Chapter 174: Chapters 170 and 171 Assistance Comes from All Directions (Double Update for Monthly Tickets)_2 Chapter 174: Chapters 170 and 171 Assistance Comes from All Directions (Double Update for Monthly Tickets)_2 “I’m staying too! Leaving at this time, wouldn’t that make me a deserter?”
“The Zerg haven’t arrived yet, what are we afraid of! Brothers and sisters, let’s stay and keep on manufacturing!”
“I want to pitch in too!” Someone discreetly returned their ticket home, while others, feeling heavy-hearted, texted their families to say they couldn’t leave yet but assured them everything was safe for now.
“Great! Then we’ll fight right here in the factory!” Yuan Han shouted, “Cancel all other orders. The group will absorb the losses!”
“Now, manufacture everything needed for the frontline engineering at maximum capacity! Let’s get to work!”
“Let’s get to work!” Tens of thousands of employees rushed to their posts.
Similar scenes unfolded in steel companies, pharmaceutical companies, and other enterprises.
Even companies not in Shanghai released similar announcements.
A logistics company announced, “From now on, all emergency supplies in our Shanghai warehouses will be d, free of charge! Additionally, we will voluntarily coordinate national resources for Shanghai!”
An internet company announced, “We will 10 billion to Shanghai to assist with defense-related tasks!”
A food company announced, “We are urgently allocating food for donation to Shanghai!”
An automotive group announced, “We are modifying the production line to manufacture the machinery needed for defense!”
In times of crisis, help came from all directions! The entire society responded!
In the central region, an engineering team had just completed a project. The contractor, Gao Zhuo, was distributing wages to the workers. With their wages in hand, everyone could finally rest after more than a year of hard work.
“Dali, what will you do with your wages?” Gao Zhuo asked, handing a bundle of money to a dark-skinned worker with a laugh.
“Of course, I’m going home to see my wife!” everyone laughed.
But Dali wore a serious expression, “I’m planning to go to Shanghai!”
“Go to Shanghai? Are you crazy?” someone said, “Haven’t you watched the news? The Zerg are headed there! Everyone’s fleeing, what are you going there for?”
“Yeah, I thought your hometown wasn’t in Shanghai?”
“I know,” Dali replied. “They say workers are in short supply there now, and I don’t have any particular skills, but I can work hard.”
“Have you gone mad for money?” a worker asked, “If the Zerg really invade, you might be in trouble!”
“It’s not about the money!” Dali replied, “I can work without pay. I always wanted to join the army but never got the chance. Now that I have an opportunity to go to the front lines, I must seize it!”
“If nobody goes, what if the engineering projects can’t be completed? Are we supposed to sit around waiting for the bugs to come ashore and kill us?”
With that, he took his money and headed out.
The crowd fell silent. Gao Zhuo lit a cigarette, cursed jokingly, “Dali, who never studied, still has such awareness!”
“Damn it, Dali, you wait a second!”
Dali asked, “Boss, what’s up?”
Gao Zhuo stood up, smiling, “I have a car. I’ll take you there!”
“Boss, count me in!” a worker stood and said, “Dali and I are from the same hometown. If he goes to Shanghai and I don’t, everyone back home might ridicule me! I should go too!”
“Yes, yes, I’m going too! I need money, and they say the pay is excellent there. I might just trade my bicycle for a motorbike!”
“They’ll need my dirt truck, right?” asked the dirt truck driver.
“Boss, you’re not taking me to make money? I won’t work with you next time!”
Seeing the sun-darkened faces around him, the foreman, Gao Zhuo, cursed jovially, “You’re even threatening me now! Fine, those who go shouldn’t regret it. I’ll talk to the other foremen, and we’ll form an engineering team and take the construction vehicles along!”
“Tonight, we’ll depart for Shanghai overnight!”
In the North, inside a public safety office lobby.
A receptionist watched as an elderly man wearing a janitor’s outfit and a mask hurried in.
“Sir, how may I help you?” the receptionist asked.
The elderly man placed a small cloth bag on the counter, saying, “Please pass this on.”
“Hey… hey, sir, you forgot your belongings!” the receptionist called out, but the man had disappeared.
Curious, she opened the small bag and was startled to find a stack of bills inside. Judging by the thickness, it was around tens of thousands!
“Why would he leave money here? Was it lost property? There’s no information… what should I do?” she fretted, then noticed a small note inside the bag.
It read, “34,000 in total, my personal savings. Please this to Shanghai, thank you!”
“Over thirty thousand!” the receptionist exclaimed. The elderly man looked like just a regular cleaner. How many years would it take to save up so much money?
She could almost envision him penny-pinching and painstakingly saving. He had d all the money without leaving a name!
At a roadside stall, a group of middle-aged men were drinking and dining together.
Among them were wealthy-looking businessmen, just-off-duty security guards, and oily-looking older men.
Eight in total, they were clinking glasses.
“Everyone heard about what’s happening in Shanghai?” Feng Yang, the older man, asked.
“Yes, we all have!” the group nodded in unison, “The Zerg are coming. That place has become the most critical point!”
“The whole country is preparing. Our company was just organizing donations for Shanghai!”
“Yes, crisis is coming!” Feng Yang downed a glass of wine, “I’m planning to go to Shanghai!”
The group was shocked at his words, “Has the organization issued a recall order?”
They were all veterans, having left the service over ten years ago, and were comrades in arms.
“Not yet!” Feng Yang replied, “I’ve been following the news on the Zerg. Looking at this situation, it’s only a matter of time before they threaten humanity at large. By then, the country will need us!”
“Boys, do you remember our days in the army?”
“Of course! We were just eighteen or nineteen then, training hard daily!”
“Li and I had top and bottom bunks!”
“Don’t even start! I still remember your foot odor! After training… that smell was lethal!”
“How time flies—almost twenty years have passed, and we’re now greasy middle-aged men,” Feng Yang mused.
“Yes, all married with families now!”
“Look at my belly! I used to have an eight-pack during training!” the stout boss Shen Li patted his beer belly, lamenting.
“Old Feng, our physical fitness isn’t what it used to be!”
“I know, but I still want to go to Shanghai!” Feng Yang said, “Even though the organization hasn’t recruited me yet, I can volunteer! I can join an engineering team or help elsewhere!”
“You’ve made up your mind?” asked the group.
“Yes, I have! I’ve already discussed it with my wife!” Feng Yang said solemnly, “The ticket is already bought, 6:30 tomorrow morning!”
“I want to go too, but with my current physique, I’d only add to their troubles!” Shen Li sighed, “It seems this time, I must lose weight no matter what!”
“I need to go back and discuss it with my wife!”
“I envy you guys. I’d love to go to Shanghai, but I have work here. Our unit is also producing emergency supplies, and I can’t just leave this place.”
“Old Feng, well done, your brothers are all supporting you!”
“Once I shed this weight, I’ll definitely join you!” Shen Li said.
“No worries, as long as we all remember what we said before we retired!” Feng Yang raised his glass and said, “Brothers, let’s shout it together.”
Everyone raised their glasses and shouted in unison, “If there’s a war, we will return!”
The clink of glasses was followed by hearty laughter.