In the small town, although it is only after seven o'clock, many people have already started setting up stalls.
The apartment provides a lot of money to the residents, so Dong Xie and the others are going to buy bread.
As soon as I arrived at the door of the bakery, I saw several beggars in ragged gray masks kneeling there, shouting: "Sir, please give us something to eat! We are really going to starve to death!"
"Get out!" the bakery manager in a black mask yelled: "Why can't you drive away? I wonder how much the price of flour has increased now? You actually asked me to give you bread for free? You want it?"
Eat, don’t I want to eat?”
"You..." one of the beggars said: "If you weren't wearing a black mask..."
The store manager scolded: "What if I don't wear a black mask? But I am wearing a black mask! Don't even look at it. Who dares to open a store selling food and daily necessities without wearing a black mask? Let me tell you,
If you want to blame, blame it on you being a gray mask when you were born! Blame your parents on being a gray mask!"
Dong Xie was shocked when he heard this.
When... came out of the mother's womb?
Could it be that this mask is the same as Jia Baoyu's psychic jade, worn when the fetus is in the womb?
Is there such a ridiculous thing?
Then, several shop assistants rushed out and picked up the beggars.
"I'm telling you, you are just too soft-hearted!" The Black Mask store manager continued to yell: "The one who pulls someone away will be severely beaten!"
"Please... give me some bread... I don't want to starve to death, I don't want to starve to death..."
Looking at this scene, Dong Xie felt terrified.
…
After buying bread, everyone ate absentmindedly.
Dong Xie thought of the scene just now, and at the same time, he thought of the body that starved to death in the alley yesterday.
This place is obviously extremely closed to the outside world, and there is no way to rely on imported food, so the internal agricultural foundation is extremely important.
"Everyone! Please vote for Mr. Tony De! Please vote for Mr. Tony De!"
At this time, a square in front was crowded, and many people gathered there.
"Oh, it doesn't matter who you vote for. Anyway, they are just empty words and cannot solve our problems of food and employment."
"You might as well vote for me if you vote for Tony De."
In the square, it seemed that a campaign team was giving a speech. Most of the team members wore blue masks.
"I thought this was a totalitarian dictatorship." Dong Xie was somewhat surprised, "It's actually a democratic election system?"
At this time, he heard someone next to him say: "Who will you vote for on the election day? Tony De or James?"
"James. But the difference is not big. There are only five seats in the Silver Council. If a new Silver Councilor is elected, what difference will there be? When the council candidates give speeches, the crowds are not excited.
"
"Every election is a game for the rich. Without the support of the rich, who can be elected as a member of the parliament?"
"Tell me, what would happen if the Black Corpse team found the golden mask outside the black wall?"
"No need to ask, it must be good luck. Thirty years ago, when the golden mask was just lost outside the black wall, how many people went out to look for it, and a few survived. Now, the Black Corpse Team is out
Outside the wall, less than one tenth of the people can come back alive. Those who are rich and powerful don’t have the guts to go out again.”
Golden mask!
Finally got a clue!
"Tonide! Tonide! Tonide!"
Supporters of the candidate candidate began to shout, and the scene became heated.
"It's all empty talk, we want to have enough to eat!"
"How have the prices in the Black Wall increased now?"
"Rich people are now hoarding grain and selling it on the black market to make huge profits. The campaign team has been talking about it for a long time, but they haven't mentioned controlling grain prices and cracking down on speculators and profiteers?"
"You don't understand this." A man with gray hair who looked a bit older said: "Those rich people who farm grain are the ones who fund their campaigns behind the scenes. How can they touch the interests of these people?"
Dong Xie studied economics when he was in university. In China, food prices are subject to national macro-control. Therefore, with government intervention, it is impossible for businessmen to increase prices without limit on food, a daily necessity. But obviously, in
In this place, food prices and inflation are important factors causing social unrest.
"I won't vote for these people!" One of them raised his middle finger and said, "Unless you vote for one and get a bag of flour."
"You are too naive. One vote and one bag of flour. Who would be willing to give away so much food for free? These days, food is almost turning into hard currency."
The white-haired old man sighed and said: "I have to be honest, if it weren't for the low-level masks that couldn't resist the high-level masks, there would have been a large-scale riot. Now no one would dare to sell food without guns. In fact,
, if it were not for the fact that it is difficult for people with silver masks to give birth to children with the same silver masks, and the silver masks must be hereditary in the family, there would be no voting. Moreover, only after the death of the silver-masked congressman, and the vacancy of the silver masks will appear.
Get voting."
"Old sir, why don't you think the congressman just decides his successor before he dies, instead of holding a vote to choose who will wear his silver mask?"
"It's a factional struggle. After all, we can't decide who to vote for ourselves. The candidates we vote for are not all selected by the people in the Silver Council. Do you think that after we vote, no one will do shady operations to fake votes?
Everyone wants to push their own people to the top, so of course they have to muddy the waters."
In reality, Dong Xie, who had just followed the American election across the ocean, couldn't help but recall some of what he learned when he took a history course.
The progress of mankind from slave society to feudal society is not due to the improvement of the moral level of the ruling class, but the political system of slavery will bring higher political costs, so the rulers need to exercise a certain degree of power over the ruled
transfer.
But on the contrary... if there is a mask, a tool that can exercise absolute control over the lower classes, the transfer of power to the ruled will no longer exist. The reason why elections still exist is simply because the highest totalitarian ruler is needed
, the golden mask no longer exists. The silver mask seems to be second only to the golden mask, but there is more than one, so the power has reached a state similar to the separation of powers in modern Europe and the United States.
There is no doubt that if the Golden Mask is obtained by someone and becomes the absolute ruler, the society within this wall will immediately degenerate into a complete slave society, and even this superficial democratic election will not exist. Here
, as long as one wears a high-level mask, there is almost no need to worry about slave resistance. And as long as anyone takes off the mask, he will become a so-called face-splitting person who is not tolerated in the world.
"It's still a bad life." The white-haired old man sighed, "When we are born, we are gray masks, and when we die, we can only be gray masks. It is too difficult to wear another mask."
The method that Dong Xie knows so far to change the mask is to take the mask off the dead person and put it on himself.
Could it be that... only the mask of the dead can be worn?
"Please cast your sacred vote for Alternate Tony! Your vote will determine who can wear the silver mask in one month!"
"Please cast your sacred vote!"
At this moment, Dong Xie suddenly noticed a ragged beggar huddled on the roadside. Looking at his clothes, he turned out to be one of the men in front of the bakery.
Dong Xie thought for a while, walked quickly to the beggar, and knelt down.
"I have some questions to ask you. As long as you answer them well, I'll treat you to a meal."
When the beggar heard this, he quickly knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Dong Xie.
"Good man, you are a good man! It doesn't matter, as long as you can give me a full meal, you can ask whatever you want!"
"You...you get up first..."
A man who is extremely hungry and whose status is the lowest beggar among Gray Masks... It should be the most appropriate person to ask for information from him. Even if he doubts the identity of himself and others, no one will believe him if he tells him.
There happens to be a small restaurant nearby.
When entering the restaurant, the waiter quickly stopped the beggar who was following Dong Xie.
"Sorry, you can't go in."
"I, I came with that gentleman!" The beggar pointed at Dong Xie quickly.
Dong Xie also immediately said: "Let him come in."
This immediately attracted the attention of many people in the restaurant.
Suddenly, a shout came from the restaurant.
"Store manager, something...something big happened!"
A waiter rushed to a man in a black mask, leaned into the store manager's ear, and whispered something.
"you say……"
The store manager quickly said to another waiter on the side: "Please help me take a look at the store first. Take me to see it!"
The alley behind the restaurant.
A corpse wearing a gray mask fell to the ground, with a syringe still clutched in its hand.
The deceased had a sallow face and thin muscles, so thin that he almost turned into a skeleton. Both arms were covered with pinholes.
"Another addict." The black mask store manager raised his hand and tried to take off the mask, but sure enough... he couldn't succeed.
"It actually happened in the back alley of my store..."
The store manager stood up, walked a few steps in place, and said: "These damn drug addicts! This year's food harvest is bad, how come the poppy cultivation is not affected? You can't eat enough, and you take drugs! You also take drugs
Don't bother me! No, the most important thing is that the mask can no longer be taken off..."
"Inform the Black Corpse Team..."
"That might just force me to close down my business for rectification! No, the body can't be found here..."
"But the store manager, his mask can no longer be taken off, which means that the mask has become his 'face'. If this continues, he will..."
"Are you the store manager or am I the store manager? I have the final say! Move the body away secretly! We must not let the Black Corpse team seal my store!"