Chapter 10: Chapter 10: At Last, Extraordinary
The Eight-Entry Residence is located in the north of the city, about twenty minutes’ walk from A Street.
Compared to the low, flat houses that can be seen everywhere at the entrance to the south of the city, the quality of the houses in the north is significantly higher.
Along the way, Yu Lian saw quite a few standard residences, with faint glimpses of gatehouses and servants moving within.
Some of them even had plaques hanging.
Although he couldn’t understand the words on the plaques, most likely they represented family names and social status such as ’Zhang Mansion’, ’Wang Mansion’, ’Lin Mansion’.
According to the modern city’s regional division, this area in the north undoubtedly belongs to the wealthy district.
Just as Yu Lian was secretly observing one of the courtyards, someone suddenly tapped him on the shoulder from behind.
Yu Lian turned around warily, only to see a young servant in a blue outfit standing behind him.
The servant looked to be in his early twenties, his appearance was fairly decent, but for some reason, he exuded a sense of exhaustion.
The servant seemed somewhat repelled by the scent on Yu Lian, frowned, and took half a step back.
A string of words emerged from his mouth that Yu Lian couldn’t understand: "&%#@&..."
He was a servant, perhaps trying to chase him away.
Yu Lian secretly breathed a sigh of relief and gestured with his hands between his ears and lips: "Ababa...Ababa..."
The servant gave him a sympathetic look, handed over a coarse grain bun, and made a ’eating’ gesture.
He then pointed to a bamboo shelter not far away, sighed softly, and turned to leave.
The shelter the servant pointed to was built at an entrance to a lane, with a long line of vagrants outside.
Inside the bamboo shelter, there were five or six people dressed similarly to the servant, distributing food and porridge to the vagrants.
It was clearly a relief station set up by some family in the city.
"..."
Touching the coarse grain bun, still slightly warm in his hand, and glancing at the long line of vagrants outside the shelter, Yu Lian’s emotions suddenly became complex.
These vagrants were clothed in rags, emaciated, their exposed skin covered in filth, their expressions numb as if they were dead, looking incredibly miserable.
Moreover, a few older elders leaned weakly to one side, either crying softly or whimpering in sorrow.
This is a scene unseen in 2022 on Huaxia Land, where people are as insignificant as weeds, filled with sadness and despair.
A command center far in the valley was equally silent at this moment.
"These people from another world seem to have encountered a famine or disaster? Such a large number of vagrants likely indicates a wide-ranging impact." Lin Li stared heavily at the screen, a young girl among the vagrants reminded him of his own granddaughter still in Shencheng.
Of similar age.
One is the precious jewel of the family, showered with love and given everything she desires, as refined as a young princess.
On the other side, separated by a portal to another world, struggling bitterly with a gaunt face, powerless atop her equally frail mother’s shoulders, her eyes vacant and bewildered.
Next to him, Ma Ning squinted and sighed: "I’m afraid it’s not just a simple grain shortage... Giving porridge during hard times was also a common charity in ancient Huaxia, but while porridge is easy to give, it does require a set of procedures.
Normally, such porridge stations are set up outside the city.
Firstly, outside the city is more spacious, facilitating crowd gathering, secondly... directing vagrants to the city’s outskirts to prevent such desperate vagrants from causing troubles within the city.
Such a large number of vagrants is a potential safety hazard anywhere, and in ancient times, faced with some ruthless officials, they might even use force to suppress and disperse them.
Allowing a large influx of vagrants into the city means either the city’s government is foolish beyond repair, or it indicates... the vagrants have a necessary reason to enter the city."
Everyone present wasn’t foolish; based on the currently gathered information, the wisdom level of the people from another world is certainly not low—even just comparing them to the Qin and Han periods, the intellectual level of the upper echelons in the other world can be considered relatively enlightened.
Under these circumstances, unless the city’s ruler was as dumb as a husky, had some kind of ’city destruction value’ system, there was only one possibility—the vagrants staying outside might face severe disaster, forcing the city’s ruler to take in these vagrants.
The vagrants cannot stay outside, combined with the series of analyses on the city walls before...
Lin Li felt that certain truths were becoming more and more clear.
But this is not enough, analysis is always just analysis, to draw an accurate conclusion, a solid evidence is needed.
.......
On the other side, Yu Lian gave the coarse grain bun to an elderly couple, and amidst their gratitude, he turned and walked towards the Eight-Entry Residence.
This residence had high and deep walls, according to the data estimated from drone detection, the area of the entire residence was nearly sixty thousand square meters, akin to the famous Prince Gong’s Mansion in the Imperial Capital.
The main gate faced south, its height about five meters, in front of it was a spacious bluestone road.
Not knowing what technique was used on this bluestone road, it appeared completely made of rubble, yet was extremely smooth to walk on, without any sense of protrusion.
The length of the bluestone road is approximately close to a hundred meters, connecting with the city avenue on the left and leading to the estate’s side gate on the right, with the grand and luxurious main gate situated at the road’s center.
When Yu Lian arrived near the estate, he happened to see a crowd of refugees gathering at the side gate.
Most of these refugees leaned forward, frantically waving their hands, shouting something at a man with a goatee who looked like a steward.
Although there were quite a number of attendants around the goatee man, they surrounded the refugees without driving them away, as if they were maintaining order.
Among the refugees.
Occasionally, someone was chosen by the middle-aged man, breaking away from the crowd with a look of ecstasy, expressing thousands of thanks, and led by the attendants into the side gate.
Yu Lian also noticed that the attire of these attendants was exactly the same as those at the previous relief point.
In broad daylight, there were also quite a few onlookers around, along with the good impression left by the previous relief point, Yu Lian thought slightly and then walked toward the side gate.
......
Wei Lianzhang was sixty-two years old this year, having served as the steward of Wei Mansion for twenty-five years.
Since the year he became the steward, every time around this period, he would stand on these steps.
Temporarily selecting a portion of people from the refugees to help transport some materials through labor relief.
In fact, the help that those refugees could provide was not much, with an average of two refugees equaling the efficiency of one able-bodied person.
But labor relief was, after all, an ancestral tradition passed down in Wei Mansion, and since these refugees were indeed pitiful, this practice was retained.
After all, helping one is better than none.
"Oh dear heaven, again and again, I wonder how many people will die this time..."
Wei Lianzhang sighed deeply, then continued to repeat words he didn’t know how many times to a new wave of arriving refugees: "Everyone listen up, Wei Mansion selects people based on requirements, not everyone can be chosen! Those who are not chosen, don’t be anxious, you can go to Celestial Fragrance Workshop’s porridge shop, where there are hot porridge and mixed grain buns to fill your stomach..."
After speaking, Wei Lianzhang picked up a water pouch from his waist, intending to soothe his dry throat, when his peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of a person in front of him.
It was a dark-skinned man who wasn’t very tall but still quite well-proportioned, compared to the surrounding refugees, he could undoubtedly be described as ’robust’.
Labor relief, as the term suggests, firstly requires work before providing relief money.
Therefore, unlike purely benevolent actions such as distributing porridge and grains, Wei Mansion had some requirements regarding the physical condition of the people chosen for labor relief.
Those emaciated, even barely breathing, individuals were unlikely to say work, and it would be fortunate if they weren’t crushed by the cargo.
In addition, his eyes didn’t have the same empty dazedness as other refugees, so Wei Lianzhang immediately decided: "That young man, come up!"
Seeing Wei Lianzhang point at himself, Yu Lian again performed the Aba Aba method, indicating that he was a ’mute’, and then was smoothly taken inside the mansion by an attendant.
After successfully sneaking into the mansion.
Yu Lian followed the attendant through the courtyard, finally arriving at an area that looked like a Martial Arts Arena.
Due to the courtyard walls blocking part of the view, the first thing Yu Lian saw was a corner of the Martial Arts Arena.
In the corner, a hundred or so refugees gathered, some carrying small items alone, others working together in groups of seven or eight to move heavy objects, coming out one after another from a warehouse-like place in the corner, heading toward another direction.
Yu Lian instantly understood—this was probably the work he would be doing next.
Then he turned his gaze toward the center of the Martial Arts Arena.
In the next second, his pupils suddenly contracted, and his blood pressure soared.
Yu Lian wasn’t the only one shocked.
Simultaneously, at the Ember Command eighteen kilometers away.
Upon seeing the real-time feedback of the footage, everyone was equally stunned!
Lin Li unclenched his tightly gritted jaw, his teeth uncontrollably embedding into the flesh of his lips.
Yet Lin Li seemed oblivious to the pain, his gaze fixed intently on the screen before him.
In the center of the Martial Arts Arena, three indistinct elders sat cross-legged in a meditative posture on three swords emitting a cold, sharp light.
These three swords...
The blades hovered five meters above the ground, floating in mid-air!
At this moment, on Earth, it was July 18th, 2022, at 5:02 AM.
At this moment, the heart of Huaxia, a bright red blossom proudly unfurled in the wind.
The sun rises.
Finally witnessing the extraordinary.