Chapter 28: To Accept or Not to Accept

“Third Young Master, look! This is what that unreasonable big man just did!”
“We’ve done everything exactly as you instructed. If not for our efforts to keep order, things here would have long been in chaos!”
“That poor girl—who isn’t pitiful? My house was newly built, and all my belongings were just acquired; now they’re all soaked in water!”
“We don’t know how long this rain will last. Everyone just wants to save some food for the Daxiangguo Temple.”
At that moment, faced with a crowd of noisy men, women, and children arguing loudly, Zhang Yue felt utterly overwhelmed. These people relied on the meager porridge provided by the Daxiangguo Temple to survive, while the temple, in turn, used these people outside its gates to keep more potential newcomers at bay. This seemingly mutually beneficial situation was naturally extremely selfish, but compared to those nobles who fled in panic and officials who ignored the common people, it wasn’t so bad after all.
But had Peng Shisan really done something wrong?
He glanced at the trembling little girl beside him and felt a pang in his heart. Her arms and legs were already as thin as reeds, and after several days of hunger, they looked even worse—her face covered in dirt, with no trace of color left. The woman holding her bit her lip tightly, while a man with a cloth wrapped around his head glared at him with a mix of anger and fear, instinctively using his still-functional right arm to protect his wife and daughter.
Zhang Yue had always thought his heart was extremely hard, but now he knew he was wrong. Perhaps he used to remain indifferent when passing by seemingly pitiful beggars, but seeing such a family now made it impossible for him to stay heartless.
He finally turned his gaze away from the family and rubbed his face vigorously with both hands before raising his voice and shouting, “Everyone, stop arguing!”
These days, whenever he distributed porridge, he would come out to greet people and chat—of course, given people’s unpredictable nature, Peng Shisan would always follow behind him warily. But today, there was no one behind him. So, when he spoke, the noise in the crowd gradually subsided, with only a few complaints remaining.
“Nobody is at fault for what happened today. It was my family member who was reckless!”

That clear voice immediately drew widespread agreement, and even those who had just been severely reprimanded by Peng Shisan breathed a sigh of relief. Yet to the family of three standing nearby, those same words were like a thunderbolt. The woman bit her lip, ready to speak, but her husband stopped her firmly, and despair appeared on her face.

“I originally asked the abbot to distribute porridge to everyone because I couldn’t bear to see them suffer. But if I turn a good deed into a bad one, causing trouble for the abbot and the Daxiangguo Temple, and leaving everyone with hopes only to take them away, I would feel even more guilty!”

With that, Zhang Yue turned and walked over to the family of three. Seeing the little girl cower fearfully in her mother’s arms, he shook his head helplessly before saying with a bitter smile, “Uncle, aunt, and little sister, it’s not that we don’t want to help you. It’s just that no one knows when the water will recede or when food will arrive.”

His words were met with more murmurs of agreement. Some complained that the porridge had become thinner these days, indicating a shortage of food in the temple; others talked about the effort required to block people from entering various places; still others muttered complaints about the authorities, claiming they had previously boasted that the Yellow River wouldn’t burst its banks this year.

“I… we can leave, but please, sir, give my daughter Cuier a bite of food!”

Before Zhang Yue could explain further, the woman suddenly let go of her daughter and knelt on the ground with a thud, knocking her head repeatedly until it bled. Caught off guard, Zhang Yue reached out to pull her, but he forgot his own frail ten-year-old frame and stumbled, nearly falling.

At that moment, two voices echoed in his mind—one warning him not to set a precedent or show mercy, lest more people without food in the city flock there and turn the situation completely uncontrollable; the other urging him to do good, as he couldn’t just watch a child die of hunger on the street. Yet, caught in conflict, he realized that taking in the little girl while driving away her parents was no different from driving them all away.

“Third young master, everyone isn’t that heartless. How about you take this little girl in? Though she’s thin from hunger now, she’ll gain weight once she’s fed. Once the water recedes, we can take her home to work as a maid.”
“Ah, a little girl can’t eat that much, right?”
“She does look rather pitiful.”
One after another, voices agreed around him. Yet, instead of feeling relieved, Zhang Yue was deeply confused by such an indifferent attitude. Looking at the smiling faces, some flattering and some obsequious, then at the woman’s pleading eyes, and finally at the man with a furious expression and clenched fists who said nothing, he didn’t even know what to say.
It was then that he realized how rare it was in later times to have widespread support when someone was in trouble. The imperial court these days… one couldn’t rely on it at all times.
As Zhang Yue was lost in thought, sudden loud horse hooves came to his ears. At that moment, not only him but everyone else turned their attention away from the family of three and looked in the direction of the noise. Some looked panicked, some terrified, some trembling with fear, while a few seemed faintly excited. But when the group of riders rushed up and their attire became visible, almost everyone gasped.
The leader wore a bright red satin robe embroidered with a qilin on the shoulder, a precious sword at his waist, and over a dozen riders behind him clad in blue cotton armor, exuding a fierce aura while also appearing extremely showy. Their horses were also different from ordinary ones—tall and strong, clearly belonging to people far beyond ordinary citizens.
Zhang Yue examined these strangers whose intentions were unclear, wondering what kind of army this was. Just then, he caught a panicked whisper.
“Good heavens, the Jinyiwei!”
The Jinyiwei? That notorious secret police force? After a moment of shock, Zhang Yue suddenly felt an utterly absurd thought—looking at the clothes worn by the middle-aged leader, the name “Jinyiwei” truly lived up to its meaning… But what were these Jinyiwei doing at Daxiangguo Temple?