Chapter 207: The feminist Nightmare Butcher

Chapter 207 Tuttle's Enlightenment

Tuttle was so angry that he laughed: "Do you take me for an idiot, undead! Do you think I don't know how good the business of the two coppers store on the main road in the town is? What woman can't even take out two copper coins?!"

"Have you ever carefully looked at the things in the baskets of those housewives who go in and out of Ertong Supermarket?" Ji Tang asked patiently.

"What do you mean?" Tuttle asked irritably.

"The best-selling product in our Ertong hypermarket is salt," said Ji Tang, "followed by plates, bowls, basins, buckets, soap, washing powder... and other daily necessities shared by family members."

Without waiting for Tuttle to speak, Ji Tang continued, "Do you know what the least-selling categories are? They are hair accessories and scarves."

After a pause, Ji Tang said solemnly, "Do you understand, Tuttle? When housewives enter the supermarket, the money they have is used to buy more goods needed by the whole family, rather than what they need themselves. The scarves that are sold in small quantities are bought for daughters, towels and socks are prepared for the family, and the beautiful hairpins that women always linger on are not as popular as fruit knives."

"You only see them shopping at the Ertong hypermarket, but never notice that out of ten items they buy, not even one is for themselves, even if it's something that they could use for housework."

"Now, tell me, Tuttle, how many women from the lower classes do you think can easily fight on their own for their 'private affairs that cannot be known to others' and make their families accept the extra two copper coins per month?"

Tuttle's mouth was half open, and there was no sound for a moment.

Ji Tang was not at all surprised by his reaction.

Ji Tang was born in a rural area in the western mountainous area of China. Before he became an adult, Ji Tang never found anything wrong with the environment in which he grew up.

It was not until he grew up and saw how women lived in big cities that he suddenly realized something he had never realized before – he had never worn torn socks in his life, but he had seen his mother mending her own quite often.

When he was a teenager, he and his father put on new clothes to go to the market. The apron tied in front of his mother when she saw them off had been worn for at least five or six years, and the edges were worn out to exaggerated threads.

Looking back, the mother who waved and reminded them to be careful when going out had a conspicuous patch on her sleeve.

How many years had it been since his mother wore new clothes? Ji Tang, who grew up with his mother, could not tell.

Even for housewives in cities with relatively affluent families, the items they put into their shopping carts during shopping festivals were mostly purchased for their families.

This kind of dedication that was clearly visible to everyone in the family was often ignored by everyone.

Even the Chinese people who had generally received compulsory education could not avoid this, let alone someone from a world where the illiteracy rate was as high as 99%.

Tuttle's half-open mouth slowly closed, and the impatience and irritability on his face gradually faded, replaced by a kind of panic.

He also thought of his mother.

His mother looked for compound bows made of the latest materials for him, she customized new shirts for him that fit his body shape every year, and she carefully prepared lizard skin boots for him as a coming-of-age gift… but the newest skirts in his mother's closet were all purchased before she got married.

Were there times when the mother wanted to buy something for herself but found it difficult to ask the father?

The father, whose income was considered good in Kargath, had he ever paid attention to the needs of the mother?

Tuttle felt a sharp pain in his heart and his lips trembled slightly.

"Only women can give birth to children. They are forced to bear all the burdens of nurturing new life alone, just like your mother and mine." Seeing Tuttle's reaction, Ji Tang slowed down his tone and said softly, "We can't help with the difficulties of childbirth, but at least we can do our part to help them get rid of embarrassment and awkwardness during the menstrual period. This is a very meaningful thing."

Tuttle was silent for a while and did not nod, but at least he did not resist anymore… probably meaning he agreed.

Ji Tang patted the shoulder of the alien who was about his age and sighed. "It may be difficult for you to understand why we do this now, but we must take this step. We must remove the thorns on this road, because this is Weisshem… No, because this is Indhal, the Rhine Kingdom, and the human society of this world. If we want to move towards civilization, we must take this first step."

Ji Tang had never seen the old society with his own eyes, and his understanding of it was limited to written and visual materials.

After seeing with his own eyes the living conditions of the lower classes in this alien world, the somewhat one-sided and thin text and image materials in Ji Tang's mind gradually came to life, and the suffering people in the black and white photos in the modern history books of China gradually overlapped with the faces of the people in the alien world that he had seen.

Weisshem was only a few dozen kilometers away from the big city of Indhal, but these few dozen kilometers were like two different worlds… An artificial fur scarf that cost ten copper coins was hot-selling in Indhal, but in Weisshem, not a single one could be sold even if it was on display for ten days or half a month.

Ten copper coins just to keep the neck warm was too much of a luxury for the people of Weisshem.

Those who were willing to buy a set of new four-piece bedding for twenty copper coins were reluctant to use it, because most people's beds were covered with hay and people were afraid that the grass stems would damage the sheets.

People looked at the thermos bottle that cost twenty copper coins, and touched it again and again. They discussed it with their families for a long time. Only those who had elderly people at home who wanted to drink some hot water in the winter would be willing to spend money on it.

And these were the town's residents who could usually see copper coins.

If one was a farmer in the countryside, they would be even more frugal… If they had money, they would have to buy enough salt before considering other things.

In contrast, there was the former Lord of Weisshem, Baron Marcus, who had a huge fortune, and the former mayor's magnificent mansion, which could be used as a foot massage parlor after renovation…

This could still be seen in the town.

When he went to the countryside, he was shocked even more.

How big was the gap between the private farms of the nobles and the farmlands of the free people?

The former was vast with interconnected fields and paths stretching as far as the eye could see, while the latter was fragmented by mountains and hills. 

The former had plenty of animal power, while the latter could only rely on their hands – many free people even had to rent iron farm tools from nearby farms, at the cost of working for the farm for free when they had time off-season.

The mansions of the farmers were as magnificent as castles, and the houses of the peasants were all made of mud…

While taking Rex to the countryside for research, Ji Tang heard a lot about the deeds of some "countryside scoundrels." What did these scoundrels do? They stole horse feed beans from the farmer's house and picked up wheat ears from the farmer's field. They were hung up and beaten by the strong male servants and guards, becoming the laughing stock of the villagers…

Yes, the peasants in this world even believed that it was reasonable for the farmer to lynch his fellow villagers. They did not think it was wrong for the noble stewards or the scion of the side branches who were in charge of the farm to arbitrarily punish and humiliate the villagers. They thought that gentlemen of status were qualified to be judges, policemen, and executioners, and this was a common rule in the world.

Ji Tang, a modern person, would definitely not accept these incredible "traditional rules."

But if they wanted to talk about fairness and liberation, they first had to face the plight of women head-on.

Human beings were creatures with animal nature, and animals followed the law of the jungle, they bullied the weak and feared the strong. In any society or ethnic group under any cultural background, if there was oppression and a food chain within it, then women and children would definitely be at the bottom.

To protect the rights and interests of women and children, women had to be liberated.

During China's feudal history, illegitimate sons and daughters suffered unfair treatment, the root cause of which was that the status of women was too low. Without thoroughly reforming the society and completely breaking the old society that used class oppression as a means of ruling, it would be useless to rely on one or two people who played the leading role to change the culture.

In a nutshell, if one did not liberate women, there was no point in talking. 

"Some women, when in extreme distress, have used substitutes such as corn leaves, grass balls, and even tree bark…

Tuttle, who was eavesdropping at a safe distance, was almost going crazy.

Women in reality and women in his perception were like two different creatures!

Poor menstrual products were not the worst issue; there was even worse discrimination against menstruation. Almost all the rural women interviewed, when asked about how they dealt with their menstrual periods when they were young, mentioned how embarrassed they were at the time. There were also many experiences of becoming the laughing stock of others and being looked at with strange eyes because of accidentally getting blood stains on their pants.

At this time, another hidden oppression caused by women's physiological characteristics was suddenly and bloodily exposed to Tuttle, who had known nothing about it before, through the narration of a peasant woman interviewed.

That is… the experience of being harassed or even violated during menstruation.

Women in the countryside did not have the conditions to stay at home and not work during their menstrual period. When they felt uncomfortable while working in the fields and had to find a place to change their clothes… they were at very high risk of being peeped on, harassed, or even raped.

When Tuttle first heard this jaw-dropping reality, he was being pulled by Ji Tang to sit in the courtyard of a farmer's house.

The woman who told this experience was hiding in a house and talking in a low voice with the two agents' family members. She lowered her voice for fear of being heard by others.

Her voice was a little hoarse, trembling slightly with pain and with a strong nasal tone. If it were not for the extraordinary hearing of Tuttle as a ranger, he would not have been able to hear what this sobbing peasant woman was saying.

This terrible and cruel reality, which seemed to be encountered by many people but which he knew nothing about even after living to his thirties, made Tuttle's hands and feet turn cold.

How so?

The countryside he saw was miserable enough, and the people living in such an environment were miserable enough. No one had fair skin, everyone had a furrowed brow, and the older people were bent over early by the burden of life.

We are already working so hard, why do we still have to oppress each other?

Tuttle's mind was in a mess.

He was a former thief who had participated in caravan robberies, farm plunders, and murders.

Tuttle had always been angry about what happened to him, and he never saw anything wrong with robbing or even killing those who were better off than he was.

This is how the world is. The powerful oppress the powerless and the powerless oppress the non-existent. His family and his future were destroyed because of these fucked-up rules, which was why he vented his anger on the rich people he could deal with.

But these poor country women… What was the point in oppressing them?

They were already close to the ground, and their survival was extremely difficult.

The woman in the room was still whispering.

Even though many years had passed, the peasant woman with dark skin, who was not at all attractive to normal men, was still suffering. She tried her best to suppress her voice, fearing that others would find out that she had experienced such an unbearable past.

Tuttle stood up gently and tried to walk out of the yard.

Ji Tang did not come to hold him back, but just looked at him silently with his dark eyes.

Tuttle hesitated for a long time, unable to bear to leave, but also unwilling to sit back.

Ji Tang stared at the uncomfortable alien for a while and said softly: "You are indeed just a puppet lord that Lord Yang casually picked up. You really have no responsibility for what happens to Weisshem."

"But… you can also be responsible if you want to be." Ji Tang turned his head and glanced at the closed wooden door. "Carrying the future of the people here, if you are willing to do it, you can do it."

Tuttle said nothing.

The humble and fearful face of the peasant woman in the house when he entered flashed through his mind.

After standing there blankly for a while, Tuttle slowly sat back on the stone pier.

On the way to the next household, after a long silence, Tuttle asked Ji Tang in a hoarse voice: "What's the point of doing this? Do we have to capture all the men in the village to build the road?"

Ji Tang shook his head and said sincerely, "There is solid evidence of illegal activities, and people should be arrested, but the root cause of the current plight of women is that people are used to dividing people into different classes, and then decide which group has the right to bully others and which group should just accept it based on their status."

"To eliminate the plight of women, first of all, we must break down the so-called 'order of superiority and inferiority' that everyone accepts as the norm. Everyone's life should be equal, and everyone's personality should be respected. This is what a normal and harmonious society looks like."

Tattle didn't understand anything at first, but after a while he slowly realized something was wrong, and the look he gave Ji Tang became gradually more horrified.

"…Are you sure that all you want is to eliminate the plight of women?" Tuttle said.

"Of course not." Ji Tang said as a matter of course, "Women can be bullied justifiably, employers can exploit workers justifiably, landlords can turn free people into tenants or even serfs justifiably, and nobles can justifiably bully the common people. Any kind of oppression here is completely unreasonable and should be overthrown, right?"

"Since we know it's wrong, we should correct it; we should start from the most basic part, that is, we should first liberate women and solve their plight. Isn't this obvious?"

Tuttle: "…"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute." Tattle didn't remember how many times he had said "wait." It was really hard for him to keep up with the thinking mode of the undead mayor in front of him. He said with difficulty, "So… Rex and I are just puppets, and the real lord is Yang… Do we have to defeat Yang in the end?"

What he didn't say was that although he had seen from the beginning that you undeads didn't have much respect for Yang, you wouldn't openly rebel against Yang, right?!

"You think too much. Yang arranged all the production lines in the factory, including the sanitary napkin production line." Ji Tang almost laughed at this guy. "If Yang didn't support us, how could we carry out our work?"

Players would be happy to treat Yang as a boss, but the national team certainly wouldn't. They simply listened to him because he was their link to the other world.

Tuttle was stunned and horrified at first, then his face was full of disbelief.

The Nightmare Butcher actually had such a crazy idea… This was not difficult to understand, this guy even killed the prince.

No, that's not the point!

The Nightmare Butcher was actually a feminist?!

Tuttle felt that his worldview had been shattered into pieces. This horrible truth would probably make his friends laugh out loud if he told it to outsiders, let alone to others.

Next, Tuttle was dragged by Ji Tang to run through all the villages in Weisshem, including the poorest village that had reorganized Rex's worldview, amidst multiple denials of life, the world, and his own cognition. Fortunately, there were no farmers working naked in the fields this season, otherwise Tuttle might have poked his eyes out on the spot.

After working hard for several days, Tuttle's face was weathered, and even his thorny temperament of a rebellious young man was smoothed out by the sufferings of the world he witnessed.

Entering December, the sanitary products were launched on the market.

When the hard-working clerks and the female employees of the Logistics Department were putting the goods on the shelf, Tuttle took the initiative to change into the formal dress "inherited" from Rex and made his first appearance.

Tuttle, with a heroic look on his face, had just walked out of the town hall door when a bearded man wearing a small fur hat standing on the steps immediately raised his camera and took a few pictures of him.

Tuttle: "???"

Ji Tang, who was waiting at the door, introduced with a smile: "This is the reporter from Inhal Weekly invited by Rex to help promote our sanitary pad launch conference."

The bearded man didn't dare get too close to the Undead Mayor. He just nodded and bowed to the new Lord of Weisshem in a flattering manner.

Tuttle: "…"

Tuttle suddenly had the urge to rush to the city to fight Rex.