Chapter 109: Touch the Heart

The southern border of the Northlands used to be pretty close to the Demon Terrace. But after the northern expedition of the demon master tribe, Northlands pushed its border south by an additional hundred miles. The court was unable to stop their advancement, and civilians along the way welcomed them.

After that, they built a heavily guarded wall that stretched from east to west, with a total of twelve gates evenly spaced apart. It served as a first line of defense against enemy attacks. Unexpectedly, its first use turned out to be defending the city against an influx of refugees.

Shunde killed her brother, made herself emperor, and the court fell into disarray. The country was now in chaos where the strong preyed on the weak and everyone was out for themselves. Within the great kingdom of Dacheng, only the desolate north provided relief to the common folks.

Ji Yunhe brought her men to the far eastern gate. This was where the most refugees had gathered, so it was given a priority for setting up a boundary in order to help them sort through people and fend off riots. The situation at the border was even more dire than Ji Yunhe imagined.

After they set up the boundary, she walked through the masses of refugees outside the pass. The people here had set up countless tents of various shapes and styles. The only thing they had in common was that they were all ragged.

The children did not know stress and ran around playing amongst the haphazard tents, while the adults sat around in gloom. Many people suffered from diseases and coughs could be heard everywhere. After walking outside the pass for half a day, Ji Yunhe felt extremely grave. Changyi knew better than anyone else how many people could be supported in the city.

Allowing five hundred people to enter each gate every day was a maximum limit, maybe even exceeding it a bit. And just this location alone had over a thousand people arriving each day, taking in half of them would not solve the growing problem at all. The population would keep building outside the gate, making the situation worse and worse. They had set up a lottery system to decide who gets to enter the gate for the day.

Unfortunately, fights often broke out over the lucky red sticks that granted a pass, sometimes ending in people getting killed. Many also forged red sticks and scammed others out of the only food left in their hands. What's more, organizations had formed where they sold the red sticks instead of using them to enter the city.

They charged outrageous high prices, asking for gold, silver, food, and even human organs. Ji Yunhe was appalled by what she was seeing.

"Extraordinary situation, extraordinary means." After Ji Yunhe returned to the post, she made her decision and issued an order.

"Whoever caught sucking blood and adding to the chaos, get rid of them."

The first night at the border, Ji Yunhe did not sleep. She laid on the roof of a simple wooden post station and looked at the moon and stars. She could not make sense of how the world had fallen into such a mess. And she wondered if Changyi was able to sleep well in the city tonight...

She closed her eyes and activated the mark on her ear, but the other end of the link felt very close to her. She immediately sat up and looked down. A silver haired man in black was standing right under the roof. Who else could it be but Changyi. Seeing the man she was just thinking about, Ji Yunhe's heart fluttered.

"Big-tailed fish..."

Changyi looked up at her. Although his face was still pale and his breath formed puffs of white air, his eyes were as warm as the sun.

"I missed you," he said with a low and magnetic voice. "Had to come."

Six words that tugged at her heartstrings. She jumped off the roof without saying anything and gave him a giant hug. Face to face and heart to heart, they both closed their eyes.

Changyi's body was cold, while Ji Yunhe was burning hot. They supplemented and completed each other so perfectly.

"I'm so different from before." She took a deep breath in his arms.

"I used to desperately try to escape from all ties and just wanted to be alone, but now, I couldn't even bear to stay away from you for a day…" Ji Yunhe pulled back a little so she could look at his face.

"Changyi, you're really something special. You make me want to be tied down."