A Bumper Harvest
Dawn had barely broken, and the early morning wind still carried a chill. The whole city was only just rubbing the sleep from its eyes. No one expected that an epic blood-pressure-spiking spectacle had already been quietly set up, just waiting for one sucker after another to walk right into it.
The first place to erupt was a stretch of road packed with office workers.
Several bleary-eyed workers whose souls had yet to return shuffled over to their electric bikes, took out their keys, unlocked them, and swung a leg over in one seamless motion-
Only for their whole world to collapse the instant their bottoms hit the seats!
The seats were so low they nearly touched the ground. Their legs folded up like folding chairs, and pushing a pedal took the same effort as squatting over a toilet. Their entire bodies twisted with discomfort, making them look like toads pinned to their bikes.
"Oh, thanks a freaking lot! Which rotten, smoke-spewing lunatic did this?!"
One man lost it on the spot. He grabbed his seat and shook it hard, but it would not budge. His face twisted with fury. "Screwing with people first thing in the morning, huh?! If you're sick, get treatment! Don't torment normal people here! Absolutely rotten to the core!"
The surrounding workers who had fallen victim one after another all exploded. Their curses rose in wave after wave, their resentment thick enough to use as ink. Every face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and they wanted nothing more than to smash their bikes right there.
Meanwhile, the entrance to the residential compound became the scene of a spectacular mass meltdown among elementary schoolers.
A group of students with bags on their backs, hurrying to school for extra training, rushed out and straddled their bicycles, ready to pedal. But the seats were absurdly high, their feet could not reach the ground at all, and they wobbled the moment they climbed on, nearly performing a flat-ground face-plant on the spot.
"I can't with this sneaky bastard! Who adjusted these seats to such hellish heights?!"
"We're rushing to extra training, dude! You're really good at messing with people, huh?!"
"Rotten to the core! Don't let me catch you! You're done if I do!"
Anxious and furious, the children cursed with childish fierceness and anger turned up to the max. They stamped their feet, yanked their bikes, and ranted like mad. Their resentment shot straight into the sky, and their wails could be heard all down the street.
Next, the public toilets became a major disaster zone of fury.
Office workers in a hurry, elderly men out for their morning exercise, and students rushing to extra training charged inside and reached for the toilet paper holders-empty, without so much as a hair left!
"Where's the paper?! Where the hell did it fly off to?! Are you messing with me?!"
"Why open a toilet if you're not putting paper in it? Are you running an escape room?!"
"Which rotten bastard stole all the paper?! Is your heart black?!"
Curses thundered through the men's toilets. Banging doors, roars, and complaints mingled together. Everyone was so furious they wanted to tear the toilets down on the spot, their blood pressure shooting straight through the ceiling.
The park's exercise area was the ultimate disaster scene.
Elderly men and women strolled over and had just taken hold of the horizontal bars, waist twisters, and air walkers-
When the equipment shook like chaff in a sieve, every screw loose. It nearly flung them clean off, giving them a failed takeoff on the spot.
"Holy crap! This equipment's falling apart! Trying to throw these old bones to their death?!"
"Which little bastard did something this rotten?! What a black heart!"
"So rotten you're smoking! Conscienceless scum! You'll get your retribution sooner or later!"
The elderly men and women planted their hands on their hips and cursed furiously, their booming voices piercing through everything. Angry roars filled the entire park, and resentment levels shot clean off the charts.
The whole street, the entire area, was full of suckers who had been thoroughly screwed over,
Cursing until they broke down, shouting until they went hoarse, and trembling with rage. Their anger meters were maxed out, their emotions exploding right off the screen.
Meanwhile, in a secluded strip of greenery at a street corner, two masked figures crouched in the bushes, shaking all over as they held back their laughter.
Xing Yao clamped a hand over his mouth, his shoulders jerking. As he listened to the overwhelming barrage of furious curses outside, his eyes brimmed with laughter he could not hide.
Clone No. 1 nearly burst out laughing. Pinching his own thigh desperately, he lowered his voice and laughed like mad into the walkie-talkie:
"Holy shit, hahahaha! These people are absolutely exploding! This resentment is freaking incredible!"
Xing Yao fought back his laughter and warned quietly, "Keep it down. Don't get caught red-handed."
With that, he slowly closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into his mental world.
Inside the gray, hazy space of his consciousness, the originally thin mist churned wildly, swelling and thickening with every wave of rage, curses, and breakdowns outside.
Wisps of dark resentment were drawn in from reality, constantly gathering, intertwining, and piling up. They became a dense, rolling fog, layer upon layer, growing denser and thicker until it nearly filled the entire mental space.
With every additional curse outside, the thick fog grew a shade darker.
Xing Yao simply watched in silence as that dense fog of resentment kept multiplying, expanding, and thickening, his heart peaceful and satisfied.
Their first operation had produced explosive results, surpassing the target perfectly.
Clone No. 1 nearly jumped with excitement, shouting wildly in a hushed voice:
"Xing Yao, you're a god! We made an absolute killing this time! We're freaking geniuses!"
Xing Yao slowly opened his eyes and cast him a mild glance, his voice calm but unable to hide his smugness:
"Keep a low profile. This is just the appetizer."
Outside, furious curses still shook the sky, and resentment continued rising wildly.
Within his mental world, that dark, dense fog kept churning silently and steadily, growing ever more abundant.
Hidden in the shadows of the greenery, Xing Yao watched the early risers on the street fall victim one after another, furious and cursing. His face beneath the mask was expressionless, his eyes calm and unruffled, holding only a cold, certain anticipation, as though he had already foreseen everything that would follow.
The darkness of night had not yet fully faded, and only a faint fish-belly white tinged the horizon.
Xing Yao slowly stood, brushed the grass clippings off himself, and spoke quietly into the walkie-talkie. "While it's still early and no one's paying attention, let's move on to the next step. I'll buy some laxatives. Head to the big shopping mall closest to the park now and mop the floor spotless. Not a speck of dust, and so slippery people can't even stand on it."
On the other end of the walkie-talkie, Clone No. 1 understood instantly. A wicked, mischievous smile curled beneath his mask, and he immediately replied, "Roger! Mission completion guaranteed!"
The two split up, keeping a low profile and staying out of sight the whole way without attracting anyone's attention.
Soon, the morning rush of visitors arrived. It was also the weekend, and Cloud Lake Central Park, the largest park in Qingning City, was teeming with people. Young couples taking walks, elderly men and women strolling, and parents with children were everywhere, making it exceptionally lively.
In the park's central plaza, large flocks of pigeons and sparrows settled leisurely on the ground, occasionally dipping their heads to peck at food. It was a peaceful scene.
Blending into the crowd, Xing Yao walked casually up beside the pigeons. After confirming that no one nearby was paying attention, he raised his hand and emptied an entire bag of grain mixed with laxatives onto the ground.
The birds immediately crowded around, scrambling to lower their heads and peck at the food.
Xing Yao stood to one side and watched, his face expressionless and his eyes as calm as ever. Only anticipation lay hidden deep within them, as though he were quietly waiting for a grand show to begin.
Before long, the drugs began to take effect.
The birds that had been pecking quietly moments before suddenly lost control, flapping their wings and flying every which way. White droppings rained down on the crowd, pelting their heads and faces.
"Aaah! What is that?!"
"The pigeons have diarrhea! It's all over me!"
"My new clothes are ruined! This is disgusting!"
"Which rotten bastard did this?! Are you sick?!"
The visitors screamed and fled with their hands over their heads. The young couples turned pale with fright, the elderly men and women burst into furious curses, and the children bawled in terror. The entire park descended into chaos in an instant, with curses, screams, and complaints rising one after another. Everyone ran blindly in panic, charging into the large shopping mall next door for shelter.
But the moment they stepped through the mall entrance, tragedy struck again.
Clone No. 1 had mopped the floor until it was spotless and polished enough to reflect a person's image, slippery to the extreme. Forget running-even walking normally, people could not keep their footing.
The moment the fleeing crowd stepped onto it, their feet slipped out from under them. They lost their balance and fell to the floor one after another.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa-I can't stay upright!"
"It's so slippery! What the hell is wrong with this floor?!"
"Help! That fall's killing me!"
"Who mopped the floor this slippery?! Are you trying to hurt people?!"
Some fell with all four limbs in the air, some rolled several meters, and some were knocked down and piled on top of one another. Phones, bags, and drinks scattered everywhere as screams, furious curses, and cries of pain erupted together.
The mall entrance turned straight into a massive chain-reaction tumble, even more chaotic than the park.
"This is rotten to the core! What evil did we run into today?!"
"First bird shit, now slipping and falling! Someone's messing with us on purpose, huh?!"
"I'm furious! I'm never coming back to this lousy place!"
"If I catch whoever's causing this, I'll skin him alive!"
The curses filling the air and the cries of people breaking down joined into one, their resentment soaring into the clouds.
Xing Yao glanced at the out-of-control scene and said evenly into the walkie-talkie, "Pull out."
Then he and Clone No. 1 each picked up an umbrella, discreetly blended into the crowd, and quickly left the scene. They quietly regrouped in a secluded corner and stood to one side beneath their open umbrellas, watching the chaos before them.