Chapter 138: Raw Charcoal
The old woman married to Yancheng when she was in her twenties and knew the situation in Yancheng very well.
"You can't buy coal in Yancheng now. All the coal yards have been requisitioned by the government. If you want to buy coal, you can only buy it from the government. But..." The old woman looked at Xia Xiaoman.
Xia Xiaoman frowned, "But what?"
The old woman coughed twice and continued, "But I know there is an old coal yard where my late husband worked when he was young. That place has been abandoned for a long time. Except for us older people, no one else probably knows the location of the coal yard."
"Abandoned? Can coal still be mined?" Xia Xiaoman asked.
The old woman nodded hurriedly, "Of course it can. It was abandoned because the mine collapsed and many people died. The higher-ups had no choice but to close the mine."
Xia Xiaoman frowned. Even if she could mine, she didn't know how to do it. It would take her a long time to learn how to mine.
"Is there any coal there that can be used directly?"
The old woman hesitated for two seconds, "I remember there were two big piles of raw charcoal. When I was young, I often went there with others to carry raw charcoal back to make honeycomb coal."
Xia Xiaoman's eyes lit up when he heard this, "Where is the coal yard?"
The old woman hesitated, obviously trying to bargain again.
Xia Xiaoman snorted coldly, "As long as you help me find charcoal, I can let you go."
When the old woman heard this, she immediately said, "Behind the old railway in the eastern suburbs!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Xia Xiaoman took out a black cloth and rope, tied up the old woman, blindfolded her, then entered the room where the strong man came out, and put all the useful supplies in it into the space.
There were a lot of supplies hidden in the strong man's house, including rice, flour, grain, and oil. But there were no women's clothes, only the old woman's old clothes. This means that the two men cooperated to kidnap people, probably to sell the kidnapped people.
Of course, it is also possible that this is not the place where they committed the crime. But these have nothing to do with her. She is not Uncle Hat and has no obligation to track down missing persons.
After collecting the supplies, Xia Xiaoman dragged the old woman who was tied up like a dumpling, found a deserted place and took out the off-road vehicle, then threw the old woman into the vehicle and untied the cloth from her eyes, "Show me the way, tell me how to get to the eastern suburbs!"
The old woman looked around the car, then twisted her body again and again, trying to break free from the ropes. "Girl, this rope is so uncomfortable for me, can you help me untie it? Don't worry, I won't run away. Look at me, I'm covered in wounds, I can't run away even if I want to."
Xia Xiaoman made a click of his tongue, with an expression of great impatience on his face. He took out a fruit knife and stabbed the old woman's leg with his backhand.
The old woman was shaking with pain and screamed for mercy, "I was wrong, I was wrong! I will show you the way right now, right now!"
Xia Xiaoman said coldly: "Behave yourself! If you dare to do anything wrong again, I will smash your hand bones one by one!"
After being stabbed again, the old woman dared not do anything else and honestly told Xia Xiaoman how to go.
…
After driving for more than an hour, we finally arrived at the location the old woman mentioned.
The old woman took her to two large mounds of earth, pointed at them and said, "These two piles are green charcoal. Dig up the top layer of earth and you'll see the green charcoal."
Xia Xiaoman walked to one of the mounds with half belief and half doubt and started digging with his hands. At this moment, the old woman untied the rope on her body and took out a folded cloth from her trouser pocket.
She quietly approached Xia Xiaoman while carefully opening the cloth. Just as she was about to walk behind Xia Xiaoman, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her uninjured right leg. A fruit knife was embedded in her leg.
When I looked up again, I saw Xia Xiaoman had turned around and stood up, holding a short-handled axe in his hand.
"Didn't I tell you not to cause trouble for me again?"
After driving for a whole day, Xia Xiaoman was very tired and irritated. This old woman was not sensible at all and provoked her again and again.
Xia Xiaoman completely lost his patience. He walked over, grabbed the old woman's hand, gripped the axe tightly, and smashed it down with the back of the axe.
"Ah, ah!! No, ah! Don't smash it, I, I was wrong! I was really wrong!! Let me go, let me go!" The old woman screamed and begged for mercy with tears.
Xia Xiaoman showed no mercy and smashed the old woman's hand until it was bloody and bruised before stopping. "Now can you tell me honestly where the charcoal is?"
"Over there..." The old woman pointed with shaking hands at a pile of earth not far away.
Xia Xiaoman walked towards the direction of her finger and dug up the surface soil with an axe. As expected, there was charcoal underneath the soil.
What the old woman said before was half true and half false. It was true that the mine collapsed and killed people, and it was also true that there were two piles of charcoal.
When the mine had an accident, many workers did not get their wages. In order to earn back their wages, they deceived their superiors and subordinates and concealed the two large piles of raw coal.
One of the piles of charcoal was sold privately by them. Later, the authorities strictly enforced the ban on private sale of charcoal, so the remaining pile of charcoal was left unsold.
Although there was only a pile of raw charcoal, this mountain of charcoal should be enough for her to use for more than ten years even if she burned it every day.
After finding the charcoal, Xia Xiaoman went back to drive the car over. On the way back, he saw the old woman crawling on the ground trying to escape, so Xia Xiaoman took out a knife and walked over.
The old woman turned pale with fear and said, "You, you said you would let me go if you found charcoal, you can't go back on your word!"
Xia Xiaoman raised her eyebrows and said with a smile: "I said I would let you go, but I didn't say I would let you go while you were alive. When you die, your soul can go wherever it wants, and I will never stop you."
As soon as he finished speaking, a cold light flashed, and a deep wound appeared on the old woman's neck.
After wiping the blood off the knife and putting the fruit knife away, Xia Xiaoman got up and drove the car to the side of the charcoal.
She climbed to the top of the mound and looked around with a telescope. At 1 a.m., there was no one around.
Xia Xiaoman confidently took out a hoe from the space and scraped away the soil on the charcoal pile.
The pile of dirt was neither big nor small, and she worked for more than two hours to clean up the dirt on it. Then, she put her hand on the charcoal, and she put the charcoal into the space bit by bit.
Looking at the gradually increasing amount of charcoal in the space, Xia Xiaoman, who had been busy all day, finally smiled sincerely.
At around five in the morning, after collecting the charcoal, Xia Xiaoman drove to a secluded and deserted place to hide and rest.
After not sleeping for a whole day and night, she was exhausted and fell asleep within five minutes of closing her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, it was already past three in the afternoon.
Xia Xiaoman was not in a hurry to return to the floating city. She took out a lunch box from the space to fill her stomach, took a rest and practiced boxing and kicking in the open space.
When it gradually darkened, she drove back to the mine she had visited last night, wrote on the ground with a branch that there was a coal mine here, and then set off seven or eight outdoor distress flares before driving away.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
