Chapter 657: Hidden Danger
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
A slightly older woman asked them to send her to a village. Someone there would be willing to marry her, so she was going there.
The other woman wanted to get married. Even if her life would be difficult, as long as she could eat her fill, she would be free from all the trauma of the past.
The last two women chose to work in the farmstead under Li Xiaoran and Luo Cheng.
One of them was called Wang Jiameng, and the other was called Feng Yuxin.
Wang Jiameng had been sold by her parents to a rich family as a concubine. Halfway through, she was kidnapped by the people of Shatai Village.
She was lucky to meet Luo Cheng, Li Xiaoran, and the others, who dealt with the people of Shatai Village two days after she was kidnapped.
That rich man had a violent personality and liked to torture women. The wives he had married in the past had died for mysterious reasons.
Therefore, Wang Jiameng was unwilling to go back. She wanted to go somewhere else and start a new life.
Feng Yuxin arrived half a month earlier than Wang Jiameng, and she was raped by the scarfaced man from Shatai Village.
Because the scarfaced man liked her very much and didn’t allow anyone to touch her, she suffered a little less than the others.
Even so, she didn’t want to go home.
Feng Yuxin asked, ‘My father married a stepmother and I have younger siblings at home. If I go back now, I’ll be despised. I don’t want to go back and suffer again, nor do I want to be married off by them a second time. I want to change my lifestyle! Consort, can you protect us if I go to the farmstead to work? Those men won’t hurt me again, right?”
Feng Yuxin was the girl who had boldly asked Li Xiaoran about her arrangements previously. Although she had made up her mind, she still felt a little uneasy, so she wanted to confirm it again.
“Don’t worry, no one dares to force you to do anything in the farmstead! You just have to work and earn money to support yourselves every day!” Li Xiaoran looked at Feng Yuxin and gave her a guarantee.
With Li Xiaoran’s guarantee, the two of them began to look forward to their future lives.
Under Luo Cheng’s arrangements, Xu Wenjing’s men sent the women who were going home away one after another.
Then, the two women who were going to get married were sent away.
The last to leave were Wang Jiameng and Feng Yuxin.
Before leaving, Li Xiaoran called the person who would send the two of them off and gave them reminders. Then, she sent a messenger pigeon to Zi Yang of Hele Village and asked him to keep an eye on them so that the men in the farmstead would treat them well.
After the last two women were sent away, Li Xiaoran heaved a sigh of relief and rested for the day.
During this period of time, she and Luo Cheng had been very busy. The couple could only have a few words at night before bed.
Li Xiaoran was busy with the settling of the women, while Luo Cheng was busy with the underground passage and the medicinal field.
Although Xu Wenjing was in charge of investigating the underground passage, Luo Cheng still had to keep an eye on the progress every day.
Luo Cheng also wanted to take a look at the management of herbs in the medicinal field.
After Luo Cheng saw it, he was furious.
The people of Shatai Village planted herbs very sloppily. Other than pulling weeds and waterinq them, thev didn’t do anvthinq else at all.
However, such a sloppy planting method actually produced many good-quality herbs.
If they planted it carefully, wouldn’t they be able to plant even better quality herbs?
Therefore, Luo Cheng had been focused on the planning and planting of the medicinal field.
Some herbs had to be transplanted and couldn’t be mixed together. Some herbs needed darlmess and humidity, so the herbs needed to be planted in different environments.
By the time they figured out what to do, Li Xiaoran had already rested for two days.
Just as Luo Cheng was about to accompany Li Xiaoran, Luo Han brought the information he had obtained from the interrogation.
“Luo Cheng, these people really deserve to die! Not only did these people plant herbs, but they also refined some addictive drugs and sold them.” As Luo Han spoke, he took something out of his pocket.
Luo Han said angrily, “This thing was ground into powder by the people of
Shatai Village and sold to many people!”
After Li Xiaoran looked at the thing Luo Han had thrown out, her expression immediately changed.
“Aren’t there poppies? Where did you get them? I’ve wandered around Shatai Village many times, but I didn’t find anyone planting poppies!”
“These poppies weren’t planted here, but in a valley. This valley is very secluded and can only be entered through an underground passageway. No wonder the officials couldn’t find anyone when they wanted to come to Shatai Village to capture them previously. In that valley, not to mention hiding a few people, it wouldn’t be a problem to hide everyone from Shatai Village! When Xu Wenjing and I brought people to take a look, we found that valley, which was filled with beautiful flowers. When we got closer, we saw that the flowers were a kind of poppy flower!” Luo Han told them what they had discovered today.
When Li Xiaoran heard this, she had a bad feeling.
“Husband, this is an important matter. We have to take it seriously! Do you remember the man I met in Nanping Town who used poppy to cook? At that time, I only thought that he had bad character and wanted to take shortcuts. I didn’t expect that someone deliberately made poppy powder and spread it into public hands! Husband, think about it. If the people of the Sichuan army eat food with this poppy powder every meal, in the future, when their addiction kicks in, the entire Sichuan army will probably be ruined!”
When Luo Cheng heard this, his expression darkened.
The damage caused by these poppies, whether they spread to the people or the army, would be immense.
Who was so vicious as to think of such a method to harm the people?
Luo Cheng said coldly, “Luo Han, get someone to call Xu Wenjing over! This matter must be investigated carefully. We can’t let it go!”
Luo Han also realized the seriousness of this matter and frowned.
If this matter wasn’t handled carefully, it would cause big trouble!
Xu Wenjing arrived quickly. After hearing Luo Cheng talk about the poppy, his expression changed.
“If it’s really as Mr. Luo and the consort have guessed, then Sichuan is probably going to undergo a change! Mr. Luo, there’s no time to lose. I’ll bring people back to the military camp quickly and explain the importance to my grandfather. If someone really tampered with the military camp, we have to quickly take countermeasures. We can’t let the other party succeed!”
Luo Cheng nodded and asked Xu Wenjing to quickly return after settling the matters here.
Xu Wenjing didn’t refuse. He left his cousin, Xu Wenzheng, behind in Shatai Village and let be in charge of exploring and cleaning the underground passage..