Chapter 907: Taking Action

Lan Si stood in the top-floor suite of the hotel, looking through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows at the police cars or carriages whistling past in the city, and the running police officers. He could barely feel a trace of a tense atmosphere.

"Refugees have already gathered outside the city. The roads into the city are now controlled by the police, allowing only exit, not entry."

Ma Duoer reported the situation outside while standing behind Lan Si.

Although he was Lan Si's personal bodyguard, he also took on the work of directing part of the operations.

Lan Si brought so many people here, on one hand, to protect his own safety.

On the other hand, it was also to make the situation more chaotic.

"Has the military participated?" Lan Si asked without turning his head.

"Not yet."

Lan Si said nothing, just continued to stare at the distant skyline, the intersection of the city and the wilderness.

His gaze could not see that far; there were only some blurred images. He could not even distinguish the crowds waiting to enter the city, and even the houses did not look very clear.

But he could imagine the terrible situation on the outskirts of the city.

"Chaos" had formed. At this time, the only thing that could save this country was for Die Ge and these ruling groups to stand up and find ways to mobilize food from other places to appease the people.

But they did nothing.

The problem now was not that people could not afford food—though some certainly could not—but that they could not buy it; money was useless.

Lan Si heard that the price of food had risen to over two per pound. It was not that it was rising too fast, but that there was truly no stock.

What are the characteristics of a seller's market?

It is that the buyer keeps increasing the price to gain the opportunity to trade.

You offer one, I offer one point one, and then someone offers one point two.

As long as the supply-demand relationship is unequal, it will always be expressed in extreme price changes.

Just like capital fighting a price war to monopolize the market, they lower the price because the supply side is greater than the demand side, so the price will be closer to the cost price, and may even fall below the cost price.

The reverse is also true. If there are many people in the market seeking to buy an item, only by constantly increasing the price can they obtain it, just like an auction.

From one point three to two, it took less than three days, and even so, they still could not buy food.

Those who had food, those who hoarded far more than they could consume, all fantasized that the price of food would become even higher. Now was clearly not a suitable opportunity or time to sell.

And those who had none could only come to Zhuolan to try their luck.

Lan Si stood by the window and watched for a while. "Let the brothers move. If the refugees don't attack the city, how can the contradiction between the ruling class and the ruled class be established so quickly?"

After he finished speaking, he turned back to the sofa beside him and looked at Ma Duoer.

Ma Duoer walked to a telephone on the side and dialed a number.

Although Lapa is poor and backward, there are telephones here.

Ordinary people use public telephone booths, with hundreds of households on a street sharing one or two booths.

Only the middle class, the privileged class, and the ruling class are qualified to have telephones installed in their homes.

The call was connected quickly, and Ma Duoer conveyed Lan Si's meaning, then hung up the phone soon after.

He returned to the corner and picked up his water glass to take a sip. His emotions had some changes that even he could not describe.

He was once a soldier and was used to life and death. He thought he would not have emotional changes because of life and death issues again.

But at this moment, he realized that he was not as strong as he imagined in some respects.

On the outskirts of the city, some of Lan Si's men changed into clothes that only locals would wear. They all wore duck-billed caps, pulling the brims very low. Although their faces could still be seen clearly, as long as one did not pay attention, people would not remember them.

They would only remember those different duck-billed caps.

On the road into the city, quite a few refugees had gathered. They appeared here with their families, and everyone looked to be in poor condition.

Anyone who has not eaten for a few days will not look good; they looked as if they were shriveled.

A small number of police cars and some horses stopped on the road. They set up a cordon, refusing others to enter the city.

Facing the desperate pleas of these ordinary people, the police remained unmoved. They stood at the very front, holding sticks in their hands.

The police represent the most basic violent means of the ruling group and still have some deterrent power in the hearts of the Lapa people.

"Please, let us in!"

"My son hasn't eaten for two days. If we don't eat something, we're going to starve to death!"

A woman walked out of the crowd and reached the front of the police cordon, about a meter away.

She needed some food; her child was already too hungry to walk and might starve to death tomorrow or the day after!

Her husband had an accident at the mine, and the mine owner compensated them with three thousand Para. A human life was only worth three thousand Para.

As a woman, she tried to get more compensation, but soon many people came to persuade her to give up the trouble.

Some famous people, including her family members.

They said her husband caused the mine collapse, causing the mine owner to lose a large sum of money. If it weren't for the fact that their family lost their labor force, the owner wouldn't even want to give three thousand, and would even demand compensation from them.

In the end, she took the ashes of her husband, which she exchanged for three thousand, and buried him by the side of the road.

Now, she was going to lose her child again. She could not lose her child again!

She pleaded bitterly, only hoping that her child could get a chance to survive, but the only response she got was the coldness of the police.

Seeing her get too close, one of the police officers even shouted, "Back off immediately, stay away from the cordon!"

His hand had already gripped the police baton, but the woman in front of him still pleaded, "Please, let us in to buy some food, we will leave soon."

The police officer who spoke to her felt his face heat up. When his colleagues looked at him, he felt as if his face was burning.

He became angry. A disobedient lowly person, a lowly person who resisted his orders!

He swung the police baton fiercely and struck the woman's forehead. Although there was a layer of rubber wrapped around the outside of the baton, this strike still tore a wound on the woman's forehead.

A contusion, not a cut.

Such wounds are often harder to heal because their edges are irregular.

With a scream, the woman fell to the ground. She looked at the police officer in disbelief. She did not cross the line; she just wanted to enter the city to buy some food.

She sat on the ground, her mind blank, not knowing whether it was the confused future that made her unable to see the road ahead, or the strike of the baton that made her lose the ability to think.

The police officer glared at her fiercely, "One last warning, go back to the crowd!"

The woman was already terrified and had no reaction at all!

And this was precisely regarded by the police officer as a silent confrontation, a provocation!

He could not bear it!

The people of Lapa had lived a life not like humans for so many years without anyone resisting. They were domesticated very well, or perhaps they had become accustomed to this high-pressure ruling life.

Even at this moment when they were facing life and death, although they chose to make some changes, in the face of the power that traditionally represented the ruling class, they became their past selves again.

Besides protesting, they could do nothing.

They stood in the distance and watched the police officer bend over and cross the cordon, walking toward the woman with a police baton in his hand.

A tragedy was about to happen, but the people stood by numbly and watched, as if what was happening had nothing to do with them at all.

The police officer had already raised the police baton in his hand high, and just as the woman was about to be beaten, Pei De Luo squeezed out of the crowd.

He also brought his family to Zhuolan. He could no longer buy food in his hometown. Originally, there was a river outside the city, and there were fish in the river.

But with the outbreak of famine, in just two days, no more fish could be caught in the river.

Think about it, when people began to spread the word that the fish in the river could fill their stomachs, at least thousands or tens of thousands of people rushed to the river with homemade tools.

In a very short time, the fish in the river were wiped out.

The power brought by hunger is destructive. People did not just want to fill their stomachs; they also had to consider the next meal, the meal after that.

Destructive fishing directly made it impossible to find fish in the river, and even fish fry could not be seen.

Moreover, the thing Pei De Luo worried about most also happened.

The potatoes in the fields outside the city, which were planted with sprouted seeds, were all dug up.

Sprouted potatoes are poisonous. People know this, but they also know how to deal with these poisonous potatoes.

In just one week, everything underwent huge changes.

They could only come to Zhuolan with others to try their luck; staying in the city no longer made any sense.

Along the way, almost everything edible was eaten. If there was nothing else to eat, they could only gnaw on tree bark and eat tree leaves.

At this moment, seeing the police officer about to continue beating the poor woman, Pei De Luo's sense of justice made him unable to sit idly by, and he stood out.

"She just wants to buy some food for her family!"

The police officer's gaze shifted to Pei De Luo, his face flushed red!

One after another popped out to oppose him, making him lose face. He did not need to look back now to imagine the playful look in his colleagues' eyes!

He pursed his lips tightly and strode toward Pei De Luo. Pei De Luo retreated nervously, raising his hand in a gesture of refusal, "I just want you not to hurt an ordinary woman!"

But the police officer could no longer listen. He felt his dignity was provoked, and only by crushing these people could he straighten his back again!

He swung the police baton in his hand and struck Pei De Luo. As a teacher, and not a physical education teacher, he could not dodge and could only hug his head to resist the blow.

Piercing pain filled his body in an instant, and he felt as if he had been bitten fiercely by a stick!

The pain also made him let out an uncontrollable scream—Ah!!

The numb crowd still watched him numbly, as if all this had nothing to do with them.

The police officer raised the baton again. Pei De Luo was unwilling to continue being beaten passively, so he pushed the police officer fiercely, then looked at the woman sitting on the ground, finally sighed, and turned to run.

The people had no backbone, and he could do nothing about it.

Perhaps it was not the time yet.

He thought to himself.

The police officer, who had been pushed into a stagger, felt a great humiliation and rushed toward Pei De Luo again.

But this time, his luck was not very good.

Several young men rushed over from the side and beat him up.

While they were doing it, they shouted loudly, "Anyway, we can't live anymore, might as well fight these officials!"

The words were a bit incoherent; the police were not officials, but they shouted some things out.

These words touched some people, and their numb eyes also changed.

Pei De Luo, who turned his head to see this scene, had a few more smiles on his face. He suddenly realized that perhaps this was the "awakening" Lan Si mentioned.

From numbness to resistance.

The police officers behind the cordon were stunned, and then they lifted the cordon, pulled out their batons, and rushed over. Then the second batch of young men rushed over and wrestled with them.

The numb crowd began to stir. There were not many police officers stationed here to block the road, only twenty or so.

Now half of them were tied up, and some people had ideas.

They did not intend to fight the police with those young men, but intended to take advantage of the chaos to rush in.

The police officers behind also discovered the abnormality here. They blew their whistles while pulling out their batons and rushing toward this side.

In front of a dozen police officers, at least hundreds of people were suppressed and dared not move.

Just at this moment, Pei De Luo suddenly raised his arm, "Go into the city to eat, fight them!"

He took the lead and rushed up, but he did not hear the sound of footsteps following him, and he was a little disappointed.

Soon he collided with those police officers, and two police officers raised their batons and struck him fiercely.

He had never learned any kind of fighting and could only resist instinctively, then counterattack.

Twenty or so people were beating a dozen people, including Pei De Luo.

But gradually, the atmosphere became a little wrong.

The look in the eyes of some people in the numb crowd when they saw them being beaten was no longer numb and gloating, but had some brilliance.

Emotional fluctuations brought some impulsive decisions. Several young men ran toward the police officers who were entangled.

A police officer noticed this and pointed at these young men with the police baton in his hand, "Back off!"

The method that had always worked in the past completely lost its effect at this moment.

Not only did those young men not back off, but they raised their fists and struck him fiercely!

Pei De Luo, who turned his head and saw this scene, had a few more smiles on his face. He suddenly realized that perhaps this was the "awakening" Lan Si mentioned.

From numbness to resistance.