The next day.
At 7 a.m., the sunlight pierced through the clouds, making the sky a brilliant yellow.
After several continuous weeks of gloominess, Qiayang City finally cleared up.
Wei Tianyang, carrying a black backpack, walked up the dirt slope of the slums and reached the street.
Military vehicles rumbled over the potholed road, while a blue and white iron-clad bus lay broken down at the roadside, its early-morning passengers cursing non-stop.
He walked for half an hour to his first casual labor job of the day, a building still under construction.
It was said that this building would be a government office, planned to be 38 stories high; it would be the tallest building in Chicken Snake Country if completed.
However, due to the conservative government's funding shortage, military expenses, and losses from embezzlement and corruption, the construction of this building proceeded in fits and starts.
It wasn't until the first half of this year that Tiantai Pharmaceutical purchased the building, and the work finally resumed.
Many unemployed people worked here as day laborers, transporting materials, and lunch was provided at noon.
The current situation in Chicken Snake Country was unstable, with a civil war looming; no one spoke of it, but all were somewhat panicked.
For when war truly arrived, the active soldiers alone would not be enough, and you never knew who might be conscripted to fill the ranks.
Wei Tianyang was also very worried that if conscription came, the people of the slums would certainly be drafted.
This small nation was no larger than half a province of Yin Country, with a population of at most 3 million; yet, power struggles were complex and intertwined.
Exiled governments, the People's Liberation Front, the Freedom Union, the Workers' Party... Numerous forces formed alliances, creating a divide between the radicals and the conservatives, with each faction wishing to reign over this land,
Divided by a river that crossed the national border, these forces formed two opposing coalitions.
But... the one who could truly decide the future direction of this nation was not these forces themselves.
Four years ago, the radicals were poised to unify the country, but were stopped by the intervention of overseas forces led by the Sethiyan Federation.
All of this had nothing to do with Wei Tianyang.
He simply did not understand, this tiny nation was technologically backward, its population's education level extremely low, domestic mineral resources scarce, with over 90% of foreign exchange income relying entirely on agricultural exports.
It was of no value to Western European and American countries, whether from a geopolitical perspective or a resource standpoint.
Why then were they so interested?
The fragile internal balance was about to be disrupted; radical leaders were frequently giving speeches on television, proclaiming that they would soon wage a war to unify the motherland.
Although the conservatives had not responded, they had taken action, evidenced by the military vehicles and soldiers seen everywhere on the streets.
But they were really unable to win the favor of the general public, let alone support.
They skimmed off the workers' wages, took goods from shops without paying, under the pretext of raising military funds, harassed women in the streets at will, and terrorized passersby with guns for fun...
In Wei Tianyang's view, such behavior was no different from bandits and scum; what kind of army was this?
He didn't know if the armies of other countries were also like this, but if so, then there was no difference between an army and a gang, and soldiers were nothing good.
By the time lunchtime came around, the construction site cafeteria began to distribute boxed lunches to the day laborers.
About twenty or so people of various appearances gathered in the corner of the site's prefab housing, eating from their lunch boxes.
Wei Tianyang sat on two bricks, looking at the lunch box in his hand.
White rice, a drumstick, and two portions of vegetables.
He only hurriedly shoved two bites of white rice into his mouth, then wrapped the lunch box in a plastic bag and put it into his backpack.
To bring back and eat with his mother in the evening.
At that moment, Wei Tianyang's shoulder was bumped, and looking up, he saw a familiar face.
Uncle Wu from the slums.
"Eat up, or you won't have the energy to work this afternoon," Uncle Wu said.
"I'm not hungry," Wei Tianyang shook his head.
"You think I don't know what you're thinking? Your health is your capital, look how thin you are," Uncle Wu said with a smile.
Wei Tianyang shook his head again.
At that moment, a young man squatting opposite spoke up, "Don't look at how thin he is, he's actually quite strong. I've seen him lift a 60-pound sandbag with one hand."
This young man was also a resident of the slums; Wei Tianyang remembered that he seemed to live diagonally opposite from his own home.
"That's just young people working with reckless energy; once it's used up, they're spent," Uncle Wu remarked.
"You're Wei Tianyang, right?" The conversation couldn't be stopped once it started, and more and more people joined in.
Wei Tianyang turned at the sound and saw a bald-headed old gentleman, responding with a smile, "I haven't seen you before, but your voice is very familiar."
The old man chuckled and began to sing, "You are the brightest star in the night sky, lighting up my way forward~"
No sooner had the old man started than a group of people around him began to clamor, "No, no! Friendly fire! Don't start singing!"
"Damn... I remember now... Aren't you the one who sings in the shower every night?" Wei Tianyang narrowed his eyes and said.
"You don't sound like a Chicken Snake person, you speak with an accent. You're from out of town, right?" Someone directed the conversation toward Wei Tianyang.
He nodded, and shyly smiled.
"I'm not from here either. We've all hit rock bottom and probably have our own stories," Uncle Wu said.
"We're all rootless weeds, heh heh~ Bastards, all of us." Someone said self-mockingly.
"Then you've come to the wrong place. What's so good about Chicken Snake Country? Why does everyone run here?" a skinny and tall man with glasses said with a smile.
"People at the bottom end up the same everywhere. I'd actually like to transfer to the Sethiyan Federation. What about others?" Uncle Wu said, laughing.
Wei Tianyang glanced at him but didn't say anything.
"Wei Tianyang! You're an orphan, right?" the skinny and tall guy asked again.
"No," he said calmly.
"I see you always heading to the orphanage. I don't believe you're going there for temporary work. They pay too little and the hours are too long. It's not worth it," the skinny and tall man shook his head.
"He has a mother, I can vouch for that," the old man spoke up at this point.
"Heh heh~ I don't believe it. Who knows, maybe you're just a kept 'little puppy' by that lady," the skinny and tall man pushed up his glasses and said with a smile.
"Hey! What you're saying is a bit too much," Uncle Wu said, frowning.
"I've seen enough. Plenty of little bastards who can't make it on their own end up finding a mother. What's so rare about that? That's just how the world is," the skinny and tall man said with a look of having seen through the ways of the world.
Uncle Wu quickly looked at Wei Tianyang, seeing that he hadn't become angry but had a faint smile on his face.
"Yang, this guy talks like this; don't take it to heart," Uncle Wu said.
Wei Tianyang nodded; he didn't give a damn.
"His mom? Is she the beauty of the slums?" Someone suddenly interjected.
The conversation shifted from Wei Tianyang to his mother.
A beauty of the slums? Wei Tianyang looked up on hearing this, searching for the speaker.
It was a shirtless man in his thirties, his hair greasy and face dirty, squatted on the ground, looking like a local Chicken Snake.
"Yeah, the one living in that red house, stunning indeed," another person chimed in.
Wei Tianyang looked for this voice, which belonged to a man with buck teeth.
"Wei Tianyang? Living with that mature beauty? Must be lively at night, huh? Jealous just thinking about it," the shirtless man said with a laugh.
"She is my mom, watch your words," Wei Tianyang said, displeased.
"Really your mom? Damn, why are you still working then? Have your mom do some 'business', and wouldn't the money just roll in?!" the man with buck teeth laughed.
A burst of laughter rose from the crowd.
"I've seen that woman; I've bumped into her a few times when she was out shopping. Ah~ she looked so sassy, you would never tell she'd had a kid," another person laughed.
"Alright, alright, don't make jokes about someone's mom!" Uncle Wu said firmly.
"What the fuck are you protecting him for? What, do you want to adopt a son?" the shirtless man laughed out loud.
Uncle Wu, his face livid with anger, held his lunchbox, trying not to explode.
The shirtless man looked at Wei Tianyang again and smiled, "Hey? How much for one night with your mom? I..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Wei Tianyang had stood up, taken two steps over, and kicked him in the face.
The crowd erupted into chaos, all of them too excited to care about the severity of the situation, surrounding the two men, shouting loudly, "Fight! Fight! Hahaha!!"
The man was kicked to the ground, cursing and attempting to get up, only to see Wei Tianyang smash a fist into his face.
Sitting atop the shirtless man, Wei Tianyang clenched his right fist and delivered two punches to his cheek.
Wei Tianyang couldn't feel the pain of his knuckles crushing against facial bones, only feeling a rush of heat flowing from his heart to his right arm.
His fist landed on the man's cheek with no sensation, easily pounding in, visibly caving in the man's face.
No one in the surrounding crowd intervened, whooping excitedly, but after just five seconds, Uncle Wu sensed something wrong and began shouting, "Stop hitting him! This is getting deadly!"
This shout quieted the cheers, and the crowd looked carefully at the man's head, shock apparent on their faces.
The man lay there utterly defenseless; he lost consciousness after the first punch.
Wei Tianyang, seething with rage, threw a total of five punches.
Having reined in his surging hatred and coming back to his senses, Wei Tianyang's fists were covered in sticky red and white. He had crushed the man's skull with his bare hands.