Chapter 66 Earthquake: Good Deeds Will Be Rewarded
Jin Shiyu searched the entire palace but still couldn't find Jin Suiqing.
He had even searched for the servants' quarters, including Jin Suiqing's room. He listened through the window as the maids were disturbed, letting out displeased groans. Jin Shiyu held his breath and listened carefully, trying to hear Jin Suiqing's breathing or detect any signs of lying in the women's answers.
No, absolutely not.
There was no familiar voice, and no trace of lying could be detected.
The palace manager, who was in charge of the imperial palace, came out of the room and said to Jin Shiyu, "Miss Jin has not been seen."
Jin Shiyu lowered his head in thought, his cold gaze frightening Gong Changsheng.
The person disappeared, but a calming incense that could induce sleep was lit in his room, indicating that he did not want to stay nearby but was going to carry him away to a distant place.
If no one is seen inside the palace, then they must have escaped.
From wanting to move to a side courtyard behind his back, to wanting to go to Jiangnan Road behind his back, to now drugging him and leaving the palace without his permission, it all coincides with what Jin Shiyu fears most in his heart.
Jin Shiyu was expressionless, his jaw clenched, and his temples throbbed. He lowered his head slightly, and when he looked up at Gong Chang, only the whites of his eyes were visible. Under the silver moonlight, the pale Jin Shiyu looked like a male ghost seeking death, frightening Gong Chang so much that he dared not utter a sound and trembled.
Closing his eyes, Jin Shiyu feigned composure and asked, "Have you searched the princess's room?"
The palace head trembled, "The princess is resting, we dare not disturb her."
“Fine,” Jin Shiyu opened his eyes and snorted coldly, “If you don’t dare, I will.”
Jin Shiyu strode towards Huangfu Feng's direction, and the palace manager panicked, jogging after him and trying to persuade him as he went, but Jin Shiyu wouldn't listen to a word, saying, "Do I need your permission to knock on her door?"
The palace chief was caught in a dilemma. He couldn't offend the princess, nor could he offend Jin Shiyu. He could only say, "Miss Jin may have just gone out to play. It has nothing to do with the princess. Why don't you wait until dawn tomorrow and then ask her?"
"Tomorrow?" Jin Shiyu said fiercely, "If my dearest sister is lost tonight and can't be found tomorrow, will you compensate me?"
The palace chief was terrified. He couldn't tell which sister the man was referring to, nor did he understand how the compensation was supposed to be paid. He felt a chill run down his spine and had a premonition that someone's head was about to roll and his life was about to be lost. He dared not speak up to dissuade him anymore and could only follow closely behind Jin Shiyu, praying in his heart that the princess was staying in the room.
The palace head went up and knocked on the door, but there was no sound from inside, not even a response from the maidservant.
With the King of Hell looming behind him, the palace chief panicked and knocked on the door even harder. Before he could knock twice, Jin Shiyu suddenly appeared, grabbed him by the back of the collar, yanked him aside, and kicked the door open.
A faint smoke drifted through the room, and the maid was fast asleep on the couch, completely undisturbed by the commotion.
Jin Shiyu sniffed lightly, gave a cold sneer, and dragged Gong Chang, who was about to enter the room, out again. She turned her head slightly and met Gong Chang's trembling eyes.
After observing for a moment, he smiled gently instead of being angry. "Suiqing left with the Princess. Would you please trouble the Palace Master to try to find out the direction they left in?"
*
Jin Suiqing was mesmerized. A glint flashed in her eyes, her dark pupils darted around, and she stopped in her tracks. She slowly turned around and looked at Ma Anping: "I should recognize the person who wrote this. Is his name Zhang Yuyi?"
Upon hearing the name, Ma Anping and Li Yousheng immediately stood up, staggered over to Jin Suiqing, and asked with tears in their eyes, "Boss Jin, do you recognize that young man?"
“I recognize him,” Jin Suiqing said. “We have a close relationship; he once saved my life.”
The kind of person you can entrust your children to.
Ma Anping, who was initially reluctant to shake hands with her, took the initiative to pull her hand. The old woman lowered her head and sobbed softly, taking a long time to calm down.
With tears in his eyes, Ma Anping asked, "Boss Jin, do you know where Zhang Yuyi is now? Is he doing well? Have you found his sister?"
Jin Suiqing remained silent.
Li Yousheng said urgently, "Zhang Yuyi is our benefactor! Our great benefactor! Back then, when the mine collapsed and the losses were severe, the foreman wanted to bury us old folks alive in the mountains in order to settle things peacefully. It was that young man who, with a single lawsuit, brought the mining disaster to the authorities and saved our lives!"
Jin Suiqing remained silent for a long time, her nose tingling with emotion. Finally, she looked up and smiled, "He is my friend. He has also found his sister. She is now in the capital and is doing... quite well."
Ma Anping was overjoyed, not understanding the reason, but he believed Jin Suiqing's words. His long-awaited hope was fulfilled. He turned to Li Yousheng and they hugged each other and cried bitterly: "The new mine manager released us. He said we were able to leave the mountain alive thanks to Zhang Yuyi, but we have never seen him again, never seen him again!"
"Ten years have passed, and there has been no news of him. We asked the young men and women we could find out, but time and space have been lost, and there has been no news at all. We have been waiting for so long, until we were halfway to our graves."
They had never been to school, and all they knew was that they had to repay kindness received. But they didn't even know where Zhang Yu was, so they sent out a young man and asked him to try to find him.
The world is vast, and the frail scholars are like a drop in the ocean when they fall into the crowd. They are young and still have the strength to go out and search for people, but they are old and have a hard time making a living. Where would they get the money and food to go to search thousands of miles away where they don't know which way is east, west, south, or north?
I can't find it! I can't find it!
It became a regret in the hearts of the old folks in Liushan. Even after ten years, they still dared not remove the sign written by Zhang Yuyi.
I'm afraid they'll forget the young scholar who saved their lives!
Ma Anping and Li Yousheng, despite their advanced age, wept uncontrollably, kneeling on the ground with a thud and kowtowing repeatedly to Jin Suiqing. "You brought news of him. He saved your life and is his friend. You are also a friend of us old folks."
Jin Suiqing was so frightened that she quickly bent down to help the two old people up, but they refused to get up and cried, "As long as he finds his sister and is doing well, that's all that matters... I offended you just now, please forgive us."
Jin Suiqing hurriedly said that she was not at fault, repeating it several times before helping the two elderly people up and patiently waiting for them to calm down.
Jin Suiqing felt a burning pain in her heart from the lies she had just told about Zhang Yuyi. She turned to run away, but Li Yousheng called her back.
“If you would like to see the mine tonight, I will take you,” he paused and said, “but about the blasting… never mind, you are the mine owner, you decide.”
...
Li Yousheng gasped, “I’m old and useless. There was a girl who stayed at the market, and she was still able to walk. She could have brought you here, and it would have been more comfortable for the girls to eat together. But she went to town to buy supplies a couple of days ago, so I had to bring you here myself.”
Li Yousheng led Jin Suiqing and Ye Zhufeng up to the mountainside, pointed to the mine not far away and said, "That's the only mine still in operation, it's where we old guys make a living. Big Dog is inside too, I'll take you to see it."
Upon reaching the cave entrance, which was about the height of a person, the two were surprised to find that the inside was not a flat mine tunnel, but rather a bottomless pool of water.
The cave entrance opens up into a wide, sunken area. The accumulated water and the raised entrance form a natural dock. The water seems to be rich in minerals, and although it is completely dark, it emits a fluorescent green glow at night.
Jin Suiqing took a sniff and could detect a faint sulfur smell.
Li Yousheng whistled into the mine, and soon a simple wooden boat emerged. The sturdy old man on board greeted Li Yousheng, and the boat stopped at the entrance of the mine.
Li Yousheng climbed up and beckoned the two to board the boat. Ye Zhufeng jumped onto the boat first, then helped Jin Suiqing sit down slowly. The small wooden boat then set off shakily through the narrow mine tunnel.
Under the fluorescent green light, Li Yousheng pointed to the water and said, "Untreated sulfur-based gold is extremely unstable and will explode when immersed in water. Logically speaking, this water should not be left."
Ye Zhufeng followed up on his words, saying, "Then why not pump the water away?"
“After all, this used to be a private mine,” Li Yousheng said. “The foreman was afraid that the miners would hoard ore, so he not only didn’t pump out the water, but also deliberately released the water, creating this lake in the cave. The mined sulfur-based gold was transported out by boat, and the miners waded away, getting completely wet, so naturally they wouldn’t dare to hoard ore.”
Li Yousheng sighed: "Now that the mine is abandoned, we no longer have the machinery to pump water, so this lake in the cave has remained until now."
Jin Suiqing asked, "Does every mine have a lake inside a cave?"
Li Yousheng shook his head, "The water in the small mine caves has almost completely seeped away. There are only three large caves with some water left, and this one has the most water right now."
Jin Suiqing pondered that the existence of the lake in the cave also meant that the instability of the mountain was far greater than they had thought.
Blasting a mountain is probably not an activity that can be carried out safely simply by being cautious.
Jin Suiqing counted the time. The boat rocked for about ten minutes before gradually approaching the shore. Once ashore, the jagged cave walls were lit with sulfur lamps of normal color.
Li Yousheng pointed to the orange-yellow lights and said, "Those lights are not only for illumination, but also for detecting aura. If there is not enough aura, the lights will go out, and people must escape quickly."
The four walked deeper into the winding mine, with Jin Suiqing and Ye Zhufeng constantly observing the situation inside.
As described in the book, there were steel frames fixed to the cave walls with rock nails, but due to the passage of time and the presence of water in the cave, the steel frames were covered in rust.
Jin Suiqing rubbed it a couple of times; it was wet and somewhat stiff due to the rust. She shook it vigorously, but it didn't budge, though it seemed fairly sturdy.
The mine was so deep that Jin Suiqing followed Li Yousheng for about twenty minutes before they finally saw flickering lights in the darkness. Seven or eight miners were hammering away at the end of the tunnel with small pickaxes.
Li Yousheng announced loudly, "Everyone, let me introduce someone."
Seven or eight elderly miners looked up expressionlessly. They were thin and gaunt, their skin pale and bloodless from lack of sunlight. Under the light of their headlamps, their sunken eyes looked like dark holes, swallowing up all life.
The miners stopped, their backs hunched over, and looked at Jin Suiqing, their pickaxes raised high.
After Li Yousheng said, "This is Boss Jin," the miners said nothing and continued chiseling the rock face expressionlessly.
Only at the very back of the cave, a tall, muscular figure was still staring intently at Jin Suiqing. Jin Suiqing understood, and struck a pose with her hands on her hips. Gong Dagou recognized her, dropped his pickaxe, and walked towards Jin Suiqing.
Ye Zhufeng was puzzled and whispered in Jin Suiqing's ear, "What's going on? How could I recognize you like this?"
“He’s face-blind,” Jin Suiqing said. “He can’t recognize people by their faces; he can only identify them by their clothes, actions, voice, and smell.”
Ye Zhufeng thought, "The man's name is Gong Dagou, and it's quite a fitting name."
Gong Dagou stared at Ye Zhufeng for a long time, then hesitated before asking, "Is this the Princess?"
Ye Zhufeng's eyes widened as he looked at Jin Suiqing in surprise. "He's never seen me before, so how did he recognize me?"
Jin Suiqing gave a wink, and Gong Dagou said, "Your height is rather unusual, it's easy to remember."
Jin Suiqing raised an eyebrow, patted Ye Zhufeng's chest, and gave him a thumbs up. "How about that? A remarkable person with extraordinary abilities. He's face-blind, remembers people by using other anchor points, and has an exceptionally good memory. As long as there's no interference, he basically never makes a mistake."
"Impressive," Ye Zhufeng said truthfully.
Gong Dagou wasn't curious about why the real and fake princesses were hanging out together. He dutifully chatted with Jin Suiqing about what he had seen and heard over the past two days, and his account was almost identical to that of Ma Anping and Li Yousheng.
According to Gong Dagou, the miners' lives were even worse.
With mineral resources depleted recently, it's considered incredibly lucky to find even a palm-sized piece of gold in a day. Most of the time, you can only scrape a tiny piece, about the size of a fingernail, from a cave. It's not even enough to buy a day's worth of food, so people work on an empty stomach.
Due to insufficient production capacity, the mining village operates on a three-shift system: two shifts during the day and one shift at night, mining as endlessly as possible. The broken ore is then collected and handed over to a young woman to exchange for supplies in the city.
Gong Dagou said to Jin Suiqing, "It's quite a coincidence. You might know that girl. Her name is Qingqing. She's the girl you redeemed from Zhanxing Tower last time. She wasn't from the mining village. She saw the miners' plight when she passed by and ended up in the mountains. She even exchanged the silver you gave her for grain to give to the miners."
Li Yousheng asked in surprise, "Boss Jin, you know Xu Qingqing? Was it you who redeemed such a good girl from the restaurant?"
Jin Suiqing nodded blankly, while Li Yousheng was even more moved and happily introduced her to the miners: "This Boss Jin is a living bodhisattva, a great philanthropist. She's not only Zhang Yuyi's good friend, but also Qingqing's benefactor!"
The miners' eyes suddenly lit up, their numbness vanished, and they threw down their pickaxes, surrounding Jin Suiqing.
They dared not get too close to her, for fear of soiling her clean clothes. They knelt down on the ground three steps away, weeping bitterly.
Seeing this, Li Yousheng also knelt down in front of Jin Suiqing, his head pounding loudly. "If it weren't for Yu Yi, we would have died in the mine long ago; if it weren't for Qingqing, we would have starved to death long ago; Da Gou treated us well, but we didn't dare to trust Da Gou because we were afraid that another heartless man would come along. But you know Zhang Yu Yi and saved Qingqing, so you must be a good person. We believe you, we believe you!"
"Mr. Jin, once you make money, will you really feed us?"
"Besides mining, can I find any other work? I can't stand this grueling life anymore!"
Jin Suiqing was overwhelmed with surprises. It was a strange coincidence that she was able to persuade the villagers to endorse her. The person who ultimately convinced them was the one who had saved her and the person she had saved.
However, her casual act of kindness actually proved to her what it means for good deeds to be rewarded.
Ye Zhufeng quietly grasped Jin Suiqing's hand, squeezed it slightly, and said with his eyes full of affirmation and admiration, "Qingqing will be a good person wherever she goes."
Jin Suiqing felt like crying, but this was not the time to cry. She quickly called up the miners kneeling on the ground, directed them to survey the situation inside the mine, and recorded it.
Data mapping cannot be accomplished overnight, just as Jin Suiqing was planning to lead the miners out of the mine.
Suddenly, the ground trembled and shook violently! It was impossible to stand steadily. Jin Suiqing swayed, and Ye Zhufeng quickly caught him and they fell to the ground. The lamps fixed to the cave wall fell to the ground and were smashed to pieces by falling rocks. The cave became even darker, with only the miners' headlamps swaying incessantly.
Suddenly someone shouted, "Earthquake! Earthquake! Another mining disaster is coming!"
The miners' terrified, rough screams shook the ground, while the light from their headlamps illuminated the dense, rain-like mass of falling gravel.
*
Outside the Shaohuai Palace, rows of horses and tiger-drawn carriages were parked. Jin Shiyu, using the pretext that the princess and Miss Jin had been kidnapped by unknown people, intended to send his men in several directions to search for Jin Suiqing and Huangfu Feng.
As he quickly changed into his riding clothes and strode out the door, Kim Shi-ok glanced at the table and saw most of the calming incense remaining beside the incense burner.
A sinister glint flashed in his eyes. After a moment's thought, he picked up the calming incense without hesitation and put it in his pocket.
Suiqing is right. What exactly is he hesitating about?
Jin Shiyu found the wildest horse, mounted it, but for some reason, the horse was unusually restless tonight, kicking incessantly with its front legs, trying to throw him off. Jin Shiyu had no intention of calming it down, so he tightened the reins, forcibly turned the horse around, and was about to give orders to the guards behind him when the ground suddenly began to shake and tremble.
He reined in his horse to steady himself until the swaying stopped.
Soon, Gong Chang ran out trembling, his hair and hat disheveled, and cried out in a panic, "Young Master Jin... waah... something bad... no... something bad!"
For some reason, Jin Shiyu felt a sudden panic. He frowned and said, "Speak quickly, don't waste time."
"The geodetic instrument indicates an earthquake has occurred in the southwest direction!"
"We'll talk about it later." Jin Shiyu was about to leave on horseback.
The palace manager quickly spread his arms to shield him, "No! It's too dangerous, Young Master Jin. Please stay at the palace until the aftermath of the earthquake has passed. Now that Miss Jin and the Princess are missing, if something happens to you on the way, I... I can't bear the responsibility!"
Jin Shiyu coldly said, "Get out of the way."
Gong Chang knelt on the ground, his hands clasped together, "I'm begging you, the epicenter isn't far, it's in the abandoned mine to the southwest, and there's still a risk of another one. Please wait a little longer, it's not too late to set off to search once it's safe!"
Jin Shiyu's pupils trembled incessantly, his fierce expression vanishing, replaced entirely by undisguised panic.
Author's note: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone! Here are ten small red envelopes to give away.
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