Martial Saint through Reading

Chapter 339: Chapter 270: The Rich Feast While the Poor Starve (Part 4)

"I just heard," the passerby lowered his voice, carefully looked around, and then spoke, "I heard it’s for the Great Qin Dynasty’s Empress Dowager’s birthday celebration."

"..."

Celestial Longevity Platform? Empress Dowager’s birthday celebration?

Chu Ming kept walking without pausing.

As far as he knew, the Great Qin Dynasty had only one Empress Dowager, named Empress Dowager Duaan, the biological mother of the one on the Dragon Throne.

He continued walking for another three miles.

"Big brother, can you spare some food?"

A tender voice rang in his ears.

Chu Ming looked down and saw a little girl in tattered clothes, with tangled and dirty hair, appearing to be only six or seven years old.

Looking further, on both sides of the road, stood an endless array of thatched huts, with cold winds blowing, sending the thatch flying.

"Big brother, please, can you spare some food? My mother is dying of hunger." The little girl knelt at Chu Ming’s feet.

At the same time, another five or six children crawled over upon hearing this, staring intently at Chu Ming.

"Brother, I advise you not to interfere," a man dressed in a knight’s attire stopped beside Chu Ming, contemptuously scanning the shivering children in the wind, "you might help a few of them, but can you aid all those over there?"

As he spoke, he pointed to the mass of huts not far away.

Chu Ming looked at the little girl at his feet, then at the few children by the roadside and the slum-like cluster of huts, doubt arising in his heart.

In the shadow of the Emperor, outside the most prosperous capital of the Great Qin Dynasty, could there really be so many impoverished people unable to eat or keep warm?

"May I ask, knight, why are there so many poor people here?" he inquired respectfully.

"Ha, why else," the man turned back, gazing at the majestic city behind, "inside the city are delicacies from the mountains and seas, while outside it’s like this."

"Brother, take care of yourself." With these words, the man strode away.

"Big brother, my mother is dying of hunger..." The night wind was bitterly cold, the little girl hung her head, her frail body trembling uncontrollably.

Chu Ming squatted down, lifting away the dirt-matted hair stuck together on her head, revealing a frostbitten red face underneath.

Simultaneously, he gradually extended the Sword Gourd Spirit, enveloping the area of the huts.

Under the nearest hut, three emaciated people hid, holding rusty blade artifacts, their faces tense as if lying in ambush.

Further away, everywhere were trembling paupers wrapped in ragged mats.

Probing deeper, it was nearly all like this, with nearly frozen corpses visible every few huts.

Suddenly, his eyes subtly changed.

At the center of the hut area, he discovered something different.

Chu Ming reached into his clothes with his right hand and took out a piece of meat, actually extracted from a gold plate.

"Take this, and bring me to see your mother." He handed the meat to the little girl.

The little girl stared at the meat, initially stunned, then could not hold back her swallowing.

The few children by the roadside gazed intently, drooling.

"Let’s go."

Chu Ming picked up the little girl and walked towards the huts.

Up ahead, the man previously dressed as a knight halted, sneering.

"That’s just how the world is. How many can you save?"

With that, he continued on his way.

As soon as Chu Ming entered the huts, the three emaciated men hiding in the shadows secretly followed him.

The few children by the roadside also stealthily trailed from afar.

Going all the way in, passing more than thirty huts.

"Big brother, we’re here, this is my home." The little girl pointed to a thatched hut without a roof on the left.

Home?

Is that really a home?

Chu Ming put down the little girl and walked to the hut, seeing a similarly disheveled woman lying under the roof.

"Mother, please eat."

The little girl used her small hands to hold the piece of meat, enduring her hunger, pushing the meat piece to the woman’s lips.

However, the woman remained motionless, even... had stopped breathing.

"Mother... Mother..." The little girl called out repeatedly, trying to feed the meat piece into the woman’s mouth that refused to open.

Chu Ming stood quietly beside her, his gaze slightly shifting.