normal for them to grumble. We're already used to it. Meng Chao, don't take it to heart, okay?"
"It's fine. This time, the fog descended and monsters destroyed dozens of residential areas. It's indeed the Survival Committee and the Supernatural Tower's responsibility. It's not wrong for the normal citizens to grumble a little."
Meng Chao cast Xiao Fanghua a glance. "Big Sis Xiao, have you heard these grumbles a long time ago?"
Xiao Fanghua nodded.
"Anything else?"
Meng Chao asked. "Anything else?"
"Why not?"
Xiao Fanghua asked. "I don't know what's going on, but aside from the temporary residential area in the east of the city, there are a lot of people who lost their homes in all the other temporary residential areas in the city.
"Some people are like Li Jue's father and complain about why the Survival Committee and the Supernatural Tower set up impenetrable defenses outside the high-end residential areas where the high-grade superhumans stay, but ignore the weak defenses outside the old residential areas where the normal people stay because they have been in disrepair for years.
"There are also people who are complaining about how the prices of cultivation resources have increased by leaps and bounds. Even the gene medicine we bought from the factories at cost price has increased by 20%. I heard that it's going to increase next month." The rich might be able to bear with it, but to people like Li Jue's father who lost his job or those from families at the bottom of the social ladder who are forced to do manual labor, it's definitely cutting off the hope of the next generation cultivating.
"Logically speaking, Dragon City obtained a major victory in the northern offense, so they should be able to get more resources. Why are the prices still increasing?"
Meng Chao was silent for a while before he said, "Recently, Dragon City has been actively expanding. They're sending soldiers to the east, west, north, and south, and they're using up resources that are several times greater than before. The supplies in the city are a little tight, but there's nothing we can do about it."
"I know, right?"
Xiao Fanghua smiled and said, "That's what the news said, but many people in the temporary settlements don't believe it. They think that it's not because of the expansion, but because someone is hoarding resources and trying to get rich from the disaster.
"That aside, there are also people who grumble that the superhumans are the ones who lured the monsters here."
"That's …"
Meng Chao was stunned. "What sort of strange theory is that?"
"Didn't you notice, Meng Chao? The monsters have become smarter. The scale of the fog this time might be large, and it's not as if we haven't seen it in the past, but the damage we caused was never this great," Xiao Fanghua said.
"Right now, there's a saying among the people that there are quite a number of monsters who understand human nature. They originally had the chance to coexist peacefully with humans, or at the very least, they would mind their own business.
"But since the high-grade superhumans are ambitious and want to reach a realm surpassing that of humans, they kill all the highly intelligent monsters, which is why the highly intelligent monsters took revenge on them.
"The high-grade superhumans are naturally not afraid of the intelligent monsters' revenge. I told you just now that they live in places like Dragon City No.1, and they have impenetrable defense systems protecting them.
"But the normal people suffer. They have to take the place of the high-grade superhumans and endure the anger of the intelligent monsters."
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