In the early morning, Yang Xiaojin passed by Anning East Road carrying her basket. Although it was almost summer, Stronghold 144 was seemingly brought back to early spring due to a sudden drop in temperature. A thin fog had filled the air, and the ground was a little wet.
But today was different from usual. As Yang Xiaojin walked down the street, she noticed the passersby could not help but look at her.
She knew very well why this was so. People were even whispering on the sidewalk as they tried to explain her status to the unaware.
Yang Xiaojin smiled. Whenever other people mentioned her, the most commonly used words they used to describe her were “Future Commander” and “Future Commander’s wife.”
In the past, she was a sniper who evoked fear in people and an independent lone wolf. Now that she had a prefix added to her name, she found it rather interesting.
Of course, both Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin knew very well that they were still individuals.
However, Yang Xiaojin’s smile soon disappeared.
As a supernatural being, she was destined to have a better sense of hearing than normal people. Although it was not that much better, it was still enough for her to hear the discussion five meters away.
A passerby muttered, “All of you are looking at her. Why? Who is she?”
The passerby was a little puzzled. Although the girl in the ballcap had an elegant air about her, one could only see her nose and chin when they walked past her from the opposite direction. So everyone was probably not attracted by her beauty, right? It should be because her status was a little special.
A passerby in the know whispered, “Don’t you know who she is? She’s the legendary Queen Mother of the West…”[1]
Yang Xiaojin’s expression darkened. What kind of weird nickname was that? If she found out which culprit gave her that nickname, she would probably gun down that person with her black sniper rifle.
She did not expect that she would have to bear the burden of this unwanted nickname at her young age.
The passerby in the know was still saying with gusto, “It’s a little tacky to address her as Future Commander’s wife, but Future Commander will succeed Commander Zhang to become the ruler of the Northwest sooner or later. So there’s nothing wrong with calling her Queen Mother of the West. Besides, you’ve also read the superhuman rankings publication. The combat power of our Queen Mother of the West is very high as well.”
Yang Xiaojin took a deep breath and headed straight to the market. She decided not to continue listening to the rest of the conversation.
There were a variety of nicknames in the Northwest Army, such as Qin Shihuang, Cleanser of the Altars, and so on. And today, Queen Mother of the West was added to that list as well.
When Yang Xiaojin arrived at the market, all the stall owners who used to greet her enthusiastically remained silent. It was not that everyone was afraid of Yang Xiaojin or hated her, but they suddenly did not know how to treat her with her new status.
Moreover, talk had been going around recently that Ren Xiaosu was living off his woman. Thinking about it now, they even found it a little embarrassing.
It wasn’t until Yang Xiaojin started shopping for groceries as usual that everyone eventually breathed a sigh of relief. Ms. Xiaojin was still the same old her.
While shopping for groceries, a few stall owners insisted on giving them away for free. But Yang Xiaojin managed to get them to accept payment after much persuasion.
However, Yang Xiaojin also made it very clear to the stall owners that they would probably be staying here for some time. If they did not accept payment from her for their groceries, she would probably not come and buy from them anymore in the future. At that time, Ren Xiaosu would have to starve.
These words tickled the stall owners, but they did not dare to laugh and could only accept the payment.
When she left the market after she was done grocery shopping, she was so exhausted her forehead was covered with sweat.
Honestly, not even the normal battles she took part in were this tiring.
When she returned home, Yang Xiaojin surprisingly complained for the first time. She said as she placed the keys on the shoe cabinet by the door, “I didn’t expect you to have such a good reputation in the Northwest. Everyone was offering to give their groceries to me for free. You obviously haven’t been in the Northwest for long, so why are they so supportive of you?”
Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “Perhaps I was the hero who liberated them from the Zong Consortium.”
Yang Xiaojin clicked her tongue in disapproval. “If they didn’t know we’re together, there would probably be a long line of matchmakers outside offering their services to you.”
Early in the morning, Wang Fugui, Zhang Xiaoman, Wang Yun, and the rest showed up at Ren Xiaosu’s residence. However, Wang Yuexi suddenly got very nervous at the thought of having to attend a meeting with so many important people.
Ren Xiaosu said to everyone in the living room, “The agenda for today’s meeting is mainly to discuss whether the contract responsibility system is suitable for the Northwest.”
“About that… Future Commander, can you explain to us what exactly this contract responsibility system is about?” Wang Fugui said.
Of the people present, everyone possessed a certain level of knowledge with the exception of Zhang Xiaoman. Even Wang Fugui also used to like reading books and newspapers a lot.
However, a subject like the contract responsibility system was relatively unfamiliar to them.
After the gradual rise of the consortiums, some books related to this topic naturally got banned. Some consortiums directly destroyed the publications while others stored them and did not allow the public to access them.
Ren Xiaosu had come across this term in a novel before. The books on this subject matter had probably already been destroyed. But this novel must have slipped through the cracks due to the novel’s theme. Otherwise, he would not have come across this term ever.
Wang Yun carefully cycled through his memories. “I’ve read all the books in the Wang Consortium’s library. There were seven books that mentioned the contract responsibility system. Its core objective is to improve enthusiasm for agricultural production and have farmers cultivate the land willingly rather than being forced to do so.”
Especially in this era where farming was still considered as working for the consortiums, such a system would prove very tempting for the people.
Wang Yuexi listened to all of this quietly. He knew exactly how steely one would need to be the first person to implement the contract responsibility system.
Initially, he thought Ren Xiaosu would start by importing food to resolve the current food shortage or solve it through other means. But he didn’t expect Ren Xiaosu to want to solve the core of the issue as soon as he spoke.
Land reform was a subject everyone would treat with caution if they encountered it.
Ren Xiaosu calmly explained, “The problem we’re facing is that the people in the Northwest have too much freedom. Everyone can start a business, work in factories, or choose whether to farm or not. But compared to other ways of making a living, farming is obviously not attractive enough to them. The reason why the Northwest is facing a food shortage is partly due to natural disasters, but we can’t ignore the man-made factors either. Y’all can see that there’s still a lot of unclaimed wasteland in the Northwest. As for why they have remained as wasteland, that deserves deeper consideration on our part.”
Wang Yuexi said softly, “Everyone present should know exactly what the land reform measures represent, right? Should we discuss it with Commander Zhang first?”
This land reform would fundamentally topple some of the consortiums’ existing practices.
However, Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “Since Mr. Zhang said that he would not interfere with Stronghold 144’s matters, we can just introduce the reforms first before getting his approval. We can just treat Stronghold 144 as a pilot project. As for whether to introduce the reforms to the Fortress 178 territories, he can decide that for himself.”
[1] The Queen Mother of the West, known by various local names, is a mother goddess in Chinese religion and mythology, also worshiped in neighboring Asian countries, and attested from ancient times.
