As soon as Ji Jinyu spoke these words, everyone in the room turned to look at her.
Ji Shan, who had been holding back for a long time, finally couldn’t restrain himself and asked, “Why on earth should we move? And where would we go?”
Ji Shan was someone who commanded authority outside, but in front of his wife and daughter, he could only rank last.
“Fuzhou.” This was the first place name that surfaced in Ji Jinyu’s mind.
She remembered clearly that in the twenty-fifth year of Wencheng, two years from now, both Fuzhou and Haizhou would prosper immensely from maritime trade.
Since they had to leave, of course they should go to a place that was both prosperous and safe.
Ji Shan looked at his daughter, who seemed to have taken the wrong medicine today, and asked in confusion, “Why on earth should we move to Fuzhou? Fuzhou is over a thousand miles away from our Cuiyang City, and we don’t know anyone there…”
“Father, do you trust me?”
Ji Shan looked at his usually strong-willed daughter, who suddenly had tears in her eyes as she gazed at him, and sighed. “Your mother and I only have you as our daughter. If we don’t trust you, who else can we trust?”
Ji Jinyu took a deep breath and said to the twins behind her, “A-Ming, A-Jun, go lock the courtyard gate.”
When Ji Yingcai heard this, thinking of his mother’s actions today, his expression instantly turned grave.
Something major must be about to happen—something that concerned the life and death of the entire family. Otherwise, his mother wouldn’t have acted so unusually today.
After the main gate of the house was closed, Ji Yingcai also shut the door to the main hall as his younger siblings entered.
Ji Jinyu glanced at her ever-pragmatic second son and said, “A few days ago, while delivering goods, I met a merchant caravan from the upper reaches of the Huangshi River. They said the dam upstream has already collapsed twice.”
Hearing this, Ji Yingcai frowned and said, “But isn’t His Highness the Crown Prince currently repairing the dam upstream? How could…”
His voice trailed off under Ji Jinyu’s displeased gaze. Fine, he’d let his mother speak.
Ji Jinyu recalled the rumors from her previous life that the Crown Prince, due to poor supervision, had caused the Huangshi River dam to collapse and, out of guilt, drowned himself in the river. She didn’t quite believe it.
These nobles might feel remorse, but they would never drown themselves over such a thing. Ji Jinyu suspected the Crown Prince might have been pushed.
“If someone disliked him and wanted to kill him…”
“Mother!” Ji Yingming couldn’t help but interject.
Although Ji Yingming was young, he had passed the imperial examination at the age of thirteen and thus carried significant weight in the family.
Or rather, in her previous life, Ji Jinyu had listened most to two people: her eldest son, Dou Yingliang, and her youngest son, Ji Yingming.
Ji Yingcai also whispered a reminder, “Mother, such treasonous words must not be spoken carelessly.”
If word got out, it would mean execution for the entire family.
Although Ji Jinyu was the undisputed authority at home, she wasn’t entirely unreceptive to others’ opinions, especially when they benefited the family.
She lowered her voice and said, “Anyway, from what I heard, the dam hasn’t been properly repaired. And with the rainy season approaching, the old farmers in the village all say this year’s rainfall is unusually heavy. I’m afraid there might be a flood this year.”
At the mention of floods, Wang Sijin’s face instantly turned pale.
When Wang Sijin was young, her family had lived along the upper reaches of the Huangshi River.
If not for that year of relentless rain, when the embankments collapsed and floods ravaged the land, she would never have followed her family in leaving their homeland, only to become separated from them during the escape, ending up alone in Cuiyang City.
For a woman alone in the world, survival was incredibly difficult. Fortunately, she met Ji Shan during that time and married him.
However, Wang Sijin’s body had been damaged by the floodwaters, so despite being married to Ji Shan for so many years, they only had one child—Ji Jinyu.
Ji Shan looked at his wife’s pale face, furrowed his brow, and said to Ji Jinyu, “Are you sure you didn’t mishear?”
“Father, it’s not even June yet. Don’t you think this year’s rainfall is absurdly excessive?”
After Ji Jinyu said this, Ji Shan’s expression darkened completely.
This year’s rainfall was indeed absurdly excessive. Many fields in the countryside had already been flooded. If this continued, a disaster was certain.
But…
“We’re not exactly in the direct downstream path of the Yellowstone River.”
Ji Shan meant that even if a disaster occurred, it wouldn’t threaten the survival of their family.
Moreover, Ji Shan truly didn’t want to leave his homeland, and no one would willingly do so, especially when they were doing well there.
Ji Jinyu looked at her father and asked, “Are you willing to gamble the lives of our entire family on this possibility?”
Wang Sijin’s heart had been pounding ever since her daughter mentioned the Yellowstone River’s upstream embankment collapsing twice.
Now, looking at her husband, her voice trembling uncontrollably, she said, “Dashan, summer is about to begin. If the embankments on the Yellowstone River hold, even with continuous heavy rain this year, at most, grain prices will soar. We can tighten our belts and survive.”
“But if the embankments collapse,” Wang Sijin’s body shook, “once they breach, floods will inevitably follow. Especially with the river channel being widened over the years, the death toll downstream will surely be higher than it was decades ago.”
After decades of development, more and more people had settled and thrived in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellowstone River, far surpassing the numbers from decades ago.
Back then, the flood had reached Cuiyang City. This time, it would undoubtedly affect Cuiyang City, and the suffering would be even greater.
“And there’s a chance it could trigger a plague,” Yu Huilan, who had been holding her child and hadn’t spoken much, added after her mother-in-law finished speaking.
That single sentence sent chills down everyone’s spines.
As everyone turned to look at her, Yu Huilan explained, “I heard my father talk about the flood decades ago. It happened in late autumn when the weather was turning cold. Although the disaster area was vast, no plague broke out.”
“But if it happens at the beginning of summer this time, a natural disaster will surely be followed by a man-made calamity.” As she spoke, Yu Huilan unconsciously tightened her grip on her daughter.
Ji Jinyu looked at Yu Huilan, who had spoken these words, and said, “Huilan’s father is a physician. What he says must be true, and besides…”
Ji Jinyu fell silent for a moment before looking up at her family and saying, “While I was delirious with fever, I had a nightmare.”
“In my dream this year, torrential rains never ceased. The Huangshi River embankment collapsed, floods surged, and the towns and villages downstream were instantly wiped out. The water’s surface was covered with the bodies of people and livestock.” Recalling the natural and man-made disasters she had experienced in her previous life, Ji Jinyu said sorrowfully, “It was already a living hell.”
“When the sun finally emerged, the survivors thought they were saved at last, but what awaited them was a fierce plague and abandonment by the authorities. In the end, whether alive or dead, everyone was thrown into a massive pit and burned.”
The flames consumed those who were not yet dead, and the agonized screams seemed to echo in Ji Jinyu’s ears once more. She covered her ears, but her mouth spoke, “I don’t want to gamble on this, so we must move.”