I Am Immortal in Great Yu

Under the scorching midday sun, shimmering waves of blinding white light rose from the ground. The air was thick with the nauseating, coppery-sweet stench of blood.

It was in this environment that Jiang Ping’an arrived at Fang Rui’s courtyard.

"I saw my door was locked, so I figured Sister-in-law Jiang and the others were over here," Jiang Ping’an said with a weary smile to Fang Rui.

"Brother Jiang, come in! My mother insisted she stay, so they’re in the kitchen making lunch right now..."

Fang Rui added, "You’re here, Brother Jiang. Please stay and have lunch with us."

"Then I’ll take you up on that!"

There was a stone table under the large willow tree in the courtyard. The two sat across from each other. Since Jiang Ping’an had to patrol in the afternoon and couldn’t drink, Fang Rui brought out some low-grade tea leaves to brew.

"From the sounds this morning, the city’s getting more and more chaotic," Fang Rui said. "Hm? Brother Jiang, you don’t look so good. Are you alright?"

"I’m fine, just exhausted. The city is in utter chaos; we can’t keep up with all the violent crimes. On top of that, we have to constantly be on guard for ambushes from Taiping Bandit spies. Our nerves are stretched to the breaking point..."

Jiang Ping’an gave a bitter smile. "It’s only when I’m here with you, Brother Fang, that I feel I can let my guard down, even for a moment."

"You’ve been through a lot, Brother Jiang." Fang Rui poured a bowl of tea and passed it to him.

"This is nothing for me. I’m much better off than many families. Brother Fang, you just don’t know..."

Jiang Ping’an shook his head and recounted what he had seen on his noon patrol. "I saw it with my own eyes. At one home, there was a woman, quite attractive, who had been stripped naked and was being surrounded by three or five local thugs..."

"And this was in broad daylight! I saw more than one case like that today alone. I can’t even imagine how many more I didn’t see..."

"There are too many, far too many!" he sighed.

Fang Rui listened quietly, not interrupting. As Jiang Ping’an spoke, tragic scenes, too horrible to look upon, seemed to flash before his eyes.

"When the state thrives, the people suffer. When the state falls, the people suffer. The latter, especially so," Fang Rui lamented.

"For those words, Brother Fang, one ought to down a large cup."

Jiang Ping’an instinctively raised his bowl. Only after taking a sip did he remember it was tea, not wine. The clear, bitter taste mingled with the morning’s visceral images, flooding his mind and leaving him stunned into silence.

Fang Rui, too, was silent.

To be frank, neither man was a saint in the absolute sense, but they both had moral lines they wouldn’t cross.

At this moment.

One was reeling from the things he had personally witnessed;

The other, a transmigrator, subconsciously compared this world to his past life. Listening to Jiang Ping’an’s account, backed up by the sounds he’d heard all morning, made him feel as if he had stepped out of a prosperous era and into the pages of a history book. His emotions churned, a complex and indescribable feeling.

—It was just like reading the phrase in a history book: ’In a year of great famine, people ate one another.’ One could never truly feel the weight of those words simply by reading them. Only by living in such an age could one truly understand such despair!

"Brother Rui, lunch is ready!"

In the end, it was the voice of Mrs. Xue of the Fang Family calling from the kitchen that broke the silence between the two men.

"Ma, why don’t you, Third Sister, Sister-in-law Jiang, and the children—Ling’Er and Nannan—eat in the inner room!"

Fang Rui added, "There are a lot of you, so take plenty of food. As for Brother Jiang and me, we’ll eat out here. We have some things to discuss that aren’t really for you all to hear..."

In wealthy households, there were many rules. The women and children could only eat after the male host and his guests had finished their meal.

However, a small household like theirs didn’t need to be so formal. It was enough to set aside some dishes for Mrs. Xue of the Fang Family and the others to eat inside.

"Alright then. You men go on and eat and talk!"

Mrs. Xue of the Fang Family, Third Sister, and Sister-in-law Jiang helped bring out the dishes and arrange them on the stone table before taking the group of children back inside.

The courtyard was large enough, so even with all of them in the inner room, it wouldn’t be crowded.

Outside, in the shade of the great willow.

Today’s lunch consisted of a large bowl of stir-fried bean sprouts, a small basin of cured pork with mushrooms, a small bamboo basket of sorghum flour buns, and two large bowls of white flour noodles.

"Such a lavish meal! Compared to this, Brother Fang, the hospitality I used to show guests seems downright shabby!" Jiang Ping’an joked, deliberately trying to lift the somber mood.

"Haha, we can only pull this off for a meal or two. Most of the good food we brought with us is on this table. Once we’ve polished it off, it’s gone. So don’t complain about my poor hospitality the next time you visit, Brother Jiang!"

Fang Rui passed him a pair of chopsticks. "Come on, Brother Jiang, eat up while it’s hot!"

They didn’t follow any strict rule like ’don’t speak at the table,’ so they chatted as they ate.

"I feel much better knowing Sister-in-law Jiang and the others are here. Thank you," Jiang Ping’an said gratefully.

"Brother Jiang, what are you saying? There’s no need to be so formal."

Fang Rui waved his hand dismissively. "In the past, you were the one looking out for my family, Brother Jiang. Now it’s my turn to repay the favor. Whenever you have to go out, rest assured that Sister-in-law Jiang and the others will be safe here."

"Speaking of which, though,"

He sighed again. "It wasn’t just other parts of the city; things weren’t peaceful this morning even here in Sweet Water Well Alley. I heard the sounds of smashing and looting not far from here... Two petty thieves even tried my courtyard, but I broke their arms and legs and tossed them out..."

"A pack of fools who can’t read the situation!"

Jiang Ping’an cursed in frustration. "The Taiping Bandit spies are running wild, and those local thugs have lost their damn minds, following them to stir up chaos everywhere, bullying commoners, and acting like tyrants... If they were really so tough, why wouldn’t they dare go after the major households?"

He was right. The Taiping Bandit spies were few in number; their true function was merely to act as a catalyst. Most of the chaos was actually being caused by the city’s pre-existing thugs and ruffians.

This bunch preyed on the weak and feared the strong. They relentlessly tormented the common people. Individually, they were weak, but there were so many of them that their collective destructive power was staggering, and the consequences were dire.