Chapter 128

Chapter 128: Yu Jiao Jiao Kneels at the Door

These past few days, Yu Zhi Yi kept feeling that someone was following her; as long as she left Du Manor, that prickly sense of eyes on her would return. The person always trailed her from about twenty paces away, not too near and not too far, and followed wherever she went, yet only followed and never did anything else.

She asked the people at the charity. They were sure nothing strange had happened at the shop lately. Many came to ask for help, but very few met their standards. Was Su Yuan Lin pitiful? He had lost both hands and was truly disabled. But because he could still earn money and take care of himself, the charity would not give him aid. By that rule, almost eighty percent of poor applicants would be screened out. Many people were simply poor. They were not sick or disabled. They might face unfairness in society, but they were not at the point where they could not live without the charity’s help.

Yu Zhi Yi had noticed something else too: the ones who really needed help, the old, the weak, and the disabled, often could not make it to the charity’s door at all. So the team in charge of finding clients still had to go out and search the city’s streets and alleys themselves. Meanwhile, only two or three people needed to stay at the charity to greet walk-ins and handle registration.

She chose not to confront the person tailing her, because she could feel no malice from them. [If they need help, they can just come to the charity.] As for other reasons, she was too lazy to ask; [if they have business with me, they will show themselves sooner or later.]

The follower had not appeared yet, but trouble arrived first.

That day, Yu Jiao Jiao came alone to the door of Yiluan Charity. She still wore gold and silver, but the quality was far worse than before. Her dress used cloth common folks could afford. It was not coarse, yet it was no fine silk either. It was a special, tightly woven fabric that looked pleasant and felt decent, but compared to gauze and satin, it was clearly a level down.

The Great Sheng Empire did not have the strictest dress codes. If they had money, commoners could wear silk, though some styles were off limits. For example, men without an official rank could not wear round-collar robes, and girls from ordinary families could not wear ornaments reserved for official households. There were also finer rules between every rank. In short, anyone with an eye for detail could tell at a glance whether the person before them was a commoner or from an official family.

As soon as Yu Jiao Jiao reached the charity’s door, she knelt.

This street had never been especially busy, but because of Yiluan Charity, foot traffic had grown lately, and most people came for the charity. Seeing someone kneel outside, many gathered at once, pointing and guessing what sad thing had happened.

Yu Jiao Jiao’s eyes were red, and she looked ready to cry. She opened and closed her red lips, choking with sobs as she called out: “Sister, I know I was wrong, please forgive me!”

At the back of the crowd, a young man watched her, and a dark light flashed in his eyes.

At that moment, Yu Zhi Yi was upstairs on the second floor, flipping through files. From the reports the staff had sorted, many people met the aid conditions. But most of them lived outside the city, far away with poor information. When a pie fell from the sky, their first reaction was not to believe it. Luckily, with patient explanations, and after they carefully thought it through and decided they had nothing worth being schemed against for, they agreed to accept help.

Yu Zhi Yi was looking at those files. The main thing she checked was each person’s birth date and eight characters. Misfortune liked to strike the weakest strand; in many poor households, once bad luck began, it came one blow after another. Most of these families had only one or two people left. Some had only a widowed elder alone. Some had a single disabled person. Some had a strong adult who had lost field and job because of powerful enemies; though able-bodied, he could only sit and wait for hunger.

For those who had lost income and were too old or disabled, Yu Zhi Yi accepted Red Luan’s idea: she bought a dedicated compound in the city and hired people to care for their daily needs. She also arranged with local clinics so that if they fell ill, they would receive proper treatment. This special place was called the Sanatorium.

For the other kind, people whose future had been ruined by offending the powerful and who now had no hope in life, Yu Zhi Yi would directly give them a job. As for the idea that someone might cause trouble over these people, that had never crossed her mind. If one came, she would beat one; if two came, she would beat a pair. If it was someone truly wicked, she had the emperor’s gold token and could act first and report later, removing a few parasites from society.

She was reading the file of a man named Li Feng. He was only twenty-three but so poor he lived on wild greens. The reason was simple: bad luck. He had once had a happy family. Though from the countryside, his parents were honest and hardworking. They had several acres of good fields. His mother had served in a medical household and knew some herbs and how to process common medicines. In busy seasons they farmed; in slow seasons they went into the mountains to gather herbs, processed them, and sold them to city pharmacies. After years of this, they saved quite a bit of silver.

In those days, people were set on studying. Once a family had money, the first thing they thought of was sending their son to school. Li Feng lived up to hopes. His teacher often praised him for being bright and having a natural talent. At eighteen, Li Feng became an examination candidate. That same year, he married a doctor’s daughter from town, and the couple was loving. He studied with focus and asked questions diligently, collecting much exam experience. With a little more luck, he would surely make it as a licentiate.

Sadly, the family’s good fortune ended there.

A few years ago, the whole family went to town for the Qiqiao Festival. A lord from the Capital City set eyes on Li Feng’s wife and directly sent men to seize her. The family searched everywhere for news and finally found her location, then went to demand her return. But in front of power, their strength was like a mayfly shaking a tree. That day, they not only failed to bring her back, Li Feng and his father were beaten badly. His father was hurt so severely he died on the road home. Li Feng’s injuries were lighter, yet he needed a long time to recover.

He could not accept it. After he healed, he went to report the crime, but no one dared to handle it. Not long after, his mother also died of sorrow. When Li Feng’s wife learned that her father-in-law had been beaten to death while seeking justice for her, she felt so guilty that she ended her life with a strip of white silk.