People Just Shouldn't Get Too Pleased With Themselves

The official was initially quite arrogant. "I see, you can't even handle a little girl, you're a pretty useless man."

He looked at Zhou Wanwan, rubbed his eyes, then rubbed them again and said, "Am I seeing things?"

The officials nearby shook their heads and said, "I'm not mistaken, it looks like that little devil."

The officials knelt down with a thud.

Zhou Wanwan looked at them and said, "Hey! What are you doing? Why are you kowtowing? Get up quickly."

The official stood up cautiously and said, "Miss, if there's anything you need, just tell us. Why would we need you to come to a place like this?"

"It's too chaotic and too dangerous here. What if something bad happens?"

"Let us take you back!"

Zhou Wanwan looked at them with a half-smile and said, "It's nothing, I just came out for a stroll. I heard you're about to open your granaries to provide relief to the disaster victims?"

The official looked at her and said, "This... the higher-ups are discussing it! We don't know whether or not the granaries will be opened."

Zhou Wanwan looked at him and said, "Then I'll go with you to ask!"

The official took her directly to the county government office, where more than a dozen officials were arguing incessantly. "If we really open the granaries, what if the disaster gets even worse later?"

"I have already submitted a memorial to the court, but the court is currently preoccupied with its own problems and has yet to respond."

"The number of disaster victims is growing rapidly; this situation is dire!"

But after much discussion, no conclusion was reached.

The county government actually didn't have much grain at all.

Cheng Xiao sat calmly to the side, secretly overjoyed. He had plenty of food! After all, he had a prophetic fortune teller under his command!

He was overjoyed, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but turn up in a smile.

Zhou Wanwan walked in and looked at Cheng Xiao, saying:

"Lord Cheng seems quite pleased. Is it because he has stockpiled a lot of grain?"

With so many disaster victims here, aren't you going to do something to help?"

Cheng Xiao stood up abruptly and said:

"That's utter nonsense, utter rubbish! Zhou Wanwan, don't talk nonsense! Where did I hoard so much food?"

"If we take out this grain now to help the disaster victims, what will we do when winter comes?"

Everyone is considering this issue. Now is not the most difficult time. Only when the most difficult time comes will that grain be available.

Zhou Wanwan looked at them and said:

"These people are already eating dirt (meaning they're struggling financially), isn't this the hardest time yet?"

Do you expect all those disaster victims to die before you'll finally provide food?

Cheng Xiao snorted coldly:

"What do you know, you little brat? There are still some wild vegetables and fruits on the mountain."

When winter comes, all the wild vegetables and fruits will be gone, and that's when the real danger will strike.

"I wonder when it will rain today. If it doesn't rain soon, I'm afraid many people will really die."

Zhou Wanwan looked at them and said:

"Since you don't intend to provide relief to the disaster victims, why don't you talk to those disaster victims outside the city?"

Those people are just watching, waiting for your help.

If you don't give them anything to look forward to, they'll obediently go and dig for wild vegetables.

Cheng Xiao snorted coldly:

"Then why don't you go tell them? It'll cause a riot, you understand? If it really causes a riot, who will be responsible?"

"We're just wearing them down for now. Once they're out of energy, they'll naturally give up."

Zhou Wanwan finally understood; they had done all of this on purpose.

If the disaster victims hear that food will not be distributed, they will definitely panic and rush into the county government to seize the food, with unimaginable consequences.

"We're deliberately wearing them down now," said Shen Yu'an, the magistrate of Yunxi County, standing up.

"These disaster victims can't wait. I'm going to Yunxi County right now to explain things to them."

"If we keep them waiting like this, even more people will starve to death."

Several county magistrates also stood up, including the magistrates of Anyi County, Huaiyuan County, and Chengping County, and said:

"I also think it's not good to keep them going like this. The people have the right to know. Since we don't plan to distribute food for the time being, we should tell them."

The magistrates of the other counties disagreed, saying, "If we tell them, they'll definitely cause trouble. We'll just wait and see!"

"A bunch of idiots, I'd like to see what happens when you counties start making a scene."

After the county magistrates finished their meeting, those who were supposed to leave quickly departed.

Just as Zhou Wanwan was about to leave, Cheng Xiao looked at her and said, "Shouldn't you be at the Nie Residence? Why are you out here?"

Zhou Wanwan said with a smile, "Come out and see you! Cheng Xiao, do more good deeds! Accumulate more good karma for the children."

Cheng Xiao retorted angrily, "Are you cursing me?"

Zhou Wanwan rolled her eyes and said, "Why would I need to curse you? Your son now has problems."

Cheng Xiao trembled with anger. "Nonsense, my son is perfectly fine."

Zhou Wanwan shook her head and said:

"If you don't believe me, fine. Don't you think he's weird?"

Other children the same age can already run and talk, and are clever and sensible. But what about your son?

He has a congenital intellectual disability; to put it bluntly, his mind is slower than average, and he's not considered mentally sound at all.

Cheng Xiao suddenly realized what was happening. He went to the street and found two old Chinese medicine doctors, then rushed home.

When Feng Caigu saw him, her eyes lit up and she said, "Master, why are you back so early today? Did you miss our Yue'er?"

Cheng Xiao looked at Cheng Yue and said, "I brought two doctors with me to take Yue'er's pulse."

Feng Caigu held Cheng Yue in her arms and said, "Our Yue'er is so well-behaved, he doesn't cry or fuss, and he does whatever you ask him to do."

Cheng Xiao immediately picked up Cheng Yue and asked, "Can you check if he has any problems?"

The two senior doctors examined Cheng Yue a long time before slowly saying, "Your child's birth must have taken a long time?"

Feng Caigu said proudly, "Of course, it took me two whole hours to give birth to him, it wasn't easy."

One of the older doctors sighed softly and said to the crowd, "The root of the problem lies here: the delivery was delayed for too long, causing the baby to feel suffocated in the womb, damaging its foundation and brain."

Another doctor said in a plain tone:

"It's not some other problem, it's just that I was cooped up for too long back then, which damaged my mental state."

Therefore, when this child grew up, his intelligence was lower than that of ordinary children, his reaction was slower, and he had difficulty learning things.

Feng Caigu suddenly felt dizzy. She looked at Cheng Yue and said, "Impossible! How could the child I went through so much trouble to give birth to be an idiot?"

But it turned out that the child did indeed have intellectual disabilities.

The child is almost a year old now, but he never says a word and just stares blankly all day.

Zhou Wanwan said helplessly from a short distance away:

See? People shouldn't be too proud. The more proud you are, the harder it will be when you fall.

Let's go! Let's go to Yunxi County and discuss what to do next.

In fact Anyi County, Huaiyuan County, and Chengping County are all now under Zhou Wanwan's control.

They huddled together and asked, "What do you think we should do next?"