Dawn was just beginning to break, and the bluestone steps in front of the Xu Manor were already piled high with trunks and crates of all sizes.
Xu Youde was busy directing a few servants to cram things into the widened carriage. He was deathly clutching a purple sandalwood commode lid, which he had commissioned just a few days ago. He claimed that in a wealthy place like Jiangning, even taking a dump required a bit of pomp and circumstance.
“Dad, stop bringing that junk,” Xu Qinghuan called out from inside the carriage, her voice muffled by the curtain. “What doesn't Jiangning have? You’re clutching a toilet lid; aren't you afraid of embarrassing the County Mistress of An’guo?”
“What do you know!” Xu Youde stuffed the lid under the seat and stomped it down firmly with his foot before climbing into the carriage. The fat on his face was still quivering. “This is called not forgetting one's roots! Besides, it’s purple sandalwood. An ounce of sandalwood is worth an ounce of gold. If we run short on silver over there, we can chop it up and sell it for cash.”
Xu Qinghuan couldn't be bothered with him.
She peeked out through a gap in the window curtain.
The alley was silent; not even a dog was barking.
Perfect.
She had specifically instructed the butler to move the departure time forward by an hour and had strictly forbidden anyone from making a scene.
Her goal was to sneak out quietly, without alerting a soul.
“Let’s go.” Xu Qinghuan let the curtain fall and leaned back against the soft cushions. She was already calculating in her head how to stir up trouble for the great aristocratic families once they reached Jiangning.
The carriage swayed, and the wheels creaked as they rolled over the threshold.
The convoy pulled out of the alley.
Xu Youde was still rambling beside her, calculating how many acres of mulberry fields to buy in Jiangning and how many singing girls from the Qinhuai River he should bring home to perform.
Suddenly, the carriage stopped.
It wasn’t a gradual halt, but a sudden, violent brake. The momentum sent Xu Youde crashing headfirst into the carriage wall, and the purple sandalwood lid came rolling out, thumping onto his foot.
“Ouch!” Xu Youde clutched his foot, his temper instantly flaring up.
He yanked the curtain open and leaned halfway out, pointing forward and cursing, “Which blind dog is this? How dare you block the Master’s path to riches in Jiangning? Do you have a death wish? I’ll have you crushed to—”
The word “death” got stuck in his throat, turning into a ridiculous wheeze.
Xu Youde froze in his cursing posture.
Sensing something was wrong, Xu Qinghuan frowned and reached out to pull the curtain aside.
The morning light outside was a bit piercing. She squinted, and then a curse nearly escaped her lips.
On the wide, paved main road, there were no carriages, no horses, and no vendors.
There were only people.
A dark, dense mass of people stretched from beneath the carriage wheels all the way to the city gates at the end of her vision.
Thousands upon thousands of commoners, dressed in patched tunics and faded headwraps, were kneeling densely on both sides of the road. There was no clamor, no noise; even the cries of children were muffled by their parents' embrace.
No clamor, no noise.
Not even a child’s cry.
They held baskets in their hands, filled with eggs that still smelled of chicken coops and sturdy, hand-sewn cloth shoes.
Those were the most precious things they could offer.
After all, what could Miss Xu possibly lack? They just wanted to show a bit of their gratitude.
The entire city was here.
Xu Youde’s Adam’s apple bobbed. The arrogance he had just shown vanished instantly. He retracted his neck, his old face turning pale and then flushed. “Daughter... is this... is this for us? Was I... was I actually a good official?”
As he spoke, his eyes actually reddened, and he seemed on the verge of self-moved tears.
Xu Qinghuan said nothing, only feeling her temples throb.
This was wrong! This wasn't the script!
She was here to play the villain, not to perform a "Heartfelt Farewell from Ten Thousand People"!
She was supposed to be a villainess, not a virtuous official adored by the masses.
If this continued, would the system deduct her money?
She had to drive these people away.
She had to make them hate her.
Xu Qinghuan took a deep breath, shoved the lingering Xu Youde aside, yanked the curtain open, and stepped directly onto the carriage shaft.
With her hands on her hips and her chin tilted high, she shouted at the kneeling crowd in her most caustic, shrill voice: “What are you all doing here, loitering like corpses? Huh? Don't you have work to do? Did the mines close today? Don't the crops in the fields need harvesting?”
Her voice echoed through the empty long street.
“Who told you to come? You’re blocking the County Mistress’s path. If you delay my time to enjoy the luxuries of the South, can you afford the cost? Even if you sold your entire families, you couldn't afford a single one of my shoes!”
She pointed at an old man kneeling at the very front. “What are you looking at? I’m talking to you! Get out of the way! This road is for carriages, is it a place for you to kneel?”
Xu Qinghuan felt this performance was solid.
Malicious enough, arrogant enough, and heartless enough.
According to normal logic, these commoners should feel disheartened and angry. They should be cursing her in their hearts as a heartless wretch who turned her back on them the moment she got rich.
However—
The crowd didn't move.
No one showed an expression of anger.
Instead... the sound of weeping began to rise.
First one or two, then a whole section, and finally it merged into a massive, tragic wave of sound.
The one-armed old man kneeling at the front was none other than Lao Zhang, who had once argued with Xu Qinghuan over a cart handle at the mine.
He stood up tremblingly, holding a bowl of cloudy rice wine with his remaining hand, his face covered in tears.
“The County Mistress is right to scold us!” Lao Zhang cried until his voice was hoarse. “We commoners shouldn't have blocked the County Mistress’s future! It’s for our sake that the County Mistress is going to that cutthroat place in the South to suffer!”
Xu Qinghuan: “?”
When did I say I was going there to suffer?
I’m going there to be a menace!
Lao Zhang turned around and shouted to the people behind him, “Did everyone hear that? The County Mistress is worried about us! She’s afraid we’ll miss the farming season, afraid we’ll earn fewer work points! Even as she’s leaving, her heart is still full of concern for whether we can fill our bellies!”
“Boohoo... the County Mistress is a great saint!”
“County Mistress, please go in peace! We will definitely work hard! We won't bring shame to Taoyuan County!”
From the crowd, several burly men emerged carrying a massive umbrella.
An Umbrella of Ten Thousand People.
It had been pieced together overnight by the townspeople using scraps of cloth from their own homes. It was multicolored and hideously ugly, yet it was heavy with their sentiment.
“This is a small token of everyone's appreciation. When you get there, County Mistress, if anyone bullies you, just open this umbrella! Let the people there see that all hundreds of thousands of us in Taoyuan County are your family!”
Xu Qinghuan looked at that hideously ugly Umbrella of Ten Thousand People, her mind completely reeling in the wind.
Is this reading comprehension ability a bit too advanced? Did you all attend some kind of tutoring class?
On the second floor of a roadside teahouse.
Song Yubai’s hand holding the teacup was shaking, spilling tea all over the table.
He looked at the red-clad young woman standing on the carriage shaft with a "fierce" expression, and then at the weeping commoners below. His eyes were full of shock.
“This is truly... the King's Way.” Pei Ji stood beside him, his expression as cold and hard as ever, though his voice was low. “Using thunderous methods to show a Bodhisattva's heart. She could have just left, but she insisted on using this method to force the commoners back to their farming.”
“Brother Pei,” Song Yubai took a deep breath. “Tell me, is there anything in this world purer than the hearts of these people?”
Pei Ji did not speak. He simply offered a deep, respectful bow toward the departing carriage.
On the driver’s bench.
Xu Qinghuan felt that if they didn’t leave now, the misunderstanding would grow so large it would be impossible to fix.
“Who wants your damn umbrellas!” She gritted her teeth, desperately maintaining her persona until the very end. “All of you, get lost! Don't make me say it a third time! If anyone else blocks the road, have Er Mazi dock a month’s worth of their work points!”
She turned and screamed at the driver, “What are you standing there for? Drive through them! If anything gets broken, it’s on them! Speed up!”
The driver was an honest man. Terrified by her outburst, he instinctively snapped the whip.
“Heh!”
The carriage lunged forward.
The crowd kneeling on the ground parted like a receding tide. It wasn’t because they were afraid of being hit, but because they were afraid of truly standing in the County Princess’s way.
Watching the abandoned baskets by the roadside, Xu Youde slapped his thighs in agony. “The eggs! Those are farm-fresh eggs! And that old hen, she’s a layer! Oh, my ancestors, tell him to stop for a second! Even if we just take two chickens!”
Xu Qinghuan slapped his reaching hand away. “Shut up! Sit down!”
The carriage began to accelerate, the thunderous roll of the wheels drowning out the cries of the people.
Finally, they broke through.
Xu Qinghuan breathed a sigh of relief and slumped onto the soft cushions, wiping the cold sweat from her forehead.
In this day and age, why was it so hard to be a bad person?
Just then.
A frantic sound of running came from behind the carriage, accompanied by high-pitched, childish shouts.
“Eldest Miss! Wait! Wait for us!”
Xu Qinghuan instinctively looked back.
Through the swaying curtains of the rear window, she saw a group of children running barefoot on the concrete road.
They were the little beggars taken in by the glass factory.
They were dressed in well-fitting grey uniforms, their faces streaked with soot. They had run so hard their shoes had fallen off, their bare feet slapping loudly against the ground.
The leader was a boy named Goudan. He was a mute who usually couldn't squeeze out a single word.
But right now, he was running the fastest, his throat letting out ragged, desperate cries as he held his hands high above his head.
In his hands, he cradled a misshapen lump of glass.
It was a glass ornament. They had probably tried to shape it into the character for "Longevity," but it had turned into a giant, lumpy blob filled with bubbles—so ugly it was hard to look at.
They had made it for Xu Qinghuan in secret, using scrap materials.
“Eldest Miss! This is for you! Please take it with you!”
“We’ll work hard! We won't be lazy! We won't steal food!”
“You have to come back! Don't abandon us! Waaaaah...”
The children couldn't keep up with the speeding carriage and were left further and further behind.
Goudan couldn't run anymore. He fell heavily to the ground, his knees scraping bloody. Yet, he still held that ugly glass blob high, kneeling in the middle of the road and kowtowing forcefully in the direction of the carriage.
Xu Qinghuan’s fingers gripped the window frame tightly.
She was a modern person, a profit-driven player, a passerby who only wanted to complete her mission and go home.
But at this moment, looking at that tiny black dot kneeling in the middle of the road.
She felt her eyes sting.
“A bunch of fools,” Xu Qinghuan cursed under her breath, her voice trembling slightly.
She dropped the curtain, leaned back against the carriage wall, and closed her eyes.
The interior of the carriage was silent.
Xu Youde stopped fussing. He clutched the red sandalwood lid, huddled in the corner, and wiped away tears.
Far away on the tea house balcony.
Pei Ji watched the children kneeling on the ground, then looked at the carriage disappearing into a cloud of dust, letting out a long sigh.
“Enduring the pain of parting to ensure their survival,” Pei Ji remarked, interpreting the scene. “She is leaving so resolutely because she doesn't want these children to become slackers once they have someone to rely on. Such strength of character... truly, 'though tens of thousands oppose me, I shall go forth.'”
The carriage reached the main official road.
The jolting sensation returned.
"Ding."
The familiar electronic chime echoed in her mind.
Xu Qinghuan nervously opened the interface.
-- Driving away the commoners, insulting elders, ordering the carriage to strike the crowd, ignoring the gifts of orphans, heartless attitude—extremely malicious!
-- Given that this evil act involved a large number of people (the entire town) and caused significant psychological trauma (the entire town weeping).
-- Retirement Fund: Five million RMB! Deposited into your real-world account.
Xu Qinghuan stared at the long string of zeros, stunned for a full three seconds.
The slight bitterness she had felt due to the departure was instantly smashed to pieces by this sudden windfall.
Five million?
Just for shouting at a few people and refusing a piece of junk from those kids?
Xu Qinghuan buried her face in her palms, her shoulders shaking violently.
Xu Youde thought she was crying. He leaned over to comfort her. “Daughter, don't be sad. We can always come back and visit in the future...”
“Hahahahahaha!”
Xu Qinghuan looked up. There wasn't a trace of a tear on her face. She was laughing so hard her eyes curved into crescents, her expression brighter than the lanterns of the Glass Pavilion.
“Sad? Why would I be sad?”
She patted the invisible system panel, feeling so good she wanted to burst into song.
This system was truly an "Artificial Idiot" that only looked at the surface and didn't understand the hardships of the world.
“Dad, once we get to Jiangning, buy me the biggest mansion there!” Xu Qinghuan waved her hand grandly. “I want one with a garden! And a lake!”
The carriage sped away down the official road, leaving behind a trail of dust and the silver-bell laughter of a young woman.
Meanwhile, at the gates of Taoyuan County, the people remained kneeling on the ground for a long time, unwilling to rise, gazing in that direction as if seeing off a saint who had shouldered the world's burdens in silence.
