Aftermath: Dragon Girl's Reward

After the New Year, the weather remained bitterly cold.

A thin layer of ice floated on the river outside Wanzhou City.

Crack!

Boatman Chen Tuozi jabbed at it seven or eight times with his pole, smashing the ice so the covered boat could barely squeeze into the dock.

The bronze bell hanging from the bow had frozen into a lump of ice, but the curses of the peddler Lao Zhao in the cabin rang out even more crisply:

"Damn this dog of a Heaven! Jingzhe passed three days ago, yet the hemp rope I use to carry my goods is still frozen stiff!"

A medicine gatherer huddled at the stern. Frost flowers covered the roots of the Chinese Angelica in the bamboo basket in his arms. He tightened his ragged padded coat and joined in:

"Who can say otherwise? It's been snowing ever since New Year, and it's still this cold afterward. Nothing like this happened in previous years. Why does it feel so sinister..."

As soon as he said this, the cabin fell silent.

Peddler Lao Zhao narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice. "Do you think it might have something to do with what happened in Chengdu Prefecture?"

"Wouldn't surprise me. I heard things got pretty fierce there. The common folk went mad, the snow fell frighteningly hard, and there was even an Earth Dragon Turning Over..."

"Hey, hey, everyone's here. Stop chatting!"

Boatman Chen Tuozi hurriedly cut them off when he heard that.

A month had already passed since the incident in Chengdu Prefecture. Even though ordinary people seldom traveled far, merchants from all over had spread word of it.

For a time, rumors ran rampant everywhere.

Some unscrupulous merchants took advantage of the opportunity to fan the flames, claiming that war would break out in Shu