Chapter 112: The Heart-touching Song Tang Xiaojia
Caroline heard a noisy noise coming from the living room early in the morning. She got up from the bed, opened the door curtain and looked out. She found that the neighbor's hostess had come to their house and was holding Winnie and talking nervously. She hurriedly asked, "What happened, Mom?"
Megan's second aunt had already boasted that Caroline could talk to Mr. Rex. When the anxious neighbors saw Caroline coming out, they seemed to see hope and asked eagerly: "My people went to work on the main road in the town this morning and found that the road was closed and no one was hired. Caroline, do you know what happened?"
"She was resting at home the whole day yesterday and didn't go out. How would she know?" said Ms. Winnie.
"I really don't know." Winnie walked out of the room and asked with concern, "Can you explain it in more detail?"
The neighbor quickly told the story of how the adult members of her family went to queue up to get a work number in the morning but were stopped outside.
After listening to the neighbor's introduction, Caroline roughly understood what was going on...
The townspeople were worried that something might happen to the new lord and that he wouldn't be able to afford to hire them for odd jobs; or that he might no longer want to hire all the people who had signed up and wanted to eliminate some of them. Giving them a half-day holiday was just an excuse to deceive them, and in fact, the clerks were selecting qualified workers.
These ideas may sound a bit ridiculous, but in fact they are not ridiculous at all. After all, it is a matter of personal interest and it is normal for people to worry about gains and losses.
Caroline had seen with her own eyes the piles of cloth that reached to the ceiling in the town hall warehouse, and she knew very well that Mr. Raikes could never be short of money.
Mr. Rex was willing to buy cloth on credit and give them the opportunity to make a lot of money, even though they were four young people from a small town with no background. Caroline didn't believe that Mr. Rex would be stingy with the opportunity of temporary work paid daily. She smiled and said, "Don't be too nervous. Since the clerk said that he only wants to rest for half a day, you can go in the afternoon."
"Is this...really? We can go in the afternoon?" The neighbor's hostess didn't quite believe it.
"Of course." Caroline took the neighbor's mistress's hand and patted her hand gently to convey her confidence. "My grandpa went to work at the Environmental Sanitation Bureau early in the morning. He is working with his co-workers to clean up those old houses on the west side that have been abandoned for many years. He said that they are eliminating some...fire hazard. Even my grandpa is still working. How could Mr. Rex find fault with everyone?"
The neighbor's hostess thought about it, and her tense facial muscles finally relaxed. She covered her chest and said, "Hearing what you said, I feel much more relieved. Isn't it true? When I came back, I saw the undead escorting those imprisoned in the militia to clean the sewers in the next block. I heard that those imprisoned in the militia can also be paid for their work."
"People from the militia" is a general term used by townspeople to refer to prisoners. The reason they use this neutral term is because some of the townspeople's family members are also imprisoned there... some are serving as militiamen, some are working as thugs in brothels, and some even stay overnight on the main street in the town.
After sending the neighbor's hostess away, Caroline turned to Winnie and said, "Mom, let me go to the town avenue to see where my beige linen skirt is."
"Didn't you just have a day's rest? Why are you going out now?" Winnie said unhappily.
"It's been a whole day of rest, which is enough, Mom. I wanted to go to that delicatessen yesterday, but you wouldn't let me go~" Caroline hugged Winnie's arm and started to act coquettishly.
Ms. Winnie said helplessly, "Isn't it because I'm afraid you'll spend money recklessly? Okay, okay, you're so old and still talking like that. Your skirt is hanging in the yard. I'll go collect it later."
Caroline put on the linen dress her mother had washed for her, and went straight to Martin Street as soon as she left the house. She took a detour from Martin Street to Town Avenue - because the buildings on that street needed to be renovated and there was construction waste everywhere, many alleys on the entire street were closed; people living in the residential area on the north side who wanted to go to Town Avenue had to either go from Town Hall Street or take a detour from Martin Street.
After running around half of the town and arriving at the three-way intersection in the direction of the town gate, Caroline saw a scene that shocked her...
The intersection of the main street in the town was as spacious as a small square because it was used to park horse-drawn carriages. At this moment, hundreds of townspeople were crowded together in this small square.
The townspeople sitting on the ground were all very quiet, with their heads half-raised, looking intently at the isolation zone in front of them.
There was a square table in front of the isolation zone leading to the main avenue in the town. When Caroline arrived, she saw a lady wearing a very gorgeous ball gown, but with a physique stronger and more fit than a man, standing on the square table and singing.
Caroline had no idea what the lyrics were saying; it sounded like the language of another world. But the language barrier couldn't stop Caroline from understanding the power in the song - powerful (...) the rhythm and tempo of the powerful, deep and long female voice were even more powerful than the voice itself.
It was clearly just a rhythm formed by a simple single vocal, and the lyrics were completely incomprehensible, but Caroline was using her hearing to feel the silent tsunami that was approaching her.
Time goes back to fifteen minutes ago, when Caroline had just run out of the house with her skirt lifted up.
The orange cat boss, who remembered the lyrics in a mess and sang out of tune, sang the lyrics he could remember over and over again for less than three minutes. His "energy bar" was exhausted, and he instantly "transformed into a skeleton", from a strong and fit female warrior into a skeleton.
The townspeople were filled with confusion when they heard the strange ghost howling, which turned into the "KABAKABA" that they were very familiar with... Those who had just been amused by the skeletons' weird dancing moves were all stunned.
"——It's indeed the undead!" a town resident whispered.
Some people also thought after the event: "It can only be the undead, how else can I mix with the undead?"
"What are they doing? Are they performing for us?" someone made a bold guess.
The townspeople who heard this speculation were shocked: "Huh? Is this a show?"
"No way, that weird noise is also a performance?"
"That funny dance is understandable, the undead dancing is quite entertaining, but the undead that turned into a human...what on earth is that!"
"Yeah, that's so ugly!"
The players providing the performances and the townspeople watching the performances did not speak the same language, but the two sides were not completely unable to communicate - the townspeople pointed at the players who were dancing and laughed, and when they looked at the singing orange cat boss, their eyes, expressions and body movements were all particularly confused, bewildered and at a loss, and even a fool could see who the townspeople welcomed more.
The orange cat boss jumped off the table dejectedly and ran back to the isolation belt with a puzzled look on his face: "What's going on? Isn't art without borders? I can't speak English but I'm still very happy listening to English songs. Why don't those NPCs support me?"
Teacher Yuchi, who was about to say some words of comfort, was stunned: "Wait a minute, you can't even sing the whole song of Little Apple, and you have the nerve to say that it's art? Are you rich people so shameless?"
"You are a teacher?? You have such ?!" The orange cat boss was also shocked.
The players next to him laughed and said, "If there was no language barrier, your crosstalk performance might be quite popular."
The orange cat owner resolutely defended his artistic talent: "I don't think it's my fault. It's probably because there are no microphones or speakers here. My voice is not loud enough for the NPCs to hear clearly. Otherwise, the audience wouldn't be so bored."
"I can prove it!" A dancer raised his hand. "Orange Cat Boss sings really well. I almost laughed out loud several times. Even my four-year-old nephew can't sing to such a funny effect!"
The orange cat boss nodded vigorously when he heard the first half, and waved his bone claws at Teacher Yuchi to signal her to listen carefully; when he heard the second half, he realized something was wrong, and without saying a word, he drew out his newly enchanted weapon and rushed towards the player who was disrupting the show with his teeth bared...
There was a ginger cat who was quite popular. All the players knew that he was clumsy... When they saw him chasing and hacking the player who was trying to sabotage them, no one tried to stop the fight. They all just laughed beside him.
"It's really a bit disappointing without speakers." Teacher Yuchi took the orange cat boss's opinion seriously and was in a dilemma. "Street singers all bring small speakers, but we can only rely on human voices. NPCs can't hear clearly, so no matter how well we sing, it's useless."
Tang Jia, who was laughing with Yang Ying while pointing at the orange cat boss, straightened her back and patted her ribs, "You want a loud voice? That's just a coincidence, let me do it!"
Borrowing the fraudulent orb from the orange cat boss, Tang Jia put it around her neck, held her head high and walked onto the stage.
Before the performance began, Tang Jia turned around and shouted, "The dancers are not allowed to come out. If the dancers steal the limelight, no one will appreciate my singing."
The orange cat boss who didn't hit anyone was feeling depressed. After hearing this, he pinched his thigh bone in anger and said, "Why didn't you say anything when I came up? Xiaotang, you are not a good person either!"
Tang Jia, who was able to make human voices, showed off her naturally gifted loud voice with built-in speakers without wasting any time, and began to shout with full energy: "Arrogant face, to, Wan, Zhong, Lang!"
Teacher Yuchi: "……(°A°`)"
Players: “…(° △°(° △° (° △° )”
Tang Jia has a loud voice. Anyone who has dealt with her must have experienced it: a sudden and loud shout exploding in the ears, making people dizzy. For Tang Jia, it's just a casual greeting to passers-by.
This Zhang Fei voice, which often disturbs others, is used to sing this song of heroic spirit and ambition a cappella, and the effect is surprisingly good. The pronunciation of words seems to have its own drum rhythm, which is particularly shocking - it may not be better than that of a serious singer, but it is definitely more hardcore than a serious singer.
Before Tang Jia sang two lines, the townspeople NPCs who were originally whispering fell silent; halfway through the song, the shocked townspeople even sat down quietly and enjoyed the performance very attentively.
“Art really knows no borders. Even if you don’t understand it, you can still appreciate it.” Teacher Yuchi nodded in praise.
Orange cat boss: "...Are you implying something about me?"
Tang Jia's "energy bar" is much longer than that of the orange cat boss, and she can maintain the camouflage illusion for half an hour or an hour. After singing a passionate song about a man's self-reliance, she sang another ambitious song about loyalty to the country.
This girl has never learned to sing, but her strengths are that she has a powerful natural voice, a good sense of pitch, and she never sings out of tune. In addition, in the "game" she doesn't have to worry about hurting her throat or voice, and she can raise the pitch as much as she can and use unlimited volume, and the effect of her singing... Not to mention the natives who have no access to spiritual entertainment, even the players who are used to listening to all kinds of florid pop hits were stunned.
"That's awesome! It's even better than the live performance of the singer my dad hired!" A ginger cat said in amazement, "Xiaotang, this noisy, stupid girl, has this talent?"
"How big of a problem do you have with Tang Jia?" Yang Ying looked at him, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
"Your dad invited a singer to perform live? Oh shit, are the stories in online novels about inviting celebrities to perform at home true?" Another player discovered the highlight.
"What are you talking about? This is a commercial performance for the mall's opening." A ginger cat waved his hands quickly, "Who would invite someone to sing at home for no reason? Aren't vinyl records good?"
"I'm afraid your family runs a shopping mall and plays vinyl!"
“…Is this the end?”
When Tang Jia sang "A Man Should Be Self-reliant", the window of a family hotel near the street corner was opened, and Mrs. Doyle, her husband, and the guests staying at Mrs. Doyle's house all appeared in the window.
The penetrating singing voice drifted to Martin Street next door, and many residents and merchants also came over after hearing the sound.
When Caroline arrived, Tang Jia, who was standing at the square table, had already sung the third song, the March of the Volunteers.
The temperament of this song is completely different from the previous two entertainment tracks. To the local residents, those incomprehensible and particularly powerful tones and rhythms are no longer shocking, but are hammering their hearts and souls with a sledgehammer. They listen to it with full concentration and forget everything else...
In the former mayor's house half a street away, Supervisor Lowell, who was wondering where Yang Qiu got the "micro" generator set from, suddenly felt an extremely brief, subtle, and almost imperceptible sense of oppression.
This church monk, whose inspiration was second only to Yang Qiu's, hesitated for a moment, and chose the latter between illusion and inspiration. He walked out of the living room and into the yard, released his mental field, and carefully and cautiously sensed the energy fluctuations in the surrounding space.
There was nothing unusual, as if the brief and subtle feeling of oppression was just his nervousness.
Lowell frowned and thought for a while, then told Wagner to look after the house, changed his shoes, and went out to the town hall.
When he met Yang Qiu in the archives room of the town hall, before Lowell could speak, Yang Qiu said, "Did you notice it too, Supervisor?"
"What is that?" Supervisor Lowell asked immediately.
"I don't know." Yang Qiu shook his head and said unhappily, "Some unknown existence looked at Westram. This kind of overlooking is quite rude."
Rowell: “…”
Rowell said expressionlessly: "You only feel offended by being spied on by an unknown being?"
"What else?" Yang Qiu said indifferently, "It's a weak existence that is so weak that even your gaze can barely detect it. It would be inappropriate to pay too much attention to it."
There is nothing wrong with what he said. The unknowable things that are barely detectable even at first sight cannot affect the material plane at all. They are far inferior to the resurrected ancient gods.
But Lowell still felt that Yang Qiu was too optimistic, and disagreed: "Don't you think that maybe this unknown existence came because of your weird undead spirits?"
It is not easy for those terrible monsters in the endless void to invade the material world. They need the help of unstable space-time cracks to pass through the wall of the material world. However, the dimensional demon world is different, especially some incomplete dimensional demon worlds that do not even have demon kings, which have almost become a playground for void demons.
Yang Qiu laughed: "Absolutely impossible!"
The world wall of the Earth plane is much more powerful than this magic plane! Even the tentacles of the ancient gods can't pass through it. After finding the anchor target, you have to drag the target over here!
If he hadn't merged with the ancient god's tentacles in order to save his life and his soul hadn't been stained with the ancient god's breath, he would have been easily found and dragged back by the damn ancient god. He would have long since hidden on Earth to live out his retirement life!
Supervisor Lowell stared at Yang Qiu expressionlessly for a while, and said quietly: "You are sure that your undead will not be affected by the void... So, your undead are not from the dimensional demon world."
Yang Qiu smiled but said nothing.
When he used some of the fel energy gained from fusing with the ancient god's tentacles to move the breath of the void to Exile Town and allowed the players to carry out activities in the void, he no longer cared whether the church monk would see through the players' whereabouts.
Supervisor Lowell probably figured this out too. He didn't delve into it further. He just looked at Yang Qiu deeply and said, "You... are too confident. Your undead are not protected by the deep rules of this world. They don't belong to this world."
"Thank you, Supervisor." Yang Qiu understood that this monk was used to hiding his concern under a serious and old-fashioned face. He accepted his kindness and said with a smile, "I'm sorry that I can't tell you the true origin of our undead friends. I can only tell you that anyone can be polluted spiritually, but they will never be."
Mental projection must not be contaminated, just like a person wearing clean clothes looking into a dirty mirror. No matter how dirty the reflection in the mirror is, it will not be affected in the slightest.
Supervisor Lowell frowned and shook his head, said nothing more, and turned to leave.
"Wait a moment, Supervisor." Yang Qiu stood up and called Lowell, smiling, "If you have nothing else to do, why not come and see the efforts our undead friends have made to improve the quality of life of the people of Westram."
While the players were holding a concert to appease the townspeople, Ji Tang and others sped up the process of pulling the wires and installing the generators and transformers, giving priority to providing electricity to the town hall, Lord Yang's residence, two resettlement sites, the Undead Chamber of Commerce canteen branch, and the first oil press that was renovated.
The idea of this oil press factory was proposed by the player mayor Ji Tang after he and Rex went to the countryside for research on the first day. Since the animal husbandry in Westham is very underdeveloped, there is a huge gap in the demand for edible oil among local people. It is definitely not practical to develop animal husbandry now. Ji Tang found that local farmers have the habit of using soybean rotation, and each household stores a lot of soybeans to exchange for salt or as emergency food, so it is natural that they would consider soybean oil extraction.
Rex, who was easily persuaded by Ji Tang, went to see Yang Qiu that day. After some difficult negotiations (mainly because Rex didn't understand why Ji Tang thought Yang could get the right machinery, and it was high-end goods that even the Kenyan Empire didn't have), Yang Qiu agreed to their application and unceremoniously put the bill for the oil mill's machinery on Rex's head...
After Rex took on a debt, the oil press factory transformed from the former "Lover" Club was equipped with a Chinese-made fully automatic spiral oil press (manufactured by the H Province Machinery Factory, with an ex-factory price of 23,000 yuan, similar in price to a generator but smaller in size), a steaming and frying pan, and two fully automatic multi-functional tofu machines (with an ex-factory price of about 13,000 yuan).
Yang Qiu led Supervisor Lowell to the oil mill. Ji Tang, Rex, and Zhao Zhenzhen were leading a few orcs to debug the machines in the factory (Old Geng and Master Liu had returned to Exile Town). When they saw the two of them swaggering in, except for a few orcs who were arranged by Rex to be in charge of the oil mill, no one else gave them a glance...
Yang Qiu handed a rhododendron badge to Lowell, who hesitated and took the badge.
The spiritual matrix was not Yang Qiu's original creation. When a spellcaster decided to build a wizard tower in a certain place, he would set the wizard tower as the core of the matrix and create a semi-permanent spiritual matrix that could cover the entire territory. Local people could join the matrix with the token given by the spellcaster, and they could get help when they encountered danger. If they were unfortunately killed, they could leave spiritual information in the matrix before death to expose the real culprit.
To put it simply, it is a magical version of a regional LAN, which has a certain security function - otherwise why would the lords of all regions be so eager to have spellcasters come to their local area to build wizard towers and be willing to provide people and materials?
Building a wizard tower is time-consuming and expensive, and it will also limit the caster's range of activities. So Yang Qiu simply used his own body as the core of the matrix... Only an old monster like him who has lived for three hundred years can do this.
The moment Lowell took the azalea badge in his hand, he found that the strange "KABAKABA" noises of Ji Tang and Zhao Zhenzhen had turned into a clear and logical conversation between young men and women.
He looked towards Zhao Zhenzhen in surprise. He clearly heard the skeleton's gentle, powerful female voice that gave him a sense of trust and intimacy:
"…Newly harvested soybeans cannot be directly pressed for oil because they have too much moisture. Have you got any steaming and frying equipment?"
The other skeleton made a more powerful and steady male voice:
"That one over there is... The biggest problem right now is that the soybean variety grown here is not very good. I estimate that the oil yield is only about 10%."
Zhao Zhenzhen said, "10% is fine, it's better than no oil. The bean cakes that have been squeezed for oil can be made into tofu directly, so there is no waste. In this weather, it is more appropriate to make it into dried tofu, which can be stored for a longer period of time... By the way, we have to find a place for the tofu dregs. Aren't there some abandoned houses in the town concentrated in the northwest of Martin Street? I think it's a good idea to raise some chickens and ducks in those houses. There will be more sources of meat and eggs, and the townspeople's vegetable baskets will be richer. What do you think, Rex?"
Rex, the Lord of Westram, obviously couldn't keep up. He didn't understand why they were talking about soybean oil extraction and then turned to raising chickens and ducks. He was stunned for a moment before continuing: "This... should be possible... The two alleys over there are empty, with only a few families living there. Then, then we still need to collect some chicks?"
"No, the cost of naturally hatching chicks and ducklings is too high. It's not cost-effective and cannot be scaled up." Zhao Zhenzhen waved her hand and said, "Go collect some fertilized chicken and duck eggs. We can hire people to hatch and raise them, and we can also add a few more jobs."
Rex looked at Ji Tang in bewilderment. Hatching eggs by yourself? What on earth was Ms. Zhao Zhenzhen talking about? How to hatch eggs without a hen?
"Oh, I know this. It's okay. I'll teach the workers when the time comes." Ji Tang said naturally.
Rex: “…”
Rex quietly wiped his sweat off his forehead and assisted the two men even more cautiously... Both of them were more capable and knowledgeable than him. Not to mention showing off his power as a lord, he was considered to be careful in his words and actions if he could do it without embarrassing himself.
Rex, who barely understood some of the parts and didn't fall behind too much, was like this. Not to mention the orc Osrian and his compatriots who came to learn, they were all more honest than the other...
Yang Qiu looked at the two national team members who were very good at coaching people with a smile, and said to Supervisor Rowell: "Our undead friends are really great. This is definitely not me bragging. What do you think, Supervisor?"
Supervisor Lowell: “…”
