False Happiness, True Adult!

Talent?

Sitting on the bus home, Cheng Ye rubbed his aching ribs, abdomen, arms, and thighs.

Fine, there wasn't a single part of him that didn't hurt.

"This isn't talent, this is all my sweat, my effort!"

A smile tugged at the corner of Cheng Ye's mouth.

Though it was bitter, he found joy in it.

Compared to stagnating day after day, if a little pain could lead to such growth in strength, what did a little more pain matter!

However, he secretly resolved to find a skill that could quickly restore his body's condition as soon as possible.

Otherwise, even if his combat power increased, he'd just be a five-second man, needing half a day to recover after every fight.

"Also, getting involved in the direct conflict between the East and West factions this early is too disadvantageous for me."

Thinking of this, Cheng Ye gritted his teeth in frustration.

That Garcia was an absolute idiot, being used as a pawn without a brain, and he had to drag him along to draw attention.

Now look, he was beaten by Liu Bi and sent to the emergency room. Who would stand up for him at the entire checkpoint? Who would dare?

Behind Liu Bi stood the entire East faction, Station Chief Ding Yishan!

Deputy Station Chief Halin? Would he dare send people to beat Liu Bi into the infirmary too?

Or send people to beat him like Garcia?

Impossible. That would only give Ding Yishan more leverage to seize more initiative.

After all, the West faction was powerful now, but not so much that they could ride roughshod over the East faction.

As long as Ding Yishan was the Station Chief, the West faction could only make slow gains, paving the way for Halin's influence, but they would never openly clash.

Only when their positions were reversed, with Halin becoming Station Chief and Ding Yishan becoming Deputy Station Chief, would the situation change significantly.

"Forget it, why think about these things?"

"Brother B was right, no schemes or tricks are as important as raw strength. If I had the ability to hang Garcia up and beat him, this wouldn't have happened today."

What was more important to him now was the field mission in half a month. As long as he could survive, he would have plenty of time to figure out how to break through the factional struggle and profit from it.

Cheng Ye took a deep breath, shaking off the trivialities of factional disputes, and looked out the car window.

The rain had indeed intensified at night, and there was already significant pooling of water by the roadside.

Xingfu City's buffer zone, while larger than other sanctuary cities, was already exceeding its maximum load limit due to the sheer number of survivors who had recently flocked to join.

Looking under the eaves of the roadside buildings that offered shelter from the wind and rain, one could see canvas tents everywhere. Inside, dense crowds of people were packed together, their expressions numb, their eyes vacant, showing not a shred of hope for their future lives, let alone any semblance of "happiness."

"Happiness. A lie."

Cheng Ye suddenly recalled Edmund's constant murmuring as he collapsed yesterday.

Perhaps happiness existed in this sanctuary city, but it certainly wouldn't belong to these bottom-tier residents.

Only by desperately squeezing inside the high walls, into the Inner City, could one feel a sliver of peace in this chaotic world.

Hum.

Before long, the bus began to slow down, braking five stops away from the Electronics Factory Staff Residential Area stop.

The middle-aged driver turned his head and shouted to the passengers:

"Sorry, the Main Urban Area's flood control fortifications have blocked the bus route. Everyone needs to get off at this stop and walk."

The doors opened, and Cheng Ye followed the others off the bus.

Less than a hundred meters ahead of the bus stop, sandbags blocked the road, leaving only a single opening for entry and exit.

Four armed guards stood on either side of the opening, along with two buffer zone staff members.

"Sir, due to the flood control lockdown, we need to strictly control the flow of people. After 8 PM, you will need to present proof of residence in the Main Urban Area to enter."

So strict?

Cheng Ye was surprised for a moment, then quickly understood the reason.

The Main Urban Area was formed by the intersection of three Central Pedestrian Streets from the Old Era. Residences, residential areas, and shops were all crammed together, and the drainage system was already old and dilapidated. If refugees were allowed to flood in, and the flood situation became severe, the accumulated water would have no way to drain.

By controlling the flow of people in advance, even if it flooded, order could be quickly restored.

When it was Cheng Ye's turn, he didn't take out his room key for verification. Instead, he directly pulled out his identity proof from the checkpoint from his pocket.

It was a circular badge, with the giant wall of Xingfu City printed on the front and a large character '检' (jiǎn - check) on the back. It contained a sensor chip to prove its authenticity.

"Ah, an official from the checkpoint!"

The staff member took it, tapped it on the Defense Communicator's sensor, and became extremely respectful upon seeing the prompt.

"The rainfall in the coming days might increase. If you need anything, you can call the Public Works Department with your Defense Communicator at any time. We will provide you with 24-hour emergency services."

"Thank you, you've worked hard."

Cheng Ye nodded slightly, took back the badge, and walked forward.

His face was mostly covered by a dark raincoat, but the fair skin on his forehead still made the refugees huddled in roadside tents cast envious glances.

Within the high walls, the Inner City had its hierarchies, and the buffer zone was no different.

Despite being only a little over ten kilometers long, it was divided into the far suburbs, near suburbs, urban area, and Main Urban Area.

Cheng Ye was so young and lived in the Main Urban Area; he was definitely a winner in life.

He passed through the gap and moved forward.

The buildings in the Main Urban Area were dilapidated, and the pipes were aging, yet there wasn't much standing water by the roadside.

Sandbags were piled up in front of the shops along the street, the tallest almost reaching his waist, with shredded vines stuffed into the gaps.

Every four to five hundred meters, a foreman from the Public Works Department, leading a few temporary workers, squatted by the drainage ditch, either digging out clumps of mud with shovels or directly scooping out trash stuck in the drainpipes with their hands.

Tin megaphones hung around the foremen's necks, hoarsely repeating slogans about clearing the pipe network, overcoming difficulties together, and welcoming a happy and beautiful life.

The stark contrast made Cheng Ye feel that this world had truly gone mad.

If even a fraction of the Inner City technology he saw in his predecessor's memories had been revealed, it could have brought about earth-shattering changes to the buffer zone.

But the higher-ups had chosen to control the technological output, letting the buffer zone languish in obsolescence, always keeping the ordinary residents struggling on the line between not being able to eat enough, not starving to death, not being able to wear warm clothes, and not freezing to death.

"Without naked comparison, there's no desire to break their heads to enter the Inner City."

Cheng Ye saw the same numbness in the foremen's eyes.

Clearly, for those just going through the motions, the more they understood the inside story, the more hopeless their future seemed.

He quickly crossed a few outer streets towards the center of the Main Urban Area, and the foremen and work crews began to increase.

Suddenly, Cheng Ye stopped in his tracks.

Beneath the building with the sign 'Tianyuan Mall' at the end of the street corner, he saw a slightly familiar figure mixed in with the temporary workers, diligently carrying sandbags and sealing off points where the mall might be flooded.

Not far away, a woman shielded her child, huddled under a temporary tent to escape the rain.

"He's quite the man."

The large sandbags used to block water weighed at least seventy kilograms.

The ordinary workers were thin; it took two of them to lift one sandbag together.

But Chu Yunfeng carried a sandbag on each shoulder, his expression relaxed as if he still had strength to spare.

"It's a pity that in the buffer zone, one person trying to support their entire family can't just rely on hard labor."

Cheng Ye stood in the shadow of the street corner, watching the work crew for over ten minutes.

He waited until Chu Yunfeng went to the assembly point behind the mall to move new sandbags before stepping forward to find the foreman.

"That big guy, the strong one, where did he come from?"

The middle-aged foreman was asked and turned to see a young man. He frowned and was about to get angry.

But the next second, seeing a badge spinning in Cheng Ye's hand, his expression changed drastically.

"Reporting to sir, that person is a refugee who entered the city this afternoon. I saw he had some strength and was asking where he could exchange labor for food, so I brought him to work."

"He works for four people, does he get paid for four people?"

"Hmm..." The foreman hesitated, secretly judging the relationship between Chu Yunfeng and Cheng Ye.

One was a newly arrived refugee, and the other was an official from the checkpoint.

If the two had any relationship, Chu Yunfeng wouldn't have ended up doing manual labor here.

Thinking this through, the foreman honestly replied, "Reporting to sir, you know the rules for laborers in the city. No matter how much work one person does, they only get paid per head."

"He has great strength, so his chance of being selected for work is higher than others. It's fair."

"Give him four portions of work."

Cheng Ye waved his hand and said in an irrefutable tone, "If there are any problems, have someone from the Public Works Department find me."

"Understood."

Cold sweat broke out on the back of the foreman's neck, and he quickly nodded in agreement.

But he didn't dare to ask to verify the badge or record identity information until he watched Cheng Ye leave.

How could he dare?

The checkpoint, as the apex organization of the buffer zone's power pyramid, firmly held the core lifelines of personnel flow, material allocation, work dispatch, and field operations. Let alone a grassroots foreman like him, even the director of the Public Works Department would have to bow to an inspector. Verifying the identity would be like seeking death.

As for explaining the extra three portions of work, it was simple: just report it.

After all, in the buffer zone, lying and corruption wouldn't kill you, but taking the blame for an inspector would absolutely lead to a thorough investigation and a bloody purge.

"Qinghui, son, you must be hungry."

Chu Yunfeng spread open his jacket, revealing five bags of Nutrient Paste and two candy bars wrapped inside. The usually stern face he had worn since entering the city finally showed a faint smile:

"That traveling merchant we met earlier didn't lie. Xingfu City really does let you earn a living if you're willing to work."

"Dad, wasn't it only two bags? How did the... boss give you so much?"

The adult could still endure, but the child's eyes were already seeing stars from hunger. He took a candy bar with surprise and chewed it noisily, eating with relish.

To the other workers' families under the awning, they couldn't help but lick their dry lips.

"I'm not sure either. The boss only told me when he hired me that we'd be paid per person. But today, he actually paid me for four people, saying that Dad has strength and doesn't slack off, which brought him face. He was very satisfied?"

Chu Yunfeng was a little puzzled.

Normally, he would have been suspicious, wondering if there was some conspiracy behind it.

But everything that had happened today had made his mind a mess.

The people in Xingfu City, famous throughout this Wasteland, behaved very erratically. One inspector desperately wanted to collect an entry fee, making him want to kill on the spot. Another, however, was like a philanthropist from the Old Era, treating them extremely well, making him still somewhat disbelieving.

Moreover, the second inspector had been holding back laughter the entire time, which made Chu Yunfeng even more confused, unable to understand what had happened.

Entering the city and looking for work was the same.

Some foremen were very disdainful of him, preferring to use a group of scrawny refugees to dawdle and waste time.

Some foremen, like the boss he just met, treated him very well. They hired him after only a few words and paid him four times the wages in the end.

The stark contrast in attitudes made Chu Yunfeng's long-honed vigilance from his years of wandering the Wasteland difficult to maintain.

"Yunfeng."

Yu Qinghui beckoned, signaling him to lean closer, and whispered, "I just saw a young man standing next to the boss. The boss seemed very respectful towards that person. Do you think it has anything to do with him?"

Yu Qinghui emphasized the pronunciation of "him."

With their unspoken understanding, Chu Yunfeng immediately knew who she was referring to.

"Are you sure? He was wearing a mask this afternoon."

"It's more than likely. I couldn't see his face, but his build, habits, and posture were very obvious. There's no one else who matches so many personal characteristics. It's just a bit strange."

"Strange how?" Chu Yunfeng quickly pressed.

"I... I feel like he walks like you, the way he exerts force. I wouldn't have noticed him otherwise, but he was just so similar that I..."

Yu Qinghui stammered herself as she spoke. She couldn't possibly say that he reminded her of a younger, thinner Chu Yunfeng from when they first met over a decade ago; that would be too absurd.

"He's like me?"

Chu Yunfeng was shocked. "He was sitting down this afternoon, so I didn't notice. He suddenly helped me. Could we really have some kind of connection?"

"I don't know if I was seeing things, it was night, and it was raining."

Yu Qinghui's explanation sounded more like she was trying to cover something up.

The two had wandered the Wasteland for years, never stopping their training. Martial artists have keen senses; how could she have been mistaken?

Chu Yunfeng was silent for a moment, shaking his head then nodding. Finally, he picked up a bag of still-warm Nutrient Paste and stuffed it into Yu Qinghui's hand.

"Drink it. No matter what, no matter his intentions, he helped us twice. We owe him this favor."

"Later, I'll find some opportunities to repay him tenfold."

After speaking, he paused slightly. "Right now, our most important task is to find a place to stay before the storm arrives. We need stable work to eat. Don't overthink anything else."

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