pertwk Chapter 1621 The Lady by the Stream
Chapter 1621 The Lady by the Stream
Chapter 1621 The Lady by the Stream
Zhao Song didn't know where Island Master He got the confidence from, as he dared to let everyone eat and drink as much as they wanted at this time.
But doing so was truly a righteous act, and the palace guards' thumbs almost broke when they mentioned Island Master He.
Only by comparison can you understand the difference. Compared with the bustling Tianshui City, the current Yongquan Villa is simply as beautiful as a paradise.
……
Taoxi, western suburbs of Yongquan Villa.
The gurgling brook ignores the sadness of the world.
Dong Rui had a decisive battle with Honglu's owner Cao Wenda here a few days ago, and the big hole in the ground caused by the explosion has not been smoothed out.
The government had originally used powder to fill the ground and buried the giant fish that was killed by the explosion, but someone dug up the ground again, revealing the fish carcass.
Fortunately, the weather was cold and the corpse of the demon puppet decayed slowly, so there was no stench.
So there was a large area of loose soil on the ground, and the surrounding broken trees remained in their original state.
He Lingchuan walked closer in the moonlight and called out twice in a low voice: "Auntie, Auntie!"
He was a little worried because there were two new signs of campfires by the stream. He leaned over to break off a half-burned piece of wood and found that the cut was still a little moist.
"Why do you have to act like a thief?"
A voice sounded, very close. He Lingchuan turned around in surprise, only to find that a dead tree in the woods about ten feet away had moved.
As it moved, its color also changed, and it took two steps towards him.
Aunt Zhu.
He Lingchuan gave it a thumbs up: "Auntie, your color-changing skills are getting more and more sophisticated."
"Hmm." Aunt Zhu's figure was smaller than when she was in the Yangshan Islands. "Where's my wine?"
Aunt Zhu has been hanging around Yongquan Villa. She can fast for a month after a full meal and does not need to hunt frequently. She usually finds a cave to hide and sleep. She has the magical power to conceal herself, so almost no one can discover her whereabouts.
But it likes to drink, and every few days, Dong Rui has to bring it wine. Now that Dong Rui has left, the job of delivering wine falls to He Lingchuan.
The eldest and second aunts have very different personalities, but they both like good wine.
He Lingchuan took out some good wine from his storage ring and placed it on the ground one jar after another, a total of six jars: "I don't know which owner of Yongquan Villa brewed this apricot wine, but I'm not taking it away anyway, so I might as well drink it all up."
The job of delivering wine could have been handed over to his subordinates Wanqi Feng and others, but He Lingchuan felt that no matter how busy he was, he had to personally go to the old lady to have a drink and chat. After all, this big monster followed him all the way from the Yangshan Islands to Yao Country just to protect him, and his heart was admirable.
He broke the mud seal on the wine jar and scooped out the wine in a bowl, the aroma filling the air.
Aunt Zhu simply stretched out her mouthparts, pierced through the mud seal, and started drinking happily.
"Not bad, gulp, gulp, this wine is good." The old lady asked him as she drank, "How did you get rid of those followers when you came here?"
Dong Rui took the snail toad away, and He Lingchuan had no tools to escape underground. Although Aunt Zhu put an eyeball spider on He Lingchuan, this little thing also needs to take a nap occasionally and will not be connected all the time.
After all, this also consumes spiritual energy.
He Lingchuan smiled mysteriously: "The hermit has his own ingenious plan."
Zhao Song and other palace guards thought that he was staying in Yongquan Villa, in his own yard.
Aunt Zhu didn't ask any more questions. When the kid goes back, she will just use the eye spider to take a look and she'll understand, right?
He Lingchuan pointed at the bonfire on the ground and asked, "Who left it?"
"Refugees. There are so many refugees running out of the city recently!" Aunt Zhu said, "I was sleeping in the woods, and six or seven refugees came over. I don't know where they found a shovel and started digging the soil. Then they cut the remains of the bream into pieces and roasted them to eat."
It paused and said, "They came into the woods to collect firewood and almost came to tear out my leg hair."
Aunt Zhu disguised herself as a dead tree, and did not move when refugees came. When people came to pick up branches, they almost fell on it.
He Lingchuan laughed: "These little geniuses."
Yes, the refugees were all hungry, so someone thought of a huge dead fish by the Tao River, which had only been dead for a few days.
It's freezing cold, so people would dare to eat dead fish even if they've been dead for two weeks, not to mention a few days.
I'm almost starving, why am I still picky about food? With the size of this flipper, it can easily feed a hundred people.
"What these people felt was nothing more than the daily life of ordinary people who made a fortune, and they couldn't stand it." Aunt Zhu said lightly, "But not long after they finished eating, they covered their stomachs and cried out in pain, and then they died."
"..." The old lady spoke briefly as always, "The demon puppet is made of divine blood. If an ordinary person eats it, there will be no good end. What about them?"
"I threw it away." After drinking the first jar of wine too quickly, Aunt Zhu began to savor the second jar carefully. "The dead body is an eyesore."
"Has Ashmona shown up in the last few days?"
"No." Aunt Zhu said without raising her head. "I have placed some spies around Youhu Lake and Yongquan Villa, in the dark forests and hills, but I haven't found any trace of it."
The government has not received any relevant information, which shows that this monster is quite secretive.
"However, when I was strolling in the south of the city, I found an empty camp. Judging from the marks on the ground, there may have been many people resting there, but there was no living creature at that time. Several carriages were damaged and thrown aside. The horses pulling the carriages had only a few hooves left, and the ground was covered with blood."
He Lingchuan took a sip of wine and said, "Do you think it was Ashmona who did it?"
"When it ate Dong Rui's No. 66, it swallowed it whole, which shows that it likes to eat this way. That's why all the living people in the camp disappeared." Aunt Zhu analyzed, "The horse is relatively large, and it can't swallow it in one bite, so it can only eat it in pieces. Although this is a clay demon puppet, I can feel its desire for flesh and blood."
"Several people and horses, its appetite is really big." He Lingchuan pondered, "Could it be that it is still thinking about me?"
He is Cao Wendao's mission target.
"Not really." Aunt Zhu explained, "Dong Rui told me that he hated Cao Wendao and everything Cao Wendao forced him to do. So after he was free, he first stayed away from you and Yongquan Villa."
"That's good. I really haven't had much time to worry about this lately."
Aunt Zhu asked: "Where did Dong Rui go?"
Its eye spider has a limited range, and if Dong Rui goes too far, he will lose contact.
"From what I know about him, he should be close to the border now." Snail Toad had a broken leg and Dong Rui had a shoulder injury, but Ghost Ape was still fine, and there was also a flying bat demon puppet. Their speed was still much faster than that of ordinary people. "Maybe he has already headed straight for Honglu."
The Honglu contains research materials of Cao Wendao and his subordinates, and perhaps even experimental subjects. Dong Rui hopes that these will be helpful to his research on demon puppets, and he also hopes to peek into the secrets of the Heavenly Palace from them.
This guy is very slippery, so He Lingchuan doesn't need to worry about his safety.
"Have any unusual people come to see Qingyang these past two days?"
"No, she had no visitors."
He Lingchuan nodded. Ever since he was targeted by Honglu, and with the body of the flipping bream as evidence, King Yao has stepped up his surveillance of Qingyang. Even Yuwenxu mentioned during a drink with He Lingchuan that all officials who had been in contact with Qingyang in the past few months were summoned for strict scrutiny!
As soon as the name was mentioned, He Lingchuan suddenly understood.
No wonder so many officials committed suicide; it turns out this is the root of the problem.
This was unimaginable last autumn. At that time, Qingyang was still wielding the stick of denunciation, pointing at anyone who panicked, even Xue Zongwu was uneasy, and King Yao did not dare to be so rude to her.
Ever since the construction of Youhu Villa and the start of the Tianshui Eastward Expansion Project, her authority and reputation have plummeted. King Yao has gradually gained the upper hand and has won over most of the officials to his side.
At least that's how it looks on the surface.
"King Yao should have been alerted, so Qingyang sped up his actions." He Lingchuan shook the wine in the bowl lightly, "The recent refugee riots were the work of Qingyang and his gang. King Yao probably guessed it, but he just couldn't find the evidence."
King Yao has arrested many officials recently, but he didn't know that Qingyang's accomplices were hiding among his "own people".
Aunt Zhu asked casually, "Why is it that the famine and riots in Tianshui City over the past ten days have become more severe the more we suppress them?"
"Is it strange?" He Lingchuan took a sip of bayberry wine. "If the famine is not handled properly, it will inevitably lead to riots. Wasn't it the same in Yuan Country in the past? Hong Xiangqian revolted... Oh, you haven't been to Yuan Country, so you don't know these things."
If there had been no famine, the Hong Xiangqian uprising would not have broken out in Yuan State, state officials such as Nian Zanli would not have rebelled, Sun Fuping and Nian Songyu would not have gone to Panlong Desert to seize the Dafanghu, and He Lingchuan would probably still be a playboy in Blackwater City, right?
"A disturbance can often trigger countless causes and effects."
Aunt Zhu asked curiously, "The Yao Kingdom has been in existence for nearly 200 years. It's impossible that it has never encountered a famine, right?"
No experience accumulated?
"This time the situation is special." He Lingchuan took out a peach and washed it in the stream. There are five varieties of peaches in Yongquan Villa. This one is called Dragon Blood Peach. It is small but bright red like blood. It is very soft and sticky when you bite it.
There are still fruits to eat during famine, and these peaches taste doubly sweet.
He waved the peach across the street, but Aunt Zhu didn't want it. She only ate the gravy and at most drank a little wine.
"Yao country used to have a rich people's life and developed economy and trade, or in other words, it had a lot of wealth. Here, food shortage does not mean famine." He Lingchuan took a bite of peach, "According to the history of Tianshui City, Yao country also encountered a sharp rise in food prices forty years ago. The price of rice and flour rose to thirty-five coins per catty. Although it is not as high as fifty coins today, it is indeed not low. At that time, the Yao people complained a lot, but it was not to the point where people could not make a living."
"This period of high tension lasted about three or four months, and then slowly subsided. There were conflicts and frictions between officials and the public in a few places, but they did not lead to greater unrest."
"Yes, it was thirty-five cents forty years ago, so why can't it be fifty cents now?" Aunt Zhu still didn't understand the human world very well.
"There are many differences. At that time, the price of grain was only 35 wen at most. Now it has just entered the climbing period. Everyone can see that the price of grain will continue to rise." He Lingchuan smiled, "The most important thing is that the Yao people really have no money now."
"No money..." Aunt Zhu thought for a moment and said with a long sigh, "Xincheng?"