Looking north towards the rivers and mountains

Kong Tie wasn't really sure either; after talking for a long time, he only gave two answers in the end.

One of them was Xie Weidian, the official in charge of the maritime transport and shipping, who came from Harahu Prefecture (present-day Turpan region), which the imperial court had gradually lost control of.

The second was Nasuradin, the supervisor of the Maritime Trade Office, whose origins are unknown.

After Kong Tie left, Shao Shuyi thought about it carefully but couldn't figure it out. But one thing was certain: the director of the Taicang Maritime Trade Office held a high position and wielded great power, and it was unlikely that he would be seconded to supervise the distribution of grain.

On the contrary, most of the grain buyers were seafarers, and there were not many ordinary households. It was normal for the grain transport commissioner to send a seventh-rank official to oversee the operation.

The only question now is whether the Semu official from that day was indeed Xie Weidian.

Kong Tie had only heard of these two people, but that didn't mean that these were the only two Semu officials in the entire Taicang.

Of course, even if the person matched, there didn't seem to be any good solutions. Shao Shuyi sighed inwardly. He couldn't even meet the person, so how could he possibly put his modern knowledge to good use?

Now that things have come to this, it seems the only option is to eat first.

As usual, I pick a few small vegetables from the vegetable patch, wash some rice, carefully add a few grains of salt, and cook a pot of porridge.

After we finished eating, it gradually got dark.

Shao Shuyi frowned as he looked at the straw, mat, and blanket on the bed in the east room.

Although he had been sleeping on straw for over a month, he still couldn't get used to it. He missed the soft mattresses and clean blankets of modern society, not to mention the rich and diverse food and entertainment culture.

There is no going back.

As the last rays of sunlight were about to disappear in the west, he came to the courtyard, where wisps of smoke were just rising from the neighbor's small courtyard to the east.

Two children were playing in the yard, laughing and carefree.

The old woman, her face etched with worry, was cleaning the cattle pen. She swept very carefully, carrying out basket after basket of manure and piling it in the corner. Then, she found some fine sand from somewhere and carefully spread it throughout the pen before finally driving the cattle back inside.

After drawing water from the well, the young wife walked towards the kitchen. When she saw Shao Shuyi looking in her direction, she blushed and quickened her pace.

Tie Niu, a man six feet tall, was chopping firewood in the yard.

He was very strong and his hands were very steady. The wood shattered into pieces under the axe blade, scattering all over the ground.

Just as Shao Shuyi was about to go back inside, an old man hurriedly came out.

"Father—" the young man hesitated, wanting to speak but then stopped.

"The people at the nunnery are almost all here. If we don't go soon, it will be too late." The old man waved his hand and quickly disappeared outside the courtyard.

"That old coffin, is it rushing off to its death?" The old woman crawled out of the cowshed, cursing, "He neglects his family affairs, and disappears into the nunnery as soon as it gets dark. Does the Heavenly Princess think she'll protect my son?"

The young man sighed, said nothing more, and continued chopping wood.

The old woman kept rambling on and on, seemingly scolding her husband, or perhaps cursing her own miserable fate.

Shao Shuyi was equally speechless.

Taicang was originally just a coastal village that prospered due to maritime trade. Now, it's fair to say that the vast majority of its population is inextricably linked to the sea. However, it's not without other beliefs; in fact, one person can hold multiple faiths simultaneously.

In the southeast of the city, a White Lotus sect temple named "Yiliao Nunnery," funded by local wealthy families, stands proudly. Every night, dozens to over a hundred followers often gather there, shouting and making noise until dawn.

Shao Shuyi once considered joining the White Lotus Sect, but since they didn't provide him with food, he gave up the idea.

Of course, this is really not a good place to go.

People at that time didn't know about the White Lotus Sect, but surely later generations do? Han Shantong came from a family with a long history in the White Lotus Sect.

As a modern person, he really didn't want to get involved in these things, because he could easily be swallowed up by the tide of the times. The ideal situation would be to find a relatively safe place to hide and wait for the situation to calm down.

If, in the process, one can also improve their social status and economic situation, that would be even better.

If you think about it carefully, there seems to be some time left, but it's not a lot.

After thinking about it for a long time, Shao Shuyi finally decided to go look for a job tomorrow.

One major reason was to get some cash, in case I had to run away in the future.

Another reason was that the family only had two dou and five sheng of rice left. Even if they ate one sheng a day, it would only last for more than twenty days. In the Yuan Dynasty, "shi" was both a unit of weight (120 jin) and a unit of volume (a little over 100 sheng), which was equivalent to two hu, ten dou, and one hundred sheng. The weight of items in one volume of shi varied because of the different densities, so it was difficult to generalize.

Moreover, having only rice and vegetables without protein supplementation is also a problem.

He's only fifteen, a crucial time for his growth. Without meat, eggs, and dairy to supplement his diet, eating only carbohydrates won't be enough, and his physical development will suffer—he was carrying bags at the dock recently, and his lack of strength was quite obvious.

******

April 9th, sunny.

Just as dawn was breaking, Shao Shuyi cooked some porridge. After eating, he suddenly had a whimsical idea. He took out the rusty wood-chopping knife from the woodshed and practiced chopping earnestly in the yard.

However, he stopped after a short while. There was no other reason; he felt he would get hungry if he continued. The small amount of vegetable porridge he ate that morning would probably be gone in a pee, and he wouldn't get enough nutrition. Forcing himself to train might even cause blood in his urine, which wasn't worth it.

After leaving home, Shao Shuyi traveled eastward and arrived near the Thirty-Mile Long Embankment.

A large group of idle people had gathered here, mostly looking for work. Shao Shuyi mingled among them, feeling like a wandering god in Sanhe, searching for day-wage jobs. If he was lucky, he could work for ten days or half a month; if he was unlucky, he might only get one job, less than half a day—frankly, longer-term jobs were usually introduced by acquaintances and rarely found elsewhere.

He had been squatting there for half a day, but he hadn't seen Mao's job. Even if he had, someone else had taken it. Just as he was about to leave, a cry suddenly rang out in the distance.

Shao Shuyi walked a little further and saw a girl hugging her mother's leg and crying loudly.

The mother, her face filled with sorrow, also wept bitterly.

Beside him stood an honest-looking man, muttering to himself, "Last winter, the authorities summoned boats to transport grain. They hadn't paid the fares, yet they forced me to repair the boats. I had no choice but to borrow money to buy tung oil, hemp fibers, lime, and timber to hire craftsmen. By the end of March, I finally received some payment, but it was all spent on rations for the boatmen. Today, the constables came to my door, saying I owed them money and demanding four ingots of silver. They said if I didn't pay, they'd confiscate my property. I really have no choice, no choice at all…"

He spoke at length, glancing at the onlookers as he spoke, his lips trembling, his voice slightly choked. It was less that he was speaking to the onlookers, and more that he was speaking to himself, trying to alleviate the guilt in his heart.

"Enough with the nonsense!" A middle-aged man in silk robes sneered, took out a stack of banknotes, and threw it at the man's face, saying, "If it weren't for your daughter's beauty, you'd be getting a beating and rotting in jail. Here are eight ingots of currency, keep them safe."

After saying that, he waved his hand.

Several people rushed out from behind, separated the mother and daughter, and forcibly dragged the younger daughter away.

The man instinctively reached out and picked up the banknotes, then hurriedly bent down to pick up the banknotes that had fallen to the ground.

"What a tragedy! The Xia family's daughter is only thirteen years old, and she's already been sold off," a bystander sighed.

"This child is beautiful; perhaps Master Zhang will buy her as a concubine?"

"So what? She could have found a good family to marry into."

"Eight ingots of paper money is pretty good. Could an average family sell it for five ingots?"

"Xia Er is really pitiful. I don't know who he offended, but he has to go to sea for three years in a row. His once well-off family is about to be ruined."

"He's a new boat owner who signed the contract a few years ago, and he doesn't know anyone there, so he's being bullied like crazy."

Shao Shuyi, listening from the side, felt a chill run down his spine.

In fact, he has been intentionally or unintentionally overlooking one point: this is ancient times, and it is the Yuan Dynasty, which was a period of extremely loose governance and great freedom of local governments. Is it strange that someone who is caught for tax evasion is punished with a cane?

It's perfectly normal for them to give you seven, seventeen, or even twenty-seven lashes. County and prefectural officials have a great deal of discretion and can decide entirely based on their mood.

If the board hits and tears the skin, it's hard to say whether it will cause infection, and the government will most likely not apply any medicine.

He had no relatives in Taicang, and no one could even bribe the prison officials to bring him food, water, or medicine.

Furthermore, the conditions inside the prison must be extremely poor. Darkness, dampness, and cramped space are minor issues; infectious diseases are the real problem, and the risk of contracting diseases is extremely high once you're inside.

Shao Shuyi quietly left the area where the crowd had gathered.

It seems that even if he finds a job, it won't be of much use; it will only be enough to barely support himself and keep him from starving. But there are too many ways to kill you in this world, and he can't even be sure which one he will encounter.