Chapter 74 Human
Su Tong held up the lamp again and stood in front of the wall to look at it. Ma Daming had just filled the cracks in the wall with mud a few days ago, so there was nothing special about it.
After thinking about it, Su Tong moved two bricks to provide cushion, stood higher and looked again, and sure enough, he found a larger crack in the wall.
Because there was a brazier burning in the west room, there was a faint light. Although she had taken out the oil lamp, she could still see clearly that the bathtub was facing the crack in the wall, and she could see what was inside the bathtub from this height.
Su Tong's heart sank. If there was a light inside, he would be able to see more clearly.
Early the next morning, Su Tong went to check the crack in the wall again and found that someone had obviously scraped off the new mud.
It was carved very cleverly, and it would be difficult to find unless you look for it against the light in the house at night.
Then I looked at the length and depth of the footprints and measured them to be about forty or forty-one yards. If I estimated based on the normal body shape, it should be a man of 1.73 or 1.74 meters tall.
Of course, this estimate is just an estimate, and the ratio of foot size to height is not absolute.
After Wang Guilan's disturbance that day, most of the villagers knew about her furniture and house repairs! Many people even found excuses to wander around her yard, wanting to gossip about what a woman who was kicked out of the house had done to her house by breaking furniture and repairing the house!
On a daily basis, she would often come across some rude and unruly men who would say some nonsense to her and try to take advantage of her verbally.
Therefore, it is difficult to find out who dug the crack in the wall and came to peek in so late at night.
Su Tong ate a casual breakfast, then went out with a small backpack and a small hoe, and walked towards the dam.
Aunt Cuifen lived on the dam, but Su Tong had no plan to go to Aunt Cuifen's house. When he was almost at the threshing ground, he turned and walked towards the woods behind the threshing ground.
Through the woods, you can reach the back of the row of houses where Aunt Cuifen lives. Zhuzi's house is only two houses away from Aunt Cuifen.
After a quick identification, Su Tong found the vegetable garden of Zhuzi's family.
Zhuzi's parents usually go to work, so the vegetable garden has always been taken care of by Zhuzi's grandmother. Now that the Chinese New Year is approaching, all the vegetables have died, and Zhuzi's grandmother was so angry that she has been lying in bed for several days.
Su Tong didn't want to alarm anyone and cause misunderstanding, so he tiptoed towards the fence and took a look.
There are restrictions on growing vegetables these days. Each household is only allocated a small piece of land. Zhuzi's family's vegetable garden, which was not big to begin with, was in a mess, with cabbages and radishes lying crookedly on the ground, and it was obvious that the roots of the vegetables were rotten.
I guess Zhuzi's family found the vegetables rotten in the ground and pulled them out, but people didn't dare to eat these obviously problematic vegetables even if the upper half was still good.
I don't dare feed it to animals for fear that they might get sick and I'd have to spend money on medical treatment. I can only throw it on the ground, which is such a pity.
It was still early at this time, and people in the village got up late in the twelfth lunar month. Su Tong could not tell anything strange through the fence. Seeing that there was no movement in Zhuzi's house, he pushed open the small door on the fence and entered the vegetable garden.
She picked up a handful of soil from the vegetable patch, and before she put it under her nose she smelled a pungent smell, pungent but very familiar.
Quicklime water?!
Someone poured quicklime water into the vegetable field, which burned the roots and caused the vegetables to rot naturally.
No, it seemed to be more than just the smell of quicklime. Su Tong leaned closer and smelled it, and it actually smelled like alkali.
No matter which of quicklime and alkali is mixed with water and poured on the ground, the vegetables will not survive. What's more, if two of them are poured on the ground, this person will definitely kill Grandma Zhuzi's vegetables!
When she first heard about this, she thought about it. Pesticides are still a luxury these days. They are expensive and require permits. Ordinary people can't get them at all, and even if they do, they are reluctant to use them to harm others.
Although quicklime and alkali are both very cheap, they are not often used and are even less common. Nowadays, most people build houses with adobes and do not need quicklime.
Similarly, edible alkali is commonly used, but pyroalkali, which is highly corrosive, is not easy to buy.
It should not be difficult to find someone who knows that these two things can burn the roots of vegetables and can get them.
Su Tong found out what had happened and didn't stay for long. He tiptoed out of the vegetable garden, breaking off a branch to disrupt his footprints as he did so.
After coming out of the woods on the dam, Su Tong did not rush back. Instead, she went around Ma Daming's house and threw a few pebbles into the backyard. She waited until the face of the stone flashed in front of the back window before she turned and walked towards the mountains.
Then he sat on a tree stump by the roadside for a while, and then he saw Shitou running towards him excitedly with a backpack on his back.
Shitou had asked Su Tong to teach him how to catch pheasants a long time ago. Later, he saw with his own eyes that Su Tong saved Pangdun and Aunt Cuifen, and could also make money by collecting herbs. He admired Su Tong so much that he wanted to learn Chinese medicine from Su Tong.
Learning Chinese medicine is not such a simple thing. Su Tong promised to teach him to recognize herbs first. It is always a good thing to learn more.
I happen to be going up the mountain today. I haven't visited the traps in the back mountain for a while, so I might as well take Shi Tou with me and take a look, and teach him by the way.
The two of them walked up the mountain one after the other. There was a path in front of the mountain that had been trampled by villagers for a long time, so it was relatively easy to walk. Su Tong asked Shitou:
"Shitou, is it convenient to buy quicklime and alkali in our village?"
Shitou scratched his head and asked, "Quicklime and alkali? I've never heard of them! What are they used for? Is it the alkaline flour used to make steamed buns that the chef in the school cafeteria mentioned? But in our village, we use old dough to make dough."
Su Tong thought about it and changed the question: "Then is there anyone in our village working in the quarry? Or do you have relatives working in the quarry?"
Nowadays, quicklime is probably easiest to get from a quarry.
Shitou's eyes lit up and he said, "I know this. Xiaoshun's second uncle works in the quarry! He has been doing this for several years!"
Xiaoshun?
Is that the house where Xing Dongyang is staying?
Su Tong recalled that he only had an impression of Xiaoshun's grandparents. Before he could remember what Xiaoshun's second uncle looked like, he heard Shitou say:
"But Xiaoshun's second uncle has been away for more than half a year. I don't know if he will come back for the New Year this year."
"Are you saying that Xiaoshun's second uncle only comes home once every six months?"
"Yes! I heard that the quarry he went to is in the mountains of Jiangbei County, which is quite far from here. It's not worth it to delay his work and spend extra money on travel expenses when he comes back!"
"Oh! That's all right!"
Being away from home for a long time does not meet the conditions for doing these things. This person must live in the village, otherwise how could he know who is talking about whom and be able to bring misfortune to others at the right time.
Shitou was a little frustrated when he saw that he couldn't help Su Tong. He said, "Sister Tongya, let me go back and ask my dad. He knows more than I do. He can also go out and find someone to help you find out."
"No, I'm just asking casually. Don't ask anyone else about this."
Su Tong didn't want to alert the enemy, her attention was attracted by a plant, so she called out to Shi Tou.
"Shi Tou, come here! Look carefully at this leaf. It is also a herb..."
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