"However, before discussing the trade, I need to first understand the situation." he asked, "Who is that person?"
"Shen Fang, the Governor of Zhangwei."
Chen Xuan checked on his phone and found that this position is roughly equivalent to the mayor of a municipality.
As for Liu Shuyue, she was directly assigned by the Sect to assist the king, and could be considered as vice-national level, her status should be above the other party.
"He doesn't listen to you?"
"He doesn't need to listen to me because I never considered intervening in politics from the start. At that time, I felt that doing so would allow me to maintain my integrity without losing my original intention because of power, but the price was losing power."
Liu Shuyue sipped her coffee, as usual cringing at the bitterness, but quickly took another large gulp, as if the bitterness was no longer that hard to bear for her.
She spoke without a trace of regret.
In other words, Liu Shuyue did not feel any lingering resentment over her lack of power.
"I just don't understand... why humans can't learn any lessons from history." She murmured while gazing at the coffee.
It seems a lot had happened in the last five years.
"It's alright, you can slowly tell me... this store exists precisely to solve the confusion and troubles in customers' hearts."
"I also wish to speak slowly," Liu Shuyue shook her head slightly, "but alas, time waits for no one... every delay means potentially more deaths, so I'd rather cut to the chase."
With that, she finished her coffee in one gulp.
Strange... in memory, this stuff was clearly more bitter than sweet, but now it seems more sweet than bitter.
Even the face of this young merchant... didn't look as scheming.
Had her standards lowered?
She paused briefly, then said seriously, "A great disaster occurred in the western part of Qing State. You probably don't know this, but the city we're currently in, Zhangwei, is within Qing State. The disaster was caused by a demon called Anba, which withers the rice fields and stops the harvest of fruits. Demon Slaying is my duty, so I came here to eliminate it, but the disaster won't disappear just because the demon is gone. As it was close to harvest season, the consequences of this famine are particularly severe, affecting over 300,000 people."
"I came from the west, and along the way saw countless refugees... In this situation, only heading to those less affected state cities offers a chance to survive."
At this point, Liu Shuyue's expression darkened slightly, as if recalling something unpleasant.
"It turned out to be a famine..."
Chen Xuan knew that these refugees definitely didn't include the wealthy families and those fed by the emperor, as they surely had stockpiled grains, and even if they didn't, could buy at a high price.
When famine strikes, what really kills are those ordinary people with no grain or money— their ability to withstand risks is too weak, making it hard to endure the long period of soaring grain prices, hence fleeing becomes almost the only option.
The problem is, the Governor of Zhangwei neither agrees to let these refugees into the city nor wishes to disperse them to other towns.
His only current measure is handing out relief porridge at the city gates.
And this amount of grain might be enough to handle a thousand people, but six or seven thousand already seems insignificant, let alone the fact that more refugees will continue to arrive.
Liu Shuyue's proposal was also quite "advanced," one is issuing government bonds, the other implementing work-relief.
Bonds are purchased by noble clans and big households, the money and grains raised are used for disaster relief, without burdening the government finances; work-relief can prevent free feeding while also strengthening Zhangwei city's construction. Just hold out until relief funds and grains from various places arrive, and the problem will be resolved.
Upon hearing this, Chen Xuan couldn't help but smile knowingly.
These two suggestions were obviously answers Liu Shuyue found from the Encyclopedia of Ancient and Modern, having been tested by multiple disasters, this combination is almost the optimal solution.
"So the argument I just heard was about you making suggestions."
"Correct, he rejected them." Liu Shuyue sighed, "I can guess what he's thinking... as long as the king doesn't order, he acts by the rules; doing nothing extra is not wrong, doing more is prone to mistakes. Besides, grain prices haven't reached their peak yet, fleeing folks still have some money on them, now taking grain money from large families for relief is like opposing them, why bother?"
"So he told me that the disaster relief message has already been dispatched to the Royal City at top speed, with 800 miles urgency, and other state cities are also gathering grain supplies to rush support locally, so there's no need to take redundant actions. What I need to do now is to calm the people, to prevent panic among the citizens due to rapid food price increases."
Chen Xuan heard her sneer for the first time.
"I'm afraid, to Lord Shen, those refugees outside are no longer considered people at all. Now there are six or seven thousand people, in a few days it will become ten thousand, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands perhaps? This isn't the first time something like this has happened in Qing State, and the books have documented riots of starving people seizing the city. Isn't he at all afraid of history repeating itself?"
"Because he truly has a cow."
"What kind of metaphor is that..." Liu Shuyue's expression was grave, "I can't let things continue to develop like this... Many people will die that way. I must admit, at the moment I saw you, I felt fortunate. I want to exchange abilities - an ability that can solve the current problem."
Chen Xuan nodded but did not immediately reply.
"I know this request is excessively unreasonable, and probably only the Lotus Cloud Sect can properly handle this matter, but the Sect surely won't meddle in mundane worldly matters. If there's any other opportunity that can aid me, the only thing I can think of is this shop." She stood up, cupped her hands, and gave a salute, "Correspondingly, I will exchange with a top-grade ability!"
Seeing him remain silent for a long time, Liu Shuyue's eyes lowered, "I was being presumptuous, it's true that such an extraordinary ability probably doesn't exist—"
"Who says it doesn't?" Chen Xuan suddenly interrupted, "As long as the customer has needs, this shop can surely meet them."
Her eyes lit up.
"But I have a few questions to ask you..." He motioned for her to sit down again, "If I remember correctly, Sect disciples are not responsible for disaster relief, right? Disasters caused by demons cannot be blamed on you, so even if you don't care for those refugees, no one can criticize, and disaster relief is the Government's matter. If you try to intervene, you will certainly encounter numerous obstacles, which may go against your original intention of not meddling in politics. Do you really need to go this far?"
Liu Shuyue looked at him for a long time before shaking her head and said solemnly, "Not long ago, I thought the same way."
"Not long ago?"
"When I cut off Anba's head, almost last week. The demon died, and my goal was achieved... Next would be to go to another town to handle the next issue. After all, places troubled by demons aren't just in the west of Qing State, and currently, only Sect disciples are more adept at solving such troubles."
Chen Xuan nodded in agreement, or rather, this fits the practice of Lotus Cloud Sect cultivators precisely—there are plenty of officials capable of taking on disaster relief tasks, but those capable of slaying demon fiends are extremely rare.
It's true that there is a specialization in the art; Liu Shuyue couldn't possibly not understand this principle.
"But on my way back to Zhangwei, I saw something... it changed my mind."
"What did you see?" Chen Xuan asked curiously.
She closed her eyes, as if recalling the scene at that time, "I passed by a deserted land and saw a dilapidated temple with smoke rising from its roof, and even a hundred steps away, you could smell the aroma of stewed meat. There's no village or town nearby, and it's not a hunting area, so how could there be meat to eat? I could only think of one possibility... that someone has crossed the line and became a monstrous savage who eats people."
"So I entered that broken temple with my sword in hand. Once you resort to plundering others' lives to survive, they can no longer be considered ordinary refugees."
Chen Xuan was silent.
He thought when Liu Shuyue mentioned that food prices had not yet reached their peak, he assumed the famine hadn't reached that severe a level—but now thinking again, Zhangwei isn't in the disaster core zone, and famine spreads with varying intensity. While the central part of Qing State could maintain stability, the severely afflicted western part may be far from such.
"As expected, I saw a group of malicious bandits there, no different from those in the mountains or the old forests; dividing stolen goods while tossing victims' chopped-up remains into the pot. The only difference was, this group was made up of emaciated children, the oldest no more than thirteen or fourteen years old."
"Children?" Chen Xuan couldn't help but frown, "Can they do such things with their build?"
"Ordinary people surely can't compete with them, so their targets are clear—their own parents." Liu Shuyue said this with a sinking voice, "Filicide is unforgivable by heaven and earth, facing such beasts, I have no reason to show mercy. But when I moved to eliminate them, a girl charged out shouting at me, asking what they had done wrong. Should they just obediently accept death and become fodder for their parents?"
She opened her eyes and gazed at Chen Xuan in distraction, "Later I realized, their parents had already considered them survival food—whether to sell them for others to eat or eat them themselves, they were all just food. However, some adults hadn't expected that the food would bite back."
"And you ultimately... spared them?"
"No, I killed them all," Liu Shuyue replied, "because among the victims' remains were several children of the same age. They were killed along with them just because they didn't want to lay hands on their relatives. If I let them go, wouldn't it be the greatest injustice to those unwilling to join the corrupt? Moreover, these people have already tasted the benefits and will only intensify their actions, sliding further into the twisted Nine Nether. This made me ponder a question, what sets them apart from demons?"
"On the surface, they are the same... they all eat people, contributing to the further decay of this world, yet before the famine, they were clearly still ordinary people. So this is my answer..."
Liu Shuyue paused for a moment, "If I stand by and do nothing, before the disaster subsides there will certainly be many more who follow in this path, transforming from humans into demons, and at that point, I have no choice but to eliminate them one by one. However, if I have a chance to alleviate the famine, isn't it also achieving the purpose of slaying demons, without the sword needing to be stained with needless blood?"
"For this, I've chosen to stay in Zhangwei, even if doing so defies past principles. But I am certain of one thing, this is still demon slaying, and it's the responsibility that Sect disciples should fulfill."