“I have to start with the late emperor’s death two months ago…” The waiter in the hotel started the conversation and talked vividly.
“Before his death, it had been raining heavily for one month successively in Jiangzhou City. It was a calamity that we haven’t seen in the past one thousand years.
“In the beginning, all people lived a hard life till the news of the late emperor’s death came. It seemed that God felt sad for him, and the rain was more horrible. The Ganjiang River in Jiangzhou couldn’t bear it but burst its banks.
“After all, Ganjiang River is a great river. As it burst its banks, less than half of the city was drowned, and the low-lying areas became oceans. The luckier ones fled and became refugees, while the unfortunate ones were swallowed by the flood and their dead bodies couldn’t be found.”
When the waiter talked about the flood in Jiangzhou, he seemed to tell a romaunt and got more excited while speaking. He wasn’t sad at all.
He even mentioned complacently, “Our Beipo Town is higher than Jiangzhou City. Although the heavy rain didn’t stop, the collapse of the Ganjiang River’s banks didn’t influence here much, so we can survive.”
Shi Qingxue asked, “Since Beipo Town wasn’t drowned in the flood, why did it become a dead town?”
At the mention of this, the waiter’s flaunting expression disappeared at once and then he started to sigh helplessly. “No matter how good our town is, it’s just Jiangzhou City’s subsidiary on the only way which must be passed to Jiangzhou City from the north. If the refugees want to flee to the north, they have to walk past here. The foul atmosphere and epidemic were brought here, and Beipo Town couldn’t escape by sheer luck.”
“As you said that, I am more confused. As soon as there was a flood in Jiangzhou, it was reported to the imperial court, and they instantly sent money and food to relieve the people in this area. Why didn’t the sufferers wait for the government’s relief but left home and became refugees with no fixed abode?”
Shi Qingxue had known something about this matter before coming.
The flood in Jiangzhou appeared at a special time, which happened to be after Mo Xiangbin was murdered and before Mo Junyu took the throne. In order to placate the people and prevent rebellion, Mo Junyu sent money and food generously and quickly after getting the disaster relief request from Jiangzhou.
She had thought that the problem in Jiangzhou was the epidemic after the flood, yet as soon as she heard that, she found that there was something wrong.
The waiter snorted after hearing Shi Qingxue’s question. “Girl, are you joking with me? How would the cowards who are fully fed and never use their brains in the government sincerely help the sufferers? There were so many victims, and they would help only a few to put on a show. The commonest way was to kick out the victims. After they were driven away from the area, the government didn’t need to care about them.”
“Didn’t they have malpractice and deceive His Majesty?” Shi Qingxue shouted subconsciously.
The waiter laughed more loudly. “How strange! Didn’t the government do something like this once there was a disaster? Girl, you have never left home, so you make a fuss about it, right?”
Shi Qingxue pursed her lips and didn’t bother about this problem. Then she changed the subject. “Even so, the refugees going to the north just walked past Beipo Town, and the influence was limited. Why did this town reduce to such a situation?”
“Alas, well…” The waiter stopped laughing and looked gloomy and sad.
“I have to talk about the epidemic which made people turn pale at the mention of it. At the beginning of last month, an epidemic suddenly spread in Jiangzhou City, and all the doctors in the city could do nothing but watch the patients have a high fever for a long time and die while foaming.
“Moreover, the epidemic spread fast and almost anybody who was close to a patient would be infected at once. I have heard that several famous doctors in the city died after being infected when they treated patients. As a result, nobody would treat the infected patients.
“In order to prevent the epidemic from spreading, the government joined hands with the landlords in and out of the city and kicked all the patients to one area, letting nature take its course.
“Even so, the epidemic still spread and came to our town. After only one month, our town became the harder-hit area. Even the people from the government ignored the common people here, and they fled to work in the safe area in the city. Some nimble people had run away earlier, and the remaining old, weak, sick and disabled as well as the people unwilling to leave home had to ask God for help.”
When the waiter mentioned the epidemic, his voice was sad, with tears in his eyes.
After a while, he seemed to come to his senses and realized that he forgot himself. He hurriedly wiped his eyes and forced a smile. “Fortunately, God didn’t give up our Jiangzhou City. The common people in Jiangzhou died of the epidemic or ran away or disappeared, which almost made it a dead city, but the miracle happened, and the epidemic disappeared unexpectedly.
“Recently, the people from the government start to relieve the sufferers and give food to the victims who still stay here, so Jiangzhou City has regained some vitality.”
After he spoke out the cause and effect of the disaster, he sighed deeply, and the complicated expression on his face disappeared. He showed a flattering smile again. “Well, Lady, Sir, I have told you what I know, so…”
While speaking, he couldn’t help but look Mo Junyang up and down.
He always remembered that Shi Qingxue said that he would be rewarded with more money if he explained it clearly.
Shi Qingxue glanced at the waiter playfully and winked at Mo Junyang, indicating him to give the waiter a gold ingot.
Mo Junyang took a gold ingot out of his pocket. When the waiter reached out his hand to receive it, Mo Junyang threw it up and avoided the waiter’s hand, catching it with the other hand.
The waiter didn’t dare to grab it or ask Mo Junyang for it. He just turned to Shi Qingxue hesitantly. “Lady, look…”
Shi Qingxue smiled. “Don’t be anxious. He will give it to you as it should be given to you, yet you need to answer my question.”
“You said that some people died or ran away after the epidemic spread, which is understandable, but what do you mean by saying that some disappeared?” Shi Qingxue still remembered that the shopkeeper selling sesame seed cakes had said something like this.
The waiter answered without thinking, “They just disappeared for no reason.”
Shi Qingxue was speechless. Did he think that people were like dew and would disappear after a long time?
Under Shi Qingxue’s emotionless glance, the waiter instantly realized that what he said didn’t satisfy her.
He quickly explained, “I didn’t tell a lie. Those people really disappeared for no reason, and the government searched everywhere yet didn’t find them, so they alleged that those people had run away as they didn’t want to stay at home.”
“Alleged?” Shi Qingxue pondered over the waiter’s word and asked with interest, “So you have different opinions?”
The waiter giggled. “Nothing can escape from your eyes. We are common people. Although we are not smart, we are not blind. The people who disappeared had their parents, wives and children in Jiangzhou. Even if they wanted to flee, they would take their families. How would they go away alone and leave their families at home?
“Most of them were the old, weak, sick and disabled, and they couldn’t run far away, so didn’t the government fool the common people?”
Shi Qingxue asked, “Why would they disappear?”
“It’s hard to say! Some people were said to be infected with the epidemic and have died in a corner. Then they were taken away by the government. Somebody said that they were cheated and left. And somebody said that River God had no enough sacrificial offerings, so those people were captured by River God as sacrificial offerings…
“Anyway, there are all kinds of strange conjectures, but only God knows the truth.”
The waiter talked about the different conjectures casually, while Shi Qingxue acutely noticed some disdain from his tone.
Shi Qingxue paused for a moment and then stated, “You seem to know the truth about these people’s disappearance?”
“Er…” The waiter didn’t deny it but started to look around with his small eyes. He couldn’t look away from the gold ingot in Mo Junyang’s hand.
Shi Qingxue understood.
She took the big gold ingot and put it on the table. “Tell us the reason, and this gold ingot will be yours.”
The waiter was beaming with happy smiles at once and tried to get the gold ingot while saying, “Lady, you ask the right person. The conjectures in the folk are bullshit, and they know nothing. Only I know the truth.”
He put the gold ingot in his pocket and looked serious in an instant, lowering his voice. “The people who disappeared were captured by the robbers on horseback.”
“Oh?” It was Shi Qingxue’s first time to hear such a saying, so she felt curious.
The waiter hurriedly expressed, “What I said is true. I don’t dare to cheat you.”
“How did you know it?”
“I have seen it.” The waiter recalled his experience in fear.
“One night more than half a month ago, we can’t go out in the evening for the curfew, but that night I realized that I forgot to pick up goods at daytime, so I had to take a risk and go out sneakily.
“When I passed a corner, I saw a group of people on horseback who were dressed in black clothes and covered their faces gallop on the street, and some people lay on the horses’ backs. I don’t know if they were alive or dead. Next day, there was news that some people disappeared.
“Didn’t the robbers sneak into the town at night and secretly take them away?”
When the waiter remembered the horrible experience, there was sweat on his forehead.
Afterward, he told the two seriously, “I was lucky, so I wasn’t found that time and didn’t lose my life. Since then, I don’t dare to go out at night even if I would be beaten to death.
“I advise you to consider your lives, not to go out at night. Otherwise, the consequences can’t be imagined!”
“Okay. We see. We won’t joke about our lives.” Shi Qingxue nodded in agreement and thanked the waiter’s kind reminder.
The waiter told the story and got some money, so he left with satisfaction.
The two people in the room were lost in thought for a long time.
After quite a while, Shi Qingxue looked up at Mo Junyang, asking, “What do you think about the story this waiter told?”