bookbashuk Chapter 4333 Body of Steel (38)
Chapter 4333 Body of Steel (38)
Chapter 4333 Body of Steel (Thirty-Eight)
Who is Jia Bo?
"The leader of that area. You don't look new here. What brings you here?"
“I’m a journalist,” Clark said truthfully.
"I'm not asking what your profession is, I'm asking how you got here."
“I’m an investigative journalist. I came here while investigating the search for illegal immigrants.”
“But there are no illegal immigrants here,” the old man said. “We are all Americans. You must have come to the wrong place.”
Clark sensed something was off; the old man spoke very logically. He didn't use foul language, and his wording and tone were quite pleasant, not at all like a homeless person.
Seeing his expression, the old man seemed to understand, and then said, "How about this, give me some money. I can talk to you about it. Although it's unlikely I can distribute it, at least it will satisfy your good intentions."
“However…” the old man looked at the baby’s body in the pit and said, “Don’t bury this thing here. It will be dug up soon. If you really care, take him somewhere far away, even if you bury him on a barren mountain.”
"Are there any coyotes or anything like that around here?" Clark asked.
“This is in the city, there aren’t many wild animals here. Otherwise, so many people wouldn’t be setting up tents here.” The old man waved, signaling him to follow. Clark then picked up the body again and followed him to the yellow tent.
A lamp was lit inside the tent, casting a warm glow in the darkness. The old man spread a blanket at the tent entrance and took a bottle of liquor from his bag. Clark also sat down, but still didn't put down the bag containing the body.
“Let’s start with what interests you the most. You must be wondering who would dig up a body. I can only tell you that if you had run into anyone else here instead of me today, they would have dug the body up the moment you left.”
Why did they...?
"Because they can be sold for money. The bodies of infants of all ages can be sold for money. Those that are five to six months old sell for the highest price. Slightly older ones are also acceptable. On the contrary, those born at full term are not worth as much."
What did they do with the bodies they bought?
"Usually, pharmaceutical companies buy them back to make pathological slides. Most of the babies born here have congenital diseases, making them excellent subjects for them."
“This should be Daisy’s third,” the old man said after a moment’s thought. “She was pregnant when she came. That child seemed to have been born at full term, which made Gibb very angry. The one she conceived later was born earlier and sold for the highest price. This should be the third one. Judging from its appearance, it won’t fetch much. Gibb’s judgment is still so poor.”
Clark was a little confused. He said, "What do you mean? What do you mean he has bad taste?"
"The women he chooses are all badly born," the old man said, shaking his head. "None of them are as good as that old cripple in the west. His two women were born when they were five or six months old, and they sold for a lot of money."
Clark's expression froze. The old man knew something from his expression and sighed, "There's nothing we can do about it. Women are a vulnerable group here and have to find someone to rely on. But people here aren't picky, and they don't necessarily have to find women; men are fine too. So they have to provide some extra value, like giving birth. It takes a long time, but the return is pretty good."
Clark listened, dumbfounded. The old man took a sip of his drink and continued, "Pharmaceutical companies usually only hire people with illnesses, so these women's employers will find sick people to get them pregnant, then give them drugs to make them addicted. When the due date is almost here, they'll find a way to induce labor..."
"How do you induce labor?" Clark couldn't understand. He vaguely remembered that, even in a hospital, inducing labor for a pregnant woman in her late stages of pregnancy was very troublesome and could easily result in the death of both mother and child.
"Anyway, we don't need the baby to live, as long as we can get the baby out. If that doesn't work, we can use some medication. If you're young, you can endure it two or three times, and at least for the next few years, you can live a pretty good life."
"not bad?"
"You don't understand. Because children can be sold for money, women here are doing relatively well. At least they can live a stable life for the next few years. For men, every Christmas is a hurdle."
Clark recalled the conversation he had overheard, and said, "Every year before Christmas, someone comes to clear out the homeless? Where do they take them?"
“What are we taking there? Of course, we’re killing people and selling their bodies,” the old man said. “It’s not that cold here; people won’t freeze to death in winter. If no one cleans up the mess, the streets will be too crowded to live on within a few years.”
“Take our neighborhood as an example. There are about fifty households here. They go out to beg during the day and come back here to sleep at night. Three new people have come in the last week. They are young and strong and they are good at their jobs. But the west side is almost full. Pat and his team could only clear out four or five people overnight to make room for the newcomers.”
Before Clark could ask a question, the old man interrupted him and continued, "What I mean by 'cleaning up' is killing them and then taking the bodies away and selling them."
Fueled by alcohol, he spoke rapidly: "Don't underestimate us just because we live in tents. Tents have their own rules. When new people come, some old people have to leave. But there's no way to move up here. When some young and strong people come in, some weak and old people have to leave. If this place is full of the old, weak, sick, and disabled, the police will clear it out, and no one will survive. On the contrary, if it's full of able-bodied people, the police won't be willing to risk their lives, and we can manage to survive."
"then you……"
“You don’t understand. I often tell young people that it doesn’t hurt to read more books. I’m the only one in the whole tent area who can do the math. So even when I’m old, I can still live. Oh, and most importantly, don’t touch drugs. I’m not interested in that stuff, so I’ve been living here for sixteen years.”
"That you……"
"You're probably wondering why someone who looks like a somewhat educated person would be here. Have you heard about the economic crisis?"
Clark opened his mouth; of course he had heard about it. So he asked, "You lost money?"
"More than that, I've lost everything. But I was lucky; I knew some people on the streets, so I found a place to stay. Many of my colleagues have jumped off buildings."
"Then why don't they come here?"
“I told you, I have connections. I saved people when I was young. That’s why they say good deeds are rewarded. Those people have no connections; they might as well be dead if they came here.”
Clark couldn't quite understand. He saw that the old man was in good spirits and could even afford to buy alcohol. Even if he was worse off than him, he could still survive. Why couldn't he come?
The old man seemed to see through his thoughts, wiped his mouth and said, "It's not what you think here. I can stay here without drugs because they need me to have a good head to do their accounting. Other people who come here have to buy their drugs, or you can forget about staying here."
"Drug use is just the first step, destroying your brain that makes you successful in normal society. Then you get infected with diseases like AIDS and syphilis. Once you get sick, you can't go to the hospital, so you have to buy more drugs to relieve the pain. If you run out of money, you have to sell your body, which will lead to even more diseases. This cycle continues until one Christmas when the cleaners decide you should be eliminated, and then it's all over. This process can last for several years. People know how painful it is, so they might as well just jump off a cliff."
"Isn't anyone going to do anything about it?" Clark asked.
"I'm talking about when there's someone in charge. If there's no one in charge, you'd probably have to go look around the streets of Gotham."
Seeing that Clark still didn't quite understand, he explained in more detail: "To sell more drugs, they recruit new people. And to get new people to move in, they clear out some of the older people. This ensures that most of the people in the community are able-bodied, and I've already mentioned the benefits. Also, they dispose of corpses very promptly, so they rarely leave them overnight, which prevents large-scale infectious diseases. And to attract new people, they also keep the place relatively clean. You see, it's a bit messy here, but at least it's not dirty. Urinating or defecating in public is prohibited here."
"Then you just..."
“I’m not going there secretly, am I? Besides, I’m only going to relatively remote places, so it won’t affect them. Some poorly managed communities are almost flooded with excrement. We’re considered good.”
Clark thought about it and realized he was telling the truth. When he arrived at the tent area, although it felt chaotic, he didn't smell anything unusual. Logically speaking, people who drink alcohol or use drugs would vomit, and those drug addicts who have lost their minds don't seem like they would be looking for a toilet, so this place should have been filled with vomit and excrement long ago.
But in reality, apart from the messy arrangement of things, there wasn't anything particularly dirty. This proves that the place is indeed managed, and even managed quite well.
"Don't be surprised, there are people in this world who live like this, and quite a few at that. This is just a community. If you walk to the end of this street and turn left, there's another one there, but they're not as good as us. Their leader is a fool and has caused trouble several times."
The old man took another swig of his drink and said, "You might ask, why don't we try to save some money to get out of here, especially for someone like me? Since we can already live a stable life, why don't we try to move up in society?"
"I can only say that when you reach my age, you'll understand. The speed at which you climb up will never be faster than the speed at which they kick you down. You may scheme and work your way up, but in just one night, you'll fall back to the bottom. Since that's the case, why should I bother climbing up? I might as well stay at the bottom."
"Many people here think this way. It's not that they lack skills, nor that they're truly incapable of turning their lives around. It's just that when they're kicked down, they realize that this isn't a result of their momentary mistakes, but rather how society works. Climbing up is pointless; it's just another painful and anxious life, postponing today's situation, but ultimately, the destination is the same, isn't it?"
(End of this chapter)