Bai Suzhen, I really need to punish you properly.

Zhu Yingtai's eyes were misty, her cheeks were slightly flushed, and she walked with unusually slow steps, revealing a hint of awkwardness.

Wang Xuan hadn't expected Zhu Yingtai to be so loyal and righteous, unwilling to betray her classmate in the slightest. He had no choice but to reluctantly grant Zhu Yingtai's wish to be punished.

Outside the county government office, a group of students sat together, drinking fish soup with gusto. The fish was nourishing and helped to relieve their fatigue.

Someone spotted Zhu Yingtai first and immediately called out, "Brother Zhu, come sit down and have some soup with us!"

Because of her earlier act of standing up for them, many people were grateful to her.

Zhu Yingtai waved her hand gently, her waist and hips slightly tensing: "No, I won't sit."

After a while, Li Gongfu said, "You can go back now."

The students felt as if they had been granted a pardon and returned to their respective academies.

After everyone from Wansong Academy returned to the courtyard, Li Rusong had Zhu Yingtai move to a separate room.

Liang Shanbo looked puzzled and asked, "Master, why is that?"

"Yingtai, you should talk to him yourself."

After saying this, Li Rusong left on his own.

Zhu Yingtai, being kind-hearted, couldn't bear to tell him the truth directly, so she simply explained, "You and I were the most eager to step forward today, and the master, fearing further trouble, has decided to have us live separately."

Liang Shanbo said urgently, "This is too absurd... I will go and plead with the Master."

Liang Shanbo didn't realize that his roommate was a woman even after living together for three years, which is enough to show that he was not good at reading people and lacked social skills.

Zhu Yingtai immediately intervened, saying, "No need! I think there's a reason why you're saying this, sir."

Although Liang Shanbo was unwilling, Zhu Yingtai was willing.

She was even secretly pleased, thinking that she would finally be able to sleep without her breast binder at night since she would be living alone in her own room.

Liang Shanbo looked disappointed and offered, "Brother Zhu, let me help you carry it."

"No need, I'll go find Silverheart first."

Yin Xin was Zhu Yingtai's personal maid, but in public she pretended to be Zhu Yingtai's pageboy. She usually lived in the side room of the academy's servants.

Zhu Yingtai went to find Yin Xin and told her about living alone.

Yin Xin was overjoyed to hear this and felt very happy for her mistress, as she genuinely felt that her mistress had gone through a lot.

The two packed their belongings together and moved to their new house.

Yin Xin quickly and efficiently put away Zhu Yingtai's belongings.

Zhu Yingtai was exhausted after a long day. She sat down with a thud, then immediately bounced back up, feeling a sharp pain in her buttocks.

"Ouch~"

Yin Xin quickly came over and asked with concern, "Miss, what's wrong?"

Zhu Yingtai blushed, bit her lower lip lightly, and said to cover it up, "It's nothing."

……

On the other side, Wang Xuan ordered his men to send the properly cut fish to the breach in the riverbank to replenish the strength of the able-bodied men.

He then set off to find Bai Suzhen.

Above the clouds.

Bai Suzhen wore a light gauze dress that accentuated her exquisite figure. She activated the Water Spirit Pearl, causing the accumulated water to continuously flow into the Qiantang River.

She gazed at the vast ocean below, her brows furrowed, filled with compassion and heartache.

Upon seeing Wang Xuan appear, she remained dejected and softly called out, "My lord."

Wang Xuan asked with concern, "What's wrong?"

Bai Suzhen said softly, "Seeing the houses collapsed and the people displaced, I feel a pang of sorrow in my heart."

Wang Xuan comforted her, saying, "It's not our fault. We've done enough."

He won't waste time on internal conflicts.

The grievances have their perpetrators, and the debts have their debtors; all of this was done by the catfish demon and the black wind.

The catfish spirit is dead, but Black Wind won't be spared either.

However, he currently has no idea where Black Wind is, so he has no choice but to let him live a little longer.

Bai Suzhen's willow-leaf eyebrows furrowed with sorrow as she softly replied, "Mm."

Wang Xuan was alarmed to see that she was still depressed.

He asked Bai Suzhen to activate the Water Spirit Pearl to alleviate the flood, firstly because she had the highest cultivation level and would be more adept at it, and secondly because he knew that Bai Suzhen was focused on accumulating merit, so this would also be a good deed.

He didn't want to see his first wife become depressed because of this.

"My wife, come with me home."

Bai Suzhen was taken aback: "Now? But..."

"There's no 'but' about it. The people who could be evacuated have all been evacuated." Wang Xuan gently patted her shapely buttocks, brought his lips close to her earlobe, and whispered, "I still have one more trick up my sleeve that I haven't used on you yet."

"Not here..."

The next few days were still busy.

After working day and night, the breach in the dam was finally successfully plugged.

Although the floodwaters have not completely receded in many low-lying areas, the situation has thankfully stopped worsening.

Of course, in addition to this, there are many houses that need to be repaired, which is also an extremely labor-intensive and resource-intensive task.

Gradually, grain from other places was finally transported in.

Wang Xuan bought all the items that came to Hangzhou in the early days.

Upon hearing that Qiantang was offering high prices for grain, grain merchants from various regions urged their grain ships to speed up their journeys while simultaneously sending messages to their fellow merchants, instructing them to load as much rice as possible and head to Qiantang.

Several times the profit, this is practically robbery!

The colleges also suspended classes to allow students to go out and help the disaster victims to the best of their ability.

After a long period of busy work, the students gathered together for a chat.

Someone joked, "Feng Jing, your family must have made a fortune these days."

The student named Feng Jing waved his hands repeatedly, a wry smile on his face: "My father manages the family business; I know nothing about it."

At that time, prioritizing agriculture over commerce was the mainstream policy. Raising grain prices benefited merchants who treated the common people harshly. As a beneficiary, he naturally tried to avoid the issue and pretended not to know.

Liang Shanbo, listening from the side, was filled with indignation and spoke out bluntly: "No matter what, this is sucking the blood of the people. If this continues, it will only lead to price imbalances, widespread poverty, and eventually chaos. With the magistrate's prestige, I don't believe he can't get the wealthy merchants to sell at a fair price!"

Zhu Yingtai was momentarily unsure whether Liang Shanbo was praising Wang Xuan or belittling him.

But he still spoke up in rebuttal: "Isn't the government buying at a high price also for the people to use? Besides, didn't the magistrate make it very clear that day? There are many people in Qiantang County who have suffered from the disaster. If the price of grain is not raised, grain merchants from other places will never risk high transportation costs and losses to transport grain into Qiantang."

I'm not so sure...

As soon as he finished speaking, the students around him held their own opinions and argued back and forth.

……

The Qiantang River wharf was bustling with activity as grain ships from all over flocked to the area, causing a dramatic increase in the amount of grain.

At this time, Wang Xuan decisively ordered that rice be sold at a fixed price in the government granaries, and that soup kitchens be set up in many places throughout the city to provide free soup at three fixed times in the morning, noon and evening to help poor disaster victims who could not afford to buy food.

This left both local grain merchants and those at the port completely dumbfounded and caught off guard.

No one went to them to buy grain anymore.

Especially for grain merchants from other places, who travel thousands of miles by waterway, the costs of hiring ships, workers, and clearing customs are all significant. They came hoping for high prices and huge profits, but now that market prices have plummeted, if they turn back, the losses along the way will only result in even greater losses.

Moreover, grain ships from other places are registered when they enter the city. If they want to leave the county with grain, the government will levy heavy customs duties, which will further aggravate the losses.

Merchants were all trying to sell their grain to cut their losses, and with everyone bidding against each other, the market price of rice naturally plummeted.

Even those merchants who lost money didn't forget to report the "good" news to those who were heading to Qiantang on their way back, telling them that the profits there were huge and urging them to transport more goods.

For a time, the whole city no longer had to worry about food and everyone praised Wang Xuan's foresight.

Those who had questioned Wang Xuan felt even more ashamed and embarrassed.

"Just how far can an adult's eyes see?"

"I've said it before, the magistrate loves the people like his own children, how could he possibly scheme against them?"

"When the government raises grain prices, doesn't that still benefit us ordinary people? Only those students, ignorant of the facts, are causing trouble under the guise of doing what's best for us."

"That's right, that's right! I've never said a bad word about the magistrate!"