Delayed Messages

Shunan Prefecture · October

The sky was dim. The embankment was built of massive stone blocks, and from atop it, the river could be seen surging furiously toward it, throwing up spray against the bank before retreating helplessly.

Water mist drifted over the embankment, sweeping with the wind across the farmland beyond.

Su Ziji climbed the steps onto the earthen bank and looked down at the winter wheat replanted in the fields. Green shoots had already emerged. Though it had been planted a little early, it was growing reasonably well. Surely next year would not leave them without a single grain to harvest.

"The harvest will be smaller, but it should still be something the people can accept." Seeing that the farmers who greeted him one after another looked fairly settled, Su Ziji inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

The people's livelihoods were gradually stabilizing. The floods unleashed by the earlier breach had not caused any major problems afterward, and that made Su Ziji feel that his relief efforts over this period had not been wasted.

On their way back, Cen Rubai, who followed him, said with feeling, "Young master, for people's lives to settle down so quickly after a flood—more than half the credit for that belongs to you alone."

Had the young master not ordered relief work to begin in an orderly fashion the day after the breach was closed, the aftermath would probably not have passed so smoothly.

The young master had proposed work relief, which amounted to the government paying grain to disaster victims rebuilding their homes.

Even orphans and widows, so long as they could move, could find some light work to do, allowing them to earn food through their labor.

Thick medicinal decoctions were also brewed daily and distributed to people in the disaster-stricken