Chapter 192 — The Dilapidated Shantytown
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Huh?" Wei Zhao hadn't noticed before; only after Kang Xiaofeng mentioned it did he look at the ornament, and several black lines promptly appeared on his forehead: "This ornament belongs to the car's owner..." "Boss, I get it!" Kang Xiaofeng wore the look of a man who knew everything and chuckled: "Boss, I'm a man too, I know how it is. It's fine, I won't tell Tang Zhi!"
"..." Wei Zhao plucked the ornament off and tossed it into the passenger-side glove compartment.
"Yeah, hide it quick, or it'll be bad if Tang Zhi sees it." Kang Xiaofeng nodded in deep agreement.
Hearing that, Wei Zhao broke out in a cold sweat and nearly crashed the car.
The shantytown actually refers to areas within a city's built-up zone that have a high density of single-story houses, have been in use for many years, suffer from poor housing quality, have a small per-capita floor area, lack complete supporting infrastructure, are inconvenient for transportation, carry major security and fire-safety hazards, and are filthy, chaotic, and dilapidated in terms of environmental hygiene.
Many developing cities have shantytowns like this. Of course, not everything in a shantytown is a single-story house — there are some multi-story buildings too, but those are three-story red-brick buildings, hardly any better than the single-story houses: no gas lines, no network infrastructure, and so on... some don't even have kitchen exhaust flues.
Wei Zhao's hometown was full of run-down houses just like these, so the sight stirred nothing in him. Kang Xiaofeng, though, had only ever passed by the shantytown from the road and had never set foot inside. Today, seeing it up close, he was thoroughly shaken. He had never imagined that Tang Zhi could live in such a wretched place. Reeking piles of coal and firewood, heaps of garbage and open sewers... it was a wholly foul environment.
And yet it was out of this foul environment that Tang Zhi had emerged — the commoner beauty of No. 1 High School.
"Boss, this place..." Kang Xiaofeng could not help rolling up the car window. The smell was getting to him.
"Where I used to live was about the same as this." Wei Zhao smiled, entirely unbothered. There was more he did not say: on the battlefield he had endured far worse — lying low for days on end in sewers and swamps...
Wei Zhao found Green Grass Alley and turned the car into it. Once inside, however, driving any further was hopeless; every doorway was heaped with all manner of junk.
Wei Zhao had no choice but to park at the mouth of the alley, in a spot clear of the debris. The residents within stared at the little car with its vivid color and its plainly not-so-cheap price tag.
As a rule, few cars came into the shantytown. Apart from taxis, practically no one who lived here could afford a car — and anyone who could afford one would not have gone on living here; they would long since have bought a house somewhere better.
Wei Zhao and Kang Xiaofeng got out, locked the car, and followed the house numbers in search of Tang Zhi's home.
The gate to Tang Zhi's courtyard was visibly more dilapidated than any of the others, clearly unrepaired for a very long time. Whether from lack of time or lack of money, Wei Zhao could not tell — and the sight of it made his heart ache...
To say nothing of Kang Xiaofeng beside him.