When Lin Sanjiu slowly opened her eyes, she saw a person right in her face, staring at her without blinking.
That person's face had many white, shining eyeballs, each with a speck of black. They seed to rise and fall with her breath.
She was shocked at first, but then she realized that they couldn't possibly belong to one person. Before the surprise could spread across her face, she quickly suppressed her expression, stopping just short of gasping.
She had actually fallen asleep by accident.
Lin Sanjiu slowly stood up, trying her best to keep her face expressionless. She watched as the elephant's trunk swept back and forth a few tis before finally backing away. She had always thought that elephants had a gentle and stable appearance, but now, looking at the huge grey face full of human eyes, she felt her stomach contracting.
Looking around, she found the grand prize leaning next to her, also asleep due to fatigue. Not far behind the elephant, a few others were also awake, now looking at her with tired faces. They had watched the elephant getting so close to her, unable to say anything. Fortunately, after several hours, they found a rule: as long as they didn't acknowledge the elephant's existence, the elephant wouldn't harm them.
She glanced at the ti. Only four hours had passed since they started farming and searching. However, no one had expected that, after the ga started, they would be so tired. The farrs had felt the heavy burden of tilling the fields by hand, while those searching for the exit felt like they had been on a long journey, consuming a large amount of physical strength. Even Han Suiping, who had been lying down and resting, seed to have suffered from the physical depletion brought about by the passage of ti. Under the endless severe pain in his chest, he finally fell asleep.
The three people sent to search were resting at the other end of the room. Louisa was leaning against a cent trough, nodding as if she was about to fall asleep. Silvan was sitting under a wall, slightly panting. A few strands of golden hair hanging from his forehead were darkened by sweat. He and the other two had walked the sa distance, yet their exhaustion seed to be the sa. It appeared that the room wouldn't go easy on him despite his superior combat power.
"No exit?" Lin Sanjiu asked, though she knew they wouldn't be so lucky. The evidence of their search was all around them. A third of the floor and a wall marked with white scratches from their desperate attempts to find a way out.
Silvan, too exhausted to engage in much conversation, shook his head. After a mont's pause, he managed to say hoarsely, "As long as I'm here, we'll get out."
Lin Sanjiu sighed and nodded. She turned around and called out to the grand prize, but Ji Shanqing remained fast asleep. She didn't have the heart to call out again; she wished she could let him sleep a bit longer since he wasn't used to such exertion. But if a farr didn't work, the fields would have no production.
Lin Sanjiu decided it was ti to rouse the other two farrs. "Horst, Nu Yue, wake up. It's ti to work."
Even though it was already 1 PM, the actual farming ti was less than four hours, so each person had only received three food balls. After paying an unknown amount of taxes, they couldn't even ensure their basic survival for the next day, so there really was no luxury to continue dozing.
When Lin Sanjiu finally coaxed the grand prize awake with soft and gentle words, he rubbed his eyes and picked up his small hoe again. Everyone had just taken a break and wasted quite a bit of ti. After a few words of conversation, they all returned to their own tasks.
Around two in the afternoon, the grand prize's farming tools were the first to break.
Louisa avoided the elephant, moving halfway across the room; her face was pale from exhaustion. It seed impossible for her to go back and continue searching within the day. Despite her fatigue, however, her expression was not heavy when she took over the farming tools, but rather, a bit cheerful. While repairing the tools with what looked like a toy, she said, "You haven't paid taxes yet, so you can't pay , right?"
"We can agree on a price, and I'll pay you after the taxes. How much do you charge?" Ji Shanqing replied.
Louisa pondered before saying hesitantly, "200 calories, I guess."
Upon hearing the proposed rate, even the usually unfazed Veda grand prize seed taken aback. "Half?" he said, reluctant.
Quick to clarify, Louisa said, "That's what I was thinking. You worked for four hours before the tools broke down. Considering a breakdown rate of once every four hours, and assuming you work eight hours a day, I can only repair the tools twice. The minimum charge would be 300 calories, and I have to pay taxes too. When you add it all up, four balls a day barely cover the bare minimum. So, each repair should cost at least two balls."
"Or you could simply not charge us, and we could provide you with food balls directly every day, avoiding taxes," Horst interjected from the side.
"No, that would be tax evasion," said a figure beyond the elephant, waving at them. "I still have to deduct it from you."
Nu Yue, joining the discussion, said to Silvan, "You could also collect less tax intentionally, and we'll share the saved food balls. I know you have to conduct inspections, but if the inspector could cut the tax collector so slack, we'd only need to pay the minimum in food balls—what's wrong?"
Silvan was shaking his head, barely keeping his eyes open. "No."
"Why not?"
"A tax collector oversees you," Silvan said in a low voice, "and I oversee the tax collector. It's a chain of oversight. Don't you see?"
Everyone fell silent. If the elephant itself was overseeing the inspector, this thod beca impossible.
Louisa's request was fair and reasonable; it was the only way for now. Fortunately, the ti required to repair the farming tools was very short, and it didn't delay Ji Shanqing's return to farming. After working for a while, he asked the tax collector, "When are you coming to collect the taxes?"
The sooner they finished paying taxes, the sooner they could eat the food balls to regain their strength. Each food ball was produced in wrapping paper, marked with 100 large calories. Because they hadn't paid any taxes, they couldn't even open the wrapping, eliminating the idea of eating before paying taxes or resisting paynt.
The tax collector, having learned a lesson from Louisa, gradually moved toward the field while searching. After collecting the taxes, the tax collector would have to walk to the other end of the room to pay the taxes, which was extrely challenging for his physical strength. At Ji Shanqing's question, he looked up and smiled wryly. "I think I should wait until after five o'clock to collect."
'Seems like he gets to decide the tax collection ti,' Lin Sanjiu thought.
Ji Shanqing suddenly took a sharp breath and asked, "It wouldn't be twenty-five percent, would it?"
While she was still mulling over the significance of the twenty-five percent, Jian Sheng nodded awkwardly. Squeezing out from a small gap next to the elephant's leg, he said while panting, "You... you caught on quick."
She turned around. "What's going on?"
"Sis, we started farming around nine, so by the ti it's past five, we'll each have produced eight food balls," Ji Shanqing replied seriously. "Of course, we'll want to pay taxes as soon as there's output to replenish our energy imdiately. However, given the tax collector's physical constraints, he cannot run to the tax point frequently. He must determine an appropriate ti to collect taxes, taking both parties' situations into account."
He paused and let out a sigh.
"Eight people each need three balls per day to survive, so the four farrs need to produce at least 24 food balls daily. It should take them six hours. However, the tax collector won't co to deduct the taxes when they've only produced the bare minimum, or the farrs would starve before his next tax collection. In other words, after the first six hours, anything produced until the tax collection ti he decides is all tax. Once they've produced 32 balls, he'll co to collect the extra food balls as tax. With eight food balls, that sets the tax at 25% for each person."
The farrs silently did the math in their heads, and Horst then exclaid, "Is this taxation, or exploitation of slaves?"
Too exhausted to argue, Jian Sheng said between pants, "I don't have a choice either."
"But it's like that only because, being companions, we agreed to divide the food balls," Ji Shanqing said, frowning. "If it were a group of strangers, the tax collector couldn't expect the farrs to provide him with food balls. So, where does the tax collector's daily inco co from? A portion of the taxes?"
Jian Sheng's expression suggested that Ji Shanqing's quick thinking impressed him. "The instructions don't allow to divulge information," he said weakly with a smile, "but it seems you already guessed most of it."
Ji Shanqing sighed. "You and the inspector likely both receive a share of the taxes, which is preferable to depending entirely on the farrs to provide for you after taxes."
The rest of the farrs looked at each other and had nothing to say. After each of them had taken out two food balls, Ji Shanqing gave them to Louisa. Jian Sheng imdiately took out the tax collector's tool and cut one of Louisa's food balls in half, then slowly made his way back with the taxes.
In addition to sustenance, they also needed to ensure that everyone had enough calories to work. Calculating the number of food balls everyone needed to consu, the farrs knew there was still a long way to go in their day's work.
During this ti, Silvan had been clanging around at the other end of the room, looking for an exit. It wasn't until Jian Sheng was about to approach the cent trough that he briskly walked over, opened Jian Sheng's backpack to check it, and poured all eight and a half food balls into the cent trough.
As Lin Sanjiu had vaguely anticipated, the elephant turned around and slowly headed towards the cent trough as if it had heard a signal, eager to eat.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched it. Amidst the elephant's heavy footsteps, Ji Shanqing quietly approached her and said softly, "Sis."
"What's wrong?"
Exhaustion fell on his face like dust, even obscuring his clear eyes.
"I think this ga is about to turn very ugly."
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Editor's note: I spent too long trying to figure out what the heck Ji Shanqing's explanation was and then even longer trying to reword it to my own understanding so that it made sense to everyone else. Please comnt if you're still confused.
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