Xi Inspector's Ruthless Streak

Little Fox skimmed through the stormy sky and over the water's surface, happening to see this tragic scene. Her paws hesitated for a moment, then she swiftly rushed onward. Leaping all the way across the flood-ravaged land, she saw cries and pleas for help everywhere. Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and rain poured down in sheets, worsening the disaster still further.

After racing out of the prefectural city, she reached a high slope not far from the Dragon Maiden Shrine. A dozen or so commoners had climbed up, drenched to the skin, and stared at the muddy torrent roaring past below with the look of people who had survived a calamity.

They were one family. When the flood came, they had run quickly, and there were many men in the household. Before the floodwaters swept down from the village, they had finally escaped to this high ground.

But even if they had survived, their homes had been destroyed. That pain still tore at their hearts.

Whether under the former dynasty or this one, disaster relief, though it existed, amounted at most to food, porridge handouts, tax reductions, seed grain for replanting, and work repairing dikes during the lean months between old grain and new. To accomplish even that was already considered benevolent government, the mark of a good official who cared for the people.

As for meticulously helping commoners rebuild their houses, providing quilts, furniture, and household furnishings—that was simply impossible.

For ordinary people, this flood was no different from losing everything they owned.

"Waaah! Waaah!" Soaked by the rain and chilled by the cold, a child could no longer bear it and burst into loud sobs.

The young woman hurriedly took off her outer garment and held it over her head to shield her child from the downpour. Together with