The calamities plaguing Mirror Mountain did not cease with Sun Zhengyi’s beheading.
As panic gripped the people and cries of suffering filled the land, over a dozen grain boats sailed into the Jingshan County docks.
But this was not grain for disaster relief.
Instead, it was "high-priced grain" from the Noble Families, a supposed act of "grace" used to acquire farmland.
Six bushels of grain for one acre of prime paddy field.
The moment the news broke, it was like pouring cold water into a vat of boiling oil, instantly triggering a storm of public fury.
"Six bushels of grain for an acre of land? They might as well just rob us blind!"
"Those goddamn, black-hearted bastards! They’re taking advantage of the disaster, trying to swallow up the last bit of land we own!"
"A good acre of land is worth at least thirty to forty bushels of grain! This is blatant robbery!"
"The grain from outside is taking forever to arrive. I’ll bet they’re the ones behind it!"
Angry shouts and curses filled the air once more.
Many families, driven to desperation, looked at their empty rice jars and their wailing, hungry children. They were forced to choose between survival and their ancestral lands.
A single land deed, exchanged for a few meager bushels of life-saving grain to barely cling to life.
...
The Lingxi Chen Family.
Unlike the turmoil rocking other places, their home was remarkably peaceful.
When the Water Bandits came ashore last year, Lingxi Village was spared.
The forced levy from the County Magistrate’s Office had been covered by the grain stores left behind by Chen Yongxiao’s family, leaving the reserves of the ordinary clan members largely untouched.
As a result, most members of the Chen Family, while not wealthy, still had enough surplus grain to get by.
Furthermore, the public granary that Chen Li had previously proposed establishing still had reserves. The occasional family facing true hardship could borrow a small amount from it to tide them over, ensuring they would not starve immediately.
As for the troublesome mandate to convert rice paddies to mulberry fields, the Chen Family handled it with far more composure.
Of the clan’s more than three thousand acres of land, only fifteen hundred had to be converted.
Chen Li volunteered to handle one thousand of those acres himself, using his own land and the fields he managed for others.
Chen Li also provided the Mulberry Seedlings for the remaining five hundred acres to his clansmen at a fair price. This saved them from having to desperately compete for the pitiful handouts from the County Magistrate’s Office, or being extorted by the Silk Shop’s exorbitant prices.
While Mirror Mountain descended into chaos, the Lingxi Chen Family maintained basic stability and order.
The clan’s morale was relatively stable, and their faith in Chen Li grew stronger.
However, for the Wang Family, located just across the Lingxi, the situation was worlds apart.
A short while ago, their patriarch, Wang Shiming, had died a bizarre and violent death at home. Government constables and a forensic doctor from the Government Office had come to investigate.
Based on the evidence at the scene and the previous rumors about a Secret Manual, they concluded that Wang Shiming and his family had likely been killed by the two individuals who had tried to steal the manual.
But the Government Office could not find the two, so they could only file a report, issue a wanted notice, and hastily close the case.
Wang Shiming’s death was a devastating blow to the Wang Family.
Now leaderless, the clan members had tried to elect another wealthy and prominent figure, Wang Shihui, as the new patriarch.
Unexpectedly, and for reasons unknown, Wang Shihui adamantly refused to take on the role, avoiding it like a hot potato.
Left with no other choice, the Wang Family members appointed a clan elder to the position.
In peaceful times, such an arrangement might have been enough to get by.
But these were disastrous times. After Wang Shiming’s death, the silver coins he had hoarded in his home had long been secretly taken by Shu Qi and delivered to Chen Li.
His fields were confiscated by the Government Office, while his grain reserves and the mansion itself were all claimed by his close relative, Wang Shihui.
The other members of the Wang Family didn’t see a single benefit.
In fact, having lost their most powerful protector and resource manager, their lives became even more difficult than those of people with different surnames.
The new patriarch commanded no prestige and owned only a few dozen acres of land. He had neither the resources nor the ability to help them resolve their crisis.
In desperation, dozens of Wang Family members, led by a few hot-headed youths, gathered together and went to find Chen Li.
They hoped he would help them out for the sake of being fellow villagers, asking to borrow some grain and Mulberry Seedlings to get through the crisis.
Chen Li, of course, refused their request without a second thought.
If they wanted grain, they would have to trade their land for it.
The members of the Wang Family erupted in an uproar and left in a fury.
A mere two or three days after the incensed Wang Family members had departed.
The night was deep and still, shrouded in silence.
Most families in Lingxi Village, exhausted and hungry, had long since fallen into a deep sleep.
Suddenly, a series of shrill barks tore through the night sky, followed by a woman’s piercing scream, "Fire! Fire! Somebody, help!"
A thick plume of smoke shot toward the heavens as crimson tongues of flame greedily licked the night sky, painting half of it an ominous orange-red.
The fire was raging with incredible ferocity—it was at Wang Shihui’s mansion.
"It’s Wang Shihui’s home!"
"Quick! Go put out the fire!"
The members of the Chen Family across the creek were also roused by the commotion.
Though there was much animosity between the two families, a fire was a matter of life and death. No one dared to be complacent. Many from the Chen Family grabbed buckets and shouldered hoes, quickly rushing to the opposite bank.
By the time everyone arrived, the Wang Family’s residence was already a sea of flames.
Fanned by the wind, the fire burned with a furious CRACKLE, the sound of collapsing beams and pillars echoing ceaselessly.
The Wang Family members also rushed over frantically from all directions, the sounds of splashing water and panicked shouts creating a chaotic din.
They struggled to douse the flames, but the fire was too large and the creek too far away. Their efforts were like trying to put out a forest fire with a teacup.
It wasn’t until the latter half of the night that the blaze was finally brought under control, but the entire residence had been burned down to a few scorched, crumbling walls that still smoldered, filling the air with a pungent, burnt odor.
At first light, people began to clear the ruins.
Amidst the scorched earth and rubble, they found seventeen corpses, burned into shrunken, unrecognizable husks that resembled lumps of charcoal.
The bodies were huddled closely together, a horrific sight to behold. It was impossible to identify anyone. Based on the number and location, they could only deduce that it must be Wang Shihui and his family.
"This is monstrous..."
"They’re gone... all gone..."
A whole family, annihilated in a single night!
A sense of shared grief and fear fell over those who had fought the fire.
"This is no small matter. We must report it to the officials immediately."
The Wang Family’s patriarch went to discuss the matter with Chen Li.
Chen Li nodded and casually instructed Chen Pi to go with two young men from the Wang Family to report the incident at the County Magistrate’s Office.
The three of them arrived at the County Magistrate’s Office and found two government constables, both looking weary and yawning.
"How many dead?" one constable asked languidly.
"Seventeen... Seventeen people, Officer. It was an entire family... all... all of them are gone!" the young man from the Wang Family answered, his voice trembling.
"How’d the fire start?"
"We... we don’t know! It just suddenly went up in flames in the middle of the night!"
"Hmph. Must’ve been careless with fire, or maybe it was a lightning strike."
The other government constable cut him off impatiently, casually scratching a few notes into a ledger. "Noted. Jingshan Wang Family, head of household Wang Shihui, lost to house fire, seventeen members incinerated. All right, hurry back and bury them. It’s hot out; don’t go starting a plague!"
"Officer! Sir, please investigate more carefully! This... this fire is suspicious! Besides, how could not a single person have escaped?" the young man from the Wang Family pleaded in desperation.
"Investigate what? They’re all burned to cinders! How are we supposed to investigate that?"
The government constable glared and shouted, "The county is already buried under a mountain of cases, and the Magistrate is running off his feet! You think he has time to waste on your little house fire? Get lost! Get lost! Keep nagging and I’ll have you all thrown in jail!"
When the three returned, they recounted their experience with the officials to the others in painstaking detail.
For a time, a chilling sense of unease fell over everyone in Lingxi Village; no one felt safe.
The world had fallen into chaos.