Infinite Terror: This Middle Continent is Rebellious

Chapter 306: Free Porridge Outside the City
In the fourth year of Jiaxixi during the reign of Emperor Lizong of Song, Zhao Yun, there were repeated famines. Grain in the capital Lin'an was as expensive as gold. Some families of the hungry people starved to death, while others could not survive and had to jump into the river.

The streets of western Zhejiang were filled with corpses and refugees. In eastern Zhejiang, there was even a tragic scene of people starving and abandoning their homes, leaving them stranded on the dead end.

During the Chung-chun drought, the government spent the next year's grain and borrowed seven years in advance. It also unreasonably confiscated private property to increase fiscal revenue. During the Bao-ch'un drought, annual fiscal revenue was less than half of annual expenditure, with a deficit of 1 million wen. By the Jing-ding reign, the situation had deteriorated further. By the Xian-ch'un and Chun-chun reigns, the government was already stretched to its limits and in dire straits.

When Chu Xuan and others arrived in Shaoxing Prefecture, nearly two years had passed since the fourth year of Jiaxi.

However, the people of this land have not yet completely escaped the suffering of famine.

Sitting inside the modified mechanical carriage and looking out from the window, both sides of the road were almost barren land with no grass growing on them. There was not much green to be seen, and any edible things growing on the ground had already been dug up.

The several small villages they passed by on the way were already deserted, and occasionally unburied corpses could be seen. The expressions of Cheng Xiao, Wang Xia, Zhang Jie and others became more and more solemn. In this environment, the atmosphere in the carriage also became depressing.

As the carriage moved forward, we gradually saw people coming to see the area. From afar, we could see Shaoxing City a few miles away.

Outside the city gate, there were ragged refugees, all of them pale and thin, with bones protruding from their skin. Their skinny appearance made people wonder how they were still alive.

Groups of refugees, either sitting or lying, stood on both sides of the dirt road, motionless, with numb eyes, just like a group of dead people.

At the gate of Shaoxing City, more than a dozen soldiers armed with spears and machetes guarded the entrance to the city. Civilians lined up in a queue under the vicious gaze of the gatekeepers and slowly walked towards the city gate. They had to show their household registration and travel permits and hand over a copper coin before they could enter the city. From time to time, civilians who were dressed in rags and could not produce their entry permits were driven out by the soldiers with their swords pointed at them.

The refugees who were unable to enter the city did not have the energy to go anywhere else, so they all stayed outside the city gate, curled up on the roadside to conserve their strength, waiting for kind-hearted rich people to come out and give them porridge, or for the government to give them a way to survive.

"Chu Xuan, do you want to go into the city now?"

Zhang Jie looked at the side of the road outside the window with a heavy expression and asked Chu Xuan.

He saw a disheveled and dirty woman tearing off the rags on her body, holding a skinny baby in her arms and feeding it. Such a scene could not arouse any sexual desire, because the woman was pale and thin, with her shriveled breasts hanging on her body. It was obvious that she had no milk at all. The baby bit on them, but could not suck out any milk for a long time.

He also saw an old man sitting on the muddy ground with a dull expression on his face, and an old woman leaning on him. They looked like an old couple leaning on each other in distress. However, if one looked closely, one would find that the old woman's exposed skin was covered with dark purple-red corpse spots, and there were even maggots crawling on her skin.

He also saw a man with a deathly pale face, holding a child of seven or eight years old tightly. His arms were very strong, but the child in his arms did not move at all. The child's skin had turned green, and it seemed that he had been dead for two days. Several men were sitting near the father, looking at the child in the father's arms with green eyes, holding stones in their palms, like hungry wolves preparing to hunt for food.

Zhang Jie couldn't help but rub his eyes, sniffed, and looked away.

Cheng Xiao, Wang Xia, Miao Ruoling and others also felt strong sadness and sympathy.

Although they seem to be capable of committing all kinds of evil, such as murder and arson, they would still like to help these unfortunate people if they can.

“No need to go into the city.”

Chu Xuan raised his finger, and a white light flashed across his space ring. Twenty large wooden barrels about one meter high appeared in the carriage, all filled with sticky preserved egg and lean meat porridge.

No one knew when he prepared so much food. Zhang Jie, Wang Xia and others were stunned.

"Go out and give out porridge."

Before he finished speaking, Zhang Jie came to his senses, stood up immediately, picked up a large wooden barrel in each hand, and walked out quickly.

Cheng Xiao, Wang Xia, Ba Wang, Zhu Wen, Miao Ruoling and Li Shi didn't waste any words. They walked out of the carriage carrying a large wooden barrel filled with preserved egg and lean meat porridge and jumped off the car.

The refugees were very sensitive to the taste of food. When they smelled the aroma of meat and rice, their eyes gradually became active from numbness. The refugees who were staring at the corpses sniffed and turned their heads to look around. The huge carriage in the middle of the road, and Zhang Jie and others who came out of the carriage carrying wooden barrels, came into the refugees' sight.

"Porridge is being distributed...Porridge is being distributed! Porridge is being distributed!"

The refugees shouted excitedly, but they had not eaten for a long time, so their shouts seemed so weak.

The refugees around crawled towards the carriage, their ferocious faces revealing a hint of madness.

Zhang Jie was startled by the refugees' frantic behavior. He quickly shouted, "Don't worry! Line up! There's plenty of porridge in the car! Everyone gets a share!"

It was not the first time for most of the refugees to encounter free soup. Although they rushed to the front of the carriage like crazy, they did not fight for it. Instead, they quickly started to line up after hearing Zhang Jie's shout.

Thousands of refugees lined up in twenty rows in front of the carriage. Everyone's eyes were glowing green. They were holding broken wooden bowls and broken ceramic bowls, staring at the wooden barrel that Zhang Jie and others had taken off the carriage.

The person at the front of the line grabbed a spoon and was about to scoop out the rice porridge, but when he looked down and saw the rice porridge in the wooden barrel, the refugee who had not eaten for two days was stunned.

"What white rice! Oh my God! How can there be such white rice? Am I dreaming?"

The sticky liquid of a hundred meters made the refugees in the front of the line all stunned. They showed disbelief on their faces and felt like they were dreaming.

"The rice that the master eats is not this white, and the porridge that the master eats is not this thick!"

"Meat! It's meat! There's meat in it!"

"Oh my God! The food the masters in our village don't eat is this good!"

The refugees were all stunned. They were speechless and were so shocked by the century egg and lean meat porridge in front of them that they didn't dare to move their spoons.

They were afraid that once they scooped it up, their beautiful dream would be over before they even put the meat porridge into their mouths.

This is a porridge charity. Who would give such luxurious meat porridge to refugees except in a dream? The porridge sold in the big restaurants in the city is not as good as this.

"Gu——!"

"Cuckoo!"

“Waaaaaaaa…!”

"Hungry! I'm hungry!"

"Dad, I want to eat!"

The aroma of preserved egg and lean meat porridge became stronger and stronger, filling the road where the refugees gathered. Everyone's stomach was rumbling at the aroma of meat and rice.

The children, who were too hungry to speak, began to cry out with their last bit of strength.

"Hurry up! Those in front, if you don't want to eat, get out of the way!"

The refugees in the back of the line started shouting, and the fragrant smell caused chaos in the twenty lines. If the people in the front of the line didn't get porridge and move aside, the people behind would squeeze in and push the people in front away.

The refugees in front of the line recovered from their shock and immediately began to scoop porridge into their bowls.

"Damn it! Even if this is a dream, I'm going to be a full-bodied ghost in it!"

A full bowl of preserved egg and lean meat porridge was scooped up. The refugee in the front made way with the wooden bowl in his hand, walked carefully to an open area, raised the bowl, and wolfed down the preserved egg and lean meat porridge.

The meat, eggs, and rice in the meat porridge made the refugees' faces more rosy. They had no time to taste the taste of the preserved egg and lean meat porridge, but the feeling of fullness and the nutritional components of the preserved egg and lean meat porridge made the refugees feel the taste of rebirth.

The refugee who hurried forward also fell into the same situation as the stunned person before. Shocked by the luxurious delicacies in the wooden barrel for that era, and afraid that all this was a dream, he didn't even have the courage to scoop out the porridge. It was not until the people behind him kept urging him that he hurriedly scooped up the century egg and lean meat porridge and walked aside with the bowl.

"It's really porridge, it's really rice, and it has meat! You're a living Bodhisattva!" "Great benefactor, I kowtow to you!"

"Good deeds will be rewarded. In my next life, I will work like a slave to repay you!"

"Master, I will pray for you every day to repay your kindness."

After eating the porridge, warming their bodies, filling their stomachs and regaining their consciousness, the refugees who had survived the brink of death knelt down in front of Zhang Jie and others, kowtowed and expressed their gratitude with tears and laughter.

"Alright, alright, everyone, get up. Instead of thanking me, why not go eat more? Come, one by one, help yourself. Grab as much as you can. If you still want more after you finish, just line up again. But don't rush, or no one will be able to eat... Chu Xuan, do you have a bowl ready? It seems some people don't have bowls."

Zhang Jie helped up several refugees who were kneeling to express their gratitude and stopped them from kowtowing. He shouted loudly to maintain order among the refugees while observing the refugees who were gathering together.

He found that many refugees didn't even have bowls, so he hurriedly asked Chu Xuan.

"Miao Ruoling, draw a batch of bowls."

Chu Xuan walked out of the carriage slowly and gave instructions to Miao Ruoling.

"Draw a whole group? In public?"

Miao Ruoling was also stunned. Is it really okay to use the power of the Bibi Fruit in public?
Chu Xuan glanced at Miao Ruoling indifferently. Miao Ruoling shuddered and hurriedly activated the Bibi Fruit to draw layers of soup bowls.

The soup bowl drawn on the ground immediately became a solid object after Miao Ruoling moved the pen away. This scene, seen in full view of the crowd, shocked the refugees so much that they opened their eyes wide.

"God! The God has come down to earth!"

"The gods have come to save us."

"It's the Bodhisattva! The compassionate and merciful Guanyin Bodhisattva who saves people from suffering!"

"The Bodhisattva appears!"

……

Many refugees showed fiery eyes. They excitedly bowed to Miao Ruoling, using the full prostration ceremony, knocking their heads heavily on the ground, treating Miao Ruoling as a god or bodhisattva.

"Alright, alright, I'm not some god or bodhisattva, stop kowtowing. If you don't have a bowl, quickly get one and go eat. Just live well, and that's your way of thanking me."

Miao Ruoling was in a panic.

The ancients were superstitious, and these refugees were already grateful and respectful to the kind people who gave them porridge. They expressed their gratitude immediately after drinking the porridge to avoid upsetting the kind people. This was the survival wisdom of the refugees.

If she continued to make bowls appear out of thin air, it would inevitably lead to a scene like this, which would delay the progress of distributing porridge.

It was because of this that she asked Chu Xuan, but Chu Xuan seemed to have never thought about this.

"Bodhisattva! Bodhisattva, please save my child, please save my child..."

A woman holding a baby stumbled out of the crowd. Panicked and exhausted, she fell to the ground after running a few steps. She tried to protect the child in her arms with both hands, but her arms scraped against the ground and broke a layer of skin.

"Bodhisattva, compassionate Bodhisattva, please have mercy on me and save my son..."

The woman held the baby and crawled forward, begging Miao Ruoling desperately.

Miao Ruoling quickly looked at Zhu Wen. Among them, only Zhu Wen was good at healing light spells.

When Miao Ruoling looked at Zhu Wen, Zhu Wen had already walked quickly towards the woman. She took out the Golden Sutra of the Sun, turned on the double speed of bullet time, and recited a spell.

"Healing Light!"

A milky white light emanated from the Sun Golden Sutra, enveloping the woman and the baby, and the gentle healing power merged into their bodies.

After a while, the woman's skin, which was scratched by the mud, grew back, and the baby's blue face gradually turned red.

"Thank you, thank you! Bodhisattva, have mercy on me, Bodhisattva, have mercy on me!"

Seeing the child's life coming back to life, the woman cried with joy and kowtowed repeatedly to express her gratitude.

Such a scene also attracted the attention of other injured refugees. The seriously ill and injured refugees ran towards Zhu Wen as if they had seen a life-saving straw, with excited and distorted expressions on their faces.

"Buddha, please save me, I don't want to die!"

"Bodhisattva who saves the suffering, please save my wife!"

"Bodhisattva! Bodhisattva!"

……

There were many wounded and sick people among the refugees. Although many of them wanted to fill their stomachs rather than receive treatment, there were still more than a hundred refugees who flocked to Zhu Wen.

With Zhu Wen's ability, she couldn't save so many people at once. Cheng Xiao and Wang Xia, who were internal force enhancers, and Zhang Jie, who was an angel Digimon, had also learned healing spells from the Sun Golden Sutra. Seeing this situation, they hurried over to help save people.

Chu Xuan stood in the carriage, watching everything happening in front of him calmly.

"The first step of the plan was a success."

Chu Xuan muttered to himself, his gaze shifting from the refugees to the city gate.

The soldiers guarding the city were looking over here, and the common people who were queuing to enter the city also looked over here in surprise.

The commotion at the soup kitchen made people nearby feel confused and uncertain.

"Rice porridge?"

"Egg?"

"Meat?"

"immortal?"

"Buddha?"

"Have these untouchables gone mad?"

The soldiers looked at each other in bewilderment. The refugees' cries were too unrealistic to be believed.

Rather than believing that those things really existed, they believed that the refugees were crazy.

(End of this chapter)