Tong Lesheng froze for a moment before snapping back to reality. He rushed towards Su Muqing and the others, shouting excitedly, "City Lord, Young Master Lu, when did you get back? Why didn't anyone tell me so I could welcome you!"
Seeing him running with sweat pouring down his face, Su Muqing handed a handkerchief to Lu Yuzhi, who then passed it to Tong Lesheng. "Quick, wipe the sweat! We only returned last night. Thinking about the approaching year-end and how busy you are, we didn't want to disturb you. Since we're back now, we'll have plenty of time together, no need to rush."
Tong Lesheng grinned foolishly as he took the offered tissue and carefully wiped himself down. "You are the City Lord of our Huaxia City. No matter how busy I am, we should have come to welcome you back."
"No need for such formalities. Are you still busy inside? We just came to check on the various settlement sites and tally the supplies needed." Su Muqing didn't continue the pleasantries and got straight to the point.
"The discussions inside are almost finished. We were just assigning temporary living quarters. Changningzhou is too cold in winter. I heard people outside the city have already frozen to death, so we must hurry." Tong Lesheng's expression turned serious as he spoke.
"Then you go ahead and handle the matter of settling the refugees. Just find someone to show us to the settlement sites." Hearing that people had already frozen to death, Su Muqing felt the situation was quite grave.
Tong Lesheng said, "No need to look. Wait for me to go inside and inform them, then we'll go together. I need to check on the situation there myself. More and more people are coming to seek refuge, and there's not enough space here. We need to quickly prepare new areas."
Lu Yuzhi patted Tong Lesheng on the shoulder. "Alright, we'll wait here. You go and finish your work, and remember to settle them properly."
"Young Master Lu, City Lord, please rest assured, I will do my best," Tong Lesheng said before heading towards the county office.
Old Man Tian Ji smiled and stroked his beard. "This young man, though not old, is quite methodical in his work."
Lu Yuzhi looked at Tong Lesheng's retreating back and nodded in agreement. "Indeed! Isn't it precisely people like Tong Lesheng, who are capable and trustworthy, that we need right now?"
"Everything is moving in a good direction. Let's take it step by step. Fortunately, the people under Brother Lu are all capable. Huaxia City will only get better and better."
"It definitely will!"
After finishing the refugee allocation, Tong Lesheng quickly ran out of the yamen to meet Su Muqing and the others. Lu Yuzhi, guided by Tong Lesheng, drove to the largest refugee settlement outside the south gate of Mu Cang County.
Most of the refugees here had arrived only yesterday and hadn't yet been assigned their places, so they were all crowded in this temporary settlement.
When the group arrived, they saw that most of the refugees were voluntarily working alongside others. However, there were also those who sat by and watched others work, doing nothing themselves and waiting only for the distribution of supplies.
And many of these were men, some appearing to be only in their thirties or forties, with hands and feet that were perfectly functional, yet unwilling to do anything, expecting to reap without sowing.
A lazy man, wearing clothes whose original color was no longer discernible and with hair matted in strands, spat out a piece of dry grass from his mouth and looked up at a man helping to build a roof nearby.
"Qi San, do you have any food left? Ask your mother to spare me a bite."
Another man with a similar appearance, also lounging lazily with his hands tucked into his dirty sleeves, sat next to him and asked, "Didn't they say the people here provide food and lodging? What time is it? When will they give us food? I'm starving!"
Seeing that the man called Qi San didn't respond, the man asking for food became somewhat annoyed. "Exactly! I'm talking to you, Qi San. Those people are working hard, so they'll naturally get paid and fed. Besides, we're not going to live here forever. Why are you so enthusiastic?"
Another lazy fellow chimed in after hearing his words, "What else could it be? This is called a cheap life. After fleeing disaster for a year, we finally have a moment to breathe, and you don't know how to sit down and rest, but you're still starving and rushing to work for others."
"I asked you to give me something to eat, did you hear me?" Seeing Qi San still indifferent, the man yelled at him impatiently.
Qi San paused in his work of nailing a wooden plank and said without turning his head, "My family's food is all gone."
After hearing Qi San's words, the man got up from the ground and asked with an unfriendly tone, "All gone? You ate all the black steamed buns they gave everyone yesterday?"
Seeing the man about to lose his temper, the people around quickly reached out to stop him. "Boss Wu, calm down. We're not familiar with this place yet, so I think it's best not to cause trouble."
Others also chimed in to appease him. "Yes, you'll have plenty of chances to deal with this kid later. Let's just sit and wait for food. The more you move around, the faster you get hungry."
Seeing that the man named Qi San ignored them, some shrewd individuals' eyes darted around. "Qi San, are you getting paid for doing these things?"
"No pay."
"You're working so hard without pay? Are you really a cheap life like Qian Liu said?"
"Hahaha..."
After the laughter from the crowd gradually subsided, Qi San slowly wiped the sweat from his forehead. He didn't mind them calling him a cheap life, as everyone's situation was the same.
"It's estimated that it will snow heavily again in the next few days. The young man who came to reinforce the roof is thinking of us, so how could I stand by and watch him work alone? Since I know how to do this, I might as well help. There are dozens of people, big and small, living in this house. Helping to build it sturdily will make me feel more at ease."
"You disappointed me. I thought you were being looked after by someone and would get more food for your work! I say you're being redundant. How many days will we be staying here? When it's time for us to be allocated places, this will be left for those who come later, so let them repair it themselves!"
They didn't think Qi San was doing the right thing at all, believing this place was merely a temporary transit point. Once the final allocation was decided, they would follow their respective team leaders to their designated areas. Therefore, many thought he was getting special treatment and working for pay. I say people don't want to put in much effort here.
Hearing their words, Qi San stopped talking. These people had always been lazy.
The reason they could survive this journey was not only due to the provisions they had saved from home but also by trickery and deception. When they encountered the weak and the women and children, they would even cruelly rob them of their food.
If it weren't for the fact that their ancestors several generations back were the same, and that they formed gangs and were all adult males, and that their presence had indeed bolstered the village's reputation, preventing outsiders from easily plotting against them, then...
Seeing this situation and hearing their conversation, Su Muqing couldn't help but frown. There were definitely many people with such thoughts, and it seemed she needed to find a solution.
The group observed from the shadows. Soon, a group of people arrived, pulling a牛车 (niú chē - ox cart). Tong Lesheng informed them that they were preparing to cook.
It was now past ten in the morning. Due to the sheer number of people in the settlement, which was increasing daily, the food burden was particularly heavy. Therefore, everyone only ate two meals a day, one at noon and one in the afternoon.
The ox cart didn't carry food that could be eaten immediately but rather water and grains like millet and coarse flour, which were for making porridge. Once the porridge was almost ready, the city would send people to deliver steamed buns to each location.
The reason for not delivering them in advance was the incidents of food rioting that had occurred at the settlement in the early stages. At that time, the cooked steamed buns had already arrived, but the porridge was not yet ready, so it was not distributed.
The refugees, with eyes red from hunger, rushed like madmen to the ox cart to grab food. Many cooking pots and stoves were overturned, and many people were injured. Fortunately, it was cold at the time, and everyone was wearing thick clothes, otherwise, their injuries would have been more severe.
It was also thanks to the people from the San Sheng Palace who were on-site at the time, who quickly stopped the refugees from harming each other, otherwise, it might have led to an even bigger accident.
Since that incident, Huaxia City had dispatched more personnel to patrol the various settlement sites. The settlement sites were only responsible for cooking porridge daily. As for steamed buns and dry rations, they were all prepared uniformly in the city before being distributed.
This settlement currently housed over eight thousand refugees. There were eight cooking and serving points for porridge, each responsible for over a thousand people. Once the porridge was ready, one representative from each family would come out with a small bucket to line up and wait for their porridge.
Perhaps seeing that they were finally starting to cook, those lazy men quieted down a bit, sitting upright under the eaves, basking in the sun and waiting for the meal.
Su Muqing and her companions did not leave. Instead, they sat in a small wooden cabin nearby. This small cabin was only a few square meters in size and could not accommodate many people. Tong Lesheng had simply asked for tables and chairs to be placed inside, turning it into a temporary office.
Tong Lesheng reported on his work for about twenty minutes, then heard someone outside loudly announce that the porridge was ready. Su Muqing stood up and walked to the door of the wooden cabin, looking at the long line of people outside.
Those lazy men who had seemed dead were now like chickens injected with adrenaline after hearing the news that the porridge was ready.
When their family members returned with small buckets, the men directly snatched them away. Some of them, carrying porridge back to their families, waited for another person to return with dry rations before they could eat.
As for the man who had been crying hunger, he sat directly under the eaves. He reached out his hand towards the sky, and the person fetching the porridge handed the small bucket to him.
Satisfied, the man stirred the thick, viscous rice porridge with the wooden spoon from the bucket. Not bothering that it was still a bit too hot, he scooped a large spoonful and sent it into his mouth.
It had been a long time since he had eaten such thick food. Even at the beginning of the fleeing disaster, when food was still plentiful, the porridge cooked then was so thin that one could see the moles on their faces. Unlike the porridge here, which could be drawn out in a long string when scooped.
Watching the man eat with gusto, the person who had gone to fetch the porridge and his other family members could only stare at him enviously. Swallowing the saliva secreted in their mouths, and licking their dry, cracked lips, they prayed in their hearts that the man would eat less and leave more for them.
After taking several spoonfuls, the man let out a satisfied嗝 (gé - hiccup), and by then, only a little more than half of the porridge was left in the bucket.
There were still seven or eight people in the family. Even if the man stopped eating now, the others would probably only get two or three mouthfuls each.
But they all knew that with the man's personality, he wouldn't stop eating. Once the dry rations arrived later, he would definitely drink a few more mouthfuls with them.
As expected, the person who went to fetch the dry rations returned at this time. Today's food was not black steamed buns, but baked multi-grain cakes.
Seeing the rations brought back, everyone's hearts sank to the bottom. Although these cakes were very filling, they were also very dry and made one's throat itchy. It seemed today's porridge would also not be for them.
The man snatched the cloth bag containing the cakes and, without even glancing at the other members of his family, began to gnaw on the cakes by himself.
Hmm! These cakes had salt in them today, and there seemed to be a bit of oil residue. They tasted so delicious! The man finished one of these dry cakes in a few bites.
The most infuriating thing was that he was so full that he felt like vomiting, but his hands still wouldn't stop. He took one cake after another from the cloth bag.
It wasn't until he reached for the seventh one that the person who had gone to fetch the dry rations could no longer bear it and rushed forward, shaking his arm and pleading.
"Dad, Mom and the younger brothers are waiting inside. If you're full, please leave a bite for us! They are starving to death!"
"Get lost! Hiccup~ You unfilial son! Hiccup~ You, hiccup~ still want, hiccup~ to snatch food from, hiccup~ your old man~" The man was startled by the sudden rush of the other person. The large bite of cake he had just taken got stuck in his throat, neither fully swallowed nor spat out.
The man was terribly uncomfortable from choking. While hiccuping, he cursed the young man and even pushed him to the ground, kicking him fiercely twice. However, after a while, the man felt his throat becoming more and more uncomfortable, and his chest also began to tighten and ache.
The man, feeling choked and distressed, stopped kicking and stumbled forward, picking up the small bucket of porridge and taking a large gulp. But in the next second, he realized something was wrong.
The porridge was too thick to flow in, and it completely blocked the gap that had not been choked before. He opened his mouth in discomfort, but found that he could not speak at all.
Then, his breathing began to become very difficult. He painfully patted his throat, his trembling hands constantly stroking his chest, but none of it provided any relief.
Gradually, the man's eyes were bloodshot, and his face turned a liverish color due to suffocation. Even the protruding veins on his forehead turned purple from the excessive force.
As he collapsed, he looked at his two sons standing by with pleading eyes, weakly reaching out his hands towards them...