The once green and lush valley was now blanketed in a sea of black mud, a devastating sight to behold.
Under the gloomy sky, all color seemed to have drained from the world.
Qi Huan's heart felt like it was weighed down by lead, heavy to the point where she could scarcely breathe.
Before leaving, Shu had mentioned he had business at the logging camp. She had waited for him for a long time, but he never returned home. She didn't encounter him on her way here either.
A dreadful thought flashed through her mind, causing Qi Huan to lose her focus. In her hurry to dismount, she twisted her ankle.
She took some ibuprofen tablets from her spatial storage and washed them down with the last bit of water from her thermos she had stored in there. Then, she picked up a sturdy wooden branch from the side of the road and used it as a crutch to hobble forward.
"Shu!"
Her call echoed through the valley, but there was no response from Shu.
Her eyes stung a little.
Against the force of nature, the power of a single human was truly insignificant.
Especially the power of just one person.
She turned around, intending to seek help from the Yunying Caravan, but then she heard a faint cry for help.
A young boy was trapped in the mud not far away, sinking deeper with every struggle as he became completely covered in mud. Had he not heard Qi Huan's call and cried out weakly for help, he would have been nearly impossible to spot.
Qi Huan stopped in her tracks.
Hope flickered in the boy's dark, piercing eyes, and his pale lips moved: "Help me."
After a moment's thought, Qi Huan found a longer, thicker branch and extended it towards him. "Grab on."
Once he mustered his remaining strength to grasp it firmly, Qi Huan sat down, lowering her center of gravity, and pulled the branch backward with all her might, slowly dragging him out of the mud.
"Virtuous deed +1, score +50."
Qi Huan was unsurprised. Had she not rescued him, the boy would have certainly perished. Saving a life doubled the score, hence the fifty points added.
At the same time, the boy stared blankly at the inky black mud that had swallowed his home and his parents and relatives.
He neither cried nor made a fuss, but slowly crawled over and sat beside Qi Huan, leaning against her in a dependent manner.
His mouth opened a few times, but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to ask Qi Huan to help him find his father and mother.
He knew they were gone.
He had witnessed the mudslide engulf his parents with his own eyes from the slope, but he was powerless to do anything. All he could do was wait for the mud to settle and search along the edges, but he accidentally slipped and fell into the mud himself.
After glancing at the silent boy beside her, Qi Huan propped herself up with the wooden branch and stood.
"Wait here for a moment. I'll go call for help to rescue people."
"Okay." The boy nodded obediently, but his gaze remained fixed on her.
At that moment, the rapid sound of hoofbeats approached from a distance. Soon after, Chief Constable Yan appeared with a squad of officers.
"Chief, there's a survivor!" one of the officers exclaimed.
"Xu Liu, this isn't about capturing criminals. This is about rescuing people," another officer corrected. "Chief, there's a survivor!"
Chief Constable Yan squinted his eyes, recognizing Qi Huan. "Miss Qi, what are you doing here?"
"I came to gather herbs... You should rescue people quickly."
Chief Constable Yan didn't quite believe her.
However, rescuing people was the priority at the moment. He didn't press further and turned to instruct his officers.
"Save the living first, but retrieve the bodies too. The living must be accounted for, and the dead must be identified. Any drifters must also be tallied. There are over a dozen villagers nearby who rely on the mountain for sustenance. Try to rescue as many of them as possible."
With Chief Constable Yan's orders, the officers sprang into action.
After hearing his words, a glimmer of unease flashed in Qi Huan's eyes. It was fortunate that she hadn't discarded the corpse from her spatial storage into the mud earlier; otherwise, retrieving it would have caused further complications.
Noticing her lingering presence, Chief Constable Yan waved a torch in front of her face, scrutinizing her eyes. "Why are you still standing there?"
"I..."
Glancing at the boy beside her, Qi Huan quickly found an excuse. "I rescued him, and I need to help him find his parents."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Man's eyes immediately welled up with tears, and he cried, "Please, sister, help me find my parents."
Thinking of his parents, he cried even harder, finally unleashing the emotions he had suppressed for so long.
Chief Constable Yan dreaded dealing with crying children and women, and he immediately felt flustered. He wanted to sternly chase them away but feared the boy would cry even harder, so he merely said, "Be careful," before walking away.
The officers all carried torches, their flickering flames dancing in the night, but the scene offered no warmth.
Qi Huan tightened her clothes, gazing at the vast expanse of mud, feeling lost as to where to search for Shu.
Digging her fingernails into her palm, she regained her composure.
Dismissing the possibility that Shu might not have outrun the mudslide, she reasoned that he should have fled uphill when the mudslide occurred.
Her gaze swept over the dark silhouettes of trees on the mountain, and she knew that blindly venturing in would not only fail to help Shu but could also put her own life at risk.
As long as Shu wasn't caught in the mudflow, she believed that with his and Yan Jiu's abilities, they could make it back home safely.
The officers' shouts interrupted her thoughts, and Qi Huan followed the sound to see them searching along the edges of the mudflow.
After considering for a moment, she approached Chief Constable Yan.
"Chief, during the mudslide, apart from those swept into the mud, some people likely fled into the mountains. With the mountain's venomous creatures and the darkness and cold dampness of night, those who don't come down in time risk freezing to death. Shouldn't you send some men to call out to them from the mountain?"
Just as she finished speaking, an officer reported, "Chief, two people have come down from the mountain!"
A woman was supporting an elderly man with white hair as they stumbled down.
"What happened?"
"It's thanks to Old Man Weng that I'm alive. I was washing vegetables when the mudslide occurred. Old Man Weng ran out and shouted, 'Run, head for the mountain!' So I followed him and ran.
After reaching the mountain, Old Man Weng fell down. Thinking that I owed him my life, I supported him, and we kept running together.
When night fell and the mountain grew too cold, Old Man Weng said we couldn't stay any longer, so we came back down. I supported him on our way down."
After hearing the full account, Chief Constable Yan turned his gaze toward the elderly man she had called Old Man Weng.
He knew this man - the former Imperial Tutor who had recently been exiled, stubborn and unyielding as ever.
Chief Constable Yan stroked his chin in thought, then adopted Qi Huan's suggestion and summoned a small squad of officers to search the mountain for any remaining survivors.
On the other side, the bodies that the officers had pulled out were temporarily placed on the riverbank. After the manager of the logging camp identified them, they would be cremated.
The little boy Zhao Man tugged at Qi Huan's sleeve and said softly, "Sister, I want to go see if my parents are there."
Holding his hand, Qi Huan walked over, her eyes nervously scanning each corpse. Suddenly, her pupils constricted sharply.
One of the male corpses had a physique very similar to Shu's. Although his clothes were soaked in mud, obscuring their color, he was wearing a wide-sleeved robe.
Here, the refugees and commoners mostly wore narrow-sleeved clothing for ease of work. She began to recall what clothes Shu had worn when he left today.
The image of his back and his sleeves fluttering in the wind gradually materialized before her eyes.
Qi Huan bit her lip tightly.
She wanted to get closer and look, but her legs felt as heavy as a thousand pounds when she tried to lift them.
The ground was muddy and slippery from the rain. Inadvertently, she fell to the ground.
At that moment, the system began to announce her score gains again: "Doing good deeds +1, score +1."
"Doing good deeds +1, score +1."
"Doing good deeds +1, score +50."
...
Sensing her low and suppressed emotions, the system said a few more words: "Host, thanks to your reminder earlier, two of the villagers who fled to the mountain have been rescued.
Also, the officers killed a venomous snake and saved someone who was about to be bitten, so your score has increased by another 50."
The system went on and on.
Qi Huan's only thought was: "I don't need the points. I can give all these points to you. Can you tell me where Shu is?"
"Very close by," the system replied.
