"My cart wheel has gone missing."
Using the search for his cart wheel as an excuse, Ao Bing rode his wheelchair in and out of the commoners' temporary dwellings.
At first, some people objected.
His cart wheel was missing? Then how could his wheelchair still move? Wasn't he blatantly treating them all like fools?
But once the soldiers Ao Bing had borrowed from Su Hu arrived, no one dared say another word beneath the cold gleam of their blades.
After investigating for several days, Ao Bing finally discovered why the Witch and the Three Elders had come.
They were going to find the River Earl a wife.
The Witch claimed that King Zhou had lost his virtue, causing the river to overflow. If this continued, a flood was certain to follow.
Thus, they had to marry a young woman to the River Earl to appease him.
Over the past few days, the Witch had visited several families with daughters and selected a suitable match for the River Earl.
They needed only to wait for the auspicious hour. On the day of the River Earl's wedding, they would place a reed mat by the river and have the fresh-faced, fair-skinned young woman sit on it, letting her drift away with the current.
Whether the girl would actually marry the River Earl, drown, or be secretly rescued and sold to the nobles in the city, no one knew.
Ao Bing finally understood why none of the commoners dared take the foxtail millet soup.
He was an official King Zhou had sent to control the floods. Wouldn't accepting his soup and porridge amount to accepting King Zhou's goodwill?
According to the Witch, everything had happened because King Zhou had lost his virtue.
If they accepted the foxtail millet soup, disaster would surely descend