CH 122

“That house is for defecating?” the merchant asked. He didn’t know why, but his face was hot with embarrassment.

“What else? That’s called a public restroom, it’s for people like you,” Buff said. He supported a lot of the ideas that Liu Feng had, like public restrooms. It was just a simple idea, but it saved a lot of people from the bad smell and allowed them to not have to worry about stepping on excrement whenever they walked around on the streets.

What was the greatest fear for people in ancient times? Infectious diseases, like the Black Death and plagues.

If people were hungry, they could go and find food or work, but once there were infectious diseases, there was nothing they could do. Almost everyone in a city would just die.

Then how does one prevent infectious diseases from appearing? Well, the first step would be sanitation. The city first go cleansed, and a few rules were set. Defecating in the open on the street and throwing waste and trash into the water was prohibited. People worked and were busy for a whole day, so they would want to take a bath, so public restrooms and public bathrooms were established.

In the beginning, many citizens didn’t understand why Liu Feng was doing such things and felt that it was unnecessary. However, after the rules were implemented for a few days, no one said anything and just went to public restrooms to defecate when needed and would take a bath at home or in the public bathroom every day.

Who doesn’t want to live in a clean place? They didn’t have to smell bad and taking a bath made them feel really good, so much so that it made sleep feel great!

“Okay, so the waste you created, you have to clean it up and throw it into the restroom,” Buff said. “And before you go, pay the fine. The fine for pooping on the streets is 10 copper coins.”

“Huh? There’s a fine too?” The merchant was dumbfounded.

“Of course. No one is allowed to litter in public, let alone something as bad as creating poop,” Buff said, glaring at the merchant.

“Okay, okay, I’ll pay,” the merchant said. 10 copper coins wasn’t much for him, and he just wanted to get it over with.

The other merchants that had been listening rushed toward the public restroom. There was a middle-aged woman guarding the door, and she had a large stack of toilet paper on her table.

“Do you want paper?” the middle-aged woman asked. “One steel coin for a paper.”

“Huh? What’s paper?” a merchant asked.

“For wiping your butt,” the middle-aged woman said.

“Aren’t there wooden sticks and bamboo pieces?” a merchant asked. People in this world wiped their butts with wooden sticks, bamboo pieces, leaves, grass, etc.

The middle-aged woman looked at the merchants’ flashy clothes, and said, “There are some in the restroom. Remember to wash them after using.”

“Uh…”

“Um, actually, I’ll take one.”

“I’ll have one too.”

The merchants were stimulated by the woman’s disdainful gaze and all bought toilet paper.

Toilet paper was a softer paper created by the Department of Scientific Research. They were made with grass fibers soaked in water to loosen and made into shape. They would completely rot three days after being used or soaked in water.

“The vertical ones are for urination, don’t poop in them. The ditches are for pooping,” the middle-aged woman said.

“Oh oh oh, okay okay,” the merchants said, nodding their heads. It was a very new experience for them, even having to buy paper when going to the restroom.

Actually, all the citizens in West Sun City went out with toilet paper just in case they need it. It wasn’t like the Shopping Mall didn’t sell toilet paper.

“Hey Hey! You guys, that’s the women’s restroom! The men’s restroom is on the left!” the middle-aged woman yelled.

“Ahhh…”

“Yes yes!”

The merchants that went to the wrong door awkwardly ran to the left.

This was the middle-aged woman’s job- to prevent men from going into the women’s restroom. Her salary was 50 copper coins a month. As for selling toilet paper, well, that was her own idea.

The merchants all came out with comfortable expressions on their faces. They hadn’t expected that defecating would be so satisfying because of the toilet paper. They instantly fell in love with it.

Seeing everyone come out, the middle-aged woman pour a bucket of water into the ditch, which would move all the excrement along the way into a cesspool. In the morning, someone would come to clean the cesspool and pick up the waste to be used as fertilizer outside the city.

“Where can I buy this toilet paper?” a merchant asked.

“The Shopping Mall. They have everything there.”

“The Shopping Mall?” The merchants were confused. What is that place?

Solo had been shocked the whole time after he came out of the public restroom. He was in disbelief. How did he think of this? We all of the same brain, so why is his brain so good? 

“Lord Father, we need to buy a lot of that toilet paper. I don’t want to use wooden strips anymore,” Gale said, tugging on Solo’s sleeve.

“Okay, okay,” Solo said, nodding. He was still dumbfounded. He saw a lot of things just from the public restroom and could tell that the concepts in West Sun City surpassed the concepts in the capital by a few dozen times.

Niu Wu watched this silently from the side and left. These merchants are just that. Bunch of country bumpkins that had never seen the world before.

He still had to go a make a report to Liu Feng that the mission was completed. There was only one step left, and if it was successful, then West Sun City would get developed even more.

Niu Wu saw Tory’s family lined up to buy buns when he passed by the bun store. He was stunned. Shouldn’t he be going to see Young Master first?

Tory also didn’t want to buy buns, but halfway to the City Lord’s Mansion, he smelled the fragrance of meat and wheat. Combined with his son’s crying, he “had no choice” but to line up to buy buns. Yep. It’s all my son’s fault. Tory turned his head and looked at his eight-month-old son in his wife’s arms. His eyes were filled with appreciation, and it was as if he was saying, “You did a very good job crying.”

Tory’s wife was helpless. Her son was crying for milk, but she couldn’t do such a thing in a public place, so she could only temporarily use her finger to relieve him. She also had no idea what was wrong with Tory for him to just line up to buy buns.

The merchants saw the long line in front of the bun store and couldn’t help but be surprised. How is this business so popular?

“It smells so good! It must be delicious for so many people to buy it.”

“Let go and buy some to try too. We haven’t had breakfast yet.”

“They’re lined up, so should we line up as well?”

“I think so.”

Author’s Notes:

(￣▽￣). There are restrooms in the middle ages, but there were very few of them. How few? Well, I’ll leave that to your imagination. The number gave me a cold shiver.