Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 557 Social Disorder

Without hesitation, she went back to her room to change her clothes, picked up her phone, and browsed the local forums of the satellite city, intending to find a place where she could buy cheap nails and cement.

As soon as I opened the forum homepage, I was stunned by the screen full of post titles.

"They're insane! They're all insane! There was another fight this morning!"

"Old Wang's door next door was smashed, and even after calling the police, nobody cared!"

"I'm begging for shelter! I'm willing to pay for a place to rent. I have savings and supplies; I just need a safe place to stay!"

"Another batch of people from Satellite City No. 2 arrived, carrying large and small bags and bringing their families, blocking the city gate completely."

"Warning everyone, please don't go out at night lately. There are too many groups of people on the streets who will target lone individuals!"

Xu Xiaoyan scrolled down the list one by one, her fingers moving faster and faster across the screen.

Most of those posts were published late last night and early this morning, and each one carried an overwhelming sense of anxiety and panic.

She randomly clicked on the most popular post, which contained a lengthy summary of what had happened in Satellite City No. 5 in the past few days.

While she was busy planting and tidying up the yard, the outside world had turned upside down.

When Qing City introduced the assessment policy for those eight satellite cities, the top four satellite cities received preferential treatment in terms of resources, while the bottom four satellite cities undertook the task of resettling most of the newly relocated migrants.

As soon as this policy was announced, the residents of the last four satellite cities immediately protested.

When we moved to the satellite city, Qing City offered us many preferential policies.

Free land, low-cost housing, relocation subsidies—all these favorable policies were combined to entice people to leave their homes and move here.

As a result, before they could even settle in after moving here, their satellite city became a "reception point".

Displaced people poured in from all directions, arriving in truckloads, making public health a major problem, and even public security a serious issue.

We don't know if there will be a second wave of the epidemic, nor do we know what diseases those migrants from all over the country are carrying.

Life is getting more and more hopeless, and I don't even know if I can keep my life.

As a result, a large number of residents in the last four satellite cities began to take action.

They liquidated their assets, sold off land, resold houses—sold everything they could—and then, with the money in their pockets and their families, headed to the four satellite cities ahead.

The four satellite cities, number one, four, five, and eight, became highly sought-after properties.

Crowds surged in wave after wave, and queues formed at the city gate from morning till night. The square in front of the trading center was filled with people holding signs seeking to rent or buy.

The problem is that the higher-ups seem to have noticed this trend.

Fearing that the first four satellite cities would absorb too many people and become megacities, exceeding the planned carrying capacity, all urban expansion projects were urgently halted.

All satellite cities can only maintain their current size for the time being, and cannot expand outward by an inch of land, nor can they build any new plots of land or houses.

This completely caused an uproar.

With a continuous influx of people and a limited number of properties and houses, those who own property have become highly sought-after by everyone.

Rental prices doubled overnight, and land prices soared to an astonishing level.

Those who hold land but are unwilling to sell it for the time being become targets for all sorts of "shady dealings".

Someone on the forum revealed that a family on a certain street found red paint splashed on their courtyard wall when they opened their door in the morning.

Some people had their windows smashed in the middle of the night, and others were surrounded by a group of people and forced to ask "Are you selling your house?" when they went out to take out the trash.

Disputes between people are increasing in the satellite cities, and fights and disturbances have gone from occasional occurrences to commonplace events.

Neighbors can argue for half a day over a corner of a wall, and fights break out almost every day at the entrance of the trading center over vying for a number.

Xu Xiaoyan put her phone on her lap, leaned back in her chair, and let out a long sigh.

In this environment, sneaking over the wall into someone's house to stay for a few days is probably considered a "mild" method.

Those who are even more ruthless have probably already started doing even more outrageous things.

She picked up her phone again and entered the keywords "building materials," "nails," and "cement" into the search box.

Right now, she can't control the overall environment of the satellite city, nor can she control the migrants who have poured in from the last four satellite cities.

All she could do was reinforce her courtyard wall to make it even stronger and more sturdy, so that those who had malicious intentions would think twice before reaching out.

Several search results quickly appeared on the screen. Someone posted that they could sell leftover cement and nails from their home renovation at a low price, and attached their contact information and address.

Xu Xiaoyan had just saved the contact information from that post into her address book when she thought about it and decided that it would be faster to just call directly.

She dialed the number, and it was answered after two rings. A young man's voice answered crisply, "Hello, who is this?"

"Hello, I saw your post on the forum saying you have leftover cement and nails from your home renovation to sell. I'd like to ask how much you have left and what the approximate price would be?" Xu Xiaoyan got straight to the point.

The man seemed to be busy with something; there were sounds of things being moved in the background, but his tone was very cheerful.

"There are three bags of cement, each weighing fifty pounds, and three or four pounds of nails. They come in various sizes and are all brand new and unused."

I won't ask for much more. Fifteen yuan a bag of cement, and ten yuan for the nails, that'll be fifty-five yuan in total. Is that alright?

Xu Xiaoyan mentally compared the market prices with what she had learned from the building materials market.

This price is indeed not expensive for a satellite city right now, especially for building materials like cement, which are in such high demand that it's good enough to be able to buy them.

She replied, "Okay, price is no problem, but I have a favor to ask. Could you deliver it to my door?"

"My transportation here isn't very convenient, so it would be quite difficult to carry it myself."

The man laughed heartily, "No problem, I'm free right now. Where do you want to stay? I'll deliver it to you in my tricycle, it'll be quick."

Xu Xiaoyan gave him her home address, and the man paused slightly after hearing it, his tone tinged with surprise:

"Oh, the E15 plot? It's quite close to me. Wait here, I'll be there in fifteen minutes. Just leave the gate open, and I'll unload the gate for you when I get there."

"Okay, thanks." Xu Xiaoyan hung up the phone, feeling much more at ease.

I didn't expect to contact the seller so easily, especially since they were so close by, which saved me a lot of trouble.

She walked to the courtyard gate, unlatched it, leaving a crack, and then stood inside waiting.