Chapter 256: The Calamity of Abundance

Chen Er opened his eyes for the sixth time......

Heaven and earth have not yet fully awakened.

Before his eyes lay still a scene of grass and trees dug up, villages withered—a desolate rural landscape.

It makes one inevitably doubt; the boundless sky will ultimately be hard to awaken fully.

Strange.

Strange.

Really quite strange.

He clearly remembered that twenty years ago, no, ten years ago, five years ago, the world of men was not like this.

At that time, the 'Benevolent and Martial Ten-Thousand-Year Great Emperor' had not yet passed away; although Yongzhou was said to be 108,000 li from the Imperial City, it occasionally received some care.

The world thrived, trade flourished, and from time to time there were even reductions in taxes.

Everyone felt that their future days would be better; thus, even in such a remote place where the emperor is far away and the heavens high, no sign of a decadent age could be seen.

Back then, although his father had died and his mother was bedridden with a serious illness, he often had to beg grandparents and ask people for loans......

But there were also kind-hearted people willing to lend.

When someone lent him money, the pharmacy occasionally had a doctor willing to speak up, arranging credit for his medicine with the shopkeeper.

Life was certainly not easy, and it was constantly like ants on a hot pan, making it impossible to cease the endless toil.

Yet he always felt that, although life was hard to endure, it was still possible to get through.

However, now everything has changed.

Everything, all of it, has changed.

Although he does not wish to mention it this way, the fact is——

People's hearts in the world are not always evil, nor always good.

When those in authority act decisively, more good people are seen; evil people fear the good, so the number of evildoers in the world diminishes.

Conversely, if more and more people perceive that evil outweighs good in the world, evildoers will increase, causing good people to dare not reveal their identities.

When the Great Emperor passed away, all sorts of demons and monsters came forth.

The northern border barbarians whom the Great Emperor had driven into mountain recesses actually dared to march south with iron hooves, seizing half the country.

Many of those who once appeared respectable as court officials......

They vied with each other, fearing loss, and tried every means to squeeze the people's fat and ointment.

Just like Yongzhou, which previously had never imposed heavy taxes and extortion, but since the Great Emperor's death these past few years, taxes have grown heavier year by year.

Two or three years ago, hearing that the emperor had changed, and last year, they even came up with something like the 'Labor and Grain Tax'.

Before that dog of an emperor issued his decree, why didn't they inquire first?

Not to mention rural folk; even in a city with propertied citizens, whose family could easily produce a stone of grain without breaking a sweat?

They cannot produce it.

They cannot produce it.

The more they collect, the poorer the people become; the poorer they get, the more the authorities demand.

The conduct of those in power always gives the feeling: 'The world is heading for chaos; I'd better not take too much from the people now, for when turmoil comes, how will I protect myself?'

Everyone wants to preserve themselves wisely, so everyone loses the sentiment of sharing hardship......

When evildoers increase, people only strive to outdo each other, fearing they are not wicked enough.

Such things were not limited to Yongzhou; on his journey to Lofty Peace, he saw many, many instances along the way.

What burning, looting, and plundering; what forced conscription; what selling oneself to bury one's father; what parents selling their children......

What taking advantage of the gap when others try to give their children a livelihood, deceiving the children away, then selling them into brothels......

Even more, such things are everywhere.

But what Chen Er least expected was that, after this round-trip, the places he saw and heard, which were most like a human purgatory, were actually right at his own doorstep.

Yongzhou.

It turned out to be Yongzhou.

He still remembered that when he left Yongzhou, the scene there was a expanse of sorrowful clouds and gloom, but not to the point of corpses strewn across the wilderness.

But this time, when he passed Tancheng from afar, even dozens of li away he could smell the foul stench rising from within, with mosquitoes and flies swirling.

The people inside wanted to flee outward, but the surrounding cities blocked them, refusing to let Tancheng residents enter.

He felt something was off at the time, but mindful of being a Yongzhou native, having visited Tancheng a few times before and knowing the roads, he didn't think much of it and led his group straight into Tancheng's territory, intending to cut across it.

However, upon entering, he only then realized the situation was becoming increasingly dire.

According to the old man beside him, that was——

Vines overgrown the ruins, fields completely abandoned.

No travelers on the roads, corpses of the starved strewn across the slopes.

Corpses.

Chen Er had never seen so many corpses in his lifetime.

Moreover, it was obvious that these were the corpses of those who had starved to death......

The bodies lay by the roadside, bitten by insects, while beside them lay the starved, who could no longer speak and clung to life with only a breath left.

Wherever flesh could still grow on their bodies had already collapsed, and the exposed skin was being nibbled bit by bit by flies that had already tasted blood.

That was the first time Chen Er learned of a great matter——

As it turned out, being bitten by flies could also cause bleeding.

Yes.

Indeed, it truly does cause bleeding.

On the densely packed skin lay blotchy blood marks bitten out by flies, and from time to time insect shadows fluttered wildly above.

Because there were too many insect shadows, it was even impossible to tell whether those flies had gnawed the meat and were about to fly away, or had already grown inside the meat and were preparing to fly out.

That, that truly was a scene akin to purgatory.

Is it pitiful?

Of course it is pitiful.

Since ancient times, among hundreds, thousands of ways to die, starvation is considered one of the most pitiful and painful deaths.

But this, however, is Tancheng.

Tancheng......

Tancheng, which has always been a city abundant in grain!!!

How come along this route, even places as mountainous and malarial as Ting Prefecture, where mosquitoes swarm like smoke seas in the barren lands, have never before seen so many starving people!

Chen Er didn't understand, and would never understand.

He could only hurry the old man who insisted on following him back to Cang Cheng, but when that old man saw the starving people collapsed on the ground, he actually couldn't walk any further.

He actually didn't blame the old man at all; he truly didn't blame the old man.

The old man had also been this kind-hearted toward him all along the way.

Going north and east this way was harder than he thought; the money he had brought when leaving Cang Cheng wasn't enough, so he could only scrimp and save, and had to guard against robbery.

The other party had lived in seclusion for years, with hardly any money, but after seeing his arrival and his swollen feet, they sold the meager savings they had accumulated over the years, allowing them to hitch a ride on a merchant convoy......

If it weren't for the lack of money, they shouldn't have had to rush headlong into Tancheng.

The old man's staying was out of kindness; he shouldn't have been blamed for it.

Mother had said, in this world, if one does not do good deeds oneself, one cannot look down on others who do good......

This is the same principle.

However, Chen Er had never imagined that the cost of staying would be so great.

The old man bent down, untied his own food sack, and bit by bit broke the flatbread inside, stuffing it into the mouths of the starving people by the road.

The old man was advanced in years, yet his brows and eyes always held a touch of compassion and gentleness.

But no one responded to this pure kindness; the starving person, having regained a bit of strength, grabbed the old man's ankle, fiercely dragged him down, and smashed his ankle with a stone.

The starving person cried out, the starving person cried again.

He said, he said——

"Come quickly, come quickly!"

"I, I've caught meat!!!"

?? Yesterday I was lazy, today it's pay-as-you-go, so the next chapter will be a little late~ really just a little~