Five Gully Monk left, and Yun Zheng couldn't even find someone to consult about his predicament. Selecting a concubine was essentially putting the weight of ten thousand hopes on a chance of one in ten thousand.
Of course, there would be boundless luxury and wealth if things went well, but if not, it would be a lifetime of misery. Putting one’s fate at the whim of a man's favor, especially the emperor’s, was the most foolish thing to do.
Yun Zheng walked through the snow, shaking his head as he strolled. Without realizing it, he found himself near the workshop. Seeing a crowd gathered around the fire pit for their meal, Yun Zheng woke up to realize how many people he had been supporting.
Staring at two children whose mouths were still smeared with rice, Yun Zheng frowned and said, "When one is hungry, they must eat; this is unavoidable. However, food should not be wasted. Look, the food has gotten on their faces too."
The woman was taken aback but quickly picked up the rice from her child’s face and clothes, stuffing it into her own mouth. Yun Zheng nodded in approval before walking towards the banks of the Flowering Stream.
He was here only to add more mouths to feed and nothing else. Every one of them was eating without contributing anything back, like a wealthy landlord indulging themselves.
After numerous attempts with snowfall, the earth's heat finally dissipated completely, leaving a white expanse everywhere, quite clean.
Walking on an inch-thick layer of snow, he couldn't help but think that this scene could inspire some good poetry. However, Yun Zheng could not come up with any verses or even copylines from "Silver Serpent Dancing in Snow, Original Marching Like Wax Elephants."
Damned Chengdu, the first time it snowed and I was here! It should have been a place of perpetual spring, but now everything is covered by thick snow.
The sound of breaking bamboo all around him reminded him of the final cries of someone on their deathbed...
The emperor isn't bad; he knows that when people are running out of food, he can take pretty girls from common households to ease some pressure for officials.
Taking one or two beautiful women into his harem is despicable. If he could send all the starving women in Shu to the harem, Yun Zheng would bow five times and call it a great virtue.
He was worried, just angry about selecting Blue's concubine earlier, now concerned about feeding hundreds of mouths. A few hundred people eating each day was manageable, but filling their bellies with coarse rice for an entire winter would be a nightmare.
The grain in the storage room was dwindling at a visible rate. If this continued, there wouldn't be enough food even to feed rats by next month. Looking at women from afar who had come seeking help made him more worried. How could people reproduce so much? Each woman brought one or two children; some even brought twins despite being young girls. What if all of them were pregnant? His reputation was already at stake.