RNP Page 179
Page 179
The immature boy decided to try his own method, so he squatted down next to Tifa, made a face, and poked her puffed-up cheeks:
"Black Pearl, are you really angry?"
The female tengu helplessly covered her face beside him, her black wings drooping.
She figured it out from those two moves—
This brat, if it weren't for his incredibly handsome and adorable puppy-like face, with that little mouth and those mischievous hands, he would have been beaten eight hundred times over by now!
It's best to avoid manipulating numbers...
Sure enough, Tifa immediately gave him a reproachful look.
The kerosene lamp cast shimmering spots of light on the water's surface, making her wet profile resemble a peach glistening with morning dew. Water droplets slid down her slender neck and into her collar, forming a shallow stream at her collarbone.
"If I don't do the laundry, I'll cover for you with my job. Where are we going to sleep tonight? What are we going to eat?" Her wine-red peach blossom eyes were glistening with tears, and her nose, slightly reddened with anger, wrinkled gently, like a little rabbit worried about storing up food for winter. Her ears trembled slightly with anxiety.
"And..." her voice trailed off, "Yes, I forced you to bring me out. What if... we really were trapped here forever... we..."
Hearing this, the female tengu who was watching the melons on the side paused slightly, and her black wings unconsciously flapped.
Oh ho? Is this girl perhaps planning... a love triangle drama about a lovesick man and a heartbroken woman?
Before Tifa could finish saying "Don't worry, I'll take care of you...", a commotion erupted from the depths of the mine tunnel.
Tifa instinctively rose and shielded Lip behind her, both holding their breath in unison. The light from the kerosene lamp flickered violently on the water's surface, and the sounds of whips cracking and shouts grew closer in the distance.
She instinctively gripped Li Pu's sleeve, as if afraid she wouldn't have time to say something, and suddenly blurted out, "The stars on the beach are really beautiful, thank you for being willing to stay with me..."
"Huh?" Li Pu raised an eyebrow, not having had time to ponder the deeper meaning behind those words—
Just then, a lazy shout came from afar: "Work's over! Work's over!"
The female tengu was taken aback at first, then flapped her wings and exclaimed in surprise:
"That's not right! We've only been working for less than an hour! I've been in this wretched place for hundreds of years and I've never seen work stop early!"
Li Pu instantly thought of the sealed artifact called "Days Feel Like Years"...
Something is wrong!
He immediately pulled Tifa out of the public restroom.
As soon as I stepped out the door, I heard the miners talking all at once:
"Wow! These two new people from the laundry department actually survived a day?"
"What?! You weren't dragged away by the monsters in the pool?"
"They're incredibly lucky. These two siblings must have prayed to some deity!"
Li Pu was startled upon hearing this.
"Are you sure... you really worked a full day?"
He clearly remembered that when he left the laundry office, it was the time when all the slave laborers were going to work.
And so far, less than an hour has passed between him and Tifa...
"What nonsense! What kind of talk is this!" a burly man with a face covered in coal dust shouted, spitting as he retorted. "It's clearly marked with lines in the work log, how come it doesn't count as a day?"
The slave laborers nearby chimed in, "The foreman watched us unload twelve coal carts; his back is about to break!" "You little brat, you're not even fully grown yet and you already want to be a labor traitor?"
Li Pu ignored the workers' clamor and understood that, in their perception of time, a full day had indeed passed.
But while he and Tifa were fine, the female tengu that had been leaning over him seemed to have also broken free from this slow flow of time...
As he was deep in thought, Tifa gently touched his arm.
Looking in the direction she indicated, I saw a mother and daughter dressed in worn-out work clothes walking unsteadily towards me.
The woman was missing her left arm; the empty sleeve swayed gently in the wind, and her face was as pale as paper.
The little girl beside her, though disheveled, had bright, lively eyes that shone exceptionally in the dim mine shaft.
The woman stopped a few steps away from them and asked in a hoarse voice, "Are you new here?"
Her eyes were sunken and lifeless, and she coughed violently before she could finish speaking.
After coughing, she spoke again: "Cough cough, come on, I'll take you to the construction site slave shed."
"Thank you," Tifa said with a polite smile.
"You're welcome. Once you get your daily wage, you can give me some money as a tip."
The guide fee was a minor matter, but this dark and gloomy mine actually paid wages on a daily basis? The two exchanged a puzzled look.
They made their way through the crowded alleyways to a bustling workers' shed. Moldy straw mats covered the ground, and dirty blankets were piled haphazardly. The air was thick with the smell of sweat and coal dust. In the cramped space, female slaves and miners were crammed together like sardines.
Tifa's eyes lit up, and she nimbly squeezed into a corner, patting the straw mat beside her. "Come on! There's room for two more people to lie down here." She beckoned to Li Pu, her ears slightly red but feigning composure, "We can just squeeze in..."
The phantom of the female tengu flapped its wings excitedly in mid-air, "Wow—" she drawled, and a few black feathers excitedly fell off, "Isn't this a blessing in disguise, you silly little thing?"
Li Pu, however, had no time to pay attention to her teasing; his attention was completely drawn to the abnormal flow of time around him. Just then, a foreman-like man carrying a kerosene lamp entered the shed and began shouting at the top of his lungs:
"Payment's here! Payday! Collect your 0.01% Eagle City Coin coupons!"
The words had barely left his mouth when the work shed erupted in chaos. The female slaves complained incessantly:
"Why are you so late?! We've been waiting for two hours!"
"Exactly! They always dawdle the most when it's time to get paid!"
"I've counted the coal ash three times already!"
Lip and Tifa looked at each other in bewilderment—in their perception, less than five minutes had passed since they left work with the workers.
That sealed artifact called "Days Feel Like Years" doesn't work on us.
This is a pretty big problem...
Chapter 194 Basic Attack to bait out ultimate move (Part 2)
"You little slut, what are they saying?"
"Monthly allowance?"
"Does this mean...paying wages?"
Upon hearing the words "give out money," Tifa immediately sat bolt upright like a lit firecracker.
Impulse drives the brain! Greed replaces thought!
The Taurus woman's money-loving instincts ignited instantly in Tifa's beautiful, alluring eyes!
Li Pu, who was deep in thought, was startled by his "Jerusalem's" sudden action.
"It's gotten this weird, and you still want to make money?"
"The flow of time is still... ugh!"
What are you saying in your gibberish!
How am I supposed to support you if you don't take your wages!
With this abnormally fast flow of time, even a second's hesitation could mean losing all your money!
In the blink of an eye! Tifa scooped up her "little puppy" and tucked him under her warm, fragrant armpits, then charged into the crowd of female slaves!
It's like a tiger entering a flock of sheep!
His domineering, reckless manner startled the female foreman who was handing out the money, causing her to stumble.
The female slaves guarding the money box clung desperately to it, staring in terror at Tifa who had suddenly appeared.
Where did this ruthless female bandit come from?!
And this "dark-skinned" female bandit had a fluttering "trophy" tucked under her arm, looking just like a fierce female beast carrying her cub!
Not only was the female foreman who was handing out the money stunned, but even the female celestial dog was dumbfounded—this submissive "wronged little wife" was actually so fierce in front of outsiders.
Tifa's wine-red eyes shone with an eerie light as she clung tightly to her thrashing puppy boyfriend while reaching for the money box: "Our wages!"
The female foreman stammered, "But...but you haven't...you haven't finished washing..."
"That's still work!" Tifa glared, startling the foreman who quickly stuffed two bulging envelopes into her hands.
At this moment, Li Pu, who was tucked under her armpit, had his entire face buried in that full and soft 32D side breast, and the warm skin emitted a sweet fragrance through the fabric.
The tip of my nose was constantly enveloped in a soft, warm sensation, and even my breath was tinged with a sweet warmth.
Fortunately, Tifa is like this: in the mountains where there are no big carts, a small van reigns supreme.
Although her 32D bust and voluptuous figure are indeed genuinely large-breasted and curvy, Tifa, this "cartload of bread people," poses little threat to the current wild little pony, Lip.
Even if Eve were to come along, he could handle her with ease and keep both delicate beauties "obedient".
It won't leave you breathless like when you're being "crushed" by the large bodies of mothers on trucks.
He really got trained by those big trucks...
But Li Pu found it difficult to enjoy this sudden "benefit".
Everything was fine until Tifa suddenly sprayed me with "face wash"!
"This, this is a special case!" The female foreman wiped her sweat and explained loudly, trying to regain face in front of everyone.
“A big shot on the ground is coming down to inspect the slaves on the third underground level. Ah, the laborers! The laborers’ treatment… The big shot allocated some compensation so that everyone could dress up a bit more decently.”
Upon hearing this, Li Pu raised an eyebrow, his cheek still pressed against that soft, warm mass.
It seems that Helena and her maid Mary Rose are coming.
The intelligence report stated that they would negotiate with Han Zhuli.
The female foreman added, "The notice board at the mine entrance has been posted, saying that if you perform well, you can get an extra 20% of your wages every month!"
This so-called "wage" is actually a "one ten-thousandth Eagle City coin voucher"—as the name suggests, its purchasing power is only one ten-thousandth of a single Eagle City coin.
"Oh dear! We really have to kowtow to the Emperor!" An old nanny with a face full of wrinkles immediately knelt down with a thud facing east, her withered fingers trembling as she gestured, "The Emperor's grace is boundless! The Emperor's grace is boundless!"
“Those who owe gambling debts at ‘Golden Beach’ and whose families can’t afford the compounding interest over the past few centuries, now they finally have hope!” Several female slaves wiped away their tears, bowed repeatedly towards the void, and trembled as they murmured, “Thank you for your great kindness, Your Majesty.”
But several young female workers in the corner looked worried.
They clutched the worthless piece of paper, barely enough to buy their freedom, their nails digging into their palms—even if their wages increased a hundredfold, it wouldn't be enough to cover the difference between what they paid and what they lost…
They knew in their hearts that they were destined to rot away in this dark and sunless mine, never to see the sunlight of the world above again.
The shed was bustling with activity as Tifa and Lip figured out the approximate value of the monthly allowance.
Li Pu couldn't help but mentally complain:
They'd even try to make money off Jerusalem, that's really something...
However, compared to the Qing Dynasty court that set the monthly wage standards here, the White Queen, the "Ghost Mother Cart" in the family who only paid the minimum wage to her master Chunli and Tifa, is simply a living bodhisattva who saves people from suffering!
Hmm... Next time, I'll coax her into wearing a white wedding dress or something and cosplaying as her.
And to be honest, if Master Chunli were to make a fuss about "hanging" his seductive, foreign mother from the streetlights again, he would stop her no matter what.
Even if you want to "hang streetlights", you should at least have a qualification assessment, right?
The blonde, blue-eyed, slutty mom is just a bit twisted, has a lot of desires, and is a bit too jealous.
Let her give way to the officials of Daqing.
Tifa snorted lightly, his face full of disapproval.
Even the smallest thing is still something, and the greedy Taurus woman still feels a great sense of accomplishment...
Her fingertips gripped the two envelopes tightly, but her waist unconsciously pulled the "little puppy" tucked under her arm even closer to her chest.
As their warm skin touched, the girl's thoughts were laid bare—she wanted both people and money!
As for why the little lamb suddenly turned into a tigress...
Tifa had been struggling in the slums since she was fifteen, and she knew all too well the survival rules of the lower class—in this dog-eat-dog environment, anyone who showed weakness would become a lamb to the slaughter.
If the male-to-female ratio is normal, it's fine, but the infighting and power struggles within an all-female environment are often more brutal than any form of oppression.
She had already figured it out as soon as she entered the work shed:
As long as you're ruthless enough, loyal enough, and have plenty of sisters!
Sooner or later, I'll be able to rule this land!