Chapter 203: Chapter 202: The Biased "Youth Daily
Youth Daily Office, Second Floor Editorial Department.
Mu Qingmei held a cup of iced honey Five-Flower Tea and walked to the window pretending to admire the view, but was actually signaling to Rong Yao downstairs.
Wearing a headscarf, Rong Yao was downstairs pushing a street vendor’s cart, selling ’Dongyang skewers.’ Dongyang skewers are various vegetables and fish meat skewered together, put into a pot filled with richly spiced broth, three skewers for one qian, very affordable, even the poorest can afford to eat.
As a major trade port of the East Sea, spices in Xuanzhu County are not expensive, and as a highly profitable industry, spices are a key business of the Silver Blood Association, so the spices that are expensive inland can be easily bought by poor households in Xuanzhu County, leading to the development of thriving eateries.
The wooden skewers used for the skewers are carved from rotten wood, and next to the street vendor’s cart is a bucket for customers to return the skewers after eating, which can be washed and reused once home.
The cost of selling skewers is not high, and Rong Yao initially wanted to find a suitable business for roaming the streets.
However, internally in White Night, there are various industries.
That uncle helped him find low-priced suppliers.
That aunt taught him to cook delicious soup bases.
That scar-faced elder brother helped him find gang protection.
Many ordinary people have problems to face, but Rong Yao solved them effortlessly.
It’s hard to say about other things, but with the support of White Night, Rong Yao’s food business was booming, like starting with a trump card and quickly gaining momentum. He could not only earn a living selling skewers, but soon paid back the startup money Mu Qingmei lent him.
Of course, his success in selling skewers also had partly to do with his appearance—despite trying to make himself look ugly, many young ladies, misses, and madams took the opportunity while buying skewers to chat with him, and some rich women even said to him, ’Stop trying so hard, come home with me, I’ll eat your skewers every day.’
At least two-thirds of his skewers were consumed by female customers.
Disperse, disperse; selling skewers also requires good looks.
Just when Mu Qingmei signaled to Rong Yao, he was being chatted up by a young girl.
At this time, Patrol Execution Guards appeared at the street corner, and other vendors hurriedly packed up, while Rong Yao was pulled into a shop by the young girl, avoiding trouble.
’Street vendor’ means ’when the patrol comes, hurry away,’ similar to ’run for water’ or ’run for fire.’
And this ’patrol’ refers certainly to the Patrol Execution Guard.
Because most shops are under the Silver Blood Association, the Patrol Execution Guard rarely provoke them, but such street vendor stalls are their easy targets, and even taking something from you is light; finding a reason to confiscate your equipment and forcing you to pay ’management fees’ is not rare, so street vendors quickly flee when they see the Patrol Execution Guard coming.
Originally, Rong Yao had to run too, but he actually hooked up with the charming widow and her young daughter from the tailor shop across from the newspaper office, and when the Patrol Execution Guards came, he slipped into the tailor shop, living freely and comfortably, compared to other street vendors, akin to a premium spender in a lucky streak.
Confirming that Rong Yao was still below, Mu Qingmei returned to her desk and took a sip of Five-Flower Tea.
Very sweet, very cold; Mu Qingmei actually didn’t like drinking it, nor understood why Jing Zhengwei was so fond of it.
But this was the only free beverage provided by the newspaper office, other than water, and Mu Qingmei would rather drink Five-Flower Tea.
According to Tree-man in "Future Echoes," it’s: You trade work for capitalist wages, which isn’t taking advantage of the capitalist, it’s a normal exchange.
And capitalists must obtain more surplus labor value from your labor.
Ultimately, it’s the capitalist taking advantage of you.
But if you slack off during working hours, that’s called exploiting the capitalist’s resources.
Mu Qingmei loved this description, so during work, she worked hard at slacking off, using the bathroom more than ten times, taking full advantage of the newspaper’s benefits.
She wasn’t seeking gains; she was, as part of the masses, as a White Night Walker, launching a righteous struggle against the capitalist Jing Zhengwei!
Mu Qingmei continued her job because her first draft went through smoothly with no issues, so she didn’t need to revise—though the capitalist clearly wouldn’t just keep her for free.
She had to browse through reader letters, picking out the ’most extreme,’ ’most provocative,’ ’most flawed’ arguments, and then have the sharpest editors rebut each one, preparing for the next discussion edition of the Youth Daily.
Quite a few self-styled ’cultured’ and ’highbrow’ cultural individuals once disdained reading the Youth Daily, but the discussion edition shattered their last defensive line.
They wanted to see what absurd theories the Youth Daily would use to stifle public criticism, wanting to find flaws in the Youth Daily and ferociously write letters to refute this vulgar newspaper!
Browsing through letter after letter, Mu Qingmei suddenly noticed a change in the trend recently.
If previous letters mainly discussed or criticized sections like ’risqué covers,’ ’knowledge discussion areas,’ ’bizarre anecdotes,’ ’inspirational stories,’ then over the past two weeks, letters increasingly started discussing ’Future Echoes.’
Initially, everyone at the newspaper thought this novel was merely filler, but after several serial issues of maturing, it gradually began to shine with an epoch-surpassing brilliance.
High school student Liu Yu, preparing for the ’National Unified Examination for Ordinary Higher Education,’ learning ’surplus value theory,’ learning the historical reasons for ’land consolidation,’ seems not to be learning alone, but bringing every reader along in the process;
Social person Yin Yin, knowing when job hunting there are ’minimum wage,’ ’eight-hour work days,’ ’labor arbitration,’ showcasing a world that, though imperfect, sought to ensure the well-being of proletarian workers;
Criminal Wei Zheng, always beaten, never enjoying life, having stolen electric bikes, and served time in detention, has tried various money-making schemes written in law, yet often found himself wanted by police, a persistent struggle showing the strength of a good security system against crime.
If previous issues of "Future Echoes" were just for laughs, then the Chapters where the three main characters’ perspectives fully unfold recently make readers who just wanted entertainment feel the author’s grand ambition.
"Without capitalists, workers would only starve."
"The eight-hour workday would cause most businesses to collapse."
"Abolishing child labor would cause economic regression."
"Buying land is normal business behavior."
"Gangs are part of the order."
Mu Qingmei looked at these letters, feeling increasingly anxious.
These letters were no longer just useless cries from those impoverished literati. Behind each seemingly ’absurd’ text was the will of powerful and influential figures.
Even Mu Qingmei, she now sensed something off with Youth Daily.
She subtly realized the Youth Daily’s stance... seemed a bit skewed.