Ding, detected that the host is acting as an unscrupulous rich person, intimidating a level-one plot character...
When you have too much debt, you stop worrying; when you have too many lice, they stop itching.
Su Ning didn't feel sad... my foot. The air pressure around her dropped even lower as she complained to the system, Are the male and female leads returning my kindness with enmity? I helped them critically hit that human trafficker, Zhao Hao. If it weren't for me, could they have found their biological son so quickly!
She cursed a few more times and, noticing the system's delayed response, asked dissatisfiedly:
Why aren't you saying anything?
Because you definitely won't like what I have to say, the Unscrupulous Rich System said lightly. The fact that the family of three appeared together means they reunited a long time ago. Why wasn't there a reward notification before?
It just had to be today.
It was right when Su Ning was cold-bloodedly bullying the refugee child. In its view, there was no returning kindness with enmity.
But righteous anger certainly existed.
Oh, then don't say it.
Su Ning said.
Hearing this, the system choked so hard its data stream almost went haywire, not knowing how to retort.
This took a long time to describe, but in reality, only about a minute had passed. The pleading parents, seeing Su Ning's face grow colder and seemingly untouched, gradually fell into despair and looked pleadingly at their companions.
Most people looked away.
The woman holding the child did the same. She couldn't help but press against the cold, soft lips of the daughter in her arms... Tears fell from her eyes as she raised her voice:
Miss Su, this child was born with soft bones. While fleeing from the famine, he kowtowed and begged for food and water from anyone he saw, wagging his tail like a dog. His parents didn't care or teach him, and he looks absolutely wretched.
He deserves a severe lesson to know his place. Please show some mercy and teach this deadbeat child a lesson on behalf of his parents. Slapping him a few times would be for the best!
She wore a look of vindication on her face, as if she truly had long been disgusted by him.
The child's father anxiously tried to say something.
But the mother quickly pulled him back, gently shaking her head with tears in her eyes...
In the suffocating silence.
A few slaps?
The corners of Su Ning's mouth curled up, but there was no smile in her eyes.
Onlookers felt a chill in their hearts.
The faint hope in the eyes of the child's parents extinguished. The woman holding the child felt a bitter taste in her mouth; her little trick hadn't worked, and she probably wouldn't end up well either.
Whatever, the child hadn't been gone for many days. If she hurried, she could catch up.
Let him go.
The cold female voice sounded. The crowd looked up in disbelief. Su One let go, and the child scrambled from the ground into his mother's arms, crying his heart out.
Why are you all looking at me like that?
Su Ning still had a smile on her face, the curve even widening, but unfortunately, it became even more terrifying.
A child doesn't know any better. A few slaps might cause an accident. How could I bear to do that? Just let his parents give him a good talking-to, right?
She deliberately paused.
The crowd: ???
Miss Su is so merciful.
The woman holding the child was the first to react, saying ingratiatingly:
I was so hungry I was confused, actually holding a grudge against a child over these things. It's still Miss Su who is compassionate, truly worthy of being the famous great philanthropist of Beiping!
You are quite smart.
Su Ning said mildly.
Now, the others understood. Thinking of the rumors in town, they breathed a sigh of relief. She wanted a good reputation... They immediately began singing her praises.
Great person, living Bodhisattva, benevolent and virtuous, all kinds of dialects and sweet words were thrown around for free.
Enough.
Su Ning waved her hand, her icy gaze sweeping over the crowd. After a moment, she said: You are all quite sensible.
She casually turned her head to the Su family members and said: Since that's the case, take them all in.
The crowd was overjoyed.
Even the voices singing her praises grew much louder, resounding through the skies for a time. Charles and the others next door heard it, but they were in no mood to think about it.
Because things were about to boil over on their side.
It was that old saying... there were simply too many people. An individual might be as weak as a sheep, but when gathered together, they possessed boundless courage and strength!
Just like the people gathered here now.
They had come full of hope, only to learn that the foreign devils were only hiring thirty-six people, not even fifty, and only refugees at that.
They exploded instantly.
Why didn't you say so earlier? Waiting until now to tell us, are you deliberately playing us?
Yeah, you must give us an explanation... Son of a bitch, I had three days wages deducted to take a leave of absence. You must compensate me for this money, as well as travel expenses and compensation for our trouble.
As this person spoke, he felt like a genius and quickly turned to shout to the others:
Don't you all agree?
Who could disagree? Even the idlers who hadn't taken leave wanted to fish in troubled waters and get some money, so everyone raised their hands, mustering their strength to shout along:
That's right, if you don't hire us, pay up.
We can't have come for nothing anyway. On such a hot day, we've been squeezed in here for so long, sweating buckets. Asking for just this little bit of money is letting you off easy.
Seeing this, Young Master Kong's face turned ashen. Looking at these greedy peasants, he forced himself to be patient and reason with them.
Because of his status, the crowd quieted down to listen.
Then, the more they listened, the more wrong it sounded.
What did he mean by they were only hiring this many people to begin with, and the benefits were real, so they hadn't deceived anyone? As for the deducted wages from taking leave and the queuing, that was all voluntary on their part, so how could there be compensation?
That was bad enough.
But the condescending tone in his words, implying that everything was due to the crowd's greed and that they had brought it upon themselves, was too jarring.
It infuriated everyone.
If it had been earlier, they might have endured it. But seeing the similar anger and humiliation on the faces of those around them, inexplicably, the flames burned fiercer and fiercer...
Until Young Master Kong's tone became forceful, telling them to be smart and not lose face for the Chinese people in front of international friends like Charles, who were kindly helping them.
Someone finally couldn't hold back:
Bah, it's you, you fake foreign devil, who's losing face! Kindly helping, my ass. If they're really so kind, then just give us money for free.
We still have to work for it!
Damn it, we shouldn't have trusted the foreign devils... Cut the crap.
I'm just asking you, are you going to pay up or not!
Absolutely not.
Charles, believing he couldn't disgrace his father-in-law, stood out under the admiring gazes of his companions behind him and heroically rejected this unreasonable demand.
The crowd fell silent for a moment.
His heart settled.
Just as he was about to use his words to save the fallen souls of these people, a sudden pain hit his face, accompanied by a foul stench. Someone had thrown a shoe at him!
Then came thousands of miscellaneous objects. Of course, not all were shoes; a pair of shoes wasn't cheap, and the person who threw the shoe earlier had just been too impulsive.
Charles almost fainted. His companions quickly directed people to help him inside to hide. But how could the enraged crowd be satisfied? They rushed up and pressed against the door panels.
Open the door, you stinking foreign devils.
Pay up... pay up, at least one silver dollar per person.
Everyone, push hard.
Fortunately, the door panels here were quite thick. Although they were teetering, they didn't give way immediately. The faces of the people inside were not looking good; they all knew the situation was turning dire.
Too rude, too violent. We should never have come to this barbaric place.
Someone started, and soon everyone was complaining.
Charles was relatively calm and asked Young Master Kong, "Kong, there is a riot happening here. Will the police or soldiers come to save us?"
Young Master Kong froze for a moment.
The police chief was Su Ning's man, so there was no way he would put in a good word for them. As for the soldiers, Division Commander Huang of Peiping did not have a good relationship with Su Ning.
But distant water could not put out a nearby fire!
After all, he had gone to the surrounding areas to suppress bandits.
He shook his head in silence.
Seeing this, Charles's eyes widened, and he uttered a string of "What?"s in sheer disbelief. Wasn't Kong a powerful Chinese aristocrat? How could he be completely different from the omnipotent benefactor in his father-in-law's stories!
He trembled with anger.
The others were also filled with panic and unease.
At this time, the door panel was broken into a large hole by the combined efforts of the mob outside. Someone screamed in fear. In the nick of time, a voice was heard shouting loudly:
"Everyone, hurry over there! Miss Su is hiring, she's hiring thousands of people!"
"What, that many?"
"It really is that many. A batch of refugees has already been hired, accepted right on the spot..."
Before the words were even finished, most of the refugees in the crowd blindly ran in that direction, terrified of missing out if they were late. Compared to the locals of Peiping who still had ways to survive, they needed long-term job security much more.
The crowd thinned out significantly.
Charles and his group felt like they had narrowly escaped death, almost hugging each other and weeping tears of relief... Then, the door panel was suddenly smashed open, and the leader walked in revealing his big yellow teeth, looking like a complete hooligan.
At first glance, he was clearly a shameless street thug.
He demanded compensation on the spot, measuring his limits perfectly—exactly one silver dollar, no more, no less.
He was not afraid of retaliation or anything of the sort.
Cats have their ways, and mice have theirs. People like them had plenty of ways to hide, not to mention it was uncertain whether this group of real and fake foreign devils could even order anyone around to help them!
In the end, Charles and the others still paid the money. The men finally all left, leaving behind only a messy, wrecked room and an atmosphere that sank into an absolute dead silence.
Young Master Kong panicked even more than before.
Because he realized that all his previous efforts were completely ruined... And Su Ning, why would she want to hire thousands of people?
He hoped with malicious intent.
He hoped that Su Ning would be extorted and blackmailed by these difficult and hateful guys just like they were. After all, the compensation and treatment Su Ning offered was so harsh!
