Chapter 241
Isabella smiled and then explained, “Actually, it’s still somewhat related to the previous ‘Dehydration Syndrome.’”
“‘Dehydration Syndrome’?”
Xia Er blinked, a hint of curiosity in his eyes.
“Isn’t that over already?”
She had personally put an end to that situation, and the antidote had been developed by Adele and distributed by the Goddess of Salvation Church. Wasn’t that all in the past? Besides, Adele had completed the resurrection ritual and advanced to the second tier as a ‘Plague Doctor.’
“While ‘Dehydration Syndrome’ has been cured, the aftermath is far from over.”
Isabella shook her head and continued, “Most of it concerns the deceased from ‘Dehydration Syndrome’ and those who lost their jobs because of it.”
“It all started with some rumors claiming that ‘Dehydration Syndrome’ was a virus created by factory owners to eliminate disobedient workers. Of course, that rumor was baseless, but then various other rumors emerged, each pointing fingers at different factories.”
“This deepened the hatred of the families of workers who suffered injuries or deaths due to ‘Dehydration Syndrome’ towards the factory owners. Most factory owners refuse to acknowledge deaths from ‘Dehydration Syndrome’ as work-related injuries and offer no compensation—because they don’t count as such.”
“Moreover, some factories already had heavy workloads, and many who recovered from ‘Dehydration Syndrome’ hadn’t fully regained their strength. They collapsed again while working; there are too many such cases, which only escalated the conflict…”
At this point, Isabella shook her head and said, “That’s the current situation. The truth about ‘Dehydration Syndrome’ remains murky, and the conflict between workers and factory owners is intensifying.”
Xia Er nodded slightly.
This was indeed a tricky situation…
The truth behind ‘Dehydration Syndrome’ involved the extraordinary, cults, and the Salvation Church. None of these parties, especially the Salvation Church, would want to let the cat out of the bag; the information had to be kept under wraps.
But Xia Er also noticed something unusual.
That was the rumors.
Generally speaking, with the presence of the Goddess of Salvation Church, such outrageous rumors wouldn’t spread so widely among the workers. The Church needed to maintain a delicate balance with the nobles and wealthy merchants and wouldn’t want to tear the facade.
Yet the rumors kept coming, clearly indicating the existence of some hidden instigator.
“And… something significant has happened recently. It’s going to be hard to keep things calm for a while…”
Isabella lowered her voice, leaning slightly forward. Xia Er and Ai Mi also leaned in, listening intently.
Xia Er’s heart raced a little faster at the mention of recent events… he had obtained a ‘Uniqueness,’ and if that information got out, it would cause a stir throughout the extraordinary world.
Was it about the ‘Uniqueness’?
“Something happened in Bei An Su, and the newspapers aren’t allowed to report on it.”
Seeing Xia Er’s interest, Isabella let out a small sigh of relief. She looked at him and slowly continued, “Just now, Minister William passed by here; he was merely passing through… he’s on his way to Bei An Su to quell the situation…”
“What happened?”
Xia Er couldn’t help but ask.
“A great famine…”
Isabella shook her head and explained, “It’s been suppressed for a long time, but it can’t be hidden any longer.”
A famine in Bei An Su?
Xia Er was momentarily taken aback.
He had studied the history of this world and knew a few things.
Both Bei An Su and An Su considered themselves the rightful heirs of the half-lost empire of ‘Ancient An Su,’ and Bei An Su was originally named Orlando, meaning ‘Holy Empire’ in Ancient An Su language.
However, An Su had developed rapidly over the past two centuries, amassing wealth and power that completely overshadowed Orlando, seizing many parliamentary seats from it.
Decades ago, under the queen’s direction, the country’s name was changed from the ‘United Kingdom of An Su and Orlando’ to the rather peculiar ‘United Kingdom of An Su and Bei An Su.’
This change seemed to test Orlando’s limits and indeed sparked numerous uprisings and resistance, all of which were suppressed by An Su.
It was likely that once Orlando’s power weakened further, it would be renamed the ‘Kingdom of An Su’ or the ‘Holy Kingdom of An Su,’ completely swallowing Orlando.
Even now, both sides harbored intense animosity towards each other, from the nobles down to the commoners.
The people of An Su referred to Bei An Su as “lazy” and “barbarians,” while the people of Bei An Su called the An Su people “vampires” and “greedy pigs.”
Xia Er had acquired some of this knowledge from history books and some from casual conversations. Isabella herself rarely delved into political matters, as they felt too distant from her reality.
For the past three years, she had been busy with her studies and making a living; she had no time to concern herself with such issues—after all, she wasn’t preparing for a civil service exam.
But the term ‘famine’ was certainly sensitive.
At that moment, seeing Xia Er’s focused expression, Isabella knew her gamble had paid off.
Talking too much could lead to trouble, and since she didn’t understand Xia Er’s political stance, she could only take a chance. Thank heavens, he seemed genuinely interested.
“I know, I know,”
Ai Mi chimed in, her curiosity piqued. “Haven’t they been suffering from famine for over two years?”
“This year is worse,”
Isabella shook her head and explained, “This year, Bei An Su’s potatoes and other crops have yielded almost nothing.”
“My father says it’s because they’re lazy, not working or planting crops.”
Ai Mi blinked and said.
“That’s true,”
Isabella shrugged and replied, “They want to leverage this to return to the An Su parliament, seeking greater political rights and resources, and they actually succeeded.”
“Succeeded?”
Xia Er raised an eyebrow.
In his past life, there was a country that went through something similar, but it seemed they hadn’t succeeded.
“Yes, the Minister of Internal Affairs is going there to handle this situation,”
Isabella nodded and said, “To oversee the construction of railways and factories, and porridge houses, using labor to provide relief, spending a lot of An Su taxpayers’ money.”
“And then?”
Upon hearing this, Xia Er couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows, thinking, as expected.
“Then things went awry,”
Isabella shook her head and said, “Before I came here, An Su was still holding protests against the queen and the prime minister’s policy, arguing that the government shouldn’t lend money to those barbarians.”
Xia Er took a slow breath.
The situation in An Su was truly absurd.
At this point, Xia Er had a good idea of how things had escalated.
Using labor to provide relief? From what Isabella said, the capital for building factories was borrowed from the An Su government by the local government of Bei An Su?
Xia Er shook his head inwardly.
A few porridge houses couldn’t save the hundreds of thousands of people in Bei An Su, and the idea of using labor to provide relief was laughable; after working, where would they get the money to buy food?
Was it funny?
Yet Xia Er couldn’t definitively say whether the prime minister and the queen were absurd, as similar things had happened in his past life.
After hesitating for a moment, Xia Er finally asked, “Did they… increase food imports and ban food exports from Bei An Su?”
Isabella looked at Xia Er with a hint of surprise and replied, “That’s correct. Aren’t you not too familiar with these matters? This policy was just issued not long ago…”
Xia Er: “…”
He could almost predict how things would unfold from here.
This policy sounded reasonable, and the logic was simple.
If they had no food, they would ban food exports and increase food imports to supplement their supplies, so at least the people of Bei An Su would have food to buy.
But this policy didn’t take into account one group of people—the food merchants.
Xia Er rubbed his temples.
Fortunately, this world had the existence of extraordinary powers, and many ‘Plague Doctors’ like Adele would likely rush to Bei An Su to address the potato blight issue.
However…
Xia Er couldn’t be sure whether the potato blight in Bei An Su was caused by an extraordinary being like a ‘Harbinger of Plague’…
He even began to suspect whether the queen of An Su was also digesting some kind of potion.
Moreover, Xia Er worried that obtaining the ‘Uniqueness’ trait might create a butterfly effect, accelerating certain events.
“It should be nothing serious… no need to worry too much,”
Isabella observed Xia Er’s reaction and hesitated for a moment before asking, “May I ask, Miss Xia Er, are you from Bei An Su?”
“Hmm? No, why do you ask?”
Xia Er shook his head, looking at Isabella with curiosity.
Did his earlier worried expression lead her to misunderstand?
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