Chapter 25 Problems of the Victims

Although it was said to be the post-disaster reconstruction command center, it was actually just a few dilapidated houses with a large courtyard. The Civil Affairs Department’s meetings and office work were all in the courtyard, and the rooms were only used as a place to sleep.

When Lin Wen broke in, the Civil Affairs Department was having a meeting. All the officials, including Director Huang Mingxiao, were sitting under an old locust tree, surrounding a large round table.

The desk was piled with papers and handwritten manuscripts. The floor was littered with scraps of paper. The whole yard looked like this.

A telephone wire came from a locust tree, connected to a telephone and fax machine on a small table.

The door was pushed open and everyone looked over. They saw Xiao Li standing outside in a daze and a young man striding

over.

Director Huang Mingxiao stopped the other officials who were about to scold him and asked, “Are you County Governor Lin Wen?”

Lin Wen nodded and said, “Yes, it’s me.” He picked up a chair and sat down among them. “Report the situation to me.”

Huang Mingxiao hesitated for a moment. From the corner of his eyes, he saw the county governor’s personal chauffeur standing in the distance. He hurriedly stood up but was stopped by Lin Wen.

“Sit down and talk. The disaster is serious, don’t bother with manners.”

Huang Mingxiao quickly sat down and began to explain their current work situation.

“Currently, there are 307,102 homeless people, 11,000 people residing on Bullhorn Mountain, 40,000 people residing on Hook Mountain, 30,000 people residing on Changpai Mountain, 20,000 people residing on Clear Wind Mountain and mountain ranges near the levee of Changpai Village, 70,000 people residing on the hill near the eastern entrance, and 30,000 people residing in Niujiao Village and Changpai Village, as well as several nearby villages.”

Huang Mingxiao opened the map on the table. This huge map immediately covered the entire table. The map was filled with red, blue, and green drawings. At the same time, there were all kinds of numbers and words marked everywhere. At a glance, it was a dazzling sight.

However, Huang Mingxiao seemed to be very familiar with it. With every point of his finger, he could accurately describe the details of the location, the strategies used before and after, the current situation, the lack of supplies, the problems they were faced with, and so on.

Lin Wen listened in silence for a full thirty minutes. Then, while the man caught his breath, he said, “Are you saying that the main problem now is the lack of supplies?”

Huang Mingxiao took his last breath and felt his lungs come alive. “Yes, county governor,

we…”

Lin Wen raised his hand to stop him. “Make a list of the supplies you need and send it to the finance department. Tell them to quickly arrange for someone to purchase it.”

Huang Mingxiao asked in surprise, “There’s money in the county?”

Lin Wen nodded.

Everyone present revealed a smile, and Huang Mingxiao was even more excited. “This is the best news I’ve heard in so many days! The Empire’s help is finally here! Governor, in this case, we shouldn’t buy it ourselves, right? We can just give a report to the Empire. As for the money, leave it for the reconstruction. Quickly get the construction team to come back. This is the real problem!”

Lin Wen sneered and said, “You’re wrong. There’s no help. I got the money. You go and buy supplies first. I’ve already called the construction team back. They’ll be here in a few days. Let’s confirm the construction plan first.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the atmosphere turned cold and the smiles on everyone’s faces disappeared.

Huang Mingxiao found it hard to believe. “How could this be? Does the Empire not care about us anymore? These are 300,000 refugees. How, how could they do this?”

He clutched at his hair. His forehead was wrinkled, the white hair leaking from his fingers.

“This is impossible. There must be some mistake. I’m going to Shenjing, the headquarters, and find His Majesty!”

Vice Chief Zhang Qiaohe grabbed him. “Stop talking nonsense! You won’t be able to see His Majesty.”

Huang Mingxiao suddenly lost control of his emotions. He forcefully shook off Zhang Qiaohe’s hand and shouted, “Let go! I must see him! The Empire is not like this. There must be some other reason…”

Zhang Qiaohe shouted, “The emperor is a super-order! There are 11 levels between you! You can’t even enter the door, you are dreaming!”

Lin Wen couldn’t understand their loss of composure and interrupted, “Didn’t I say I have money? What’s so important about the Empire’s assistance?”

Huang Mingxiao shouted, “These are 300,000 refugees! Do you know how much money we need to spend? Just keeping them alive costs 400,000 yuan a day! That’s if everyone only eats rice grains and pig food! The cost of rebuilding their homes is an astronomical figure! Once the supplies are used up, everyone will die! How many days can you sustain them with your bit of money? One day or half a day?”

Lin Wen counted with his fingers. “42 days. Uh, so much money for only 42 days?”

Everyone quietened down again. Everyone stared at the young county governor, speechless.

After a while, Huang Mingxiao asked in disbelief, “How much money did you get?”

Lin Wen scratched the back of his head. “About 17 million. Damn, I was too careless. I should have squeezed that fatty a little more.”

Huang Mingxiao’s body trembled slightly, and he couldn’t speak. Lin Wen noticed that his chest was rising and falling rapidly, and his eyes were red. He was afraid that Huang Mingxiao would have a heart attack on the spot, so he quickly pulled him over to sit down and asked, “How many days can the current supplies last?”

After returning to the specific matters, Huang Mingxiao finally returned to normal: “They can last for less than five days.”

“You can buy supplies for a month,” said Lin Wen, “I’ll come up with a solution later.”

Huang Mingxiao’s thoughts went deeper. “County Head Lin, if that’s the case, then we can’t just maintain the minimum standard of living. We also need to maintain their health. Many refugees are sick, and we need medicine and medical assistance. After the flood, there will be a great plague, and we also need to protect ourselves from the plague. Because the construction team went away too quickly, some of the resettlement sites are hard for people to live in. It’s actually very crowded for the refugees to live in, and there are even more than 50,000 people who can’t even live in tents and who can only sleep outdoors. These problems have to be solved.”

Lin Wen felt like his head was splitting. He quickly stopped him. “Just tell me what you think.”

Huang Mingxiao said, “Make up for the lack of supplies and buy 20 days of living supplies.”

Lin Wen was a bit puzzled. “Isn’t this too little?”

With money, it was like a clever woman who had rice for cooking. Huang Mingxiao’s thoughts became much more flexible all of a sudden. He said, “This is a choice that we have to make. Even if we spend all our money on living supplies, we will eventually run out of them. We can only save as many refugees as possible and rebuild our home as soon as possible. This is the fundamental solution to the problem.”

“As long as we have hope, we can overcome these difficulties.”

“I’m just afraid that there’s no hope. It doesn’t matter how long we struggle in the darkness.”

“That’s right, that’s right.” Everyone suddenly accepted the plan and started talking at once. Lin Wen hesitated for a moment. He didn’t use Immortal Guiding the way to confirm their plan. He only used Aura Observation.