This year's first snowfall lasted for more than half a month. The weather became colder day by day. Many houses were crushed by the snow, and the number of casualties was unknown. A few aristocratic families in Shangjing opened granaries and set up porridge stalls everywhere. Even more wealthy families continued to lead a befuddled life.
Jiang Pengji was temporarily staying in the Feng residence. When she heard that there was a porridge stall, she followed Feng Jin out to distribute porridge to the people.
The snow continued to fall outside. Several rows of commoners had already lined up in front of the porridge stall.
Almost all of them looked haggard and wore thin clothes. Some of the commoners wore rather thick clothes, but they were covered with patches of various sizes.
"I wonder how many people have been crushed to death by this heavy snow … and how many people have been frozen to death …"
The manservant at the porridge stall looked at the endless queue and whispered to the manservant beside him. His words were filled with pity and sympathy.
Even though two large pots had been set up, the porridge was still not enough for the common people.
His companion was so busy that his feet didn't even touch the ground. "… Stop talking nonsense. Work is more important … How can the life of a noble be the same as that of a lowly commoner?"
Jiang Pengji helped to scoop up the porridge or carry firewood to start the fire. Feng Jin, a weak scholar, was so tired that his forehead was sweating.
There was no noise or queue cutting, and the lively audience in the live broadcast room was silent for a long time. The atmosphere was extremely depressing, and some of the audience could not help but feel a lump in their throats. They did not have the courage to continue watching, and no one sent those immoral bullet screens.
Tusiji Dance: "… Although we always complain about how cold it is in winter, so cold that we shiver and complain that there is no natural heating in the south and it is very cold in winter … But we are living a happy life now, really …"
Tusiji Dance: "There is no natural heating in this area, but we can buy a heater from Taobao. It can be used to adjust the heat. If you are not afraid of wasting electricity, you can stay indoors in winter and still wear summer clothes … These were almost impossible in ancient times. The rich could wear more clothes and burn high-quality charcoal for warmth, but what about the common people?
That's right, where are the commoners?
Too many people could not afford to buy clothes to keep out the cold, could not afford to live in a house to block the wind, and could not afford to light a charcoal fire to heat the house. And this was in Shangjing, which was under the feet of the Emperor! If this was the case here, what would happen to the surrounding areas of Shangjing?
How many houses had collapsed, how many people had been crushed to death, and how many innocent lives had been frozen to death?
Without any external conditions, he could only rely on his body to withstand the cold. If he could not withstand it, he would freeze to death...
"System, can I use popularity points to exchange for food? Warm clothes are fine too … "
Jiang Pengji secretly asked the System.
"No, the host's level is too low, unless you choose to level up."
The System's cold, mechanical voice fell into Jiang Pengji's ears, and she felt an unprecedented desire to kill.
Jiang Pengji secretly calculated the total number of points in her backend account and asked, "I can exchange for food just by leveling up? What's the ratio? "
The system replied, "10,000 points can be exchanged for 50 kilograms of food."
Ten thousand points could be exchanged for fifty kilograms of grain?
Jiang Pengji now had more than 1.3 million points. On the surface, it seemed that she could exchange them for a lot of food.
However, Jiang Pengji was not someone who was easily fooled.
The System didn't answer the first question. Even if it upgraded to level three, it still didn't have the right to exchange for it.
Let's not talk about this. To advance from a level two host to a level three host, he would need to spend one million popularity points.
If all of them were exchanged, the remaining popularity points would not be able to be exchanged for much food according to the ratio given by the system.
This was a trap.
"Forget it. I can't rely on you at all," Jiang Pengji replied coldly and turned her head to think of other ways.
The System held its breath, but it did not dare to argue with Jiang Pengji.
Unless Jiang Pengji chose to use her popularity points to level up, the System could not do anything to the host.
The Feng family was one of the few aristocratic families in Shangjing that chose to open a porridge stall. They cooked porridge from day to night, but it was still in short supply.
A bowl of porridge was not sticky, but it could at least fill one's stomach and warm up one's cold body.
Jiang Pengji helped at the porridge stall for a few days, but she still did not hear any orders for disaster relief, let alone rice and winter clothing for disaster relief.
Liu She returned from the morning assembly, and he looked more and more tired.
He said with a gloomy face, "I've written to the emperor many times, but the emperor always used the second prince's wedding as an excuse to evade it several times. Today, he finally relented, but he gave this task to an official with the surname Shi … That person is greedy by nature, and he plucks feathers from every goose that passes by … I don't know how many people will embezzle the 20,000 taels of silver that were allocated, and how much will end up in the hands of the people … "
Although the world was not really chaotic, how much better was it than chaotic times?
Jiang Pengji had been helping at the porridge stall for the past few days, or distributing winter clothing to the people, so she was the most familiar with the situation of the snow disaster.
She snorted coldly. "20,000 taels of silver is not enough, let alone after being exploited and embezzled … What can it do?"
Liu She sighed. "I've already secretly purchased a batch of food and sent it north to Shangjing, hoping to slightly alleviate the urgent situation."
In the current world, whatever he did would be a drop in the bucket. It was better to solve the hidden problems from the root.
After another three days, the snow finally stopped.
Jiang Pengji looked at the invitation, and her smile was very cold. "The second prince is getting married, and I am not related to him. Why would I go there?"
The vast city of Shangjing was covered in white snow, and the sky and earth were the same color.
The princess of the royal family of the Northern Borderline wore a bright red wedding dress, and with the exception of the Dongqing Emperor, she sat in a sedan carried by 16 people.
The sedan was decorated with gold, silver, and jade, and hung with red satin, which shone under the sunlight. It was very luxurious.
The wedding procession wore festive new clothes, and they entered Shangjing through the gate of the city. They walked around the city, and the people on both sides of the street cheered and gave their blessings. Hundreds of tables were set up next to the prince's palace, and the court officials and noble ladies went in and out. It was very lively.
In sharp contrast, in a remote corner of Shangjing, there were stiff corpses that were dug out from the ruins.
One by one, the frozen corpses were piled up in cart after cart.
Jiang Pengji wore a plain dress, and her long hair was tied up with a wooden hairpin. Her expression was as cold as ice.
The way of the world … It was really time for a change!
Jiang Pengji ordered the manservant who was cleaning up the corpses, "Bury them well. The weather is cold now, and the corpses will not rot easily, but we can't neglect them because of this. If the corpses are piled up and not dealt with, it will easily become an epidemic when spring comes. "
"Don't worry, Langjun. I will do it properly."
At the same time, in another place in Shangjing.
Lu Zheng was holding a plate and chewing the slightly cold white cake. He sighed and said, "It has been almost a month since the evaluation, and the imperial court still hasn't issued a letter of appointment. I think there is no hope this year …"
"Master has decided to leave for Langye in two days … I really don't want to come back to Shangjing again."
Han Yu heard the sound of the wind blowing outside, and he was very annoyed.
Many people had frozen or starved to death, and the government still held such a grand wedding for the second prince, which was even bigger than the crown prince's wedding.
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