Just as Jiang Yichen saw, at this moment, over twenty sturdy employees were moving wine vats, each large enough to hold a big man, onto a large carriage in the center of the winery courtyard, preparing to load the goods for transport.
A man, bare-chested on one side and draped in green clothing on the other, stood alone to the side shouting, occasionally pointing at the employees. He must be the confidant of the snake and scorpion woman Hong Yue, the Poison Gentleman Yu Tao.
The boss's confidant was there, the employees were there, but the silver-haired snake and scorpion woman was nowhere to be seen.
Could she be resting in her room?
He did not know if there was still anyone in those three rooms.
From the information obtained from Ruolan, the winery usually only had a dozen or so employees, so it seemed there were indeed many more now.
What kind of trick were they playing? He could not find any clues from observing from a distance; he would have to go down and investigate.
Assuming everyone was busy and would not notice the situation behind the houses, Jiang Yichen observed the movements of everyone in the winery for a while longer. After confirming repeatedly that the risk of being discovered was low, he put on the gray mask given by Ruolan and approached the three houses.
Pressing against the wall and peering into the room through the wooden window, after confirming that all the winery's manpower was outside in the courtyard, Jiang Yichen locked onto his target for careful investigation—the wine cellar.
According to the analysis of Ruolan and Shen Xinling, if Hong Yue were to make any move, she could only do so through the wine. The possibility of poisoning was low, and as for what other methods she might use, he could only find out by exploring the wine cellar.
The door to the wine cellar was wide open. Jiang Yichen seized the moment when no one was paying attention and flashed inside.
The floor inside the wine cellar was much lower than outside, appearing quite gloomy, and it was stacked full of densely packed wine vats and wine jars.
Jiang Yichen did not understand wine, nor did he need to. The anomaly he could see was that all the smaller wine jars had been shoved into the back of the wine cellar, while the ones placed outside were large wine vats big enough to hold the burly employees from outside.
People inside the wine vats?
This thought flashed through Jiang Yichen's mind, but he immediately negated it.
Chrysanthemum Garden was the heart of the entire Righteousness Alliance. In such an important place, shouldn't the wine sent into Chrysanthemum Garden be opened and inspected one by one?
Aside from the abnormal distribution of wine vats and jars in the cellar, the only thing Jiang Yichen could see, or rather, the only thing that caught his attention, was two piles of large, dark ceramic bowls stacked higher than an ordinary person's height by the cellar door.
Large bowls?
Yes, Jiang Yichen could not determine what this object was used for. He could only see that its shape was no different from the large bowls used for eating and drinking in daily life. The only difference was that the size of these bowls was indeed exaggeratedly large. At a rough glance, the size of the bowl opening alone was about five or six times the size of his face.
Jiang Yichen stood on his toes, leaned over the rim of the topmost large bowl, and peered into it repeatedly. Before the large bowl almost swallowed half his body, he was finally able to confirm that this object was indeed just a bowl!
The only discovery that did not count as a discovery was that the bowl stacked at the very top had a hole in the bottom, a hole about two fingers wide.
A corresponding image immediately appeared in Jiang Yichen's mind.
Those burly employees were all holding these large bowls and drinking, and the first bowl spilled a pile of wine when it was being filled...
Wouldn't it be tiring to use such a large bowl to drink? Jiang Yichen pondered.
He did not know that if he were to pick up the top bowl, he would find that the bottom of the bowl underneath also happened to have a hole the size of two fingers. Every bowl in these two stacks had a hole of the same size in the bottom!
The approach of footsteps interrupted his thoughts. In the blink of an eye, he had flashed and hidden behind a large wine vat.
Two employees entered the wine cellar.
"There are still four carriages today."
"Yeah! And sixteen more jars, it's really tiring!"
"Eh, forget it, it's only for these few days. The boss even hired so many extra people. Let's just move these two rows here. We'll move two jars out first, then rest for a while."
"Alright, alright, it's really tiring me out."
Words finished, the two of them each shouldered a large wine vat and walked out, leaving Jiang Yichen dumbfounded.
This strength, ha!
Jiang Yichen would bet that this large vat of wine was probably as heavy as half a cow. Strong men are indeed strong men; he had to admire them.
It seemed the wine outside had been moved almost finished, which was why the two of them came into the wine cellar to move wine.
This place was not a place to stay long. If everyone came in later, he would not be able to escape.
Sticking to the side of the door and peeking out to make sure no one else was approaching, Jiang Yichen flashed to the outside of the door and prepared to leave quickly.
He thought he could slip away, but who knew that the sound of breaking air would come from behind him.
Jiang Yichen only had time to shrink his body and roll on the ground. He heard a loud bang, and looking up, he saw a Meteor Hammer the size of a head firmly smashed into the outer wall of the wine cellar where he had been an instant ago.
"Hey! Little thief, don't run!"
Yu Tao saw that the wine outside was almost moved, and was preparing to go into the wine cellar to count the wine. Who would have thought that as soon as his gaze shifted, he saw a shadow flash out. His reaction was extremely fast—stealthy, and definitely an opponent! Without a word, he directly swung one of the Meteor Hammers tied to his waist. If he killed the person, so be it; if he missed, it would force the opponent to evade, making it impossible for them to slip away easily.
As expected, as soon as Jiang Yichen avoided the first Meteor Hammer, he realized he could not escape, because Yu Tao had already swung the other Meteor Hammer at him.
According to the intelligence, Yu Tao and Hong Yue were masters of poison. In their early years, their martial arts were mediocre, but they relied on various sinister methods to kill and rob in the Jianghu.
Eight years ago, they washed their hands of the business and started a winery.
Five years ago, the two came to the Thousand Bamboo Forest in Jiangning Commandery to set up a base and opened a winery. The business was quite successful, so they rarely fought with others.
Even if they did fight, it should have been by using poison without making a sound, letting people die unconsciously, right?
Some said Yu Tao and Hong Yue were husband and wife, while others said Yu Tao was Hong Yue's confidant. But those in the know knew that Hong Yue was just used to cooperating with Yu Tao, and to her, Yu Tao was nothing more than a sex pet to satisfy her special hobbies.
After seven or eight years, Yu Tao's martial arts had not improved, at least in Jiang Yichen's opinion.
After blocking a round of fierce attacks, Jiang Yichen gradually turned the situation around and, quickly and efficiently, disarmed the Meteor Hammer in Yu Tao's hand.
Yu Tao's employees were much cleverer than Sha Qing's. Seeing their leader at a disadvantage, they immediately rushed over to help.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Four or five wine jars flew over in succession. Jiang Yichen had to give up his offensive and raise his sword to block the wine jars. Seeing that the small wine jars were not effective, the employees raised large wine vats and smashed them over.
The wine jars and vats could only stop Jiang Yichen's attack, but they did not pose much of a threat to him.
Two large wine vats shattered into pieces at his feet; they were actually empty!
His gaze swept over the large wine vats in the courtyard. Some of the bases were already deeply embedded in the soil, which should be full of wine, while others had not sunk at all. It seemed they were indeed empty.
Jiang Yichen shifted his gaze back to Yu Tao, only to see him roaring at the employees, "Don't throw the big ones," while taking out a small bag from his waist pocket.
After suffering a loss from Sha Qing, Jiang Yichen was obviously more alert to the small movements of his opponents. Guessing that this Yu Tao was likely going to scatter poison powder, he hurriedly gathered his Qi and swept a Sword Qi at the pocket.
Sure enough, a pile of dark green powder spilled out from the damaged pocket.
"Damn it!" The Poison Gentleman was frustrated. Martial combat was not his strength. He wanted to scatter poison but did not expect it to be broken so easily. A master of poison really had no chance of winning when competing with others in weapons.
A delicate shout sounded, and the Poison Gentleman smiled broadly.
Hong Yue had arrived!
Looking in the direction of the sound, a dozen silver needles refracting dazzling light in the sun were already flying toward Jiang Yichen.
Jiang Yichen directly displayed the Meteor Style in the direction of the Dense Forest, and while dodging the poison needles, he leaped several zhang away.
Without the slightest hesitation under his feet, without the slightest pause, he used his Lightness Skill to touch the ground and ran away.
"Don't chase! Go check the wine cellar!" Seeing Jiang Yichen's Lightness Skill and movement technique, Hong Yue knew it would be difficult to catch up. She hurriedly stepped into the winery courtyard, threw a vicious look at Yu Tao, and led several employees toward the wine cellar.
With a nervous mood, he ran in one direction for nearly half an incense stick of time. After looking back repeatedly to confirm that no one was chasing him, Jiang Yichen was finally able to slow his pace and pant heavily.
While secretly nagging that he had found nothing and had instead beaten the grass and startled the snake, and wondering how to explain it to Sister Shen and Sister Ruolan, he continued to walk forward with a staggering gait.
He did not know how long he had walked or how far he had gone. Jiang Yichen had walked out of the bamboo forest and onto an unfamiliar mountain path.
Stunned for a moment, he hurriedly unfolded the map to look. He could only see that he was roughly in the southeast corner of Jiangning Commandery, but he could no longer tell where he was. He could only continue to move in one direction, hoping to reach a location marked on the map.
Exhausted and with a dry mouth and tongue, just as Jiang Yichen was about to collapse on the side of the road, he finally saw hope: a living person.
A man dressed in brocade clothes was lying on his side under the shade of a tree in front, fanning himself with a fan.
This was not the point; the point was that there were several bottles of wine spread out in front of him.
Jiang Yichen's eyes lit up at the sight of water. He took off his mask, walked quickly toward the Brocade-Clad Young Master, took out a piece of broken silver, and said very politely, "Young Master, may I ask for some water to drink?"
Seeming to hear someone speak, the Brocade-Clad Young Master slowly opened his eyes. He did not answer, but simply closed his opened fan and pointed to a bamboo tube.
Jiang Yichen immediately reacted, put down the silver, said thank you, and picked up the bamboo tube, drinking greedily.
Gulp, gulp, a bamboo tube of water was instantly swallowed.
The taste was mellow and sweet. Jiang Yichen swore that this was absolutely the most refreshing spring water he had ever drunk in his life! It had the comfort and pleasure of the winding stream in the bamboo forest!
Seeing this, the Brocade-Clad Young Master raised his eyebrows very hard.
This movement was caught by Jiang Yichen. Jiang Yichen suddenly realized that something seemed wrong; this person, this wine, were all wrong!
However, his eyelids were so heavy that they were beyond his control. Contrary to the Brocade-Clad Young Master slowly opening his eyes, his own eyes slowly closed, allowing him no room to resist.
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