Just For You (Seeking Recommendations and Collections)

He strolled over to the conference room and found it still brightly lit inside.

Lin Wen quietly peered through the crack in the door. Zhao Minggong was seated below, still surrounded by quite a few people, along with a large number of County Administration Office staff, soldiers standing guard, and the Security Division guards who had been utterly invisible last night.

They seemed to have worked through the night until now, and the conference room had practically become an office.

Just as Lin Wen was peeking in, another bit of Good Karma popped up. At that very moment, a cheer rang out from within the room. "Wonderful, Deputy County Chief Zhao! Now I don't have to worry about East Grain Town's food supply anymore. You truly are a genius! The County Chief really has an eye for talent!"

Lin Wen was deeply gratified. Yesterday had indeed been the right choice. Although he had gained a little less Good Karma than if he had handled it personally, if he had rolled up his sleeves and gone into battle himself, who knew how much Good Karma he would have had to spend to solve the problem? Besides, it was nowhere near as profitable as this—one investment, ten thousand returns.

Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly noticed something was wrong.

"Eh? Where's Phoenix Chick?"

Sleeping Dragon was here, exhausting himself with every ounce of effort, but Phoenix Chick was nowhere to be seen.

That would not do. What if Sleeping Dragon overworked himself and died once more at Wuzhang Plains? Wouldn't that be like cutting off his own arm?

He called over a staff member and asked, only to learn that, just a few hours after yesterday's meeting, Phoenix Chick had said that girls could not stay up too late and gone home to rest.

How was that acceptable?

What happened to the sun and moon shining together?

Lin Wen immediately ordered someone to drag Phoenix Chick over. At the same time, he summoned the head of the Personnel Section and told him to immediately settle the files, posts, authority, benefits, and all related matters for the newly appointed deputy county chief and deputy county chief's assistant.

He had originally planned to block Phoenix Chick here and give her an unforgettable ideological reformation, but when he saw that the Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart only had a few minutes left, he gave up on the idea. There would be plenty of time later.

Once these trivial matters were dealt with, Lin Wen immediately turned to serious business.

He wanted to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the site selection and planning for post-disaster reconstruction.

This was what mattered most to him right now. It concerned hundreds, even thousands, of points of Good Karma.

Lin Wen had recently come to a profound realization: the more he knew, the more the difficulty of a problem decreased proportionally, and the cost of [Immortal's Guide] dropped sharply.

The way this spell worked seemed to be based on himself, obtaining answers through some mysterious method. It was not as though an immortal were truly standing behind him and pointing out the way.

Otherwise, Lin Wen would absolutely drag that immortal out someday and beat him senseless while settling all the accounts.

Therefore, if he wanted to better carry out his future complete plan and gain more Good Karma, he had to learn more detailed information now. Otherwise, he could not bear the cost of [Immortal's Guide].

For the same reason, he needed to preserve as much Primordial Spirit power as possible. If he could avoid using spells, he would not use them.

This was all naked, gleaming Good Karma.

Lin Wen was a man of action. Once he decided to do something, he did it. Without notifying anyone, he immediately got into his official car and headed straight for the temporary resettlement site for disaster victims around Changle Town and Ox Horn Village.

The Civil Affairs Department was currently in charge of post-disaster work. Its director, Huang Mingxiao, was also one of the very few officials who had not attended yesterday's meeting. Their office had been set up in Changle Town.

Changle Town was somewhat far from Huai Town, and the roads were not easy to travel, but the official car's driver had driven here for twenty years and knew the route like the back of his hand. He still got Lin Wen to their destination within an hour.

Changle Town had not suffered the disaster and had not changed much. Most of the townspeople knew Lin Wen and warmly greeted him, asking where he had gone during this time. They did not yet know that Lin Wen had already been promoted to county chief.

Little Li came charging out of the town chief's office. The instant she saw Lin Wen, she actually burst into tears.

"Wuwuwu, Town Chief Lin, where did you run off to? You hadn't come back for so long that I thought you'd died on the dike! But they all said you weren't dead and had even become an Imperial Hero. Wuwuwuwu, I thought they were lying to me! How could there be an Imperial Hero who wasn't dead? You've been gone for so many days... I missed you so much..."

She cried as she spoke, and Lin Wen took the opportunity to learn about Changle Town's recent situation. Overall, it could be summed up in one sentence: "A child nobody wanted."

The town chief had vanished, yet no one had come to hand over the work. There had been no notice, announcement, or phone call. The entire town had only Little Li, one senior clerk; even the twelve staff members had all been transferred away.

Changle Town was like an isolated island. After losing its town chief, its ties to the outside world had grown ever more tenuous.

If not for the Civil Affairs Department's arrival, Little Li would have thought they had been abandoned by the world.

But the Civil Affairs Department did not pay much attention to them either. It merely occupied a large courtyard at the western end of town as a temporary command center for post-disaster reconstruction.

Most disaster victims had been resettled on the northern hills. Only injured and sick victims were temporarily housed in Changle Town.

They were unwilling to live in low-lying areas.

Both Changpai Village and Ox Horn Village atop the hills housed disaster victims, especially Changpai Village. The Changpai Village Dike nearby had already been deified.

Legend had it that immortals had manifested and descended to protect all living beings, stopping the floodwaters. The dike was the place where the miracle had appeared, and the man who had guarded it was the incarnation of an immortal, descending on the night of the flood to save people.

Because Lin Wen's own actions had been exceptionally unusual and possessed all the qualities of legend, all manner of myths and stories about him became wildly popular among the disaster victims, with countless different versions.

And in order to stabilize public morale, the authorities did not clarify the truth. Instead, they secretly fanned the flames. By now, the Changpai Village Dike had become a place to worship deities, a temple where miracles appeared. Countless people climbed the dike every day to bow in worship and make wishes.

The man who had guarded the dike had become the incomparably righteous, infinitely merciful, suffering-relieving, hardship-saving Primal Chaos Lightbreaker True Person. With a heart of boundless compassion, he had borrowed the descent of an immortal to protect countless common folk.

A monument had been erected for him atop the dike. It was the massive bluestone Lin Wen had originally hauled down from a nearby mountain to plug the breach, only for the floodwaters to suddenly lose all momentum before it could be used.

A master carver among the common people had turned that bluestone into a stele. On the left were carved the words "Incomparably Righteous," on the right, "Infinitely Merciful," above, "Relieving Suffering and Saving from Hardship," while in the center was the immortal's worldly name: Primal Chaos Lightbreaker.

It had to be said that the carver's skill was extraordinarily superb, and the bluestone's shape itself had been perfectly suited for it. The finished stele looked as though it had formed naturally, its divine aura contained within, as if crafted by heaven itself.

Thus, another rumor arose: this had originally been the bluestone used by an immortal to mend the heavens. It had been placed upon the dike to suppress the water disaster and ensure everlasting peace.

That completely cemented the matter of immortals and gods. The bluestone stele became an object of the immortals, its incense offerings never ceasing and people flowing toward it like a tide every day.

Though the surging river lay only a wall away, many people would rather sleep beneath the dike or lie out in the open than live in low-lying Changle Town.

The floodwaters that night had been like demons, leaving wounds too deep in their hearts.

Only beside the dike guarded by immortals and divine objects did they feel safe. Beyond the dike, only high ground offered them a place to rest.

The embankment was packed with people sleeping on it every day, even though they faced the river winds and slept out in the open.

Many said that sleeping on the embankment brought peace of mind—that immortals watched over them, granting safety and blessings. Some had even fought because they could not secure a spot on the embankment.

This caused the Civil Affairs Department no small amount of trouble. They had no choice but to station people along the embankment to maintain order and keep too many people from sleeping there and causing an accident.

The layout of the temporary resettlement site had consequently undergone repeated adjustments. In the end, it had to center on the Changpai Village embankment, spreading laterally across the hills between the Changpai Village embankment and Changle Town.

Transporting supplies had also become difficult, but the greatest problem now was no longer transportation—it was shortages.

About a week earlier, the Empire had stopped sending new supplies. The construction crews had withdrawn as well. Now, the temporary resettlement site faced the imminent exhaustion of food, medicine, clean water, and disinfection and epidemic-prevention supplies.

Though Little Li had been crying the whole time, she explained everything with perfect clarity, her logic clear and her points well organized. She also understood the specific reasons behind it all exceptionally well.

Thus, when Lin Wen arrived before the Civil Affairs Department's temporary command center, he said, "You've worked hard, Little Li. From now on, you'll be the mayor of Changle Town."

With that, he pushed open the command center's doors.