Is the beginning of a catastrophe? The little farm cook is raising a family with a full warehouse.

"Don't dawdle, the city lord has ordered, come out immediately!"

He ran towards the place where the guards usually gathered, shouting at the top of his voice. His usually dignified face was now flushed red and veins bulged on his forehead.

Seeing a guard slowly walking out, he immediately rushed over, grabbed the man's arm, pulled hard, and shouted, "Hurry up! If you slow down a step, your head will be chopped off!"

After a while, the guards ran out from all corners and stood in the yard.

Zhou Qingxiong stood on the steps, panting heavily, and loudly assigned tasks: "Listen up! Divide into teams immediately and search every street and alley in Junhua City, every household, even every abandoned corner and hidden nook, thoroughly!"

"Whether they're hidden under beds, in cellars, or on rooftops, we'll dig deep to recover the stolen supplies. If anyone dares to slack off, the City Lord's wrath will be unbearable!"

"Yes!" The guards below responded in unison, and the sound waves exploded in the air.

Immediately, everyone moved quickly, their soles stepping on the stone floor, making dense "clacking" sounds, rushing towards the gate of the City Lord's Mansion and dispersing to every corner of Junhua City.

The cold disaster raged, and the entire Junhua City was shrouded in a layer of dead silence. The streets were deserted, and the hustle and bustle of the past seemed to be swept away by the biting cold wind. Only the whistling sound of the wind was heard through the empty streets.

The guards conducting searches within the city, stripped of the garb that symbolized the City Lord's authority, were in reality no different from ordinary civilians. Normally, Shen Linfeng would order them around and treat them harshly, but now that the City Lord had been robbed, their hearts were devoid of enthusiasm, merely going through the motions out of duty.

The group came to a low, dilapidated house and gently knocked on the rickety wooden door. After a long time, a faint, trembling voice came from inside the house: "Who is it?" The voice was full of vigilance and uneasiness.

A guard leaned forward slightly, trying to make his voice sound gentle. "Old man, please open the door. This is a routine search of the City Lord's Mansion."

The door creaked open slowly, revealing a sallow, emaciated old man, hunched over in shape. He was wrapped in a tattered cotton-padded jacket, patched upon patched, like countless shattered hopes cobbled together. A cold wind howled past, and the old man's frail body shivered in the wind.

The room was dimly lit and filled with an air of dampness and cold. All that came into view was a bed that was so worn out that it was almost falling apart. Beside the bed was a small stove that could barely light a fire. The flames in the stove were as small as beans, and under the invasion of the cold wind, they were so weak that they seemed like they would go out at any time.

The guards tiptoed into the house, being extremely careful, fearing that they might accidentally knock something over and bring more disaster to this already dilapidated home.

One of the guards' eyes fell on the corner of the room, where there were several wrinkled and shriveled sweet potatoes. This was probably the only food the old man had.

His heart ached suddenly, his eyes reddened slightly, and his voice unconsciously lowered: "Old man, do you rely on this to fill your stomach on weekdays?"

The old man's cracked lips forced a bitter smile, which was full of helplessness. "Yeah, because of this cold disaster, nothing can be grown in the fields. Having these few sweet potatoes is already good enough."

The guards lowered their heads silently, with mixed feelings in their hearts. Their hands moved slower and slower. After searching a few times, they quietly left the room.

They arrived at the home of a young couple. A chill hit them, and the temperature inside wasn't much higher than outside. The woman was sitting on the cold kang, holding her infant. The child's face was red from the cold, and he cried non-stop.

The house was bare, with only a few worn-out clothes and daily necessities. The guards walked into the house, took a quick look around, and didn't rummage around much.

The husband sighed helplessly and said with a bitter face, "Sir, you can see that we are extremely poor. We have nothing to hide. The children are almost freezing to death. We can't even afford to buy charcoal to keep warm."

The guards looked at this scene with a feeling of pity in their hearts. They exchanged glances with each other and left in a hurry.

Along the way, they saw many people starving and freezing in the cold wind, ragged children shivering in the corner, and old people huddled in cold houses, waiting for the spring that would come at an unknown time.

The guards' search movements grew slower and slower, their moods growing heavier. Amidst this tragic atmosphere, this so-called search felt more like a meaningless farce.

As the sky grew darker, the afterglow of the setting sun sprinkled on the snow, but it did not bring any warmth. The group of people were tired and hungry, their steps were weak, like eggplants hit by frost, and they could not muster any energy.

A young guard couldn't help but complain, "What the hell is going on? The people above say one thing, and we run ourselves ragged. We're human too, we get cold and hungry. From morning till now, we've only been fed two cold steamed buns. Is this how a human being should live?"

"Just because of something lost in the city lord's warehouse, we've been tormented like this, and the people are suffering as well. What's the point of this?"

His words seemed to light a fuse, and the other guards echoed him.

A burly guard slammed his spear into the ground and muttered, "This job is so frustrating! We've been freezing in the snow all day trying to find something we don't know where it went. Who knows, when we return and report back, the higher-ups might even blame us for not doing our job well."

The tall, thin guard smiled bitterly and shook his head. "If you ask me, even if we did find something, he wouldn't think highly of us. He might even find fault with us and blame us for not finding it quickly enough."

The guard who had spoken first continued to speculate in a low voice, "It seems to me that an immortal must be dissatisfied with the city lord's behavior and is punishing him. Otherwise, how could an ordinary person be so capable? Emptying all the warehouses overnight, and leaving the doors and windows intact? If this isn't a manifestation of an immortal, what else could it be?"

"I also think it was done by the immortal! Shen Linfeng only cares about his own enjoyment and doesn't care about the lives of the people. The cold disaster is so serious, but he didn't come out to help. The immortal must be very upset."

"I've lived for most of my life, and I've never seen anything so bizarre. Who else could have emptied the warehouse overnight except an immortal?"

"That's right. If the immortal hadn't intervened, who among us ordinary people would dare to touch the things in the City Lord's Mansion?"

……