The next dawn arrived with a thick mist that enveloped the terraced city, as if nature itself were providing cover for the activity that was about to begin. Li Yuan woke up before sunrise, his face still maintaining the cold tranquility from yesterday, but there was a sense of purpose that flowed through every movement.
Through the small radius of his Wenjing Realm, Li Yuan could feel the intentions of the people who were involved in the meeting the night before. There was a natural nervousness, but also a hardened determination—they had made a decision and were now committed to following through.
Li Yuan went down to the common folk level before normal activity began. The streets were still quiet, with only early workers moving about for their morning duties. It was the perfect timing for what needed to be done.
At Mei's stall, he found that the woman was already up and preparing soup for the day—but today there was a difference. Instead of a watery broth with minimal ingredients, she was preparing something that was much more nutritious, with fresh vegetables and even small pieces of meat.
"Where did you get the better ingredients?" Li Yuan asked.
Mei smiled—the first genuine smile he had seen from the woman. "Uncle Wu has a connection with a farmer who grows vegetables for the upper levels. But that farmer—Zhou—his own family also struggles with malnutrition because he has to sell all his best produce to the noble kitchens at prices that are barely sustainable."
Mei continued stirring the soup with movements that were more confident. "So Zhou and I made an arrangement: he provides fresh vegetables for the community kitchens, and we organize people to help with the harvest work during busy seasons. A fair trade, without noble intermediaries who take a large percentage."
Li Yuan nodded with a cold but satisfied approval. "Mutual aid in practice. How many people are involved in this arrangement?"
"Ten families so far. A small start, but..." Mei gestured to the pot of nutritious soup, "the children will eat properly today."
Li Yuan spent the morning moving through the common folk level, observing the implementation of the strategies they had discussed the night before. What he saw made something warm spread in his chest, despite his cold exterior expression.
In a small textile workshop, Ling organized a group of women to create clothes for the local children—not luxury fabrics for the nobles, but practical, warm clothing for the families who needed it. The materials came from pooling resources and trading services.
In a quiet corner, Uncle Wu established a small school in a makeshift classroom—teaching basic reading and writing to children whose parents normally couldn't afford an education. The books were smuggled from the upper levels by the clerk with ink-stained hands, whose name, it turned out, was Master Feng.
Networks are forming, Li Yuan observed with satisfaction. People are discovering that cooperation produces better results than isolation and competition for scraps.
But he also noticed something else: this activity was not going unnoticed. Through his Wenjing Realm, Li Yuan could hear the intentions of several people who were clearly in a surveillance role. The kingdom's security apparatus was already noting changes in behavior patterns.
Around midday, Li Yuan's suspicions were confirmed when a group of six guards descended from the upper level to the area where the mutual aid activities were taking place. Their leader was a Sergeant whom Li Yuan didn't recognize—an older man with a face that was hardened by years of enforcing harsh rules.
The guards approached Uncle Wu's makeshift school first. The children who were learning to write scattered in fear, hiding behind crates and boxes.
"What's happening here?" the Sergeant demanded in a voice that carried authority and an implied threat.
Uncle Wu stood up slowly, his dignity intact despite his obvious fear. "Teaching children to read, Sergeant. Nothing more."
"Teaching?" The Sergeant looked around the improvised classroom with disdain. "Do you have authorization for educational activities? Permits for gathering groups? Certification as an instructor?"
Through his Wenjing Realm, Li Yuan heard the Sergeant's intention: enforcement duty mixed with personal satisfaction in wielding power over helpless people. This was a man who enjoyed crushing the spirits of those weaker than himself.
"Sergeant," Uncle Wu said with careful respect, "children deserve to learn basic skills. Reading, writing—these help them become better workers, better citizens."
"Better workers?" The Sergeant laughed with a harsh sound. "Common folk who get ideas above their station become problems, old man. Your job is to produce labor, not to think."
Li Yuan emerged from the shadows where he had been watching. The guards' attention immediately shifted to him—a stranger in a situation that was already suspicious.
"And who are you?" the Sergeant demanded.
"Li Yuan. Merchant class, temporary resident." Li Yuan's voice was level and calm, but there was an underlying coldness that made several guards shift uncomfortably.
"The merchant class does not belong in the common folk area without a business purpose," the Sergeant said. "What is your business here?"
Li Yuan looked around the area—at the children hiding in fear, at Uncle Wu maintaining his dignity under a threat, at the evidence of community cooperation that was threatening the established order.
"Observation," Li Yuan answered simply.
"Observation of what?"
Li Yuan's expression remained perfectly controlled, but there was something in his gray eyes that made the Sergeant take an involuntary step backward.
"Observation of how a system operates. How power is used. How fear is employed to suppress human development."
Silence fell over the area. The guards sensed that the situation had shifted in a way they didn't understand, but the threat level had somehow increased dramatically.
The Sergeant tried to reassert his authority. "You're interfering with a legitimate enforcement action. Unauthorized educational activity is a violation—"
"Sergeant," Li Yuan interrupted in a voice that was quiet but carried a weight that made everyone present stop moving.
"Yes?"
Li Yuan took a step forward, and his presence seemed to expand subtly, creating a sense that the guards were facing something far more significant than a random merchant.
"These children you are frightening—what threat do they pose to the kingdom? What danger comes from teaching a child to write their name?"
"It's not about—"
"It's about control," Li Yuan continued with relentless precision. "It's about maintaining a system where people are kept ignorant, dependent, and afraid. A system where knowledge is hoarded for the benefit of a few at the expense of many."
Li Yuan's voice remained calm, but there was an edge to it now that cut like a blade.
"But systems like this, Sergeant, depend on people in enforcement roles being willing to crush the spirits of their own neighbors, their own community. Systems like this depend on people like you choosing the orders of distant nobles over the welfare of the children who live next door to your family."
The Sergeant's face flushed red. "How dare you—"
"I dare because there are moments when moral clarity requires someone to speak the truth, regardless of the consequences," Li Yuan answered with an absolute coldness.
Li Yuan looked at each guard in turn, and through his Wenjing Realm, he could hear a shifting in their intentions. Several were having doubts about what they were doing—suppressing education for children in their own community.
"Guards," Li Yuan said, addressing the group directly, "look around. Really look. These are not criminals or revolutionaries. These are neighbors trying to give their children basic skills. These are people trying to help each other survive in a system that is designed to keep them desperate."
Li Yuan paused, letting the words sink in.
"And you have been asked to enforce desperation. You have been asked to ensure that children remain ignorant, that families remain isolated, that hope remains crushed."
The Sergeant, feeling control of the situation slipping away, reached for the weapon on his belt.
"That's enough. You are under arrest for—"
What happened next was something that none of the guards expected.
Li Yuan did not move aggressively. He didn't raise his voice or make threatening gestures. Instead, he simply looked at the Sergeant with an expression of complete calmness mixed with something that made the man's hand freeze on the weapon handle.
The presence that Li Yuan had been carefully controlling suddenly expanded outward—not dramatically, but unmistakably. The atmosphere in the area became heavy with a sense of vast authority, of an experience that stretched far beyond anything a normal human could possess.
The guards felt it immediately: an overwhelming sense that they were not just facing a merchant or a community organizer, but someone or something that operated on a completely different level from anyone they had ever encountered.
"Sergeant," Li Yuan said in a voice that now carried an undertone of finality, "I suggest you reconsider your course of action."
"What... what are you?" one of the younger guards whispered.
Li Yuan ignored the question, keeping his focus on the Sergeant who was still frozen with his hand on the weapon.
"You have a choice to make. Continue to enforce a system that crushes innocent people, including children in your own community. Or walk away and let people help each other without interference."
Li Yuan stepped closer, and with each step, the sense of his overwhelming presence grew stronger.
"Choose wisely, Sergeant. Because after today, everyone in this kingdom will remember what choice you made when faced with a clear moral decision."
The Sergeant stared at Li Yuan for a long moment, his hand trembling on the weapon. Through his Wenjing Realm, Li Yuan could hear complete turmoil in the man's intention—duty warring with fear, loyalty to the system conflicting with a recognition that the system was fundamentally wrong.
Finally, with a movement that seemed to cost him great effort, the Sergeant released his weapon and stepped back.
"This... this isn't over," he managed to say.
"No," agreed Li Yuan with a final coldness. "It isn't. But next time, consider carefully whether the cause you serve is worth the cost to your soul."
The guards retreated toward the upper level, leaving the community in stunned silence.
Uncle Wu was the first to speak: "Sir, what you just did... there will be consequences."
Li Yuan turned to the elderly man with an expression that was calm but resolute.
"Yes, there will be consequences. The system will try to reassert control through greater force. But today, people saw that resistance is possible. Today, children learned that knowledge is power, and power can stand up for itself."
Li Yuan looked around the area—at the children slowly emerging from hiding, at the adults straightening with renewed pride, at the evidence of community cooperation continuing despite the intimidation.
"The network you are building, Uncle Wu—make it stronger. Make it more extensive. Because the challenge will come, and survival depends on people standing together."
Li Yuan began to walk away, but paused to add one final thought:
"And remember—every person in the enforcement apparatus lives in a community too. Many of them have families who suffer under the same system. Some can be turned, others cannot. Learn to tell the difference."
As Li Yuan left the common folk level, returning to the inn, he carried with him a cold but deep satisfaction. The first step had been taken. The community was organizing. Fear was being replaced with hope.
But he also carried the knowledge that retaliation was inevitable. A system that is threatened will not respond with restraint.
Tomorrow, he thought with an expression that remained perfectly controlled, we will see how committed the kingdom's leadership truly is to maintaining power through cruelty. And they will discover how committed I am to protecting people who cannot protect themselves.
The balance of power in this kingdom is about to shift. The question now is how much force those in control are willing to use to prevent that shift.
And how much force I am willing to use to ensure that innocent people are not crushed in the process.