Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Uncertainty flickered in everyone's eyes. An old man said, "But... but we really want to thank you, our savior. We just... don't know how to show it!"

Lu Yunqi understood and said, "That's easy! Just work hard, live well, and hit the books. My goal is simple—to make this world a hundred times better than it is now! Where everyone has food on the table, clothes on their back, and a school to go to, kids are taken care of, the elderly are looked after, and young people have endless opportunities..."

What he described was exactly the life every regular person had back in his original world.

Here, it was a pipe dream. With war raging, they could drop dead any second. With famine, they couldn't even get a full meal. And with disease, they might not even live to see old age.

The people didn't get it. They exchanged glances, and a young man asked, "Sir, can a life like that really happen?"

Lu Yunqi said, "Of course! As long as we all pitch in, we can definitely make it happen."

A woman then said, "I believe it! Because I never even dreamed I could make money to support myself. Now I make sixty yuan a day, and I can buy meat, veggies, rice, and grain, and someone even watches my kids for me. I'm already living this well, so the life you're talking about, we can definitely get there!"

Another woman added tearfully, "That's right! Sister is right! We can definitely achieve it!"

Lu Yunqi praised them, "Now that's what I'm talking about! You gotta have faith to live a good life. Alright, everyone get back to work! I need to talk something over with your Village Chief Du."

Du Ze had already been made village chief by the refugees and ran all the day-to-day operations at the base. The people really loved him.

Du Ze had already come over and nodded to Lu Yunqi. "Boss, things are moving along pretty well. We're starting to get somewhere now. The only problem is we still don't have enough people. I've already got people planting cash crops like cotton, sugarcane, and grapes. Plus staple crops like wheat, corn, and rice. We've also planted a bunch of root veggies like potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams. We've got a hundred mu of good farmland and twenty mu of orchards now. We can start branching out into other stuff."

Lu Yunqi nodded. "Not bad, not bad. I'll take care of the population issue. I'll keep recruiting loyal people from the refugees."

Du Ze nodded. "On top of that, we need a lot more grain, flour, oil, and other supplies. We're still way too short on food right now. What we can buy from the system is only what's made inside the system area, and production just can't keep up with what we're using."

Lu Yunqi said, "Got it. That's easy! The Lu family's loaded. I'll have someone send you a shipment tomorrow! Or you can take some people and go buy supplies yourself. I'll give you the silver."

Du Ze said, "That works too. Give me an Anywhere Door somewhere convenient—preferably hidden—and I can take NPCs to haul the goods."

Lu Yunqi nodded. "Sure, sure. Let's set it up at the Lu family's villa outside town! It's easy to get to, out of the way, and has carriages. Take my token, and you can also boss around the servants there."

With that, Lu Yunqi handed the token to Du Ze and pulled a stack of silver notes out of his pocket. "Here's five thousand taels. Make this work for now. If that's not enough, just say the word. Your boy here's got plenty of cash!"

Du Ze said happily, "Awesome! I love working for a system host like you—no money worries at all."

Lu Yunqi cleared his throat and said, "But I've got one small request. Can you guys stop calling me 'Master'? It sounds kinda weird, like you're all my servants. But really, we're just employer and employee!"

Du Ze's lip twitched. "Boss, is it possible you never changed your default settings? You can change what your employees call you in the settings."

Lu Yunqi: ???

He immediately opened the backend settings and, sure enough, saw the title options. He thought to himself, man, I really dropped the ball there.

He quickly changed the title, and from then on, the NPCs called him: "The brave, invincible, witty, and drop-dead gorgeous Mr. Lu."

After hearing it twice and getting the chills both times, Lu Yunqi just changed it to "Mr. Lu."

Damn it. He tried to be a show-off, but ended up looking like a fool.

Lu Yunqi checked out his base. The highest-level NPC was still only level three. Getting to level five was still gonna take a while.

He needed electricity now. Only with electricity could the subsequent features be unlocked.

In the distance, strength-type NPCs were leading villagers in fishing. He knew that in a placement-style game, there was nothing for him to do, so he returned to his room, changed clothes, and headed to the villa.

As soon as he stepped out, he ran into Murong Jie. It was rare to see Murong Jie voluntarily show up in front of him, so he had to drag him along.

He whistled at Murong Jie and tilted his chin up. "Wifey, want to take a little vacation with your husband at the villa?"

Murong Jie turned to look at him. Today he wore a plain white robe. Murong Jie's features were sharp and striking—a man with bold, defined looks. Even in such a simple garment, standing there alone, he seemed like a celestial being.

Lu Yunqi couldn't help but swoon. But he felt he couldn't be blamed—it was this body's weakness for beauty that he couldn't resist.

Murong Jie didn't move. Lu Yunqi couldn't control himself and stepped forward, wrapping his arms around Murong Jie's neck, planting a smacking kiss on his lips, and saying with a cheeky grin, "Your husband saw how stunning you look today and couldn't help but want to kiss you. You won't blame me, will you?"

He had always been shameless. Even if he'd said before that he wouldn't force things, a single kiss shouldn't make Murong Jie too petty, right?

Murong Jie's expression was blank because he hadn't reacted in time. He only felt a strange fragrance wafting toward him, his nose tingling slightly. But when he tried to savor it, the fragrance had already drifted away. His heart felt as if a soft feather had brushed against it.

There wasn't any particularly strong sensation—just a slight itch.

He had only come to ask Lu Yunqi about the porridge distribution. Xiao Hei had just reported that refugees from the northern border had begun flooding into the capital and were being stopped by the Imperial City Guard at the north city gate.

They happened to be heading to the northern suburban villa, so Murong Jie didn't object. He wanted to see the scale of the refugee influx. If possible, he wanted to try recruiting them.

If the refugee population grew too large, riots could easily break out. While riots would benefit him—he could use them to muddy the waters—in the past, he would have definitely fanned the flames and made the situation as chaotic as possible.

But now, he didn't want to do that. He held fifty thousand troops of the Lu Family Army in his hands. If the situation became too chaotic now, it would actually be detrimental to winning the people's hearts.

Also, the renowned scholar Jing Yan was coming to the capital. He absolutely needed to win this great Confucian scholar over to his side.

So, Murong Jie allowed Lu Yunqi to pull him onto the carriage, listening to him chatter on and on the whole way: "I'm going to rent out the villa to a friend from afar. He's coming to purchase salt, grain, oil, cloth, and other goods."

Murong Jie rarely engaged in conversation with him. "In these times of chaos, where would he sell those goods? Wouldn't they all be brought to the capital and sold to the nobles and officials here?"

Lu Yunqi thought to himself, impressive—truly worthy of being the unparalleled genius male lead, able to see through the essence of things at a glance.

Lu Yunqi brushed it off. "Oh, he's selling them to Nanzhao. The mountain goods business is good over there, so he brings mountain products here to sell. The grain from here is very popular there, so he ships it back."

Murong Jie didn't say anything more. Great Xia and Nanzhao had decent relations. The west and north were constantly at war, but Nanzhao remained peaceful.

Perhaps the people there were more peace-loving, or perhaps they simply didn't have warhorses and preferred gathering and farming.

Before the two even reached the suburban villa, they could see from afar refugees gathered outside the city gate, blocked by a group of soldiers.

Lu Yunqi poked his head out and asked the leading guard, "General Tian, what's going on?"

General Tian recognized Lu Yunqi and saluted him with cupped hands. "Ah, Young Lord Lu. The refugees are charging the south gate. The Imperial City Bureau has ordered that they not be allowed into the city."

Lu Yunqi asked, "If they can't enter the city, where are they supposed to go?"

"This..." General Tian didn't know how to answer. He only said, "I'm just following orders."

Lu Yunqi said, "See that road over there? Lead them east. After about a kilometer, you'll find a newly built porridge station. If it weren't for the rule against setting up stalls in front of the city gate, the station would have been built in a more visible spot. Take them there—it can temporarily accommodate over a thousand refugees. One meal of thin porridge a day will keep them alive."

Hearing this, the surrounding refugees immediately crowded around his carriage, kowtowing and shouting "Benefactor!"

Lu Yunqi announced loudly, "No need to thank me. Thank His Highness Prince Cang—that porridge station was opened by Prince Cang, Murong Jie. Don't just stand there! Hurry along! The porridge is already cooked—it'll get cold if you're late."

The stream of refugees hurried toward the porridge distribution site, and the road ahead of Lu Yunqi cleared. He waved at General Tian. "Sometimes solving problems requires using your head. You can't just keep blocking people—you have to give them somewhere to go, right?"

General Tian nodded obsequiously. "Young Lord Lu speaks wisely."

Liu Bao drove the carriage, and the group arrived at the Lu family's villa.

It had to be said, Lu Tong truly knew how to lead troops, and he was truly wealthy. The emperor's rewards and Lu Tong's fief income were beyond counting.

The villa was built with exceptional elegance, not falling short of the royal gardens.

The carriage drove directly into the inner courtyard, and Lu Yunqi jumped out, breathing in the fresh air of the outskirts and saying, "This place is much better—some parts of the city are still a bit smelly."

In truth, the ancient times had no sewage systems, poor city management, no public restrooms, and frequent instances of people relieving themselves wherever they pleased. There were no sanitation workers to manage it, so the corners and alleys were indeed somewhat unsanitary.

Speaking of which, he found himself missing the public restrooms of the modern era—there was almost one exquisite public toilet every few hundred meters, greatly facilitating people's lives.

Lu Yunqi suddenly grew enthusiastic and asked Murong Jie, "Dear wife, do you know what 'Great Harmony' (a Confucian ideal) means?"

Murong Jie asked, "What is Great Harmony?"

Lu Yunqi suddenly felt like showing off his strengths as a liberal arts student, swinging his head with flair as he recited, "Elect the worthy and capable, foster trust and harmony, and let everyone act for the public good. The elderly have a proper end to their lives, the young are nurtured to grow. Harmonize all nations, embrace diversity within unity, enlighten the people, and establish proper institutions—this is what is called Great Harmony."