However, not long after Lin Yu closed his eyes, a noisy commotion came from not far away.
"None? I think you don't want to live, do you?"
"I... I really have no money left, and I haven't eaten for two days..."
"Haven't eaten? What does that have to do with us? Since you've set up a stall, you must pay money or an equivalent item, otherwise, get lost!"
After the violent voice finished speaking, another sound of smashing things came.
"No... don't smash it... please don't smash it..."
Lin Yu slowly opened his eyes and looked towards the source of the sound.
He saw two shirtless men with menacing faces, each holding a thick wooden club, smashing a small stall not far away.
The stall owner was an old man, quite advanced in years, who was watching in despair as his clay pots were shattered one by one by the two men.
Lin Yu only glanced at them before averting his gaze, no longer paying much attention.
Lin Yu recognized the two men who were smashing things.
More precisely, most people in this Slums recognized them, because they were members of the Gang that occupied this area.
Wherever there are people, there will be oppression; the law of the jungle applies everywhere.
In a place like the Slums, which is a haven for filth and neglected, a Gang is naturally not lacking.
The Gang is at the very top of the food chain pyramid in this Slums.
Compared to the Slums refugees who struggled to survive each day, these Gang members had a much easier life.
None of the members of this Gang went out to work; they rested in their warehouse during the day, and around noon and evening, they would collectively go out to demand the meager earnings of the people.
So, for a long time, the people in this area dared not resist, only silently enduring.
Huizi and Kami were also among those exploited.
Don't ask why the Fujiwara Family didn't intervene in such matters, and don't ask why they didn't unite and resist.
The entire Sugu Station, besides the tall walls for protection, the common people in the Slums were also a form of protection for rulers like the Fujiwara Family.
If the Kabane were to break through the walls one day, so many common people would be enough to buy time for those rulers to escape on a Hayajiro.
So, as long as these people didn't cause too much commotion or massive casualties, no one would bother to intervene.
As for resistance, it was even more ridiculous.
This was the Slums; even if they resisted this time, other Gangs would come, and they might be even more demanding. Moreover, the people living in the Slums were very poor.
If they were injured during resistance, even a simple wound infection could lead to death because they had no money.
In such a situation, endurance might be the best approach.
Lin Yu naturally wouldn't step forward for such a matter; he wasn't some hot-headed youth overflowing with a sense of justice.
In this chaotic world, just protecting himself and his loved ones to survive was difficult enough; how could he possibly meddle in other people's affairs?
The people setting up stalls nearby also watched with indifference, as if it had nothing to do with them.
In the Slums, there was no such thing as compassion; everyone lived a precarious existence. Years of living in the Slums had made Lin Yu fully understand the way of survival here. The source of this chapter is novelping . com.
"Pah!"
"Damn old man, he even bit me."
One of the two burly men raised the wooden club in his hand and heavily struck the old man's head.
"Bang..."
A dull sound echoed, and the old man fell in response.
Looking at the fallen old man and the crimson blood slowly oozing from his head, the burly man spat hatefully, then rolled his eyes at the surrounding vendors and sternly shouted,
"Did you see that? This is what happens if you don't pay!"
"Let's go, let's go to the next one. Hurry up, I'm still waiting to play with those two new little girls when I get back."
With the old man's lesson serving as a warning, the subsequent matters became much simpler. At each stall, before the two men could even speak, someone would offer money or goods of equal value.
Chu Ying had awakened from her dazed state at some point, clinging tightly to Lin Yu throughout, her hands clutching his sleeve, her eyes filled with fear as she looked at the two Gang members.
Lin Yu, of course, felt Chu Ying's fear clearly.
He gently patted Chu Ying's shoulder and said softly,
"Don't be afraid, it's alright."
Under Lin Yu's comforting words, Chu Ying's terrified eyes gradually softened, but she buried her head, resting it on Lin Yu's arm, not daring to look at the two men.
Although death and corpses were not uncommon in the Slums, for the timid Chu Ying, corpses and such public killings were still vastly different.
The two burly men's reckless behavior, in Chu Ying's eyes, was no different from the man-eating Kabane; both were equally terrifying.