Chapter 68: Dead End

"I don't like that old fogey. He didn't tell you?"

When Princess Le'an heard Jiang Ran say that she had liked Lu Weiqing for so long and hoped she could help, she was so scared that she spat out a mouthful of tea.

Jiang Ran didn't know how to react for a moment and looked at her blankly.

Seeing that she really didn't know, the princess sighed and began to explain.

It’s all because of that repressed Lu Weiqing, who made her tell so many lies.

He had already told them that he could come to them if he had any problems, but he was too embarrassed to explain to Jiang Ran that he had been planning on her for a long time and had deep feelings for her.

Jiang Ran listened to her chatter and understood what she said, but he didn't dare to believe it.

She still couldn't believe it until she returned home in a daze.

Lu Weiqing likes her?! How is that possible?

When Lu Zhaoyang saw her come back, he went up to her, pulled her into the room and started talking to her, telling her not to worry and that she would probably get good news soon.

Jiang Ran just breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Zhao Yang asking her if she had gone to the princess to find out what was going on.

Jiang Ran's ears turned red with guilt, and he found an excuse to slip back to his room.

On the other side, Lu Yu waited until midnight, but Lu Weiqing didn't come back.

He was very scared. What if Lu Weiqing never came back? How would he deal with this mess?

He was afraid at one moment, complaining at another, and in a mixture of shock and anger, he fell asleep leaning against the door.

The next morning, he was awakened by the chirping of birds in the yard.

Lu Weiqing did not return home all night, so he had no choice but to get up, change his clothes, and walk to the soup kitchen.

After all, he is the deputy envoy and he has to do his job.

Lu Yu sighed all the way, secretly convincing himself that if he did more now, he would have some room for rebuttal when he was convicted.

Before he knew it, he was almost at his destination. He looked around, suspecting that he had gone to the wrong place.

There were quite a few victims yesterday, but compared to today, they are nothing.

It was still early and the porridge distribution had not started yet, but the porridge stall was already crowded with victims, all waiting with bowls in hand.

Lu Yu shuddered. At this rate, the food in that cart wouldn't even last through the day!

They didn't expect so many people to come, and they were in a panic. They temporarily opened a few more porridge stalls, and there were more people maintaining order than those cooking and distributing porridge.

Even though the cooking process was slowed down, the porridge became thinner and thinner, and by the evening, the food was gone.

Lu Yu had no choice but to tell them that today's porridge distribution was over and would continue tomorrow.

There were many disaster victims queuing behind, all of whom were very dissatisfied and clamoring to see the imperial envoy.

"How come it's gone? I've been waiting in line all day and haven't even gone to work. My kids are hungry at home. What happened?!"

"That's right. If I had known earlier, I would have gone to work. At least I could have had half a bag of rice. Now what should I do? I'm starving to death."

There was a commotion among the crowd as responses came one after another.

"Weren't you sent by the imperial court to provide disaster relief? So many of you came, and you only brought these few grains of rice?"

"Yes! Where's the imperial envoy? We want to see the imperial envoy!"

Seeing that order was about to get out of control, Lu Yu hurried forward and tried to stabilize the situation.

"I am the imperial envoy. If you have any questions, you can tell me."

"I understand how you feel, but we still have to follow the rules. The time to end has come. Tomorrow, early tomorrow morning, we must start distributing porridge on time, okay?"

It would have been fine if he didn't come out, but once he came out, he had a clear target to attack, which further ignited the anger of the people.

Several burly men who had elderly parents and young children to support and were used to working on construction sites pushed through the crowd and suddenly rushed over to push and question him.

Lu Yu's clothes were torn so much that they were wrinkled and his hair was disheveled, making him look very miserable.

Someone took the lead, and the others did not give in. Some cursed, some threw stones, and the scene was in chaos.

In the end, it was the people sent by Wu Wei who suppressed the situation with violence.

Only after seeing the blood did the victims reluctantly disperse.

"Lu Qinchao, you are not scared, are you? Our area is poor and remote, so there are many unruly people." A scarred man smiled hypocritically and helped Lu Yu, who fell to the ground, up.

Lu Yu remembered that the scarred man was Wu Wei's confidant, the one who chopped off the maid's hand at the banquet that day.

As soon as he stood firm, he withdrew his hand, forced himself to say that he was fine, and limped back.

Scarface snorted coldly, sat down nearby with his men, and continued to watch the rest of the people work.

Yesterday, he was careless and let them distribute the porridge. Those lazy people who were too lazy to work came here to line up, and there were fewer people working. He was severely scolded for this.

He simply stopped the work and forced all the victims here.

Let’s see how long their food truck can last!

I really can't hold on any longer.

Lu Yu acted tough in front of others, but when he turned around, his face turned bitter and he wished he could kill himself by hitting his head against the wall.

If nothing unexpected happens, he will die tomorrow morning.

He didn't even have to hit the target himself; the victims could drown him with just a spit from them.

Lu Yu went to wait at his uncle's door again. After waiting for an hour, he made up his mind and decided to borrow food from Wu Wei.

Although he was a bastard, he was also a nouveau riche. The little bit of food that slipped through his fingers was enough to feed the people for a long time.

Lu Yu didn't expect that he still underestimated the bastard level of that person.

Before Wu Wei could even finish his words, he waved his hand and refused, "These are all my personal property. Providing you with food and drink is already the greatest kindness I can offer."

"As for those lazy bones, they keep coming back one after another, and they can't even die completely. Why should we care?"

Lu Yu was so angry that he wanted to spit fire, and Wu Wei continued to say something.

"I'm a government official, not a real parent to them. You're too soft-hearted, young fool!"

Lu Yu clenched his fists. It was rare that he wanted to beat someone up so much.

After looking at the scarred man next to him, he finally turned away.

His mood now was different from yesterday. Lu Yu couldn't sleep at all and sat at the door with his eyes open until dawn.

Still didn't wait for Lu Weiqing.

He stood up resignedly, washed up, and changed into his official uniform.

He has to face it eventually, even if it means dying here. He hopes His Majesty will spare his family because he sacrificed his life in the line of duty.

His colleagues who walked alongside him also had tragic expressions on their faces.

The little bit of food left was only enough to cook a pot of porridge. After distributing it, they were greeted by the victims of the riot.

By the time they arrived at the scene, the victims were already impatient and the sound of banging bowls could be heard one after another.

"Dinner, why isn't it ready yet?"

"Didn't you say yesterday to come early? You're so slow, you bastard."

"Do you think that they are living in luxury and don't care if you starve to death?"

There were discussions in the crowd, each one harsher than the last.

Seeing that only one porridge stall was open, the place became even more chaotic, and people who were queuing in other places were pushing and shoving to get here.

Someone cursed and asked why there was only one place open.

Soon someone started to incite and provoke.

"You have all been deceived by the dog officials."

"The food has been burned long ago. They don't have any food at all!"

The people's anger was immediately ignited by these words.

Questions, accusations and curses flooded towards them.

There were more people taking action than yesterday, and we couldn't resist at all.

The ones led by Scarface just sat aside and watched the fun, with no intention of helping them at all.

Lu Yu was unable to dodge and was hit in the face by several punches. His black hat was torn to pieces and even half of his official uniform was torn off.

He closed his eyes in despair.

At this moment, a loud shout was heard: "Get out of the way! The food has arrived——"