Mystery: My Encounters with the Celestial God

Chapter 577 Chaos in Backlund

Eastside.

Inside a one-bedroom apartment.

Elise pushed open the door heavily, her mind filled with the scene of the army dispersing the textile workers that afternoon.

The soldiers' brutality and the cold muzzle of their guns frightened her, but she was even more worried about the future of the textile factory.

After all, such a well-paid job is not something you can just find anywhere in the East District.

This is especially true for her, who has received very little basic education.

As I opened the door, the lingering stench eased slightly.

However, before she could gently close the door to avoid the landlord demanding payment for the damage, she heard mournful cries.

The evening sunlight was blocked by smog, but the simple room was still clearly visible.

Dilapidated walls, a table with peeling paint, a stool missing a leg but still able to maintain its balance.

"Mom, what happened?"

She quickly walked forward and came to her mother's side, who was wiping away tears with her rough hands.

It was only at this moment that she realized the cold atmosphere in her home was different from usual.

"Your father broke his leg when cargo fell on him at the dock. The doctor said it's serious and will cost a lot of money."

"Elise, I remember your salary should be 11 sous and 8 pence, right? You haven't been late or taken a day off this week!"

Seeing her mother's earnest eyes, as if grasping at the last hope, Elise froze, her body trembling inexplicably.

The experience of being driven out of the factory was still vivid in her mind, but she had no time to recall it at this moment, and quickly asked:

"How is Father? I remember that after I started working, our family had some savings..."

"Elise, that's not enough!"

The woman, who appeared to be nearing middle age, emphasized this point, then added sadly:

"Your father is still in the hospital, and we're out of money. We're going to go hungry tonight, and we might have to move to the innermost part of the East District."

"Elise, I remember your factory belongs to 'The Company,' that's what old Will, the baker, told me."

She hesitated, looking unsure of what to do, and continued:

"He also asked if your factory could advance salaries for the next few weeks?"

The middle-aged woman with wrinkles around her eyes looked cautiously at her daughter, afraid that the news she had heard was just a baseless rumor.

Elise paused, stunned, and asked blankly:

"How much do you need?"

"3 pounds."

The middle-aged woman's brows lit up with joy as she looked at her daughter expectantly.

"But, but..."

Ilya opened her mouth, about to reveal the fact that the factory had been sealed off by the kingdom that day, but suddenly stopped.

The family's savings had been used for emergencies. The father broke his leg at the dock, and the mother's meager wages from washing clothes were not enough to cover the rent here, as well as the family's expenses going forward.

The sky outside the window suddenly darkened, and Iris, whose mind was blank, suddenly realized that no matter what she did, there seemed to be only one way.

"I will try, I'll go right now!"

A heavy burden weighed on her shoulders, and Elise pushed open the door and ran back inside.

"I hope Mr. Knicks, who's supposed to be paying salaries, is still here, and I hope those soldiers have already left..."

She prayed silently in her heart, running as fast as she could in the afterglow of the sunlight.

After running for a while, discomfort in her lungs made her slow down and breathe heavily.

"Almost there, almost there..."

Looking towards the textile factory, Elise started running again.

boom!

Just as she was about to reach the factory gate, a sharp gunshot made her stop abruptly.

"I, I'm an employee here. I left something here, and I haven't been paid this week."

She smiled ingratiatingly, her face pale, and stammered out a fabricated story she had told all the way.

However, the soldier ten meters away showed no emotion and said without any change in expression:

"The factory is under lockdown; personnel are strictly prohibited from approaching!"

"Or we'll kill you on the spot!"

After saying that, he raised his gun again and aimed it at Elise, who had already stepped into the cordon.

Seeing the dark muzzle of the gun, the girl, who was only seventeen or eighteen years old, trembled with fear and retreated, her face pale.

She only breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the soldiers in red uniforms put down their guns.

"We can't get in here at all. Maybe, just maybe, they won't be here for long..."

Elise paced nervously outside the factory, trying to wait for the soldiers with guns to leave as soon as possible.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes...

Time slowly passed, and when only a sliver of sunlight remained, she suddenly heard a familiar call.

"This is illegal, and I will not yield!"

In the distance, a well-dressed man in his thirties was forcibly subdued by soldiers and pushed onto a carriage.

Behind him followed several officers carrying heavy suitcases, their faces beaming with smiles.

"That's Mr. Nix from the finance department. Those boxes... they contain gold pounds!"

"He's been arrested..."

Seeing the box she often saw when receiving her salary, Elise felt her last bit of hope shattered.

She staggered, her mouth trembling slightly, and the fear that welled up inside her made her abandon her decision to go forward and argue for her wages.

My heart was filled with a gloomy feeling, much like the desolate streets after sunset.

Elise walked and walked, mechanically, aimlessly wandering.

My father broke his leg. If it can't be cured, he'll probably be bedridden for the rest of his life, or stay home helping my mother with laundry.

And this often means the beginning of tragedy. Elise has seen and heard too many similar scenes.

But she never imagined that such misfortune would one day befall her.

Tears silently slid down her reddened eyes, and through her blurred vision, she saw rows of lit gas streetlights.

Perhaps it was the guidance of fate, or perhaps it was the beginning of misfortune, or perhaps it was an unconscious choice made in the subconscious.

In the dim, artificial light, reflected in the glass of the shops along the street, Elise saw her delicate but freckled face, her thick but somewhat rough and withered blond hair, and her slender but youthful body.

Can they be exchanged for money?

Elise didn't know, but she still took a difficult step and walked into the shop that was open at night, where melodious music and laughter from men and women could be heard.

Perhaps, without those soldiers, I wouldn't have encountered these things again...

Lying naked on the bed, the girl thought weakly.

………………

The Queen.

Inside the luxurious villa of Earl Hall.

The blonde girl sat up in bed in the early morning, picked up "Storm Manor," a book that had been lying idle on her bedside table for a long time, and turned the pages with a frown.

A few days ago, the royal family, relying on the military, extensively sealed off factories, properties, and shops under the name of World Peace Company.

In just one day, most of the World Peace Corporation's properties in Backlund were sealed off.

Countless people were left homeless, countless people marched and protested, and countless people returned to their old factories, repeating the heavy and endless work day after day, year after year.

Tragedy after tragedy unfolded, and those who suffered misfortune lost their former composure, returning to a busy and hopeless life.

Rising prices and deepening class contradictions make chaos inevitable.

In the East End, the factory district, and even in the middle-class area of ​​Jowood, there are villains everywhere who commit robbery, rape, murder, and cruelty to take lives in revenge against society.

The pressure on the Sidras stadium increased sharply. Although police were actively deployed to maintain order, they were unable to contain the increasingly chaotic situation.

Seeing this, kind-hearted Audrey went to see Ron on Saturday to try to discuss what could be done to turn things around.

However.

"This is the last lesson I will teach you: mercy cannot change everything. As a king, you must carefully consider the balance between the two."

"I am not a savior of the world, but I still give the right to choose back to everyone. This is fairness and justice."

"If they lose all possibilities and rush towards the best possible fate, they are no different from puppets on strings."

"If that's the case, then everything in the world loses its meaning for me."

Recalling Mr. Ron's reply to her a few days earlier, Audrey felt that the boy was a true god at that moment.

"He has human emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, but his divinity is still mixed in with them, creating a tangled mess that is truly contradictory."

Sighing and muttering to herself, Audrey now understood exactly what had happened, as the situation gradually became clearer.

Although she was unhappy with Mr. Ron's exploitation of the lower classes, she still knew that this was the best way to overthrow the monarchy and the way to maximize her own prestige with minimal sacrifice.

Change, how can it be done without bloodshed?

Falling down is what wakes you up; pain is the best medicine for getting rid of a daze.

"Audrey, I never thought you'd turn bad too. You've learned to manipulate and deceive people, even to the point of letting innocent people die to achieve your own goals. If I were just joining the Tarot Club, I probably would have had a huge fight with Mr. Ron."

"Oh wait, it's clearly the royal family's fault, why should I take the blame? Perhaps it's because my motives weren't pure enough!"

She pursed her lips, suppressing her guilt and melancholy, and comforted herself. She closed her book, put on clothes that were easy to move in, and left the room.

Without disturbing anyone, she went down to the first floor of the villa, only to suddenly see her elderly father, with graying temples and dark circles under his eyes, sitting in a daze on a chair in the hall.

Audrey stopped walking out and turned to walk towards her elderly father.

"Dad, what's wrong? Is something on your mind?"

The former Earl of Hall glanced at his daughter, a smile playing on his lips, and sighed:

"It's nothing, it's just that I feel the times are changing too fast, and even I can't quite see the current situation clearly."

He paused for a moment, then finally said:

"Now that things have come to this, I can roughly understand the general idea, but for a royal family with an army, those are just minor troubles."

"I feel like all of this is happening a little too fast."

Upon hearing this, Audrey nodded thoughtfully, then shrugged and said, "Who told some people to be so impatient?"

Upon hearing this, the former Earl of Hall revealed a mocking smile, raised an eyebrow, and said:

"Who are you referring to, my little princess? Or is it that there's actually only one person among those people?"

"Daddy~"

Seemingly sensing Mr. Hall's teasing, Audrey playfully shook her father's shoulders, acting as innocent and naive as a naive young girl.

Seeing her father looking even more haggard than before, the girl felt a mix of emotions.

On the one hand, she felt guilty for her own actions, which had dragged her father, who was nearly fifty years old, into the mess, to the point that her father and mother would worry so much that they couldn't sleep every night.

On the other hand, there was immense pressure. She worried about her failure, about not being worthy of victory, and about bringing misfortune to her family, relatives, friends, and those who supported her.

"Audrey, have confidence in yourself. With Mr. Ron around, what are you afraid of?"

After chatting with her father for a while, Audrey used her extraordinary abilities to calm Earl Hall and herself down before getting into a carriage and leaving her home in Queens.

To gain support, speeches and lobbying alone are not enough; the distribution of food and medicine and the maintenance of order are still unavoidable.

Fortunately, her father's wealth and the church's support were more than enough for the young girl to squander for quite some time.

Outside the medical clinic in the East District, which belongs exclusively to World Peace Corporation.

"I wonder if there will be food distributed today. I was starving all day yesterday; there are just too many people here!"

"Even dark bread is going up in price now, so this is being given away for free, and we can't give out many."

"My child has a high fever, we need medicine, please let me be at the front of the line, I'll give you anything, anything!"

The queue suddenly became chaotic, but as carriages passed by, it quickly returned to calm.

"Great! We're saved! That's Earl Hall's convoy!"

"She's such a kind person, the kindest person I've ever met."

"I wonder if the company can even continue operating. Why did they have to shut everything down when everything was perfectly fine?"

"I heard that the king was short of money, and the company's benefits were too good for other factory owners, so they were shut down."

"Those monsters who eat people without spitting out the bones, their babies must be born without an anus!"

The happiness created by the World Peace Corporation has been torn to shreds, and the consequences are far beyond what a king who only knows how to shift blame can bear.

Perhaps He knew, but He didn't care and still chose to do it.

"Well, essentially I'm the same way. My family crest is displayed in the most conspicuous place, just in case people don't know who I am. Hmm, Audrey, you're not perfect either."

The constant praise from the crowd made Audrey feel guilty, but she quickly calmed down and distributed the day's food and medicine with the help of her hired helper.

One serving, two servings, three servings.

"Thank you, thank you, Wei, the great Sir."

"You're welcome, it's what I should do."

Time flew by, and as she listened to the flurry of thanks, Audrey responded with a stiff smile.

Although this was not the only charitable organization distributing supplies in the name of Earl Hall throughout the East District and the whole of Backlund, many people still did not have time to receive these hard-won supplies.

After distributing the last piece of bread and the last bottle of water, Countess Hall rubbed her stiff face.

But as soon as she lowered her hand, the "audience's" spiritual intuition began to issue a frantic warning.

boom--

Acting on instinct, Audrey instantly turned to the side, and a bright orange bullet grazed her face, drawing a sliver of bright red blood.

The noblewoman immediately dodged behind cover and looked up, where she saw a strange man in a one-bedroom room of a three-story apartment building in the distance, aiming a high-pressure steam rifle for the second time.

(End of this chapter)