Saving System: Calm Down, My Fleeing Host!-Chapter 71: Uprisings Everywhere

At this time, in various places, the broken riverbanks and rampant floodwaters submerged villages, leaving corpses scattered everywhere. Surviving refugees had nowhere to go, filled with grievances, and could only stumble to the county town for help.

Initially, two or three county towns opened their gates, prepared to let in some villagers with means. After all, some city dwellers had relatives and friends living outside the city; having taken their money, they certainly intended to let some people in. Additionally, setting up porridge distribution outside the city to aid displaced citizens would win them a good reputation.

As the local officials, the Magistrate had good intentions, but misjudged the severity of the disaster.

The porridge distribution could only last a day before changes occurred. As word spread, more and more refugees gathered, overwhelming the capacity of several porridge stalls; the distribution couldn’t satisfy the large crowd, leading to riots among those who didn’t receive porridge.

The city gates were quickly broken through by the masses of refugees, leaving nothing untouched. The city fell into chaos and lost all order, with even the Government Office ransacked by lurking rioters, resulting in countless deaths and injuries.

Frightened officials and wealthy merchants from the city fled overnight.

The rest of the counties, upon receiving the news, dared not open their gates. The plight of refugees gathered outside the city gates was unbearable to witness. Elderly and children couldn’t get food and most died of starvation or were trampled to death. Young and strong organized themselves to rob others of food and money, and women were left to suffer abuse. Bandits burned, looted, and pillaged along the way, creating a hell on earth.

The current situation was far from the reports collected by the ministers.

Yet Zhou Yanlan, who was in the know, didn’t report it to his father. Even if he did, his father probably wouldn’t believe him. Haven’t there been many such instances over the years?

This time, he wanted to see for himself what kind of spectacular end years of biased beliefs and endless indulgence would lead to.

...

In Qingshan Village, after the rain stopped, the floodwaters receded, leaving nothing but silt. Only a few wood sheds and livestock pens in the whole village were left, partially damaged. Otherwise, it was fine, just that roads were muddy everywhere, and the silt and garbage and dead branches carried by the floodwaters accumulated in the ditches, painting an unbearable picture.

Under the village head’s organization, everyone wielded shovels, spades, brooms, and various tools to quickly clear out the silt, working hard to restore a clean and comfortable environment in the village.

Now, the biggest problem they faced was water usage. The water each household had stored was depleted. After the rain stopped, the two wells were full, even Cheng Jia could scoop out water with a ladle, which showed how the well water was now akin to yellow river water, turbid and undrinkable.

The village head had no choice but to have a few men take turns drawing water to let the surface muddy water out. However, for every two buckets drawn, one bucket seeped through the well walls, making the process slow. Seeing that they lacked even cooking water, it was truly worrying.

After working half the day, they could barely use the water by letting it settle overnight. They would draw the water, leave it overnight so that fine debris and sand settled at the bucket’s bottom, then carefully scoop the water on top for use. Cheng Xiaoxiao watched her aunt intent on using this settled water, preparing to have Dahua cook with it, and hurriedly stopped her.

"What is this stuff, can this water be used?"

Without a magnifying glass, the muddiness was visible to the naked eye. The well water was definitely contaminated.

Her aunt sighed, "No choice, this settled water is already quite good. Everyone’s been consuming this for days, just don’t drink the cold water directly; it’s fine when boiled."

Dahua added, "Exactly, Xiaoxiao, you don’t know, every household currently has no stored water at all. We can only use this, otherwise, what would we cook with?"

Cheng Xiaoxiao wanted to shout: Sis, we have water, lots of it, but I can’t perform magic and produce it out of thin air!

Having water to secretly drink didn’t feel good at all.

Sigh! Explaining taking things out later without arousing suspicion is going to be tough. Is there a once-and-for-all solution?

"77, what do you say?"

System: "If others knew you could pull treasures out at any time, it’s impossible they wouldn’t covet you."

"Exactly, so is there a once-and-for-all method to use it anytime without drawing attention?"

System: "Seems like there isn’t."

This issue couldn’t be solved immediately, so she’d leave it for later!

Cheng Xiaoxiao stopped fretting.

"How about this, aunt, let’s filter the water before using it," Cheng Xiaoxiao suggested.

Members of the Liu Family and Dahua looked bewildered, "What? What’s filtering?"

Cheng Xiaoxiao ran to her aunt’s room where Cheng Chudong and Dalan were making winter clothes. Upon seeing Cheng Xiaoxiao enter, Cheng Chudong smiled and asked, "Xiaoxiao, what’s up?"

"Aunt, do we still have that gauze from before?"

Cheng Chudong nodded.

Dalan took out the gauze Cheng Xiaoxiao bought last time from a box beside her. This cloth was similar to mourning fabric but softer, finer, and more breathable, custom-ordered from Boss Yun last time.

"Aunt, please help me make this cloth into a circle this big, leaving a place at the edge for threading bamboo," Cheng Xiaoxiao spoke while gesturing.

As Dalan helped cut the fabric, she asked, "Xiaoxiao, what are you making this for?"

"For filtering water!"

"What’s filtering water?" Dalan asked, puzzled.

"Right now, the village’s well water is too cloudy. I’m worried if everyone drinks it, they’ll get diarrhea."

"Will filtered water prevent diarrhea?"

Cheng Chudong chuckled, "That’s too miraculous."

"Indeed, it’s not that miraculous, just filtering out some bacteria and sources of infection."

Without cotton and activated carbon, she’d make do with some pebbles. She checked the System Mall earlier, and a filtration device cost 800 coins. The coins she earned through hard work must be spent wisely.

So she’d have to make it herself, keeping it simple! Use it for now, for if she took out a filter, explaining it would be even harder.

"What’s bacteria? And what’s a source of infection?" Dalan asked, completely bewildered, unable to understand Xiaoxiao’s words.

Forget it, the more she explained, the more complicated it became.

"Well, it’s stuff mixed in water that we can’t see with the naked eye, but eating bacteria can cause diarrhea."

Cheng Xiaoxiao could only give a vague explanation.

Dalan nodded, half understanding.

With the runners practicing calligraphy elsewhere, she had to handle this herself. "Aunt, you keep making them, it’s best to make a few more. I’ll head out for a bit."

Cheng Xiaoxiao quickly gathered a pile of small stones to bring back.

Dalan handed over the completed gauze pieces for Cheng Xiaoxiao to inspect.

Quite satisfied, Cheng Xiaoxiao started using available tools to make a rudimentary filter. She initially thought of asking her uncle to make the support frame, but the men in the family were out clearing silt.

She fiddled for quite some time but couldn’t manage it, meanwhile, the kids practicing calligraphy heard noise outside and came out to watch, including Cheng Liangmu.

In the end, it was Cheng Liangmu who helped make the support stand. No wonder he was proficient in bamboo crafts, taking after his father even at such a young age.

Dahua watched the little ones enjoy the spectacle with amusement, "Aren’t you worried that the second brother might catch you being lazy?"