Incense pilgrims

Seeing how firmly Lin Feng swore to it, everyone online in the group went wild.

"Is this real? That Taoist priest's readings were that accurate?"

"Group admin, when you put it that way, it's hard not to believe you. I'm going to the temple tomorrow and asking the priest for a proper reading!"

"I'm going too! If his readings are that accurate, I have to go!"

Everyone was incredibly excited, convinced they had to go and get a reading.

Just look at Lin Feng. His fortunes had turned around completely after a face reading. They wanted an opportunity like that too!

Seeing how excited everyone was, Lin Feng hurriedly added, "I'm going too. The priest told me before that if his prediction came true, I had to go back to fulfill my vow."

He still remembered what An Weiyan had said. Now that the prediction had come true, he absolutely had to go back!

"If any of us are going on the same day, we can arrange a time to go together."

The moment someone suggested this, quite a few others voiced their agreement.

Then they each began posting when they planned to go and arranging to meet up.

"Progress has been pretty good."

An Weiyan looked at the layer of concrete road already laid over the ground in Linbei County.

Deep drainage channels lay beneath it, and the neat road stretched straight into the distance.

An Weiyan planned to use the road by the yamen as the main road, then extend outward bit by bit.

Now that the straight road in front of the yamen had been completed, the other roads were next.

An Weiyan was writing something on coarse paper.

Before him stood countless commoners who had been summoned there.

"I've gathered everyone here because there's something else I need to announce. Disaster relief ends today."

"What?"

The commoners had been standing before him with great enthusiasm, their faces full of hope for tomorrow.

Their earlier numbness had disappeared, but the moment they heard An Weiyan's words, every one of them froze.

If disaster relief was over, what were they supposed to do next? Would they have nothing to eat again?

At that thought, the commoners immediately began to panic.

Seeing this, An Weiyan pressed his hands down. "Listen to me. Disaster relief has ended, but that doesn't mean you'll have nothing to eat."

"For helping repair roads, transporting sand, hauling stones, and farming each day, I will pay you in grain."

"You will earn grain from me through your own labor."

Disaster relief had been necessary at the beginning, but it could not continue forever. He had to let the commoners make their own living, while also preventing them from becoming dependent on it.

Hearing An Weiyan's words, the commoners before him breathed inward sighs of relief.

If that was how it would work, there was no problem.

Linbei County was quite large, and so many roads still needed repairs. That work would keep them busy for a long time.

Besides that, there was also farming.

There was so much land outside that they did not have to worry about having nowhere to farm.

An Weiyan then explained in detail how much grain the commoners could receive for each kind of work.

Transporting stones was hard physical labor, so it would earn slightly more grain: one jin and eight liang per person each day. Breaking ground and repairing roads paid about the same, at one jin and five liang of grain per person each day.

Children and the elderly could each receive five liang of grain a day for free.

The main reason for allowing children and the elderly to receive some grain for free was that some households had only an elderly mother left, while others had many children.

In such cases, the jin or so of grain earned from a day's work would not be enough to feed them.

With the elderly and children able to collect half a jin of grain each day, a family would generally not go hungry.

After he explained everything carefully, the commoners all breathed sighs of relief.

Although the official was no longer providing disaster relief, in practice, this was much the same.

They could exchange their labor for grain. In the past, they would never have dared imagine such a thing.

Once An Weiyan had explained the situation, everyone immediately went off to work in high spirits.

Those who went up the mountain to fell trees, along with carpenters such as Cheng Er, would also have their labor counted.

As for the yamen runners, he also began paying them according to their original salaries.

With that, all of Linbei County became much more orderly.

An Weiyan asked the elderly teacher from before to record everyone's names, then found some more people specifically to distribute grain.

By the time he had finished dealing with these matters, most of the day had passed.

As evening gradually approached, large numbers of people promptly arrived to collect their grain.

With the elderly teacher keeping accounts nearby, mistakes were unlikely.

An Weiyan had set up ten grain distribution points.

This was to keep everyone from having to wait in line for too long.

Seeing that everything here was orderly, An Weiyan headed back with his mind at ease.

The Taoist temple.

An Weiyan glanced at the incense burner. There had been considerably less incense in it today than in previous days.

He pulled out the burnt incense stubs and gave it a quick cleaning, then went to the kitchen to make something to eat.

Once the sky grew dark, An Weiyan lay down and went straight to sleep.

The next day.

After getting up and washing, An Weiyan took a broom, swept up the fallen leaves, and opened the main gate.

At that moment, a group of people at the foot of the mountain were already climbing toward the summit.

At a glance, there seemed to be around a hundred of them.

Lin Feng was at the front.

It happened to be Saturday, so Lin Feng had risen bright and early and called his friends to come along.

Originally, Lin Feng's friends had not particularly wanted to come, but then they heard that the Taoist priest at Cloud-Stilling Temple whom Lin Feng had mentioned gave incredibly accurate readings, and that his prediction had even come true for their friend.

After hearing about it, they hurried over.

And so, with Lin Feng's friends joining the people from the group chat, the number of visitors suddenly became quite large.

The group made their way up the mountain in a great procession, every face filled with excitement.

They eagerly looked forward to finding out whether they could have the priest at Cloud-Stilling Temple tell their fortunes too.

"Say, if that priest's readings are so accurate, why doesn't he give himself one? Couldn't he make a fortune that way?"

One person asked in some puzzlement.

"I've heard most people in this line of work can't get rich. Anyone who does is a fraud. Look, the priest doesn't even charge for his readings."

Hearing this, another person spoke up in An Weiyan's defense, sounding as though he knew a great deal about the subject.

That sounded quite reasonable, and everyone else thought it made a lot of sense too, so they stopped dwelling on the matter.

Then they put even more effort into climbing the mountain.

By the time the sun had climbed halfway up the mountainside, the group finally reached the summit and spotted Cloud-Stilling Temple in the distance.