"This person is named You Zhu, he was the male companion of my aunt, the Longqing Elder Princess, and the only living soul left in the Princess Residence."
"On that day, my aunt sent him to the Ministry of Justice to find me, but he was a few steps too late - I had returned to the palace. He was about to return to the Princess Residence to report back when he saw that it was being guarded by the Imperial Guards.
Recalling the Princess's instructions before he left, You Zhu quickly went into hiding. A few days later, he heard that a great fire had broken out at the Princess Residence, leaving no survivors. Suspicions arose in his mind, but he did not dare linger, and fled the city before anyone could trace him.
On the run, he eventually joined a troupe of actors. Originally, he was a performer who sang for the Princess, so he naturally fit right in with the troupe. However, he never removed his stage makeup, using it to conceal his identity.
During this time, he wanted to come to Mo County to find me, but did not have enough money for travel expenses, so he kept delaying his trip.
Later, he accidentally killed a martial actor who tried to force himself on You Zhu. The head of the troupe reported him to the authorities, but considering it was self-defense, the local county magistrate sentenced him to exile.
He thought he would finally be able to meet me at his place of exile and complete the Princess's request. But instead, he ended up being confined to hard labor in a logging camp. A few days ago, he tried to escape but was caught and publicly flogged as a warning to others.
When Yan Jiu found him, he was lying half-dead in a woodshed, covered in bloody wounds. His body was so badly mangled that Yan Jiu could not touch him without causing him to spasm in pain, so he asked me to go see him instead."
Seeing that Li Shuchen had spoken at length, Qi Huan was worried he might be thirsty, so she took a bottle of soda from her spatial pouch, opened it, and handed it to him.
"Wet your throat."
After taking a couple of sips, Li Shuchen's gaze flickered slightly and he raised an eyebrow.
"This is a specialty from the Heavenly Court. Tastes good, doesn't it?"
"It does."
"Hehe, drink up and then continue your story," Qi Huan urged curiously.
Screwing the cap back on the bottle, Li Shuchen continued, "After that, he told me everything he knew.
His only request was that I give him a set of white garments so he could meet the Princess he had longed for in the best possible way in the netherworld.
He also said that after death, he did not wish to be buried in the ground, but rather cremated like my aunt, traveling that final earthly path she had walked.
I agreed.
Upon returning to the Yunying Caravan, I asked Eleventh Yan to deliver the white garments to him and send him on his final journey. But unexpectedly, a landslide struck, and before Eleventh Yan could set the fire, which is why you saw his intact corpse."
Now understanding the whole story, Qi Huan was slightly worried, "Since I could tell something was off about his clothes, the inquisitor will surely discover it too eventually. Won't that cause trouble?"
"No, it won't."
Li Shuchen remained as calm as ever, "Eleventh Yan made up for his mistake by disguising himself as an official in the night and secretly removing the body in a sack, fulfilling You Zhu's final wish."
As for how to explain the missing corpse, that was a problem for the official tasked with guarding the body to worry about. It had nothing to do with Li Shuchen.
Recalling the sight of Qi Huan covered in mud that night, Li Shuchen's gaze darkened as he pulled her into his embrace, seating her on his lap. He looked at her with utmost sincerity:
"Qi Huan, even if I encounter danger, I don't want you to come looking for me. Just stay safe at home and wait for me. Your wellbeing is my greatest wish.
As long as you are in this world, even if I have to cross mountains of blades and seas of fire, I will flatten those mountains and cross those seas, and return to you safe and sound. I will never leave you alone."
Qi Huan did not speak, only hugging him tightly.
Waiting patiently was the logical choice, while throwing caution to the wind was driven by emotion. What path to take depended on the situation.
The afternoon sun shone down warmly, and after a long embrace, Qi Huan felt a bit too hot. She released him and stood up from his lap, then said:
"This landslide was not just a natural disaster, but also a man-made one. They only cared about cutting down trees for money, clearing one mountain after another, driven solely by short-sighted greed without considering what they were leaving for future generations."
The sunlight fell on her earnest features, seeming to cast a faint golden glow upon her.
Recalling the children struggling in the mud, the lifeless bodies lying by the river, and the streams, paths, and houses destroyed by the landslide, Qi Huan's resolve gradually solidified.
Planting trees, protecting the environment, doing everything possible to prevent such tragedies from happening again.
But her mere words alone would not easily sway Chen the county magistrate to change his mind.
The silver lost here would have to be compensated from elsewhere.
And among those exiled laborers, some were innocents caught up by association, while others were truly guilty of misdeeds.
Good would be rewarded with good, evil with retribution - no one could avoid the consequences they deserved.
Organizing her thoughts, Qi Huan began making long-term plans.
In the courtyard beneath the green trees, she and Li Shuchen sat side by side at a stone table. Li Shuchen ground the ink, while she took up the brush, recording her ideas one by one.
The next day, the sun shone brightly.
Qi Huan went alone to visit Chen the county magistrate.
Dealing with the aftermath of the landslide had kept Chen quite frazzled these past few days.
When the attendant announced that Qi Huan requested an audience, Chen's eyes immediately lit up.
Everyone said Qi Huan was kind-hearted - could she be coming to donate silver? He quickly ordered the attendant to let her in.
After pacing around the room, Chen straightened his robes and sat upright in his official chair.
When Qi Huan entered, he rose with a smile, his demeanor warm and welcoming, "Little Qi, what brings you to see your uncle?"
Seeing Qi Huan's smiling expression, Chen felt more and more that she resembled an adorable messenger of fortune.
Little did he know that when Qi Huan opened her mouth, her words would shatter his fantasy: "Uncle Chen, I came to urge you to cut down fewer trees and build more roads instead."
"Trees are like the Earth's clothing, constantly protecting the soil beneath them. Without them, under extreme weather, devastating landslides could occur again, destroying everything in their path with catastrophic force, taking many innocent lives."
Chen waved his hand dismissively. He understood the reasoning, but what about money? How were they supposed to earn money?
In the bitter cold of Mo County, the towering, straight white birch trees were this land's most generous gift.
The thick, long branches could be sold as construction materials, while the thin twigs were burned as firewood. Thanks to these birch forests, Mo County had a steady source of income each year.
Landslides only occurred occasionally, and the victims were mostly the exiled laborers and a small number of civilians. Weighing the pros and cons, Chen was not willing to give up this income so easily.
Seeing through his dilemma, Qi Huan revealed her core idea: "Uncle Chen, Mo County still has many stretches of uncultivated land that could be used to have the exiled laborers plant potatoes instead."
Just like in history books, after World War II the Soviet Union sent Japanese prisoners of war to Siberia to dig potatoes. It was a way to reform them through labor while also creating production value.
During the agricultural off-season, Qi Huan proposed, "Let them repair the roads! To become wealthy, we must first build roads. Once the roads are repaired, merchant caravans can travel more conveniently, and the potatoes we grow can be transported out more quickly, while cotton, cloth, and other goods from outside can be brought in more easily."
Apart from within the city, most of the roads in Mo County were made of rammed earth, relatively low-cost, and the convict laborers could use their manpower to widen and flatten them. In winter, when snow covered the roads, shoveling snow was another task that could be assigned to those convicts.
As she explained in detail, the system muttered, "Host, you've really arranged quite a lot. Even the donkeys in the production team don't have it as rough as those poor convicts."
Too busy to chat idly, Qi Huan ignored it and continued to Chen the county magistrate, "Uncle Chen, I have another suggestion."
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