Chapter 321 - 307: Reporting Frenzy
Su Ling’er stood on the steps of the Su Mansion, facing the gentle breeze, a plan already forming in her mind.
Anhe City was bound to have its dark underbelly, but it was generally a peaceful place. Miss An’s murderer had to be a great shadow lurking beneath this facade of "peace."
If she could just stir up a few ripples with a hefty reward, clues about the real criminals might surface. Then she could follow the trail and perhaps catch the true culprit.
However—
"Fairy Maiden! I have a report! That limping beggar at the gate of the Earth God Temple in the north of the city is a fake! I saw him with my own eyes the morning before last! He pulled his ’broken’ leg out of his pants and gave it a good, long stretch!"
’A beggar scam?’ Su Ling’er thought. ’...I’ve seen this before.’
"I have a report too!" another player shouted, afraid someone would beat him to it. "That old man at the entrance to the eastern market, the one who cries about his wife being gravely ill and begs for medicine money! He’s a fake too!"
"His wife is perfectly fine! She can even walk with him when they pack up for the day! I saw the two of them drinking together at a tavern just yesterday! The old man was coaching her on their next crying performance, complaining about how the common folk don’t understand art or something!"
"And that guy under the bridge in the south! The one who says he’s disabled! He just hides one of his arms! It’s all a scam!"
The players scrambled over one another, all shouting at once, terrified that someone else would report the "fake beggar" they knew about first. That was a pile of shiny copper coins at stake!
"Fairy Maiden! Listen to me! That one... I saw him first!"
"Bullshit! I found him first! Don’t you dare try to steal this from me!"
Su Ling’er watched, dumbfounded. ’Wait a minute... is the begging industry in this city really that competitive? Now that I think about it, it doesn’t seem impossible that Eldest Brother and the others used to be beggars too...’
The flood of reports about "scamming beggars" was just the beginning. All sorts of other petty, sordid deeds began to spill out, one after another.
"I’m reporting Yuelai Inn! The fish they use in the kitchen are all stale, dead fish with their eyes rolled back! The vegetable leaves are rotten, too! I even saw them pick up a steamed bun that fell on the floor and put it right back to be sold!"
"And that repairman on West Street! He’s a total slacker! Said the job would take one day, but it’s been three days and he’s still just messing around with the plaster!"
"Zhang’s Cloth Shop on East Street! It’s a classic bait and switch! They pass off regular cotton as high-grade silk!"
"..."
In an instant, the entire area in front of the Su Mansion descended into utter chaos.
In some cases, the accuser and the accused were only separated by a few people in the crowd and immediately started screaming at each other. The scene was pure bedlam.
The highlight, however, was a restaurant owner who had been watching the spectacle from the crowd, only to be backstabbed on the spot by one of his own waiters.
"Fairy Maiden! I’m reporting my boss! I’m a waiter at Fuman Building in the south of the city!" the waiter yelled, pointing a finger at his boss’s nose, clearly having thrown all caution to the wind. "He passes off duck meat as lamb! He passes off duck meat as lamb! And after that, he secretly waters down the wine! Even a dog wouldn’t eat his lamb skewers!"
The waiter, who was also a player, had just publicly backstabbed his boss. ’Who needs a boss anyway? How could a cold-hearted boss ever capture one’s heart the way warm copper coins can?’
’The daily pay is peanuts anyway. I might as well grab this quick cash from the report. Worst-case scenario, I’ll just change my character’s face or find a new gig!’
"You... you ungrateful bastard! You worthless animal!" The boss’s face turned purple with rage, his finger trembling as he pointed at the waiter. "Who gave you this job?!"
"Pah!" The waiter, completely committed, spat on the ground. "You call this a job? It’s a pig trough! You think I’m afraid of you now? Just you wait, you’re going to jail!"
Su Ling’er stood frozen on the steps, watching the pandemonium unfold before her. She felt as if something inside her had just come crashing down.
’This isn’t... This isn’t the Anhe City I remember! How could this be? How could there be so many sordid secrets?’
’Those neighbors I saw every day, their simple smiles, their warm greetings... Was it all fake?!’
She had always believed Anhe City was a safe harbor she could return to, one that would be just as warm and welcoming no matter what she had endured out in the world. But now, with her own hands, she had dredged up all the filth and ugliness festering within that harbor.
’No, really... Why did opening my mouth feel like I’d just kicked a hornet’s nest full of Anhe City’s criminals? Why are all these petty crimes and dirty little secrets suddenly popping up?!’
’So the "peace and harmony" of Anhe City was all just a sham, maintained by everyone cheating each other and then keeping a tacit silence about it?!’
The vegetable vendors were especially targeted, most of them notorious for short-weighting customers, making them perfect sacrificial fodder for the players.
"Fairy Maiden! A report! Wang the butcher on East Street! I swear his scale weights are filled with lead! For every pound of pork, you’re getting shorted by at least twenty percent!"
"I have a report! Mrs. Sun, the tofu seller! Her tofu doesn’t smell bad, but it tastes sour! God knows how many days it’s been sitting out!"
"And Mrs. Zhao, the vegetable seller! Her cabbages look fresh and lovely on the outside, but a lot of them are rotten on the inside! She likes to short-weight people, too!!!"
...
Meanwhile, in the distance, players who had just received the quest and rushed over saw the fever-pitched "report-a-thon" happening in front of the Su Mansion. Their eyes lit up, and, as if they’d been injected with stimulants, they shoved their way into the crowd to join the massive frenzy.
"Make way! Let me through! I was here first! I have a report too!"
"Stop pushing! Get in line! One at a time!"
City Lord Zhao Decang stood off to the side, watching this "grand spectacle" of an incensed mob fighting to report crimes. He could feel his temples throbbing, the veins on his forehead about to burst.
As the City Lord of Anhe City, he’d always felt the territory under his jurisdiction wasn’t quite so wretched. After all, the Injustice Bell at the government office rarely rang more than a few times a year.
No reports meant peace and order. These "troublesome citizens" were usually as silent as the grave, meekly accepting whatever came their way and keeping to themselves.
’But now... Peaceful? Orderly? These aren’t law-abiding citizens, they’re a bunch of powder kegs with long-simmering grudges!’
’This is an uprising! This bunch of troublemakers! Where were they when they were being short-weighted or having their wages docked?! Had they all gone mute? How come not a single one of them came to the government office to report an injustice?!’
’And now look at them! The Fairy Maiden mentions money, and suddenly you’re all more eager than anyone, your voices louder than anyone’s! So my government office is just a decoration, is that it? The Fairy Maiden’s copper coins are the real law of the land, right?!’
’If they reported it to me, wouldn’t I take care of it? Er... well... even if they had come to report... for such trivial, petty matters, I... most likely... would not have, in fact, done anything.’
The thought of his usual approach—either finding it too troublesome and having his Government Officials send people away, or just telling them to "mediate it themselves" in a wishy-washy attempt to smooth things over—made Zhao Decang’s face flush with embarrassment. ’The Fairy Maiden won’t blame me for this, will she?’
And then, he saw the Fairy Maiden’s gaze fall upon him, cold as ice.
Zhao Decang: "!!!!!"