Walking the Path of a Workaholic in Cliché Novels (QT) Chapter 74

“Innocent? Does he think he is a beautiful girl who was kidnapped?” The people in the crowd who had set up the beauty trap were dumbfounded. When such a beautiful girl with a pretty face and a graceful figure fell down, he still cared about his innocence?

As a man, what did he care to be innocent? !

This person was simply disappointed with his friend: “Pedant! Extremely pedantic!”

“Sir~” The woman stretched out a soft little hand, her voice was so gentle, “I can’t get up~”

An Yinong searched for a while, picked up a branch that was more than one meter long, and carefully extended it to her: “Hold this.”

“…” The woman’s eye twitched, and she displayed her oscar-level acting skills, holding on to the small branch and twisting her waist. Just as she was about to say something, the ‘straight man’ opposite her had already spoken.

“Miss, you can’t get up after falling down. Your physical fitness is not even as good as that of a 90-year-old man. Oh, you really should exercise more.” After saying that, he shook his head and left.

The woman’s eyes widened: he just left like that? Was he still a man? He was just a useless piece of wood!

“Isn’t it said that scholars love delicate young ladies like this?” The man who planned it touched his chin, unable to figure things out.

“Brother, what should we do now? This kid is just an idiot.” A man asked, “Doesn’t he like this? My brother doesn’t like to be delicate, he likes to be wild all day long.”

The man called Big Brother thought for a moment, “You make sense.”

At this time, An Yinong, this “rotten wood”, was looking at Gu Zhengzhong, who was a little unhappy, with deep affection.

“Why does Yinong look at me?” Gu Zhengzhong couldn’t help asking.

“They have tried every possible means to harm me, and now they have even set up a honey trap. It’s a pity they don’t know that to set up a honey trap, they naturally need to find someone like you, but they can’t find someone like you anywhere in the world.”

To sum it up: I can’t live without you.

Fortunately, Gu Zhengzhong had already set up a barrier when he was talking, otherwise the guard and the county magistrate who followed behind him would be jealous to death: was it a big deal to have a partner? What a bunch of sweet talk.

Gu Zhengzhong was unhappy that his beloved was being coveted, but it was like words engraved on the yellow sand, which would be flattened by the wind.

He, who was never too intimate in public, stretched out his hand and held An Yinong’s hand tightly as if to confirm.

Although no one else saw it, holding hands so openly at this moment still made Gu Zhengzhong feel different, as if he had signed a marriage certificate and got married, and thus had the right to be “unhappy”.

“It turns out that I can’t stand anyone else getting close to him.” Gu Zhengzhong thought to himself. The words that had encouraged An Yinong to get married and have children had come full circle and slapped him in the face.

A child like An Yinong would be very cute, but if the price was that An Yinong had to be close to a woman, then he will never allow such a child to appear in this world.

“I don’t like her looking at you like this.” Gu Zhengzhong said seriously, “I also can’t stand it if someone else, whether it’s a woman or a man, gets close to you, even if it’s just to have children.”

“Me too.” An Yinong shook his hand back tightly. The wind blew across his face, causing him to squint. “I will definitely clean up the Jin and Bai families.”

This street was not long. An Yinong soon walked out of the most prosperous street in the county. He saw rows of gray houses built with dried mud bricks, with curious old people and children standing at the doors.

Because of lack of water, their faces looked not very clean, they were thin and dark.

An Yinong saw a few people sitting in the corner basking in the sun, chewing something. When he walked over, he found that they were scratching their head lice.

Just as he was feeling mixed emotions, he suddenly heard the sound of something breaking. Turning around, he discovered that a small clay pot had been thrown to the ground by a girl, and water was flowing all over the floor. Someone who looked like her mother was beating her. As he couldn’t understand the local dialect, An Yinong didn’t know what she was saying, and she looked very angry.

“What is she talking about?” he asked the county magistrate.

The county magistrate was embarrassed: “These vulgar words…”

“Explain.”

The county magistrate had no choice but to translate the conversation on the spot, and it was indeed full of scolding and beatings, with most of the blame going to the child for spilling their family’s day’s water and having to spend money to dump it out.

An Yinong looked at the small pottery jar on the ground: “One day’s water? Money?”

By the way, the water source in Dingsha County was controlled by the Jin and Bai families. To get water, one either had to pay or exchange it for something else.

He didn’t feel it so obviously when he was walking on that long street just now. After all, the merchants on that street were considered to be well-off in the local area. But here, it was the residence of the poorer people in the town, and the money for fetching water was also a “huge sum” for such people.

The people on the previous street, although they were not wearing silk or satin, at least their clothes didn’t have patches. But the people here were wearing tattered clothes, and occasionally one could even see naked people peeking out of the shabby houses.

He had known for a long time that the quality of life of local residents was not very good and could not be compared with that of the Central Plains, but he did not expect the gap to be so big.

“Let’s go in and take a look.” An Yinong pointed at the alleys. Guard Tian nodded in agreement. The county magistrate had a strange look on his face, but did not dare to object.

An Yinong walked in, dressed like a scholar and fanning himself in autumn, attracting many eyes. There was also a child wearing sackcloth running around barefoot who came up to him and asked who he was.

They spoke in the local dialect, and the county magistrate translated it for him to understand.

He squatted down and used candy to coax the child into chatting with him. The candy was maltose, sent by Gu Zhengzhong.

“What is candy?” the child who was stopped asked stupidly.

This answer made An Yinong stunned. He had never thought of this situation. These children didn’t even know what candy was. He looked at the county magistrate who was translating, and then at these children.

When he got closer, he found that the children’s hair was tangled and covered with mud and bugs. He didn’t know how long it had been since they had washed.

Their skin was also dark, and it was unclear whether it was due to dirt or sun exposure. Their skin condition was not very good, it was dry and cracked, with large pores and many insect bites.

In addition, the children were not wearing clothes, but pieces of fur that had been sewn together, and their original colors could no longer be seen. The shoes on their feet were also made of pieces of fur.

A little girl among the children was holding a piece of leather and was tearing off the fat that had not been cleaned off the leather with her fingers.

The dried fat pieces were carefully torn off and stuffed into her mouth, and she smiled brightly, as if she was eating some delicious snack. Other children also came over to try, but were pushed away.

But their eyes are bright and clear like pearls in the water, and the smiles on their faces were bigger and brighter than the sun.

An Yinong looked at these ignorant kids who were playing with bones in the alley, and suddenly had an extremely “vicious” idea.

He wanted to clean these little guys up, send them to school, and let them receive the baptism of knowledge, so that they would never have the chance to chase and fight in the streets with bones in their hands, or to tear off the fat scraps from the fur to eat, and then repeat the life of their parents.

“Sugar is a very sweet food, as sweet as honeydew melon.” An Yinong took out some sugar crumbs and shared them with them, then demonstrated how to eat.

Open your mouth, hold it carefully with your teeth, and lick it slowly in your mouth to let the candy melt. If you feel it melts too quickly, hold it under the root of your tongue.

The original owner of the sugar looked down at An Yinong’s lips. His plump lips were like ripe berries, his teeth were like white jade that had been washed in a stream, and the melted sugar exuded a sweet fragrance. Then his eyes narrowed, as if he had obtained some treasure.

The way An Yinong ate candy was the best publicity.

The children curiously put the small candies in their hands into their mouths: “Wow.”

They showed surprised expressions on their faces, as if they had eaten the most delicious food in the world. When they looked at the candy in An Yinong’s hand, they couldn’t take their eyes away.

“Do you still want it? If you do, then answer my question.”

In modern times, some children don’t like sweetness and don’t eat sugar, but the children in this world didn’t have such a luxury of “preference”. So An Yinong could attract a group of children with a little sugar.

An Yinong asked some routine questions through the mouth of the county magistrate, such as how many meals a day they had and what they were.

How was the water supply at home? If you knock over a bucket, will the adults scold or beat you? If you are sick, will there be a doctor? How many brothers and sisters are there in the family?

Or ask them when was the last time they took a bath, when was the last time they ate meat, or when was the last time they ate noodles.

He tried his best to ask the children these questions in a way that they could understand, and the children answered honestly without hiding anything.

The county magistrate who acted as an interpreter felt more and more that something was wrong the more he asked questions. He was a rare scholar in Dingsha County and was not stupid. He knew what the new magistrate was asking right away.

He wasn’t asking the children what they ate, how many times they took a bath, how many brothers and sisters they had. He was clearly asking: Are you living a good life? How bad is it? Why is it bad?

The land was divided up by the big landlords, the water source was controlled, and even the work was controlled by these big households. The throats of the people in Dingsha County were choked, how could they be well? And the families of these children were the worst off in the city. They did the most tiring and dirty work, but it was difficult for them to even support themselves.

So the children’s answers seemed particularly cruel: they… were not good.

Ordinary people in the county town could eat two meals a day, one dry meal, which was sorghum rice or bean rice, and one wet meal, which was sorghum porridge or bean porridge. Occasionally, vegetables, dried fish (from local freshwater lakes) or chicken could be added to make it a rich meal.

However, how many meals these children can eat a day depends on whether their parents can earn money or hunt prey. If not, they have to wait in hunger. In the season when there are plenty of prey, they can eat meat, but in winter, many people may starve to death.

They usually raised sheep at home, and the older children took them out to graze, but in the end they didn’t make any money and can’t afford mutton. But they could save some of the wool to make winter blankets for the whole family.

These children also told An Yinong that several people in their family often slept in one bed, covered with one quilt. This was especially true for families with sheepskin quilts. Because the temperature difference in Dingsha County was large, if the family did not huddle together and cover themselves with thick quilts at night, they might not be able to get up after lying down – they would freeze to death.

As for bathing, some children didn’t even know what a bath was.

It was said that they only washed a few times a year, such as on important holidays or when they were about to meet important people. They usually washed at noon when the sun was the highest and it was warm.

Also, when they are sick, they needed to wash their bodies to expel curses and diseases. Well, they rarely went to doctors when they are sick, but mostly go to wizards to exorcise evil spirits, because wizards charged less money.

The more An Yinong asked, the more detailed his questions became. The more the county magistrate translated, the more nervous he became. He rolled his eyes and secretly modified a certain answer. Unexpectedly, An Yinong casually put his hand on his shoulder and smiled: “I didn’t hear it clearly just now, can you say it again?”

Cold sweat broke out on the county magistrate’s back. He was not even sure whether this was a test or he really didn’t know. The county magistrate was inclined to the former, so he translated obediently, not daring to leave out anything.

“Who are you? What are you doing?” An Yinong was asking when a man rushed over from somewhere, picked up a child inside and looked at him vigilantly.

An Yinong was stunned for a moment because he didn’t understand what this was saying. Then the county magistrate next to him started mumbling something, seemingly scolding the man.

The man’s face changed, and he looked at An Yinong with a complicated expression, which was an indescribable rejection, fear and anger. But he did not speak again, and just took his child away. Other people around also came over and took those children away.

“What did you say?” An Yinong asked the county magistrate.

“I, I just told him not to be rude to adults,” said the county magistrate.

“So you told him that I’m the county magistrate?” An Yinong glanced at the county magistrate slowly, and the county magistrate gave a dry laugh.

He looked up at the man’s back. Even though he didn’t understand what he said, he could feel that the man was hostile and resentful towards him as the county magistrate. He even looked around and saw that the other people who had gathered around him had similar emotions in their eyes.

These poor people in Dingsha County do not trust and hate their government.

“They also asked for help from the previous county magistrate, but were sold out by him. All the people who filed the complaint died, and their parents and children at home were left without anyone to take care of them, and also died,” said Gu Zhengzhong, who knew part of the truth.

“You are not only facing the Jin and Bai families, or other big families, but also the people you want to help who have been hurt and don’t trust you.”

An Yinong knew what this meant.

“Here, those bullies will stop you, and these poor people will also stop you. This county already has its own rules and is accustomed to its own situation. You are the only outsider and intruder.” An Yinong said to himself. He seemed to see through this city the forces that were deeply rooted and covered the entire Dingsha County.

They laughed at him.

“I accept this letter of challenge.”