Jiang Wanwan remained silent; she hadn't yet come up with a good solution.

There should be locust trapping machines in the mall, but we can't take them out at all. If we do, people might mistake us for monsters.

That would be terrible if I got burned.

Uncle Jiang was just asking casually; he didn't expect Jiang Wanwan to come up with any solutions.

Locust plagues are frequent, and even officials struggle to come up with good solutions, let alone a young girl like Jiang Wanwan.

Uncle Jiang walked quickly towards his own paddy field. "Wanwan, let's go check on the situation."

Turning past the bamboo grove in front of us, the view suddenly opened up, but it also made our hearts tighten.

As far as the eye could see, swarms of locusts were flying and swooping over the once tranquil fields. The fields were filled with people, from three-year-old children to eighty-year-old elders, all trying to catch the locusts in their own fields.

In the fields, there were occasional cries of anguish as people cried and tried to catch locusts; some, in despair, simply sat down on the ground and continued to wail.

Regardless of the reason, the villagers' eyes were filled with helplessness and despair.

"It's over, it's all over!" Uncle Jiang slapped his thigh, no longer caring about Jiang Wanwan, and ran to his field.

Seeing this, Jiang Wanwan also jogged over.

When they arrived at their own field, they saw Grandma Jiang, Grandpa Jiang, and others diligently catching locusts from their rice paddies.

Life at home has improved significantly; at least for now, they have enough to eat and wear. However, the fact that the crops in the fields have been ruined is a great distress to the Jiang family.

The crops in the fields are more important than life itself.

Grandma Jiang deftly caught the locusts, saying with heartache, "The harvest was almost here, how could there suddenly be a locust plague? How are we all going to survive?"

"Alas, farmers who depend on the heavens for their livelihood have the hardest lives. It seems that God is not letting us live," Old Man Jiang sighed.

Seeing the crops you've worked so hard to cultivate ravaged by locusts is like having a dull knife slowly cutting into your heart; the pain is unbearable.

Uncle Jiang and Jiang Jiang were especially distressed. They had put the most effort into their family's crops, and now they were about to be destroyed by locusts. With red eyes, they desperately tried to catch the locusts.

Jiang Wanwan stood on the ridge of the field, looking around. There were so many locusts. She would kill one, and another swarm would fly in. She couldn't catch them all.

The work done by the people of Dashui Village was in vain.

She carefully recalled the plot the young woman in her department had been telling her; a locust plague had indeed appeared in the book. The entire Daqi region had experienced a nationwide locust plague. The locusts swept across the land, destroying all crops and leaving the people with nothing to eat. They could only eat tree bark and dig for wild vegetables to survive.

Food prices are skyrocketing, and unscrupulous merchants are charging exorbitant prices. A pound of rice costs one tael of silver. A pound of coarse flour costs a whopping thirty-five copper coins! Other grains are also ridiculously expensive!

Before the famine was resolved, a drought soon followed. This was undoubtedly adding insult to injury for the impoverished people. They had no food or water, all their crops withered and died, and they had no money to buy food. As a result, thieves ran rampant, and even in broad daylight, some people openly committed theft.

Just then, internal strife broke out in the royal family. Several of the emperor's sons took advantage of the chaos to rebel, and for a time, no one cared about the people, and the Great Qi Kingdom was filled with starving corpses.