If it had been nothing more than ordinary reporting, that would have been one thing. After all, the media had covered such stories before, albeit rarely.
The trouble was that the Bulgaria Daily had even followed up on the story, explaining why mercury compounds were added to food and how widespread the practice was. It also gave a detailed account of the dangers.
It listed dozens of products, including cheese, sausages, and canned goods, all containing large amounts of mercury-based additives. The Bulgarians who had been basking in their "happy" lives suddenly realized that perhaps they could no longer go on living so well.
Wiki hurried into the house, brimming with excitement. "Irene, look what I bought! The finest Spanish sausage!"
"What? Wiki, have you read today's paper? Do you know what mercury compounds are? They're heavy metals! Just think—we've been eating metal! God, it's absolutely terrifying!
"They can cause irreversible harm, and might even affect our children! How can you still be buying..." Irene said anxiously.
Stories like this played out in countless homes across Sofia. Before long, all the food in Bulgaria that was meant to be stored for a long time became difficult to sell.
A bizarre scene unfolded on the streets of Sofia. Families with a little money to spare came out of their homes and threw away all the long-lasting food they had bought.
The heaps of garbage had become food camps, to the delight of the beggars wandering the streets.
Naturally, such reporting threatened the capitalists' profits, and retaliation was inevitable. Dumping excrement outside the newspaper's office and mailing bullets to the editorial department were child's play. Soon, an even bigger story broke.
On the morning of November 1, an unfamiliar man threw a bomb into the Bulgaria Daily's offices. Fortunately, it happened at dawn, and no one was injured.
But the attack did not frighten the Bulgaria Daily. Instead, it enraged the paper—and the public at large.
As soon as it received the news, Sofia's police provided security for the Bulgaria Daily and arrested the suspect. They also began keeping close watch on the capitalists whose interests had been hurt.
The next day, the Bulgaria Daily ran an article on its front page: "Terrorists, Come On—We're Waiting."
In the article, the paper's editors reviewed the events from beginning to end, from the excrement dumped outside their offices to the bomb attack. They focused on the bombing, equating unscrupulous capitalists with terrorists.
They went on to say that they and their colleagues were afraid of dying, too, and that they cherished life. But when it came to the safety of the Bulgarian people, freedom of speech, and a journalist's moral integrity, the Bulgaria Daily would never compromise.
Once the article was published, the entire press was outraged. Newspapers and journalists voiced their support for the Bulgaria Daily, and, to demonstrate their sense of social responsibility, joined the chorus condemning such incidents.
As a result, more and more problems came to light. The reports had started with mercury compounds, but now they had expanded to include dozens of additives, large and small, among them aniline violet, a coloring agent extracted from coal tar.
The food safety crisis had grown out of all proportion. The dozen or so products originally listed by the Bulgaria Daily had become nearly every product on the market.
Experts and scholars at the University of Bulgaria suddenly found themselves with a new purpose. One after another, they came forward to speak out and offer theoretical support for the reports.
One scholar even declared that solving the food safety problem could raise Bulgaria's life expectancy by ten years, adding more fuel to the fire.
Before long, Bulgaria's food processing companies were being denounced by everyone. All sectors of society demanded that the government take action against unscrupulous capitalists—or rather, they said, "terrorist capitalists."
Ever since the Bulgaria Daily had equated terrorists with food capitalists, the term "terrorist capitalist" had emerged, becoming a byword for unscrupulous businessmen.
Amid the outcry, winter descended on the food processing industry. Vast quantities of products rolled off the production lines only to find no buyers, piling up in warehouses until they went moldy.
At the same time, thanks to the labor protection laws, the capitalists could not simply lay off workers. Under the pressure of public opinion, no one dared report to the government. If the workers grew dissatisfied during an investigation and leaked what was happening at the factory, the government would make an example of them.
The capitalists were grinding their teeth with hatred for the Bulgaria Daily. As for the mastermind behind the bombing, they wanted to grind his bones to dust.
The capitalists with deep pockets could weather the losses. But a whole lot of small-time capitalists were in trouble, forced to grit their teeth and hang on.
Those with a clear head were already looking for a way out. They knew that, with the matter blown up to this scale, the government would have to find scapegoats or it would have no answer for the public.
Kro-Ivan was a capitalist who ran a slaughterhouse in Sofia. Ever since the food safety crisis erupted, he had been unable to sit still.
"God, this is a complete disaster! The damned Bulgaria Daily—bastards, every last one of them! I never did anything to you, so why stick your noses where they don't belong? And that idiot who threw the bomb—does he have nothing but mush in his head? I'd better not find out who you are, or I'll make you regret it..."
Every day, people could hear him cursing the Bulgaria Daily for meddling, and even more often, the idiot who had thrown the bomb.
Still, Kro-Ivan had a good head on his shoulders. His first move was to calm the workers, then start looking for a way out.
Kro-Ivan knew that after something this big, the government would crack down hard. There was no way he would get off lightly.
As for food safety, he was a capitalist himself. Water-injected meat was standard practice. Besides, how could a slaughterhouse possibly sell all its meat every day? Of course he had used plenty of chemical additives. Everyone did it.
Kro-Ivan mobilized every connection he had. He was willing to pay any price, but no one in the government dared take him up on it.
Kro-Ivan knew he was in serious trouble. If he didn't deal with it quickly, it would be hard to get away later.
He immediately started looking for someone to take over. He no longer cared about the price; if anyone was willing to take it off his hands and settle the trouble that came afterward, they could have it.
Unfortunately, with Bulgaria in its current state, everyone was scrambling to get out. Who would willingly jump into the pit?
After all, food capitalist equaled terrorist capitalist. People in the industry could barely look after themselves, while anyone on the outside who was tempted by the bargain still had to consider the stigma of being called a "terrorist capitalist."
Before you continue