Phi-Fic Chapter 174 Holy Father, Prepare to Die (23)
Chapter 174 Holy Father, Prepare to Die (23)
"Host, so who did you sell him to?"
Hearing Xiao Ba's question, Xia Mingwei smiled mischievously.
Li Shi, the unscrupulous coal mine owner who reclaimed wasteland on the frontier, is someone worth having!
"Won't his sudden disappearance arouse suspicion among the villagers?"
Xia Mingwei spread her hands innocently, "What does his disappearance have to do with me? He left this house on his own. I just saw him off! If anyone suspects me, where's the evidence? Besides, given Li Shi's current popularity, his disappearance probably won't even cause a ripple in the village!"
Xiao Ba thought about it and felt that what Xia Mingwei said made sense.
And just as Xia Mingwei had predicted, Li Shi's disappearance, after attracting the attention of the villagers for the first few days, vanished from their conversations within a few days.
After all, someone who no longer wants to be a "good person" is of no use to them! Besides, who knows if he's trying to avoid them by running away with their money?
Judging from how busy Li Shi was, he must have saved up quite a bit of money this year!
That silver should have belonged to them!
Therefore, even if Li Shi encounters some misfortune, it is what he deserves. This is the retribution he should receive for what he did!
But some gossipy women in the village went up to Li Jing and said things like, "Her father doesn't want her and her mother."
For Li Jing's sake, Xia Mingwei decided to move to the neighboring town.
Once they got there, there would be no one familiar with the mother and daughter's background, and no one would spread these rumors anymore.
After consulting with Li Jing, Xia Mingwei quickly took action.
The money she got from Li Shi, plus a small piece of gold from her spatial storage, was enough!
Xia Mingwei first found a house with shops attached through a broker. A front yard for business and a back yard for living—it was a really good location!
If this family hadn't experienced some misfortune and been in a hurry to go to the capital and sell their shop, Xia Mingwei wouldn't have gotten such a good deal.
The price was fair and reasonable, so Xia Mingwei happily paid the money and then went to the government office to complete the transfer of ownership.
Immediately afterwards, she bought ten more looms. She could not only hire people to weave cloth for her own shop to sell, but she could also rent out the looms to earn money.
In any case, this kind of work is more than enough to support the mother and daughter.
After settling everything in, Xia Mingwei remembered Li Shi and asked Xiao Ba to relay his situation to her.
His experience in the illegal coal mine was exactly the same as when he was forced into labor service.
If you absolutely had to find one difference, it would be that his life was even more miserable!
When performing corvée labor, at least there were superiors supervising them. As long as it didn't result in the deaths of the majority, the superiors wouldn't care how the overseers treated them.
Illegal coal mines are a completely different story; they are truly hell on earth. It's no exaggeration to say that those who manage to get here are practically invisible on the official records.
Here, human life is the least valuable thing.
Aside from the people in charge, everyone who comes here is forced to go down into the mine to dig coal every day. If they don't dig enough coal, they are whipped and starved.
Even if you're badly injured, you have to keep going the next day.
If you happen to fall ill, the people here won't call a doctor for you; you're entirely on your own to tough it out. Whether you survive or not depends on your luck!
Of course, if you don't survive, they have other ways to deal with you. Those abandoned pits filled with bones nearby will be your final fate.
Escaping is even more impossible! These illegal coal mines are located in extremely remote areas, and without someone familiar with the area to guide you, there's no way to get out!
In such a highly tense environment, the evil in people's hearts is magnified to an extreme degree. People like Li Shi are at the very bottom of the social hierarchy, to the point that any passerby could kick them a couple of times.
Li Shi could only swallow his anger and resentment at these humiliations. He knew that if he resisted even slightly, he would face even harsher retaliation in the mine.
The coal he dug up was taken by others and handed over to the authorities; his food was stolen; and he was often used as a punching bag. These were all common occurrences for him.
Many times he thought about ending it all, but when he saw the bodies being dragged away by the car, he hesitated.
They didn't even have a tattered straw mat, and after they died, they were eaten by animals. They couldn't even get a simple burial. This was not the ending Li Shi wanted.
"Wanting to die but also afraid of dying" became the truest reflection of Li Shi's heart.
With this mindset and intense work, Li Shi collapsed six months later.
This time, no matter how hard the foreman's whip lashed at him, he couldn't stand up. Seeing that Li Shi was unresponsive, the foreman had no choice but to reluctantly call over the cart pullers.
The foreman waved to the two men who carried the corpses every day, and Li Shi was dragged onto the cart that had transported many people before, like a piece of stinking garbage.
As the cart wobbled and swayed towards the abandoned pit, Li Shi's head remained fuzzy. In the instant his body plummeted downwards, his entire life flashed before his eyes like a fleeting glimpse.
Looking back on the happiest time of my life, it turned out to be the period right after I got married.
If I hadn't helped people everywhere just to save face, would my life have ended differently?
……
The scene ends abruptly there.
Xiao Ba's voice echoed in my mind once more, "Mission complete. Host, would you like to disembark?"
"Detachment"
As soon as she finished speaking, Xia Mingwei returned to that familiar space.
Almost the instant Xiao Ba saw Xia Mingwei, it pounced over eagerly.
"Host, thank you for the energy you gave me. Now I can finally accompany you on missions!"
Xia Mingwei tried to understand what Xiao Ba meant and tentatively asked, "You mean transformation?"
Xiao Ba nodded. "I can now transform into a person from the mission world!"
If Xiao Ba's rewards are this generous, then the main god's rewards to himself must be quite substantial as well!
"So what is my reward?"
Just as Xiao Ba was about to speak, Xia Mingwei interrupted it again.
"Never mind, don't tell me yet. Let me explore it myself!"
Xiao Ba tilted his head and helplessly shrugged, "Alright then! I'll keep these abilities a secret for now!"
Realizing she had nothing else to do, Xia Mingwei said to Xiao Ba, "Let's continue taking on missions!"
"Mission selection complete, plot in progress, please prepare!"