Soon, Old Sun's letter reached the hands of the middle-aged fat man.

After reading the letter, the middle-aged fat man was also very puzzled. He had already given part of the deposit to the bandits, who had promised him that they would do a good job.

But so much time has passed, and not a single word or message has come in. Not a single person in the entire Hekou County has lost any more sweet potato or potato seeds.

This is clearly not normal, but where is the problem?

The middle-aged fat man couldn't think of anything for the moment, so he decided to make another trip.

So after receiving the letter, he disguised himself and very cautiously wandered around the town of Hekou County, circling several times before finally leaving the town.

Then he headed north into the mountains to see what was going on with these bandits, and whether the operation had failed.

If the operation had truly failed, surely it would have made a significant impact, wouldn't it?

The fact that there is absolutely no news like this is clearly not normal.

In this way, he quickly arrived at the cave where the bandits had lived.

He was originally furious and prepared to go in and question these bandits, and maybe even manage to negotiate a lower price and squeeze some money out of them.

That would be excellent!

Unfortunately, he was completely dumbfounded once he went inside.

Before going in, he had a pretty good plan, but after entering and seeing the empty bandit cave, the middle-aged fat man was instantly dumbfounded.

He didn't react for a long time. What happened?

Where are they?

Wasn't this little cave previously home to more than twenty bandits?

Why is there no one left in this cave now?

He was somewhat incredulous, so he went inside and searched everywhere, looking through all the small caves.

There wasn't a single person in sight, not even a hair. The entire cave was so clean that it seemed as if no one had ever lived there.

"They're quite well-mannered...the cave is very clean..."

In that instant, the middle-aged fat man froze on the spot, his whole body trembling slightly, as if he had been struck by lightning.

In that instant, only a few words flashed through his mind: He'd been tricked!

There is no other explanation for the current situation except for these three words.

After a moment of stunned silence, the middle-aged fat man flew into a rage on the spot.

He was completely taken aback; he never expected that he would be deceived.

Were we tricked by a group of bandits?

Otherwise, how can we explain why these bandits haven't done this for several days?

Otherwise, how can we explain that this cave, which was originally inhabited by bandits, is now completely empty?

Thinking of this, the middle-aged fat man felt aggrieved and couldn't help but start cursing:

"Damn you bandits... Do you have any conscience? Do you have any manners? Can't you be kind? Are people really this hateful? Where is the basic trust between people?"

"You even lied to me? That's a hundred taels of silver! Even if you were going to lie to me, you should at least have swindled all the silver I had left! Just a hundred taels... Bah, such meager ambition!"

But no matter how much he cursed, there was no response. In the empty cave, only her angry shouts echoed.

After a moment, he fell silent, thinking of a more pressing problem.

That's the matter. How should we explain it to Old Master Sun?

The matter was not resolved, and instead, I was cheated out of one hundred taels of silver, and several days were wasted.

If Old Master Sun finds out about this, he probably won't let me off easily.

Thinking this through, the middle-aged fat man became increasingly nervous, knowing that something terrible was about to happen.

Just then, he heard footsteps behind him.

He wondered if the bandits had returned.

So he angrily turned around and began to curse at the figure that had appeared behind him without him noticing:

"Go to hell..."

However, after he finished cursing, the middle-aged fat man was stunned for a moment, because behind him stood two tall men in their thirties, who were not the bandits from the cave.

Realizing he had apparently insulted the wrong person, the middle-aged fat man immediately stopped his tirade and then said to the two burly men:

"Sorry... I misspoke..."

To be fair, the fact that this middle-aged fat man dared to admit his mistakes, face them, and apologize shows that he still has basic qualities.

However, one of the two middle-aged men said to the fat middle-aged man:

"Come with us."

The middle-aged fat man was stunned for a moment, and asked in confusion:

Where to?

The burly man opposite replied:

"The county government office!"

In that instant, the middle-aged fat man chickened out.

He spoke cautiously and carefully:

"No...no...it can't be that serious, can it? I just accidentally swore, does this have to go all the way to the county government? Is it that serious?"

However, the two burly men seemed unwilling to offer further explanation. They simply stepped forward, each supporting the middle-aged fat man on either side, and left the cave.

The two burly men flanking the middle-aged fat man were two of the ten Imperial Guards whom Zhu Yunwen trusted implicitly.

They were doing this on Zhu Yunwen's orders.

Zhu Yunwen knew that since Old Master Sun had secretly sent someone to find bandits to act as scapegoats, the fact that the bandits hadn't done so for a long time would inevitably arouse Old Master Sun's suspicion.

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