Chapter 501
The moment he finished speaking, the women around him began to wail again.
"System, did these people know we were coming? This is too much of a coincidence!"
[Host, if I weren't absolutely certain they couldn't possibly know our schedule, I'd suspect it too!]
The system was just as dumbfounded as its host. All it could say was that this was way too coincidental!
The crowd of onlookers grew larger and larger. They stood motionless—no talking, no crying, no leaving. They just stood there, occasionally glancing up at the sky.
It was enough to make Yue Fuguang feel a little uneasy.
But the eyes of these Southern Yue commoners were empty, wooden—like dry wells, like parched riverbeds.
"Big brother, didn't Kohana just say it? The goddess is Dà Yǎn's goddess, not our Southern Yue's goddess. Why would she come here to bring rain?"
"Weicheng, Fengcheng, and then later Yucheng—didn't they all get rain? Why can't we have it too?!"
At first listen, that seemed to make sense, but a moment's thought revealed it to be completely without logic.
So Yue Fuguang was now utterly speechless. Equally speechless, aside from herself and the system and Zheng Chunying and the other two, was the young woman referred to as "Third Sister-in-law."
Yue Fuguang even caught a glimpse of her rolling her eyes just a little. "Big brother, have you forgotten whose hands Weicheng, Fengcheng, and Yucheng are in now?"
The young man glanced around, and only when he saw no government officials did he chime in, "Yeah, big brother, Kohana's right. Those three cities... they're under Dà Yǎn's jurisdiction now."
But this area here was barely any distance from the capital and still belonged to Southern Yue. How could it be compared?
There was something else very strange too: the officials who usually roamed the streets grabbing people and beating them—not a single one was to be seen today. The entire main street had only commoners, no officials at all.
By all logic, with this many people gathered, officials should have already come to disperse the crowd. The fact that there wasn't a single one was quite odd.
"But if the goddess is an immortal, shouldn't immortals be compassionate and full of virtue? The goddess is the goddess of all the people under heaven—she shouldn't limit herself to just one city or one place!"
Kohana frowned, instinctively feeling that her brother-in-law, who couldn't even read a handful of characters, shouldn't be able to say something that sounded so reasonable but was actually inciting.
Just as Kohana was about to say something else, an old man leaning on a cane walked over. At the sight of him, the crying gradually quieted down.
"Get up, all of you. Go home." His voice was flat. He said this, then slowly turned and started back the way he came. After a few steps, he paused, looked back once, and continued on.
"If the heavens refuse to give us a way to live... we'll find our own." It sounded like he was talking to himself. His voice was so soft that it scattered in the wind.
"Father, I won't get up. I want to beg the goddess! Beg the goddess to look at us too, to save us!"
"A Quan, it's no use. We're still Southern Yue people. The goddess of Dà Yǎn can't see us."
Zhao Quan was still crouched on the ground, holding his head in both hands. "I don't believe it. I don't believe it. Why does she send rain to them but not to us? It must be that we haven't begged hard enough!"
"Father, my husband is right!" The woman who had been sobbing with her head down suddenly looked up, and Yue Fuguang finally got a clear look at her face—sallow and dry, she looked to be only around twenty years old.
She had stopped crying by now. Her voice was hoarse. "If the goddess doesn't send rain, it must be because she's angry that our offerings have been too little."
She abruptly reached behind her and pulled forward a little girl of three or four. "As long as the goddess is willing to send rain, I, this humble woman, am willing to offer our Dani to the goddess!"
Hearing someone offer up a living human sacrifice to her—and her own biological daughter at that—Yue Fuguang, sitting in her flying carriage, felt like ten thousand horses were stampeding through her mind.
"Little Zhu, what would I even do with her little girl? Raise her for free?"
[Master, this family's situation is off. They're clearly targeting you.]
Heshui Town sat on the main road leading to the capital, Gancheng. It was a large town, and merchants from north and south passed through in especially great numbers.
Although less than a tenth of the usual merchants were active due to the drought, wherever these people went, news followed.
"It should be a play staged by the Southern Yue court." The goal was still to dilute the narrative that "the emperor lacks virtue, and heaven has sent disaster upon Southern Yue."
If they wanted to use her reputation to whitewash Gan Sheng's name, they'd better check whether she agreed!
"Zhao's wife is righteous!" The surrounding people, who had been numb and expressionless, suddenly came alive and began praising the woman.
That no one found anything wrong with her offering up her own daughter as a sacrifice was deeply unsettling.
"The drought demon runs rampant, and as a deity, the goddess ought to save the world. This humble woman is merely contributing a meager effort—I don't deserve everyone's praise!"
Only Kohana and her husband pulled the little girl aside, strongly disapproving of her actions. "Sister-in-law, Dani is still little. How can you offer her as a sacrifice?!"
The Southern Yue people were deeply influenced by Nanzhao, and like them, they worshiped unorthodox sacrificial practices above all. Every year, for all sorts of reasons, many boys and girls were sacrificed. Those children were sent to the altar to die while still too young to understand the world. What had those children ever done wrong?!
"Yeah, sister-in-law, Dani is still little!"
"Didn't the goddess say that torrential rain would soon fall across all of Southern Yue? Then we'll have water to drink!"
Hearing her brother-in-law's words, the woman exchanged a glance with her husband. Zhao Quan's face immediately grew even more bitter. "A Qun, don't forget—the goddess did say there would be rain, but she also said the heavy rains would bring floods!"
The woman nodded repeatedly as well. "We just want to kneel and beg the goddess to send less rain upon our Southern Yue. We just want to live. What wrong have we done?!
If the goddess truly pours down heavy rain day after day, how can we possibly survive? Does the goddess really want to watch us innocent people die?"
[Master, isn't their attempt to shift the blame a little too obvious?] Whoever was behind this, coming up with a plan to wage a war of public opinion—they were clever.
"Obvious? But obvious is enough to steer public opinion!" Most commoners didn't understand much reasoning. When they heard everyone around them saying the same thing, they'd start to believe it was true.
If Southern Yue really managed to divert their internal conflicts outward, their court might buy itself a little more breathing room amidst these successive natural disasters.
"Didn't everyone say the emperor lacks virtue and heaven sends great disasters? The drought and the floods are because the emperor lacks virtue. What does that have to do with a goddess from another country?"
"That's right. I heard our disasters are all because the emperor lacks virtue. Nanzhao's drought is because of the drought demon, and the floods are because the imperial heirs are unfilial. Meanwhile, Dà Yǎn's goddess is kind and benevolent, giving us all an early warning!"
"Exactly, exactly. If we manage to survive this time, we should be sure to thank Goddess Yue properly! Once we become Dà Yǎn citizens, we'll be under the goddess's protection even more!"
"Little Zhu, saying something like that in front of so many people—does he not want to live?" The Zhao family could put on this kind of performance, which meant someone nearby had to be watching to review the results!
These people were speaking up for her and criticizing the emperor's lack of virtue—they'd definitely suffer for it.
[Master, don't worry. These people are all spies bribed by Dà Yǎn. They're our own. They can get away.]
[Performances like the Zhao family's aren't the first. The Dà Yǎn agents stationed here have long since worked out ways to handle it.]