Minister Lu shook his “Don’t anyone talk too much.” Regardless of why those four bailiffs hadn’t returned yet, it wasn’t appropriate for them to say anything; shooting their mouths off would only stir up trouble.
Seeing that no one responded, Zhou Yuan requested instructions from Boss Gu: “Boss, let me pick a few men and take torches to go search. With the sky this dark, they might have gotten lost.”
Boss Gu waved his hand indifferently, lowering his head to continue counting bank notes. These officials had all their assets confiscated, yet they still hid so many bank notes.
A bunch of corrupt officials and wicked gentry—he had still been too soft-hearted.
The atmosphere quieted down. Li Chenghuan whispered a couple of instructions to Jiang Jinyue, then brought Old Madam Li and Li Chengle a bit further back, putting some distance between themselves and the procession.
As per usual, they went behind a tree to put up a show. She produced two bowls of steamed rice with Chinese sausage and poured two cups of coconut water, before greeting the old matriarch: “Grandmother, Third Sister, come hurry and eat, these were all prepared by Sister-in-law’s people.”
Old Madam Li and Li Chengle immediately took a few quick strides forward, and upon seeing the rice and cups under the cover of night, they didn’t even have time to talk, digging straight in.
Goodness, the rice was warm and had Chinese sausages on top, how truly fragrant! With a bowl of rice down her stomach, Old Madam Li couldn’t help marveling in her heart. Once the coconut water went down, she marveled once again that this water also tasted remarkably good.
Coming from a good background really was different; even on the exile road, they could manage to prepare meals with such meticulous care. The Jiang family’s methods were evident enough, and she had to admit that their Li family truly had climbed high to marry into Jiang Jinyue’s family.
Old Madam Li sighed lightly in her heart, handing the emptied bowls and cups back to Li Chenghuan: “Be sure to hold this glass cup carefully, don’t drop and break your sister-in-law’s things.”
Li Chengle nodded repeatedly with glowing eyes, also handing back her bowl and cup. Sister-in-law was truly wonderful, she liked Sister-in-law the most, just as much as she liked Grandmother and Second Sister.
“Sister-in-law said that whenever we finish eating, we can just leave them right here, and someone will come to collect them,” Li Chenghuan said as she circled behind the tree, feigning to place the bowls and cups down. When she stood back up, the ground was already completely empty.
The grandmother and granddaughters moved very quickly, taking only about a quarter of an hour (fifteen minutes) in total.
Not long after they returned to their original spot, they saw Zhou Yuan running over in large strides carrying a torch, followed by four other prisoners also holding torches—among them was Lu Chongzhi, the second young master of the Lu family.
“Boss Gu, it’s bad!” Zhou Yuan ran panting heavily, and under the flickering firelight, the faces of several men were filled with utter terror.
Boss Gu was chewing on dried meat, speaking indistinctly: “Wha- ish it?”
“Hu Er… Hu Er and the others met with disaster!” Zhou Yuan took a deep breath, leaned close to his ear, and whispered a few words.
“Ptooey!” Boss Gu spat out the dried meat from his mouth and abruptly stood up. “Take me over to take a look.”
Before walking a few steps, he turned back around and beckoned to the four men including Lu Chongzhi. “You lot come along too.”
The four men wore expressions full of dread, yet dared not refuse, and could only follow along with trembling steps.
“They must have discovered it.” Li Chenghuan watched their retreating figures, leaned close to Jiang Jinyue’s ear, and whispered.
Jiang Jinyue’s pupils darkened slightly, motioning for Xie Yuwan to also lean closer, and instructed in a low voice: “No matter what anyone says, the three of us have always been together and never laid eyes on those four men. Do you understand?”
Li Chenghuan nodded silently, while Xie Yuwan looked toward the Lu family members with worry.
Sensing her anxiety, Jiang Jinyue said with deep meaning: “As long as the Lu family members aren’t fools, they’ll naturally keep their mouths shut.”
Keeping their mouths shut? Lu Chongzhi was practically on the verge of crying with fright at this moment. Although he had reached the age for marriage, he was only seventeen years old—when had he ever witnessed such a horrifying scene?
Under the firelight, all four bailiffs had their eyes wide open, dying with lingering grievances that left one’s heart pounding with fear.
Boss Gu inspected them one by one, his expression growing increasingly heavy as uncontainable dread pressed down on his heart.
Seeing him stare at the corpses without a sound, Zhou Yuan said in a deep voice: “This subordinate has also looked over them; they should have been injured by hidden weapons, dying very quickly.”
And it was an extremely formidable hidden weapon at that, striking right into bloody cavities deep enough to reach the bone upon a single hit.
Boss Gu glanced at the four men including Lu Chongzhi, lifted his chin, and walked a bit further away with Zhou Yuan.
“What kind of person do you think did this?”
Zhou Yuan shook his head. He had never seen such a terrifying method, nor could he guess what kind of person might have done it.
“Could it be the prisoners?”
Zhou Yuan shook his head once more. “This subordinate thinks it shouldn’t be.”
“Then what kind of person could it be? It couldn’t possibly be those few hunters.” Boss Gu knitted his brows tightly. Although those hunters were fierce, they clearly harbored apprehension toward their identity as bailiffs, otherwise they wouldn’t have given them water and let them leave.
Zhou Yuan also furrowed his brow, hesitating as he said: “These prisoners used to be wealthy or noble; perhaps someone is protecting them from the shadows. Hu Er and the others must have offended someone.”
Actually, this possibility was also exceedingly small. The secret imperial decree sent by the Empress contained the dossiers of all the prisoners; these people had interacted with Her Highness the Crown Princess the most in private, and the Empress had long since figured out all their backgrounds.
Not a single one among them possessed this kind of capability, yet aside from this possibility, he couldn’t think of anything else.
Boss Gu, however, believed it. Once he believed it, a wave of lingering fear washed over him, his mind meticulously recalling everyone he had ever laid hands on, and then his expression grew even uglier.
His whip had beaten quite a few people, and for all he knew, he might have already offended someone just like Hu Er and the others did.
Sensing his terror, Zhou Yuan consoled him: “Boss, the two of us are still fine right now, so nothing should happen. At worst, we’ll just be more careful from now on, especially being careful around women.”
Hu Er and his crew had frequently uttered lewd remarks and had been plotting against the female prisoners all along the way.
Boss Gu’s expression stiffened, obviously having thought of this as well. “You’re right. Since we’re fine right now, nothing will happen. From now on, we just won’t touch those women.”
What a pity—he had still wanted to win the beauty over. Now that this sort of matter had blown up, how could he make any moves in the future? He couldn’t even shake down any grease or wealth anymore; if he really offended someone who shouldn’t be offended, his little life wouldn’t be guaranteed.
“Boss, what should we do now?” Zhou Yuan sized up his expression, thinking to himself that the death of Hu Er and the other four wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. With Boss Gu having no one usable left under his command, the space for him to maneuver would grow larger.
Boss Gu let out a stifled breath, his tone gloomy: “Tell those four people to shut their mouths, and go bury Hu Er and the others.”
In truth, when he pulled Zhou Yuan aside for a private word, he had been plotting to silence the four men including Lu Chongzhi.
Four bailiffs had died all at once; if the prisoners found out, it might cause chaos. But after finishing Zhou Yuan’s words, he had to put away that plan—everything feared an “in what if”, in case that unprovoked person happened to be among those four.
“Damn it!” Boss Gu cursed fiercely, feeling both enraged and terrified in his heart, yet unable to do a single thing about it, making him feel utterly wronged and suffocated to the extreme.
Zhou Yuan’s heart was also a tangle of complexity; he didn’t know what kind of high-level expert had made a move, and only hoped they weren’t an enemy.
The two of them gave Lu Chongzhi and the four men a severe verbal warning and reprimand, ordering them never to leak word of this matter, and then had them quickly bury the bodies before taking Hu Er and the others’ sabers and returning a step ahead.
Arriving back by the campfire, Boss Gu glanced at the water in the bucket, gritted his teeth, and shouted: “Everyone come over and line up, every person gets a gulp of water.”
Damn it all, he had originally thought they were a flock of sheep waiting to be slaughtered, but who would have expected wolves to be hiding among the sheep? Not only could they not be slaughtered at will, but they had to be treated well. He had never run such a demoralizing errand in his life.
The prisoners didn’t know the inside story and only knew there was water to drink, instantly bursting into cheers.
“Sister-in-law, should we go over?” Li Chenghuan had formed a habit, asking for Jiang Jinyue’s opinion before doing anything.
Jiang Jinyue gently shook her head. “No need. There’s no need to fear these two bailiffs from now on either.” Leaving aside the fact that Zhou Yuan was Wang Yue’s person, Boss Gu had seen the corpses of those four bailiffs, so he would inevitably be bound by rat-phobia (fear of breaking things nearby), not daring to mistreat the prisoners again, let alone provoke them.
After all, those four bailiffs had harbored malicious intentions toward the female prisoners…
Li Chenghuan grew thoughtful. So this was what the cold-beauty sister-in-law called a deterrent; it seemed life could get a bit easier from now on.
Indeed, listening to the female lead was always the right choice.
However, there was still one matter she needed to bring up. She leaned close to Jiang Jinyue’s ear once again and said in a low voice, “Sister-in-law, keep this in mind: what we need the most right now is bullets.”
Although the wild ox submachine gun was invincible, every bullet used was one less; there were only fifty-four left now, and her heart felt unsettled.
If only there were lots of bullets, then whoever came would die.
A look of puzzlement flashed in the depths of Jiang Jinyue’s eyes. “Purple eggs? Purple-colored eggs?” She only knew chicken eggs, duck eggs, goose eggs… she had never heard of purple eggs before.
Li Chenghuan was struck dumb. How was she supposed to describe this?
“Not purple eggs as in eggs. The zi as in offspring/children, and the dan as in pellet/bullet.”
“Bullets? What kind of thing is that?”