Chương 20: Three Days Before the Flood

Spring of the sixteenth year of Chongjing. When the plea for aid from Yunzhou arrived at the Gu residence, Gu Zhiwei was preparing to go out. The messenger from Yunzhou had ridden day and night, never resting at a relay station. A journey that ordinarily took a full month, he completed in seven days. Upon reaching the Gu residence, he did not even stop for water. Learning she was Gu Zhao's younger sister, he immediately handed her the letter tube he had guarded throughout the journey.

"Please, ask Lord Gu to save Yunzhou! Save Qianshui County!" The letter was from Shen Yan, the current magistrate of Qianshui County in Yunzhou and an old school friend of Gu Zhao's. Heavy rains had battered Yunzhou province without cease since the beginning of spring, flooding all six riverside counties at once. Qianshui County lay low and was hit the hardest. When the levee burst, over ten villages went under, countless people died, and every grain store was destroyed.

Shen Yan sent seven urgent reports in succession. The provincial authorities sent back a terse reply:"Handle it yourselves." Gu Zhao took the letter to the palace that very day to seek an audience with the Emperor. After hearing him out, the Yong Emperor asked about something else.

"Could the floods in Yunzhou be connected to the baleful star?"

"There is no firm evidence yet."

"Then disaster relief can wait until the matter has been investigated." With a single sentence, he cut off any hope of relief for hundreds of thousands. It was nearly midnight when Gu Zhao returned home. A thin sheen of cold dew clung to his official robe, and his fingers were white with cold. He sat beside the brazier for a moment, then rose and opened his private storehouse. He intended to donate more than half his fortune so they can get grain, medicine, and clean clothes.

"Are you planning to have that messenger carry all of it back alone? Are you sure he can keep it safe?" Gu Zhiwei went straight to the heart of the matter.

"I'll ask Jingchu to send a few men to escort him back."

"Which makes more sense: having the Insignia Guard escort a messenger, or an envoy investigating the baleful star on His Majesty's behalf?" Gu Zhiwei pointed at herself. Gu Zhao spun around to stare at her.

"No way! Yunzhou is in chaos." The truth was, Gu Zhiwei had been planning to go to Yunzhou herself ever since the letter arrived at noon. She could stay trapped in the capital without the faintest clue to her quest, or she could visit a place stricken by catastrophe and turmoil. Her chances of running into the baleful star might even be greater there.

"I'll examine the flooding and look for clues about the baleful star while I'm at it." She waved the map of Yunzhou in her hand.

"If I can bring back a report that satisfies His Majesty, maybe I can pry a little disaster-relief money out of him." Gu Zhao frowned. He truly could not put his mind at ease.

"The journey is long and grueling. You..."

"Brother." Gu Zhiwei looked at him.

"You really don't have anyone better suited than me. It has to be someone who understands astronomy and calendrical calculations, someone His Majesty will trust, and someone who genuinely wants to help Yunzhou. That leaves me." Gu Zhao knew she was right, but he still could not bear to watch his little sister put herself in danger. In the end, Gu Zhiwei went into the palace herself to ask the Empress for an imperial order. As it happened, the Yong Emperor was also in the Empress's palace.

When he heard that Gu Zhiwei wished to investigate the baleful star in Yunzhou, and recalled the skills passed down through her family, the Yong Emperor was quite pleased with her initiative.

"I knew you were a good child. Have Jingchu assign you plenty of men." Then he showered her with rewards. He wouldn't spare a single coin for disaster relief, but when it came to investigating the baleful star, suddenly he had money to burn. Before her departure, Gu Zhao did not forget to warn her, "Flood shows no mercy. It doesn't matter if you find nothing. You must come back safely."

Aglaya had changed into narrow-sleeved clothes suitable for travel and was loading a stack of newly purchased storybooks into the carriage.

"I'm ready. I heard they have legends about water ghosts taking brides. We might actually find a clue there." Gu Zhiwei looked at the books in her arms. The Dragon King of the Waters Takes a Bride by Night. The Handsome Scholar Teases the River God Thrice. The last had an especially racy illustration on its cover, and Aglaya's fingers obscured half the title. Gu Zhiwei:... Fine. Before leaving, Gu Zhiwei told everyone in the group chat where she was going.

Matt said Yang Jingchu had already assigned him to lead the escort, and the entire team was waiting outside the city gates. Chen Li's grain business happened to have a branch in a neighboring prefecture of Yunzhou, so he immediately sent two shipments of grain ahead to meet her along the route. Oliver would remain in the capital and keep a constant eye on the Yong Emperor's movements. Wang Pu: Where's Yunzhou? Is it close to the northern frontier?!

Are Brother Matt and Sis Gu finally coming to bring a little warmth to the bitter cold of the north?! Oliver: Very close. Fold the map of Great Yong three times and you're there. Wang Pu: Brother Matt, you're really just going to stand there and watch this Englishman bully me? I'm your Hunter Division brother! Matt: According to that ideology you're always going on about, he's more my brother than you are. Wang Pu:...... Suppressing a laugh, Gu Zhiwei ended the conversation: We're off.

The journey from the capital to Yunzhou ordinarily took nearly a month. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. The official road was fairly level at first, but the farther west they traveled, the worse it became. The unending spring rain had soaked the earth soft, and the carriage wheels frequently sank into the mud. Upon entering Yunzhou, they first encountered a group of tax collectors.

A family of five had been strung together with hemp rope by the roadside. The youngest child looked about four years old. Bare feet stood in the cold mud, toes blue with the chill. The woman knelt on the ground, clinging desperately to a tax collector's leg as she begged.

"Sir! The floods ruined our fields last year. We didn't even have seed to plant this year, so where could we possibly find the money or grain to pay the tax? Please give us a few more days. Please..." The tax collector kicked her away.

"You owe three strings of cash in taxes. Your family of five will be taken as state slaves in payment. It's written clearly in the enslavement writ. Make any more trouble, and I'll sell your youngest to the mines first!" The man kept his head bowed, his back bent. His eyes held only numb, bewildered resignation. Gu Zhiwei told the coachman to stop. When the tax collector saw the size of the convoy and the soldiers guarding it on both sides, his manner immediately became more cautious.

He cupped his hands and asked whether she was a noble lady from the capital. She took the enslavement writ from him. It listed unpaid autumn taxes from the fourteenth year of Chongjing. The region had already suffered a flood that year, reducing the harvest, yet the provincial government had not lowered the tax quota by so much as a fraction. Gu Zhiwei asked, "How much are these five people worth?"

"At the official rate, exactly three strings of cash," the tax collector answered as if it were only natural. Aglaya quickly pulled out her coin purse. Gu Zhiwei paid to redeem the family, then had Matt give them a small bag of grain. When the man received it, his lips trembled so badly that he couldn't get a word of thanks out. He simply led his entire family in kowtowing in the mud, their foreheads striking the ground again and again. The carriage continued onward. Aglaya looked back for a long time.

"How many people can we redeem with the money in our carriage?"

"Not many."

"What happens to the rest?" The wheels ground over loose stones with a clattering crunch. Gu Zhiwei did not answer. She had no clear answer herself, much like the star chart pointing into chaos. As they drew closer to the six riverside counties, they began to see more and more refugees along the road. Some pushed wheelbarrows covered with sodden, tattered quilts, beneath which lay children who no longer breathed.

Some carried their elderly grandparents on their backs, blood from their blistered soles mingling with the muddy water. Every so often, bodies wrapped in straw mats lay beside the road, rainwater dripping from the edges. She remembered discussing with Gu Zhao on New Year's Eve where the baleful star might be.

"The star Father saw doesn't correspond to anything down here."

"Then stop looking at the stars." Gu Zhao pushed away the star chart crisscrossed with ink lines.

"If the baleful star manifests down here, then look for it down here." She had yet to find the baleful star. What she saw first was the world below.

By the time they passed through Linhe County, the land outside the city had become a vast expanse of floodwater. Gu Zhiwei had made the detour specifically to deliver a warning. The floodwaters within the city had only recently receded, leaving a line of mud half a man's height along the base of the walls. Foul-smelling silt clogged every drain. Dead fish floated belly-up in puddles, and flies swarmed over the rotting corpses. Once the sun came out, the entire county town seemed to be stewing in its own rot.

Refugees crowded outside the county offices to beg for grain, only to be driven back toward the riverbank by bailiffs. When Magistrate Wang heard that she was from the Gu family, renowned for their knowledge of the stars, and had come by imperial order to investigate the baleful star, he came out in immaculate finery to welcome her. But when she told him that another flood crest was coming and the people had to be evacuated as quickly as possible, displeasure crossed his face.

"Miss Gu, the water has already receded. I have ordered the breach repaired. How could there possibly be another flood?" Gu Zhiwei had just spent two hours walking the upstream riverbank. The surface of the river appeared calm, but the current beneath it was running fast enough to churn up the silt. Broken branches drifting down from upstream still bore fresh bark, and fine bubbles gathered in several backwater bends. She crouched and lowered her hand into the river. Cold climbed swiftly from her fingertips.

Her Spirit power spread outward, following the current upstream. Muddy water struck the rocks and tore loose soil from the banks. Farther away, vast quantities of rainwater were pouring into the river through the mountain valleys. Heavy, rapid tremors traveled through the water like a monstrous beast pounding its fists against the riverbed. Based on what she sensed, Gu Zhiwei drew a rough chart of the water's course and explained what she had found to the officials.

"It's still raining upstream. Within three days, a second flood crest will arrive." The subordinate officials behind Magistrate Wang exchanged glances. One of them laughed.

"Miss Gu comes from a renowned family of astronomers. Naturally, none could question your command of the stars. But matters of flood control can hardly be decided on your word alone."

"And it is broad daylight," another added.

"There isn't even a star to be seen." They all laughed. Matt's expression darkened. He was about to say something when Gu Zhiwei stopped him. A sudden thunder of hooves approached from behind. The newcomer had brought only a dozen or so bailiffs. He wore a faded green official robe, its hem caked with mud, while rainwater had soaked the toes of his shoes until the seams split open.

"Are you Gu Zhiwei, Director Gu's younger sister?" Gu Zhiwei looked at him.

"Would you be Magistrate Shen Yan?"

"I am." Shen Yan cupped his hands to her.

"Your brother wrote that you would arrive around this time. I have been waiting here with my men for several days."

"Are you here to survey the river? I brought men who know these waters." Shen Yan had caught only fragments of their conversation as he approached. Magistrate Wang's expression soured.

"Magistrate Shen, instead of tending to your own Qianshui County, you have crossed into Linhe County without authorization to survey our waterways. I fear that is against the rules." Shen Yan did not even turn his head.

"When your floodwater crosses into my county, it does not stop to ask whether that is against the rules." The group walked upstream along the levee. Shen Yan took Gu Zhiwei's water chart, crouched on the bank, and studied it for a long time. Then he summoned an old river worker familiar with the upstream terrain and had him check every point against what he knew. At first, the old river worker kept shaking his head. When he reached the third tributary junction, his finger suddenly stopped.

"A landslide blocked the river here last year." He pointed at a black mark on the chart, his voice turning hoarse.

"If there truly is heavy rain upstream, that natural landslide dam will most likely collapse. When it does, the flood crest rushing down will be at least ten feet high." Shen Yan looked up.

"Where will it hit first?"

"The four villages in Linhe County will go under first. Then Huai Tree Bay and Chen Family Ford in our county." Shen Yan looked at Gu Zhiwei.

"Three days. Are you certain?" She glanced upstream.

"It may come even earlier than I thought." Magistrate Wang, who had followed to watch the spectacle, sneered.

"This is all conjecture. Evacuating the people without authorization would mean abandoned homes, ruined fields, and missed planting. Who will answer for that crime?"

"I will." Shen Yan stood.

"Qianshui County still has eight hundred able-bodied men and sixteen boats. We will evacuate as many as we can within three days." Mockery gleamed in Magistrate Wang's eyes.

"And if you're wrong, Magistrate Shen, are you prepared to answer for it?" Shen Yan folded the water chart and tucked it into his sleeve.

"I'd rather answer for that than stand by and watch tens of thousands drown. I advise you to evacuate the people of the four villages immediately."

"Hmph. I need no instruction from you on how to perform my duties." That night, bailiffs from Qianshui County beat bronze gongs all along the river. The ringing pierced the cold, wet mist and traveled through village after village. Young men lifted the elderly onto their backs. Women tied bags of grain behind their shoulders. Children were bundled into handcarts lined with straw.

Cattle and sheep refused to leave their pens, their cries mingling with their owners' shouts, while a chain of torches stretched for miles along the muddy road. Gu Zhiwei joined Matt and his men in helping with the evacuation. Aglaya stayed at the temporary shelter on higher ground, taking stock of the medicines and provisions. It was not until nearly midnight the following night that the final group from Huai Tree Bay was evacuated. One day remained before the flood crest she had predicted.

Shen Yan stood halfway up the mountain, gazing down as rain streamed down his temples. Most of Huai Tree Bay and Chen Family Ford had already been evacuated. Yet in the four villages under Magistrate Wang's jurisdiction, the first to be swallowed by the flood, not a single household dared to leave.

"Magistrate Wang issued an order yesterday." Shen Yan's expression was grim.

"Anyone who leaves their fields or homes without permission will be treated as a vagrant, and their land will be confiscated by the government. The villagers are afraid that if they leave, they will lose both their homes and their land."

"And the most despicable part is that he and his subordinate officials have already fled with their families to the neighboring county!" Shen Yan's subordinate ground his teeth in fury. Another muffled roll of thunder sounded in the distance. In the darkness, the swollen river battered the levee, each wave rising higher than the last. Yet every lamp in those four villages was lit. The villagers would rather gamble that the flood would never come than dare defy the magistrate's order.