53: Doing good deeds should also take into account one's ability!

After devouring his meal, the Beggar felt that this was the best meal he had ever eaten in his life.

After finishing the meal, the Beggar asked curiously, "Rich brother, you clearly don't have to chop wood. Why are you doing it with me?"

"I have hands and feet, so why can't I do it?"

Lin Yue grinned, revealing a row of white teeth.

For a moment, the Beggar was stunned. "That's right, I also have hands and feet, yet here I am complaining about the unfairness of fate, begging everywhere with a low voice, and complaining even when I do a little work."

Suddenly, the Beggar understood. He turned to leave, secretly swearing in his heart that he would never be a Beggar again in this life.

"Wait a moment!"

Lin Yue called out.

The Beggar turned back, confused. He saw Lin Yue take some silver pieces from his waist and hand them to him. "This is your wage for chopping firewood. Go do what you need to do, and don't let me see you begging again."

As those words fell, the Beggar's eyes welled up with tears of gratitude. He knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times to Lin Yue before leaving without looking back.

Over the next few days, Lin Yue did the same thing. Whenever he saw someone begging from him, he would bring them into his home and make them work first.

The servants couldn't understand. Lin Yue could have just given them a bowl of rice and sent them on their way. Why go through all this extra trouble?

On the other side, his brother Bai Yuan's situation was very pessimistic. There were too many refugees, and he was buying grain at high prices to provide relief. No matter how vast his family wealth was, it had reached a point where it was difficult to sustain.

Considering that his wife and children still needed to live in the future, Bai Yuan eventually dismissed all the servants and stopped the congee distribution at the relief shed.

By living frugally on the remaining money and finding some work to do, they could still get by.

However, the next day, when the refugees queuing as usual saw that the congee shed was not open, they immediately erupted in an uproar.

"What's going on? Why isn't the congee shed open? I'm starving to death."

"Where is the Great Philanthropist Bai Yuan? Why isn't he giving out congee today? This is taking people's lives!"

"Great Philanthropist? I think he wants to kill people! He promised a bowl of congee every day, and now he's not giving it. What's the meaning of this?"

"I say we go straight to his house to find congee. If he doesn't give it, we'll take it!"

...Countless refugees gathered together and forcibly seized Bai Yuan's family property. Even when the town mayor arrived with men, they couldn't control these refugees.

The world was too chaotic; it was simply uncontrollable.

Looking at his empty home, Bai Yuan finally couldn't help but fall to his knees. "Why? Why is all this happening?"

At least half of the refugees he had previously helped were involved in this incident.

Ten days later, the war subsided, and life returned to peace. Those refugees also went their separate ways, returning to their original homes.

Fortunately, Bai Yuan still had farmland. Although his money was gone, he could at least eat his fill.

In contrast, Lin Yue's property was not affected at all, and he lived quite comfortably. Hearing about his brother Bai Yuan's situation, he even sent a servant to deliver some grain, considering their brotherhood.

Although Bai Yuan was overwhelmed with shame, for the sake of his family and their livelihood, he ultimately accepted these bags of grain.

In this way, several years passed in the blink of an eye.

This year was different from usual. A great drought struck, followed by an insect plague. The crops were eaten by insects until not a single grain remained, and the common people simply couldn't survive.

Bai Yuan was no exception. He relied on his fields to maintain his life. Now that grain was extremely scarce, you couldn't buy it even if you had money.

To survive, he could only leave the town and take his wife and children to a foreign land to beg for food.

His luck was not bad. Many of the refugees who had received his kindness back then remembered his goodness, so every household was willing to provide relief to Bai Yuan's family.

In the end, they managed to survive.

As for Lin Yue, he couldn't withstand this kind of natural disaster either. Money was useless; the key was that there was no grain for sale.

Just as he was thinking about whether to leave the town to live in a distant place, a middle-aged man driving a horse-drawn carriage arrived at the entrance of Lin Yue's house.

"Benefactor, do you still remember me?"

"Of course I remember."

Lin Yue smiled, because for him, only less than an hour had passed, and he hadn't even finished watching a single movie.

"Benefactor, your great kindness is something I will never forget. I recently heard that the disaster in your hometown is severe and people cannot survive. I have come from ten thousand miles away just to repay your kindness from back then."

As he spoke, the middle-aged man uncovered the carriage, which was packed full of food and money, and gifted it all to Lin Yue.

An unintentional kindness had borne fruit!

This middle-aged man was exactly the one Lin Yue had asked to chop wood several years ago. Over these years, using the small amount of capital Lin Yue had given him, he had focused on running a business in another place and had actually made a name for himself.

Repaying kindness from ten thousand miles away—there was no reason not to accept it.

Lin Yue pulled the middle-aged man into the house, and the two began to chat about the events of the past few years. As they were talking, another ox-cart arrived with goods.

It was also a poor person Lin Yue had helped back then.

In just a single day, a total of five or six groups of people arrived one after another. Rice, flour, fish, and meat were delivered to Lin Yue's house until the warehouse was overflowing.

Despite the disaster, Lin Yue was not only unaffected, but his life was even better than before!

After the disaster passed, his brother Bai Yuan returned to his hometown and looked at his younger brother in stunned silence. Seeing him eating meat and looking radiant, he simply couldn't believe that this had once been a major disaster area.

"Brother, how on earth did you do it?"

Bai Yuan asked with a face full of shock.

"These were all sent by the Beggars I helped before."

Lin Yue told the truth and didn't hide anything.

"How is that possible..."

Bai Yuan's mouth hung open. The refugees and Beggars he had saved before were more than several times those of Lin Yue, yet he could only survive on the charity of a few refugees.

In contrast, Lin Yue not only had vast family wealth but also more grain than he could ever eat. They were completely worlds apart.

Seeing that Bai Yuan didn't believe him, Lin Yue told him the way he had helped those Beggars back then. After hearing the whole process, Bai Yuan suddenly realized and his face turned red with shame.

"So that's how it is. I understand now. Although I set up a congee shed and helped countless refugees, I was eager for quick results and didn't consider my own ability. Such kindness is small kindness, false kindness."

"But you, brother, have a long-term vision. You didn't look at saving someone for a moment, but saving someone for a lifetime. You are the true Great Philanthropist!"

After saying this, his brother Bai Yuan knelt on the ground and wept bitterly. The entire town began to become distorted and illusory until it disappeared.

"You are truly surprising. No wonder you passed the first two trials so quickly."

The God of Kindness looked at Lin Yue in surprise. The strength of the Adventurer before him was truly beyond his expectations.

"I just followed my heart. There's no such thing as a free lunch in this world."

Lin Yue's expression was as calm as water. To be honest, he just felt that giving out free food was a loss.

"You passed the trial, so whatever you say is right."

The God of Kindness held his forehead, speechless.

The next second, a System prompt sounded.

"Ding, you have passed the trial of the God of Kindness. Seven Gods Trial quest progress (3/7)."