Chapter 153: Internal Cycle
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“You are…”
“I am Xiao Jin, and this is my wife.” Xiao Jin said.
Su Ying felt he should just stick to his own self-introduction and the latter part of his sentence was a little redundant.
“Xiao Jin…” Murong De’s hoary brows furrowed before a look of realization flashed across his eyes suddenly. “I never thought that I would get to meet the Chu State’s Prince Qi here.”
“I have not been a prince for a long time.”
Murong De didn’t ask about the reason. For a state’s Prince to come to the northern wilderness, he must have been exiled here. If a Prince was exiled, it was definitely due to some major crime. There was no need for him to ask in detail to offend the other party.
“If all of you don’t mind, please come inside for a chat.”
Su Ying wanted to learn more about the West District from him, so she didn’t refuse.
Murong De’s house wasn’t here but at an intersection behind the wine shop. It was a wooden house that looked relatively clean.
Murong De invited them in.
The decoration of the wooden house was very simple. There was only a hall and a bedroom. Inside these rooms were only tables, chairs, and cabinets.
“My humble abode is simple and crude. I hope everyone won’t mind.”
“It’s good enough to get a house like yours in this god-forsaken place, Uncle Murong.”
Murong De took a few clean ceramic bowls and poured some water for them.
“That’s true. It took me a lot of effort in the past to get this house.” Murong De slowly told them about his own experience.
He had also been exiled from the Nan State. Based on the time estimation, he had arrived quite a few months earlier than Su Ying’s group.
“When I just arrived, there were no other places to stay, so I was brought here. There used to be a place called the Dust and Gust Restaurant here, and they said that all newcomers can get to eat meat. Someone brought me there, but I saw that there was something wrong with the meat, so I didn’t eat it and found an excuse to leave.”
“Oh? Uncle Murong, you also noticed that there was something wrong with the meat?”
Murong De nodded his head. “I’ve been a chef for so many years. I have seen all kinds of meat. That meat looks like beef at first sight but if you look closely, you’ll discover that it’s actually human meat. I don’t eat that stuff.”
“That’s right.”
“Later, the Dust and Gust Restaurant suddenly collapsed, and those strange people in the West District were captured and they disappeared. Only then did the West District become slightly more stable. However, this place has been corroded by those people for many years and it is now rotten to the core. Those who have some ability and intelligence have long run away. The rest are those who can’t be helped. They’re just waiting for death.”
“Uncle Murong, why didn’t you leave?”
“Me?” Murong De shook his head. “I’m all alone in this place and have no one to rely on. What does it matter whether I live or die?”
Su Ying disagreed with his view and said, “There is always a reason for a person’s existence. There’s no need to be so pessimistic.”
Murong De smiled as he looked at Hea Shouyi. “If I am able to see an old friend again before I die, I have no regrets indeed.”
“You old rascal, when did you become such a nihilistic old man? Today, Mistress brought us here to dig out the maggots that are attached to the West District. Even if we’re in the northern wilderness, we must live well.”
“That’s right.” Su Ying took out a large bottle of medicine. “This medicine can completely cure those people’s illnesses. It’s colorless and tasteless, and can be dissolved in any liquid. You only need to put ten drops into each jar of wine. I hope that you can let those people drink this medicine, Uncle Murong.”
Murong De looked at the bottle of medicine on the table with some astonishment. When he saw the determination in Su Ying’s eyes, he finally believed that she wasn’t joking about what she said yesterday.
“Mistress, you have to consider this carefully. Even if these people’s bodies are fine, they might still not be able to stand on their feet.”
“Throw out those who can’t stand up. The Tiger Base doesn’t need such trash.”
Murong De saw the determination in Su Ying’s eyes and gave a laugh. “Alright. I’ll put this medicine in the wine and let those drunkards drink it.”
“Each sick person can only have one cup at most. If you don’t have enough people, let Uncle Hea stay to help you.”
Hea Shouyi wanted to object. There was a big family waiting for him to cook for them at home.
Su Ying said, “Don’t worry, Uncle Hea. Aunt Zhao and the others are around.”
Hea Shouyi thought about it and didn’t object anymore. After all, he also wanted to catch up with his old friend. “Okay. Don’t worry, Mistress. I’ll definitely get this done properly.”
“Alright.”
Su Ying said a few more words to Uncle Hea before leaving the West District with Xiao Jin.
For the next few days, Hea Shouyi and Murong De brewed wine day and night. Luckily, Murong De had some stock left previously, otherwise it wouldn’t be enough.
In order to enable all those sick people to get a drink of the medicinal wine, Murong De lowered the price to only one copper coin for a cup but everyone was only limited to one portion and they refused to sell to those who wanted more. In an instant, the area outside the wine shop was filled with people.
In order to avoid the outbreak of conflicts, Xiao Jin brought people over to maintain order the next day.
“Jiang Yang, you take a group of people to carry out the household registration.” This was to record the number of people in each household and count the number of people in the entire West District. After all, up till now no one could answer how many people there were in the West District.
Xiao Jin spent three days assisting Murong De and the rest to distribute all the medicine, ensuring that everyone with a health problem took the medicine.
Jiang Yang also brought some people to count the number of people in the West District. There were about 3000 people in total, half of which were adult men. There were less than 300 children, and the rest were women.
Over the past few days, Chu Yun had temporarily stopped the children’s lessons and started to write down the contents of the laws that he had memorized.
Su Ying sat at the side and looked at the laws that Chu Yun had written. Based on the current situation of this era, they were all very reasonable in principle. If she felt that something was wrong, she would discuss it with Chu Yun and decide if she should change it.
After Chu Yun finished another page, he put down his brush in fatigue and exercised his stiff elbow. He looked at Su Ying beside him and said, “What’s the use of having rules alone? If those people can’t even fill their stomachs, they’ll probably do something that violates the rules even if they have to risk death.”
Su Ying furrowed her eyebrows when she heard that. She had also been thinking about this for the past few days.
If she wanted to keep this place in order, she would have to make them willing to listen to her. Although she was strong enough to suppress them, this was not a long-term plan at the end of the day.
“Do you have any good ideas?”
Chu Yun sometimes admired Su Ying. Usually, people like her with such raw strength would not listen to other people’s opinions. However, he realized there was something good about her. As long as it was something she was not good at, she would actively listen to other people’s suggestions.
“From the perspective of human nature, leaving aside the minority, most people just want to live a stable life.”
“True.”
“When the border stations of the three states were still open, we could still think of ways to get some things to sell in exchange for the items we want. But now that the three states have closed the border stations, we have no chance of getting any goods circulation. The only thing we can do now is to create an internal cycle.”
“Go on..”