The instant the white jade bowl landed in his palms, many people failed to react.
A withered, skeletal hand held the bowl of white rice porridge. His fingertips trembled violently, yet he could not bring it to his lips.
He stiffly lowered his head and stared at the steaming porridge. A thin layer of rice oil floated on the surface. In all his life, he had never seen porridge this thick.
As he stared, he suddenly began to cry.
His tears fell into the bowl, sending tiny ripples across the surface.
He hurriedly shielded the rim with his hand, afraid that his tears would dirty the porridge, but no matter what he did, he could not stop crying.
Not far away, inside a broken-down house, a woman so thin that she was nearly skeletal sat in a corner on a tattered straw mat, a child in her arms.
Holding a white jade bowl, she carefully fed the porridge into the child’s mouth while murmuring softly, “Be good, my darling. Please, I’m begging you. Drink it. Once you’ve had some porridge, you’ll live.”
As she spoke, she glanced at the straw mat beside her. Her family was so destitute that only four bare walls remained. Her husband had failed to make it through the previous night. She had been forced to wrap him in a torn straw mat and leave him lying there, unable to afford either the money or the strength to bury him.
After feeding the child the last mouthful of porridge, she turned the white jade bowl upside down and scraped the grains left at the bottom into her own mouth with one finger, bit by bit.
Only when the white jade bowl vanished before her eyes did she blankly lower her hand. She raised her head and looked at the brilliant clouds glowing in the sky. Tears unknowingly trickled down the deep creases of her face, falling one by one onto the child’s head.
“Merciful Divine Lady…”
At the other end of the long street, a one-legged man struggled to rise from the ground. Supporting his emaciated body with half a wooden stick, he shuffled forward one step at a time.
He carried a bowl of porridge and walked with great difficulty.
Several times he nearly fell, but he kept the bowl clutched protectively to his chest. Not a single grain of rice spilled.
After a long while, he finally reached a corner.
An old woman with graying hair lay there. Her face was ashen, her lips cracked and dry, and she appeared to have already fainted from hunger.
The one-legged man crouched down. “Mother, wake up. Please, wake up! We have porridge. We have porridge now!”
When the old woman failed to respond, the man’s hand began to tremble uncontrollably, and his voice broke with tears.
“Mother! Wake up! Open your eyes and look! It’s porridge! White porridge! Porridge bestowed by the Divine Lady!”
The old woman still did not respond.
“Mother…”
The one-legged man froze in place, holding a steaming bowl of white porridge.
Steam continued to rise from the bowl, blurring his vision. His heart sank into despair as he lowered his head and watched his tears fall, one by one, into the bowl’s snowy-white grains.
“Step aside and let me take her pulse.”
A steady female voice rang out.
The one-legged man instinctively moved aside.
Military Physician Liu dismounted and walked toward the old woman.
She first lifted the woman’s eyelids, then took her thin wrist between her fingers and felt the faintest trace of a pulse.
“Cold has entered her bones, and she hasn’t had food or water for days. She’s already at the end of her strength. Still, it’s not yet hopeless.” She pulled a cloth-wrapped bundle from the pouch at her waist.
When she spread it open, rows of gleaming silver needles were revealed.
After she inserted several needles, the old woman’s fingers curled slightly.
The one-legged man’s heart leaped with joy. He wanted to ask something, but he was afraid of disturbing Military Physician Liu as she saved his mother.
He could only kneel beside her with both hands braced against the ground, silently praying that his mother would be safe.
“Water.”
Military Physician Liu did not even turn her head.
The apprentice who had been watching her administer the treatment hurriedly untied the waterskin at his waist and handed it over.
Military Physician Liu took it and fed the old woman a little water.
Before long, the old woman’s eyelids trembled. Her cloudy eyes shifted twice before slowly opening to a narrow slit.
“Mother…” The one-legged man threw himself forward, yet did not dare touch her. “Mother! You’re awake! Look at me!”
The old woman’s pupils were unfocused, and her gaze wavered for a long time before finally settling on her son’s tear-streaked face.
Her lips moved faintly, her breath no more than a thread. “Erlang?”
“Mother, it’s me…”
The one-legged man burst into tears of joy.
Military Physician Liu had already risen and was putting away her needles. “If your mother can eat some white porridge tonight, she’ll have snatched her life back. Come find me tomorrow at this time so I can treat her again.”
The one-legged man called out, “Divine Physician, please wait! Where should I bring my mother to find you tomorrow?”
“Please, you flatter me.” Military Physician Liu’s expression was gentle. “Among the Goddess’s followers, there are many whose medical skills surpass mine. How could I possibly deserve the title of divine physician?”
Just then, a young military physician came running over. Panting heavily, he said, “Military Physician Liu, come with me quickly! There’s a patient up ahead whose entire body is covered in ulcers. We’ve never seen an illness like it and are completely helpless…”
Military Physician Liu’s expression changed drastically.
“Take me there!”
When she first entered Wuling City and saw the filthy streets, with people and corpses packed together, she had felt an ominous premonition.
In such deplorable conditions, contagious diseases could spread with terrifying ease.
With that thought, she picked up her medical kit, swung herself onto her horse with crisp efficiency, and turned to the one-legged man.
“The Northern Garrison Army is stationed just outside Wuling City. Bring your mother out of the city tomorrow, and you’ll see the camp. Even if I’m not there, another military physician will treat your mother. You won’t be charged a single coin.”
The one-legged man watched several riders gallop away. Tears once again streamed from his reddened eyes.
From the day he was born until he became a grown man, the words he had heard most often were that a poor man’s life was worth nothing—that if he died, then he died.
And the truth was, that was exactly how things were.
He still remembered how, one day, he had been carrying goods and hawking them in the street as usual when a wealthy young master suddenly ordered his guards to break his leg in broad daylight, simply because he found him displeasing.
Later, he learned that the wealthy young master was the son of the Chief Administrator, someone far beyond his ability to offend.
After that, he could only swallow every grievance and silently endure the pain brought by his broken leg.
Sometimes, he wondered:
Why was life in this world so unbearably hard?
He had thought he would probably suffer for the rest of his life. Yet the arrival of the Goddess and the Northern Garrison Army had allowed him to glimpse a ray of hope.
“Followers of the Goddess… the Northern Garrison Army…”
“Mother, we really did meet good people…”
“Good people… Truly good people…”
As more and more soldiers from the Northern Garrison Army entered the city to save lives, similar voices rose from every corner of Wuling City.
Pei Du and Shen Jue stood on the main road through Wuling City.
“To think Wuling City has been ruined to such an extent. Chen Chao truly deserves to be cut into a thousand pieces!” Shen Jue said, his face dark with anger.
Pei Du sighed. “If we want to help the people of Wuling rebuild their city, I’m afraid it won’t be easy.”
Hearing this, Shen Jue replied firmly, “Since it is the Divine Lady’s wish, we shall do everything in our power to fulfill it!”
Yun Shu happened to be sitting on the roof beside them, so their conversation naturally reached her ears.
“Lil’ Sys, I’ve thought of a way to earn their favor.” She watched the two men walking toward the camp outside the city.
