"Alas, if I'd known, I would have gone to get sweet potatoes earlier. When I came, there were still some steamed ones left over there!"
"Exactly! We've been waiting here so long, and who knows when we'll be served."
"Husband, maybe I should go line up for sweet potatoes tomorrow morning? That man who ate them first yesterday came back for more today!" a woman said, turning to her husband.
"Wife, don't go. You keep lining up here for porridge tomorrow!"
"But..."
"Don't worry. Listen to me: I'll go get sweet potatoes tomorrow. Let me try a few first and see if they're poisonous."
The woman frowned. "Let me go. Our family can't do without you; your mother and I wouldn't survive otherwise."
"No! I'm stronger than you. If those sweet potatoes are poisonous, I can withstand it better. Let's decide: I'll try them tomorrow!"
The next day, the man went straight to the sweet potato stand. But when he saw that there was already a long line there, he was stunned. Though the line at the sweet potato stand was still shorter than that at the porridge stand, it was now quite crowded. Seeing someone else join the line while he hesitated, he quickly stepped forward to secure his spot. However, after waiting two hours, when it was finally his turn, he received a thunderbolt from the bearded official: the sweet potatoes had been given out again.
Having waited so long only to find nothing, the man was furious. The bearded official remained unrepentant. "Don't glare at me. I didn't cheat you out of your sweet potatoes. They were all taken by the refugees! Each of them took six or seven at a time, saying they wanted to bring them home for their families. What could I do? You're not new to this relief effort. Even the porridge stand limits each person to one bowl. Why didn't you set a limit?"
The man's words immediately won approval from those behind him in line. "Exactly! Don't you know how to do your job?"
The bearded official put his hands on his hips. "Hey, you people didn't care about sweet potatoes before. Why would I limit them? On the first day, I didn't even give out all the ones I brought. I had to take the leftovers back. Besides, now that people want them, I'll just be done faster and get some rest."
The bearded official's words were infuriatingly smug. The man clenched his fists, looking like he wanted to hit him. But just then, a middle-aged man walked over and said with a smile, "Sir, this is indeed our fault. We common folk were ignorant and didn't recognize a good thing. But now we know how good sweet potatoes are! Maybe you could trouble yourself and, from tomorrow, limit each person to two sweet potatoes? That way, we'll all be grateful to you."
"Tsk, what a bother. But fine—seeing as my wife is pregnant, I'll consider this as doing a good deed for my child." Hearing this, the refugees who hadn't gotten sweet potatoes broke into relieved smiles.
Below the Sky Canopy, Emperor Jingming and many courtiers now showed admiration in their eyes. They understood Emperor Jingwu's method of dispelling the rumors. Emperor Jingming even turned to Empress Xu, who sat to his left, and praised, "This strategy is truly brilliant! Ingenious and clever!"
Empress Xu now knew clearly that Yin Ning was Emperor Jingwu, since Yin Ning had mentioned sweet potatoes to her a few days ago. Hearing Emperor Jingming praise Yin Ning, she was in an even better mood and agreed loudly, "Emperor Jingwu is extremely intelligent. Those sneaky rats hiding in the shadows will eventually be ridiculed by the whole world!"
Just as Empress Xu finished speaking, the scene on the Sky Canopy changed. The middle-aged man who had mediated with a smile during the day was now eating at the same table as the bearded official, both holding freshly baked sweet potatoes. The middle-aged man teased, "You rascal, I told you to come up with an excuse, and you had to drag in a pregnant wife and child? When did you get married? Why didn't you invite your master for a few cups of wine?"
The bearded official chuckled. "Master, why are you taking this seriously? I had to make the act convincing!"
"So you're not in a rush to get married? That's fine. I was planning to arrange a wedding for you after this relief trip, but now I've saved myself a lot of trouble."
"Ah, Master, that's not what I meant! I'm already twenty-five. If I don't get married soon, I'll be an old bachelor! Is the wife you found for me pretty?"
"Hmph, I know you're picky. Would I dare let the matchmaker find an ugly one? The girl's family is poor, but she has good character and looks."
"Hehe, Master, my wife and I will take good care of you in the future!"
"Don't worry about me. Your priority is to look after your own family!" The middle-aged man took a bite of his sweet potato and continued, "Eat up, then rest. Judging by today's situation, tomorrow you'll be too busy to even drink water."
The bearded official nodded in agreement. "The methods His Majesty taught us are really effective! I was worried on the way here, thinking that with such fierce rumors, the sweet potatoes we'd worked so hard to transport might rot and go uneaten."
The middle-aged man smiled. "You don't have siblings, so you wouldn't know—things taste best when there's competition! But His Majesty truly has the people's best interests at heart; otherwise, he wouldn't have come up with this whole set of solutions."
The night passed quickly. As the middle-aged man had expected, the next day the bearded official was busier than ever. From dawn to dusk, refugees came in an endless stream to collect sweet potatoes, and the official's voice went hoarse from all the talking.
The refugees had been on edge recently, sensitive to any rumors. So many knew about the events at the sweet potato stand in previous days. "I heard that if you came in the first couple of days, you could even eat the fried sweet potato strips!"
"I heard that too. Someone from our village tasted them and said they were so delicious she almost bit her tongue off. Even His Majesty in the palace loves them!"
"Alas, it's a shame we didn't dare come before, or we'd know what they taste like! Now with so many people in line, those officials are taking shortcuts and won't bother making something so troublesome anymore."
"If you ask me, it's all the fault of those rumormongers! The sweet potatoes are so tasty—how could they cause stomach problems? We were all fooled!"
"Those rumormongers deserve to die a thousand deaths! They probably wanted to hoard the sweet potatoes for themselves, so they made up lies to scare us!"
"Exactly! If His Majesty dares to eat them, what do we commoners have to fear!"
"I took two sweet potatoes home yesterday. My parents ate them and praised them highly. They even want to get seeds and grow them!"
"I heard from the officials from the capital that the yield per mu of sweet potatoes can reach two thousand jin! And His Majesty plans to send people to teach us how to plant them!"
"Oh, that would be wonderful! My family will be the first to sign up at the government office!"
As the people's resistance to sweet potatoes gradually faded, the line at the sweet potato stand grew longer each day. By the time the grain Emperor Jingwu had originally prepared ran out, the refugees had already accepted sweet potatoes well, so no major disorder occurred in the disaster area.
On the Sky Canopy, Liu Sanqi spoke again, smiling at the camera. "Those old fools like Qi Wenyuan tried to ruin the relief effort to destroy Emperor Jingwu's popularity among the people. Little did they expect that, thanks to Emperor Jingwu's perfect handling, her reputation among the people soared instead!"
"So when news from the disaster area reached the capital, that old geezer Qi Wenyuan, who had been dreaming of 'a shared world between Qi and Yin,' was so furious he nearly twisted his nose off!"
Below the Sky Canopy, in the palace, Qi Wenyuan, who had been sitting calmly, froze when he heard his name. Emperor Jingming's gaze toward the old minister turned as cold as a blade!
"A shared world between Qi and Yin?!"
The hall fell into dead silence. The air itself seemed to thicken. Even Yin Ning, still holding the little orange cat, couldn't help but glance at Qi Wenyuan in surprise. After all, Qi Wenyuan had always had a reputation for honesty in court—nothing about him suggested such ambition.