Song Fengsui had gone to the county seat before the New Year. He had not wanted to leave in such a hurry, but although this winter’s snowfall was not as severe as last year’s blizzard, it was still heavier than usual.
He was afraid that if they delayed too long and the heavy snow sealed off the mountains and roads, they might be unable to reach the county until spring, when the accumulated snow finally melted.
That would mean several months of going back and forth. Duan Yan and the two Song brothers would all have to remain busy in the county, and the whole family might not even be able to spend the New Year together in peace. After thinking it over, they decided it would be better to hurry and move to the county before the New Year.
When Grandfather Song’s private school closed for its year-end break, they took the opportunity to bring him along and settle him in the county as well. The school itself was not disbanded; it was merely reorganized.
Since Kang County was now effectively under the Song family’s control, the checkpoints beneath the county could be reopened, restoring travel between the county and the towns. By then, Grandfather Song would be able to gather the county’s teachers, reopen the county school, and allow students from the surrounding areas to travel to the county for their studies.
In the past, the county and the towns had each shut themselves off from the other. The county had greedily sucked up the local taxes and grain to enrich itself, while ignoring the difficulties faced by the towns and villages beneath it. Over time, this had led to widespread resentment, and sooner or later the local communities would have begun operating independently and come into conflict with the county.
They could not repeat those mistakes now. Allowing students to return to the county school was a way of opening that door.
The procession consisted of three horse-drawn carriages. Duan Yan, Tie Da, Tie Er, and several guards rode ahead to lead the way, followed by four carts loaded with luggage and soldiers bringing up the rear. The grand procession set out from Chishan, traveling along the official road toward the county seat.
It had already been two years since they had last passed through the checkpoint on their way to the county. Sitting inside the carriage, Song Fengsui could not resist lifting a corner of the curtain to peer outside.
It was still the same official road, but everything was white. The grass and trees had all been covered, leaving nothing but an endless expanse of snow before his eyes.
“Back then, we walked in one step at a time. This road was burned into my heart; I still remembered every bend and every slope. Yet after only two or three years, when we came along it again, the snow had covered everything, and it felt as though I had never been here at all.”
Mu Linghui held Little Ji a little tighter, using her cloak to shield the child’s head. She did not scold Song Fengsui for letting in the cold air by opening the curtain. Instead, she looked outside with him, gazing at the snow-covered landscape with a heart full of emotion.
Hearing this, Song Fengsui could not help recalling the circumstances of their exile. At the time, they had traveled all the way from the capital to Qianzhou, and the entire family had nearly collapsed along the way. Yet they had never imagined that the road to their final destination would be even steeper and more difficult than the journey outside.
It had been the height of summer. The heat had been scorching, and they had only a limited supply of water. Thirst, hunger, and exhaustion had constantly borne down on them. The soles of his feet had blistered and bled, and every step had brought a stab of pain, but he had not dared to collapse.
His mother had suffered heatstroke three or four times. Her face had been as pale as paper, and at any moment she might have closed her eyes and never opened them again. He could only force his swaying body to stay upright and search for herbs by the roadside for his mother to chew.
Those days truly seemed like a nightmare whenever he thought back on them.
When they had first arrived in Yan Town, he had dreamed almost every night. In his dreams, he saw his mother and father collapse. He would wake drenched in cold sweat, unable to see even a sliver of light in the pitch-black room. Sometimes he could not tell whether he had truly awakened from the nightmare or merely fallen into another one.
Life had improved greatly over the past two years, but from time to time he still dreamed of those days in exile.
There were still moments when he awoke in shock, struggling to breathe, his chest tight and constricted like that of a fish dying beneath the scorching sun. But every time he woke from such a dream, a warm and steady embrace would wrap tightly around him. A gentle voice would murmur words of comfort by his ear again and again, slowly calming his tumultuous thoughts.
He often thought that if he had not had Duan Yan, he would probably never have made it this far.
Song Fengsui reached out and took Mu Linghui’s hand. He knew what she was feeling, so he did not say much. He simply offered her the same comfort she had given him.
The carriage continued onward at a slow pace. After a long, jolting journey, they finally entered the city before nightfall.
The county had already been cleared up and business had resumed.
Not long before, the people had still been suffering from the lingering aftershocks of the war, and the city had seemed somewhat desolate. But now that the Little New Year had arrived, lanterns hung everywhere and decorations brightened the streets. The festive atmosphere had breathed new life into the county. After coming from a small town, the liveliness here felt especially striking.
Song Wushen and Song Xuemu had not returned to the town. Instead, they had been waiting at the city gate for quite some time. As evening approached and the wind and snow grew heavier, both of them had been growing anxious, afraid that the road would become too difficult and the procession would fail to reach the city before dark.
Fortunately, just as they were preparing to ride out toward the relay station to look for them, they spotted Duan Yan on horseback in the distance.
The joy of their reunion was impossible to put into words. They did not say much outside, but warmly welcomed the newcomers and returned to the residence together in a lively group.
The new residence was much larger than the houses in Yan Town and Chishan. Several separate courtyards had been arranged beneath the same roof.
After sitting in the carriage all day, Song Fengsui’s entire body felt stiff and sore. When he carried Little Ji into their courtyard, he did not even bother to rest indoors. Instead, he walked around the courtyard once.
Duan Yan first took Little Ji from him, then led him around.
Song Fengsui followed the covered walkway and looked over the new residence. It bore a slight resemblance to their old home in the capital, though the similarity lay only in the architecture. For example, this residence had a separate small kitchen, study, servants’ quarters, and so on. Their previous home had had only one main kitchen.
The quality of the accommodations was secondary to Song Fengsui. He was simply enjoying the novelty of arriving somewhere new.
After looking around, the two of them went inside together.
“Little Ji hasn’t traveled far from home since he was born, and in weather like this, I wonder if he’s gotten cold.”
As soon as Duan Yan entered the room, he placed the little boy on the spacious soft couch and loosened his swaddling clothes slightly. The child opened his round eyes wide. His little hands, clenched into fists like steamed buns, were held near his mouth, and he was gnawing on them with great enthusiasm.
When he noticed his father watching him, his little hand froze in place. He made a series of “puh-puh” sounds in response to Duan Yan, as though declaring that he had noticed him too.
Duan Yan was amused into a smile. The little boy was warm all over and smelled faintly of clean bedding.
“The carriage was bumpy, but he didn’t seem to mind. He thought it was something new. After waking up, he kept wriggling around inside his little blanket.”
Seeing how warm the room was from the charcoal brazier, Song Fengsui stepped forward and loosened Little Ji’s clothes a little. He felt around the child’s back and, sure enough, found that it was slightly damp with sweat.
Duan Yan hurried over to the trunks that had just been carried inside and searched for clothes for the little boy.
One entire trunk was filled with the child’s clothes, more than Duan Yan had for himself. Most of them had been made by Mu Linghui and Old Madam Duan. Before they left, Duan Yan had folded each piece into the trunk himself.
Song Fengsui ordered someone to bring hot water, dampened a cloth, and wiped the little boy’s chubby body. The two of them then changed him into clean clothes together.
After being wiped down, the child felt fresh and dry, and his spirits improved considerably. On the broad soft couch, he propped himself up and pretended to fly like a little swallow.
Song Fengsui was afraid that lying on his stomach might be uncomfortable, so he picked him up and laid him on his back. Little Ji immediately began babbling and fussing. In the end, Song Fengsui turned him over again and let him lie on his stomach and play to his heart’s content.
Duan Yan said the little one had grown sturdier and was probably trying to learn how to crawl, which was why he liked lying on his stomach.
The two of them stayed in the room and played with the little fellow for a while. Only after seeing that the child did not fuss despite being in an unfamiliar place did they finally relax.
The next day, Song Fengsui accompanied Duan Yan to the county office.
They had only just entered when a considerable commotion erupted from the clerks’ offices.
“Another relief station? There are already two relief stations in the city! It would be one thing if they had closed after providing aid for so long, but now they’re opening yet another one! Are they going to keep setting up these stations forever? Do they really think the granaries are overflowing with grain?”
The speaker was Old Liao, the registrar of the Revenue Office. The one who had gone to submit a grain requisition and caused a commotion in the Revenue Office was Wang Sheng, a clerk from the Works Office.
“It’s the higher-ups’ orders. Do you really think we can object? Every day, everyone in the Works Office is busy preparing the relief stations and distributing grain to refugees. Anyone who didn’t know better would think the entire Works Office had been dismissed and we’d all become cooks.”
The workers from the Works Office were clearly unhappy as well.
The clerk from the Personnel Office chimed in, “In just over a month, the grain we worked so hard to store in the county granary has already been given away in great white heaps—nearly thirty percent of it.
“The new ruler wants to win the people’s hearts, which is understandable. In a year of disaster, showing the city’s people some kindness is one thing. The people in the city are already grateful to him beyond measure. But now he wants to open the city gates and let all the refugees from the surrounding areas in to beg for food. Is there no end to this?”
Old Liao let out an odd, mocking snort. “It’s not just grain being handed out to refugees. Even salt, which is in short supply, has been diverted by the thousand jin to the state-run salt shops, where households can buy it only in limited quantities—and they aren’t even allowed to raise the price.”
“Looks like they intend to drain the county’s entire foundation to support the common folk.”
Someone said, “In my opinion, they might as well take every last sack of grain in the storehouses and give it to the refugees so they can play the great benefactor, then starve every official in the county office to death! The previous magistrate may have done nothing, but at least he put the office first. Now that the regime has changed, everything’s different!”
“Enough with the sarcastic remarks. The stores may still be fairly well stocked for the moment, but they aren’t enough to aid all the households under the county’s jurisdiction. What will the county do when the grain and salt are truly gone?”
“Registrar Liao, you’ve always overseen the Revenue Office and managed the stores. Why don’t you go speak with him? A county this large can’t be governed simply by winning the common people’s favor without restraint!”
Listening to the argument, Duan Yan’s brows drew tightly together. These old hands from the county office had been better than anyone at currying favor when they surrendered, each of them docile and obedient to every arrangement. Yet the moment they turned around and met in private, they had no shortage of complaints.
He started forward, intending to see what else they had to say.
Song Fengsui, however, grabbed him and pulled him away instead, leading him elsewhere.
“Don’t be angry. You shouldn’t blame these old officials for grumbling. The previous magistrate ignored everything outside the city and cared only for himself. The people beneath him grew accustomed to that way of doing things, so naturally they won’t adapt at once to a change in governance.
“Opening the granaries to aid refugees and watching the stores dwindle, all while disaster has struck and the world is in chaos—everyone has the most selfish instincts in times like these. They’re afraid that they themselves won’t have enough to eat in the future, so it’s inevitable that resentment will arise.
“If they don’t cause any trouble, then let them complain in private. But if their dissatisfaction leads them to stir up trouble, we’ll have a handle to seize and can deal with them accordingly. No one else will have anything to say about it. We’ve only just taken control of the county, and the people’s hearts are not yet united. Dismissing the old officials who surrendered on a whim could easily cause unnecessary problems.”
This was a lesson from past experience. When they had first arrived at Chishan, those militiamen who felt their interests had been harmed had left the training grounds in a fit of anger. Resentful, they had stirred up trouble among the households below.
Duan Yan naturally remembered those events as well. After Song Fengsui’s words, he gradually calmed down.
“It’s not that I deliberately want to target them. I’m simply angry.”
He took Song Fengsui’s hand and walked with him toward the study, speaking as they went. “The former County Magistrate Lü Xian was cowardly and useless, yet he was exceptionally skilled at harming others. You don’t know what I found when I entered the office and went to inspect the stores. There were tens of thousands of jin of grain piled up inside!
“When I questioned the people below, they said that aside from the grain taxes properly paid by the households, much of it had been forcibly collected after the disaster struck. The militiamen went from village to village, targeting towns that were easy to control.
“In a year of disaster, the common people had already suffered a devastating blow. It would have been bad enough if the county had refused to act, but they chose that moment to exploit and oppress them, squeezing the people dry and hoarding the proceeds inside the county office so they could feast and enjoy themselves behind closed doors, utterly indifferent to the chaos outside.
“If we weren’t in such urgent need of personnel, I would have dragged out every one of those petty officials and senior functionaries without a shred of compassion, then thrown them outside to see how the common people had lived these past two years under their rule.”
In troubled times, everyone naturally had selfish impulses and put themselves first. No one could blame them too much for ignoring the plight of others. But using the oppression of others to secure one’s own comfort was going too far.
Those who held office should perform their duties. The former county administration, however, had used its authority to harm people.
Song Fengsui had already learned from the refugees aided in Chishan that the former county government had done nothing to help. But he had never imagined that things were rotten to this extent. Hearing about the enormous quantity of grain, he felt no joy—only a deep sense of alarm.
He had known that the county was currently opening its stores to distribute grain and aid the people, and that the grain from the towns had not yet been transported to the county. He had assumed the county granaries did not contain much, which was why the officials were growing anxious as they watched the supplies flow out like water, fearing that their own salaries would eventually be affected.
He had never expected the county to have plundered so much life-saving grain from the people and hoarded it for itself. Even if they opened two more relief stations, the stores would not be exhausted anytime soon. Yet the moment they offered the disaster victims even a little aid, these officials were already panicking.
He suddenly seized Duan Yan’s hand. “I think your idea is excellent. We really should throw them out!”
“It’s bitterly cold now, and many disaster-stricken households in the outlying areas can’t make it to the city to collect relief grain. The roads are difficult to travel in this weather, which makes it the perfect time to let them experience some hardship. Don’t let them sit in warm rooms beside hot braziers while doing their work in the county office. Send every last one of them out to the towns and villages to deliver grain personally to the disaster victims.
“That way, they won’t have free time to spout nonsense, and they’ll get a good look at how comfortably they live in the county while the people below struggle to survive!”
Duan Yan could not help laughing after hearing this. “You really do have a way with things.”
“Let’s go discuss the details with Father. We can arrange everything during the New Year.”
