WangXian Forever Book 10

Chapter 50: Papers

A few seconds later, Zago appears sucking on a red lollipop, and her arms laden with papers. At first, it just looks like a pile, one on top of the other, but she's actually cross-piled it by separating them with her own system.

Wei Ying always forgets how tall she is, at least a whole head taller than Hui Gai, and he's not short.

Anxiety ripples through the people gathered here, and now the room feels a little cramped. Ten people are crowded around the little table, and Huaisang moves the cups and the teapot out of the way to make room for her.

Hao Bai spent quite a bit of time with Zago sorting through the papers her husband had left in the huge trunks in his office, and she smiles now, if a little fearfully. Her trepidation comes from a huge amount of respect for the She-Demon, learning a little about her life from the things she said, and being proved wrong; Hao Bai thought Zago wouldn't take her task seriously enough and might even give up, but Zago has been working nonstop for the past three days. Zago even explained to her that demons did not need to eat or sleep. They took pleasure in these activities, but they were not strictly necessary.

Hao Bai also had a huge amount of respect for the two cultivating immortals in this room. Wei Ying and Lan Zhan had surprised her at every step, and she was eternally grateful for their assistance. Without their help, there was no way that Huaisang could have managed to do what they've done and in such a short time span. Maybe they are finally going to get some answers now.

"That's a lot of information," Wei Ying says, as Zago plants a ream of papers in his lap.

"This is all that I found about the flooding down South," Zago replies with a shrewd look in her eyes. "Read it."

"All of it?" Wei Ying grins sheepishly, putting out all of his charm. "Or, or, you could just tell me, right? You know I trust you just the same as Hui Gai!"

"Mn. We do not have the luxury of time." Lan Zhan says, letting his arm wrap around Wei Ying's waist and pulling him not subtly closer.

"Fiiinnne!" Zago puts a single sheet of paper in his waiting hand.

Wei Ying high fives her and begins reading aloud.

"The Yangtze River is the longest river in South China. It is seven thousand, six hundred and li long, and most of it extends from one end to the other, from East to West. But there's a town called Dali in the south where a dam was built fifty years ago. That's where the flooding has done the greatest damage." Wei Ying looks up thoughtfully. "Do you guys think something happened to the dam?"

"We can't know unless someone goes there," Hao Bai says. She means it flippantly, as though that is obvious, but Zago says, "good idea!" And she vanishes, just like that.

"Wow...I guess I'll have to really read this, then," Wei Ying looks mournfully at the papers.

"We can all help," Huaisang suddenly offers, and the piles of papers are divided between nine people.

They find out that heavy rains had caused the river to swell and that put too much pressure on the dam, causing it to burst and flooding all the nearby villages. Many people died since it happened at night, and though people were evacuated from the area, it caused many other problems. The river water was polluted and made whoever drank from it ill, and there was widespread dysentery and yellow fever.

That is the sum of all they find out by the end of the day.

Everyone is tired and hungry and so they decide to take a break for dinner. XiChen explains that he has arranged for the meal to be delivered here and he elects to stay with Nie Huaisang and the Cheng family.