The will to face the rising sun on the city wall was soon pulled back by reality.
A sudden commotion inside the city dragged Zhan Muchun and the scholars who had been moved by their own actions back to reality.
The crowd quickly moved to the other side of the city wall and looked down from the battlements. They saw shopkeepers clashing with the refugees.
“Before it was only ten wen each. Now it has jumped to thirty wen each…”
“It is my own goods. I can sell at whatever price I want. Buy if you like, or leave if you do not…”
The general meaning was easy to understand. The sellers had suddenly raised prices several times over. Some refugees could not accept it and started arguing. If not for a group of people holding them back, fists would probably have flown already.
Zhan Muchun frowned. In a flash he knew this was bound to happen. The city had suddenly gained more than thirty thousand extra people, all with money in hand. Price rises were inevitable. However this kind of sudden several-fold increase was unacceptable.
His brother Shi Heng had scattered all his wealth to bring these people into the city. If the refugees could not be helped to survive until after the disaster, then it would be the responsibility of officials like them.
After thinking it over repeatedly, he suddenly took out the three hundred taels silver note and handed it to one scholar. He instructed, “Help me give this to the city gate guard commander. Tell him to save as many disaster victims as possible when he has the chance.”
Previously he had some reservations about donating money. Now with Ah Shi Heng taking the lead, he had justification, so he donated again.
The scholars looked at each other.
Zhan Muchun had already run quickly down the city tower and hurried off into the distance.
This time he ran straight to the prefect’s residence in one go. He bypassed ranks and found the prefect directly. He urged the prefect to find a way to stabilise the prices of basic daily necessities for the disaster victims and the citizens in the city.
“Top candidate, have you not understood yet? The reason the four great families were willing to let the wealthy disaster victims in was to earn their money. To put it plainly, the price rises are because the four great families have raised the supply prices of their goods. How can the small merchants below not raise prices?”
“My lord, you can inform the four great families that if the five taels of silver in the disaster victims’ hands cannot last until after the disaster, someone will surely incite the victims to target their granaries. At that time, with tens of thousands rioting, the consequences will be severe. If the court investigates, we cannot escape responsibility, and neither can they. They must control the price increases and at least let people survive.
My lord, we are court-appointed officials. At such a critical moment, the lives of countless people rest with us. How can we let these profiteers control everything? We can scold and warn them loudly. At worst our one head each can accompany their whole families to be chopped by the court. Let us see who is afraid of whom.
If they still dare to threaten, this lowly official will step forward to block them. Let them threaten me, the top candidate appointed by His Majesty first.
My lord, His Majesty is troubled by the disaster. By standing with the disaster victims we stand with His Majesty and with the court. What is there to fear from mere merchants? We can rebuke them loudly. As long as we are not afraid, the profiteers will surely panic and submit. This is the might of heaven, and it can be used well.”
The top candidate had suddenly become so resolute. The prefect was somewhat startled. He looked at the determined eyes before him and stared for a long time. Then he slapped the table and stood up. “Good. Call the others. We will go find them together.”
After hurriedly preparing a few people, the group quickly left the government office.
Seeing the disaster victims coming and going on the streets again, the prefect in the carriage lowered the window curtain and sighed with emotion. “No one knows who that person distributing wealth outside the city is.”
The accompanying Zhan Muchun said in a deep voice, “It is Ah Shi Heng.”
“Ah Shi Heng? Which Ah Shi Heng?” The prefect was stunned and asked, “The one from the same examination year as you?”
Zhan Muchun nodded. “Exactly.”
“Hiss…” The prefect drew in a breath and slowly punched one palm with his other fist. He looked at Zhan Muchun thoughtfully and roughly understood where this top candidate’s change came from.
On the way, the prefect received another report. The several hundred disaster victims outside the city had also entered.
On detailed questioning he learned that a group of scholars had started donating money on their own initiative. They stood guard outside the city gate distributing money to help the victims enter the city.
What happened later was that at least under the walls of Shangyuan City there were no more disaster victims to be seen, and many more lives were saved.
Calling to heaven brought no response, calling to earth brought no reply. This was the true situation of Yu Qing wandering alone in the waterlogged land.
He was like a madman, jumping and hopping in the water from time to time, beating his chest and stamping his feet at times, and shouting at the sky at other times. The empty heaven and earth gave no response at all.
In between he lost his footing and fell into deep water pits countless times, yet each time he climbed out by himself.
The “Big Head” trapped in the jar seemed unable to take it anymore. After banging its head who knows how many times, it finally won Yu Qing’s mercy. He opened the lid and gave it freedom.
However there was nowhere good to go. Water was everywhere and even a suitable landing spot was hard to find. “Big Head” could only settle on Yu Qing’s ponytail braid.
Yu Qing’s clothes were wet, and “Big Head” actually did not like water much.
It was not until a mountain with uneven terrain appeared ahead that Yu Qing, who had been constantly thinking about the lost sixteen thousand taels of silver, suddenly stopped. He stared at the mountain in a daze with his mouth open.
The sight of the mountain suddenly reminded him of something.
It reminded him of a way to earn back that sixteen thousand taels with interest.
He suddenly cried out in alarm. “Oh no.”
Then like a madman he splashed through the muddy water, sending splashes flying everywhere, and rushed straight towards a small hill.
After getting out of the waterlogged area and reaching the hill, he rummaged frantically inside his clothes.
He pulled out the painting and calligraphy that Wen Ruo had given him.
There was no doubt about the result. During his fits of madness the treasure map had been soaked by his repeated entries into the water.
“It is finished, it is finished…”
Heartache hit him again as if he wanted to stab himself ten thousand times. He quickly checked it.
After checking he breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately it was not drawn on paper. The inked edges that had been soaked in water felt a bit fuzzy, and the handwriting seemed slightly faded.
“Whew~”
He blew hard on the painting and calligraphy with his mouth. Then he found a tree and hung it on a branch to dry.
Looking around at the deserted surroundings and seeing no one, he stripped himself completely naked.
There was no choice. Once he became a bit clear-headed, he found wearing the soaking wet clothes truly uncomfortable. It was better to take them all off, wring out the water, and let them dry in the sun.
He wandered around the hilltop in his completely natural state.
In this place where no other human figures could be seen, “Big Head” also relaxed and fully enjoyed the taste of freedom. It flew around the hilltop wildly, stopping here for a moment and landing there for a moment.
One man and one insect, like guarding a lonely island.
Not a trace of green could be seen on the hilltop, not even a mouse. From the pits dug everywhere on the mountain it was clear that anything edible, whether on the ground or underground, had been eaten.
After strolling for a while and tidying up his mud-covered hair, Yu Qing picked up the treasure map again and studied it carefully once more.
With his current conditions, the way to earn back those sixteen thousand taels seemed to rest only on this treasure map for now.
It had become his only hope.
After such a huge loss, he no longer had any interest in struggling for a few hundred or a thousand taels. It would take who knows how long to break even.
His appetite had grown. He wanted to swallow it back in one go, otherwise the pain in his heart would be hard to dispel.
As long as he found the immortal’s leftover blessed land, the sixteen thousand would naturally be swept back in one stroke.
However he held the painting and calligraphy and looked at it over and over until he nearly spat blood, yet he still could not see any clues.
“What kind of rubbish treasure map is this? No routes, no instructions, not even place names. What kind of map is this? What use is it to me…”
In his anger Yu Qing grabbed the treasure map with both hands and was about to tear it apart.
He had always suspected that this copied painting was useless. The real secret of the treasure map might not be in the painting and calligraphy but in the paper itself.
Yet when he pulled with both hands he could not bear to do it. Another reason in his heart persuaded him to calm down. Just because he could not understand it did not mean the treasure map was useless. It might only be that his knowledge was shallow. Perhaps one day in the future he would understand it.
For now he could only earn some small money first to get by.
After giving up, having struggled until now, he really felt tired. He wanted to sit cross-legged and meditate to regulate his breathing. However the heartache would not stop and there were too many distracting thoughts. He could not calm his mind to meditate at all.
Forget it. He simply climbed onto a bare big tree, lay down on a large branch, and went to sleep. The treasure map was draped over his stomach to continue drying, which also counted as keeping it with him for protection.
Before long he really fell asleep. He was exhausted in body and mind.
In his sleep he would occasionally grope hazily at the treasure map on his stomach to check if it was still there.
He slept all the way until noon, until the sun was high in the sky. He was harshly woken by the scorching sun.
There was no choice. There was no shade to be found here either.
As soon as he opened his eyes it was the glaring sunlight. He subconsciously picked up the treasure map to block the sun.
With something to block it he opened his sleepy eyes again. His gaze unconsciously swept over the treasure map above. When he turned his head to check the drying clothes he suddenly froze. A flash of insight came to his mind.
After a brief pause he blinked, lifted the lowered treasure map again, raised it above to block the sunlight, and tilted his head back to look at the treasure map once more.
Soon he found the source of that flash of insight.
The painting and calligraphy in his hands had unconsciously overlapped. At this moment, with sunlight shining through, the landscape pattern and the overlapping calligraphy of the ode praising the mountains and waters appeared.
The overlap was secondary. The important thing was that he accidentally discovered some mountain peaks in the painting had almost no blank space where the ink covered them, while others had blank spaces at the peaks because of the painted clouds.
When these blanks overlapped with the text, they created what he had seen unconsciously earlier. Through the light he could see certain individual characters circled by the blank spaces at the mountain peaks.
Feeling he had made a major discovery, Yu Qing’s spirits shook violently. He immediately flipped over and jumped down from the tree. He held the painting and calligraphy folded in half and compared it against the sunlight.
Then he discovered it was more convenient to compare while lying on the tree, so he climbed back onto the large branch naked and lay down again. Facing the sun he slowly moved the folded painting and calligraphy, using the blank spaces at the mountain peaks to match the characters in the ode.
The strings of characters that came out could not be read smoothly no matter how he tried, so they were definitely not it.
He matched them bit by bit. Even under the blazing sun he was extremely patient. At most he would scratch an itch on his leg with his toes.
In the end, hard work paid off. He really matched out a continuous string of fluctuating sentences that at least read smoothly.