The goddess herself would not personally visit the border town, but that could not stop the common folk from leaving their homes, gathering in every alley and street, finding a spot that seemed agreeable, and kneeling down to burn incense.
They had only burned their incense halfway when, above their heads, the bright sun that had shone moments before was suddenly replaced by flashes of lightning and rolling thunder, dark clouds gathering thickly. A fierce wind howled, yet it did not extinguish the still-burning incense.
"Father! Mother!" some young lads cried out, unable to help themselves at the sight.
"What are you yelling for? You kneel properly, you brat!" the father grabbed his son, who was trying to rise in agitation, and pressed his head down. Thump, thump, thump—he kowtowed three times before the three sticks of incense.
The dust kicked up covered the dark-haired boy's face from head to toe, but he only grinned foolishly.
There were many such households. Those who had already been kneeling and mumbling their wishes, upon seeing the flying sand and stones and the approaching downpour, straightened their kneeling postures even more, kowtowing to the incense and candles with even greater reverence and piety.
In no time at all, the rain poured down in torrents. On the Dayan side, with the river wasteland as the boundary, it was as if the heavens had sprung a leak.
Yet on the Nanyue side, the sky remained clear and vast, the sun hanging high overhead, bright and blazing.
If someone stood on a high place and looked down, they would see a dry river dividing the two sides—one bright, one dark; one sunny, one rainy; one teeming with life, one dead—like the two sides of yin and yang.
High above the curtain of rain, several drones pierced through the storm, flying silently across from Dayan into the airspace of Nanyue.
Yue Fuguang operated the drones, deliberately heading toward inhabited villages and towns, as well as fields that showed clear signs of cultivation.
[System, what do you think of this place?]
She pointed to a road that was not very wide and asked the system. This road appeared to be the main route connecting nearby villages. Because of the drought, it was thick with dust, covered in footprints—clearly a path often traveled.
The drones Yue Fuguang used were small models produced by the system, each only about fifty to sixty centimeters in size, with a maximum flight range of two hundred li. The place she had just pointed to was about one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty li from her current position, about forty to fifty li inside Nanyue territory.
She thought it best to start from the border area, affecting the Nanyue common folk first. Here, the mountains were high and the emperor far away. By the time word fermented and reached the emperor's ears, some time would have passed.
And in that time, the words of "heaven's decree" would have spread widely among the common people.
For what spreads fastest among the common folk? The answer, of course, was the more bizarre and strange the tale, the larger the audience. Those who heard it would inevitably share it with their family and friends.
07, who was operating six drones at once, took a glance at the scene Yue Fuguang had pointed to and fully agreed with her choice. [I think it works! As for the remaining plaques, we'll drop one every ten to twenty li.]
Of the twelve colorful plastic plaques, a few were bound to be picked up by someone.
Though 07 had complained earlier, anything customized by the system's store could not be of poor quality. Once one of these things was found, its discovery could not be hidden.
While Yue Fuguang was busy with her mystifying tricks, she did not realize that across the river, witnessing the scene of a torrential downpour on just one side, the Nanyue common folk—whether from their intense longing for rain or something else—had quickly moved from shock.
Soon, the people of Nanyue who had awoken from their daze brought out incense and candles, and some even brought out small statues of Yue Fuguang.
Facing her statue, they began murmuring fervently and kowtowing with devotion! The incense they burned was so thick that from a distance, an uninformed observer might think the drought was so severe that the forests themselves had caught fire.
In the crowd, a child stared at the heavy rain on the other side of the river and couldn't help licking his cracked lips. He asked his parents naively, "Father, Mother, if we lived on that side of the river, would we have water to drink too? Enough to never run out, so we could even water the fields and never go hungry?"
The child even thought that if the wind were stronger, it might blow some of the rain from the sky over to their side.
The child's innocent words stunned his parents. This was a question they had never considered. All they had ever hoped for was the goddess's mercy, that while blessing the people of Dayan, she might also show compassion for them, these pitiful souls.
But... but if they had really been people of Dayan, then surely, they would have received the goddess's favor.
Thinking this way, the father still instinctively scolded, "What nonsense are you talking, child?" He was afraid that someone with ill intentions might report his daughter's childish words.
But was it really nonsense? Everyone who heard those words fell into silent contemplation. Some people's gazes already began shifting back and forth between the two sides, as if searching for something.
The rain on the Dayan border fell from morning to night. The parched earth finally drank its fill, and the people of Nanyue watched the spectacle all day long.
When the wind ceased and the rain stopped, as they made their way home, thousands of people filed down from various hills in small groups.
Among them were the elderly and children, yet not a single person spoke. All of them trudged along in silence, heads bowed.
The children, held by their parents' hands, seemed to sense that their mother and father were in low spirits. Even when they needed to pee, they only dared to ask their elder sister to take them to the side of the road.
Suddenly, a child felt the dry, gray-white grass beneath his feet not as the familiar softness, but rather a hard object digging into his sole.
He picked it up casually, making a motion to throw it away, when his sister called out from behind, "Erwa, wait!"
The elder sister, about eight or nine years old, snatched the object from her five- or six-year-old brother's hand and examined it closely. The moment she saw it, she couldn't help shouting, "Father! Mother!"
Upon hearing their daughter's cries, their parents did not take it too seriously. The area was full of people, so the kids couldn't be in any real danger.
"Erwa, if you're done peeing, come back right away. If you keep fooling around, watch out for your little bottom!"
"Father, I haven't peed yet!" he said, instinctively covering his small rear. Judging by his quick movement, it had suffered plenty for his mischief.
"Father, come quick and see what treasure I found—" the word "look" was still on his lips when his clever sister clamped her hand over his mouth.
If she hadn't, maybe nothing much would have come of it. But her nervous reaction, combined with the little boy's mention of treasure, immediately drew the attention of those nearby.
Before the children's parents could react, a busybody approached with a friendly smile. "Little one, tell uncle what treasure you've found, so I can have a look too."
He pulled from his bosom a piece of yellowish malt candy the size of a fingernail. It was not only small but looked slightly melted.
Still, none of that dimmed Erwa's desire for the candy.
"It's a colorful plaque, like a rainbow in the sky!" He took the candy without putting it into his mouth right away. Instead, he glanced carefully at his sister.
This was treasure they had found together. He was a man, after all, and he wouldn't be selfish and eat it alone. Swallowing his saliva, he waited.
"Daniu, what's going on?" The children's parents ran over. The father still wasn't convinced about the supposed treasure their son had found. What valuable thing could a child really discover by the roadside?