The Blessed Beauty Returns with a Dimension-Chapter 946 - 922: Failure

Jiang Xiaoxiao was locked in the room.

Xiao Nine was regaining his vitality, feeling elated.

"Sister, sister, I’ve recovered. The Nothing Flower is indeed powerful. Sister, you’re amazing."

"Sister! I’m hungry!"

"Sister! I want to eat fried chicken."

The noise gave Jiang Xiaoxiao a headache.

Xiao Nine was a chatterbox.

"Stop stop stop! Xiao Nine, the good food will be ready soon. Now that you’ve recovered, where is Number Ten? Can you sense him?"

A ten-second pause.

Jiang Xiaoxiao asked again, "Xiao Nine, where is Number Ten?"

The Rejuvenation Pill wasn’t the priority; what she needed was to find Number Ten.

Another ten seconds of silence.

Even if Jiang Xiaoxiao was slow to react, she realized something was wrong. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"Xiao Nine? What’s the matter?"

Xiao Nine answered timidly.

"Sister, I haven’t detected any trace of Number Ten."

"Xiao Nine, what’s going on? Do you mean he escaped? Or he never came to this world?"

Jiang Xiaoxiao was a little angry. She had gone through so much trouble to help Xiao Nine find the Nothing Flower and restore his energy, but this wasn’t the outcome she wanted.

Could it be that Xiao Nine was playing her?

Unlikely.

From the beginning, Xiao Nine and Jiang Xiaoxiao had got along well.

Now he tells her Number Ten is gone.

Xiao Nine wouldn’t lie to her.

"Sister, I was chasing after him when I came, but after I lost my energy, I couldn’t detect Number Ten’s shadow. Now that I’ve recovered, I can’t even find a trace of his presence here. Sister, don’t worry, you find the Rejuvenation Pill, and I’ll figure out a way to track down Number Ten."

Xiao Nine felt a bit embarrassed. His sister was so good to him, giving him delicious food and fun things, even helping him find the Nothing Flower, yet he couldn’t do anything to help her. Xiao Nine felt a bit sad.

"Silly, you’ve done your best. When you lost your energy, Number Ten must have sensed the danger, and escaping would be normal. I’ll look for the Rejuvenation Pill, and you find Number Ten. We need to cooperate to defeat Number Ten."

Jiang Xiaoxiao had a premonition: Number Ten wouldn’t be easy to deal with. This guy was probably arrogant because he had more energy than Xiao Nine.

Right now, she and Xiao Nine must not have an internal conflict.

"Sister, thank you for trusting me. I will definitely find Number Ten as soon as possible."

Xiao Nine was genuinely grateful for Jiang Xiaoxiao’s trust. Even Wu Weiguo couldn’t trust him like this back in the day.

His sister truly trusted him.

Jiang Xiaoxiao worried and frowned.

The people in the Gu family village were restless.

Village Chief Gu held a village committee meeting.

The purpose was singular.

Village Chief Gu appealed to emotion and reason to make several families of the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled in the village, with their families in tow, go and plead with Jiang Xiaoxiao and others to help the villagers survive.

Simply put, they want to ask for help but not want to lower themselves. This is a form of coercion to force others to help them while not wanting to owe them any favor.

Village Chief Gu looked at the five families being nominated.

"So, tomorrow, all of you go together. It’s for the villagers’ welfare and your own survival. At this rate, no one will survive."

The village had long since run out of food, though the village chief certainly had reserves. Village Chief Gu controlled most of the village’s stored grain.

If she were willing to distribute it, the villagers could still have enough to eat.

But Village Chief Gu insisted that these reserves were meant to last a year; they couldn’t be handed out now. Moreover, these elderly, weak, sick, and disabled would probably be the first sacrificed for the village’s primary interest chain.

Even if there was food, it wouldn’t be distributed to these people, and naturally, this condition was used to force them to go to Jiang Xiaoxiao and the others to plead for help.

The households nominated were indeed all elderly, weak, sick, and disabled.

An old lady trembled as she leaned on her cane.

"Whoever wants to go can go, but I won’t. Our village did something worse than animals to them, threatening didn’t work, and now pleading won’t do either, pushing us out as scapegoats.

Do you think we’re fools? They’ve got food because of their abilities. Why don’t you just honestly punish those who harmed them? They aren’t without demands. Why push us as scapegoats?

We’ve never eaten the village’s grain. Now when people are needed, they push us out. Whoever wants to go, go. I’m not going.

Old man, let’s go. Ignore these people talking nonsense here. They’re full every day and still eyeing what’s in others’ hands. Don’t think we’re fools. It’s just because they have supernatural abilities.

The Medicine God Association hasn’t produced a single half for generations, and now they’re targeting someone else. If you’ve got the guts, go yourself. We can’t handle them setting us on fire. These old bones of ours, let’s go back and stay at home."

The family left.

The remaining four households exchanged glances with determination in their eyes.

"We’re not going either. Whoever wants can. We can starve, but we won’t risk our lives."

The other four households left too.

A group of people was left staring at each other.

"Wait, if you’re willing to go, each family will get fifty pounds of rice. Fifty pounds of rice!"

Gu Ming shouted from the back.

This was white, pure rice.

The four families rolled their eyes—who cared.

They ate bamboo rice.

Lately, they had followed behind and picked up leftovers, storing up quite a bit of bamboo rice at home.

They all knew that those people just deliberately cleaned out the bamboo groves, harvesting only a small amount of bamboo rice each time, then quickly retreated, even though there was a large amount of bamboo rice in the bamboo groves.

Their dozen or so families of the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled had long since banded together.

Everyone followed behind, collecting rice whenever possible. Now every household had at least a few hundred pounds of bamboo rice stored, and eating this bamboo rice had greatly improved their energy and spirit, even improving some chronic maladies. From the bamboo rice alone, they knew it was valuable.

The bamboo silkworms thrived in the bamboo groves, definitely for this rice. Not only did they reap such a bounty, but they could also last, even if for another year or two.

Most importantly, after eating such good stuff, they felt stronger. Some even grew new teeth while others’ white hair turned black.

What concept was this?

It felt like starting life anew.

After gaining such a huge advantage, if they helped the villagers harm those five people, they’d be heartless.

Gradually, the remaining families also left one by one.

Previously, for a mere meal, they might have done insane things. But now they wanted to be humane, to be decent people.

Not many families were actually surviving in the village; over the years, only thirty or forty households remained. Now, a dozen or so left.

The remaining twenty-some families looked at each other.

Village Chief Gu gritted her teeth, "If they’re not going, fine, let’s go with the more direct approach, do what you suggested."

This was addressed to Gu Ming, who had once suggested spiking them with drugs.