Nanchang County, Heshui Village.

After several days of rain, the sky began to clear, and the villagers, suppressing their grief, began to repair their homes. Those that could not be repaired had to be demolished and rebuilt.

Because it was a natural disaster, the imperial court would provide appropriate subsidies to each household, so officials and soldiers came to register the situation in the village.

"Lord Chu, this is it. Most of the families in our village have been affected, and about ten people have died..."

The person who came was Lord Chu Xuan, the head of the constables in the county government.

The village chief introduced him to the situation in the village, and along the way he could see people repairing their yards and sitting on the ground to recover from injuries.

“The injuries here are indeed more severe than in the previous village. Where are the houses that collapsed that you mentioned? Let’s go take a look together.”

“They’re all over the village, this way please.”

Hearing the village chief say this, Chu Xuan simply ordered his men to split up and register each household one by one.

He then went to the collapsed areas to make detailed records.

When I arrived at a collapsed house, I saw a small, dry corner next to the abandoned house, covered with blackened cotton wool and gray-black clothes.

Behind the abandoned mud wall, a thin, dark-skinned child of a few years old was carrying mud bricks barefoot by hand.

Fortunately, it was summer; otherwise, they would have frozen to death even if they hadn't been crushed.

"Why is it only a child doing this here?"

The village chief recounted what had happened to Gouwazi's family, and Chu Xuan made detailed annotations in his notebook.

All of the dozen or so houses that collapsed were registered.

Passing by a courtyard, you see various flowers planted in the distance, and a long path paved with pebbles leads directly to the gate.

Unidentified flowers were also blooming on the wall, but because of the rain and the earth churning these past few days, the ground was covered in mud, ruining its original appearance.

Chu Xuan couldn't help but ask, "Whose house is this?"

The village chief replied, "This is Liu Niangzi's house; she's a widow who moved to our village a few years ago."

Chu Xuan nodded to indicate that he understood. This was clearly a brick and tile house, so it shouldn't have been affected much. The others could register in a bit.

Just as I was about to leave, the gate to the courtyard opened. A woman dressed in a gray cloth coat and wearing a headscarf came out, carrying a basket and a broom.

Chu Xuan took two steps when he heard the village chief ask, "Liu Huan, what are you going to do?"

"Hello, village chief, I've come to tidy up the outside."

That sound...

Chu Xuan turned around abruptly and saw that familiar, stunningly beautiful face... It really was her!

Chu Xuan changed his route, "Since they haven't registered here yet, I'll register them myself to avoid wasting time."

The village chief thought this made sense, so he walked up to Liu Huan and asked, "Is your Ermo here? This is Lord Chu from the yamen, here to register the situation."

Liu Huan looked over and said with a faint smile, "So it's Lord Chu. He's calling you in, isn't he?"

Chu Xuan knew it was a man's name as soon as he heard the character "Ermo". Didn't the village chief say it was a widow?

*cough*...nothing else, just routine.

The village chief sensed from Liu Huan's tone that the two knew each other, so he asked, "You also know Lord Chu?"

Liu Huan explained, "Last time I went to the county on business, I encountered a problem that Lord Chu helped me with. Please come in."

Chu Xuan went inside out of curiosity. The inside was better than the outside, probably because it was paved with blue bricks. Only a few places were peeling.

There were some cracks in the mud-walled house on the west side, and a big, burly man came out of it.

Chu Xuan frowned inwardly. How could he be such a man?

Liu Huan led the person to the courtyard, called Ermo over, and then went inside. The village chief didn't mind; Ermo was the only person he had asked for.

"Ermo, are you busy?"

"Uncle, you've arrived!"

The two talked about their family situation, but Chu Xuan was absent-minded and kept glancing towards the house.

Ermo followed the gaze and said, "Sir, there's no need to look over there. The main house is undamaged."

Chu Xuan turned around and gave a nonchalant "hmm," clearly not wanting to talk to Ermo.

The adult's serious attention to the damaged parts made Ermo feel that he was difficult to get along with.

He told the village chief, "My sister said that since my family's damage wasn't serious, we don't need the government's subsidies. Let them be used for those who need them more."

The village chief nodded in satisfaction and said, "Yes, your sister is a good one."

As a widow, and a young and beautiful one at that, Liu Huan rarely went out to attract attention; the only rumors she had came from Feng Shi.

Her well-behaved and obedient demeanor made the village chief think she was very sensible.

"Okay, then we'll be going. You can continue packing."

Chu Xuan was immersed in his own world, and even when he went out, he kept turning back to look at the figure, but that figure never came out.

As they left, the village chief was still telling the clan elders, "Compared to other widows, Liu is so much more disciplined that one can't help but look at her with more respect."

"Yes, it's a pity that she died young, leaving behind a child."

Chu Xuan then snapped out of his daze and unconsciously raised his voice: "That man isn't her man?"

The village chief said, "That's her younger brother. Her husband died a few years ago because of the war. She's raising her brother and two children all by herself."

Chu Xuan's heart was pounding. He felt that he was sick, and quite sick, and urgently needed to see a doctor at a clinic.

Shaking his head to clear away the jumbled thoughts, he went to the next house, where the woman and child's cries could be heard from afar.

That was the sound of Feng crying; she was crying for her recently deceased husband, Zhang Dafa.

After Chu Xuan finished registering, the others returned. He bid farewell to the village chief and boarded the oxcart to go back.

After returning home, I went to see a doctor. "I felt unwell, especially with a tightness and throbbing in my chest."

The doctor, upon hearing this, realized the matter could be serious or minor. He took the patient's pulse but couldn't find anything wrong, so he prescribed some traditional Chinese medicine and told him to go home and take it.

Over the next few days, as I traveled between villages and government offices and had many other matters to attend to, that feeling gradually faded.

The relief grain from the imperial court would take at least a month to arrive, since the situation wasn't too serious in their area. The villagers of Heshui Village tightened their belts to make ends meet, and Liu Huan stayed indoors all day, spending her days playing games with her children in the yard or teaching them to read.

Ermo goes to the village every day to help out for free, and the horses at home are all herded by villagers he hired.

Some villagers were dissatisfied, feeling that since the Liu family was wealthy, they should distribute porridge to help everyone. This only stopped after the village chief severely criticized them.

Some people even tried to introduce girls to Ermo and asked his sister if she wanted to remarry, but Ermo refused them all.

After a month of hardship, the government's relief grain finally arrived.

Liu Huan didn't join in the fun; Er Mo went instead. He saw Lord Chu, who had visited his house before. He was handsome, but too serious.

He was being pestered by Feng, the village's new widow, who was asking him questions.

When Chu Xu saw Ermo, he walked around Feng Shi and called out enthusiastically, "Ermo, you've come."

Ermo was taken aback. Were they familiar?

The village chief nudged him, and he snapped out of his daze. "Oh, yes, my sister asked me to come and see if there's anything I can help with."

When Ermo mentioned his sister, Chu Xuan's heart started pounding as he thought of her face. Oh no, that feeling was coming back.

The village chief, while distributing the supplies, asked curiously, "Lord Chu, where is the Imperial Envoy now?"

Chu Xuan wanted to build a good relationship with the village chief, so he shared the information he had received: "The imperial envoy arrived in Tanzhou Prefecture half a month ago. Many people have died there. They won't be coming here for a while, but the situation here isn't too serious, so they shouldn't have to stay for more than a few days."

The village chief was overjoyed. In the past, when disasters struck, he had never received so much grain so quickly. It was clear that the imperial envoy was a good official.