After all, Old Xi Zhang has been doing this for so many years. There are a lot of things that even the local Scorching Sun Department members might not know as well as he does.

At the very least, Old Xi Zhang knows who to find if he wants to ask about something. And even if those people don't know, they can keep finding someone else.

It took just over a day for Old Xi Zhang to call Wen Yan. Then, on the very day he was discharged from the hospital, he drove his pickup and took Wen Yan all the way to a nearby village.

The mountains and waters here are beautiful, the village is built along the river, and in that little river just a few meters wide, you can still see fish swimming.

When they arrived, there were already several elders sitting under the big banyan tree at the village entrance. Old Xi Zhang went up and exchanged a few pleasantries in the local dialect, then quickly got to the point.

One of the elders here, just ninety years old, was an old worker who took part in the construction and planning decades ago.

The old man recounted past events, and Wen Yan quietly listened by his side.

In the beginning, Virtue City was just a small town under Wei State, right next to the West River. Everyone lived off the West River.

The reason it could develop back then was because it was a transportation hub, and the river was gentle here, with a ready-made riverside dock.

Decades ago, the embankment wasn't nearly as high as it is now. When there were several days of heavy rain upstream, they'd have to notify the downstream to beware of floods.

Back then, the road network wasn't well-developed, so this place counted as the distribution center for goods in the area. At that time, shipping by river was much more cost-effective than by land, and you could carry more cargo.

In the beginning, because of water management, more and more people started coming through here.

Besides the people making a living on the water, people from nearby gathered here in increasing numbers, and gradually the place developed.

More people led to more construction, and since the city bordered the West River to the south, it could only expand northward.

Then, during that expansion, a lot of old buildings were torn down if they could be. The more important ones were either left in place or dismantled and rebuilt elsewhere just as they were.

Virtue City's Confucius Temple was kept precisely because it was well-preserved and maintained, so it was left alone that time and is still here today.

But there were even more old buildings, long since dilapidated and in ruins, which were simply torn down.

Among them were the buildings originally behind the Stone Archway.

According to this old man, decades ago there were still some broken walls and remnants behind the Stone Archway. Anything of value was long gone, nobody knows where the main beams went. That kind of old timber would probably be worth a fortune today.

At the time of the planning, actually, the plan was to tear down the Stone Archway as well.

But an old man, already in his nineties back then, showed up. They say he was a scholar from the previous century. He said this archway was the Zhenjiang Archway, bestowed by Dragon Mother, to protect the area from flooding.

The old man was reasonable, thought that the government plan was a good thing for the country and the people, and moving it was fine. But he said, this sin must not be borne by the hardworking laborers.

So, all of you stand aside. The old man said he would smash his head and die there, to pay for the sin, then you could tear it down.

He had obviously come to stop them, but once he said this, and really acted like he was about to kill himself there, who would dare?

If anyone let a ninety-something elder, highly respected in the community, die because of this, their own furious clansmen would beat them to death on the spot.

Plus, after these words, who would dare even touch that Stone Archway.

Around here, if you're believed to have broken a family's feng shui, that's a deadly feud. If you mess up the feng shui of a whole city, all I'll say is, better not sleep too soundly at night.

Villages brawling with weapons would be the standard outcome.

And decades ago, the people here were fierce, full of martial spirit. When two villages fought, they had enough arms to wage a small-scale war. There are real cases of this.

For one Stone Archway, it wasn't worth it.

In the end, a higher-up came and told the planning bureau to tweak the plan a bit, so that the Stone Archway would end up right at a crossroads, so they didn't need to move it at all. It stayed where it always was, no trouble caused.

And so we come to today. The old wasteland has already become the center of the city.

This ninety-year-old elder firmly believes in the words he heard when he was young, and still thanks the old scholar who stood up for them all those years ago.

He was so frightened back then. At night, he secretly came and knelt in front of the Stone Archway, promising to visit the Dragon Mother Temple every year, and to get someone to sweep and clean it every year.

The old timer still remembers it to this day, remembers his old promise.

Now he's old, legs and feet no longer working, moved back to the village to retire. His son, already seventy, passed away before him. The grandchildren think the old man is superstitious, and don't care about going to sweep the place every year at all.

So, when he heard someone was asking about it, he hurried to call them over—most importantly, to find someone sincere to continue the cleaning that's gone on for decades.

After hearing all this, Wen Yan repeatedly promised.

"Don't worry, sir, I promise there will be people to clean it every year from now on."

"People without sincerity aren't any good," the old man insisted stubbornly, reaching to grab Wen Yan's hand.

Wen Yan was slightly taken aback, feeling the elder's cold hand, and solemnly nodded.

"I'll do it myself, until I find someone I feel is more suitable to take over. Does that sound acceptable to you?"

Silently, Wen Yan summoned the Scorching Sun, warm Yang energy blossoming on him.

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