Chapter 5: The Emperor's Grace is nothing but feudal superstition.
South of the city.
Less than two miles from Yunhe County, a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl was holding her frail mother and weeping bitterly.
"Mother, cheer up! We'll be in Yunhe County soon!"
“The village head said that there are immortals in Yunhe County who give out porridge. As long as we go to Yunhe County, as long as we arrive, you will have porridge to drink!”
"Please, you must live! Your daughter will carry you to the city!"
Amid her sorrowful cries, the woman in her arms twitched her eyelids, trying to open her eyes to look at her, but she was too weak to do so.
Upon seeing this, the girl's eyelashes trembled, and large tears fell onto the woman's face.
"Mother, please don't leave me!"
Just then, a bowl of steaming hot white rice porridge was placed in front of the girl.
She froze, then suddenly looked up.
A young woman who looked to be in her early twenties was squatting in front of her.
The other person was wearing an oddly cut top and trousers.
With jet-black hair, red lips, willow-leaf eyebrows, and phoenix eyes, her face was stunningly beautiful yet as cold as ice.
The girl didn't have time to think about who the other person was. She said "thank you" and took the hot porridge, eagerly feeding it to her mother.
The aroma of rice porridge wafted into the woman's nose. Soon, she tasted the hot porridge on her tongue and swallowed it unconsciously.
The delicate, smooth grains of rice slid down her throat, like sunshine or sweet spring water, spreading from her stomach to every part of her body, making her feel warm all over.
Seeing her mother able to eat rice porridge, the girl burst into tears.
She carefully fed the woman a whole bowl of rice porridge.
Seeing her mother, who had regained some energy, open her eyes and smile at her.
The girl was half relieved and half overjoyed. "Mother, we'll be in Yunhe County soon. We'll all survive!"
The woman nodded slightly.
The girl knelt before the young woman and performed the grand ceremony of three kneelings and nine kowtows.
"This humble woman, Mo Jingchun, is deeply grateful for your life-saving grace!"
He Qinglan stood up, looking down at the girl at her feet, her voice clear and cool like a mountain spring in winter, "My name is He Qinglan, the goddess you are looking for."
Mo Jingchun looked up in surprise, her expression one of astonishment.
He Qinglan looked directly into her eyes, at the invisible thread connecting her and Mo Jingchun, her tone completely calm, "You don't need to thank me. I will save your mother simply because we are destined to be together."
Mo Jingchun: "?"
He Qinglan stretched out her hand, and in her palm lay a brown pill.
Mo Jingchun hesitated before speaking, "This is..."
He Qinglan: "The thing that saved your mother's life."
Having been starved for so long, nearly dying from hunger, and with her body almost completely damaged, a bowl of porridge couldn't solve everything. In modern society, she might be saved, but in Yunhe County, even if the doctors in the city were comparable to Hua Tuo (a legendary Chinese physician), there was no suitable medicine.
Without hesitation, Mo Jingchun took the pills from He Qinglan and fed them to her mother.
The woman swallowed it without thinking.
Then, visibly, she began to come back to life: her face changed from pale to rosy, her weak limbs gradually regained strength, and her eyes became bright.
Mo Jingchun was overjoyed, "Mother!"
The woman rose and knelt beside Mo Jingchun. "This humble woman and her daughter kowtow in gratitude to the goddess! We will never forget your great kindness!"
Mo Jingchun knelt down again with a firm tone, "This humble woman is willing to serve you like a dog or a horse, and will surely be shattered to pieces to repay the goddess!"
He Qinglan said indifferently, "Get up."
"Let's go back to Yunhe."
Mo Jingchun and her daughter were taken to the Yunhe County government office and handed over to Cheng Hui.
Cheng Hui looked at He Qinglan in shock and cautiously asked, "Goddess, who are they...?"
He Qinglan said, "I found them outside the city. You can decide what to do with them."
Cheng Hui cupped his hands in greeting, "Yes."
Even so, since this was the first time the goddess had "picked up" someone, Cheng Hui arranged for them to stay in an empty house near the county government office and brought Mo Jingchun to their "deliberation room".
Mo Jingchun lived up to Cheng Hui's expectations. After attending a meeting to celebrate the completion of the Goddess's residence, she privately suggested to Cheng Hui: "Whenever we have a meeting, it would be best to have someone take notes and then show them to the Goddess afterwards."
Cheng Hui asked, "Can you read?"
Mo Jingchun said, "When I was a child, I studied the Analects with the village teacher."
Cheng Hui was surprised and also quite moved; there weren't many literate girls. He then assigned the task of taking meeting minutes to Mo Jingchun.
Mo Jingchun was dumbfounded. "You...you're letting me do it?"
Cheng Hui sighed, “How many literate people do you think there are in Yunhe County? The few who can do arithmetic are all on the construction site. You are literate, have read the Analects of Confucius, and are someone brought back by the goddess, so you should take on this task first.”
He suddenly smiled and said, "It's just that everyone is working for free without getting paid, so don't mind it."
Mo Jingchun smiled as well, “Of course.”
Another sunny afternoon.
He Qinglan stood on the platform, looking down at the long lines of people lining up in the square.
With a wave of her left hand, the bowls held by the people were instantly filled with hot porridge.
The fragrant white porridge is topped with golden and tempting pickled vegetables.
Unlike the first few days when everyone was starving and immediately wolfed down the porridge they received, this time...
Now that food is no longer a concern, most people have become more refined in their eating habits.
Otherwise, given how quickly she served porridge before, the waiting time alone would have made people hungry.
However, the goddess did not leave immediately after giving out the porridge that day.
Half of the people who were eating porridge stopped what they were doing and looked up at the goddess.
He Qinglan stood with her hands behind her back.
She spoke slowly, “Recently I prayed to God for rain for the people of this area, and God answered my request.”
The young woman's long, black hair fluttered in the wind. "So, next time you come to see me, come all clean."
The people: "???"
What does the goddess mean by this?
"Look!"
Suddenly someone pointed to the sky and screamed.
The people all looked up.
They stared in astonishment at the once clear blue sky, now filled with countless cloudless clouds drifting in from all directions, obscuring the sun.
Immediately following was a deafening rumble of thunder.
Raindrops fell one by one onto people's faces.
It landed on the dusty street.
It's raining!
"It's raining! It's raining!"
"Oh my god, it's raining!!!"
"It hasn't rained here for months! It actually rained today!"
Amid cheers from the people, the raindrops grew larger and connected, quickly forming a string of beads between the sky and the earth.
Water began to drip from the eaves.
Water collects in the potholes and flows into trickles.
The people's hair, clothes, and shoes were quickly soaked by the rain, and water could be wrung out when they were wrung out.
But nobody cared.
They cheered and celebrated the heavens' mercy, for after such a long drought, heavy rain had finally come!
The elderly, middle-aged, young people, and children all felt the long-awaited rain in the heavy rain.
He Qinglan had already returned to her new house.
Sitting on the newly built folding chair by the carpenter, I took out a thermos and a mug from the system space, poured myself a cup of tea, and leisurely enjoyed the rain while sipping my tea.
At this time, the "chair" was still a "folding stool" without a backrest. He Qinglan thought that next time she must show Cheng Hui the pictures of the "folding chair", "round chair" and "grand master chair" so that they can make them.
There's also a coffee table, a sofa, a rocking chair...
As He Qinglan was thinking, she saw Cheng Hui, soaking wet, hurrying towards her "living room".
He looked anxious, but still bowed respectfully to the goddess.
Then he asked, "Goddess, this rain..."
"It's a reward."
The goddess sitting on the couch smiled slightly, a smile appearing on her usually cold and pale face for the first time.
It was like the spring sunshine shining on the snow-capped mountains in winter.
The old scholar looked as if he had seen a ghost, and subconsciously straightened his back.
But he still resolutely repeated, "A reward?"
He Qinglan said calmly, "That's right, it's a reward for you."
"This rain covered Yunhe County and four surrounding county towns."
It will rain for three days and three nights.
She emphasized again, "Tell everyone that next time they come to get porridge, they should wash themselves clean."
Cheng Hui: "Huh?"
He left the goddess's residence and saw a group of people waiting in the heavy rain outside the gate.
The goddess's message was immediately conveyed.
A young man scratched his forehead, puzzled, and asked, "Why did the goddess keep emphasizing that we should wash ourselves clean?"
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone else lowered their heads guiltily.
Why else? Because they barely have any water to drink, let alone take a bath, wash their hair, or wash their clothes.
It must be... that the goddess was affected by the stench.
This is truly offensive!
"Goddess, you are so kind!" A middle-aged woman quickly changed the subject, "Not only did you bring rain to Yunhe County, but you also brought rain to Tianshui County, Songhua County, Qingyang County, and Baoshan County!"
"But why Yunhe County and our four counties?" Yunhe County goes without saying, because the goddess has graced this place with her presence.
"Foolish girl, it's because the people of our five counties believe in the goddess that she blesses us!"
Upon hearing this, Cheng Hui continued, "That's right, because we worship the goddess and we built a dwelling for her, we received her blessing."
His gaze swept over the crowd. "Do you understand now? If everyone in the area where your relatives live also comes to believe in the goddess, they will surely receive abundant rain!"
Everyone's eyes lit up instantly, and they started talking all at once.
"That's right, Master Cheng is right."
"We truly respect the goddess from the bottom of our hearts; she must have seen it!"
"The goddess not only gave us porridge, but also blessed us with sweet rain. We must try our best to please... no, to be filial to the goddess!"
"Also, let the people in other counties know that my great-aunt has married and moved to Huangping County. It seems I'll have to go there."
Cheng Hui raised his voice, "Alright, alright, everyone's happy to hear it's raining, but don't get soaked for too long, or you might catch a cold."
Dr. Xu, the best doctor in town, nodded repeatedly. "That's right. Everyone should quickly inform the others as well. We don't have any medicine to treat colds."
A young woman quickly stood under the eaves. "I heard that several clinics in the neighboring Songhua County closed down a few months ago."
Doctor Xu sighed, "Without medicinal herbs, no matter how skilled a doctor is, it's useless."
Then a young man shouted, "Let's go and inform everyone!"
Mo Jingchun stood in the rain, watching the people frantically search for shelter under the eaves.
She looked up at the goddess's dwelling.
His expression gradually hardened.
A note from the author:
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