Jackie Chan's Son-in-Law

Chapter 45 It doesn’t end well
Having lived a relatively comfortable life in his previous life, and now born into a wealthy family, Chen Qing had never seen or even imagined that there would be so much suffering in the world before stepping forward to provide disaster relief.

A heavy rain brought shattered families and hunger that could last for a long time.

Last night, nearby residents brought over injured people whose legs had been broken while they were trapped in their homes. One of them even had maggots in his wound.

The others also developed sores and pus at the sites of their external injuries.

The cruel reality is that the disaster victims Chen Qing received represent only a tiny fraction of the total number of people affected by the disaster in Deqing, perhaps less than one-hundredth.

If two days ago Chen Qing still had some utilitarian motives, wanting to gain some power for himself from this natural disaster, or to find a few subordinates to help him, now, even though he has perfectly achieved this goal, he no longer has such thoughts.

Magistrate Hong, Master Gu, and several local gentry from Deqing County followed Chen Qing to the two "patient tents" that Chen Qing had set up. When they came out of the two tents, the smiles that had been faintly on their faces had disappeared.

After Magistrate Hong stepped out of the second tent, his face became even more serious. He turned to look at Master Gu, who was accompanying him, and sighed deeply: "Water and fire are merciless."

At this moment, Master Gu was looking around at the soup kitchen that was already in operation and in an orderly manner, lost in thought. After hearing Magistrate Hong's words, he quickly agreed, "That's right. Our Deqing area is too close to the lake, and it's too easy for disasters to occur during the flood season."

"Ultimately, this is also because I, as the county magistrate, failed to perform my duties well."

Magistrate Hong shook his head and blamed himself. The group of local gentry beside him immediately offered words of comfort and flattery.

After receiving these flatteries, Magistrate Hong turned to Chen Qing and said, "Young Master Chen, it was already quite an achievement to set up this soup kitchen these past two days. Now you have even helped so many wounded and sick people. It is truly commendable. Once this disaster is over, I will report this to my superiors and ask the court to reward Young Master Chen."

Chen Qing shook his head: "The manpower and resources all belong to the Gu family and Anrentang. At most, I only contributed manpower."

"It's already difficult enough to provide manpower."

Magistrate Hong patted Chen Qing on the shoulder and asked, "Young Master Chen, Deqing is suffering from disasters everywhere. I'm about to go and see what other places are affected. Is there anything the county government can do to help?"

Magistrate Hong said solemnly, "If there is anything the county government can do to help, just say so, and I will arrange it immediately."

Chen Qing glanced at Master Gu, who shook his head slightly, indicating that he should not make any requests. However, after thinking for a moment, Chen Qing still spoke up and said, "There is indeed something here that I would like to ask the county magistrate for help with."

"That's what you say."

Chen Qing glanced at the medicinal soup being cooked and distributed next to the soup kitchen and said, "The Gu family is a family of doctors, so this time they are not only distributing soup, but also treating injuries and illnesses, and distributing medicinal soup as well. The county magistrate is learned and naturally knows that medicine is often based on a single lineage and prescription, and medicinal soup may not be suitable for everyone."

“If anything goes wrong, or if someone with ulterior motives causes trouble, Anrentang may not be able to bear the consequences. Please ask the county magistrate to post a notice saying that this medicine was distributed by someone entrusted by the county government. Only in this way can we have the confidence to continue distributing the medicine.”

Upon hearing this, Magistrate Hong looked around, then turned to Master Gu beside him and asked, "Is this your idea, Brother Gu?"

Master Gu was looking at Chen Qing at the moment. After hearing what Magistrate Hong said, he thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "That's my opinion. The county government should handle this kind of matter."

Magistrate Hong stroked his beard and looked at Chen Qing with admiration in his eyes.

Chen Qing's "passing the buck" behavior is actually a win-win situation, because Anrentang does need the government's endorsement to continue distributing medicine for free here. Otherwise, if someone has bad intentions and wants to extort money, he will drink the medicine, fall to the ground, and roll around claiming that his stomach hurts.

Chen Qing had no choice.

There are still too many scoundrels like this in the world.

Magistrate Hong, a young and promising official who had just been appointed to a new post, was eager to improve his reputation and achieve results. This matter would bring him honor.

At the very least, the disaster relief efforts were effective.

This is a considerable favor.

After discussing the matter briefly with Master Gu, Magistrate Hong and his entourage left Chen Qing's soup kitchen and continued their inspection elsewhere.

However, Master Gu did not rush to follow. Instead, he returned to the soup kitchen and found Chen Qing.

At this moment, Chen Qing was preparing medicine when he noticed someone standing in front of him. He looked up and saw that it was Master Gu, who had returned. Chen Qing stood up, cupped his hands, and said, "Uncle, why have you come back?"

Master Gu found a place to sit down and said, "They ride in sedan chairs, and I ride in a horse-drawn carriage. Even if we leave a little later, we can still catch up with them." As he spoke, Master Gu looked at Chen Qing and asked, "How did you manage that? A hundred or two hundred disaster victims are all behaving obediently under your care. I just saw them, all patiently queuing up to receive porridge."

Throughout history, at least half of peasant uprisings have been caused by natural disasters and man-made calamities. When people have no food, or no way out and no way to survive, they are in great danger.

Of these disaster victims, a small portion had their homes flooded, and a large portion had their fields submerged. Many families were destroyed and people were killed. In reality, they had... no way out.

Not everyone is grateful. Among these disaster victims, some are naturally grateful to Chen Qing, while others will not have similar thoughts and may even become dangerous elements.

Chen Qing said calmly, "They're not getting enough to eat."

"One bowl of porridge a day is enough to keep you alive, but you won't have the strength to cause trouble unless you go out to collect firewood."

"After gathering firewood and receiving the second bowl of porridge, you won't have much strength left."

“Then they were divided into groups of five or ten. If one of them caused trouble, everyone in the group would go hungry that day.”

At this point, Chen Qing paused, then continued, "In addition, I did treat them well, and after two days, we were able to understand each other, and they all settled down."

Master Gu stared blankly at Chen Qing for a long time before he came to his senses. He looked at Chen Qing and let out a heavy sigh: "My dear nephew, you actually have such abilities..."

Master Gu looked around and, seeing that no one was around, he sighed softly, "If I gave you a sum of money, you could recruit an army and buy horses."

The "skill" that Master Gu mentioned was actually organizational ability.

This sounds simple, but it's actually not easy to do at all. A normal person, let alone arranging hundreds of people in an orderly manner, might not even be able to arrange the food, clothing, and shelter of three or five people.

Not to mention, getting hundreds of people you've only known for a short time to behave obediently and submit to your orders!
Chen Qing was taken aback, and then he understood what Master Gu was talking about. He smiled and said, "In the end, it's because I had medicine and porridge on hand, and I also mobilized some of them, which is why it went so smoothly."

Old Master Gu shook his head: "There was medicine and porridge, and there was a chance that someone would have taken them away, instead of what you are in now."

"All right."

He stood up and said, "I'm going to catch up with Magistrate Hong. We can talk in detail after the disaster is over."

After saying that, he left with his hands behind his back.

Chen Qing didn't pay any attention and continued to busy herself with her own things.

Two more days passed, and the number of people at the soup kitchen had exceeded two hundred, with nearly fifty injured or sick.

That morning, Chen Qing was busy sorting medicinal herbs, and Li Shiyi, who was slightly thin, stood next to him, helping him sort the herbs.

Just as he was about to ask about Li Shiyi's sister, Manager Lu came running over and said, "Young Master, your brother is here. He says he wants to see you!"

Chen Qing raised an eyebrow and smiled at Manager Lu, saying, "You teach him how to choose medicinal herbs, I'll go take a look."

Manager Lu glanced at Li Shiyi, who looked timid, hesitated for a moment, and then nodded in agreement.

Chen Qing, with his hands behind his back, came to the outside of the soup kitchen. Not long after he came out, he saw Chen Che, the third young master of the Chen family, waiting outside.

Seeing Chen Qing come out, Chen Che gritted his teeth and stepped forward, saying, "Elder brother."

He looked at Chen Qing, hesitated for a moment, and then gritted his teeth and said, "Brother, Father is already on his way back to Huzhou. Mother and I are also going back to the prefectural city to wait for him. Why don't you come back with us?"

"When the time comes, you'll have to apologize to your father."

As Chen Che finished speaking, he looked at Chen Qing with a sincere expression.

"Otherwise, once Father finds Deqing, it will be difficult for my elder brother to handle the situation."

(End of this chapter)