Chapter 125 – 118: Drought
The trio hastened their step,
Chen Mu directly picked up the huge bundle of the White Wolf Demon from Xu Hongyu’s back.
On their way back to An Yu County, along the way they saw a scattering of villages where villagers were busily fetching water, households attempting to draw water rapidly, even children as young as six or seven carrying small wooden buckets wavering by the well, waiting for water while it was still available before the wells and rivers ran dry.
Villages by the river were better off since the river had not dried up and fetching water was swift, but for those remote ones reliant on a single well, it was quite troublesome. However, everyone maintained order, with village chiefs directing water distribution.
This series of scenes,
made Chen Mu, watching from afar, nod slightly.
He wasn’t present in this world during the severe drought five years ago, and having lived in Yu City where households reacted quickly by storing water in two large urns and tightly covering them, his only memory was of the air being particularly dry, causing his lips to crack, apart from that, there were no other significant changes.
The outskirts of the city were more directly affected, but as such disasters occurred every few years, no matter the size, most areas had a complete plan to cope, which was far more orderly than Chen Mu had expected.
Soon,
the group rushed back to the Country Government of An Yu.
There, it was all hustle and bustle as well; nearly every street and alley saw hurried figures, most carrying buckets, some heading out of the city to fetch water, others crowding around the wells, waiting in long queues.
“Everyone stay calm, don’t push! Hey, you… get back!”
At one well, five or six officers were managing the order, but behind them, some burly men who appeared to be gang members were forcibly pushing forward, directly clashing with the officers.
An elderly woman in her sixties with graying hair was knocked to the ground amid the conflict.
A younger woman nearby hurriedly reached out to help her,
“Aunt Liu, are you alright?”
“…”
The old woman was helped to her feet, shook her head, but her gaze fell on the wooden bucket she had failed to grasp properly during the fall, which was being kicked around by the gang members and officers amid the conflict.
Just then, Xu Hongyu and Xiao He hurried past, and Chen Mu, carrying the large bundle of the White Wolf Demon with one hand, saw this and glanced over, saying, “What’s going on?”
The thugs from the gang and the burly men who were about to start a scuffle upon seeing Chen Mu carrying the White Wolf Demon, and wearing the neat uniform of the Demon-Slaying Office Green-Clothed Guard, immediately calmed down.
“Sir, just now…”
The officers quickly reported to Chen Mu.
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Although they did not recognize who Chen Mu was, that attire and the clearly blood-stained White Wolf Demon bundle were unmistakably from the Demon-Slaying Office, to them, a highly esteemed figure.
Chen Mu listened, frowned, and with a wave of his hand, a gust of wind knocked the gang members to the ground, bruising and bloodying their faces, but the group did not dare to wail and hastily got up to kowtow repeatedly.
“During this crucial period, anyone who disturbs the order will be thrown directly into jail,”
said Chen Mu coldly.
Though he was no longer an official of the City Defense Division, and An Yu wasn’t his jurisdiction, as a member of the Demon-Slaying Office Green-Clothed Guard, he still held the authority to directly command local officers during the unusual period leading up to the drought, and could disregard rank and chain of command.
If orders from the City Defense Division conflicted with those from the Demon-Slaying Office, the latter would prevail.
“Yes, yes…”
Both the gang members and the burly men were now terrified, kowtowing while repeatedly responding.
Once Chen Mu turned and walked away, everyone expressed a look of having narrowly escaped great danger, and no one dared to cause further trouble, each slinking back into the crowd. The officers they had clashed with each heaved a sigh of relief, and with renewed confidence, began to sternly manage and arrange the fetching of water.
“Aunt Liu, here’s your bucket.”
Seeing that order had been restored, the woman picked up the bucket and handed it to the old woman,
who received it with trembling hands, “Okay, okay…”
The woman, observing the orderly scene at the well, couldn’t help but look in the direction Chen Mu had gone, saying, “Ah, that young man just now, with a wave of his hand, sent people flying through the air, just like those highly skilled heroes that Old Wang at the alley’s end talks about in his stories. I wonder what high rank he holds at such a young age.”
Liu Rong examined her own bucket for any damage, relieved that it was intact. Hearing the nearby woman’s remark, she nodded emphatically, “Mhm, mhm, I remember, people have mentioned it before, that official uniform seems to be from the Demon Something Office, even higher than the lords in our City Defense Division.”
Speaking of which,
that young man just now seemed somewhat reminiscent of her sister when she was young, but it must have been a mistake.
Her sister had been abducted by human traffickers decades ago and had never been found since; it was unlikely she could have any connection to an important figure who held a higher rank than the City Defense Division’s lords.
With this thought,
Liu Rong silently sighed.
Her health had been declining in recent years, and she didn’t know how much longer she would live. Liu Ping was frailer than her since childhood, and it seemed unlikely in this lifetime that she would ever see her sister again. She wondered if Liu Ping was still alive and how she was faring.