I Can Upgrade Everything Infinitely-Chapter 44 - 43: We Are Doing a Good Deed
Xu Qing’s expression was calm as he stood ramrod straight to the side. Liu Xiao and Su Changhe were much the same, leading the members of the Patrol Team on their rounds nearby.
If they discovered any vagrants or refugees cutting in line, they would naturally go straight up and give them a kick.
This time, Xu Qing was able to get a close-up look at the eldest daughter of the Jiang Family, Jiang Feiying, who was renowned for her benevolence in Qingbei Town. Throughout all of Qingbei Town, there wasn’t a single person who didn’t know of the great lady, Jiang Feiying.
The reason was simple.
It was because of her kind heart.
Although Jiang Feiying was from the Jiang Family, and was indeed a well-bred lady of a prominent family, she didn’t put on the airs of one. Moreover, she was kind and compassionate, and had helped many of the poor families in Qingbei Town.
You could say that in many people’s eyes, Jiang Feiying was a fairy descended from the heavens. Not only was she beautiful and kind-hearted, but she also lacked any pretense. Basically, everyone had nothing but praise for Jiang Feiying.
It was almost impossible to find a single flaw in her.
If one had to point out a flaw...
...it might be that she was just too Perfect.
...
Xu Qing was also watching Jiang Feiying. She wasn’t wearing any magnificent silks or brocades today, just ordinary clothes. But on her, they were still a striking sight.
She personally used a large ladle to fill the refugees’ broken bowls with porridge, offering a gentle smile to each and every person, a smile that seemed capable of soothing their hearts.
BUZZ! BUZZ!
However, Xu Qing felt his scalp tingle. It happened right as Jiang Feiying finished distributing the porridge and walked past him, following her maids and Household Servants.
The ’Evil Ghost Mask’ had an extremely strong reaction. It was so intense it felt as if the Witch Evil Ghost was about to burst out. A reaction like this from the ’Evil Ghost Mask’ truly made Xu Qing’s scalp crawl.
He didn’t know if Jiang Feiying had sensed the ’Evil Ghost Mask’s’ reaction, but she suddenly turned her head, glanced at Xu Qing, and gave him a gentle smile.
"Thank you for the trouble you’ve taken to protect us."
Jiang Feiying said.
"It’s no trouble. It’s our duty."
Xu Qing quickly replied.
"Phew..."
Xu Qing watched Jiang Feiying’s figure disappear from sight and let out a faint sigh of relief. He looked up at the sky thick with falling snow, at the vast, white-blanketed earth, and at the starving and freezing refugees.
All these scenes ultimately wove together into a single tableau: a portrait of one small corner of a world in chaos.
It was a lamentable sight.
「A few hours later.」
In the afternoon, Xu Qing’s shift for the day was over, and another patrol squad took over.
All in all, with patrols running twenty-four hours a day and nine patrol divisions in total working in three rotations, each patrol shift lasted eight hours.
"Good work."
Xu Qing greeted the captain of the patrol squad relieving him.
"Mm."
The patrol squad captain just nodded.
After his eight-hour shift, it was already approaching dusk by the time Xu Qing returned to his courtyard. He hadn’t even had a chance to eat a bite of anything hot, but that kid Yu Hu showed up again with a bowl of beef noodles.
"Master."
Yu Hu called out. "My mother asked me to bring you this bowl of noodles."
"Good."
Xu Qing smiled. He took the beef noodles from Yu Hu and polished them off in just a few bites. And Wang Cuilan had been generous with the ingredients.
After finishing the noodles, Xu Qing began to teach Yu Hu how to practice Level 3 Baji Fist.
In the evening, Yu Hu went home.
’Because of patrol duty, my daily martial arts practice time has been cut by more than half,’ Xu Qing thought. ’And there are still one or two months left before this winter is over.’
He frowned, but his expression soon relaxed. ’It’s only for a month or two. It’ll be over soon.’
"Baji Fist!"
BOOM! BOOM!
In the courtyard, Xu Qing continued to practice his Baji Fist.
「Late at night.」
「Outside the city.」
In the gathering place of the numerous vagrants.
In just one day, the number of vagrants and refugees had already reached forty thousand.
You have to understand, just two days ago, there were only thirty thousand vagrants and refugees outside the city. Many of these refugees were common folk from the neighboring county who had actually fled all the way here.
The reason was simple.
Qingbei Town had great benefactors distributing porridge, while other counties basically didn’t care if these vagrants and refugees lived or died. This led the desperate refugees, who wanted to live, to flock here like wild wolves smelling blood, having seen a glimmer of hope for survival.
They naturally swarmed in.
There were still one or two months until winter was over.
By then, if the situation continued to develop like this, the number of vagrants and refugees gathered outside the city wouldn’t just be in the tens of thousands; it could even exceed a hundred thousand.
Furthermore, Qingbei Town couldn’t stop distributing porridge now even if it wanted to.
Because all these refugees and vagrants had come here after hearing that Qingbei Town was distributing porridge, they arrived clinging to their last shred of hope. If Qingbei Town were to stop, that last hope would be extinguished.
One could only imagine the depth of despair these refugees and vagrants would be plunged into.
If those heretical fiends took the opportunity to stir up trouble, Qingbei Town would likely be in danger of having its walls breached.
For all these reasons, the County Magistrate of Qingbei Town was already at his wit’s end. He had even sent several letters to his superiors, pleading for help.
Unfortunately, the letters he sent out were like stones sinking into the ocean; he received no response from his superiors at all.
There was another point: right now, there were only tens of thousands of vagrants and refugees, but the Qingbei Town Government Office’s grain reserves were already about to run out. And the Three Great Families were businessmen at their core; they would never take out their entire family savings to let these vagrants and refugees eat and drink for free.
As the number of vagrants and refugees grew, eventually, even thin porridge mixed with pebbles and husks wouldn’t be enough to feed so many of them.
Therefore, they had to find a solution.
The Government Office summoning the Three Great Martial Arts Halls of the Outer City, gathering various factions, and forming the patrol divisions to maintain order among the refugees and vagrants—this was only a stopgap measure from the beginning.
It treated the symptoms, not the root cause.
「The Government Office.」
"Do any of you have a good solution?"
the County Magistrate asked.
"This..."
Everyone present was a high-ranking figure in Qingbei Town. They exchanged glances and fell into silence. No one had a good solution.
"Steward."
The County Magistrate looked at Steward Sun Shiwu. "What do you say?"
"Well..."
Sun Shiwu frowned. After a moment of thought, he said, "Given the current situation, our first point of action must be to stop more vagrants and refugees from continuing to flood into Qingbei Town."
"Second."
"We need to find a way to disperse these vagrants and refugees to other counties."
"Third."
"We must continue to strengthen patrols to prevent heretical fiends from having an opportunity to exploit the situation."
"We must remember, these vagrants and refugees aren’t the real threat. After all, they are just ordinary people, starved until they are sallow, emaciated, and little more than skin and bones. They have no combat strength whatsoever."
"The truly terrifying ones are the heretical fiends, as well as the ’evil spirits’ and ’anomalies’ that might be born from this chaos."
"Indeed."
The County Magistrate nodded, reasonably satisfied. "The Steward’s analysis is sound. But what methods can we use to stop more vagrants and refugees from pouring into Qingbei Town? And how can we disperse the ones already here to other counties?"
In the end, they discussed it for a whole night but couldn’t come up with any good solutions. They could only send people out to spread a rumor that Qingbei Town was no longer distributing porridge, hoping this would reduce the influx of vagrants and refugees.
In addition, the County Magistrate also sent letters to the magistrates of several surrounding counties, hoping they would be able to take in a portion of the refugees and vagrants.
「The next day.」
Xu Qing’s patrol shift today was different from yesterday’s. Yesterday, he had started at six in the morning and finished at two in the afternoon.
Today, Xu Qing’s patrol shift was in the latter half of the night.
It ran from ten at night until six the next morning.
「Late at night, in the area where the vagrants and refugees were gathered.」
...
After taking over from the previous patrol squad, Xu Qing carried a torch in his hand, patrolling a specific area along a fixed route.
At first, nothing happened. The vagrants and refugees were extremely fearful when facing Xu Qing and his men. They didn’t dare to offend them and were naturally very obedient.
But just as it struck midnight...
"L-Lord..."
Just then, a few refugees cautiously approached. Most of them were sallow and gaunt, though some had distended bellies. This was from eating too much tree bark and Guanyin clay, things that were not only indigestible but also impossible to pass, causing their stomachs to swell up.
"Hm?"
Xu Qing frowned, not planning to pay them any mind.
"What is it?"
But Liu Xiao went ahead and asked.
"I-It’s like this..."
Among them, the oldest refugee lowered his head and bowed, having the others help a young girl forward. He spoke cautiously, "Lord, y-you see... this is this old one’s granddaughter. F-For just... one coarse flatbread, she can serve you with all her heart and soul."
The girl wasn’t old, no more than sixteen at most. She had been washed quite clean, likely because she was being offered for a transaction.
Although the girl was very thin, her features were quite delicate. She did have a certain appeal; it was no wonder she was being put out to do this kind of business.
Originally, Liu Xiao was about to tell them to get lost.
"Ahem..."
However, among the members of the Patrol Team, several of them had taken a liking to the girl. Besides, the price was just too cheap—only a single coarse flatbread.
After all, if they were in the city, say at the Chunfeng Tower, finding a girl would cost at least several taels of silver. The price difference was immense.
Most importantly... while this old man’s granddaughter was emaciated from hunger, her features were genuinely attractive.
"C-Captains, you... you all certainly wouldn’t be interested in someone like this. But, uh, some of us have lower standards, so..."
"Yeah! Yeah!"
...
Several of the men looked toward Xu Qing and the other captains.
"Let me give you all a piece of advice," Xu Qing said. "It’s best not to get involved in this kind of thing out here. If you really can’t control your third leg, you’re better off going into the city."
"Ahem..."
Liu Xiao and Su Changhe coughed lightly.
"Lords, it really only takes one coarse flatbread!"
the old man added, tears streaming down his face.
"Sir, we’d just be doing a good deed. Look how starved they are."
"Yeah! Yeah!"
"We’re doing a good thing here!"
...
the few who were tempted said.
