203 – Arrive in Kui County

Lei Ruilin’s hearing was sharp. He laughed as he shouted, “Gege and I are not monkeys, Dad!”

“If not monkeys, then what are you?” Qin Mian easily jumped from the tree, fell quietly beside Lei tie, and took the cup Lei Tie handed over.

Lei Ruilin’s eyeballs shifted around and he pulled his Gege to go over. “If Gege and I are monkeys, you and Old Dad––Hehe!”

Qin Mian raised his eyebrows. He got interested in these words.

Lei Ruilin lay on Qin Mian’s back and leaned close to his ear as he said in a low voice, “Gege and I have known for a long time that you gave birth to us, Dad.”

“Pfft––” the water Qin Mian had yet swallow gushed out. Flabbergasted, he stared at his son.

“Don’t worry, Dad. Didi and I won’t tell anyone.” Qin Ruiqi patted Qin Mian on the shoulder, comfortingly.

Lei Tie lowered his head; the corner of his lips obviously curved.

“Lei Tie! Manage your sons!” roared Qin Mian with gritted teeth as he suddenly jumped up. He kicked Lei Tie’s foot hard. His face was very red, unknown whether it was the reflection of the fire.

“En.” Lei Tie nodded. He easily pulled the two sons over, put them over his knees, and slapped them on the butt once. Yet, not even a sound was heard. He then looked up at Qin Mian, expressing: Wife, I’ve managed them.

Qin Ruiqi and Lei Ruilin snickered and hastily ran away.

Qin Mian crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked down at the innocent-faced man. After a good while, he gave a wee of a smile before he went to a tree not far away and sat down against the trunk.

After Lei Tie was done roasting the venison, he cut it into slices and served it on the plate. “Wife, you can eat it.”

Qin Mian went over, took the plate, and ate with relish.

Lei Tie was disappointed when he didn’t hear his wife saying it was delicious after waiting for a while.

Qin Ruiqi and Lei Ruilin ran over and each got a plate.

“Old Dad’s roast is truly delicious.” Lei Ruilin was always straightforward.

Qin Ruiqi nodded in agreement.

“Right, Dad?” Lei Ruilin turned to ask Qin Mian.

Qin Mian nodded and said nothing.

Lei Tie did not feel good and asked, “Is it enough?”

Qin Mian nodded, still not making a sound.

Lei Tie immediately understood that his wife was angry.

Qin Ruiqi and Lei Ruilin looked at each other. They were not used to their Dad not talking.

Lei Tie looked at Qin Ruiqi, then at Lei Ruilin, “I’m the one who gave birth.”

Qin Ruiqi and Lei Ruilin were dumbfounded.

“Pwahahaha…” Qin Mian laughed and patted his two sons on the shoulder. “Now you understand, who is the boss in our family?”

Qin Ruiqi and Lei Ruilin looked at each other with a smile. They put down the plates, knelt one knee, and cupped their fists toward Qin Mian, “Paying respect to Boss!”

“Don’t stand on ceremony.” Again, Qin Mian was amused by his two sons.

Although the people sitting a little far away could not hear what the family of four was saying, they could see. Infected by the family, they had a faint smile on their faces.

……

Lingzhou was a little south to the west of Great Xia, not close to the capital. Relying on Qin Mian’s spiritual spring water, the party of humans and horses hardly stopped in the daytime and entered Lingzhou in less than eight days.

The prefect of Lingzhou, Prefect Cai, got the news earlier and led the officials of all ranks to welcome them at the gate of the city. The family of four all had their own ranks, so no one dared to neglect them.

Lei Tie always disliked dealing with officials. He only exchanged greetings and ordered Prefect Cai to take them to Kui County at once. It took them two days to get to Kui County. When they got there, they could see nothing but ruins.

The critical care provided in Kui County was timely. At least, Qin Mian found a lot of temporary sheds built by the roadside to act as food relief centers in a glance. Practically, all the victims looked to be dressed in miserable rags and tatters. Although they were a little thin, their complexion looked pretty good.

Qin Mian and Lei Tie walked around to make sure that there was no problem for the time being. Then they told the soldiers to camp on the spot first, and then had a good meal and a rest.

Prefect Cai brought Qin Mian’s family into an intact house. The house was built of stone bricks and therefore survived the earthquake.

“State Defender Duke, County Magistrate Qin, Young Heir, and Duke of Anping County, please wait a bit. I’ve ordered people to prepare the meal.”

“Sorry for the trouble, Prefect Cai.” Qin Mian said, “Prefect Cai doesn’t have to be formal. Just call our two sons ‘little gongzi’, lest they become conceited.”

Lei Ruilin said with a smile, “En. Prefect Cai can also directly call us ‘Ruiqi’ and ‘Ruilin’.”

Prefect Cai followed the well-intentioned advice like water flowing swiftly and smoothly downward, “Well then, I’ll call you two ‘little gongzi’.”

Qin Mian said, “Prefect Cai, please, let’s sit down and talk.”

“Yes, please.” Although Qin Mian was only a county magistrate, he still had another identity. Prefect Cai did not dare to slight him. After he made a gesture of “please”, he sat down.

“Prefect Cai, what’s the situation of Kui County now?” asked Qin Mian.

Prefect Cai sighed, “Now, all the people in the county depend on the grains transported from other places to survive. If this continues, the prefecture won’t be able to support so many people. Moreover, because many fields have been destroyed, many people have set out to go to their relatives and friends in other places. What I’m most worried about is that it is summer – it’s easy to trigger a plague with any carelessness.”

Qin Mian had not carefully survey Kui County, so he could not say anything. He only said, “After lunch, I’d like to ask Prefect Cai to take us around.” Naturally, he had no right to ask Prefect Cai to take them in person, but Lei Tie was here. Prefect Cai dared not to reject even if he wanted to.

“This is a matter within my duty.”

Before long, the meal was served with two vegetarian dishes and two meat dishes of bacon fried with green pepper and potato stewed chicken. The people who cooked these had average craftsmanship, but Qin Mian and Lei Tie were not picky. Qin Ruiqi and Lei Ruilin had always been sensible – none of them complained and there was no waste of food.

Prefect Cai had a good impression of them. He thought to himself that it was no wonder the emperor trusted the State Defender Duke couple so much. He also heard that the emperor liked the twin sons of the State Defender Duke very much.

After lunch, Qin Mian told the two children to obediently stay in the black-brick house. He and Lei Tie followed Prefect Cai to leave. Incidentally, the former magistrate of Kui County was still alive, but seriously injured and unable to work. Thus, the handover was not urgent.

It was reasonable for Prefect Cai to worry. Some corpses under the bricks and stones had not been disposed of in time, so they had given off a foul smell. The county was dirty and chaotic everywhere; the sanitary conditions were obviously not up to standard. Due to the cracks in the ground, the water in the ponds and rivers had dried up, so the people didn’t have much water to take a bath every day; the crops in the fields lacked water irrigation…….

Qin Mian was shocked by everything he saw. He said to Lei Tie, “A-Tie, it’s not easy to clean up such a big place. I think we should consider the possibility of migrating Kui County first.”

Lei Tie nodded.

Prefect Cai was flabbergasted. However, since the emperor entrusted Qin Mian with the task of rebuilding Kui County, there was no need for him to intervene.

Qin Mian pondered for a while before he said, “I’ll make a prescription first, let people concoct the medicinal soup, and give everyone a bowl to increase immunity as prevention against plague.”

Lei Tie said, “Since Prefect Cai is familiar with the situation here, leave this matter to him. We’re going further ahead.”

Prefect Cai naturally concurred with him.

After Qin Mian wrote the prescription, he gave Lei-Qin Zhong a small bottle of spiritual spring water and asked him to add two drops to all the medicinal pots. Then, he galloped away with Lei Tie.

As soon as they left everyone’s sight, Qin Mian and Lei Tie directly flew into the distance, overlooking the terrain around Kui County in mid-air.

The source of the earthquake was not far from Kui County. That was why it seriously affected Kui county. Fortunately, there were mountains all around and no other towns, otherwise, there would be more casualties.

Qin Mian looked into the distance. The plain less than 20 li [10km] away was the territory of Tuluo. From Kui County to the east, about 30 li, the terrain gradually changed and towns and villages were denser.

“No wonder Emperor Xiaohui said that Kui County is the gateway of Great Xia. Once Kui County is conquered, the people of Tuluo can indeed march in easily.”

Lei Tie nodded; his face tinged with faint grim, “In other words, it’s not appropriate to migrate Kui County to another place.”

Qin Mian frowned, “Yes. But there have been two earthquakes here within ten years. In the previous ten years, it probably happened, too. Do you want people to live here and wait for the next earthquake?”

Suddenly, Lei Tie said something puzzling, “These mountains don’t look like they cracked ten years ago.”

Qin Mian followed to look into the direction Lei Tie was looking at and nodded with approval. “True. This can be judged from the number of hundred-year-old trees on the mountains—do you mean to migrate Kui County to the mountains?” He looked at Lei Tie in disbelief.

Lei Tie nodded, “What’s wrong with this?”

Qin Mian said, “Sure can, but it’ll take a lot of time. We’ll think about it later.”

After returning to the county, Lei Tie sent several teams to look for water. He and Qin Mian had seen a river and a lake in the mountains when they were in the sky, but it was inconvenient to say so. They could only point out several different directions and send people to look for them. Later, he sent several teams to hunt in the mountains. According to the preliminary estimation, the number of people living in Kui County was about 30,000. With the addition of 10,000 elite soldiers consuming the grains sent by the prefectural government, the food was not enough at all.

Qin Mian drew the situation of the whole county in order to make a more comprehensive analysis.

Qin Ruiqi and Lei Ruilin were very good. After playing for a while, they went to take a nap. Now, they were sleeping soundly. White Spot and Golden Fur were on guard. Golden Eagle was nowhere to be found; it probably went to play in the mountains.