CHAPTER 213: CHAPTER 213: THE DRAGON KING’S TEMPLE FLOODED BY ITS OWN WATERS

Yu Xiaolian listened to Sun Manjiao’s words, turned her head to look at Shopkeeper Huang of the broker, and said coldly, "Does your broker still engage in the business of kidnapping people?"

Shopkeeper Huang forced an awkward smile, tacitly admitting it.

Afraid of angering Yu Xiaolian, Shopkeeper Huang quickly stepped forward to explain, "Teacher Yu, this child was just brought in from the north yesterday. When Wu Er ’picked’ her up, she was already starving. We actually saved her life. Wu Er said her family members were all starving..."

Yu Xiaolian wiped away Sun Manjiao’s tears, "Don’t cry, Sister Xiaolian will take you home in a while."

Sun Manjiao clung to Yu Xiaolian’s sleeve and wouldn’t let go, afraid that everything that just happened was a dream.

Yu Xiaolian asked, "Where did you ’pick’ her up?"

This specific location, Shopkeeper Huang truly didn’t know, so he looked at the clerk nearby, "Quickly go and call Wu Er over, and say I have something to ask him."

The clerk hesitated, "Master Wu drank till late last night, he’s probably still not sober."

Shopkeeper Huang urged, "Splash water on him to wake him up, just hurry!"

The clerk quickly ran off.

With a smile on his face, Shopkeeper Huang invited Yu Xiaolian and Sun Manjiao to the front parlor, "Teacher Yu, is this little girl a relative of yours?"

Yu Xiaolian nodded, "She’s the granddaughter of my fifth granduncle."

Doing broker business, where can you find ones that are clean? Kidnapping is not too uncommon, right? Especially in these chaotic times, a piece of dried flour can trick many children.

It’s just that Shopkeeper Huang hadn’t expected such coincidence, to run into a relative of theirs. They’ve encountered such things before.

But rarely, in over thirty years of running a broker shop, they’ve only encountered it a handful of times.

When it did happen, they just wouldn’t sell, and things would settle after both sides reconciled.

What? The other party refuses to reconcile? What a joke! Can just anyone open a broker shop? He doesn’t know about others, but no one dares to cause trouble for the Zhao family’s broker shop.

In the past, when he encountered such things, Shopkeeper Huang would curse at the misfortune because they hadn’t made any money.

But Yu Xiaolian was someone both Zhao Zhijie and the Zhao Head of Security had mentioned, so he dared not neglect her.

Shopkeeper Huang said, "This is indeed a case of the flood washing the Dragon King’s Temple; family doesn’t recognize family, this is all a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding.

Since the little girl is part of Teacher Yu’s family, Teacher Yu can just take her back."

Yu Xiaolian gladly accepted Shopkeeper Huang’s goodwill, but she was more worried about the situation of Sun Fifth Granduncle’s family.

With a hoarse voice from crying, Sun Manjiao slowly said, "Sister Xiaolian, the river at Upper River Bay has dried up, and the crops didn’t grow. The whole village is fleeing south with their families. My grandfather said we would go to find you, so we left in May, but when we reached Bohai City, we weren’t allowed to enter because we didn’t have a road permit.

We couldn’t enter the city nor go back home, so we’ve been staying out in the open outside Bohai City, where there’s someone who gives us thin porridge daily."

"Is your grandfather still outside Bohai City now?"

"I don’t know, before I was taken, my grandfather was still there.

Sister Xiaolian, I just wanted a pancake for Manyi to eat, she’s been crying about being hungry every day..."

Outside Bohai City, there are countless refugees. Although the government has a porridge stall distributing porridge daily, the porridge is so thin you can’t see any grains, and it doesn’t satisfy hunger at all.

Other children are hungry but don’t cry out, but Sun Manyi, being the youngest, would cry continuously when her stomach growled with hunger.

Sun Manjiao once got a pancake from a charitable wealthy person, and when Wu Er enticed her with a pancake again, Sun Manjiao was totally unguarded. Hearing that she could get more pancakes, she happily followed Wu Er to get them.

That was how she ended up being taken by Wu Er, though she was not drugged and thrown into a carriage right away.

Wu Er arrived.

His explanation to Yu Xiaolian was that there were too many refugees at the time, and it was too easy to kidnap children. He only kidnapped the good-looking ones, not the ugly ones.

Yu Xiaolian asked Wu Er, from the Northern Land to here, how many refugees were there? For those without road permits, can they enter the city by paying?

Wu Er said that most refugees are gathered around Bohai City and Mianzhou. For those without road permits, if they can afford the entrance fee, they can enter the city, although the entrance fee is expensive, requiring five taels of silver per person.

After thoroughly investigating the situation around Bohai City with Wu Er, Yu Xiaolian lost the mood to buy people and, saying she’d come back another day, took Sun Manjiao back to Xiangyang Lane.

When Yu Xiaolian brought Sun Manjiao into the Sun family’s house, Sun Shi and Old Lady Sun were teasing two children, overjoyed.

Seeing Yu Xiaolian approach with a short girl following behind, Sun Shi was puzzled, "Why did you buy back one so little?"

When Yu Xiaolian stepped aside, revealing Sun Manjiao’s face, Sun Shi exclaimed, "Isn’t this Manjiao from your Fifth Granduncle’s family?"

Sun Manjiao wasn’t very familiar with Sun Shi, but she knew Old Lady Sun from next door and threw herself into Old Lady Sun’s arms, crying out, "Grandmother..."

Old Lady Sun cupped Sun Manjiao’s small face, trembling as she asked, "Where’s your grandfather, Manjiao, where is he?"

Sun Manjiao fiercely wiped away her tears with her sleeve, "Grandmother, my grandfather is outside Bohai City. They can’t come over because the soldiers won’t let them into the city."

"Why won’t they let them?"

"They don’t have road permits!"

Sun Manjiao repeated what she had told Yu Xiaolian to Old Lady Sun and Sun Shi.

Upon hearing this, Old Lady Sun hurriedly said to Sun Shi, "What do we do now? We can’t just watch your Fifth Uncle’s family suffer outside with nowhere to go."

Sun Manjiao interjected, "My Fourth Granduncle’s family is also there, along with many other people from our village."

Sun Shi looked toward Yu Xiaolian, "We can’t help everyone, but we must help your Fourth and Fifth Granduncle’s families.

Lian’er, what do you think? Should we wait for your father and uncle to come back and discuss with them about going to the government to get a road permit and head north to bring them over?"

Yu Xiaolian thought the same. Sun Fifth Granduncle’s family had no road permits. Even if Bohai City allowed them in, they would still be stopped at other city gates.

Even if they issued road permits on this side, they could only issue one for themselves, not for Sun Fifth Granduncle’s family.

The only way to bring over Sun Fifth Granduncle’s family would be to pay to enter the city.

Yu Xiaolian sighed; if only Jiang Lin were here.

"Mother, taking too many people will be a burden. Tomorrow, I’ll take Li Meng and Li Lie to check out the Bohai City area."

At the moment, Sun Shi and Old Lady Sun were like ants on a hot pan, anxiously pacing around.

Sun Shi glanced at the sun outside; it was just past noon. Yu Changhe and Sun Fengshou wouldn’t be back so early, but she was impatiently hoping they would return early today.