Chapter 51: Price Crisis

“Stop, show your identification.”

A minor official at the checkpoint, accompanied by a soldier, blocked Zhou Liming. He looked Zhou Liming up and down, his brow twitched, and he said indifferently, “What? You think you can enter the city without cleaning yourself up? I don’t think you have any ID either. Looking like that, there is no way you will pass the review.”

Zhou Liming did not expect the other party to see at a glance that he had no entry or exit documents. Only then did he understand why so many people fought to queue for baths at the public sanitation facilities. It turned out it was to apply for travel documents, so they could leave this chaotic Refugee Camp and enter the city.

Not many people could enter the city, so one could imagine how difficult the review process was.

However, Zhou Liming had already anticipated being stopped. He reached into his pocket, leaned close to the inspecting official, flashed the object in his hand before the official’s eyes, then stuffed it into his hand, saying, “Please take care of me.”

The light reflected off the object, flashing a yellow-white gleam that made the official squint. His pupils contracted slightly, and he calmly slipped the object into his pocket. He waved his hand at Zhou Liming and said, “Go on in, but don’t tell anyone I let you through.”

Zhou Liming nodded and quickly passed through the checkpoint. It was clear that the dozen or so gold rings he had handed over had done the trick.

As a tourist city, Wan J City had a well-developed service industry. Entering the urban area, one could see high-rise hotels everywhere. Although the government had restricted people from entering or leaving Wan J City, the streets were still packed with people. Those who had entered through various connections and channels filled the entire city.

Just entering the urban area, the crowded streets gave Zhou Liming a start; he almost thought this was the city center’s business district.

The economy in the coastal region was very developed, and the number of wealthy people was beyond counting. How could people like these be willing to stay in the Refugee Camp? From the familiar manner of that official just now, it was clear that many people had used this method to leave the Refugee Camp and enter Wan J City.

Wherever there were people, there were business opportunities.

The situation on the streets was somewhat polarized. Shops selling daily necessities and clothing were deserted. However, food-related shops were nearly bursting at the seams. People waved banknotes, constantly pushing past those in front, just to buy something edible.

In a city’s long-term development, various demands usually remained stable. But facing the sudden influx of millions of people, the demand for food instantly more than doubled, directly plunging Wan J City into a food crisis. The supply from the rear had to cover dozens of cities on the blockade lines, making shortages inevitable.

People could go without new clothes, not use cosmetics, and not buy other non-food items, but they could not go without eating.

Massive consumption, combined with insufficient supply from the rear, caused food prices to keep rising, reaching an unbearable level. Those who possessed certain assets before the Fierce Beast Era arrived did not feel it much. However, those barely scraping by at a modest living standard became the victims of this mad surge in food prices.

Hundreds of thousands of yuan would only let you live for a month. For a bun that used to cost one yuan, you now had to spend a hundred to buy it. Even more terrifyingly, sometimes even if you gritted your teeth and were willing to pay a hundred, you might not be able to buy one. People frantically buying all food had already swept away everything edible. Before goods were even put on the shelves, there was nothing left to buy.

Smart people had long ago invested all their savings into buying food, storing at least a month’s worth for themselves. Those who later surged into the city had to face high food prices and the dilemma of goods being snapped up the moment they appeared.

Walking on the street, the topic people argued about most was food.

Under the influence of food, other prices were also quietly rising. The crisis brought by currency inflation was gradually sweeping the globe.

Zhou Liming was no economist, nor someone with much social experience. He was just a high school student who hadn’t even graduated. He didn’t know what currency inflation meant. He only knew that the prices he saw now were ridiculously high. Although not as crazy as in Hemudu Town and Shuangqiao Town, it was still shocking and unbearable.

In fact, it was not a price crisis, but a resource crisis. When total social demand far exceeded total social supply, this kind of crisis would naturally appear.

Food, clothing, shelter, and transportation were the most basic human needs. In this period, excluding transportation, the remaining three saw food prices rise the most madly, followed by shelter, with clothing at the bottom. The real estate industry, already crazy before, now saw prices quintuple in just half a month. Houses that used to cost twenty thousand per square meter now reached eighty to one hundred thousand per square meter.

Zhou Liming’s purpose in entering the city was to find a house, move out of the Refugee Camp, and give the Dean and the younger brothers and sisters a comfortable living environment.

Food prices had increased by tens of times, but the base price of food was too cheap. A simple, frugal meal could be solved with a hundred yuan. Moreover, with the government-supplied aid meals, people could barely get by. However, although housing prices had only risen five or six times, their base price was too high. Buying a hundred square meters required nearly ten million, far exceeding the tolerance of the vast majority of people.

Although he had learned from people’s conversations on the way here that this was an inevitable trend, Zhou Liming still found it hard to accept for a moment.

Soaring prices meant the rich could still live luxuriously, while the poor could only wait for government help, making the polarization increasingly severe. Under environmental pressure, people’s sanity was easily lost, and this polarization led to clashes between the two extremes.

Explosions occurred occasionally in the city, and the sound of gunshots was not strange. Some desperadoes didn’t care that this was a city under military control with martial law in effect. They only knew that to live it up, they needed money. With no one knowing who would die next, was murder and robbery really so strange?

No wonder people always said that beneath a chaotic city lay countless crimes.

Standing on the street where people flowed like weaving, Zhou Liming gripped his woven bag. A mix of five flavors surged in his heart, and he didn’t know exactly what he was feeling.

“In prosperous times, antiques; in chaotic times, gold. I hope you won’t let me down!”

Standing lost on the street, the only things Zhou Liming could rely on were probably this sentence and the woven bag full of gold jewelry in his hand.