Master of Strange Dao

Yu Ziqing extended his hand, wanting to touch something around him, but he couldn't touch anything, he could only watch like this.

After a few days, everything seemed ordinary, but soon, Yu Ziqing noticed a person, the neighbor of this family.

A man who was also quite ordinary, raising a child alone, living a difficult life, doing odd jobs in the city, but managing to keep his family fed.

However, life's ups and downs are inevitable, even in labor, there is a busy season and an off-season.

A very ordinary man, without much education, relying on his physical strength to earn a bowl of rice, compared to the many commoners here, this was already considered good, at least he wasn't starving.

But soon, changes came, a Fifth Grade court official of the Daqian Dynasty fell from power, reportedly because of involvement in internal Jinyi Wei conflicts, now a new Commander has appeared, and the official was purged.

No one here in this small town knew the actual situation.

The result was that this official's family in the Capital City lost its protection and suddenly had to face a swarm of hungry wolves, in just a month, the family's power crumbled drastically.

And this family was the big household in town, where this man usually worked.

Not only did the man lose work opportunities, but a whole bunch of people who depended on this family's industry for food lost their livelihoods.

Adding to this, as winter began, the problems grew even larger.

In previous years, this East Qian region rarely got cold enough to freeze, and this time of year was usually the busiest for labor, with most of the year's income earned in these few months.

This year there were no work opportunities, the weather got colder, as winter began, a thin layer of ice already formed on the surface of the water tank, and firewood became more expensive than usual.

The man went out early every day to search for work, then by the river to check, and to the county government office for any possible court recruitment, according to past experiences, although it didn't pay well, at least it provided food, if he ate enough, the family could save half the grain.

However, the reality was that there was almost no recruitment, the rare ones who did were through brokers.

Unfortunately, the man was not chosen.

The family's grain supply dwindled day by day, the little son at home ate less and less.

It hadn't been half a month, and a family in town was heard to have burned down their house accidentally while burning wood for heat, the man dared not leave his son alone at home to burn some wood either.

There was hardly any wood, only used a little for cooking.

Going outside the city to chop wood became far more dangerous during winter than usual, to get wood they had to travel thirty or more miles.

There were hills and woods nearby, but unfortunately, those hills belonged to a wealthy family.

Life at the man's house grew more difficult, the neighbors, that young girl's family, although struggling as well, at least did not lack a mouthful of food.

Winter got colder and colder, colder than the previous year, the man grumbled about the damned weather, continued looking for work, and early as possible, scrambled for some discarded charcoal ash from wealthy households to pick out some usable ashes.

Unfortunately, he came late, the scraps had been secretly collected by servants of the wealthy homes, given to their own kin, not discarded.

A few more days passed, life grew more unbearable, the rice jar started to hit bottom, the son was sensible enough to sneak out and help families in an alley, earning some food, but also got chilblains on his hands.

The man felt sorry for his son, while using a home remedy to rub his hands, still saying they had met good people.

Then, the next day, as he left again, he heard a servant from the wealthy household had returned home for a funeral, because someone at home was poisoned by carbon monoxide while burning, and never woke up again.

Thinking of the chilblains on his son's hands, the man muttered that it was fortunate they hadn't taken those ashes.

Yu Ziqing's gaze went towards the young girl's house, as usual, ordinary yet somewhat struggling, while the man's son knocked at the door, wanting to help find some work, the kind-hearted woman who opened the door gave the boy a bit of food.

The boy refused, saying he just wanted to work, and would like some food in return.

Actually, in this season, there wasn't much work to do, just chopping wood or fetching water, and then at mealtime, they could join for a warm meal, this, was already encountering a kind family.

The man left early and returned late, opening the rice jar upon returning, it was already empty, with half a thing resembling a yam left on the table.

Just like this, they endured for three days, and the little boy fell ill, the man couldn't afford it, nor buy medicine, with gritted teeth he went to borrow money.

After two days of struggle, the boy finally broke his fever, managed to hang on.

Yet by the third day, the thugs collecting debt came with a debt note marked with a handprint, reminding the man if they couldn't repay with interest by the seventh day, they'd have to take his son to settle the debt.

At this moment, the neighboring young girl brought a steaming bowl and knocked on the door, saying she heard the boy next door was sick and brought some hot food.

The girl was somewhat afraid of the thug's gaze, and quickly left after delivering the food.

Now, those threatening debt collectors watched the girl leave, didn't make a fuss, and as they were leaving, said to the man.

"Your son is sickly, taking him would be a loss too, we don't wish to take your son, but it's an unavoidable choice, we must give our superiors an explanation, to keep our jobs."

Then the tone changed, and they said.

"However, sending that little girl just now to settle the debt works too, even get an extra half jar of rice.