The collapse of the Shangjiang Weir was no less shattering than a landslide. Every prefecture adjacent to the Shangjiang felt the change in the water and the trembling of the earth.

Shen Zhuxi was at home in Xiangyang County when she too felt the ground shudder.

Like the other civilians who knew nothing of what was happening, she assumed it was an earthquake, and rushed out of the house in a panic to take shelter — but the earth soon returned to stillness and did not shake again.

The frightened citizens gradually made their way back to their homes, but Shen Zhuxi’s heart could find no peace.

Early the following morning, a young manservant who had gone out to run errands returned with a face white with fear and reported to her:

“My Lady, this is terrible! Last night’s trembling — it was because the Shangjiang Weir has collapsed!”

The manservant’s words drained the color from Shen Zhuxi’s face.

“The Shangjiang has burst its banks. It has flooded the four prefectures of the capital region, including the capital city itself. The neighboring Fangzhou has been flooded as well. There are already a great many survivors from Fangzhou gathering outside the gates of Xiangyang County, demanding to be let in!”

“Is the White Egret Plain safe?!” Shen Zhuxi asked without a moment’s hesitation.

“My Lady, please be at ease. Although Xiangyang Prefecture has seen a sharp rise in water levels, there have been no reports of harm so far. The White Egret Plain is also far from the rivers and should not affect the Master!”

Shen Zhuxi steadied herself, then asked, “Why are the city gates not allowing the refugees in?”

“They all fled without their travel permits, so of course they cannot pass the gate guards.” The manservant’s face still showed the lingering shock. “The disaster struck without any warning — the Shangjiang Weir collapsed with no sign at all. Those who managed to make it here are survivors who lost everything. That they escaped with their lives is already a miracle. How could they possibly have their travel permits on them?”

“Is the county magistrate’s office aware of the situation?”

“Something this enormous — how could they not be aware?”

“Have they put forward any plan?” Shen Zhuxi’s brow furrowed deeply.

The manservant shook his head blankly.

“I’m going out,” Shen Zhuxi said.

Tiniang had barely opened her mouth to protest when Shen Zhuxi’s expression shifted, and a look of firm resolve came into her eyes.

“Come with me.”

Tiniang froze for a moment, then instinctively went to prepare the carriage and attendants.

It was not until she was already seated in the carriage that she came to her senses and felt a surge of regret — why hadn’t she tried harder to dissuade her Ladyship from going out? It was so chaotic outside, with so many refugees gathered together. What a dangerous situation for such a frail woman to put herself in!

The carriage came to a stop at the Xiangyang County city gates. Shen Zhuxi put on her veiled hat and descended from the carriage with Tiniang’s help.

Before she had even drawn near the gates, the shell-shocked faces of the refugees and their broken, ghost-like cries had already filled her eyes and ears.

On the other side of the gate, teahouse patrons and shop owners stood beneath their eaves, buzzing in low voices like mosquitoes.

“Lucky the flood didn’t reach Xiangyang Prefecture…”

“What a tragedy. Maybe they should just let them in…”

The tea-drinkers wore expressions of sympathy. A man in the garb of a fortune teller, holding his signboard, said with a severe expression:

“They absolutely cannot be let in! This is divine punishment — the Dragon King will be angered. What if the Shangjiang floods us here in Xiangyang Prefecture too?”

Another tea patron chimed in: “Exactly! If they have nowhere to earn a living, they’ll end up stealing and robbing in the city. Are you going to take responsibility for that?”

“This is a natural disaster — not divine punishment!” an earnest, bookish young man cried out, agitated. “If our Xiangyang Prefecture were just a little closer to the Shangjiang, it would be you and I standing outside that gate today! Would you then want every person in the city to have a heart as cold as iron, just like yours?”

A chorus of arguments filled the teahouse. Seeing that those opposing him far outnumbered his supporters, the fortune teller tucked his signboard under his arm and slunk away.

The remaining patrons sat in place, feigning composure.

“What has any of this to do with me?” one muttered with a guilty expression, still holding his ground. “It’s not as if I’m the one keeping them out! Is speaking a few honest words really being cold-hearted?”

Shen Zhuxi and her group walked past the teahouse where the arguments echoed, and made their way quickly to the city gates.

She found the nearest gate guard and came straight to the point. “Who is your superior officer?”

“…What does it have to do with you? And just who are you?” the soldier asked, eyeing her with suspicion.

“Insolence! This is the wife of your Xiangyang Prefecture Governor!” Tiniang snapped furiously.

The young soldier was so startled he nearly lost his composure. “I’ll go fetch the battalion commander at once!”

A short while later, the battalion commander came hurrying down from the watchtower.

After confirming her identity, Shen Zhuxi followed him up to the top of the city wall.

“There are roughly three hundred or so gathered outside Xiangyang County at the moment… By nightfall, that number will likely double or triple. There are still a great many refugees making their way here from various directions as they flee.”

The battalion commander gazed down at the crowd gathered below the city wall, his expression grave.

“Because we are right next to Fangzhou, most of the refugees gathered here have come from Fangzhou. We should expect more to arrive later from Junzhou, Shangzhou, and the Jingzhao region.”

Though Jinzhou was not among the four submerged prefectures, the Lan River was a tributary of the Shangjiang, and when the Shangjiang burst its banks, the Lan River’s water levels would also surge violently. Since Yutou County sat in a mountain valley, floodwaters would gather there — Yutou County was inevitably doomed.

Had she not left Yutou County in Jinzhou with Li Wu and the others, Sui Rui, Jiu Niang, and the rest would likely have met with disaster today.

Even so, the Yutou County she knew so well would certainly no longer exist.

The little courtyard that had been her first refuge after she left the palace, the place that had felt like a safe harbor — along with the land where Li Wu and the ducks had grown up together — all of it was now submerged beneath the roiling flood.

Places like Yutou County had been swallowed by the waters in countless numbers.

The lives lost because of it were beyond counting.

An overwhelming grief and bewilderment pressed down on Shen Zhuxi’s chest.

The Shangjiang Weir had stood in peace with the Shangjiang for more than five hundred years — why would it suddenly collapse?

In times of peace, the national treasury could have allocated funds to repair the embankment immediately. But now — who was capable of doing so? Was she supposed to rely on the false Liao? Or on Great Yan, which to this day had not even established a capital city?

Shen Zhuxi stared blankly at the refugees gathered below the city wall — pale-faced, their spirits broken, still not recovered from their terror.

They had barely escaped with their lives from the jaws of death. One by one they stood, their clothes still half-damp, huddled shivering against the city wall in the cold wind.

Among them were hunched elderly people, children young and old, and infants crying in their mothers’ arms.

They had all lost their homes.

“Has the county magistrate’s office come up with any plan?” Shen Zhuxi asked.

“This…” The battalion commander’s expression turned awkward. “There should be one, I expect.”

“Very well,” Shen Zhuxi said. “I will wait here.”

She was only the Governor’s wife, not the Governor herself.

One should not meddle in affairs that were not one’s responsibility. In that case — had those whose responsibility it was fulfilled their duties?

Tiniang found a chair for her, and she sat on the city wall, her gaze steadily watching over the people below. When the battalion commander brought her refreshments and hot tea, she shook her head and declined, leaving them untouched.

The people below, these panic-stricken souls — they were the subjects of Great Yan.

The imperial family of Great Yan had brought about the country’s ruin through their own extravagance and neglect of governance. One might say that was their just deserts.

But these people — these common people who toiled from sunrise to sunset, their faces to the sky and their backs to the yellow earth — what had they done wrong to deserve this punishment?

Once, Shen Zhuxi had believed that the rebel army who stormed the imperial palace was what had shattered her nation.

Later, she gradually came to understand that what had truly left Great Yan’s rivers and mountains in ruin was precisely the people with privilege — including herself. It was the imperial family who built extravagant projects and indulged in excess. It was the officials who held their positions without fulfilling their duties. It was the wealthy gentry who followed those above them in their corrupt ways. It was these people, who had the power to lead the nation toward the light, who had instead dragged it down into hell.

Among all of them, the most innocent were the common people at the very bottom.

They had enjoyed none of the privileges of the nobility, yet were condemned to fall into the abyss alongside them.

The more clearly Shen Zhuxi saw this, the more ashamed she became. And the more ashamed she became, the more clearly she saw.

The people are paramount; the state comes second; the ruler is of least importance.

To invert this order is to invite ruin.

Had Emperor Yuanlong, after two years of wandering in exile, come to understand this truth as well?

Great Yan had reached a moment of life or death. Both the people and the nation needed a wise and capable ruler.

Shen Zhuxi sat on the city wall with a heart heavy as lead. Half a shichen later, a man in official robes hurried up the steps.

“…This subordinate pays his respects to My Lady.” The Xiangyang Prefecture Judicial Commissioner clasped his hands in a bow. “The wind up here is cold. Would My Lady not come with this subordinate to speak somewhere more comfortable?”

“The people below are colder than I am,” Shen Zhuxi said. “Have you reached any plan?”

He had clearly been informed of why she was waiting here before he came, for the Judicial Commissioner spoke without delay: “My Lady, these refugees have no travel permits, and therefore cannot be admitted into the city. That is the rule.”

“They are survivors of a disaster. Their very homes are submerged under water. How could they possibly produce travel permits?”

“Without travel permits, there is no way to guarantee that spies with ill intent are not concealed among them.”

“If you genuinely fear that opening the gates will cause problems, then what you should do is register their identities, verify and cross-reference the information, arrange for quarantined settlement, and root out those with suspicious intentions — not simply and crudely refuse entry to everyone!”

She had already set herself a clear boundary. She had resolved not to interfere too much in external affairs.

She had told herself repeatedly: you are only the Governor’s wife, not the Governor.

She had told herself again and again: do not meddle in what is not your responsibility.

But what of those whose responsibility it was? The people’s anguish was right before their eyes — how were they able to look away as though they saw nothing?

The Judicial Commissioner’s indifferent attitude infuriated Shen Zhuxi, piercing through the anger she had been struggling to suppress deep in her chest.

Unable to contain her grief and fury any longer, she said sharply: “What you call following the rules is nothing more than lazy governance!”

“You—” The Judicial Commissioner, his weakness laid bare, glared at her in furious embarrassment. “…We are simply adhering to the rules. My Lady need not make things difficult for us. The Governor would likely not wish for his Lady, a woman of the inner household, to interfere too much in political affairs.”

Shen Zhuxi was not skilled at quarreling, but the moment she thought of the starving, freezing refugees below, a surge of strength filled her again.

And she was absolutely certain —

“If the Governor knew of this, he would never do nothing, as all of you are doing!”

Li Wu was nothing like these sanctimonious, cold-blooded and selfish men. Though Li Wu had grown up among ducks, though hardship had once pushed him onto a crooked path, his spirit was still clear — a hundredfold more righteous than these learned scholars!

She argued her case with reason: “All I am asking is that you come up with a practical, workable plan for the situation at hand. That is your duty. How is that ‘making things difficult’?”

The Judicial Commissioner bowed with clasped hands, affecting humility, and spoke words that had nothing to do with humility at all.

“A Lady of the inner household intervening in governmental decisions — to this subordinate, that itself is making things difficult.”

Shen Zhuxi stared at him, seething.

If she held a noble title, she could use her official rank to press him. But right now, all she had was the honorary title of Governor’s Wife. When it truly came down to it, she could not order anyone.

Was there truly no other way?

If it were Li Wu — if it were him — how would he break through this impasse?

“This subordinate understands that My Lady is kind-hearted, but there are things that can be done and things that cannot. In matters of governance, it would be best if My Lady did not interfere. The sky is growing dark, and the wind on the city wall is strong. Please allow this subordinate to escort My Lady back to the carriage.”

Having finished speaking, the Judicial Commissioner’s expression hardened as he swept his gaze over the surrounding gate guards. “Why have you not yet seen My Lady back to her carriage? If My Lady catches cold and falls ill, can any of you afford to bear the responsibility?”

“Who dares lay a hand on me?!”

Shen Zhuxi’s bearing gathered into itself, an imposing and inviolable dignity pouring forth from the fury in her expression. The gate guards and the Judicial Commissioner were both momentarily stunned.

Her courageous and unintimidated gaze fixed on the Judicial Commissioner in his official robes. She spoke with unyielding righteousness:

“To receive the ruler’s stipend is to be faithful to the ruler’s business. Those outside the gate are the subjects of Great Yan — they are your subjects and mine alike. I cannot simply leave them to their fate.”

“What does My Lady intend to do?” The Judicial Commissioner’s expression darkened.

“Until you have devised a proper plan for accommodating these refugees,” Shen Zhuxi said, “I am going out.”

“My Lady!” Tiniang’s eyes went wide with shock.

“I will set up tents and a porridge distribution station at the city gates, and I will stay with these homeless people until you provide a reasonable solution.”

The Judicial Commissioner’s face grew even more unpleasant as he imagined the gossip such an act would provoke. “My Lady is threatening this subordinate—”

“How can the Judicial Commissioner say such a thing?” Shen Zhuxi steeled herself, her voice resolute. “You are unwilling to provide a solution, so I have thought of one for you. If the Judicial Commissioner cannot offer a better plan, I will proceed with my own.”

For the wife of the prefecture’s highest official to be shut outside the city gates — even voluntarily — and to live and eat alongside the refugees who had been denied entry: if word of this spread, Xiangyang Prefecture would lose every shred of its dignity. And when the Governor returned, the Judicial Commissioner’s own position would be forfeit.

After a great deal of deliberation, the Judicial Commissioner had no choice but to yield.

The prefectural officials gathered hurriedly, and after a round of heated debate, hammered out a plan for receiving the refugees.

By this time, the sun had gone down, and the number of refugees gathered outside the gates far exceeded the battalion commander’s estimate. Even a rough count suggested the figure was well into the thousands.

If a riot broke out, the consequences would be unthinkable.

Tents required money. Porridge required money. Workers required money. Everything required money.

Shen Zhuxi looked toward the Judicial Commissioner. He looked back at her with perfectly calm eyes.

“My Lady, the Xiangyang Prefecture treasury has been running a deficit for three consecutive years. We truly have nothing to spare for relief.”

Shen Zhuxi had no choice but to return home and go through everything she owned, gathering all her valuables — except for the phoenix tablet — and packing them up, not even sparing the pot of the pale green lotus she so treasured.

She brought everything she had collected to Du Yanlong’s pawnshop.

When Du Yanlong learned the purpose of her visit, he looked at her in silence for a long moment, then offered her a price far beyond anything she could have imagined.

After the moon had climbed high into the treetops, simple tents began rising outside Xiangyang County one by one. Porridge stations were set up, filling the air with the clean fragrance of plain congee. Sui Rui moved with practiced efficiency, helping Fan Sanniang cook and distribute the porridge. The line in front of the free medical consultation tent stretched long. Jiu Niang stepped in as a temporary assistant to Doctor Tang, responsible for bandaging and changing the dressings of the injured. Hu Yishou led his people to patrol the area on all sides and keep order.

Shen Zhuxi presided over the main tent, watching as the clerks inside issued each refugee a temporary token after registering their identity and origin. With that token, they could receive medical care, collect porridge, and be assigned a tent.

These people who had survived death and at last found a place of shelter, one by one, offered whatever they could to express their gratitude — a sachet, a grass-woven swallow, a heartfelt word of thanks, a tearful bow to the ground.

A toddling young girl came forward carrying several yellow wildflowers she had found somewhere and offered them to Shen Zhuxi with both hands.

Shen Zhuxi smiled and received them with both hands as well. When she turned away, she quietly wiped at her reddening eyes, then composed herself once more and faced everyone with her steady, resolute expression.

In the main tent, a number of clerks were sorting through, organizing, and verifying the information that Shen Zhuxi had gathered. Since all the people were victims from the four prefectures, they shared certain points of connection that could be cross-referenced. Using those connections, those whose identities could be confirmed could begin to be admitted into the city.

In the meantime, those whose identities could not yet be verified would be observed further, and admitted into the city in stages according to their conduct.

It could not fully guarantee that no suspicious individuals would slip through the net. But it was the best solution Shen Zhuxi could devise.

To act was better than not acting.

To save was better than not saving.

Li Wu was at the front fighting for home and country. She, too, had to be strong.

Only then would she be worthy — worthy as a princess, as a subject, as a wife —

worthy as a human being.