ALL NOVEL 149: Relaxing While Others Suffer—Classic Inequality
Having a fruitful conversation with Wrath, Lin Songmei and Yan Mingqing exited the hospital ahead of schedule. It was only ten in the morning!
High-fiving, Songmei and Mingqing walked down the still empty streets, wondering what they should do next.
What... was there to do anyway?
Starting off with a text update to the group chat, Songmei and Mingqing gave their invisible condolences as Han Youhong, Wang Taigang, and Zhao Liying explained how they were still struggling to get a clear read on whether Lust was agreeing to help or just trying to flirt...
“Want to go to a cafe? Like that one over there?” Mingqing proposed, pointing to a cafe just across the street with its sign flipped to open. “We can sit there and just... organize our notes? We can then like... send something to the group chat. Something simple and able to be understood quickly. Since Wrath gave us a lot of nice, but probably unnecessary information.”
Agreeing with a “sure, sure,” Songmei grabbed Mingqing’s hand and ran up to the crosswalk just a few steps ahead of them. Crossing the... empty street, once the signal changed—something Songmei felt was a little ironic but abided by anyway—the two made their way into the cafe.
With the entry area fully automated, Songmei’s eyes flicked around the room as Mingqing got them a table. For a cafe, the area it took up and facilities it had were both... unexpected.
Reminiscent of the place they went to when they first arrived in Westriver, Songmei and Mingqing got their own little booth, one decked out with automated ordering and a private layout to allow the customer to feel like they were in their own little bubble of the world.
With home-y, wooden, but cushioned chairs, Songmei and Mingqing’s little nook of a spot greeted them with a cute window giving them a sheltered view of the park on the other side of the cafe. Their little—well decently-sized if Songmei was being honest—table was made with a polished, spotless wood. Sitting down, Songmei and Mingqing rested their arms against the table, and... to Songmei’s surprise, the table felt beyond solid.
Maybe because everything in the orphanage was wooden... but Songmei, for one reason or another, always felt wooden tables had to have a slight wobble to them.
Making some idle conversation about... some idle topics, Songmei and Mingqing took a moment to order some drinks and some confectionery snacks. Because of Taigang’s breakfast, which had actually been mouth-watering, plate-loading, shoveling worthy, both of their stomachs were still quite full.
A shame really, in Songmei’s opinion, because of the numerous cute cookies and snacks catching her eye as she scrolled through the menu—of course, she was still happy Taigang’s cooking was good though.
Sending the orders off, Songmei steered the conversation back to their original goal. “So... organizing the notes. We should probably organize them into two different documents, yeah? One for like... quick viewing, relevant to them three while they talk to Lust and Sloth. Then, the other for a more extensive review tonight?”
Nodding and murmuring an “mhm, mhm,” Mingqing drummed her fingers against the table. “Well, I think it’s just any notes we don’t put into the first document will go into the second, yeah?”
“Yeah... But we probably want to organize it a little...” Songmei agreed, thinking back to the few times Wrath went on an anger, or melancholy, driven spiel.
Getting their terminals to project both their documents onto the table, Songmei and Mingqing began the painstaking task of sorting through all the different points Wrath made. Engrossed in their work, the two almost missed the cute little delivery robot as it rolled up to their table, delivering their food.
Grinding out the work for about an hour, Songmei and Mingqing leaned back into their chair, rubbing their eyes as they sent off the two documents for Youhong, Taigang, and Liying to peruse.
With her work done for the moment, Songmei leaned back into her chair as she sipped some of her now room temperature tea. Free until the afternoon—which was when their appointment with Gluttony was—Songmei could just hang out with Mingqing...
Life was good.
Sorting, in all honesty, had been easier than expected!
The information, for the most part, fell into two simple categories: backstory and advice. Backstory about Wrath and the city’s situation and advice about how to move forward.
For backstory, Songmei really felt bad...
Wrath, while still a starry-eyed child growing up in the country, had watched her parents sacrifice themselves to give her a chance for escape during the war against demons. Being born to two ordinary civilians, Wrath’s cultivation aptitude had come as a total surprise, but Wrath swore to use it for revenge.
Well, revenge never really happened as the war was over by the time Wrath entered a sect.
Then, Wrath wanted to become a politician, make change from the inside as they say. As an awkward speaker, Wrath tried her best, but... didn’t really have the connections. It was the mayor though, who reached out and offered her a position in Westriver. Proposing she could be a watchdog, order keeper of sorts, ruling over the underworld.
Now though, those words didn’t mean much. Anyone with eyes could see how genuine the mayor had been with that statement...
All in all... not the ideal situation if Songmei had any say...
After all the drama was over, as just a small bonus, Songmei wanted to instill Wrath as the new mayor. Of course, she didn’t mention it to Wrath, but she did whisper it to Mingqing as they walked out of the hospital.
It was the least they could do...
The other category was just general advice. There wasn’t much detail they had as of now, but Wrath gave some nice jumping off points.
For one, she advised them to just use her base and prison for anyone they captured. Wrath urged them to try and get the other underworld leaders to just put aside their bases and all work together to defend Wrath’s.
Wrath had admitted it was a bit of a selfish desire to see her base survive the most; however, there were some solid reasons. It went along the lines of not having anyone have too much power, and needing to band together to resist the mayor’s group if they came all at once.
Another nice piece of advice Songmei could remember off the top of her head was the small crack in the mayor’s forces. Wrath emphasized to not trust the underworld bosses too much, because at the end of the day, she herself included, had a lot of hidden pieces in the shadows.
However, because of that, the politicians didn’t trust the underworld bosses either. The crack formed because the politicians were the ones with influence and power in the city, while the underworld bosses were the true manpower and power players in the group.
Useful advice...
Very useful advice actually.
Shelving her thoughts, Songmei reached out to grab a cookie, stealing it from Mingqing’s plate and sticking her tongue out. “How are you doing?”
Raising an eyebrow, Mingqing placed one of her hands on top of Songmei’s while grabbing a cookie off Songmei’s plate with her other hand. “I’m doing great. You know Youhong, Taigang, and Liying are still talking to Lust? Sucks to be them...”
“Really? Still?” Songmei murmured, incredulous as to how Lust was being so difficult.
“Yeap,” Mingqing answered, popping the ‘p’ and laughing as she took a bite out of the cookie.
