Chapter 552 The Cleaner of the City (please vote for the super large chapter)
"Is this the Zarot neighborhood?"
He Ao turned around, walked back to the hospital bed, picked up the nutrient solution and took a sip.
"Yes."
Haixi smiled, as if to dispel her inexplicable restraint, she calmly sat back on the chair and nodded lightly.
The Zarot neighborhood is a place that almost all Wetlanders know, but the vast majority of Wetlanders will never come to.
This place is located on the edge of the West District. The reason why it has such a great reputation is because it exists on the Internet in the form of some kind of "weird stories".
Zarot is a word that comes from the wilderness. The specific meaning seems to be unclear, but in Wetland, the Zarot neighborhood is also called the ‘Garbage City’.
And the people living in this place also have another name, ‘scavengers’.
The garbage produced by more than 10 million people in Wetland will be collected here. After processing, part of it will be transported out of the city for burial, and part of it will be recycled and returned to the factory for production.
The Zarot neighborhood is just like the sewers throughout the city, it is part of the city's 'decomposition factory'.
But the situation of the scavengers living in the Zarot neighborhood is not good. They ensure that the entire city is clean and tidy, but they themselves have lived in a dirty and smelly environment for generations.
"This is my first time here."
He Ao looked at the scene outside the window. Some scattered small steel buildings were densely arranged under the sky.
Most of these small buildings have only one skeleton. At least one side that should be a wall is not covered by any wall, and the internal scene is completely exposed to the outside.
Adhering to the skeleton of these buildings are some simple mechanical devices.
Small pulley machines are constantly sorting and pressing the garbage into huge pieces from the ground and sending it to different floors. Then people standing on the floor wearing shabby clothes will use small, crude-looking robotic arms to move the garbage.
These rubbish are piled deep in the floor.
This seems to be part of some kind of garbage sorting and storage work. In this entire area, everyone is working in an orderly manner, like a huge factory.
"how do you feel?"
Haixi also stared at the scene outside the window and suddenly asked softly.
She did not introduce this place to He Ao in detail. Since He Ao could name the Zarot neighborhood, he most likely had a certain understanding of this neighborhood.
In Witland, there are very few people who don’t know about the Zarot neighborhood.
Although most people understand it as a weird story.
"Feel,"
He Ao stared calmly out of the window, his eyes falling on the crude mechanical arms that clearly posed safety hazards, as well as the operators' thin and shabby clothes. "They are working very hard, but they are not getting reasonable remuneration."
.”
There are only a few cases in the entire federation where there are people in the Zarot neighborhood of the city of Witland who specialize in garbage disposal.
Most cities, including Chenxi City and Kaya City, have specialized cleaning companies for garbage disposal and charge cleaning fees to citizens.
Thinking of this, He Ao suddenly realized that Wetland also had a cleaning company that charged garbage cleaning fees, and the price was not cheap.
"It's a very novel angle. You are the first person to make such comments to me,"
Hearing what He Ao said, Haixi was stunned for a moment. She stood up slowly and walked to He Ao, "Is this the way you highly educated professors think about problems?"
"To be precise, it's the way I think about problems," He Ao shrugged. "It's also different from professor to professor, right."
He turned to look at Haixi, "I heard that the scavengers in the Zarot neighborhood don't have social security numbers?"
Jess’ knowledge of the Zarot neighborhood was limited to interesting popular science videos on the Internet, but these videos still mentioned some key information. For example, the scavengers in the Zarot neighborhood did not have the identity of city residents or social security numbers.
.
"Yes,"
Haixi nodded lightly, "The people in this neighborhood did not live in the city a long time ago. They came from the wilderness.
"Wittland occupied the territory of the ancestors of the waste pickers during a city expansion, and the core area is the block below us.
"The city government at the time allocated this block to the wilderness wanderers who had lost their homes, but did not give these wanderers the status of city residents."
The information Haixi mentioned is information that is basically inaccessible on the Internet.
"It seems that Mayor Wetterland at the time didn't want these wilderness wanderers to stay in the city," He Ao looked out the window, "so he wanted to use this method to force them to leave."
Heao had once played the role of a wilderness wanderer, and he knew very well what he would face in a fortress city without a social security card number and a formal federal identity. He would be unable to find a formal job, open a bank account, or rent a house normally.
Without the means to support themselves and survive in the city, these wilderness wanderers will naturally be driven back to the wilderness.
Haixi glanced at He Ao in surprise. She didn't expect He Ao to figure out the key to the problem so quickly. Many people who were born in the city and naturally have federal legal status cannot understand what it means to lose federal status.
Giving living areas to the wilderness wanderers who stayed in the Zarot neighborhood at that time, but not giving them identities, was actually a disguised form of expulsion of these wilderness wanderers.
The mayor of Wheatland at the time wanted to be famous, but he also did not want these wilderness wanderers to stay in the city and increase his management risks.
I want both inner and outer face.
"The mayor's plan was half successful,"
Haixi walked to a white standing cabinet nearby, opened the cabinet, and a set of men's clothing hanging in the cabinet was revealed.
"Some wilderness wanderers couldn't bear the restricted life in the city, so they returned to the wilderness because they couldn't find a livelihood. The remaining people survived by processing urban garbage, and gradually formed the current 'garbage pickers'
By'."
Haixi took out the clothes from the cabinet and handed them to He Ao, "Your original clothes are already in disrepair. I bought you a new set of clothes based on the general style of that suit. This is our deal."
It’s a free gift, no money required.”
"sorry to bother you."
He Ao took the suit and glanced at it. It was almost exactly the same as the suit Jess wore before.
Jace's clothes are basically brand-name goods, but they are not completely rare custom-made clothes. It is still easy to find the style according to the brand.
But it is quite troublesome to identify the brand of clothes from He Ao's pile of tattered clothes, and then find the corresponding style and buy them.
"No trouble," Hai Xi spread his hands, "I asked my subordinates to do it, it's just a matter of words."
"It seems I was moved in vain."
He Ao smiled.
He gestured with the clothes and found that the size was indeed his size. Haixi had customized a dress for him before and knew his size.
"By the way," Haixi took out a silver mechanical mask from the closet, "This is a small air purifying mask. You were injured. The air outside may not be that good. You can wear the mask.
Come out again."
After that, she turned around and opened the door, "Your dagger is in the cabinet beside the bed. I'll wait for you outside."
She knew very well that He Ao wanted to leave the room. It was because she called out just now that He Ao did not open the door and leave immediately.
He Ao glanced at the clothes in his hand, shook his head and smiled.
Because of his promotion, his injury is almost healed now, so he now wants to see Thorne.
As one of the important figures who led Jace's tragic fate, Thorne must know many key clues about Jace and the mysterious man.
Last night, after figuring out that the wave of mercenaries squatting on Hexi in the mall might be the mercenaries protecting Thorne and ambushing 'Jace', He Ao determined Thorne's location.
Among the mercenaries, the task of killing He Ao is of higher importance than catching He Xi.
It was certainly impossible for them to give up Thorne and go out to do the mission. After all, if Thorne, who was unprotected, was captured by He Ao when they were besieging Haixi, it would be equivalent to wasting all their efforts.
Therefore, they will definitely take Thorne with them and beside the large army to prepare for Heao's attack at any time.
Therefore, Thorne was in Hexi's shopping mall at that time. He was surrounded by a group of mercenaries and mixed together to arrest Hexi.
After understanding this, He Ao also figured out the information gap between himself and these mercenaries at that time.
These mercenaries knew that there was a C-level strongman beside Haixi, but they did not know that it was He Ao, but He Ao already knew that they were the ones protecting Thorne.
On this basis, He Ao can create an 'unexpected encounter', allowing the mercenaries originally waiting for Hexi to meet the more important target 'Jace'.
After Ho Ao appeared, Thorne lost its value, and because it was a sudden encounter, the mercenaries had no time to arrange backup to protect Thorne.
And the strength shown by He Ao in annihilating the first elite mercenary team the night before yesterday was enough to make this group of mercenaries fearful.
Therefore, there is a high probability that they will go out in full force, leaving only a few soldiers to protect Thorn, or even leaving no one behind, and all of them will directly go after He Ao.
What happened was just as He Ao expected, a whole team of mercenaries came to hunt down He Ao, leaving Thorn without anyone to protect him.
Of course, Thorne is not a fool. After he realizes that he has no one to protect him, he will definitely run away decisively. He Ao, who is being entangled by mercenaries, will not have time to fight back.
So He Ao took advantage of the situation and asked Haixi to help him catch Thorne, and come to pick him up at the last moment.
Haixi has C-level strength and knows Thorn very well. There will be no problem in catching Thorn without anyone to protect him.
And if at the last moment, the mysterious man sends additional C-level support, with the help of Haixi, He Ao is confident that he can escape unscathed.
Although last night was thrilling, everything was actually under He Ao's control.
The only thing that may be risky is whether the Hexi whom I just met is trustworthy.
Through the whole process of the charity dinner and the state of Hexi in the final life-and-death chase, He Ao believed that Hexi was relatively reliable and trustworthy.
After all, He Ao actually has a favor to save her, and the two of them also have the enemy of the Huiermei Medical Foundation, and it is also in Hexi's interest to capture Thorne and deal with the traitors in the mall.
Although there are still some things about Hexi that He Ao is not clear about, He Ao is keenly aware that Hexi is relatively resolute in fighting against the Huilmei Medical Foundation.
What she did at the dinner was very risky, and as a qualified intermediary, he should not personally get involved in these things.
Haixi's actions proved that she had a reason to get involved.
And judging from the ambush in the underground parking lot, the Huiermei Medical Foundation has been trying to deal with her for a long time, which proves that there is a high probability of a deeper conflict between the two parties.
And this can be used as the basis for cooperation. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
After He Ao tentatively expressed her needs, Hai Xi readily agreed, which proved that He Ao's plan was also in her interest.
So He Ao finally chose to believe her.
The series of events last night also proved that He Ao's judgment was correct.
Of course, if Hai Xi is unwilling to cooperate or has other plans, He Ao also has other backup plans, but the effect is not as good as this one.
While thinking, He Ao had quickly changed his clothes, put the pendant back into his clothes, and then found the alloy dagger in the bedside cabinet.
Haixi found him a simple dagger sheath that could hold the dagger, but maybe because time was tight, the dagger sheath didn't fit well and was a little too big.
He Ao pulled out the dagger from its sheath, and with a crisp sound, his eyes were projected onto the cold alloy blade of the dagger.
He stared at the slightly curled edge of the dagger and quickly looked away.
The dagger was damaged, and he had to find a way to get a new weapon.
He sheathed the dagger, put the sheathed dagger into the inner pocket of his coat, and opened the door.
At this moment, a wind with a fishy smell came towards me.
He Ao twitched the tip of his nose, his expression remained unchanged, he walked out of the room and closed the door.
"Have you changed your clothes?"
Haixi, who was standing in the corridor with her back to the door, turned around and looked at He Ao. Then she paused and said, "Why don't you wear that air purifying mask?"
"This does not affect the taste."
He Ao shook his head.
Although he doesn't rely much on his sense of smell in combat, in certain scenarios, his sense of smell is also an important source of information.
"As long as you can get used to the smell."
Haixi nodded, knowing that He Ao must have his own reasons for not wearing a mask, and then she walked along the corridor, "I will take you to see Thorne."
"Um,"
He Ao's eyes swept around.
He found that the location he was in was also a small building, but unlike the surrounding small buildings that were mainly used to store garbage, this small building had walls all around and the walls were painted, making it look more like a
A place to live, not like a garbage factory.
At this moment, Haixi was leading him down the corridor.
Between these small buildings, there are also some "air corridors" made of rusty steel.
These corridors connect the small buildings in series, allowing people in the small buildings to walk between the small buildings without going downstairs.
It's just that these sky corridors don't look safe. Only a few corridors have roofs to protect them from the rain. Most of them have only some rusty railings, and some corridors don't even have railings. The narrow walkways are like slender
The bridge usually connects two small buildings.
Some children were running on it, stepping on the rusty steel plates, making a thumping sound.
“What is the source of income for the scavengers here?”
He Ao withdrew his eyes from the small buildings and corridors, and asked casually while walking along the corridor.
"garbage disposal,"
Haixi took a look at the densely packed garbage and said softly, "Many of these transported garbage are recyclable. Scavengers sort out these recyclable garbage, and then use some simple machines and methods to
Processed into industrial raw materials.
"For example, recycled aluminum cans are re-melted and then cast into qualified aluminum ingots. People from the cleaning company will come to recycle these aluminum ingots, but their prices are very low, only one-third or even one-third of the price given by the factory.
One quarter.
"I have tried to go directly to factories to sell these aluminum ingots before, but basically no factory is willing to directly purchase materials from waste pickers. In the end, these aluminum ingots had to be sold to cleaning companies."
"So by changing hands of these aluminum ingots, the cleaning company can directly obtain profits that are two to three times the cost?"
He Ao glanced at the shabby clothes of the scavengers, "What about the useless garbage after disposal?"
"Most of the trash here goes somewhere."
Haixi shook his head, "Only a small part of the garbage cannot be processed at all. The cleaning company will come and take away the garbage and charge the scavengers a cleaning fee."
Hearing this sentence, He Ao paused and said, "This cleaning company... is very profitable."
After all, the cleaning company of Wetland has actually collected cleaning fees from the citizens of Wetland once.
And the cleaning fee is not low, at least not lower than the cleaning fee in Chenxi City.
However, the cleaning fee in Chenxi City includes the cost of the cleaning company's garbage disposal.
The cleaning company in Veteran only needs to transport the garbage to the Zarot neighborhood.
Compared with the cleaning company in Chenxi City, the cleaning company in Wetland saves the cost of maintaining the operation of garbage disposal machinery and the cost of building a garbage disposal plant.
They can even make another scrap from the raw materials processed by the scavengers.
The most outrageous thing is that there is a charge for transporting garbage out of the city that the scavengers cannot handle.
In other cities, this part of the cost is already included in the cleaning fees paid by citizens.
He Ao didn't know where to start complaining for a while.
"The largest cleaning company in Vetland is Huiermei Cleaning Company, a subsidiary of Huiermei Medical Group,"
Haixi, who was walking in front, took He Ao down the stairs on the outer wall of the small building. "They teamed up with other small cleaning companies in Wetterland to form a monopoly alliance and decided on all garbage cleaning matters in the entire city. They will do it every year."
Spend a lot of money lobbying city council members to push the city council to pass bills that benefit them."
Hearing this, He Ao probably understood why the aluminum ingots produced by the scavengers could not be sold directly to the factory. There was a huge interest group that cut off the contact between the scavengers and the outside world.
He also vaguely understood the contradiction between Haixi and Huiermei Medical Foundation.
"Here we are,"
Haixi stopped in front of a rather wide warehouse door and reached out to push open the door. The dark interior of the warehouse was revealed. In this chaotic darkness, the dim lights in the depths of the warehouse could be vaguely seen. "There is no light inside."
, maybe a little dark.”
"It's okay, it won't affect you."
He Ao stared at the dark warehouse. The dark scene fell into his eyes, but it was as clear as if it were illuminated by light.
He easily saw Thorne sitting at the end of the warehouse.
Strictly speaking, this was the first meeting between him and Thorne.
He took a deep breath and walked into the warehouse.
