Chapter 529: Cannot Sleep

Through his own efforts, Baifeng has already made the sacrificial rites of Huaxia very civilized; at the very least, instances of using humans for sacrifice almost never occur, unless it is someone guilty of heinous crimes who might be dragged off to be sacrificed, which also serves to vent the public's anger.

This sacrifice was primarily to demonstrate the might of Huaxia. Baifeng believes that apart from their Huaxia, it would be difficult for other tribes to capture such a huge and terrifying bear without losing a single person, although they did have one death and one injury—the injured one had merely sprained his waist while lifting the bear.

The sacrificial ceremony was very simple. Baifeng paid respects to the deities of Huaxia and read aloud the sacrificial text he had written before the deities, then burned it with fire. There were no overly flashy things; Baifeng intends to leave those for the Ministry of Rites to gradually perfect, but it must not be made too cumbersome.

Once the sacrifice ended, how to handle the two bears became what everyone was most concerned about, because although the bear meat had been sprinkled with a great deal of salt, it could not withstand this high-temperature weather and had already rotted and stunk, making it inedible.

Baifeng then gave the order to keep them in the plaza for another half-day, allowing everyone to take turns to look at them closely and touch them. By the afternoon, they would proceed with the butchering; although humans cannot eat the meat, Huaxia is not lacking in creatures that eat meat, and those dogs are likely to love it most of all.

The hide and the skull can be processed properly. The bear hide is naturally to be placed in the large conference room and can be hung behind Baifeng's seat to display his status.

As for the bear's skull, it can be hung above the door of the Ministry of War as a decoration; in any case, it will be left to the Ministry of War to handle itself. As for that female bear, it was just an add-on to begin with, and no one cares about it. The hide can be placed in the State-run Store; whoever wants it can buy it, and the proceeds will be given to the Ministry of War—whether as military funds or as rewards, it is all up to them.

As for these Soldiers, they naturally must be rewarded, but because many participants have not yet arrived, they cannot just distribute rewards casually and let them miss out on the honor. Therefore, Baifeng decided to reward everyone together at the end of the year. Not just the Ministry of War, but everyone who has rendered meritorious service needs to be rewarded, and he is also preparing a major event; he feels the time is right.

Because it was confirmed that there were many wild beasts in that mountain forest, Baifeng specifically sent several Hunter Teams to hunt there—firstly, to provide more meat for Huaxia, and secondly, to clear away dangerous factors in the surrounding area.

A disturbance was resolved just like that, but due to the scarcity of the spiritual world, this giant bear still became a topic of conversation for everyone for the next several years. Whenever people were idle, they would gather together to talk about this huge bear, which was also an opportunity for children to show off their knowledge.

On the night after the giant bear was dissected, a torrential rain poured down. Huaxia, which had been suffering from drought for a very long time, finally welcomed the long-awaited rain, but the rumbling thunder made Baifeng very uneasy.

In the middle of the night, listening to the rain pouring down from the eaves and the purple lightning reflected on the Glass, he ultimately could not sleep. He threw on a piece of clothing, got up gently, went downstairs, pushed open the door, and looked out into the courtyard.

In the courtyard, which had a sufficiently large drainage ditch, a deep layer of water had already accumulated, which meant that the rain was already so heavy that the drainage ditch could not drain it away in time. In Baifeng's view, such rain was no longer a good thing, but a disaster. Fortunately...

Before Baifeng could even rejoice, a crisp tapping sound began to appear on the Tiles of the roof, and then small ice pellets, along with raindrops, splashed onto the top of Baifeng's feet. Baifeng did not dodge; he squatted down and pinched a hailstone with his hand—it was a full soybean in size.

The hail lasted for about a minute, then turned back into rain. Borrowing the light of the lightning, Baifeng could no longer distinguish whether the bubbles floating on the water surface were from hailstones or raindrops.

He only knew that this year, Huaxia would have a very difficult time; perhaps the construction progress of Xiao Town would all have to be postponed.

Baifeng lives in the central Urban Area, where the surroundings are very spacious and each household is far apart. They are all high-ranking officials and wealthy people, so Baifeng did not hear any commotion; all he could hear were the sounds of rain and thunder.

Yet far away at the more remote edge of the city, those who lived by the land were already wailing one after another, as if accusing Heaven of injustice.

Baifeng had no heart for sleep, so he sat directly on the threshold to listen to the rain. Since he had no way to change the current situation, he might as well experience this hard-won, high-cost coolness.

Unfortunately, a short period of hail was interspersed in the middle, leaving Baifeng completely devoid of any optimistic feelings. It was not until the north wind blew very tightly and a patch of the sky opened up that Baifeng knew the rain was about to stop. He also silently got up and went back to sleep.

The next day, Baifeng got up very early. Having suffered a disaster, he was very anxious and could no longer sleep. He did not even eat breakfast; he just put on his clothes and called for Yulong and Brother Changle to go out.

The water in the courtyard had already been drained, but the wet ground told the story of last night's heavy rain. Fortunately, Baifeng's courtyard was entirely made of Cement, otherwise, it would have been difficult for him to even go out.

On the roads in the city, mud, leaves, and branches could be seen everywhere. He also saw a group of officials with worried faces. Yu had already come out early to check the situation in their vicinity and was just preparing to go to the farmland to see the disaster situation when he ran into the Baifeng family, who had also come out.

Just as Yu was about to salute, Baifeng stopped him with a worried look: "Forget it, let's hurry and check the disaster situation of the grain. I was so worried last night that I didn't even sleep; if only half could still be harvested, that would be good."

Yu sighed and didn't say much. Along the way, they met many officials, and those officials also quite consciously followed behind Baifeng. After walking a distance, Baifeng saw broken Tiles on the ground. He picked one up to look at it, then called for Chou and Xiong and said: "You arrange some people to go door-to-door to see if there are any houses that have collapsed or are leaking, and let the Ministry of Works go and repair them. At a time like this, human life is more important."

The two of them also went to make arrangements with sorrowful faces. At this time, not all officials had arrived; after all, the official system of Huaxia is still very large, and these were basically high-level officials. The middle and lower levels had already skillfully begun to carry out statistics and observations. People from the Ministry of Revenue had also set off early by ox cart to Lema City to calculate the disaster situation in Lema City.

But there were always some people who lacked experience and had not thought in this direction, still going to work on time. However, the offices were basically empty, or there were only two or three people, appearing very desolate.

They were very confused: "Is there any major event today? Why is everyone on collective leave, yet why wasn't I notified? Even yesterday's sacrificial ceremony had more people than this; what is going on today?"