Chapter 97 The chase outside the door: No matter what, you can't just kill someone in the street...

Yao Xiaoyu didn't catch that fleeting inspiration, but she didn't care much. She went back and focused on finishing her manuscript—she wrote three short stories in a row, and when she returned to the Ming Dynasty, she was about to leave the page blank!

The plots of farming novels are all the same. Yao Xiaoyu hardly thought when she wrote it: Er Ya's family made their first pot of gold by selling cold noodles. The villagers gossiped about it, and the Zhang family heard it. They went to ask for money with a straight face, but were slapped. They asked for the recipe, but were slapped again. So they had a crooked idea.

When Er Ya went up the mountain again to find the raw materials for jelly, she found that someone was following her. She quietly led the person into the deep mountains. The Zhang family got lost in the mountains and cried loudly in fear. Er Ya's family had a meal with a wild chicken they had found. The villagers went up the mountain to search for them. After the Zhang family was found, before they could accuse Er Ya of harming people's lives, she was exposed for stealing the recipe and her reputation was ruined.

With all the ingredients for the cold noodles on the mountain gone, Er Ya started selling large steamed buns. Yao Xiaoyu was so excited that her face was practically contorted with excitement, and her pen seemed to be sparking as she wrote on the paper. The fantastical combination of making a thousand large steamed buns a day and consuming a thousand steamed buns a day was about to launch. Whether Yao Xiaoyu's path to domination would be subtle or unrestrained would depend on these few plot points!

Yao Xiaoyu finished writing the whole story in one go: how the steamed buns business was initially slow, but then she used a trick to make a successful start and sold out completely, and how the Zhang family had another idea but were slapped in the face again. Only then did her adrenaline finally subside, and she collapsed onto the table—high emotions are very energy-consuming.

"Gurgle!"

Her stomach was protesting. Yao Xiaoyu sighed and walked downstairs weakly. Tao Xiaoxiao saw that she looked completely exhausted, so she quickly turned up the charcoal fire that had been burning day and night, threw in a handful of noodles and cracked an egg into the hot water. By the time Yao Xiaoyu sat down at the table, the noodles had been cooked and served. Tao Xiaoxiao had also thoughtfully added slices of braised beef to the side.

Yao Xiaoyu endured the heat and ate two bites. She felt that her stomach was no longer pressed against the back of her stomach, so she just used her chopsticks to slowly stir the noodles, preparing to let them cool down before eating. Wenrou couldn't bear to see this scene of eating and playing at the same time, so she changed direction and copied the book.

The rate at which noodles multiply doesn't change with the times. After a few bites, the once-full bowl of soup was completely empty. Fortunately, the noodles were still distinct when picked up, not turned into a mushy mess. Yao Xiaoyu tested the temperature and, making sure it wasn't too hot, started eating. The bowl filled her stomach to about half full. Thinking of going out to find food, she opened the door to find herself in a chase.

A chase?!

Yao Xiaoyu suspected she was seeing things, so she slammed the door shut and reopened it. Just then, she bumped into the man who was running back. Before he could ask for help, Yao Xiaoyu quickly closed and bolted the door shut. She had seen this man on the street before; he was bragging to someone that he was particularly good at selling opium. Yao Xiaoyu had heard that his opium had caused a death.

But dying is one thing, but wielding a large knife and hacking people in the street is another!

She had only been in seclusion writing her novel for less than a week, how did the outside world become so dangerous? Could it be that everyone in the world is bound to a time acceleration system, and decades have already passed?!

Yao Xiaoyu tried to glean something from the newspapers, but besides criticizing a small fish for crowing like a hen, criticizing scholars for fabricating data, criticizing orioles for being unfaithful, and criticizing white birds for being ruthless, the newspapers were filled with nothing but mundane articles.

...It's alright, she can still get information from the people around her, for example—

The parents were ruled out, as they were both engrossed in copying books to make money and hadn't left the house in at least a month. Zhou Chunhua was busy with household chores and also needed to learn to read as quickly as possible to catch up with the book-copying team, so she was ruled out for the same reason.

Yao Tianrui and Yao Xiaoli haven't returned yet, and they're at school all day, so we probably won't get any information from them. We can rule them out.

Unless Tao Xiaoxiao goes out with her, she just eats and sleeps, and there's no way she can gain anything.

Yao Xiaoyu glanced around and realized with mixed feelings that she still had to rely on herself. She slept anxiously until dawn, then put on thick clothes, stuffed a book in front of her chest and a book on her back, and went to find Tao Jingu under the coachman's look of disbelief.

"Didn't I send someone to tell you that it's a bit dangerous lately and that you should try not to go out during this period?"

Seeing the identical blank expressions on their faces, Tao Jingu knew that the message had most likely failed to be delivered. She mentally marked the person responsible for the task with a black circle and quickly explained to the two:

"If we delve deeper into this matter, it actually has something to do with us."

Previously, when Yao Xiaoyu discovered that the smoking cessation medication was problematic, Tao Jingu asked the two of them to keep it a secret. However, he himself, along with Lan Shuangyu and others, dispatched a group of subordinates to spread the news throughout the streets and alleys under his control at night. He didn't expect it to have any effect, but when the two articles by the scholar and the wedding dress came out, everyone was in an uproar.

Because of this groundwork laid in advance, people who learned from the newspaper that there were fake smoking cessation drugs were particularly excited. Outside, it might take three to five days for a friendly conversation to turn into an argument, and then quite a while for a fight to break out. But for those who had heard Tao Jingu's story, these stages were accelerated. They weren't the first to see the newspaper, but they were ahead of everyone else at every step.

The first woman to raise a knife came from Tao Jingu's territory. Because of their high profile, they attracted almost all the attention. No one noticed that other areas of Shanghai were imitating them. By the time they found out, the opium addiction treatment drugs had been almost completely eradicated. Instead of venting their anger, people began to turn their attention to those who sold opium.

In the eyes of those with even a little power and status, an ordinary citizen is less dangerous than an ant. With just a flick of their finger, these people can legally or illegally, reasonably or unreasonably, take away the hard-earned food, children, and even lives of ordinary people, leaving them with no choice but to accept it.

If you can't repay the high-interest loan, Master Huang only asked you to use Xi'er as collateral. He's a truly kind person. Hurry up and kowtow to Master Huang!

But sometimes, the overwhelming wave of public opinion can swallow everything up. After all, the fairest thing in this world is that everyone has only one life: no matter how high an official's rank, how much power they wield, or how wealthy they are, they will die once their head is chopped off.

Those who had become rich through opium were in a panic and desperately sought reliable protectors, only to find enemies everywhere they looked—everywhere were the lonely souls who had lost their lives because of opium, and everywhere were people who had been harmed by opium.

Bodyguards are unreliable: some people spend a lot of money to hire them and even equip them with guns, but in the end, the bullets that pierce their heads are the ones they bought themselves, because the bodyguards were forced out of the workforce to make a living on their own after their parents died from opium addiction.

Be wary of maids: some have escaped being hunted down outside, only to be killed after returning home and having a meal. This was because the maid's husband was forced to become addicted to opium, which led to the destruction of her family, and that's why she came here to work as a maid.

Even when drinking with courtesans, one cannot relax: there is too much blood and tears in the world of pleasure, and many people have come here because of opium.

Those who make clothes, those who sell snacks, those who come and go like gossips... the more proud they were of their sales volume in the past, the more fearful they are of enemies that may appear at any time.

That sturdy net they had woven ultimately strangled them.

"One Xiao Huangying is one thing, but that paper wedding dress even mentioned Xiao Bai Niao. After that article was published, many women lost control..."

Tao Jingu was not merciful in his words, but he didn't seem angry on the surface. Women are at the very bottom of the bottom, at the very bottom of the bottom, and there is no room for them to go any further down. No matter what method they use to bring about any change, they are going up.

If a madman can reclaim his interests, protect his rights, make his voice heard, or even take one or more lives with him when he dies, and feel that he hasn't lost out in the final moments of his life, then there's nothing wrong with being a madman.

Xiao Bainiao's story of hitting rock bottom and rebounding is good and very enjoyable to read, but it is impossible for an article to cause such a big fluctuation—the premise that it helps many people open the door to a new world is that that new world really exists behind the door.

Tao Jingu couldn't see the changes this incident would bring from a macro perspective, but having witnessed the demise of gangs and the filling of interests, she knew that the darkest period was when the old order was broken and the new order had not yet been established, so she urged Yao Xiaoyu to go home.

Although the recent battles were still mainly fought with cold weapons, her subordinates said they had heard several gunshots. Tao Jingu didn't know when firearms would officially enter the fray, and his heart tightened as he looked at the two people in front of him. Yao Xiaoyu's combat power could be ignored, and Tao Xiaoxiao was very strong, but even the King of Chu was only a mortal.

"Buy more rice and flour. If you really crave food from outside, ask someone to buy it for you or have it delivered to your door. During this period, it's best not to go out if you can avoid it."

Tao Jingu couldn't help but repeat himself. Yao Xiaoyu nodded silently, deciding to bury herself in writing for the time being and not to go out until Tao Jingu's people sent word that things had calmed down... At most two months, Tao Jingu's message might not be able to get through, just like this time!

After leaving Tao Jingu's place, the two went straight to the editorial department, handed the freshly printed manuscript to Pi Kangxiu, and informed her that they would not be coming in person for a while. Pi Kangxiu was a little worried at first, but when she heard that the manuscript was still available, she breathed a sigh of relief and quickly decided that she would pick it up herself later, or find a reliable person to help her if she didn't have time.

The loss of letters is a serious problem now. Yao Xiaoyu's manuscripts are mostly sent over in their original form. If they are lost, he will have nowhere to cry. Moreover, the Novel Daily is not without competition. There are people trying to poach Xiaoyu Da Lao's editors. He is not at an advantage in terms of gender. He was able to become an exclusive editor only because he arrived early and took a decisive stance, letting others have the golden opportunity.

dream!

Yao Xiaoyu didn't know why Pi Kangxiu suddenly got so fired up, and she didn't have time to think about it. After settling the issues of payment and manuscript, Yao Xiaoyu quickly took Tao Xiaoxiao and left—this might be the last time she went out for a long time to come, so she had to hurry up and stock up on supplies!

Relying on the ice at home that she could freeze the food, Yao Xiaoyu's shopping spree was nothing short of a sweeping frenzy: she ordered ten loads of rice, ten bags of flour, the half-pig left in front of the butcher, plenty of beef and mutton, and even placed orders in advance after clearing out the braised food stalls. She ordered hundreds of kilograms of easy-to-store vegetables like radishes and cabbages, as well as red beans, mung beans, soybeans, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar...

When the Yao family received the first truckload of goods, they were quite calm. The second truckload brought some surprise, the third truckload raised concerns, and the fourth, the fifth… all these emotions swirled around before settling into numbness. Even when Yao Xiaoyu returned, she simply pointed to the overflowing goods:

"Take care of your own things."

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Author's note: I got so excited writing about stockpiling...

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