Sun Simiao sat powerlessly on the ground. His hands trembled as he tried to grasp Yun Ye’s clothing, missing twice. The two words “locust plague” seemed to drain all his strength.

Zhuang Santing and the others stared dumbly at Yun Ye, who had fallen into madness. They only felt their heads buzzing. Heaven, earth, and trees all seemed to be rapidly distancing themselves, leaving only their tiny selves in the darkness.

“After great disaster comes great epidemic. My Emperor, have you prepared to face the plague? Now is the hottest weather, the best time for epidemics to spread. Have you prepared yourself to slaughter your own subjects? After this disaster passes, will you still have the ability to campaign against the Turks? That you can eliminate Jieli is pure dog-shit luck!”

The torrent of cursing heaven and earth finally stopped.

Yun Ye sat on the ground, burying his head between his knees, saying nothing more.

The forest returned to silence again. The squirrel poked out its head, vigilantly watching the seven listless monsters beneath the tree.

Sorrow always spreads, just as happiness is also contagious. The squirrel at this moment was probably praying that the monsters wouldn’t take away its pine cones, its expression melancholy and sorrowful.

“Marquis Yun, now is not the time for you to run away. You are a marquis of the Great Tang and naturally must bear your responsibilities. We’re going back—right now.” Sun Simiao found the strength from somewhere to pull Yun Ye up.

“Marquis, even if I must carry you on my back, I’ll carry you out of the mountains. Everyone on the estate is counting on you to save their lives.” Zhuang Santing kicked the other four men up and said urgently to Yun Ye.

He had complete faith in his marquis, always believing Yun Ye could turn the tide at the most critical moment.

Yun Ye looked at Zhuang Santing strangely. He himself had no confidence—he didn’t know where Zhuang’s confidence came from.

“The estate will naturally be fine. What do you think I was doing having them herd chickens and ducks all over the mountains? It was to have the chickens and ducks eat all the locusts in the fields. When I came, I looked—our estate has locusts, but not as many as other places. They’re just too weak to cause harm. But these things have wings, and we don’t. When other people’s insects finish eating their crops, they’ll come eat ours. This is an unsolvable problem.”

“Then what do we do? The grain on our estate…” Zhuang Santing actually cried. A man who’d taken nine blows on the battlefield without crying was now streaming tears.

“Cry over what! Even if our estate has no grain, so what? Without grain, don’t we still have chickens, ducks, and geese? Each family still has pigs—we won’t starve. Before I left, I told Old Qian not to collect poultry eggs these days, to let the tenant farmers exchange them for grain. Getting through the famine won’t be a problem. What’s a grown man crying for?” Yun Ye scolded righteously, completely forgetting that he’d just been crying like a newborn baby moments ago.

Old Sun suddenly calmed down. He arranged the medicinal herbs in his backpack, picked up his medicine hoe, and headed back. Yun Ye had no choice but to follow. For Old Sun to watch disaster victims all over Guanzhong while doing nothing would be worse than killing him.

Old Sun suddenly turned back and pressed down heavily on Yun Ye’s shoulder, saying, “This old man also believes in you. When you need this old man, I’ll give you my life if necessary, as long as we can endure this disaster.”

That earlier venting had lightened Yun Ye’s burden considerably. Before the disaster arrived, there was still fear, but now that it was reality, there was nothing to be afraid of. No matter how frightened you were, the disaster wouldn’t stop on its own.

The relaxed pleasure from when they’d entered the forest was gone. Old Sun didn’t treat Yun Ye as human at all. Along the way, crossing mountains and ridges, the five-day journey was nearly completed in two days. Reaching the forest’s edge, the woods grew increasingly sparse, and signs of human presence increased.

Yun Ye walked until his legs were swollen. Old Sun only gave him acupuncture and massage each evening. Yun Ye could barely keep up the next day. He somewhat regretted why he’d urged Old Sun to walk deep into the forest.

There were many people at the forest’s edge. Seeing Old Sun and Yun Ye was like seeing family. Liu Xian grabbed Yun Ye and wouldn’t let go, saying with red eyes, “His Majesty summons you to return to the capital urgently.”

From Liu Xian’s account, he learned that three days ago, reports came that twenty-seven provinces in Guanzhong had suffered disaster almost simultaneously. Locusts swarmed from riversides, old riverbeds, reed marshes, and wasteland, actually forming themselves into groups. The first report came from Tongguan, immediately followed by urgent reports from other provinces and counties.

The County Magistrate of Zhouzhi, Wujie, issued a field-burning order to prevent the locust plague from spreading to other provinces and counties, having all the county’s crops and locusts perish together. He then threw himself into the fire and self-immolated. The world was shocked.

Yun Ye said nothing, only sat in the carriage letting Liu Xian send him to the capital. Sun Simiao was also in the carriage, looking at the scenery outside without speaking.

Very strangely, Yun Ye actually heard the roar of an airplane taking off, coming from far to near. Just as he was about to see if someone else had been sent to the Tang Dynasty by airplane so he could go welcome them, he heard the coachman’s wretched cry: “The locusts are coming!”

On the horizon, a mass of yellow cloud and mist rapidly rushed toward them. Hundreds of thousands, millions of finger-length locusts spread their wings, dancing rapidly in the air, gathering into a tremendous roar like an airplane taking off, covering them like a blanket.

Before this natural disaster, the unflappable Sun Simiao turned pale as earth. The brave and invincible Liu Xian’s legs trembled and nearly collapsed. The coachman wanted to bury his head in the earth but stuck his rear up high. The carriage horses neighed incessantly. Held by the carriage and unable to move, they stamped their hooves continuously in place.

Yun Ye released the brake on the carriage. The two panicked horses fled toward the direction from which no locusts came.

He tore off his clothing’s inner lining, wrapping his head and face layer after layer tightly, leaving only his mouth and eyes. He also wrapped his hands with cloth strips, then tied his collar, sleeves, and pant legs tight. He had the panicked Old Sun and Liu Xian do the same.

Just as he prepared to crouch down with his head covered, he felt his entire body seemed to be in the center of a sandstorm. Continuously, coarse gravel struck his body, causing dull pain. Yun Ye knew these were locusts hitting him, but he dared not open his eyes.

This pounding continued for fully half an hour before gradually easing. Only when there was no longer any impact on his body did Yun Ye open his eyes, looking at the unfamiliar earth and laughing bitterly.

The earth that had just been lush and green seemed to have donned a yellow coat. Everywhere were writhing locusts. From the tall tree crowns, broken branches constantly fell. Fat branches falling through mid-air rapidly slimmed down. By the time they hit the ground, only bare branches without bark remained.

From the fields on both sides of the road came the rustling sound of silkworms gnawing mulberry leaves, only the sound was much louder, and the chewing was far more forceful than silkworms—it made one’s hair stand on end.

On every stalk of crops were several locusts climbing up. Tender green leaf veins vanished without a trace in an instant. Large expanses of farmland where the harvest had been in sight became feeding grounds for locusts.

Liu Xian knelt on the ground, murmuring indistinctly. One could only occasionally hear a few exclamations of “Heavens! Heavens!”

Sun Simiao watched the locusts gnawing the medicinal herbs in his backpack, tears welling in his eyes.

Only Yun Ye plucked a locust crawling on his body, feeling the locust’s strong, powerful legs, saying: “Mm, quite plump. Ten would be enough to fill a person.”