167: Chapter 167 From Where You Came, You Return

Seeing Su Chen approach her, the old woman was suddenly startled.

Zheng Territory was not far from Chaoge, and Su Chen's various "misdeeds" had already spread here, fueled by certain individuals.

With almost no hesitation.

The old woman's stick-thin body collapsed like a puppet that had lost its strings.

She knelt in worship before Su Chen.

The bones buried beneath a layer of sallow skin touched the earth, which was parched and cracked from the long drought.

She made a sound she often heard in her dreams.

The clinking and clanking sound of a ceramic bowl filled with grain hitting the ground.

After repeatedly confirming that Su Chen carried no weapons and was merely standing there to give her food.

The old woman took it with trembling hands, and cloudy tears instantly welled up.

She wanted to kowtow, but was gently held up by Su Chen.

"Elder, eat slowly. The child..."

Su Chen looked at the infant in her arms, whose breath was weak and who clearly didn't have many days left to live, his brow furrowing deeply.

He turned to the Eunuch and said.

"Go fetch some rice water."

This scene was witnessed by Su Daji from behind the gap in the carriage curtains.

"Is the King... acting?"

"Heh..."

"If all of this is just a performance for me, then it's a bit too realistic..."

When they arrived at the central town of Zheng Territory, the situation was even more severe.

The town had long lost its former bustle; the streets were deserted, and dying refugees lay everywhere on the ground.

The local officials had already received news of the King's arrival and came forward tremblingly to welcome him.

They shouted "Long live the King," but their eyes were flickering with uncertainty.

Su Chen didn't bother to pay attention to these officials.

Most of them had probably already been turned.

It wouldn't be surprising if they bore some responsibility for the current drought in Zheng Territory.

With such thoughts, Su Chen did not stay in the local government office.

Instead, he ordered a simple camp to be set up on a high piece of open ground outside the town, near a nearly dried-up riverbed.

He summoned the remaining Village Elders and the Village Head, ignoring their filth and fear, and had them recount the start of the disaster, the current state of the people, available water sources, and so on.

"Your Majesty, it's not this old man's idle talk, but this drought has come in a wicked way."

An old Village Head with white hair and beard knelt on the ground, tears streaming down his face.

"There have been droughts in previous years, but never like this one."

"Not a drop of rain has fallen for three whole months, the well water gets shallower day by day, and even the Underground Rivers are nearly pumped dry."

"The elders in town say that my Zheng Territory and even the entire Great Yin have perhaps offended some god..."

"A god?"

Su Chen's eyes flickered slightly as he said warmly.

"No god has the right to judge me, my kingdom, or my people."

"There is no need for alarm, elder."

"If the heavens do not send rain, I will lead you to find water and divert it."

"A living man cannot be defeated by a simple necessity."

After saying this, his gaze turned toward the Yellow River not far from Zheng Territory.

This section of the Yellow River's channel was several meters higher than the ground.

It was known by the locals as the "Suspended River."

Although the Yellow River's breaches during every rainy season always took many lives.

And because the riverbed was higher than the ground, the people did not dare to dig into the embankments to take water without authorization.

This left the people of Zheng Territory in a predicament where the river water was right before their eyes, yet they had nothing to drink.

But now, Su Chen had come.

He brought with him some shallow but absolutely sufficient modern hydraulic knowledge.

Thinking of this, he delayed no further.

The next day, he changed into simple coarse cloth clothes and personally surveyed the terrain, accompanied only by a few Artisans proficient in hydraulics and some guards.

Su Daji followed "under orders," watching the "King," who was so high and mighty in her eyes, step into knee-deep mud without hesitation.

He used his hands to pull apart the parched riverbed to investigate the soil layers, crouching on the ground with those dust-covered Artisans and old farmers, using sticks to sketch on the sand, debating water diversion routes and reservoir locations.

"Although the riverbed here is dry, three zhang below the sand layer, there are traces of an undercurrent."

"If we can head north from here and excavate three li along the old channel, we might be able to connect with the subterranean flow from the northern mountain streams..."

"Your Majesty, this method is a massive undertaking and requires precise slope calculations. If there is any error, all previous efforts will be in vain!"

"No matter, I will calculate it together with you."

"We'll try a few more times; we'll eventually find the most reliable way."

"Human lives are at stake. What does it matter if we expend some effort?"

Under the blazing sun, Su Chen's hair was soaked with sweat, clinging to his temples.

That face, usually so well-maintained and enchantingly handsome, was stained with mud, and the hem of his bright yellow casual robes was already filthy.

He seemed completely oblivious, sometimes lost in thought, sometimes in heated discussion with the Artisans, and sometimes personally wielding crude tools to clear the riverbed and tamp the foundations alongside the recruited young refugees.

Su Daji stood in the shade of a tree not far away.

As if to let her see all this clearly, Su Chen did not require her to work with them.

The dagger disguised as a silk handkerchief that she always held was being unconsciously clutched tight.

The man before her was like a completely different person from the cold-eyed tyrant who killed with a sword in the royal court.

His gaze was focused and bright, and his voice was hoarse from thirst.

He ate from the same pot of thin porridge as those mud-and-sweat-covered "pariahs," chatting and laughing with them without any barrier.

It was as if he were one of them.

The sun, like a raging fire, shone on his back, casting a long shadow.

Surrounding that tall shadow.

Were countless hunched shadows.

At this moment, Su Chen did not seem like the high and mighty, capricious tyrant of the court.

Instead, he was like the Five Sage Kings who appeared when the civilization of this world was first born.

Chosen by the people.

Coming from the people, and going to the people.

"A Sage King, he truly is a Sage King."

Nearby, several elderly men who had received porridge were discussing in low voices while drinking with tears of gratitude.

"The King himself is digging canals and diverting water for us commoners... It is unprecedented, unprecedented!"

"The last time was probably during the era of Sage King Yu in ancient times..."

"Who says the King is a tyrant? It must be the slander of those treacherous officials!"

"If we can survive, we must set up a Longevity Tablet for the King!"

These whispers drifted into Su Daji's ears with the wind.

The dagger in her sleeve tightened once more.

The killing intent was still there, and the hatred had not vanished.

It was a Great Wall of killing intent built from the lives of her family of five.

But the target of that killing intent quietly wavered before this scene that was too real to be faked.

She thought of her master's stern admonitions, the excited and cruel eyes of her senior sisters when talking about "missions," and the "blood feud" she had been indoctrinated with since childhood.

The intrigue within the Hehuan Sect, and the King before her who squeezed in among the muddy-legged peasants.

Those originally clear and firm images now slowly overlapped, becoming blurred and distorted.

They turned into something else.

After more than ten days of fighting without rest, a simple but practical irrigation canal was initially completed, connecting to a Yellow River seepage intake that Su Chen had temporarily created to prevent dam failure.