Zongman: Beginning and Snow under the Rain Escape from Raccoon City

Hachiman Hikigaya also saw the flour prices in these newspapers.

I also compared the wheat price with what the landlady mentioned when she was doing her books.

Then he made a surprising discovery.

The proprietress paid more for fifty pounds of 02 wheat than for a bag of flour of the same weight shipped from the United States at the dock.

Why should he work so hard grinding wheat into flour?

You should know that ten pounds of wheat can only yield a maximum of seven pounds of flour.

It's a miracle that the bakery owner's shop has been open for so many years without closing down, or maybe information is just that limited these days.

Hachiman Hikigaya immediately took the newspaper to the landlady and explained the situation to her.

“That’s really impressive. My mom and I saw those newspapers too, but we couldn’t discover these things like Mr. Hachiman did.”

Little Mary shook her head as she spoke.

"..."

"If you were more literate, you might have discovered it..."

Hachiman Hikigaya paused for a moment and then said quietly.

The proprietress and Little Mary both had very limited education.

Although he could do basic addition and subtraction for bookkeeping, his English character recognition and writing skills were worse than his.

Hachiman Hikigaya glanced at the ledger and immediately noticed a bunch of misspellings and omissions.

Little Mary lowered her head in disappointment: "I also want to learn more words. My dad used to teach me, but later..."

"Sorry, I think I said something that upset you."

Hachiman Hikigaya immediately realized that he had said the wrong thing.

During the two days he spent at the bakery, he discovered that the family had no male head of household, only the mother and daughter.

Every night before going to bed, they would use thick wooden sticks to prop up the doors and windows, clearly indicating that they had been living in a state of insecurity for many years.

Oh, right, I'm also quite worried about him.

He was locked in the attic every night.

"It's fine."

Mary shook her head: "It's been many years, and I've gotten used to life in London."

"It's much better than when I was in Poland."

Mary's voice lowered, as if she were lost in some hazy memory.

She looked up at Hachiman Hikigaya, smiled, and tried to hide the fleeting sadness in her eyes: "I was young then, about five years old, I don't remember very clearly. Anyway, I was hungry, extremely hungry, there was always fighting, and there wasn't enough food."

“Dad said London is a good place, with bread and jobs, so we came here.”

Hachiman Hikigaya, carrying two sacks of flour, slowed his pace slightly and frowned slightly as he listened to Little Mary's words.

In 1888, the Whitechapel district of London, though dirty and chaotic, might have been a place of respite for a family fleeing war-torn Eastern Europe.

He glanced at little Mary; her small figure looked particularly frail amidst the streets and alleys. Although her worn-out dress was clean, it was clear that it was an old garment from many years ago.

"So... how did you get here?"

Hachiman Hikigaya asked tentatively.

Little Mary lowered her head and kicked at a pebble on the roadside, her voice so soft it was as if she were talking to herself: "We came by boat. My parents and I were crammed under a really smelly cargo ship, the hold was full of rats and dirty water."

"I remember my mother holding me the whole time, afraid that I would fall into the water."

"When we arrived in London, my father found a job as a dockworker, and my mother worked in a bakery."

"We saved up for several years and finally bought a house here to open our own bakery."

"But later, my father got sick and died."

She paused, then looked up at Hachiman Hikigaya and forced a smile: "But Mom said that no matter how chaotic London is, at least no one is pointing guns at us, and we don't have to worry about the village being burned down one day."

"So, Mr. Hachiman, don't think our place is so bad, it's really much better now!"

“Police patrol the streets every day to protect us.”

"We just need to lock the door at night."

"This is much more reassuring than before."

Although the Whitechapel district is chaotic, it is rare to see truly ruthless thugs breaking into homes.

Most of them were petty thieves and scoundrels.

People like Jack the Ripper, who committed a series of outdoor murders, are already considered high-priority wanted criminals.

Hachiman Hikigaya was silent for a while, looking at little Mary, who was the same age as his younger sister Komachi Hikigaya, with a touch of sadness.

He came from 21st-century Japan, where life was so stable that even going hungry was a distant concept. But the experiences Little Mary shared left him breathless.

More than a decade ago, probably in the early 1870s, Poland was in a period of turmoil following the partition of Russia, Prussia, and Austria, with war, famine, and persecution. No wonder his family risked their lives to escape to London.

He glanced down at Little Mary, who was swaying her head and humming an unknown tune, as if she had already shaken off her sadness.

The two turned into a small alley, and the old wooden door of the bakery came into view.

The proprietress was standing at the door waiting, and she visibly breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the two of them return.

She rarely lets her daughter go out alone, even during the day.

"Mom, the flour at the dock is really cheap! A 50-pound bag of flour only costs 9 shillings! And this is flour!"

Little Mary excitedly told her mother the good news, saying that they used to have to pay eight or nine shillings for a 50-pound bag of wheat.

After being ground into flour, it weighs about thirty-six or thirty-seven pounds.

Compared to this, the flour is definitely more cost-effective.

"It's actually true?"

A hint of joy flashed across the proprietress's face.

She doesn't usually go to the docks, so naturally she doesn't know the prices there.

"That's great! We can earn an extra penny per loaf of bread from now on."

The proprietress said with a delighted smile.

Um, are you not even considering lowering prices for customers?

Hachiman Hikigaya couldn't help but silently complain to himself, "No wonder he can survive in Britain, he must have capitalist attributes by nature."

He put down the flour on his shoulder and wearily patted his arm.

Suddenly, he seemed to see something out of the corner of his eye, and turned to look behind him.

"no one……"

Hachiman Hikigaya frowned slightly; he thought he had just seen a familiar figure.

But it disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Chapter 74 Exchanging Gold

"cut--"

Aaron, also known as Jack the Ripper, quickly pulled his head back.

"This guy is really sharp; he spotted me after only following me for one street."

Aaron's eyes were somewhat gloomy. He had actually found another kid who was still in the Whitechapel district first.

However, that guy has now become a cash cow for those Italians, and someone is watching him every day, so Aaron can't find a chance to make a move.

Therefore, I was forced to give up again.

He couldn't move three out of the four people.

Now only the guy from the bakery in front is left.

One man and two women.

The little girl posed no threat; it was the bakery owner, a tall, burly woman with thick arms, who seemed even more formidable than the Asian man.

Aaron hesitated for a moment. Although he had killed four or five people in a row and disemboweled them, he was still hesitant.

It looks very ferocious.

But in reality, the targets were carefully chosen; they were all women with weak bodies.

On the one hand, it was to vent his dissatisfaction with these prostitutes; on the other hand, it was because only these women could be easily manipulated by him.

To put it bluntly, it means bullying the weak and fearing the strong.

Aaron hesitated for a moment, recalling the way Ye Hai had pointed a gun at his head that day, and a shadow of gloom flashed in his eyes.

Damn it, I'll do it.

It's just two women and one man.

After making up his mind, Aaron turned and left.

He certainly won't make a move now.

Thanks to the fear he felt when facing Ye Hai's gun that day, he decided to find a way to get a gun first.

The reason we didn't use guns before was because those things were too noisy.

Once the shooting starts, even in the Whitechapel district, the police will probably arrive in no time.

After all, no matter how chaotic this place is, it still belongs to London.

As the capital of the British Empire, even if the police were incompetent, they would definitely come to check the situation after a shooting.

……

"So, have you found out anything about that kid?"

After sending Hachiman Hikigaya to the back room to knead dough, the landlady pulled Mary aside and asked her in a low voice.

Little Mary paused for a moment when she heard her mother's question: "Mom... I forgot..."

The proprietress was immediately furious and poked Little Mary's head twice: "So what exactly did you talk about with him on the way?"

The reason the proprietress didn't go in person was partly because she had to stay and watch the shop, and partly so that her daughter could take the opportunity to chat with Hachiman Hikigaya on the way.

Of course, another reason was that she didn't feel comfortable entrusting the money to Hachiman Hikigaya to buy flour alone.

What if they run away?

So it's better to let my daughter go with me.

The dock is relatively safe during the day.

As a maritime nation, Britain places great importance on its docks, and the number of police officers there is second only to the wealthy areas of West London.

So the proprietress was quite at ease about her daughter going with Hachiman Hikigaya, but she still accompanied them all the way out of the Whitechapel district before stopping.

"I……"

After a moment's hesitation, little Mary said, "I told him about some things we were doing in Poland..."

"..."

The proprietress sighed deeply as she looked at her silly daughter's guilty expression.

"I told you to go and find out what they're up to, but instead you revealed everything about yourself."

"What can I say about you?"

The proprietress was truly helpless.

How could someone as calculating as her give birth to a silly, dim-witted girl?

He didn't inherit any of her good qualities.