Yangzhou was a full five to six hundred li from Suzhou. Being able to feel the tremors here was enough to demonstrate the severity of this disaster.
Yangzhou was rich in resources. Lin Zongqing, as the Governor of Yangzhou, didn’t even wait for the court’s approval to return. He immediately coordinated with the Yangzhou Assistant Governor to mobilize available troops and gather grain and supplies to transport to Suzhou.
The entire Lingyuan Temple discussed for a day, feeling that those who had left home should be compassionate and save all beings. They decided to send several temple elders with a number of people to Suzhou to comfort the living and help the dead find peace.
Su Cen was among those going.
First, he felt his experience from Xuzhou might be helpful. Second, he still had some connection to Suzhou and wanted to see that place called “Above the White Clouds” again.
The group traveled with supplies, each carrying half a month’s worth of dried food. They didn’t expect to rescue many disaster victims, but at least wouldn’t add to Suzhou’s burden. This journey was both an experience and spiritual cultivation—only by witnessing true suffering among the people could one achieve great enlightenment and understand the true essence of Buddhist teachings.
The group spent the night in Fuli County, dozens of li from Suzhou city. The closer they got to Suzhou, the more they saw broken walls, destroyed houses, and dead people. Everything was covered with a layer of gloomy gray—where was any trace of “the first prefecture south of the Huai River”?
Three days had passed since the earthquake. The earth was cracked, thatched houses had collapsed, and some villages had been completely leveled. All survivors were crowded into temporarily built shacks. Having passed the period of emotional agitation, they now sat with gray faces and vacant stares. Apart from breathing, they were more like walking corpses.
Not far away, the actual unprocessed corpses were piled together—missing arms and legs, faces beyond recognition—already beginning to emit waves of stench.
Two inexperienced young novices were frightened pale, closing their eyes and repeatedly chanting “Amitabha.” Even the elders who had seen through life and death frowned deeply, sitting in a circle to recite a passage from the rebirth sutra.
Su Cen remained relatively calm, having witnessed Xuzhou before, so he was prepared. Before great disasters, life was like that of ants—completely beyond human resistance. That people could survive was already heaven’s mercy; one couldn’t ask for more.
The group settled on an open space in front of the village, lit a bonfire, and shared food and water. The night was heavy with fog. Sleeping in the open air, illuminated by firelight, everyone’s body was covered with a layer of glistening dew.
In the latter half of the night, the bonfire died out. Su Cen woke several times, shaking off the dew from his body, but still felt the cold seeping through his clothes.
Having just lain down for a short while, he vaguely heard rustling sounds beside him. As soon as he opened his eyes, he met a pair of pitch-black eyes.
Su Cen’s first instinct was that it was some small animal, but he immediately realized it wasn’t. What had been secretly groping around beside him was clearly a human hand.
The two stared at each other for several moments. The other person’s gaze hesitated, then perhaps thinking that since the person was already awake anyway, decided to go all out. They grabbed the bundle beside Su Cen and ran.
Su Cen immediately got up to chase, but when he was halfway up, he realized there wasn’t just one person here—their open space was completely surrounded by the disheveled villagers from earlier. After seeing the first person pull out half a steamed bun from the bundle, their hesitant gazes completely changed character.
It was the look of hungry wolves seeing food.
Su Cen only had time to shake awake the two young novices beside him before a group of people suddenly swarmed forward like a flood, like wild beasts, instantly looting all their luggage and bundles.
The group of monks woke from their dreams in shock. Seeing the scene before them, they were all stunned, remaining dazed for a long time before realizing what had happened.
That group of people didn’t even have time to run far. After grabbing the bundles, they ran two steps then opened them on the spot, finding the food inside and wolfing it down.
Su Cen protected the two young novices behind him, but could still feel their small frames trembling together.
They had been born in Buddhist temples, cherished by masters and protected by senior brothers. They had only seen devout Buddhist donors and learned lofty Buddhist teachings. How could they know the evil of human nature when people were desperate?
“Haven’t they eaten?” one young novice asked tremblingly, tugging at half of Su Cen’s sleeve.
Su Cen frowned: “It looks that way.”
“But they ate all our things, so now we have no food either.”
Su Cen pressed his lips together, offering some comfort, then looked back at the other monks. He saw they all had deeply furrowed brows, with several elders rapidly fingering their prayer beads, obviously having considered this problem too.
Their mission had failed before it began. They hadn’t even reached Suzhou city gates before being robbed of their food. Now they were trapped here, unable to advance or retreat.
Su Cen sent the two young novices to the senior monk’s side and went forward alone to find a villager who hadn’t run far. He saw the person was thin, looking like a half-grown child, currently hunched over eating frantically.
Su Cen gently patted the person’s shoulder. The person suddenly looked up, saw Su Cen, and coughed violently, spraying Su Cen with dry cake crumbs.
At this point, Su Cen couldn’t say much more and could only say: “Eat first, we’ll talk after you’re done.”
A flash of wary coldness appeared in the person’s eyes. Seeing that Su Cen truly had no intention of snatching the food back, they buried their head again and wolfed it down.
Watching the person swallow the hard dry food without time to chew, Su Cen handed over his water pouch. The person hesitated, then took it and gulped down two mouthfuls before swallowing.
When the person finally finished eating, there weren’t many whole pieces left in the bag of dried food.
Su Cen asked: “How many days have you gone without food?”
The person hesitated, then quietly replied “three.”
That meant these people hadn’t eaten anything since the earthquake occurred. Su Cen couldn’t help but frown: “Such a major disaster happened in Suzhou, hasn’t the court allocated disaster relief funds?”
The person shook their head lightly—whether it hadn’t arrived or didn’t exist was unclear.
Seeing Su Cen was unharmed, the monks also gathered around. Su Cen continued asking: “Even if the court’s silver hasn’t come down, the supplies from Yangzhou should have arrived, right?”
The supplies were personally organized by Lin Zongqing, so there shouldn’t be any problems. Su Cen said: “The supplies should have already been delivered to Suzhou city. This place is only about a hundred li from Suzhou city—why don’t you go there?”
The person poked at a hole in their clothes with their finger, keeping their head down and saying quietly: “Can’t get in.”
“Can’t get in? What do you mean can’t get in?” Su Cen frowned. “Can’t get into Suzhou city?”
No answer came. The person looked up and saw that their companions had all disappeared, while they were surrounded by a group of bald monks. Panicking, they suddenly stood up, pushed Su Cen, and ran away.
Su Cen stepped back twice before steadying himself, watching the direction the person had disappeared, lost in thought.
A temple elder came forward and asked: “Benefactor Su, what did that person say?”
Su Cen shook his head lightly. Those few words revealed nothing conclusive, so he could only say: “Let’s leave it at that for today. There are still a few hours until dawn—tomorrow morning we’ll go into the city to see.”
For the rest of the night, no one dared sleep. The sound of rustling and turning over could be heard from time to time. The two young novices hugged each other, clearly frightened.
Su Cen watched a lone star on the horizon until daybreak.
Early the next morning, they even skipped breakfast. The monks got up with dark circles under their eyes to do morning prayers. Su Cen got up and tidied himself briefly, then everyone set out for Suzhou city.
Fuli County was indeed not far from Suzhou city. The group arrived at the city gates before noon and indeed saw layers of soldiers guarding the gates, with detailed inspections required for entry and exit.
Monks don’t lie, so they could only tell the truth. Su Cen said he was from Yangzhou and had come here on business. They weren’t given much trouble—the gate guards looked him up and down once and let him pass.
Just after entering the city gate, he heard an argument behind him. Su Cen looked back and saw a raggedly dressed elderly couple being blocked outside the city gate. Two soldiers with long spears blocked them, absolutely refusing to let them enter.
“What’s wrong?” Su Cen asked.
“Mind your own business and keep walking,” one soldier shouted at Su Cen. Immediately after, two more soldiers came and forcibly dragged the elderly couple away.
Su Cen pressed his lips lightly but could only turn back and continue forward.
Inside Suzhou city, it wasn’t as dilapidated as outside. There were collapsed houses, but it was much better than outside the city. Moreover, everyone was neatly dressed and in good spirits, busily organizing the reconstruction of their homes. Not far away, the porridge sheds were orderly, with thick rice and little water, and they had even built temporary shelters for people to sit and finish their meals.
At first glance, it was a thriving and bustling scene.
Except it was frighteningly fake.
Looking around the streets, everyone had an optimistic and positive face. Most were able-bodied adults, but there were no elderly, weak, women, or children to be seen.
Moreover, in a place that had just experienced a major disaster, there was no sense of melancholy atmosphere at all—only a seemingly prosperous and orderly facade remained.
Just as he was thinking, someone suddenly rushed out from a side alley and collided head-on with Su Cen. Both fell to the ground.
Su Cen was hit so hard his vision went black. Before he could get up, several more people chased out from the alley and quickly pressed the fleeing person to the ground.
Su Cen was helped up by the monks. After observing for a moment, he saw that the pursuers were government officials, while the pursued was wearing gray, shabby clothes, had a sallow complexion, and collapsed weakly on the ground, having given up struggling.
The officials didn’t even greet anyone and just walked away with their captive. Su Cen called out from behind: “What did this person do?”
Only then did one official turn back to look at him, saying impatiently: “Government capturing a thief.”
“I’m not a thief, I…” the captive person quickly said, but before finishing was punched in the abdomen. In severe pain, he grimaced and couldn’t say anything more.
“But he clearly has no strength to even tie up a chicken, his face is pale, his steps unsteady—he should have gone days without food. If I’m not mistaken, he should be a disaster victim who fled here, right?” Su Cen stepped forward. “Where are you taking him?”
The official turned back with a cold smile: “I’ll tell you the truth—important people from the capital are coming to inspect. Our superior has already ordered that all disaster victims be driven out. Within ten li of Suzhou city, not a single disaster victim can be seen, lest they disturb the imperial envoy’s presence.”
From the capital? Important people? Su Cen didn’t have time to think carefully before the words came out: “The court sent people down to inspect the disaster situation, not to watch you put on a false show. If you drive away all the disaster victims, what will they see?”
“Disaster victims? We have them,” the officials sneered. “This place is full of disaster victims, but under our superior’s capable governance, everyone has worked together and already recovered from the devastation.”
“Amitabha, saving one life is better than building a seven-story pagoda,” the monks, remembering the wolf-like disaster victims from last night, pressed their palms together toward the officials. “If you just drive them away like this, they’ll starve to death.”
“Not only do they have to leave, you have to leave too,” the soldiers’ eyes turned vicious as they unsheathed their long blades and stepped closer. “Since you all know about this, there’s no room for you here either.”
Su Cen thought this was bad. No wonder these officials were willing to tell them everything—they had already planned to drive them out along with the disaster victims. Su Cen gritted his teeth. This was when having even a minor official position would be important. Back then, as a sixth-rank minor official, he dared to argue with people at the Ministry of Rites, but now he couldn’t even handle a few government officials. It didn’t matter if he left, but what about those disaster victims outside? They could barely make it back to Yangzhou, but those disaster victims had been starving for days—where would they find the strength for a long journey?
Lingyuan Temple was small with few people, more scholarly monks than martial ones. Su Cen could only shield the monks behind him and said: “I want to see your superior. Lin Zongqing, the Governor of Yangzhou, is my teacher. When Suzhou was in trouble, he also sent supplies. Tell your superior and he’ll naturally know.”
The soldiers exchanged glances and suddenly smiled: “If that’s the case, then we definitely can’t keep you. If you go and report us brothers to the superior, we’ll be in even more trouble.”
They unsheathed their blades and stepped forward: “You’d better obediently leave on your own. Don’t refuse the toast only to be forced to drink the penalty wine.”
Su Cen had no choice but to straighten his back and face them resolutely, not believing these officials would dare to kill people openly in the street.
The two sides were at an impasse. The officials, embarrassed and angry, were about to teach this group a lesson. They raised their long blades high—in this place full of disaster victims, would anyone care if one or two died?
There was a clear “ding” sound as the long blade fell to the ground. The blade-wielding official covered his hand and looked up: “Who? Who ambushed me?!”
Everyone looked back following the sound and saw someone approaching on horseback through rolling dust. Coming near, they pulled the reins, causing the fine red horse to whinny, and a pair of deep eyes slowly lowered, gently settling on one person.
The Suzhou Governor followed behind, arriving late. Just catching up, he immediately rolled down from his horse and knelt on the ground: “Your subject, Suzhou Governor Yang Wanhong, was late in receiving Your Highness. Please forgive me, Your Highness.”
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You explained it in such a relatable way. Well done!