Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 156: Melting Water into Sand
In the early morning, the late autumn mist shrouded the official road, bringing a bit of chilliness. The sky was also hazy, and it felt like it was going to rain today.

The fire in the roadside porridge shop was burning brightly, and the crackling sound, with the smell of fireworks and a rich aroma of meat, could drift three miles away.

"I saw a ghost, too."

The young prince held a bowl of porridge in his hand and jokingly said, "This is the first time I heard that there are disaster victims who can drink meat porridge."

"No rice to eat? Why not eat meat porridge?" Xia Lin was also drinking meat porridge: "But this porridge is not available to everyone. Only the elderly, children and pregnant women can drink it. Others should just drink the white porridge mixed with sand."

“Why add sand?”

The young prince could not understand why Xia Lin added sand into the porridge since he had clearly stated that he had no intention of embezzling. This action was indeed difficult to understand.

"Your Highness, these hungry people are like locusts. They are not human beings, but evil spirits and locusts. Is there anything that locusts don't eat? No, they eat everything. For a bite of food, they can chew tree bark and eat soil. What is a handful of sand? Anyway, they don't even chew it, they just swallow it. That's why we have to add cold water to the boiling hot rice, for fear of choking or scalding." Xia Lin sneered and put down the pottery bowl: "But if the rice is not mixed with sand, starting from Changmen, there are 27 porridge stalls, 1,376 large pots up and down, and hundreds of thousands of kilograms of rice are produced every day. If someone takes a few thousand or ten thousand away, who can find out?"

The young prince suddenly realized: "I understand, this rice mixed with sand cannot be sold at a high price, and there is no point in being greedy."

"Yes, Your Highness. We are not reluctant to spend the money, but the rice is for survival. A handful of sand can make their lives better. In this business, the better the rice, the worse the victims will eat. It sounds funny, but it is the truth."

As they were talking, Shangshu Yang came over with some officials. He scooped up a spoonful of porridge with a large ladle and took a look at it. Then he picked up the bowl and filled himself a bowl. After drinking it, he frowned - there was sand in it.

He turned his head to look at Xia Lin, slowly spit out the sand in his mouth and put it in his palm: "Master Xia, what's the meaning of this?"

"Oh, sand." Xia Lin said as he picked up a bowl of pickled vegetables: "Master Yang, don't drink the porridge. Have some pickled vegetables."

But Yang Shangshu did not respond to his words, but just looked at the little prince next to him, as if to tell him: "Look at your people, there is sand in the porridge!"

But the young prince didn't even explain, he just pushed the pickle jar forward like Xia Lin did and said, "Eat some pickles."

Minister Yang held his breath and ate a few pieces of pickles, then hid behind and slowly spit out sand.

When the other officials saw that the young prince had a bowl in his hand and Lord Yang was eating with his own mouth, they did not dare to neglect him, and for a while, the sounds of "Puh, Puh, Puh" and "Puh, Puh" were heard continuously.

"Your Highness, look, this means you are not hungry."

After hearing what Xia Lin said, the young prince turned around and chuckled silently. After all, the looks of these officials were really funny.

At this moment, Minister Yang came over again, scooped some meat porridge from the pot and poured it into his mouth. After eating it, he was stunned and looked at Xia Lin with a puzzled look: "Why..."

"This is a large iron pot specially used by the elderly, the weak, the sick, the disabled and pregnant women." Xia Lin smiled and said, "There is no sand in it. You have to eat it more delicately. There is one pound of meat in forty pounds of rice."

The meat in the pot has been cooked and mixed with the meat porridge, which is full of fragrance. The meat is all good meat, including dried meat from the grassland and chickens and pigs raised by themselves. It can be said that it is a good investment.

Minister Yang was still puzzled, and Xia Lin continued, "Master Yang, please take a rest. The victims will be here soon."

As they were talking, they saw a fast horse running by, and the rider on the horse shouted as he ran: "Three more miles! Three more miles!"

After hearing his words, everyone looked up and saw smoke and dust rolling in the twilight in the distance like a galloping horse. When they got closer, they realized that it was not smoke at all, but dust raised by the densely packed crowds passing by.

The victims were dressed in tattered clothes and covered in dust, and their faces could not be seen clearly. At first glance, they looked like locusts covering the sky, which made one's scalp tingle.

Perhaps because they had received a lot of protection along the way, although they were dirty and ragged, their overall condition was still good. However, their hungry state was obvious at a glance. When they were near the porridge distribution point, many young men suddenly appeared from the surroundings, holding flags in their hands and wearing armbands on their arms, and began to walk towards the team of disaster victims.

A voice could be heard from their side from a distance: "Old people and children follow the red flag, pregnant women follow the white flag, young and strong follow the blue flag! Form a team and pass through!"

Then we saw a cordon and a wooden fence for diversion ahead.

These refugees were like evil spirits from hell. More than 200,000 people were completely silent. Everyone had despair and helplessness on their faces. Their skinny bodies were obviously filled with dead souls. "Come here, come here, line up over here, come slowly, and don't push or shove!"

The young men shouted tirelessly. At this moment, the dark clouds in the sky dissipated, and the morning sun shone through, making the area bright and clear.

"Come on, come on, women and children go through first. Don't worry, everyone has a chance!"

Soon they arrived at the porridge shop where Xia Lin was, and were greeted by a foul odor. The young prince was proud of his status and tried not to move. But Xia Lin didn't care and simply pulled out a gauze mask and put it on his face, which even looked quite funny.

At this moment, the porridge began to be served. Each person was given a ceramic bowl and then entered into different queueing channels according to their needs. The elderly, children and pregnant women were assigned to the meat porridge area, while the young and middle-aged people went to the ordinary area.

The young prince stood there, watching a man open his mouth and drink the thick porridge with sand in one gulp. What the hell was the sand? The man didn't even chew it against his teeth. He also chewed the salty pickles a few times and swallowed them down. He even licked the bowl, feeling unsatisfied.

"I'll give you another spoonful. Go aside and don't block the people behind you."

The person distributing porridge yelled, "You are occupying this place, you still want to eat?"

The man drinking the porridge had a fierce look on his face and didn't look like a good guy, but after being shouted at, he just laughed and stretched out the bowl.

The little prince was watching and laughing, but so were the other hungry ghosts. No one cared if there was sand in the porridge, and they spit it out. They wanted to swallow the bowl as well.

"If you've finished drinking, keep going forward. There's a place to rest ahead."

A student whose voice had just changed was shouting at the top of his lungs in the front, and behind him was a group of hungry people who were ready to eat him alive. But strangely enough, after eating, the restless seeds seemed to calm down. Even though the leader was just a child, they still followed him like a group of obedient sheep.

Along with the steaming hot porridge, the resentment that filled the heads of the victims also dissipated. The two ends of the gate seemed to be two different worlds. On one side, there were brisk footsteps and although there was no laughter, there was noise. On the other side, there was still a dead silence and resentment everywhere.

It lasted until around noon, when all the 200,000 refugees finally passed through the gate. The young prince could finally take a deep breath. He turned around and smiled at Xia Lin, saying, "Daosheng, your idea is really good. It turns out that they can be diverted and dealt with in this way. What are your plans for the next step?"

"Disinfection, quarantine, isolation." Xia Lin said these three words and confused the little prince and Minister Yang next to him again.

"Ah... this..." The little prince said a little embarrassedly: "You keep saying new words, I don't quite understand what you mean."

"That's the first step. They're all taken to take a bath and given new clothes. Then we check if anyone is sick. Then they'll stay in the settlement for a while. If there's no plague, we'll proceed to the next step."

Minister Yang came forward and asked curiously, "Wouldn't it cost a lot more money if this were the case?"

"If the plague spreads, it won't be a matter of money anymore." Xia Lin smiled and shook his head, then made a gesture of invitation: "Your Highness and Minister Yang, please move aside."

They took a horse-drawn carriage to the refugee settlement, which was located downstream of the county town, far away from the crowd. The place was very large, with many nomadic tents and many simple wooden huts around.

This tent was sold from the grassland, and the wooden boards are mostly leftover scraps from when the house was converted from a wooden structure to a brick-wood-brick-concrete structure, and then they were laid out here in advance.

Although this area is large, it is not chaotic. Two hundred thousand people are divided into fifty living areas. There are soldiers guarding the periphery of each area. There is a special bathing place in each small area. The big pot inside is steaming, and next to it is the place where clothes are distributed. After taking a bath, you can directly change into clean clothes and go into the rest tent or hut to have a good sleep. The conditions are not good, but these are refugees, and it is a blessing to have such a place to live.

Of course, there are different areas for men and women. In theory, for the time being, regardless of whether they are a family or not, they will be treated separately. After all, no one knows whether an assault will occur.

"Your arrangement is really interesting." The little prince asked with a smile: "Why is it set up like this?"

"One is to prevent riots. After being separated, they don't know each other's family situation, so they dare not have any thoughts. Another is that it is easier to distribute resources. When men and women live together, it is inevitable that food will be distributed unevenly. In this way, we can know how much each area consumes every day. Another point is..." Xia Lin kept silent, but just smiled mysteriously at the young prince and Minister Yang: "Now they are full and warm, guess what they will think? Living together, if a woman is pulled into the tent of ten men, the environment is very noisy, tut tut tut..."

"Oh... it's too dirty." The little prince waved his hand: "I can't listen to it."

Minister Yang nodded: "Yes, I've learned a lot. This has really broadened my horizons. I admire you."

(End of this chapter)