Chapter 668 Undercurrents

Li San Niang stood in front of the round table, observing the expressions of the people around her, trying to see if there was anything unusual about their behavior.

After all, Li San Niang was a doctor. Because of her keen senses and a stroke of luck, she discovered that the merchant was using opium.

If Li San Niang could sense that something was wrong, did no one else really notice anything?

Li San Niang didn't believe it. She didn't think she was the only one who had discovered the anomaly. If it were just her, there wouldn't be so many time travelers in this time and space.

It's not just the time travelers in the house now. According to what Mr. Bu Ke revealed about the Record of Extraordinary People, Emperor Wu had already traveled through time during the reign of Emperor Gaozong (Li Zhi), and the Record of Extraordinary People already existed secretly at that time.

Therefore, Li San Niang was absolutely certain that she was not some chosen one, nor did she possess any kind of illusory fortune.

Li San Niang believed that in the face of great disasters, collective wisdom and mutual assistance were the true way to overcome them.

Li San Niang noticed that Ding Mingxuan's expression was somewhat off, and thought that as a wealthy merchant family, the Ding family must have discovered something wrong in this business matter, but probably didn't care.

It wasn't until Li San Niang's booklet pointed it out that they connected the seemingly trivial details and realized something was amiss.

Sure enough, when Li San Niang looked at Xing Yu and Chang Si Yuan again, the two of them also seemed to have something wrong with their expressions.

However, Bi Qionglan, the agricultural tycoon, along with Jiang Yiyun and Shi Le'an, only showed shock on their faces, without any thoughtful expression.

Therefore, Li San Niang also guessed that only those who pay attention to commerce would have a greater chance of facing the probing of foreigners, while those who do not pay attention or are simply unrelated to commerce would naturally have no way of knowing.

A little over fifteen minutes later, Bi Qionglan was the first to put down the booklet.

"Since I'm the oldest, I'll take the liberty of speaking first."

As soon as Bi Qionglan spoke, everyone put down their booklets and looked at her.

"First of all, I must thank Li San Niangzi for being willing to share this news with us."

Bi Qionglan, who was sitting, cupped her hands in greeting to Li Sanniang, who was standing in front of the round table. Li Sanniang naturally returned the greeting, but did not say anything.

"Secondly, I know that you all do not want to reveal what kind of time and space you are in, but judging from what is said in this booklet, there are some issues that we still need to discuss openly."

Let me start by saying that this thing really exists in my time and space. Although the name is not as elegant as it is now, it does have a nice-sounding name: Fushou Gao (福寿膏).

However, in my time and space, the nation was powerful. When this thing circulated in a small area, the government directly used force to suppress it and eradicated it from the root.

This thing did not cause any major harm to the country.

But judging from the events described in Li San Niangzi's book, I think the enemy trying to infiltrate them is probably no match for them.

If they truly had the capability, they would simply launch an attack; why would they need to resort to these underhanded tactics?

Bi Qionglan started the discussion, and then everyone else spoke in turn.

Xing Yu picked up where Bi Qionglan left off: "To be honest, before the New Year, there was a matter in my business that was related to opium."

As you all know, I love doing business. Wasn't it before the New Year that the Emperor issued an edict to promote border trade?

I naturally sent caravans to the border to prepare for the large-scale trade in the coming year.

I sent three teams to the border town, two teams returned, and one team stayed behind to provide support.

The incident occurred in one of the returning caravans, where one of the men fell victim to a scam.

Upon returning home, suffering from drug withdrawal, he went to steal from a steward's house.

"Steal what? Steal this opium?"

Xing Yu nodded in agreement with Ding Anbo, "At that time, this caravan went to the tribe to trade with people. Everyone in the caravan, except for the elderly steward and the head of the guards who did not accept the opium offered by the people, accepted it."

On the way back to Chang'an, only this fellow, the manager whose drugs were stolen, and another guard liked to use this stuff, so the entire caravan's supply of opium was traded to these three.

The guard's family was not in Chang'an, so he went back to Chang'an, received his wages, and then returned to his hometown.

Therefore, the young man went to the steward's house to steal this thing.

"Then how did you find out?"

Li San Niang also looked at Xing Yu. She also wanted to know if Xing Yu knew that this thing was opium, he should have come to her to discuss or inquire about it. However, Li San Niang had not received any news from Xing Yu since the beginning of the first month of the lunar year.

Xing Yu gave a wry smile before explaining to everyone, "It was only after reading Third Sister's booklet today that I suddenly realized that the stuff was opium, a drug."

At first, I just thought that the clerk was jealous of the high wages I paid the manager, and that the manager and the clerk had some disagreements on official business. I just assumed that the clerk was deliberately stealing something to get revenge on the manager.

I never considered that the guy was after opium.

Finally, I reported it to the authorities. I also used my connections and sent money to them. The officials only said it was theft and that I would have to be locked up for a month or so.

I settled my employee's family in peace and then waited. I was thinking of sending some more money next month to see if I could get him out.

After Xing Yu finished speaking, before everyone could come to a conclusion, Ding Mingxuan chimed in, "I've encountered this problem too."

Let me start by saying that it's not that I'm petty and unwilling to open up to you all.

I made the same mistake as Xing Yu. In addition, there was no war caused by such things in our timeline, so I naturally didn't think about it.

Our Ding family's foundation is in Jiangnan. We only settled here in Chang'an because my brother and I wanted to expand our network.

The Jiangnan region is rich in water, and the Ding family, being a large and powerful family, also owned dozens of ships.

Before the New Year, the housekeeper reported to me on various matters, including an accident on a ship in Fuzhou. He said that two people got into an argument over a trivial matter, and while the other was smoking his pipe, one of them hit him on the head with his pipe, killing him.

After reading Dr. Li's booklet, I'm thinking that perhaps when the ship was anchored in Fuzhou, these two sailors were induced to take opium. Maybe there was a conflict between them, and one of them killed the other in a fit of rage.

This aligns with what the pamphlet says: opium use can cause loss of emotional control and temporarily paralyze a person's actions, leaving them unable to dodge.