Chapter 193 The name "Hibiscus Tears" is a combination of two characters.
The promotion of Xiaoyu's new work went smoothly, and the story of Feng Xiaoman and the other two was quite popular in the market. After the wounds on Yao Xiaoyu's hands healed and she spent a lot of time replenishing the drafts, she finally had time to revise her original short story.
It's called revision, but apart from a few paragraphs, it's not much different from rewriting. Yao Xiaoyu had written furiously in a fit of passion, but now she's facing a messy manuscript and is in dire straits. She can't just abandon the whole thing and write a new one. Putting everything else aside, her ideas were indeed good at the time, and the subject matter was really attractive to her!
After much scribbling and rewriting, Yao Xiaoyu, driven by her stubbornness, managed to straighten out the short story. After some thought about finding a new newspaper and using the old pseudonym, she decided to bring Pink Furry Rabbit back into the public eye.
Two weeks later.
Jinchai Xu, who previously published two articles about the underworld being a matriarchal society and the castration of the emperor and the extermination of his own nine generations, has published Pink Furry Rabbit's third work: "Hibiscus Tears".
"This name doesn't seem like this person's style."
Ren Wan'er glanced at the author's pen name, then at the story title, which exuded gentleness in its writing, and her brows furrowed: she was a fan of Fuzzy Rabbit, and bought this magazine almost entirely because of Pink Rabbit. What she liked was the crispness in her writing that didn't involve romance, but the book title seemed to have the feel of a lovesick man and woman.
The main character is actually a man. Is this rabbit really immersed in romance?
Ren Wan'er had already given up hope on this article; the only reason she was still reading it was because of her stubborn desire to taste its flavor and her reluctance to part with her allowance.
The opening of Hibiscus Tears is about a gaunt man who dies in the snow. He thought he was going to meet the King of Hell, but when he woke up, he found himself back in his youth. At that time, he had just been infected with Hibiscus Powder and still had time to get back on the right path.
In the story, "Hibiscus Powder" is a generic term for a highly addictive drug. Perhaps worried that some might not understand, Momo Rabbit not only explained it in plain language within the text but also included a lengthy note at the end, showing considerable effort. However…
"It's just opium, why give it such a deceitful name?"
Ren Wan'er couldn't understand why Mao Mao Tu would be named like that—opium was called A Fu Rong in ancient times, and Wu Shi San, which also had addictive effects, was popular during the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Fu Rong San was just a combination of the two names, which was as good as not being a cover-up at all.
If one had to pinpoint the difference between it and modern opium, it would probably be that anyone who had used Furongsan would immediately recognize the difference, and no amount of concealment would change that. Moreover, in areas inhabited by men, no one would respect anyone who had been exposed to Furongsan. All public officials would refuse to allow anyone who had used Furongsan or their descendants to use it. Selling it was illegal, and the government had a dedicated group specifically tasked with suppressing its spread, who were respected by everyone…
"If only there were no way to hide it if I was smoking opium."
Ren Wan'er closed the magazine and sighed. People who smoke opium would behave differently from others, but as long as they were willing to eat more duck and wipe themselves from head to toe with hot towels every day, they would look no different from ordinary people. Several people had sneaked into her mother's shop like this, causing a lot of losses.
What's interesting is the man's clever idea of going back to the past. Since the book about returning to the Ming Dynasty has been published recently, there have been many time-travel novels, but most of them involve traveling from the present to the past. There aren't many novels about returning to one's past self.
Mao Mao Tu's writing style is concise. In just a few sentences, she explains the man's past, and then tells the story of his rebirth. Everything is so beautiful: he successfully quit the Furong powder, and successfully found a job that didn't care about his past use of Furong powder. He was promoted, received a raise, got married, had children, and finally closed his eyes contentedly amidst the cries of his children and grandchildren.
"What a blissful life."
Ren Wan'er commented expressionlessly and was about to close the magazine, but then realized that she hadn't seen the introduction to Furong San and that it wasn't the end, so she turned the page over and continued reading.
The man awoke in the underworld. Those around him asked him how the dream was, and he realized that the so-called second chance was nothing but a grand dream. He was still that lump of mud frozen to death in the snow; that perfect life was merely a means to help him let go of his obsessions.
He failed to quit using Furongsan (a type of anesthetic), as the cravings were too unbearable. Although the salespeople were constantly changing, they were like cockroaches in a garbage dump; you could always find them if you wanted to. Every time, he thought it would be the last time, and every time he thought there would be no next time, but there was never a real end.
He couldn't find a decent job that would pay him a good salary; the shopkeepers would only choose people who hadn't been exposed to the Hibiscus Powder, even if those people were inferior to him in every way.
He didn't have a satisfactory marriage: the girl wanted a reliable husband, perhaps not outstanding, but she would never accept that her child wouldn't be eligible for a government job. Even if the man had a handsome face, he was out of the running from the very beginning.
His parents were ashamed of him, his friends cut off all ties with him, and his life fell into an abyss after he became involved with the drug, from which he never climbed out, eventually becoming a lump of mud frozen to death in the snow.
...
"Oh My God!"
Ren Wan'er was utterly amazed by the ending, reading it several times before finally letting out a long sigh. She admitted that the Dividend Rabbit's skill was as impressive as ever, especially the world where the restrictions on Furong Powder were being relaxed by public institutions, and the list of witty remarks that the people used to rebuke her was so compelling that Ren Wan'er wanted to memorize them all:
[The recruitment of staff for Furong San can be relaxed, unless those who sacrificed their lives for control can be brought back to life!]
I've worked diligently and followed the rules my whole life, why should I be on the same starting line as people who use drugs!
Wow, that's great! Now kids from families who've been exposed to Furong powder can laugh at the kids who control it, calling them bastards without family!
[Yeah, in a few years, the family business will be controlled by their children, and then they'll find out that their boss is the same person who was arrested by their parents years ago for using "Furong powder" (a type of drug). Thinking about it, they'll have something to look forward to for the rest of their lives.]
【Great! From now on, if a new colleague hands you a cup of tea, you'll be hooked on this stuff. And if your child's school hires a new chef who gets carried away while cooking and just sprinkles this on the food—wait, isn't that funny? Why aren't you laughing?】
...
The characters in the story are all literary giants, their words are eloquent and their sentences are direct and poignant, but the scenes that impressed Ren Wan'er the most were not these. In an environment where everyone from top to bottom smokes opium, these words were not very hurtful—many rickshaw pullers would even buy tap water to stay awake in order to make more trips.
What truly terrified Ren Wan'er was the scene where, after the people realized that words were useless, they used weapons to directly replace the weapons of criticism. After all, the previous verbal satire was based on a well-established system, which was basically impossible in this era, but people being killed was a real possibility.
A common man's anger can lead to bloodshed within five steps. This is the only truly reasonable and effective method in this era. In particular, the author has specifically pointed out the people hidden behind the policies being implemented. If you really can't figure them out, just follow the old Chinese policy of picking the biggest missiles to hit and killing the biggest officials!
After this article comes out, those big shots will probably have to sleep with one eye open from now on. In this era of widespread opium addiction, who knows which of your friends or relatives have been poisoned by opium? In the past, people might have vented their grievances downwards, but now, with Mao Mao Tu's words, they might stab their superiors in the back. To put it bluntly, you might even encounter someone who has poisoned your hook when you go to a brothel to hire a male prostitute!
Even if we assume that everyone is trustworthy, how do you defend yourself against someone who is desperate and carrying a knife in the street?
Previously, Ren Wan'er thought that Pink Furry Rabbit was being overly cautious by not leaving contact information, but now she felt that this person was truly prescient. The previous story was fine, but after this article was published, if Furry Rabbit revealed even the slightest bit of information, it would be chopped into mincemeat before the next day.
No, it shouldn't be that big. After all, the profits from the opium trade are truly enormous. Cutting off someone's wealth is like killing their parents. There are no soft-hearted people who dare to do this. Moreover, as far as she knows, even the top big shots have gotten involved... No wonder she's the author who dares to call herself Pink Furry Rabbit, using the softest pen name to ram the hardest ship.
The pink rabbit, you absolutely, positively must hide it well!
Ren Wan'er prayed fervently in her heart, but some thoughts also began to surface in her mind. Before today, she didn't know much about opium, only that it was difficult to quit. But if this stuff, like Furong San, had a significant impact on a person's mind and temperament, then she might as well go all out to fight for it.
She had been involved in the family business since she was a child, but because the eldest brother had always been designated as the heir, she had only stepped back to focus on her studies in recent years. However, whether due to excessive or insufficient pressure, she saw the eldest brother, Chuanzong, smoking in the opium den a few days ago when she went to browse for secondhand books with her classmates.
Ren Wan'er is not as docile as her name suggests. She has her own clear ambitions. In the past, she was mindful of family ties and planned to use her husband's family's resources to build her career after marriage. But now, her eldest brother is unable to shoulder the burden of the Ren family due to objective reasons...
Ren Wan'er pondered the possible changes in her life path and decided to gather more information about opium. Oh, and she also needed to find a time to tell her parents about her eldest brother's situation. Although she didn't believe it was her brother's first time, nor did she think he wasn't addicted, who knows?
Just as Ren Wan'er had guessed, this article initially went unchecked, but later it stirred up a huge storm. Even Jin Chai Xu almost had to close down. The manuscript sent by Pink Furry Rabbit was examined over and over again. If Yao Xiaoyu hadn't been copying all the articles under her public pseudonyms with her left hand, she wouldn't have been able to pass through smoothly at all.
However, Yao Xiaoyu wasn't particularly concerned about these things; she was more surprised by the news brought by Pi Xiukang:
"Can a diary of my life abroad be published even if it's not finished?"
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Author's Note: The story of Hibiscus Tears is incomplete. My original setting was that the man thought he had been reborn, but after discovering it was all a dream, he lost the chance to continue dreaming. Helplessly, he was caught halfway through his dissipation. When he was being sentenced, he learned that his true identity was that of a major drug dealer. Knowing that he would be torn to pieces, he took this identity, which was considered less serious, in order to quickly disperse his soul and suffer less. However, he was caught by the anti-drug police in the underworld and suffered just as much as he deserved.
The story is set in a world where the laws have been successfully implemented. This man has done everything those famous sayings have been said (mocking children, drugging others), and even while suffering in the underworld, he remained restless, believing that the upper world would eventually become a haven for the "Hibiscus Powder" (a type of drug). However, at the end of the story, people in the real world, realizing the futility of words, have taken up knives.
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