Chapter 203: Red Hearts Toward the Motherland

While waiting for the medical examinations to conclude, Liu Mu and Niu Boyi had already circled the village, which had little left.

The situation here was better compared to the Haicheng side; at the very least, there were a few houses with less than one-third damage, and judging by the traces of repairs, they had held up quite sturdily before.

Several houses were occupied and had fires burning; one house even had a generator, using electric heating—a quite extravagant behavior at the present time.

The house was quite luxurious in appearance alone; it was hard to say if this village had produced a wealthy person in the past, and this wealthy person's family had survived until now, and had stored quite a lot of supplies.

How had it not been looted?

Liu Mu deliberately passed by back and forth twice, finally succeeding in attracting the attention of the house's owner.

"Soldiers, which Base are you from?"

An old person with a head full of white hair leaned on a cane, supported by a younger woman; their clothing consisted of down jackets sufficient to resist the low temperatures for a while.

"Haicheng Barrier. Elder, does anyone in your family have neck discomfort? Our doctor is performing examinations up ahead."

Liu Mu answered from across the iron fence on the courtyard wall, not having Niu Boyi hide; Gouzi was by her side, white mist continuously puffing from its nose.

"No need, we are fine, we are doing well. What did you bring this time? Can we buy things from you?"

Buy? Liu Mu's gaze flickered slightly. "Apologies, Elder, our supplies are all allocated to your Base; when the time for distribution comes, you can collect them according to the headcount."

"Collect what? Who wants to be like a bunch of mud-legged peasants?" The old person was under the veranda, sheltered from the rain and snow, and the cold wind was blocked by the large house; she scoffed at Liu Mu's suggestion.

"Mother," the woman pulled the old person who was about to continue speaking, and said to Liu Mu somewhat apologetically, "We are lacking some seasonings and wanted to ask if you have any. We can also trade things for them; do you think that would work?"

The woman was indeed more polite, but her tone was not friendly; compared to the old person, her arrogance seemed carved into her bones, and even just speaking normally could reveal that kind of innate nobility.

Unfortunately, Liu Mu did not buy that, and was even a bit impatient. "No, it is better to wait for the notice from your Base Chief."

As she spoke, she was about to leave, but was called back by the woman. "We only need a little black pepper, do you have any?"

It seemed that she did not care about the inability to buy or trade; as long as Liu Mu had it, it was already in their pocket.

Just as Liu Mu wanted to emphasize the uniformity of the Base again, the door of the large house opened, and a middle-aged man walked out.

The man's appearance was eighty percent similar to the old person; they must be mother and son, and even that naive arrogance was the same. "What are you talking to a soldier like her for? Mom wants to eat that flavor, just have someone send it over in a while. For those mud-legged peasants, just give them some bread, what can't you trade for?"

"Right, my youngest son is the one who makes sense," the old person seemed to feel that Liu Mu was wasting her time and snorted coldly. "Take your dog and get further away, you dog thing, don't scare my good youngest son."

The man supported the old person into the house; only the woman had a deeper look of apology on her face and wanted to apologize to Liu Mu, but was scolded by the man. "Aren't you coming in yet? All the heat is escaping. Hurry up and go cook, didn't you see my mother is hungry?"

"Eh, alright, I'm going now," the woman did not enter that large door that looked very warm, but instead entered the kitchen through a small side door.

Liu Mu rubbed her chin and left with Gouzi.

"You're talking about Qian Kelong, right? He doesn't have much ambition; the one in that family with ambition is his older brother, Qian Kesheng. He was a businessman who went out from our village, and it's said he was even the richest man in the city. Before the disaster, he was so glorious. It's a pity the big fire burned down his family's factories and farms; now only that big villa is left looking somewhat impressive."

When Qi Fengxia, who had already taken medicine, was found by Liu Mu, he no longer had his previous rejection and answered whatever was asked.

"His family stored a lot of supplies? How come they didn't share any salt with you all?"

This was not Liu Mu sowing discord; if they were from the same village, they should at least cherish some village friendship and not just watch everyone get sick.

Even for Liu Mu herself, if there were other Survivors on Food Street, even if she didn't take them in, she would send them to the Haicheng Barrier.

She, what a good person she was! —Thinking this, she seemed to have completely forgotten that she had no intention of saving people back then.

"Don't mention that selfish ghost family; the richer people are, the stingier they get." Qi Fengxia got angry just thinking about it, his somewhat frostbitten face wrinkling up. "When their family was glorious, they never gave us a cent of benefit; when they built their villa, they didn't even hire workers from the same village. Even the cement road from the village to their house was built when the country was doing the 'Village-to-Village' project, and everyone paid to build it together. Their house was big, and the road they occupied was clearly longer, but they just made a fuss and wouldn't pay an extra cent. Not only did they not pay, they even put out the word that if it wasn't built to their house, they had ways to make sure our village couldn't build a single road!"

This was truly stingier than even herself, Liu Mu couldn't help but sigh; look at those real rich people, where would they give back to the villagers? The money was all tucked into their own pockets, not a single cent would be taken out.

"And then?"

"And then the disaster came. Everyone knew they had a basement and went to beg for help, but they were beaten out by their bodyguards. Even now, when people in the village get sick, only their family is fine; they must know the reason, but they still haven't done anything. You saw it, right? They hoard supplies themselves and often come over to ask us for things; I just won't give it to them, they are so thick-skinned!"

Seeing Liu Mu stop talking, the young man suddenly became a bit uneasy. "Chief, you wouldn't happen to... know them, would you?"

He originally wanted to say 'you wouldn't happen to be like them', but fortunately, Qi Fengxia wasn't stupid and immediately changed the question.

Liu Mu shook her head, feeling the kid's question was a bit strange; if she knew that family, would she still come to ask him?

"You said before that I was a man-eating monster, why?"

"Ah, this..."

The two stood by an indoor window, some distance from the crowd, ensuring they wouldn't be heard by others.

But Niu Boyi, outside the window, had keen hearing and immediately stood up. His hot, large tongue licked the window, and the window immediately became bright in one spot; Gouzi stared at Qi Fengxia through that spot.

"I, no, it wasn't me who said it," Qi Fengxia was scared back a step by the dog's actions, and realizing he couldn't run away, he explained,

"It was news passed from the Base on the other side of the mountain, saying that the Barrier's old Chief died on the way to the hospital after being seriously injured. The new Chief is not human, looks strange, has three heads and six arms, and comes out at night to eat people."

"Those of us from the Bases who migrated there were all locked up and made into, made into..."

"Made into what?" Liu Mu listened, feeling a sense of familiarity rushing toward her. Three heads and six arms? Why didn't they say she could perform seventy-two transformations?

"Made into 'stored rations' for you to eat." The words having reached this point, a desperate resolution flashed across Qi Fengxia's face. "They said you eat human flesh, first the old, weak, sick, and young, then us outsiders. Otherwise, such a large Barrier with tens of thousands of people simply wouldn't have enough food to survive."

Rumors, so cruel, yet possessing a certain rationality.

"Makes sense," Liu Mu habitually rubbed her chin, and even nodded slightly amidst Qi Fengxia's terrified gaze as he wanted to flee. She said: "The purpose of the person spreading the rumor has already been achieved, but I dare say, this person is definitely a traitor; not only do they not love their country, they even want to incite you all to rebel."

This... how did the rumor of eating people get linked to patriotism?

Seeing his confusion, Liu Mu suddenly patted his shoulder, and the young man's body indeed immediately became stiff. "Child, I can only say that our China is more powerful and has more abundant resources than you imagine. However, then why did you only say I was a man-eating monster?"

"This," Qi Fengxia finally understood the meaning in Liu Mu's words, which was that the support provided by the country was more than enough to feed the Barrier. But now, how was he to explain this? Could he find an excuse to brush it off?

It seemed not; anyway, he had already said half of it, so, "They said the 'stored rations' matter was something you proposed, in order to be an official, to make the people in the Barrier believe it, you eat human flesh every day."

"WTF??? Damn it!" Liu Mu couldn't hold back, she really couldn't hold back. "Does a big Boss like me need to wrong my stomach like that? Are they crazy? Holy crap, which son of a bitch spread this? Speak, I'll go slaughter him right now!"

There seemed to be something wrong, but Qi Fengxia couldn't grasp it for a moment, and pursed his lips. "It was that family you mentioned just now; their rich son is now at the Base on the other side of the mountain, and I heard he is even a high-ranking official who has a say."

"That person didn't die?" Liu Mu had thought the rich eldest son had died, leaving behind huge wealth for his incompetent mother and younger brother to inherit; was that not the script?

But thinking about it, it made sense; if the eldest son didn't have power, not to mention anything else, that family's attitude would have led to them being looted long ago, and whether they would have lived until today was another question.

"What is that person's name? Besides spreading rumors to you all, is there anything else?"

"There is, Chief, there is something else," Qi Fengxia thought of something and seemed somewhat hesitant to speak.

Seeing him hesitate, Liu Mu wanted to say forget it if he didn't want to talk; she was just someone delivering supplies and didn't want to manage too much, it was too tiring.

But... he said it. "He wanted us to believe in a religion, just, actually, that, before, our Base was supported by Department Head Jiang, that is, the Department Head who suddenly turned into a monster..."

Speaking of this, the young man hurriedly glanced at Liu Mu, and only after seeing that her expression remained unchanged did he grit his teeth and continue.

"After he was gone, our lives became difficult. Originally, that family didn't dare to interfere in the affairs of the Base, but recently their eldest son has been coming back often, saying that as long as we follow their family and believe in their religion, we can have enough to eat and wear just like them, and they can even help us get houses to survive the Extreme Cold..."

Liu Mu remembered that in order to ensure each Base received effective protection, the Barrier had a policy of assigning each cadre to be responsible for one, and now that she thought about it, this must be one of the Bases under Jiang Hanzhong's responsibility.

As a member of the Jiang Family, if Jiang Hanzhong wanted to establish his own power in the Southeast Three Provinces, merely fighting for power within the Barrier would be building castles in the air and naturally wouldn't be very effective; only by starting from each Base could he truly grasp a solid foundation of power.

No wonder, Liu Mu pulled a smile at the corner of her lips; Yang Shuo must have anticipated this long ago, which is why he insisted on her leading the team to deliver supplies to the various Bases, but...

If Yang Shuo really wanted Liu Mu to build solid trust belonging to her at the grassroots level, does that mean Yang Shuo might not be coming back?

"That sounds nice, having food, drink, and a warm place just by following a faith; are you all unwilling?"

If it were in her past life and someone had provided these conditions to Liu Mu during the Extreme Cold, let alone believing in a religion, she would have called the other party 'Daddy' directly. In order to survive, what is there that cannot be let go?

The problem is that these people have not yet tasted the despair of truly being unable to survive.

Sure enough, Qi Fengxia was full of resistance, even feeling a bit of dissatisfaction toward Liu Mu, "How could that family be any good? Besides, we are a generation born under the red flag and raised in the spring breeze, why should we engage in feudal superstition?"

The phrase "Can you, as a leader, be a firm proletarian fighter?" almost slipped out.

Liu Mu already had some guesses in her heart, "The religion they are asking you to believe in wouldn't be the 'Thirteen Holy Nuns Association', would it?"

This name made the young man's pupils shrink, and he even took a step away from Liu Mu, his suspicion impossible to hide, "You...?"

"I am not, I don't," Liu Mu understood immediately, "That is indeed a cult; don't believe in it unless you can't live past tomorrow. However, it's fine to pretend to believe in it during difficult times to get some supplies. Rest assured, I won't hold it against you later. After all..."

Her expression became solemn, and her tone sank, "The Barrier tries its best to transport supplies to you, but accidents may happen; no matter what, your survival is the most important thing. Emergency avoidance, understand?"

"Then, you want us to take their things and pretend to believe?" Qi Fengxia was a bit troubled; actually, the biggest reason they didn't believe in the religion was... "We only worship the Mazu Goddess!"

Alright, Liu Mu realized she had overthought it; having been born in a coastal area, she should have understood that ninety-nine percent of the local residents were the same as her: their faith was divided into two—their red hearts were directed toward the motherland, and they prayed to Mazu for good fortune.

"My meaning is, one must be flexible in life, young person," Liu Mu pinched the young man's not-very-thick shoulder to pull him back, lowered her voice, and muttered like this for a long time.

The young man Qi Fengxia, who firmly believed he was a descendant of the Qi Army, had his eyes grow brighter and even sparkled with a bit of cunning under the guidance of her survival philosophy.

Qi Fengxia had a new strategy for dealing with the cult and decided to convey Liu Mu's method to everyone well; of course, it had to be done by reaching a tacit understanding with everyone privately.

As long as it wasn't shouted out, everyone had a bit of that bloodline in them when it came to good things like overthrowing landlords and dividing the land.

Just as the consultation was ending here, the second son of that family arrived, bringing four bodyguards carrying Handguns.

As soon as he entered the door, he shouted directly, "Liu Mu, which one is Liu Mu? Let her come out and talk to me!"

Most of the crowd who had just taken medicine were gathered together, some thanking the two doctors, some thanking the soldiers for braving the wind and snow to deliver supplies; everyone was chatting happily, and the lively atmosphere was broken by the arrogant shouting of the newcomer.

Liu Mu took a look; it was indeed the second son of the Qian Family, Qian Kelong.

"What are you looking for the Chief for?"

The crowd who had just received the benefits did not like others shouting at their benefactor like this, and an elder glared, "Qian the Second, what is your status that you dare to call our Chief by her full name? Did your big brother not educate you again?"

This remark caused a roar of laughter; everyone had grown up together in the same village, so who didn't know that the second son of the Qian Family was just a straw bag who relied on his big brother for everything and liked to show off outside.

If the Qian Family had brought benefits to the village, everyone might have given him some face, but this family had forgotten their roots, so it was no wonder they were hated.

The glass windows of that big house had to be replaced every ten days or half a month, and even a dozen bodyguards on rotation couldn't watch them; it was obviously done by the people in the village.

And what Qian the Second hated most was others comparing him to his big brother Qian Kesheng; he couldn't compare, yet he still had to rely on his big brother.

"Who told you to talk back? Be careful, or I'll kill you," Qian Kelong turned red immediately, pulled out a Handgun, and shouted, "What year and month is it now? You bunch of mud-legged peasants still dare to talk nonsense; I'll shoot you dead!"

"Who are you going to shoot dead?" Liu Mu stood up from the crowd, still holding half a biscuit a villager had shared with her, and took a bite, "I am Liu Mu, the highest military commander of the Southeast Three Provinces!"

"What year and month is it now that you dare to be arrogant in front of me? I don't even need to do it myself to kill you!"

As her voice fell, the sound of bullets being chambered in unison made the room instantly silent enough to hear a pin drop.