Chapter 82 The Officer's Test
"Sister Yue, the children in the village are depending on you to take care of them. If they are naughty or disobedient, you can discipline them. We have no objection.
"Remember to deal with the officials well. They will definitely come to the village in a few days to tell you about the mining disaster. You must not show any abnormality, otherwise it will be dangerous."
Cheng Xiao had been looking at Lin Yue eagerly. Now that she had to rely on her, who was still a child, she felt guilty.
He may never know that this escape plan was the work of Lin Yue.
Everyone boarded the boat, waved goodbye reluctantly, and took advantage of the moonlight to rush to the island overnight.
Lin Yue said nothing after she returned. She continued to go out early and come back late. The children also spent their days in a dull manner studying and catching seafood.
Estimating the time when the officials would come, Lin Yue waited in the village and did not go out. When the older children saw Lin Yue, they were surprised.
The sound of reading could be heard in the center of the village. The innocent and tender voices of children made the officials who had just entered Baixiang Village feel uneasy.
After all, these people were exiled. Even if they had studied, they would still spend their whole lives in Lingnan with no chance of making a breakthrough.
They also thought of their own children, who were the same age but were playing around, and barely managed to go to school but could only recognize a few words!
If they had not monopolized books, ordinary people would have no channels to buy books for their children, nor would they have the connections to become disciples of great scholars.
Hearing the childish sound of reading, a nameless anger continued to rise, constantly gnawing at my ugly heart.
Lin Yue discovered the stranger as soon as he entered the village. He was sitting on a stool under a tree, cleaning sea fish. His whole body was dirty, and a disgusting fishy smell could be smelled from a long distance away.
Lin Yue saw several officers with swords walking in. She wiped her hands on herself helplessly and went to meet them. At least that was what several burly men thought.
"I wonder if the adults have any instructions, or if there is any news from our parents?"
Lin Yue tried her best to pretend to be petty, otherwise it would not be a good thing to let the officials take an interest in them, and it would definitely cause unnecessary trouble.
The children who were studying inside stopped studying tacitly when they heard this, and peeked out to see what these officials were doing.
From a distance, the officers thought Lin Yue was pretty and looked a bit vulgar, but when they got closer, a foul fishy smell rushed into their noses, and they wanted to vomit out their breakfast.
"Stay away from me. Don't you know how much you stink?"
The disgusted roar made Lin Yue's eyes red. This was consistent with the reaction of a former young lady when she was disliked. An angry expression was on her face.
"What on earth is going on with you?"
This time the questioning was much more blunt and seemed to be trying to drive him away.
"Call everyone in your village here. I have something important to announce."
The children who had thought of it long ago all rushed out after getting Lin Yue's approval.
"Except for those going to the mines, are all of you here? I'm going to start the roll call."
Although the mine collapsed completely and only bodies were dug out, it cannot be ruled out that these convicts deliberately caused the mine to collapse in order to escape.
Over the years, convicts have used all sorts of tricks to get out of military service, including bribery, body doubles, changing identities, pretending to be killed by thieves, and so on.
Therefore, even if they received notification from the mine, they still had to come and see the specific situation.
Looking at the confused child with innocent eyes, I felt a trace of sympathy and pity in my heart.
After counting the number of people.
"This time the mine your village was serving in collapsed and they were buried inside."
Although it was said in a somewhat euphemistic way, everyone understood what needed to be understood.
Lin Yue and the children first widened their eyes and looked at them in disbelief.
"What did you say? I must have heard it wrong. How could a mine collapse?"
Lin Yue muttered to herself, looking dazed and her face flushed.
If Min was here, she would be shocked. What level of acting skills is this? She couldn't act so well even when she was under her mother-in-law's supervision.
The two or three-year-old children were confused, while the older children seemed to realize that something bad had happened and their faces were tense.
"It's a shame, but they're truly buried in the mine. Five days have passed, and there's absolutely no chance of them surviving."
When the officer said this, he was also observing the reactions of the crowd. If there was anything amiss, it would mean that the people in Xiang Village were not dead.
"Woo woo, Dad, Mom."
Lin Yue squatted with her hands covering her face, crying silently.
"What do you mean, cursing our father and mother? My father is so powerful, he won't die. You must be lying to us. Wuuwuwu, father, mother, wuuwuwu, where are you, wuuwuwu, Chengbao misses you."
"I want daddy, woooooo!"
"Dad, Mom, wuwuwu, where are you? Someone is bullying us, wuwuwu."
“Wow wow wow!”
All of a sudden, the two hundred or so children present all started crying. The older ones cried in a suppressed manner, while the younger ones cried so shrilly that the ears of the officials who came to receive them were almost deafened by lightning.
But they looked calm and casually picked their ears, obviously having experienced such a scene before.
A quarter of an hour later, the children's voices were hoarse from crying, and Lin Yue also calmed down and stood up.
"Sir, what else do you want? By the way, can we go and bring back our parents' bodies?"
Lin Yue's tone was very aggressive, and it was obvious that she hated the person who came to deliver the message.
Those who were originally crying alone looked over. Even though the person was buried in the mine, they still understood the principle of being buried in peace.
"Everyone is buried in the mine tunnel. It's hard to tell who they are after digging them out, so they're burned on the spot. Don't even think about running away. You're all registered fugitives. If you're caught by people from other places, you'll be dead.
Our county magistrate sympathizes with you for having lost your loved ones, and has granted you the right to serve until you are twenty. Who is Lin Daping?"
"I am."
The officer looked at the burly young man in the crowd and nodded with satisfaction.
"You are now the oldest child in Baixiang Village and you must take good care of your younger brothers and sisters.
Don't even think about running away. Without your household registration certificate, you can't even leave Lingnan. If your village is short of people, I will come after you."
The leading officer patted Lin Daxuan's chubby face viciously. Although he had a smile on his face, his eyes were full of mockery and ill intentions.
Lin Daping is also a good actor. He trembled and shrank back, lowered his head, and did not dare to look directly at the officer's face, otherwise he was afraid that he would not be able to help but spit in the other's face.
"Yes, I understand. I will take good care of my younger brothers and sisters as they grow up."
The officer was very satisfied with the boy's performance and left Baixiang Village with a big laugh.
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