Chapter 524: Chapter 524

But if the drought continued for two or three years or more, not to mention sweet potatoes, there would increasingly be fewer things on the ground available for humans to eat.

Tangyuan had never experienced famine before and had never imagined that she would encounter it in this lifetime.

The movie "1942" had left a profound impression on her, so even though she had not stepped out of her space, she knew how dire the situation outside was.

As a woman holding a child on the street, she did not know if she could protect her child, so she dared not take the risk.

Fortunately, when she had originally ridden out on horseback, the horse had stayed with her in the space; otherwise, the horse’s fate would likely have been very bleak.

Tangyuan did not know martial arts, and because giving birth had caused her weight to soar to 120 pounds, the sight of such a plump woman walking on the street felt perilous.

She was not a savior, so in this dangerous time, self-preservation was her first thought.

She might not take care of the people outside, but she could not ignore the townsfolk and the warriors in the barracks.

Every night when it was quiet and her child was asleep, she would don a black dress and black skirt, carrying a cloth bag she had sewn herself. Wherever people lived, she would throw in a bag—not much, just two pounds at most—sometimes it was corn, rice, flour, soybeans, mixed grains, whatever she had, she threw.

The barracks were crowded; she put in 100 pounds at a time, and 100 pounds, if consumed sparingly, could last two to three days. After all, there were over a thousand people there, and three days was the result of their utmost economy.

The first time she delivered it, everyone felt it was Heaven’s mercy. By the second and third deliveries, everyone started wondering who the good Samaritan was, as not only their barracks but the entire town benefitted from the grain. Thus, everyone stayed up at night, hoping to catch a glimpse of this person.

With the space as her cover, how could they see her? Perhaps while you were feigning sleep, she had already delivered the grain.

Since no one starved and the real benefactor was not found, in the end, everyone attributed it to the spirits and deities, bowing and kneeling in thanks to Heaven and Earth.

However, when the affairs of the Yuxi barracks reached Beijing, Rong Heng keenly sensed something unusual and instinctively accredited these deeds to Tangyuan, then suddenly, he stood up.

"I’ve been looking for her for a year, almost scouring the entire Nanling Country, yet who would have thought, she was actually staying in the same place, not moving an inch. Yuanyuan, oh Yuanyuan, how could you be so heartless?"

In the past year, because of the drought, it had tormented him, the Emperor, wearing him down so much that he had lost more than twenty pounds. The common people couldn’t get enough food and were thin and haggard from hunger. Was being an Emperor any better? The entire Forbidden City was economizing in clothing and food, preparing vigorously. Even his daily ration had been reduced to one dish and one bowl of rice, and everyone in the harem did the same. This was in fear of a prolonged drought of two or three years that could starve people to death, so it was essential to prepare various emergency measures in advance.

But he hadn’t expected that during such a difficult time, someone was still delivering food to the military camp and the common people, limited only to Yuxi Town. He felt his intuition was not wrong—it had to be her, it must be her.

He desperately wanted to find her, but he couldn’t because it was a critical period of the drought, and he had to stabilize the situation from his position in the court. If he made any sudden moves, he feared the entire country might be thrown into turmoil.

His only option was to issue a royal decree, ordering the soldiers at the border to encircle the entirety of Yuxi Town, checking everyone who came in and out. They all carried a portrait of Tangyuan, clearly intending to surveil her.

Unfortunately, Tangyuan didn’t know because she only went out at night to do good deeds. There was nothing during the day but disaster victims everywhere. What was there for her to do during the day?

Thus, most of her time was devoted to her child. Taking care of a child was not easy; she was on call 24 hours a day, waking up now and then to feed milk, wash diapers, cook her meals, and still she had to find time to tend to the fields. Her confinement had been anything but easy.

She named her son Rong Yue, with the style name Heng Yuan.

After her confinement, she would occasionally take the baby out to the forest to bask in the sunlight, worried the overly sterile environment inside might not condition the child well to the outside air. So, every day after her confinement, she’d take him out for a while to strengthen his immunity—and it seemed he enjoyed the outdoors, too, his bright eyes cheerfully following the light.

The severe drought had drained the trees in the forest of their usual vitality and life. Occasionally, she’d see commoners picking leaves to eat. They hadn’t yet resorted to eating bark or gnawing on roots, but the fact they were picking leaves was a sign that the drought was worsening.

To understand more, she sometimes intentionally hid in crowded places to overhear conversations. From their talks, she realized she’d only focused on delivering food to the townspeople and had overlooked the villagers below.

But the town gates were closed at night, and she couldn’t leave. When she thought about leaving during the day, she unexpectedly saw soldiers questioning everyone, not sparing even men and women of short stature. She noticed they were holding portraits and realized he still hadn’t given up on finding her.

In an instant, her nose tingled, and tears fell.

She sniffled, shook her head, and returned to her forest, entering her space, not stirring further trouble.

Afterward, she didn’t go out to distribute food for two or three months because she learned from the conversations of the common people that many were waiting for her to save them. For that bit of grain, all sorts of human nature were revealed—parents, spouses, children, everyone for themselves, fighting and shouting for that bit of rice.

To prevent such incidences and to avoid people doing nothing but waiting for her food distributions, she stopped delivering food anywhere except to the military camp after three rounds, and even there, it became less and less; how could she dare give more?

As the child grew day by day, she noticed Ah Yue was becoming more and more like him, his whole face a reflection of his like a duplicate. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel_fіre.net

She didn’t know how he was faring. The commoners were too distant from him, and she couldn’t hear anything about him. Out of desperation, she sneaked into the military camp, trying to overhear valuable information from the warriors. To her surprise, she learned that he had suspected she was in Yuxi Town long before she had started distributing food.

She didn’t know where his intuition came from, but such precise instincts were terrifyingly accurate. To find out more about him, she needed to stay hidden in the corners of the military camp, even if that meant she couldn’t take her child out to soak up the sun, it was worth it.