CH 191

The vagrants distributed the roses and weighed them.

This pile of roses was around 1,400 kg. Bai Liu used up the single day quota of 900 kg collected by him and Liu Jiayi. Apart from the 360 kg left for Liu Jiayi, the rest of the roses were secretly transported here.

After distributing the roses, the vagrants looked at the few people in charge of transporting them with confusion. “There are so many roses. What is Mr Bai asking us to do?”

“In order to alleviate the symptoms of more people as soon as possible, Mr Bai has decided to grab the roses himself and create the perfume to be distributed to the vagrants,” a delivery man replied.

If the matter of brewing perfume was previously mentioned, people would be shocked because this was a crime. Now there was the foundation of the previous matter and this step was natural for them.

Someone asked in a confused manner, “Has Mr Bai already obtained the recipe to make the perfume?”

There were two reasons why the Rose Factory had such a high status. The first one was the unique growing method of the dry leaf roses.

The second one was the secret recipe for the Dry Rose Leaf Gas.

The aroma of the picked dried roses was very easy to dissipate. If it wasn’t processed and preserved in the form of a perfume in time, the aroma would only last a few dozen minutes at most.

It took more time to transport the roses from the flower fields to the abandoned factory.

For example, the aroma of the roses transported to the factory was so faint that they couldn’t smell it unless they buried their heads in the flowers. This fragrance had no meaning to these dying vagrants, let alone in saving more people.

It was strange. The production of perfumes was similar. People knew that the main raw material of the perfume was a one-of-a-kind flower and it should be simple to reproduce the perfume.

Even if it couldn’t be reproduced perfectly, the basic process of picking, sun drying, processing and stove drying could at least produce essential oils that preserved the aroma of the raw materials for a long time. As long as this type of preliminary processing could be achieved, the crude products could already be promoted for vagrants to use.

There were countless people who tried it and many people who risked their lives to secretly study the production process of the perfume. They tried many methods but unfortunately, no one could figure out the exact secret recipe.

Many people were aware of the basic processing steps of the dry leaf roses. The rough essential oil produced by this could only maintain the aroma for up to half an hour.

This was the case when the bottle wasn’t opened. Once the bottle was opened, the aroma would instantly disperse.

It was only the perfume produced by the Rose Factory that could maintain the rich aroma of roses for a long time.

This showed that the subsequent processing steps were completely different from the raw materials processing step.

“Mr Bai hasn’t obtained the secret recipe just yet.” The porter sighed. “He is just a processor. He must be at least at the perfumer level to know the secret recipe.”

The porter, who used to work in the Rose Factory, thought back. “It is said that… only the factory manager knows the complete recipe for the production of the Dry Leaf Rose Gas.”

“So what do we do with the roses now?”

“Mr Bai said that we should dry and process them into semi-finished products first. We have many old factories here and there are many knockoff perfume processing factories that used to be Rose Factories. Later, they were seized because they were involved in infringement. However, many of the tools of these factories haven’t been removed and can be used directly.”

“What if we process it and Mr Bai still can’t get the secret recipe? The semi-finished products can only be stored for a maximum of three days if it isn’t a perfume…”

“None of us here have ever been a senior factory worker so we don’t know what to do next with the semi-finished products or what tools to use. If we can’t carry out the next step then many of the semi-finished products will have to be scrapped…”

The porter took a deep breath. “Mr Bai said that in three days, he will become a factory worker and tell us what to do next.”

“Let’s get started!”

Late at night, the flower field.

Liu Jiayi, who was demoted to a flower picker, sat on the edge of a field while wearing the protective clothing of a flower picker. Next to her was Qi Yifang, who silently followed her for the day. He was also wearing gloves and protective clothing.

Qi Yifang gave up the opportunity for promotion and was demoted to a flower picker along with the other Liu Jiayi.

Liu Jiayi wore the clothing and pulled her hair out of the collar of her protective suit. She adjusted the Blizzard Goggles over her eyes and raised her head to look at Qi Yifang through the goggles.

Qi Yifang’s heart was full of mixed feelings when he saw Liu Jiayi’s small face, which was the size of half his face, and the protective suit he gave her. He didn’t know what to say.

He couldn’t tell whether this action was similar to Bai Liu, but sometimes this Little Witch was a bit finicky, regardless of whether she was real or fake.

In the end, Qi Yifang sighed. “On this map, we just have to complete the task while guaranteeing the bottom line. In other words, we just need to pick 40 kg of roses and we won’t be laid off and become vagrants.”

He was quiet for a while and felt this Liu Jiayi’s indifference to him, whether it was sincere or pretend. He couldn’t help saying, “Wait. If you don’t have enough then you can come and get me. I can help… I won’t go far. Just call me if you need me.”

After saying these words, Qi Yifang took the sack and prepared to go to the flower field. However, before leaving, he paused for a moment and his voice was extremely low. “If you have anything you want to avoid being shown on my small TV, you can do it. I won’t look over at you.”

Then Qi Yifang placed the sack on his shoulder and simply left.

Liu Jiayi blinked and didn’t look away from the back of the departing Qi Yifang. Her gray mist-like eyes were like dumplings and she couldn’t see anything.

It grew darker and flowing tentacles started to appear in the flower fields. The hideous looking rose vagrants reappeared.

This time, Liu Jiayi didn’t take any action. After Qi Yifang left, she lay in a tent far away from the flower field and even encircled herself with the Magic Space item, restricting any creatures from entering the space. She protected herself perfectly.

Liu Jiayi lay there leisurely. She seemed ready to sleep rather than going to the field to pick flowers.

The usage rule of Magic Space was that the size of the empty space and the usage time limit had a specific maximum value. If the space was relatively small then the usage time would be longer.

Liu Jiayi only wrapped the Magic Space around an area of her size. This would theoretically allow her to sleep peacefully until morning.

Doing so ensured her safety but she wouldn’t be able to gain anything. It didn’t seem like a wise move when she was demoted, had no regular income and the perfume spending on the vagrants was going to expand.

If Qi Yifang was a bit crafty or couldn’t help looking back curiously and noticed Liu Jiayi was doing nothing, he would definitely be shocked to come and help.

After all, it was a game where the perfume was equivalent to mental bleach. A day without working meant the perfume supply couldn’t keep up with demand and going crazy was the inevitable ending.

However, this weather observer was currently operating a strong wind to get rid of the rose vagrants. He was very honest and kept his promise. He didn’t turn to look at the situation on Liu Jiayi’s side of the flower field.

Soon, the situation reversed.

In the flower field on Liu Jiayi’s side, some vagrants with baskets on their backs appeared. They started to swiftly pick the dry left roses.

The vagrants were cautiously sticking to the edges of the field, avoiding the tentacles surging under their feet and the thieves who might come to steal their roses at any time. Their hands moved along the roses bushes so fast that almost only afterimages could be seen. The hands moved up and down along the flowers and in less than a second, their hands were full of roses that had just been picked.

Many of them were vagrants with related work experience as a flower picker. It was unfortunate that they became vagrants after being laid off for one reason or another. Then when the porters returned from transporting the roses this morning, they asked a question in the factory. ‘Is anyone willing to go to the flower field at night to help Mr Bai steal roses?’

If someone had previously asked for their help to steal roses then these vagrants definitely wouldn’t be willing.

However, tonight—the vagrants took out their long-lost speed and couldn’t wait to pick the roses in the entire flower field overnight. Their eyes were glowing.

If Bai Liu really succeeded in becoming a factory worker and eventually the factory manager, obtaining the complete formula of the Dry Leaf Rose Gas, all the picked dry leaf roses could be processed smoothly to the coveted perfume and distributed to them!

This would allow them to live longer!

The vagrants thought of this and those who came here voluntarily became more vigilant and quicker in picking the roses. They looked left and right while picking. They had to avoid being attacked by the crazy rose vagrants while also avoiding being discovered and reported by other flower pickers.

Fortunately, the flower picker guarding the roses in this flower field was Liu Jiayi.

They had been notified by the porters before. It was only when they knew this flower field was safe that they dared to come and steal roses at night.

Previously, the one reporting the people who stole roses was the flower pickers. It was because stealing roses was something that made every flower hatefully gnash their teeth. If there were too many roses stolen from the flower pickers, it might be found out by the superiors and those flower pickers would be fined or even laid off!

Now their position had changed. The rose-stealing vagrants, or laid-off flower pickers, stole away with some the roses in their arms and were thrilled.

It was the first time they realized that picking roses was a harvest, a joyful labor.

Due to their hard work, the roses they harvested at the risk of their lives were no longer exploited by the people above. It would really become their own fruits.

This type of happiness wasn’t something that could be felt by the low-level civilians who lived in pain every day, conscientiously going to work out of fear that they would be laid off and have no way to live.

But it was okay now—it was all due to Mr Bai.

After a night of hard work, the busy and pale-faced vagrants walked somewhere with a satisfied smile on their faces.

They came to the tent area quietly. After finding the right tent, they quietly, piously and willingly placed a part of the dry leaf roses they had picked in front of Liu Jiayi’s tent.

This was the reward they were willing to pay.