"Mrs. Xu, why are you doing this to yourself?" Aunt Liu stepped forward and offered a few words of advice.
She had just realized that Lin Shuyan wanted to get rid of Xu Shi, but Xu Shi was completely unaware and thought that she was doing it for her own good.
“Aunt Liu, I know you're on that bitch Jiang Hua's side…”
Hearing Xu repeatedly calling her a "bitch," Aunt Liu instantly lost the will to continue and made up an excuse to go home.
The villagers of Shili Village were not idle either, and they stopped watching and gradually dispersed.
Xu sat at the door until she fainted, but Jiang Hua didn't open the door. In the end, Village Chief Lu, not wanting to cause a death, had someone carry her to a thatched hut far from Jiang Hua's house where no one lived and settled her down.
...
On a dark and windy night, Lin Shuyan lived alone in the nearly completed brick house, a small two-courtyard house, although the outer wall was not yet finished.
Lin Shuyan had already made up her mind. She would take out some more money to repair the courtyard wall and then buy a few servants to serve her. She wanted to have everything that Jiang Hua had.
Jiang Hua!
The name flashed through her mind, and the hatred in her eyes gradually surged up again. She wanted to make her disappear completely before her brother Xuan returned.
That way, Brother Xuan won't worry about her anymore, and he will belong completely to Lin Shuyan.
My heroine will be just as you wish!
The system was also responding to Lin Shuyan in her mind.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew in through the window, extinguishing all the candles on the table.
"What's going on? Why is the wind so strong all of a sudden?" Lin Shuyan didn't take it to heart and picked up the tinderbox on the table again to light the candle.
"Jiang... Jiang Hua!"
As soon as Lin Shuyan lit the candle, she saw Jiang Hua, who looked like a ghost, standing in front of the door in a white dress, looking at her with a smile in her eyes.
"What are you doing here!" Lin Shuyan sensed that something was wrong, but Jiang Hua was standing at the door. How was she supposed to run away?
Run! She's trying to kill you!
The system's urgent voice came from Lin Shuyan's mind, which frightened her so much that she dared not move.
"You want to take my life, so why can't I be here!"
Jiang Hua slowly walked towards Lin Shuyan, approaching her step by step. Just as Lin Shuyan tried to escape, she was grabbed by the neck.
"You're killing me! You can't kill me! I still need to wait for Brother Xuan to come back!" Lin Shuyan struggled, her breathing rapid.
With a "snap," Jiang Hua exerted a slight force, and Lin Shuyan immediately stopped breathing.
Along with the system attached to her, she also died. She did hear the system's panicked and incoherent words.
What's the point of struggling before death? If you're going to die, just die. Why waste so much breath? You're just a toothless tiger.
Seeing Lin Shuyan lying on the ground, Jiang Hua took out a bottle from her spatial storage and poured the liquid inside onto her.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Lin Shuyan's body on the ground turned into ashes.
"You've been following me all this way, and you didn't even bother to lend a hand," Jiang Hua said suddenly as she put the bottle back into her spatial storage.
"You've always known I've been following you?" Qingling walked in from outside the door.
She had followed Jiang Hua ever since she left the house, watching her strangle Lin Shuyan to death, and then, in a few moments, the body turned to ash.
Even the Gu Clan couldn't destroy a corpse so easily, how did Jiang Hua, a village girl, manage to do it?
“From the moment I stepped out the door.” Jiang Hua turned her head, her face showing ease. In her line of work, anti-tracking training was the top priority. There was nothing she couldn’t detect, only things she didn’t care about.
Qingling touched her nose and didn't say anything more. She was really worried. Luckily, she hadn't confronted Jiang Hua head-on. Otherwise, they would have been wiped out without a trace.
"I'm leaving." Jiang Hua left with those words, and Qing Ling could only follow silently behind her.
Just after the two left, a sudden gust of wind scattered Lin Shuyan's ashes on the ground...
"Hey sis, where did you go?"
As soon as Qingling returned to the courtyard, Qingyue came to greet her. She tried to get closer to Jiang Hua, but Qingyue pulled her back and whispered something in her ear. Qingyue immediately quieted down.
Two days later, Manager Bai arrived in the village with twenty sixteen-year-old girls from the capital, along with their indentures.
Jiang Hua glanced at the indenture in her hand and the twenty girls standing in two rows, said a few polite words, and then led them toward the newly built factory.
“Miss Jiang, our master said you can arrange things for these people as you see fit. If they do anything wrong, just deal with them as you see fit. Their indentures have also been brought along,” Manager Bai said from the side.
"Alright, Manager Bai, please thank Master Shen for me." Jiang Hua nodded.
After bringing the people over, Manager Bai didn't linger. He exchanged a few pleasantries and then left. Once at the factory, Jiang Hua selected four of the more composed-looking women to give instructions, while the rest went back to the servants' quarters to rest.
After explaining the rules to the group, he led them to their respective courtyards. The production line was divided into four sections: the first courtyard was for raising cochineal insects, the second courtyard for harvesting them, the third courtyard for processing them, and the fourth courtyard for producing the finished products.
I explained it to them in detail, and then they went back and told the girls in batches that even if you mastered one of the skills, it would be useless if you didn't know the others.
As for the sixteen girls, each of them would manage four people. Shen Qingchuan's idea was to start the rouge business in the capital first, and then expand it from there. She had no objection to this, as long as there was money to be made.
The factory workers have been secured; all that's left is the cactus cultivation. Jiang Hua has already decided on the manpower: Aunt Liu and Uncle Liu.
After settling the girls in, Jiang Hua went straight to Aunt Liu's house after leaving the factory. After explaining her purpose to Aunt Liu and the other woman, they agreed without hesitation.
"Auntie, it's like this, you and Uncle Liu might not be able to handle it all by yourselves. Why don't you see if anyone in the village has someone available? I need ten more people."
"Their wages will be the same as yours, one tael of silver a month, and they can rest when they're not busy."
"Okay, Huahua, I'll go tell them right away." Uncle Liu couldn't wait.
Aunt Liu had just brought the tea out of the kitchen when Uncle Liu had already hurried out on his way, and she couldn't stop him no matter how much she called him.
"Huahua, has Xu still come to your house to cause trouble?" Aunt Liu asked casually.
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