Chapter 545 - 316: A Family That Accumulates Good Deeds Will Surely Have Abundant Blessings

Chen Yi was already used to Liu Lang’s lack of filter. Scolding him was useless. Only a good beating would teach him a lesson.

Retracting his gaze, Chen Yi looked at the frail boy standing before him, holding a bowl with both hands. He smiled gently and said, "Hold it steady."

He poured a ladle of rice gruel—half soup, half grains—into the bowl. The boy cast a fleeting glance at him, bowed low, and mumbled a soft, "Thank you, benefactor," before carefully carrying the bowl away.

Beside him, Xiao Wan’er was doing the same, her eyes lowered as she doled out the gruel to the refugees. She couldn’t bear to look closely, nor could she clearly make out the mud-caked, emaciated faces of these people, but their continuous chorus of gratitude filled her ears. Some voices were deep, some clear, some genial, and others muffled. Without exception, almost all were weak and feeble. It was only after they took a sip of the gruel that their SLURP finally carried a hint of vitality.

Whenever Xiao Wan’er raised her head, she would meet pairs of hopeful eyes, and an inevitable pang of sorrow would wash over her.

"Chen Yi, I’m afraid we won’t last much longer on our own," she murmured. "If the family’s grain runs out in a few days, they..."

Though her voice was soft, Chen Yi heard her clearly. He turned his head to look at Xiao Wan’er. Understanding how she felt, he said with a faint smile, "Families that accumulate good deeds will surely be blessed with abundance. Just do our best."

Chen Yi was well aware that relying solely on the Xiao Family’s grain to aid tens of thousands of refugees was completely impossible. It wasn’t realistic. Even if all the other Noble Families pitched in, they would eventually eat through their reserves; it would still be a drop in the bucket. Only if the Government Office stepped in to properly disperse and settle the refugees, and manage the food supply, could this crisis be thoroughly resolved.

Xiao Wan’er lifted her head slightly to meet his gaze. The distress on her pale face faded a little as the corners of her lips curved upward in a breathtaking smile.

"Mhm, just doing our best is enough."

On the other side of the encampment.

Ma Liangcai was leading Yuan Liu’er, Yuan Hao, and a few others to treat the severely ill refugees. He checked their pulses and diagnosed their conditions, teaching Yuan Liu’er along the way.

"This elderly man is old and frail. After stumbling all the way here, his vitality has been drained, and exhaustion has turned into illness...

"Ma’am, rest and don’t move. The wound on your leg is too severe, and the infection is spreading upwards. I will administer acupuncture first...

"And also..."

Yuan Liu’er watched carefully and listened attentively, silently committing everything to memory. Unknowingly, she grew more familiar with the *Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases* she had been studying over the past few days.

Although Yuan Hao heard some of it, he couldn’t remember or understand a thing. After a short while, he felt bored. Catching sight of a few boys nearby who had just finished their gruel, he wandered over to join them. They murmured in hushed voices, mostly exchanging questions like where they were from, how old they were, and what their names were.

Yuan Hao grinned, told them his name, and asked how they had managed the journey.

"We just followed wherever the adults went, crossing mountains and rivers," a relatively sturdy boy with tanned skin replied, looking at Yuan Hao with envy.

"Then what did you eat?" Yuan Hao asked.

"In the beginning, everyone had dry rations. When those ran out, we scavenged for food everywhere," the boy answered. "Have you ever eaten Black Bear?"

"Bear?" Yuan Hao asked, surprised.

"Yeah! My dad and the others hunted a Black Bear. It was massive, and it fed a lot of people a full meal."

Seeing the tanned boy thump his chest proudly as if he had hunted the bear himself, Yuan Hao glanced around enviously. "Your dad is so amazing! Is he here?"

For ordinary commoners, studying or practicing martial arts was an unreachable luxury. Therefore, the strongest among ordinary people naturally became their idols.

The tanned boy’s smile froze. He turned his head away, his expression turning sorrowful. "He’s gone.

"It was raining heavily that day. My dad took some people up the mountain to hunt, but they ran into Grandpa Mountain God’s fury and got buried in a mudslide."

Yuan Hao was just about to apologize when the tanned boy took a deep breath and continued.

"My dad said that a man has to live on his feet in this life. No matter how hard or bitter it gets, you have to grit your teeth and endure it.

"I survived, so I have to keep living for my dad."

Yuan Hao looked at him, at a loss for words. After a long while, he finally said, "Good man."

Hearing this, all traces of sorrow vanished from the tanned boy’s face. "I think my dad was a good man, too. Along the way, he and a few older men saved a lot of people..."

As they chatted, the boys grew more acquainted and began playing simple games together. It was straightforward: tossing a copper plate and guessing heads or tails. The loser had to carry the winner on his back for a lap. Before long, the lively, playful laughter of the youngsters echoed through the otherwise lifeless crowd of refugees. Simple and pure.

Yuan Liu’er turned her head to look. Seeing Yuan Hao having fun, she smiled softly and continued assisting her master, Ma Liangcai, with the free clinic. Chen Yi noticed them too. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he went back to serving gruel to the refugees.

Everyone remained busy.

It was past Noon before nearly fifty thousand refugees had all received a bowl of gruel. Taking a brief moment to rest, Chen Yi and Xiao Wan’er pulled Xiao Xuanshuo, Liu Si’er, and the others aside to discuss the upcoming arrangements.

"With twenty thousand bushels of grain, if we use it sparingly, it should last us ten days."

"We can’t calculate it like that," Chen Yi said.

"Sir?"

Chen Yi pointed toward the official road east of Lin Village and said softly, "There are still refugees on the way."

This was merely the first day of the refugees’ arrival; there was no telling how many more would follow. At a conservative estimate, making it past five days would be a blessing.

Xiao Wan’er looked at him. "Chen Yi, do you have a solution?"

"There is a way. If we exchange all our fine grain for coarse grain, we can stretch it for another five days. Plus..." Chen Yi paused, his tone growing more resolute. "Let’s use only coarse grain."

One bushel of fine grain could be exchanged for two bushels of coarse grain. Every extra day they could endure mattered.

They just had to hold out until...

Chen Yi’s gaze swept past Xiao Wan’er and landed outside a manor near the edge of Lin Village—under the eaves, Zhang Dabao, Liu Lang, Xue Duanyun, and the others had been continuously peering in their direction. He didn’t know if those grain merchant guilds had been successfully fooled.

After a moment of thought, Chen Yi whispered a few words to Xiao Wan’er. "I’ll go over there and take a look."