All the children have been examined, and a total of one hundred and thirty-six have suffered brainstem damage and become intellectually disabled. Seventy-two have suffered severe post-traumatic stress disorder but their thinking and intelligence remain normal.
All two hundred and twenty-eight children require prosthetic eye surgery, and some have empty eye sockets on both sides.
Su Muqing returned to the RV and then entered the space. In the mall, she selected a regular prosthetic eye for the intellectually disabled children.
Although this regular prosthetic eye has the function of vision, it cannot see in the dark or at long distances like a smart prosthetic eye, nor can it be perfectly integrated with the user's body. Its appearance, though it has a white of the eye and a pupil, is significantly different from the user's own eyeball.
Its advantage is that after the eyeball sees an object in front of it, it uploads the data to the brain through the intelligent sensor in the eyeball. The user can then see the magnified object in high definition.
Su Muqing browsed the mall in the future world of the space for a long time. Other models were full of futuristic mechanical features. Only this model was the latest and closest to modern humans, and it was not easily dislodged after installation, making it quite cost-effective.
After browsing for another ten minutes and repeatedly confirming that there was no better prosthetic eye, Su Muqing added two hundred regular prosthetic eyes and clicked to checkout.
She decided to buy this one first. If the mall released an updated, more suitable model in the future, she could buy it for them then.
After purchasing the regular prosthetic eyes, Su Muqing left the RV, preparing to perform the installation surgery.
"The City Lord is out..."
"City Lord, can you treat my child today?"
"And my family's..."
A group of civilians waiting outside, seeing her get out of the car, swarmed towards her and surrounded her.
Su Muqing secretly mobilized the wind element ability within her, keeping the surging crowd at bay by one meter. Then, she took out a printed list and said to the staff at the healing center.
"I have prepared the list of surgeries to be performed today. Someone will call out the corresponding numbers. You will take the children whose numbers are called to wait outside the operating room. Everyone else must wait in the outer room. No one is allowed to enter without my permission, or they will be severely punished!"
After speaking, Su Muqing leaped over the crowd rushing towards her and went to the prepared small room. She handed the list to Leng Ren, who was waiting nearby, and then entered the room in advance.
Leng Ren took the list and affixed the prepared number plates one by one onto the children. After attaching ten, he put away the list, had the remaining children without numbers taken back, and then brought the child with number one to the room where Su Muqing was.
Everyone was eager for their children to receive treatment first, but they dared not disobey Su Muqing's orders. If they angered her, it would be too much of a loss, so they could only wait anxiously outside.
This operating room was actually a transfer station, containing only a small bed.
Su Muqing looked at the child designated as number one who was brought in. She appeared to be a little girl, about five or six years old, and was now intellectually disabled.
The little girl's mouth was drooling, and her remaining eye appeared to have no focus or spirit. She was so thin that her bones were sticking out, making her head seem particularly large.
Her left eye socket, along with more than half of her nose, had sunken in. The overall condition was quite severe.
Su Muqing took her hand and walked forward a few steps. As she pulled aside the white curtain in front of her, she brought the child into the operating room within the space. She placed the little girl on the operating table and activated the automatic anesthesia. Within a few breaths, she fell into a deep sleep.
After a simple cleaning of her face, Su Muqing put on surgical attire and began the surgery.
The functional differences of the regular model were insignificant, but the installation steps were similar. First, she had to clean the new flesh growing inside the eye socket, and then identify the blood vessel that connected the prosthetic eye to the central nervous system.
After clearing the blood vessel, Su Muqing wiped away the blood stains inside and outside the eye socket, then took out an activated regular prosthetic eye and placed it into the little girl's eye socket.
Once activated, a very fine tube would extend from the back of the prosthetic eye. Su Muqing only needed to insert the cleaned blood vessel from the eye socket into this small tube, and the two would be connected.
Once placed in the eye socket, the prosthetic eye would automatically adjust. After the adjustment was complete, Su Muqing continued to perform reconstructive surgery on her upper and lower eyelids, covering the newly installed prosthetic eye.
Due to the lack of bone structure repair, the entire surgery lasted over an hour. When she sent the number one child out of the space, only about ten minutes had passed outside.
When Su Muqing opened the door, Leng Ren stepped forward, picked up the little girl lying on the bed, turned and handed her to other staff at the healing center, and then brought the number two child into the room.
Those waiting outside, seeing the child being carried out, quickly followed, wanting to get a closer look. However, the little girl's operated eye was wrapped in thick gauze, so they couldn't see anything.
While Su Muqing was busily performing surgeries, Lu Yuzhi, along with Leng Nuo, arrived at the largest resettlement point. They had people spread the word about the currency exchange.
Ensuring everyone was aware of the matter, the two then waited at the resettlement point's office for the civilians to exchange their money.
After about ten minutes of waiting, the sound of footsteps crunching on the snow could be heard from outside. After a while, the sound grew louder, indicating that more people were arriving.
When most of the civilians had arrived, those who had come earlier were already queuing up to exchange money. These people who voluntarily queued up were mostly from the former no-man's-land. This was likely their way of actively supporting the new City Lord's decisions and acting as promoters for the new currency.
Tian Daqiang was the first to exchange. He was formerly a member of the Blood Robe Sect. When the artillery emplacement exploded, Su Muqing had pushed over the structure to save his life, so he obeyed Su Muqing's words without question.
Since his family was having a reunion dinner in the afternoon, he happened to have sixteen copper coins and two taels of broken silver for wine and food money on him.
Tian Daqiang exchanged all the money he had for paper currency. After all, he would be buying things at the public market when he returned to the city in the afternoon. City Lord Lu had stated that from today onwards, all monetary transactions in Huaxia City would have to change, and copper coins would no longer be used.
Furthermore, City Lord Lu had said that for the first three days, those who exchanged would receive eleven paper currency for every ten copper coins, with more bonuses for more copper coins. He walked back holding a one-thousand-wen note, a one-hundred-wen note, a ten-wen note, a five-wen note, and two one-wen notes.
As he walked, he curiously flipped through them one by one. What were these made of? They didn't look like cloth, nor like paper. And the drawings on them were too realistic!
Tian Daqiang took out two one-wen notes and carefully placed the rest of the money inside his shirt. The civilians watching from the side, seeing him walking slowly, all gathered around to examine the new money in his hand.
"Steward Tian, could you show us the rest of your money too?"
"Yes! We want to see what the new money looks like too."
Tian Daqiang waved the one-wen paper notes in his hand at them. "You can go and exchange it yourselves and see. Since copper coins won't be used anymore, keeping them is a waste. The paper currency promotion gives one wen for ten copper coins, you should hurry and exchange it."
"Where do we have any copper coins left! We've spent most of them during the famine."
"We people are not like those wealthy families. Even a sinking ship has three catties of nails. If we had copper coins, we wouldn't miss out on such a good opportunity to get money for free."
Hearing their words, Tian Daqiang didn't say anything more. He took out the other paper notes from his chest and held them in his hand for everyone to examine.
"These things are written as one wen, one hundred wen, and they can be used as money?"
"How can they not? Do you see the imprinted words on them? Huaxia Kingdom Ministry of Finance Issue! These are currencies made by Huaxia Kingdom itself, so they can only be used here."
"Only usable here... What if we can't use them when we return to Dayu? Wouldn't that be a huge loss for us!"
"You still want to go back? Don't you know that Dayu has had heavy blizzards for over a month? I heard tens of thousands of people have already frozen to death."
"With all this happening, doesn't the Dayu imperial court intervene?"
"Intervene with what? If they really wanted to manage, they would have offered help when we were starving and thirsty. But not only did they not manage, but the officials in the prefectures also ordered us to be driven away, forcing us to leave our homes and flee. Do you still want to go back to such a good place."
"This new money feels really comfortable. Look at the words on it, they can even change color."
The group circled Tian Daqiang, examining the money endlessly. After they had their fill of looking, they returned to the side to continue watching.
The queue for exchanging paper currency here was getting longer and longer. Seeing the paper money in their hands, some people could immediately tell that the cost of producing this paper money was high.
Before, they had thought that Huaxia City was trying to trick them out of their money. But after carefully comparing the new money, they immediately dispelled that concern. Knowing the excellent quality, even a string of copper coins might not be enough to buy one such note, let alone a one-to-one exchange like this.
The paper currency exchange at other resettlement points was also progressing vigorously. The smoothest progress was likely in the area of Zhengyi Village, managed by Leng San.
Most of the people in this area had already moved to new homes and saved some money. Leng San was the future son-in-law of Zhengyi Village's village chief, so this favor had to be granted.
Therefore, except for the people from Houxi Village, almost every household had exchanged a considerable amount of paper currency. The residents of the new Zhengyi Village had also exchanged ten or so copper coins to varying degrees.
Su Muqing, on her part, was continuously performing prosthetic eye surgeries alone in the space. She ate something casually when hungry and rested for about fifteen minutes when tired.
By eleven o'clock in the morning, Lu Yuzhi and his group returned to the healing center to find her. In the morning, Su Muqing had performed twelve surgeries. Calculating one hour per surgery, she had stood in the space for approximately twelve hours.
At noon, everyone ate something casually at various resettlement points and then returned to continue their work.
It wasn't until almost four o'clock in the afternoon that Su Muqing had Leng Ren announce that the day's surgeries had concluded. As for the surgery times for the remaining children, they would await her specific notification.
Hearing that she was leaving and that the next surgery time was not yet determined, the fathers of the remaining children became very anxious, but they dared not force her to continue.
"City Lord, please don't forget about them..."
"Everyone, rest assured, I will keep this in mind. The reason I am not continuing today is that I want to wait for the children to recover better, see how their condition is, and then determine the time for the next surgery."
Hearing her say this, the people were somewhat relieved. They knelt on the ground to see Su Muqing off.
"Thank you, City Lord!"
"Thank you, City Lord!"
"Everyone, please get up! Today is New Year's Eve, and I hope everyone can have a happy new year." After speaking, Su Muqing left the resettlement point with the others.
On the way back to the city, everyone else complained of hunger. Su Muqing brought the three of them into the space to make food for themselves, while she went to a low couch nearby to get a short nap.
She had been standing for too long today, and Su Muqing felt her legs had become several sizes thinner. After lying on the low couch for a short while, her breathing became soft and long, and she fell fast asleep.
When Lu Yuzhi came to wake her for dinner, he saw her sleeping soundly and couldn't bear to disturb her. He heard that she had performed over twenty surgeries standing up today, and her calves were now somewhat swollen.
Lu Yuzhi sat on the side of the low couch, lifted Su Muqing's jade legs and placed them on his lap. Then, he gathered a surge of true qi in his palm and skillfully used his true qi to massage her legs.
In her sleep, Su Muqing felt a sudden dull ache in her calves. She opened her eyes a crack and, upon seeing Lu Yuzhi helping her heal, turned her head and sleepily drifted off again.
After eating and drinking their fill, and Su Muqing having caught up on over an hour of sleep, they left the space and continued their journey back to the city. By the time they returned to the city around five o'clock, those who had gone to other resettlement points had also returned.
They gathered around the living room and took out the boxes of copper coins they had received. They then counted the received copper coins in units of one hundred and strung them together.
After about half an hour of clearing, the copper coins were finally sorted. Perhaps due to the experience of fleeing the famine, the refugees didn't have much money on them. Regardless, each of them received only a small amount of copper coins.
Relatively speaking, they had received quite a bit of broken silver in exchange. Among them, Leng San's group had exchanged the most paper currency, receiving a total of one hundred and five taels of broken silver and over a thousand copper coins.
Tonight was the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, which was New Year's Eve. The City Lord's mansion was having a family reunion dinner tonight. Su Muqing instructed everyone to seal the remaining paper currency and place it with Lu Yuzhi, and then went to help in the kitchen.