"Natasha, I'm back!"
In a slum, in a tent that only allowed one person to squeeze in and out, a little girl with a hungry face heard the sound and involuntarily tried to hold herself up. A feeling of powerlessness suddenly emerged.
Helpless, she could only squeeze out a smile in advance, just to make the owner of that voice smile when he saw her.
After all, what is missing most in this place is smiles.
Carefully opening the tent, a dark shadow quickly came in, and then pulled the tent up as quickly as possible.
Despite this, the sharp cold wind still penetrated in all directions, causing the little girl in the tent to frown slightly, but then returned to normal and smiled again.
"Brother, you are back."
The boy didn't notice his sister's unconcealed look of hunger and tiredness. He just excitedly showed off what he had just gained from going out.
"Look, there's something to eat!"
Natasha looked in surprise at the fat rat in front of her that was still struggling and the strange device that trapped the rat tightly.
It seemed to be a finished product that my brother usually tinkered with.
There is nothing surprising about the device. It consists of a wooden board as a base, a curved piece of metal, and a curved metal bar made of some unknown method.
I don’t know what method my eldest brother used to put these extremely simple things together and actually caught a big mouse!
Thinking of this, Natasha couldn't help but feel doubtful, but this doubt was quickly attracted by the big rat that looked so shiny just by looking at it.
She knew very well how difficult it was to catch these little guys in the gray fog city where they lived.
It is said that these guys hiding in the sewers suddenly developed some consciousness at some point. This also caused the extremely cunning rats to be caught since that day.
So is this thing really that useful?
Natasha knew very well that the two brothers and sisters who depended on each other had not had a full meal for a long time.
Naturally, the caught mouse will not eat itself, but will be sold for food rations.
Thinking of this, Natasha couldn't help but swallow her saliva. Although the rat meat was right in front of her eyes, what she saw was a large bag of unpalatable black bread rations.
Obviously, compared to eating meat, filling their stomachs is the first thing they consider.
With the boy's skillful techniques, the newly captured rat soon turned into small pieces of rat meat.
Even the mouse skin was carefully torn off by the young man, folded properly and hung on the roof of the tent.
As long as it is left in the sun for a period of time, the mouse skin will dry. As long as he continues to collect a few pieces and stitch them together, he can sew a coat for his sister.
If successful, the chances of surviving this winter will be better...
The boy put the rat meat into his close pocket while winking proudly at his sister.
"I'm going to buy food." After saying this, he turned around and was about to leave, but was stopped by his sister.
"elder brother!"
"how?"
The boy looked at Natasha in surprise. Seeing the hungry look on his sister's face, he couldn't help but feel a flash of guilt, which quickly turned into determination.
"Wait a minute, I'll buy some food after I change the money. By the way, what do you like to eat?"
The mice are big enough to exchange for some foods that are usually unaffordable, such as yellow bread. Although it is also difficult to eat, compared to the teeth of black bread, it is still edible.
What the boy was thinking was that his sister's health was not good and she needed to eat some easy-to-digest food.
Although that also means getting hungry more easily.
Don't be afraid! With this thing, I can catch more mice.
But when he thought that his "invention" was useful, the boy couldn't help but get excited, and at the same time he became more confident about surviving this cold winter.
With his invention, he can catch more mice! Even bigger prey is not out of the question!
Thinking of this, the boy couldn't help but feel his blood surging. Although the wind was still freezing outside the tent, the young man's blood remained the same.
After comforting his sister for a while, the boy carefully opened the tent and was about to get out, but his expression suddenly changed and he reached behind him with one hand.
But with a cold snort from a man, he felt like his whole body was being lifted up.
Then, a terrifying face came into the eyes of the brother and sister.
"What? I just heard that you seem to be going to buy food?"
The boy was locked tightly and could not move. At this moment, he had nothing on his body. Apart from the rat meat around his waist, all he had left was his homemade "invention".
He wanted to be cruel, but when he saw the man's face that looked like it was crawling with earthworms and thought of the malicious smile that the other man's subordinates always saw on his sister, he was finally discouraged.
"Yes, sir, my family hasn't eaten anything for three days. If we don't eat, someone will die."
He told the truth.
Ever since this gray fog city was surrounded by unknown creatures in the black fog, the condition of this originally prosperous city has deteriorated day by day.
A large number of refugees poured into the city, causing prices in the city to skyrocket. This also made the lives of the poor at the bottom who were originally barely making a living worse day by day.
Originally, it was not a problem for Kohler to make ends meet by doing odd jobs, but now his pitiful salary cannot even support himself, let alone his sick sister.
To make matters worse, he can no longer find any odd jobs.
The influx of refugees used cheaper labor to hit the city's lower class.
The brother and sister who could still live in the house have been forced to move out because they cannot afford the rent.
This is their second week living in the tent!
To be honest, Kohler was very hungry. As an eleven-year-old boy, he was at the age where he was acting like a spoiled child around his parents, but he took on the important task of supporting the family early.
In addition, my sister fell ill due to hunger and cold, so the meager food I bought was given to my sister.
Although Natasha is very sensible, most of the time she says she is full after just one bite.
But looking at my sister's increasingly thin figure and sallow face, I can see that my sister, who was once as beautiful as a fairy, is now no different from an ordinary refugee.
Khloe was heartbroken.
That's why he tinkered with those strange devices.
If he hadn't met an expert by chance and taught him these things, I'm afraid...
"Where did it come from?"
The man who called the grown-up pulled off the pocket from Kohler's waist. He smelled the smell of blood coming from there, which was undoubtedly the most irritating to people's nerves in the snowy weather.
"I caught it!"
"you?"
Chang Erpao glanced at the skinny young man in front of him in surprise. He felt doubtful in his heart and looked down at the thing in his hand.
It was rat meat, he could tell just by smelling it without looking closely.
This piece of meat with the unique rancid smell of sewers has nothing but rats.
"Can you catch mice?"
He knew very well how difficult it was to do.
Since the monsters besieged the city, except for people, the animals in the city seemed to have become spirits overnight and became very elusive. It is said that domestic parrots hurt people from time to time.
And rats, which can be said to be the most numerous animals in the city, have not been seen by anyone since then, let alone caught.
Some people even saw with their own eyes that these rats seemed to have a sense of human nature. They gathered together, gnawed a big hole in the city's granary, and carried grain from the granary one after another.
Others say that these mice have been stimulated in some way and their genes have evolved. As long as one can be eaten, the person who eats them will immediately gain incredible abilities.
The man spoke so vividly, as if he had actually seen it with his own eyes.
In short, all kinds of rumors are flying around.
Then people catching rats appeared on the streets, and the price of rat meat began to rise.
You must know that before this, only people who were too hungry to survive would occasionally catch rat meat to satisfy their hunger.
No one expected that at this time, even the famine relief rations used by hungry people to satisfy their hunger would skyrocket in value and become "advanced" treasures.
Although Chang Erpao doesn't believe these nonsense, it is indeed an indisputable fact that mice are difficult to catch.
Even he, the former street gang leader, has recently had to find ways to get food everywhere.
No other reason than hunger.
But after working for several days, I didn't see even a single mouse hair.
But now this kid actually says he can catch mice? Who can believe this?
"Did you really catch this?"
After thinking about it, Chang Erpao asked again, holding the pocket in his hand tighter.
Kohler didn't know, but he knew very well how much these things were worth.
If this kid really has a way to catch mice, then...
Suddenly, the inconspicuous boy in front of him became extremely pleasing to Chang Erpao.
