Chapter 582 The Old Man by the Roadside
"Oh, right, there's something I forgot to tell Your Highness. News of the earthquake in Suzhou will soon reach Jin. If Your Highness doesn't want to break the agreement, you'd better hurry up and collect the grain."
Gu Shuyan waited until Xu Yunzhi pressed his handprint before calmly reminding him.
"Suzhou? You're saying the earthquake originated in Suzhou!"
Xu Yunzhi was all smiles just a moment ago, but in no time, his face immediately turned bitter.
"Yes, it's Suzhou. Brother Yun has already set off. Whether he has food to eat or not depends entirely on Your Highness."
After Gu Shuyan finished speaking, she gave Xu Yunzhi a sweet smile, but the glint in her eyes was just like that of a fox that had just stolen some fish.
Sure enough, he was outsmarted by that cunning girl, Gu Shuyan.
If he had known earlier that Suzhou was the victim of the disaster, he would have raised the price of the agreement by at least half a percent. Although it may seem about the same, the sheer volume would have made him much more money.
"You're ruthless!" Xu Yunzhi said, and in front of Gu Shuyan, he summoned his personal bodyguard.
A letter was randomly handed to the guard, who immediately disappeared from the room.
"Now my little sister-in-law is satisfied!" Xu Yunzhi emphasized the word "sister-in-law".
Gu Shuyan nodded in satisfaction at him before leaving with several of her personal maids.
"Go and call the shopkeeper."
After Gu Shuyan left, Xu Yunzhi, who had initially looked like he had suffered a great loss, immediately regained his composure.
He hadn't understood why so many people were targeting Gu Shuyan, a mere woman, but looking at the silver in the box, he suddenly understood.
The fact that the Gu family has survived two dynasties and still stands strong today is clearly not as simple as it appears on the surface.
"Young master, are you looking for me?" the shopkeeper asked respectfully as soon as he entered the room.
Xu Yunzhi nodded, dismissed the people inside, and then took a jade pendant from his waist and handed it to the shopkeeper.
After giving these instructions, the shopkeeper nodded solemnly.
Yun Yichen and his group traveled day and night, arriving in Suzhou five days later.
At first, Lu Yuanbin complained that Yun Yichen was mistreating them, but as they got closer to Suzhou and saw the collapsed houses by the roadside and the refugees begging with their crying children, Lu Yuanbin stopped criticizing them.
"Sir, where are you from?"
A group of more than a dozen people, including adults and children, walked along the road. The oldest of them looked to be eighty years old, but even so, he was still walking forward with a cane.
One of the children caught Yun Yichen's attention. The child was not close to the others, but followed behind them with his head down. His face looked dark and he looked like he was about to collapse at any moment.
Yun Yichen's words made everyone stop in their tracks. The old man looked at Gu Shuyan, whose face was covered by a mask, and a group of people of all ages were following behind her. He immediately guessed her identity.
"You, you are the Grand Secretary?"
The old man's voice was filled with excitement, but even more so with trembling, disbelief.
Almost ten days have passed since the disaster struck. They traveled far from their homes to Suzhou, hoping to at least have something to eat.
Unexpectedly, the city gates of Suzhou were tightly closed, and they had no way to get in.
"My lord, my lord, please save us!"
In the past, the name of Grand Secretary Yun Yichen was used to scare children at home, but until this moment, the Grand Secretary became their lifeline.
The group knelt down in unison with the old man. Seeing this, Yun Yichen hurriedly went to help the old man up, but his gaze fell on the child who stood motionless with a dark complexion.
"Grandpa, please get up. If you have any difficulties, please get up and we can talk about it."
With Yun Yichen's help, the old man stood up. Seeing that Yun Yichen was sitting with a group of refugees, Lu Yuanbin said with some disdain, "Didn't Lord Yun say that we couldn't delay? We're almost at Suzhou City, and you're chatting with people."
Lu Yuanbin's words successfully drew angry glares from everyone, including Lu Changqing, who was usually easy to talk to, and they all looked at him with displeasure.
Yun Yichen saw many refugees along the way, but he would only glance at them and never talked to them.
As they approached the city walls, Yun Yichen finally spoke to these people, clearly trying to ascertain the true situation. They didn't even understand this much, yet they dared to claim they were in charge of disaster relief. If they were truly appointed as imperial envoys, the common people would really suffer.
Yun Yichen ignored Lu Yuanbin's words and instead inquired in detail about the disaster situation in the vicinity of the old man.
“That day, the earth suddenly shook violently. I was outside with my grandson looking for his mother, but we were both thrown to the ground in the panic. Then our house collapsed right before our eyes. Not only our house, but more than a dozen households in our village lost their houses. And those who were inside, whether old, children or young people, did not escape.”
Although the old man was recounting the events of that day, his eyes clearly revealed despair and helplessness.
An old man whose neck was buried in the ground should have seen through the trivialities of the world, but even so, there was still a sense of desolation in his eyes.
Yun Yichen knew that the disaster was probably far more severe than he had imagined. "What about the surrounding villages? And the nearby towns? How are those places?"
Yun Yichen asked, and the old man shook his head, his eyes filled with nothing but sorrow.
“Gone. The village, the town, the whole area within a hundred miles we passed through, all gone. There are homeless people everywhere, their relatives buried under their houses. We dug for a long time, but we still couldn’t get him out.”
Yun Yichen had a general idea of the situation nearby from the old man's expression.
He knew he should offer the old man some words of comfort, after all, they had just experienced such a terrible ordeal. But what he needed to do now was not to pity them, but to solve their problems and help these survivors live.
"Thank you, sir!"
As Yun Yichen spoke, he stood up. Seeing that the group seemed to be about to leave, the dark-skinned little boy finally reacted.
"As expected, he's another corrupt official."
The little boy's voice wasn't loud, but Yun Yichen's skills were quite good, and he heard it clearly.
"A corrupt official? Kid, what do you know?"
Yun Yichen had only noticed this group of people because of the little boy. Now that he had finally spoken, Yun Yichen naturally wouldn't let the opportunity slip by.
"Hmph!" the little boy said, turning his head to the side. A woman saw this and quickly pulled him closer.
"I'm sorry, sir. This child has just lost all his relatives and is a little emotional. Please don't take it to heart."
However, the woman's explanation did not make Yun Yichen take his eyes off the child; instead, it made him even more curious about him.
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