Li Jin was already over fifty this year, well into the age of knowing heaven's will.
Today, as usual, he wanted to go out for a walk, but the town constables stopped him right at the street corner.
"What do you mean?" Old Man Li blew his beard and glared.
The surname Li was the second most common in Green Mountain Town, second only to the Hu surname.
Therefore, as a highly respected elder of the Li clan, he was extremely respected throughout the entire town.
He knew this constable. He was the boy from the Wang family, but now wearing a dogskin uniform, he dared to block his way. What a rebellion!
"Elder Li." Constable Wang said politely: "There's an order from the town hall. During this period, there's a curfew. No one is allowed to wander the streets. You must stay at home!"
"Why a curfew?"
"Didn't two people die from illness the other day? The town magistrate thinks it's dangerous. He wants everyone to lay low for a while. Once the danger passes, you can come out for a walk then!"
"Hu Laogen knows nothing! I don't know that old fool!" Old Man Li stared at Constable Wang: "Do you think this old man can't read? Didn't you see the public notice from the city? This illness is nothing. Get out of my way!"
Constable Wang looked troubled: "Grandpa, it's... better to be safe than sorry. We must prepare for the unexpected."
"They say, at fifty, one knows heaven's will. Do you understand what that means? At my age, what am I afraid of?" Old Man Li glared: "If I die from the illness, I won't blame you. Deal?"
With that, he pushed aside the barrier at the street corner.
As he walked out, he muttered: "In a peaceful world, and they won't let us go out! What a strange thing! Have I broken any laws? Do they have to watch me like a criminal?"
Constable Wang helpless exchanged a glance with his colleague, pretending not to hear.
This wasn't an isolated incident. With the public notice from Jia City, the common people were not afraid at all. Those who warned others to be careful were mostly dismissed as spreading rumors.
Even in places like Green Mountain Town that took the matter seriously early on, enforcement was difficult to implement. At least nominally, Green Mountain Town was still under Jia City's jurisdiction.
The so-called curfew was practically ineffective.
...
Inside the town hall.
Jiang Chen crumpled the notice into a ball and threw it on the ground.
Boom!
With a surge of Dao essence mixed in, the ball of waste paper smashed a hole in the ground.
Hu Laogen was startled, and sat down in his chair with a thud.
Jiang Chen looked at him coldly: "I gave you the power, I bore the losses. All you had to do was implement my orders. But you can't even do that. Every person who dies in this town, you bear responsibility. Hu Laogen, your sins are deep, a hundred deaths cannot atone!"
Hu Laogen's face turned ashen.
"I also bear responsibility, for giving my position to such a useless person like you!"
Jiang Chen walked out of the town hall, issuing orders as he went: "Xiao Xiao will stay in the town hall, temporarily assuming all the magistrate's powers and coordinating supplies. Zhang Hai will take charge. All village heads and constables who disobey or refuse to follow orders can be killed! All constables and warriors, mobilize immediately. From today onward, no one is allowed to wander the streets. Everyone must stay behind closed doors. With the town hall as the center, Qian Xiang and Zhu Biqiong will patrol the eastern and western districts respectively."
The journey of tens of thousands of miles from the State of Zhuang to the State of Qi had honed his worldly wisdom.
Faced with this crisis, he became even more decisive and resolute: "I will go to the villages below personally. First implement the curfew, then go door to door to check for illness. This mass outbreak... I suspect it's a plague!"
"If the people refuse to be quarantined?" Qian Xiang asked: "Should we kill them too?"
Jiang Chen stopped and looked at him: "We are isolating the area to save the people. If you kill them, then what's the point of what we're doing? Those who refuse should be persuaded primarily. If persuasion fails, we can enforce it forcibly. We can impose fines, confiscate grain, and punish as appropriate!"
"Understood!"
...
Jiang Chen went alone with his sword to check the villages throughout the town, and the others were all busy.
Hu Laogen, stripped of his power, slumped in his seat, his face ashen.
Dugu Xiao began to arrange matters. Only then did he seem to come to his senses, standing up and staggering out.
Like a walking corpse.
Dugu Xiao merely glanced at him indifferently and continued with her work.
She had previously helped Hu Laogen explain only to show Jiang Chen her value.
As for Hu Laogen himself, she had no good feelings whatsoever.
It was Hu Laogen who had hired her to the mine in the first place, which led to Ge Heng's abuse later. Although Hu Laogen himself might not have known about Ge Heng's cruelty, the facts he caused could not be erased.
The reason she hadn't taken revenge was only because Jiang Chen didn't allow it.
Fortunately, after this incident, the little "favor" between him and Jiang Chen was completely exhausted.
This was the price he paid for his incompetence and arrogance.
Having been with Jiang Chen for so long, Dugu Xiao knew well that Jiang Chen was not someone who displaced anger or shirked responsibility. As long as you followed his requirements, if the mistake was in his decision, he would never let others bear it.
And in this matter, Hu Laogen's terrible performance as magistrate... Jiang Chen not killing him on the spot was already the result of restraint.
...
Hu Laogen dragged his feet out of the town hall.
It had already entered June, and the sun was no longer gentle.
Especially at noon, the bare sunlight shining on the body felt like needles pricking.
Hu Laogen squinted his eyes, but couldn't stop the murky tears.
He was actually a simple and honest person. He wasn't sad about losing temporary power.
When he was steward at the Hu mine, he never embezzled. As magistrate of Green Mountain Town, he never sought personal wealth.
He had no children, only a fierce old wife. The couple had few material desires.
So even after becoming magistrate, he still lived in his previous house.
What truly made him sad was that just now, he realized he had become a "murderer."
If he had strictly followed Jiang Chen's previous orders to isolate the area, perhaps many townspeople wouldn't have had to die today.
Just as Jiang Chen said, every person who died of illness in the town now bore Hu Laogen's responsibility!
How could his old, frail shoulders bear such weight?
Jiang Chen was swift and decisive. The moment the order was given, he went to the villages himself. Those places lacked even more control, so he had to handle it personally with his extraordinary cultivation.
But in Green Mountain Town itself, it wasn't so simple to implement.
The entire population of Green Mountain Town had not taken the matter seriously enough before.
Under Dugu Xiao's direction, posting new public notices, proclaiming the severity of the illness, dispersing crowds gathered everywhere... all of these required time.
And the staff of Green Mountain Town's town hall were pitifully few.
Hu Laogen wandered out in a daze. Every crowd he saw on the road made his heart cold.
If it was a plague...
If what broke out was really a human plague...
The consequences, he dared not imagine.
"Countrymen! This old man tells you!"
Hu Laogen walked to the edge of a crowd and suddenly shouted hoarsely: "Green Mountain Town has a serious illness! Dozens have died!"
"It's likely a human plague!"
"All of you, hurry back to your homes. Don't gather together. Don't go out!"
Wherever he passed, he shouted over and over.
Many people knew him.
He was born, grew up, married, and grew old in this Green Mountain Town.
Many people here trusted him.
Seeing this sorrowful little old man, some found it strange, some were puzzled, but most chose to believe.
Finally, at Green Mountain Town's largest market, the market in the west of town.
People saw their current magistrate Hu Laogen, propping up a ladder, tremblingly climbing onto the roof.
He was already old and frail, standing on the roof he didn't appear tall, but rather hunched.
He loudly repeated what he had been shouting all along.
But his already hoarse voice couldn't be heard very clearly by people.
Only in the end did he scream hoarsely: "So many dead, it's all this old man's fault!"
"This old man apologizes to you all!"
He fell headfirst, crashing down from the roof to the ground.
Thwack!
Like a watermelon exploding.
It froze in many people's memories.
...