Wang Xiao'er

Honestly, as a person, Wang Xiao'er felt that he had been a failure.

His father died when he was three, his mother when he was four, and even the grandfather he had depended on for survival died of a sudden illness when he was six... Honestly, it had not even been a serious illness. A few antibiotics would have cured it. But in this day and age, medicine was among the scarcest of resources. Even the price of a single pill was more than a poor family like his could afford.

So he could only watch helplessly as his grandfather grew sicker and sicker. He had tried countless alternatives, but sadly, that kind old man had ultimately lost to the disease and died in that foul-smelling shack.

Wang Xiao'er did not cry on the day of the burial. He merely waited until the dead of night, then dragged his grandfather's body away alone, dug a deep pit, and buried that emaciated, skeletal body within it.

He had not done so out of fear of rats or insects, but because he feared that those driven mad by hunger would dig up the corpse and use it as food for their own families.

After that, Wang Xiao'er became a complete orphan.

Orphans were quite a common sight in the underground city. Those with bad luck would die of illness or starvation in some unknown corner before reaching adulthood. Those with better luck might join a gang and earn themselves a bite to eat...

Wang Xiao'er was somewhere in between.

He had been lucky enough to live to an age where he could support himself, but unfortunately, no gang wanted him. To scrape together a living, he could only become a scavenger.

Of course, he was the kind without official certification, only able