The Marquise: I Earn My Own Worship

The eighteenth year of Mingde was a year of great disaster during the entire Mingde period, which caused a sharp decline in the population of the entire Chu State, and only one in ten poor and weak areas remained.

On New Year's Day, the sound of firecrackers was practically non-existent in the capital. Duan Bo's residence was also deserted, and the children could sense that the adults were in a bad mood.

"It's really pitiful. There's no joy at all in the outer city during this New Year's holiday. Almost every household has hung white banners."

"If the outer cities are so serious, how much worse will it be in other places? God bless you."

Song Shengfu silently chanted the Buddha's name. Now she understood why the ancients believed in gods and Buddhas.

When human power is unable to shake the situation, we can only place our hopes on ghosts and gods, praying for a little mercy from heaven.

"That's right. The farmers in those dozen or so farms outside our city are also in a bad state. Fortunately, we sent people to have them repair their houses earlier, otherwise there would have been heavy casualties."

"How's things going at Qingyun Villa?"

Lu thought for a moment and replied:

"The farmers who lived there before were fine. Only the farmers who bought in later had a few houses collapsed, but the people there were fine."

Song Shengfu nodded. The first villa she visited when she came here was Qingyun Villa. She stayed there for more than a month and had developed some feelings for it.

"By the way, the situation at Qingyun Temple is better. After the fire, many pilgrims from the capital donated money to the temple, and Qingyun Temple was completely repaired. Surprisingly, not a single thing collapsed."

"This is really a blessing from the Buddha! Look, the snow has stopped for two days, and I don't think it will fall again."

Song Shengfu said that the snow would not fall again because this year was a drought year. Only she knew this.

"My daughter-in-law, it doesn't look like it's going to snow. The sun has been out for two days in a row, and a lot of the snow has melted."

Mrs. Lu said this as she looked at the snow on the trees outside which was almost melting. In the garden, Kang Ge'er and his younger brothers and sisters were playing with snow molds.

"It's the first day of the new year, and Jing'an is still busy with official business. I guess the child hasn't eaten well. Send someone to bring him some soup and rice. It's a festival today."

"Yes"

Song Shengfu returned to the room and quietly took out a book from the bedside table. She turned to the middle and saw what looked like notes. It was a section about what happened later that she had written in modern words and numbers.

As we get older, some things become blurred with the passage of time, so Song Shengfu writes them down while she still remembers them.

Only she can understand what is written above, so there is no need to worry about others seeing it.

When Song Shengfu opened it, what caught her eye was:

In the eighteenth year of Mingde, after a heavy snowfall, no rain fell for several months. Later, a plague broke out and the people were left with no chance of survival.

After closing the booklet, Song Shengfu felt a pang of fear in her heart. If she were just an ordinary citizen, she would not know how to survive this disaster year.

Song Shengfu felt somewhat desperate. This was not the prosperous and technologically advanced country she had lived in in her previous life. Faced with natural disasters, the people were completely powerless to cope.

This drought will last for more than seven months, nearly half a year, and it will be another huge test of life and death.

Time flies and April has passed.

Song Shengfu was fanning herself, and Kang Ge'er was sleeping beside her, with two large basins of ice beside them.

Mother Qi and Mother Lu fanned Xuan'er and whispered:

"It's already April, and it hasn't rained yet. It seems weird."

"That's right. The flood just ended a few days ago, and many people died. God is blind. If this continues, how can we survive?"

"Let me tell you, my eldest daughter didn't marry the steward in the mansion. A few days ago, her grandmother passed away, and they went back to their hometown. My eldest daughter came back and told me that the people in the village were starving, and some looked like the living dead."

"So serious?"

Mother Qi was surprised

"This is not so bad. Some families starved to death in their houses, and the stench lasted for days without anyone taking care of them."

"Oh my god, this is so scary, is there no one taking care of this?"

"Who can control these things? It's all fate."

"It's only April and it's already unbearably hot. It's too early."

The two of them were whispering to each other, and Song Shengfu listened with her ears perked up, sighing silently in her heart.

While the rich wine and meat smell, the road with frozen bone.

No matter how difficult the world is, the inner city is not affected in the slightest.

Suchun walked in from outside with a post in her hand.

"Greetings, old lady."

"Wake up, whose post is this?"

Song Shengfu glanced at the invitation in Suchun's hand. She had attended all the banquets in the capital, big and small, just for fun.

"It's a post from the Guo family, the Minister of Justice."

"Bring it to me and see"

Song Shengfu took it, opened it and saw that it was the Guo family’s first birthday party.

"Have you seen it, Madam?"

"Madam, the eldest lady went to the shop today and hasn't come back yet."

"Okay, when she comes back, let her come to my place. I have something to tell her."

"Yes"

Song Shengfu put the post aside and calculated silently in her mind.

The great-grandson is already one year old. People in ancient times got married early, so by this calculation, the Minister of Justice Guo Youqi should be in his sixties.

That means four generations living under one roof. Song Shengfu was amazed. If he lived another twenty years, he would only be in his eighties, and that would mean five generations living under one roof.

Just as I was thinking about it, a head popped over. It was Xuan Ge'er.

"Brother Xuan is awake?"

Song Shengfu picked up Xuan Ge'er, who lay in Song Shengfu's arms in a daze, his eyes staring blankly at the pattern on the post next to him.

Song Shengfu handed him the note and asked someone to pour some water for Xuan Ge'er to drink before she got up, feeling very thirsty.

Xuan Ge'er touched the dark lines on the post with his little hand, rubbed his eyes with his other hand, and yawned.

Song Shengfu fed Xuan Ge'er two sips of water, but Xuan Ge'er turned his head away and stopped drinking.

Song Shengfu asked someone to take the cup away and took Xuan Ge'er to the garden to see the flowers.

Xuan Ge'er probably hasn't woken up yet and is unwilling to get off Song Shengfu.

"Old lady, please let this old servant come. I will tire you out."

When Xuan Ge'er heard this, he immediately hugged Song Shengfu tighter.

Song Shengfu found it a little funny and patted Xuan Ge'er on the back.

"It's okay. Grandma can still hold our Xuan'er, right, Xuan'er? Let's go, the flowers aren't pretty, let's go feed the fish, okay?"

"Yes, fish, feed the fish."

Xuan Ge'er turned his head to the other side and pointed his little hand in that direction.

The group went over there, and only then did Xuan Ge'er agree to come down. Suqiu took him to the guardrail.

The koi Loulan in the pond are all fat and strong, and some of them have mouths so big that they seem to be able to swallow a child's fist.

Xuan Ge'er's hands were too small to hold the fish food, so he threw handfuls of it into the pond. The fish in the pond scrambled to swim forward, and some of the smaller ones jumped up directly.

Xuan Ge'er was amused and laughed

Song Shengfu looked at the lotus flowers in the pond and saw that they had grown upright leaves and some had buds. She estimated that they would bloom earlier this year than in previous years.