The Martial Lord of the Troubled World

Chapter 41 Natural Disaster
On the old street, a black IWC car slowly drove by.

Fu Juemin leaned back in the back seat, looking out at the street scene through the car window.

The whole street was filled with the aroma of roasted sweet potatoes and sugar-roasted chestnuts. There were also vendors selling pear syrup, their voices drawn out with each utterance. Behind a mud wall along the street, half of an old tree peeked out, with a few slightly red persimmons hanging from its branches. A child with pigtails was poking at the tree with a bamboo pole.

In October, the streets of Luanhe River shed the summer's stuffiness and noise, revealing a faint sense of emptiness and solitude.

This scene, however, appeared even more vibrant and colorful than usual to Fu Juemin.

"Go buy me some chestnuts."

"Yes, Master."

Fu Juemin gave the order casually, and Qian Fei responded and quickly pedaled his bicycle forward.

Ma Daikui and Cao Tianyi were by the car. Fu Juemin had bought Cao Tianyi a bicycle, but he refused to ride it and preferred to walk alongside.

In his words, riding a bicycle would be disadvantageous in the event of an emergency.

The car slowly drove up to the roasted chestnut stall. Fu Juemin asked the driver to stop, got out of the car, took the chestnuts wrapped in oil paper from Qian Fei, and started peeling them on the street.

The chestnuts, freshly roasted in a large wok, are infused with the aroma of caramel and hot roasting sand. They are soft, sweet, and incredibly delicious.

Fu Juemin stood in a sunny spot and ate several sweet potatoes. His craving was aroused, and he couldn't resist wanting to taste roasted sweet potatoes again. Before he could tell Qian Fei, a heart-wrenching cry from a girl reached his ears.

"Dad, Mom, please don't sell me! I can work for others to earn money, please don't sell me!"

Fu Juemin looked in the direction of the sound and saw a little girl who looked only seven or eight years old being dragged away by a man in a gray coat. A middle-aged couple stood beside them, wiping away tears, but refusing to go forward and help her.

Prostitution in the street.

Such a scene can only be seen in this era.

The people on the roadside all watched indifferently, as if they had long been accustomed to it.

The girl's hoarse cries were like needles pricking Fu Juemin's eardrums and heart. He crushed a chestnut, but finally couldn't hold back and called Qian Fei over to whisper a few words to him.

Having received his instructions, Qian Fei quickly stepped forward and stopped the man in the gray coat who was pulling people away. After a brief negotiation, the man left with a smile, pocketing a few silver dollars.

The girl stopped crying. Qian Fei pointed to Fu Juemin standing there. The family of three knelt down in the street, kowtowed to Fu Juemin several times in gratitude, and then left in a hurry.

"Young Master is kind-hearted."

After finishing his business, Qian Fei returned and sighed softly, "If it weren't for you, young master, this little girl would probably have been ruined in a brothel for the rest of her life."

Fu Juemin shook his head, his gaze sweeping across the street, his brows furrowing slightly: "Why are there so many homeless people and beggars in the city lately?"

He hadn't noticed it before, but now he realized that there were seven or eight groups of beggars sitting or lying on the short street. Some of them looked dusty and clearly had just fled here.

"Young master, haven't you read the newspaper?"

Qian Fei sighed and said, "This year, Sijiang and several southwestern provinces suffered a major disaster. There was no harvest of grain, and the dead were everywhere."

Yangping wasn't much better off. Disaster victims from nearby counties flocked to Luanhe, and rice prices rose three times this month alone.

Many people couldn't even afford porridge, and to avoid their families starving, they had no choice but to sell their children.

"Is it that serious? What kind of disaster is it?"

Fu Juemin frowned.

"At the beginning of the year, the Sijiang River was severely flooded, inundating most of the province. After the floodwaters receded, a severe drought lasted for several months, followed by a locust infestation."

Qian Fei said in a low voice, "I heard that locusts have eaten away all the vegetation in many parts of the southwestern provinces, and there have even been outbreaks of plague."

As Fu Juemin listened to Qian Fei's story, the sweet roasted chestnuts in his hand suddenly seemed to lose their flavor.

He casually handed the chestnuts to Ma Daikui beside him, feeling utterly bored. The street in front of him, bathed in the warm autumn sun, had lost its original lively and cozy atmosphere and become cold and lifeless.

"Forget it, let's go."

Fu Juemin got into the car and told it to continue heading towards the police station.

Qian Fei, riding his bicycle alongside, continued rambling on: "...We in Yangping are considered relatively well-off. Those who can't make ends meet at most sell their houses, land, and even their children. In some neighboring provinces, people have already started cannibalism; the butcher shops are full of raw meat."

"okay."

As Qian Fei spoke, he became increasingly horrified, and Fu Juemin couldn't help but interrupt, "Hasn't the higher-ups allocated any grain for disaster relief?"

"Yes, but what good is it?"

Qian Fei gripped the front of the car and said helplessly, "The officials only care about making money for themselves, and the people below them are all idiots."

The people are so poor they're resorting to cannibalism, yet some still save their food to worship some 'locust god'.

"Locust God?"

Fu Juemin was taken aback.

"It's just a pretext used by some people to make money under the guise of locust plagues."

Someone responded, but it was Cao Tian who spoke.

Fu Juemin looked at him with some surprise, "You know?"

"I have prayed."

Cao Tian said in a low voice, "Young Master, have you forgotten? My whole family fled to Luanhe back then."

Cao Tian said a couple of sentences and then stopped, presumably because it had stirred up some unpleasant memories.

Fu Juemin looked at him with a complicated expression. It was really hard for someone like him, who had grown up in a peaceful and prosperous era in his previous life and then transmigrated to become a rich young master, to understand the bitterness and pain of someone who had suffered disasters and escaped hardship.

Just as he was about to offer some words of comfort, the car suddenly braked sharply.

The driver in the front seat turned around and said with a helpless expression, "Young master, the road ahead is blocked."

Fu Juemin looked up through the car window and gazed ahead.

At the street corner, a large group of young men and women in school uniforms stood still, holding signs and making a racket, seemingly doing something incomprehensible.

"procession?"

Fu Juemin frowned, pushed open the door, and got out of the car.

He had intended to send Qian Fei up to see what was going on, but then he caught a glimpse of an elderly foreign woman in a black and white nun's robe among the students. His expression shifted slightly, and he immediately changed his mind.

"Go, just find someone to ask."

Fu Juemin gave instructions to Qian Fei.

He currently has three men under his command: Cao Tianqiang, Ma Daikui, and Qian Fei, who is shrewd and cunning and best at this kind of thing.

Qian Fei responded and abandoned his bicycle, rushing upstairs. Not long after, he successfully brought back a female student wearing an indigo cheongsam made of indigo.

The female student had short, ear-length hair, an oval face, wore glasses, and had very thin eyebrows. At first glance, she gave off a fierce and unapproachable vibe.

“Young master, I told people you wanted to donate money, and that's why they were willing to come.”

"Don't give yourself away!"

Qian Fei whispered in Fu Juemin's ear, and only then did Fu Juemin notice that the short-haired girl was holding a box with the words "Fundraising" written on it.

Fu Juemin was both amused and exasperated, glancing at Qian Fei without saying anything.

His gaze fell on the school badge worn by the short-haired girl. He was about to ask her if she was a student of Shenggong Girls' School when he saw the short-haired girl staring straight at him and blurted out, "You are Fu Juemin!"

"Uh"

Fu Juemin was taken aback, then pointed to himself, "You recognize me?"

(End of this chapter)