Section 50: The Law of the Jungle

Sitting at the small table, Yun Ye took out the small dishes in the food box. They were indeed small dishes. The four small plates contained chicken nuggets, Chinese sausage, cold-mixed wild vegetables, stir-fried wild mushrooms, and a small bowl of carved rice. They looked good, but I don’t know how they taste.

The chicken cubes look like the work of a home chef, and they are cut diagonally like the ones he learned from himself. The sausages look good, and after steaming, they are crystal clear and mouth-watering. Grandma has long set them as the family’s best food, and she doesn’t give them to anyone casually. Only on New Year’s Eve does she give a little, and every time Yun Ye gives a few to his greedy sisters. In this way, he often makes Grandma unhappy, saying that there are no rules, that whoever has it is theirs, and that they are not allowed to grab it.

After chewing the bitter vegetable in the cold dish, Yun Ye sighed and spat out the vegetable. She rinsed her mouth with tea several times to get rid of the bitterness in her mouth. I don’t know how Mr. Yushan enjoyed his granddaughter’s filial piety. If the bitter vegetable is not boiled in cold water to remove the bitterness, it is not only difficult to eat, but also very harmful to the kidneys. However, the old man is old, and his wife died early. There is very little need for his kidneys, so it doesn’t matter if they are hurt. But we are fresh-baked teenagers in the Tang Dynasty, and it is the time to use the kidneys. Don’t be so vicious to me.

I won’t eat wild mushrooms. From the last dish of wild vegetables, Yun Ye knew that Miss Xin’s cooking skills were questionable. In order not to be poisoned, it is better not to touch the mushrooms. If there are one or two mushrooms that look beautiful but are actually poisonous, the consequences are unimaginable. Miss Xin is also a bold woman who likes beautiful things. She must like poisonous mushrooms that are brightly colored and tall and graceful. As for those good mushrooms that look ugly and have nasty colors, she must not look at them.

Carefully took a bite of the carved rice, it was good, fragrant and soft, it was a miracle to be able to make such a delicious dish from wild grains in the reed field, especially for Xin Yue.

After eating and rinsing his mouth, Yun Ye planned to prepare for his lessons. He had two physics classes to teach the next day, and the topic was the interaction of forces. He sat down at his desk and soon immersed himself in it. The memories in his mind became clearer and clearer. Even the habitual sniffling of his former physics teacher seemed to appear in front of his eyes. Yun Ye didn’t know if he was a person or a camera. If he had such a brain before, why would he waste four years in a second-rate school? He would have gone to Tsinghua or Peking University.

Behind him was a sobbing sound. It turned out to be Xin Yue, looking at Yun Ye with a pained expression, very sad. Yun Ye knew that it was because he had not eaten the two deadly dishes.

“The carved rice is very delicious, the best I’ve ever had.”

“The rice is delicious, but what about the vegetables?”

“The vegetables are also good. You know that I have a bad habit of being spoiled by my master. I have a picky mouth and won’t eat if something is wrong with the food. Don’t worry about it. Thank you for bringing me food.”

“I only made two dishes here, the rest is all from your family. The carved rice was made by my mother, but you didn’t eat it. Was it bad?”

“It’s not bad, just a little problem. Don’t worry about it, it’ll be better next time.”

“Brother, did I make things difficult for you today?” Xin Yue was a little embarrassed, twisting her handkerchief nervously, but her eyes were fixed on Yun Ye, very honest.

“Where are you talking about? It’s the hardest to accept a beautiful woman’s kindness. I would be happy to have a beautiful woman like you bring me food.”

Simple nonsense like plain water actually made Xin Yue blush and blush, shy and shy. Could it be that women in this era have not yet learned to deal with sweet words? If you can’t stand this kind of thing, if you say some classic lies, won’t you faint immediately?

Xin Yue’s hands trembled as she tidied up the leftovers on the table. She was very happy. Yun Ye didn’t understand why she was so happy. They had only been together for a month. Was that really necessary?

When Xin Yue left, the maid Xiaoqiu stood guard at the door, staring at Yun Ye with a sly look, as if she were looking at a wolf in sheep’s clothing, very alert.

As soon as Xin Yue left, Li Tai from the next door came over. Needless to say, this bastard had been listening with his ears pricked up. “Brother Ye, don’t you like my eldest sister? Why are you flirting with this girl?” It was exactly the tone of a brother-in-law questioning his brother-in-law.

“Which eye of yours saw us flirting? Your sister doesn’t like me, why would you go looking for trouble?”

“I drew a few pictures as evidence. Look, this is the picture of the girl sneaking into the house, this is the picture of your shadows on the window, and this is the picture of you two being inseparable. It’s just a girl, and she even had a maid guarding the door, so I couldn’t even get close.”

Yun Ye believed that if there were cameras, Li Tai would definitely climb onto the roof to spy on others’ privacy. This is not a prince, but a paparazzi with no moral sense.

Yun Ye smiled and fell asleep. Before going to sleep, he figured out everything. Today, everyone is opening the door for Xin Yue. At home, in the academy, and even Sun Simiao are all doing this. They are all hoping that Yun Ye and Xin Yue can become husband and wife. Whether it is for personal gain or for the future of the academy This is the best outcome, whether from a selfish point of view or from the perspective of the future of the academy. Xin Yue is a lovely and bold woman. What she did today exceeded the highest limit of a daughter of an ordinary family. This requires a lot of courage. Seeing the person you like, you boldly express it, which makes Yun Ye feel familiar with the future. It’s no big deal. Let’s see what happens.

Sun Simiao was busy among the victims, followed by a dozen students from the academy, each carrying a load on their shoulders. The load was Sun’s newly developed Qingwen powder, wrapped in paper into doses of medicine. treats the sick and prevents the healthy. It sounds like an advertisement for a powerful pill, but the mint, honeysuckle, and other medicinal ingredients in the medicine were bought by Yun Ye with real money. Not only do the refugees eat it, but the students in the academy drink a large bowl of it every day, and the teacher doesn’t let it go either.

The flattery in the mouth of the Lantian magistrate who accompanied Yun Ye on the inspection never stopped.

“This is not my achievement. I only needed some labor to build the academy. Your Majesty and the court have given Yun Ye so much support. I am extremely grateful. The magistrate of He County has worked hard all day long, and the lackeys are also the reason for the success of the academy. The victims should first thank His Majesty. I heard that the ladies even donated their makeup money. This is such a compassionate feeling. In such a world, we should be grateful.

Yun Ye bowed deeply in the direction of Chang’an, making a big show of it. The magistrate of He County greatly agreed with Yun Hou’s words, and was even more impressed by Yun Hou’s indifferent attitude towards fame and fortune. He felt happy about the huge political achievements he had inexplicably gained, and naturally, a new round of flattery was rolling in.

Having a prominent family like the Yun family under his rule was originally a tragedy for the county magistrate, but in the end the Yun family didn’t care about fame and fortune, and never interfered with the governance of Lantian County. They just developed their academy on their own. The last time Yun Ye trampled on Hu Zhuang, it was a fight between the upper echelons that had nothing to do with this little official of mine, so there was no question of giving or not giving face.

This time, the locust plague was supposed to be unavoidable, but the Yun family managed to capture a large number of locusts alive, which are now ground into powder and stored in warehouses. It is said that they are very valuable medicinal herbs. Although the county’s fields have also suffered heavy losses, they are not completely barren. The academy has begun to build houses on a large scale again. Most of the victims rely on the Yun family for food, which makes his life much easier. As long as he sells the grain he transported last year to the Yun family at a fair price, the more such large households the magistrate of He County thinks the better.

Meng Youtong is distributing Qingwen powder. Every time he hands out a packet, he tells the victims how to boil the medicine into a decoction. His meticulous manner makes it hard to imagine that this person was still a 25-year-old playboy last year.

The most important thing when there are many people is to prevent epidemics. The Yun family has a strict rule that everyone who works for the Yun family must bathe frequently. Drinking raw water is strictly prohibited. If anyone violates this rule, they and their entire family will be moved out of Yushan. There is no room for negotiation. This is a matter that the Yun family’s managers have repeatedly emphasized. They don’t want an epidemic to break out here either. The way they are dealing with the epidemic area is something that no one would dare to think about.

A huge amount of lime was spread all over the ground. Now even the youngest children know that they must go to the toilet. If they defecate or urinate anywhere, the whole family will be driven out and they will never have any food again. The children of the Tang Dynasty, especially the children of peasant families, were so sensible that they made people feel sorry for them. Five or six-year-old children carried their younger brothers and sisters around the foot of the mountain, and whenever they saw dry firewood, they dragged it back to use it for cooking. Whenever Yun Ye saw a little child carrying a younger brother or sister on his back and holding a bundle of dry firewood in his arms, he felt more and more hatred for the bastards in Chang’an. Whenever he saw a little child holding a hammer and trying hard to smash a stone, his heart was so sad that he couldn’t help himself.

He had never seen such a scene before. His own fat son only knew that he was full every day and not hungry, that he went to school and back stupidly, that the food at home was not as good as the foreign fast food, and that his father was angry when he didn’t let him play games today.

Hunger is the best teacher, but also the cruelest teacher. It taught these children diligence and thrift early on.

“Yezi, what are you thinking about?” Li Ke jumped off his horse and asked when he saw Yun Yezi in a daze.

“I was thinking about how I could make these unlucky children invisible.”

“Just get rid of them. What’s so difficult about that?”

“Do you really think so?” Yun Ye stared at Li Ke’s eyes without blinking.

He was a little nervous when he was looked at by Yun Ye, and he opened his mouth, but didn’t speak. He probably felt that there was something wrong with what he had said, but he didn’t know where he was wrong, and he was at a loss.

“If you repeat what you just said, even if you risk being punished by His Majesty, I will expel you from Yushan. If all the students educated at Yushan think like you, I will burn down Yushan Academy with my own hands and prevent it from causing harm to the world.”

“Please, sir, enlighten me.” Li Ke bowed with a solemn expression.

“We can be despicable and shameless. This is fine. This is a natural instinct. The reason why we are better than beasts is that we can use complex thoughts to achieve personal goals. This is beyond reproach. The law of the jungle is for beasts, not for us. Compassion must exist. It is the first element that measures whether a person is educated and whether he has a reason to exist.

“I know that you have been instilled with the royal education that everything in the world is for my use since you were young. You are high above the people, and the people are in awe of you. The strong have everything, and the weak have nothing. I am powerless to change this reality. I only hope that you will have more compassion and less tyranny. When you see these children are not simply driven away, but guided and helped, so that they will no longer be unlucky. In this way, you can always stand at the top and call the shots, without worrying that your ship will capsize. With their help, all the obstacles in the world are just a joke.