Dedition: He’s trying to say that the river looks beautiful and bountiful (1st paragraph), but it is in fact misleading and dangerous and that some of the people there are, in reality, forced to be there (2nd paragraph).
Zhang He carefully climbed out from the water, in his hands, he had a few river prawns that were the size of his fingers, as well as a heap of shellfish and mussels. He knew there was a shoal nearby, and the Mutant Beasts inside the water seldom appeared there. However, nothing was for certain, he had witnessed his partner being torn apart by a Mutant Beast just 3 days ago, and fresh blood had dyed the shoal. He could vividly recall the despair and fear of his friend when he was torn in two. His friend was only 11, Zhang He himself, 12.
Zhang He looked at the few river prawns and heaved a sigh of relief, these river prawns could be exchanged for one or 2 jin of cornmeal, which could feed him, his brother and sister for one or two full meals.
Zhang He looked towards his left and right, before keeping the river prawns inside a plastic bag, and hid it in his clothes. He took the mussels and shellfish and placed them in another plastic bag, before digging up some wild vegetation that could be eaten, before walking towards the exit.
“You, come over here and pay your taxes!!” A middle aged man in uniform saw Zhang He approaching from the riverside and called out to him with a wooden expression.
Right beside the man in uniform, there were 7 burly men. All those who tried to make a living from the riverside had to pay them taxes, otherwise they would receive a beating, and if they were beaten to death, they would be thrown into the river to be fed to those monsters.
6 extremely frail looking women helplessly presented their spoils to these tax officials. Even after being skimmed by them once, they would still be skimmed another time by the other underground societies as protection fees.
Zhang He walked towards them frigidly, as he handed them the plastic bag filled with the mussels, shellfish and wild vegetation.
“These are yours! You can go!” After taking over half of the items in the plastic bag and throwing them into a basket, he threw the plastic bag with the remaining items back to Zhang He.
Zhang He received the bag that was reduced one, and wanted to turn around to leave.
“Wait a minute!!” The tax officer seemed to have suddenly thought of something, as he grabbed onto Zhang He, and ordered the 7 burly men: “Hold him down!”
Dedition: You need 7 big guys to hold down a 12 year old?