Before the square, all members of the Qingying Commune were mobilized. They organized people into lines while pulling out pieces of clothing, shoes, and hats from several large crates to distribute.

Everyone who received supplies expressed their heartfelt gratitude, thanking them profusely.

These young men and women of the public community felt a softness and happiness more profound than what came from creating the bulletin board from these face-to-face thanks; it was like nourishment for the soul.

A young man had just stepped out of the crowd clutching a coat he could never afford with a year’s salary. Just as he excitedly brought it to his nose to smell it, a man approached him hesitantly. “Young brother, can we trade? “

“Trade what? ” the young man asked warily. “Don’t cause trouble, or you’ll end up in theQingying Gazettetomorrow, huh! “

“Hey, my shoes aren’t bad either. Take a look, let’s swap, ” the man said, his gaze toward the coat filled with complexity.

The young man glanced at the shoes—top-grain leather that he absolutely couldn’t afford on his salary either.

“To be honest, don’t tell anyone else, ” the man said, glancing left and right at the people walking past happily clutching their new clothes. “This coat is mine. Give it back to me, and I’ll give you the shoes. “

“Ah? ” the young man stared at him in disbelief. “Have you lost your mind? How could this possibly be yours? “

“It’s… hard to explain, but… let’s trade. You can take these shoes and trade them for more clothes, isn’t that better? “

“This… ” This proposal utterly tempted the young man.

Though this might also be difficult to pull off, if he was lucky enough to escape this predicament, he could take the shoes to the city, exchange them for copper coins and silver dollars, and buy clothes more befitting his status.

Such exchanges occasionally happened in the bustling crowd, but none dared admit these items had originally been theirs. This was exactly what the wealthy wanted to see—this way, even the Terransian Navy sailors mingling in the crowd would never know who was rich and who was poor. Silently, they praised the warehouse owner’s generosity and discretion, as well as the sharp wits of the founders of the Qingying Gazette.

The reporter Jean Conrad stood at the edge of the crowd, ecstatically recording this clever scheme to blur everyone’s identity. Here, people distributed goods in the name of assistance, muddling the crowd’s original backgrounds and confusing the enemy’s agents.

—I believe that the ransom and processing fees collected by the “Prisoner Exchange Special Affairs Bureau ” this year will be greatly reduced…!

Thus he wrote in his little notebook.

Some rejoiced, while others grieved. Amidst the jubilation, the owner of the Warehouse Inn stared blankly at his grandson.

A teenage boy, drenched in seawater, walked up from beneath the reef, holding several severed ropes in his hands and shaking his head at his grandfather.

……

“Aren’t you going to step forward and expose them!? “

Ma Shuo, holding a pen and paper in his trembling hands, spoke in a furious but hushed tone to the old man beside him. “The Qingying Gazette has committed such banditry—won’t you speak up against it!? “

The old man shook his head, his grief palpable, as if mourning the dead.

“Coward! “

Ma Shuo’s fingers moved in quick, pecking motions in the air before his face, without landing. Seething with anger, he turned to leave, but took just a few steps before swiveling back, pointing empty, emphatic jabs again. “Sothisis how you teach your grandson? Bah! “

After the man who founded theFire Dance Gazettehad left, the boy who had been waiting nearby walked over. “Grandpa, what do we do now? “

“Sigh, what else can we do? That’s just life “

The old man squeezed out a smile uglier than a cry. “Send some food to the old storage room later today, and say our Old Granary Inn is… well, from now on, we can also offer them five—no, make it six—set-price meals a day for low cost. Actually, no. Free lunches! “

“They’re ruthlessly underhanded… scarier than pirates. “

“Sigh, if only they wereactuallyscarier than pirates. I’d be more than willing to send a hundred portions for free. ” As the old man said this, he saw a head turn and look his way from the thin crowd inside the warehouse. He promptly clamped his mouth shut.

……

In the afternoon, bathed in the radiant glow of the setting western sun, the Qingying Commune held a joint ceremony of commendations and celebration.

Everyone took turns being praised in the meeting by the crowd gathered around two tables, while the journalist excitedly snapped photo after photo with a series of “click-clacks. “

He never imagined that venturing here in such danger would allow him to witness something like this!

This was truly a rarity, a precious and hard-to-come-by sight!

The stay and protection provided by the Hellfire Sect’s people, the suggestions of the Fogfolk, the hard work of everyone present, and the heartfelt laughter of those who once lacked clothes and food—today’s harvest was great, profoundly great!

And tomorrow, they would even distribute fish soup to those refugees. If such occasions repeated a few more times, who would still be able to tell who among them had once been rich and who poor?

These are the youth of our country!

Jean Conrad was deeply moved. Even in a place under such blockade and hardship, they still possessed a spirit as bright as the morning sun and courage as bold as newborn calves! For such compatriots to be so easily abandoned, left to be taken away by other nations and forced into a lifetime of hard labor—what a heartbreaking tragedy it would be.

“We must give special recognition to Mr. Yang Bucheng, ” said a young man in coarse bib overalls, raising a clenched fist and shaking it. “Without the miraculous Mr. Nebula, how could we ever have gotten so many clothes to distribute to everyone! “

“True, though it may not be possible for everyone to get a share, we’ve already managed to provide warm clothes against the cold for many women, children, and the elderly. Today, even I… I… sob, sob, sob… “

The other boy who spoke actually started crying even before the little girl. “No one has ever done something like this for me… I, I feel like I can also accomplish things that many people have never done… waaah… “

“There, there, Little Baer is the best. “

Some people turned their heads, looking at Yang Zicang.

“By the way, Mr. Buchen, where did all these clothes come from? “

“Will there be more tomorrow? “

“Ah, well… ” Yang Zicang felt several playful glances directed at him.

He rubbed his nose. Although those who had received the clothes kept their mouths shut in silent agreement, not everyone was foolish. By now, some had begun to sense something amiss.

“How to put it… I just happened to find them in a reef cave under the sea surface. Probably cargo washed overboard from a shipwreck, swept over by the wind and waves. Let us give thanks and pray for those people’s safety. “

“Ah, yes, it must have fallen off some ship. Let us pray for their safety. “

As he spoke, the crowd noticed a teenage boy carrying a food box walking into the courtyard outside the house.

The boy let out two awkward hums, and said, “Hello, I, I’m from the grain warehouse. My grandfather told me to bring everyone some dishes. Also, from now on, we’d like to learn from everyone’s spirit, so, so… “

“So what? ” asked reporter Jean Conrad as he stepped out to face him.

“So please let us provide the ‘Qingying Gazette’ with six free lunches every day, for the old and weak among the trapped. “

“Six? You mean it? “

“My heavens, and it’s free too? Are they big portions? “

“Yeah… ” the boy felt as if his whole being didn’t know what expression to make or what could be done.

“Look at that, look at that! That’s the power of a role model! “

Click! The journalist excitedly captured the scene of the boy delivering food with a basket, permanently recording it on film.

……

The next day was also quite busy, as they really began distributing fish soup.

For two consecutive days, the almsgiving had drawn crowds from the streets; many people from neighboring villages had come upon hearing the fame of their generosity. The influence of theQingying Gazettehad reached an unprecedented level. Throughout the day, the residents of the Qingying Commune were all busy.

As a Fogfolk, Yang Zicang did not appear at the actual scene. He went to investigate the route taken by the journalist Jean Conrad.

The sky was already getting late, around six o’clock.

“Found you. ” A faint voice spoke solemnly.

Yang Zicang, having returned to the storeroom, was instantly covered in a layer of illusory flames. The air behind him shimmered subtly as he looked at the two men with an unusual aura before him.

One of them was wearing a Ternaxian naval uniform, while the other was dressed like a wealthy merchant.

“To have survived a ‘Blood Demon shell,’ Your Excellency’s abilities are no longer something an ordinary Fogfolk could achieve, ” said the man with the square face.

The square-faced man, dressed as a merchant, took off his hat and placed it on his chest with a slight bow.

“Mr. Yang Bucheng, I am Bai Yuxian. My grandfather was a Fogfolk. “

Yang Zicang’s gaze paused on his face, then glanced at the pitch-black interior of the room.

“What happened to the people inside?“

The room was eerily silent, save for the crackling basin of glowing coals.

Bai Yuxian strolled two steps with a composed expression. In his pupils, three faint halos flickered to life, then died down, making him seem like an ordinary man.

It was a silent threat.

“No issue at all, sir. They’re merely asleep for the moment. If you catch a whiff of something, don’t worry—it’s just some aid for sleeping. Our own blend of herbal powder.“

“Oh? Huh.” Yang Zicang sidestepped, silently eying the two men. In his mind, he was already simulating combat, calculating how to protect those asleep in the room first and foremost.

｛I begin to emanate the Musing Night…｝

“No side effects whatsoever,” the other continued. “It can even solve chronic insomnia.“

Yang Zicang sniffed the faint, clover-like scent, his vigilance sharpened to its peak. If it wasn’t poison—incapable of damaging the body—then it might bypass the augmented defenses of the timeline and induce sleep in him as well.