Even inside the base city, the shortage of survival resources meant that items like food, water, and medicine not only required money to purchase but also various tickets.0

In the slums, water had to be exchanged with water tickets. Water in the slums had previously been controlled by the Sewage Plant Gang, one of the seven major gangs. Except for neighborhoods like Guang'an, which had their own sweet water wells, other residents had to endure exorbitant water prices and other costs to get water.0

Drinking water was always scarce within the base city. Many people in the slums had never taken a bath in their entire lives. Even in the rule-of-law district, many people resorted to washing their bodies and clothes sparingly.1

In addition to the water issue, food was also in short supply.  Most people in the slums had never tasted meat or vegetables, nor had they ever eaten white flour. They subsisted on cheap mixed nutrition porridge, a paste-like substance made from various so-called nutritional...0