Chapter 158: Imprisoned

Sure enough, desire is the most primal driving force. Before long, all the rice seedlings in the nearby farmland were uprooted, and the people received enough food to last through the winter.

But Su Zhenzhen wanted to do more than that, and then distributed winter crops to them in the name of the immortals.

Although the people had never seen these seeds before, no one would complain about being given them for free. Besides, the fields had been cleared now, so planting them wouldn't be a big deal.

After a busy day, the two finally resolved the livelihood issues in Fenglin County.

Su Zhenzhen thought she should take a break, since the work she had done that day was even more arduous than the previous few days combined.

Then, while I was asleep, I was surrounded by people.

Almost instantly upon hearing the sound, Su Zhenzhen sat up in the carriage, lifted the curtain, and saw a dense crowd of yamen runners in official robes, all holding weapons.

Hensheng blocked Su Zhenzhen's path, glaring at the soldiers, "Where is the person in charge? You've already come all this way, why are you hiding?"

A strange laugh rang out from the crowd, followed by four constables carrying a palanquin through the crowd.

A short, stout middle-aged man sat on the palanquin. His typical beady eyes looked shifty under the lamplight, and coupled with his eerie laugh, the atmosphere was incredibly terrifying.

If Su Zhenzhen hadn't been certain that the person on the other end was human, she would have almost suspected that the gates of hell had been opened and all the demons and monsters had come out.

The man was very cautious. He stopped when he was sure he could have a normal conversation with the carriage, and he was surrounded by soldiers who were protecting him.

"No wonder the rice buyers left so quickly today. They usually don't leave until they've queued all the way to the city gate. Turns out you were up to something. You were exchanging a pound of empty rice stalks for a pound of rice. Where did you get so much grain?"

Su Zhenzhen then realized that the rice shop owner was actually the city's official. No wonder all the shops were closed except his rice shop. At this time of year, grain was more valuable than silver, so even merchants were thinking about saving grain for the winter.

Hensheng was thinking of avoiding violence if possible, and was still negotiating with the other side.

"Our offense today was unintentional. We only felt sorry for the people here who have no food to get through the winter. We did not want to compete with you. We will leave now."

"Nonsense!" The rice shop owner spat. "If you give these lowly people grain, why will they come to my rice shop to buy rice? Do you expect me to bear the loss myself? And where did you get so much grain? If you know what's good for you, hand over the grain, and I might spare your lives."

Su Zhenzhen roughly estimated the number of people around them and speculated on their chances of breaking out of the encirclement.

They had been extremely careful, but they never expected that the rice shop owner was the highest-ranking official in the area.

If this person were truly dedicated to serving the people, Su Zhenzhen wouldn't mind giving him some grain as government reserves. But this person clearly looks like a speculator who wants to profit from the grain.

Hensheng jumped down from the carriage shaft and lifted the curtain to signal the soldiers to look inside the carriage.

"My lord, we have no grain left. You can transport your surplus grain to other cities to buy more. There's a locust plague in the south, so you won't lose money on this grain, will you?"

The rice shop owner's face instantly turned purplish-red, which, combined with his large face and beady eyes, made him look indescribably ridiculous.

However, his angry expression now adds a touch of terror to the comical scene.

"This grain was bought by me through connections in the surrounding cities. To sell it back at a low price? I think you're just asking for trouble. Guards, arrest these two brats and lock them in the county jail, or they'll really forget who Fenglin County is."

The constables charged forward, brandishing their swords. Su Zhenzhen and Hensheng had no choice but to grit their teeth and fight back.

To Hensheng, these soldiers were all commoners of the Jiang family dynasty. Even if they were now under the command of the rice shop owner, the highest-ranking local official, it was for a reason. Besides, they had unintentionally cut off the shop owner's livelihood, so they couldn't bring themselves to kill him and could only keep dodging, putting them in a very passive position.

Su Zhenzhen dared not kill a living person, as this would incur karmic consequences, and besides, she had never learned any real martial arts.

There were simply too many soldiers; the two of them had barely broken through one encirclement when they were immediately surrounded by a new one.

The officers and soldiers, however, had no such scruples, and soon both men had wounds of varying depths on their bodies.

Seeing that the fight would only increase her injuries, Su Zhenzhen wisely and cowardly raised her hands.

"Wait! We surrender."

Although Hensheng didn't understand, he still obeyed Su Zhenzhen's choice and stopped dodging. Unexpectedly, he was slashed on the jaw by the knife in front of him, and blood flowed freely, which was somewhat bewitching.

The rice shop owner waved his hand, and the soldiers stopped their attack, then tied Su Zhenzhen and Hensheng up back to back.

The rice shop owner kept his word and didn't delay at all, immediately ordering his soldiers to take Su Zhenzhen and Hensheng to the county jail.

The cell door opened, and a stench hit us.

The officers and soldiers pushed Su Zhenzhen and Hensheng inside and then locked the door.

Su Zhenzhen was still wondering why they hadn't been put in jail before leaving. Upon closer inspection, she realized that in the huge county jail, only she and Hensheng were alive.

Everyone else in the other cells was dead; some were just rotting bones, others were just beginning to decompose. In short, the various smells mixed together were extremely suffocating.

Spending even a second in this environment is worse than many forms of torture.

Su Zhenzhen held her breath and quickly untied the ropes binding her and Hensheng's hands.

Bound back to back like this, neither of them can move easily, which reduces the probability of the "prisoner" escaping.

However, for Su Zhenzhen, who deals in the dead, being tied up back to back actually made it easier for her to use her skills.

After untying the ropes on their hands, Su Zhenzhen immediately bent down and removed the ropes from their feet as well, so that their limbs could finally move freely.

Su Zhenzhen immediately bought two bottles of hemostatic powder from the system store, gave one bottle to Hensheng, and then immediately sprayed it on her own wounds.

The environment is really too harsh; there must be all sorts of bacteria. It would be terrible if the wound got infected.

Hensheng's face was so heartbreakingly injured that Su Zhenzhen couldn't bear to look at him. She bought some bandages from the system store and put them on him. The cute designs made him look adorable.

No one noticed that drops of blood from Hensheng's wound were dripping onto the ground.

The moment the drop of blood touched the ground, it seemed to come alive and quickly moved into the darkness.