haunted
"Don't talk nonsense!"
Tan Mozhu glared at him fiercely, waved his hand, and ordered all the guards of the workhouse, "Search every room! Don't leave out even a brick or tile in the toilet."
After giving the order, he personally led people to search the room where the boy was missing.
At the same time, three inconspicuous figures were carefully searching for clues outside the orphanage.
"Last night, when I got up to go to the toilet, I found the courtyard brightly lit. Not to mention three children, even three mice couldn't escape from the eyes of those guards."
At this time, everyone was called to gather in the front yard so that the whole house could be cleared for search.
One of the servants whispered to his companion beside him.
Upon hearing this, another servant lowered his voice and said, "Even if you fly, it will be difficult to escape the eyes of those people, unless you escape underground."
"It's not a mole, how can it escape underground? I think, just like Dean Shen said, our place is haunted."
"If it's haunted, why do they only capture children?"
"this……"
Just as everyone was lost in confusion, a somewhat old voice spoke solemnly, "Hey, River God."
"Hey River God?"
Everyone was stunned, and then they saw Tan Mozhu with a dark face walking out of the room where the boy lived quickly. They immediately fell silent until they saw him walk into another room, and then they continued to discuss in a low voice.
"I heard the Fu River is rising again. This year's spring rains have been excessive. If the riverbanks aren't reinforced, I'm afraid it won't just be 'Fu River encircling the river,' but 'Fu River flooding the city.'"
Crash——
Another spring rain fell, and the water level in the kettle rose again, hitting the river bank, and even the bamboo forest that reinforced the dam was beaten back and forth.
"Is the Dragon King causing trouble this year? It's sunny one day and rainy three days."
At night, Zhao Mingyan tossed and turned, listening to the sound of rain outside the window.
Her belly finally grew bigger, and although there was no fetal movement yet, she could clearly feel a little life growing inside.
In order to protect this little life, she is now careful about everything and even stopped having sex. Fortunately, Tan Linshuang has been busy dealing with Tan Mozhu recently and is always running around outside during the day. He has no energy to make love with her at night. It is enough for her to talk to her for a while and whisper in her ear.
Tan Linshuang couldn't sleep tonight either, perhaps because of the sudden spring rain, or perhaps because of something else. He gently hugged Zhao Mingyan and said half-jokingly and half-seriously, "This isn't a rebellion, it's a gift from the Dragon King to us."
"Then this gift is too expensive. I can't afford it." Zhao Mingyan laughed.
Tan Linshuang continued, "Besides presenting gifts, it's also about cleaning out the dirt and removing all the grime hidden in the corners."
…
"Keep your eyes open tonight. If anything goes wrong again, you'll be in trouble!"
In the orphanage, facing the sudden rainstorm, Chen Qiushan lost all desire to sleep. He came into the courtyard wearing a straw raincoat, gave a solemn warning to the guards on duty, and went straight to the residences of those with children, checking each room one by one.
For some reason, his heartbeat never slowed down after he heard the first thunder. When he touched his chest, it was pounding, and he felt an inexplicable chill on the back of his neck.
"One, two, three, four, five..."
He first went to the room where the young children lived and counted the heads of people on the rows of beds.
These children, both boys and girls, are all under ten years old. If no one else helps, they would not even have the idea of escaping, let alone escaping.
Unlike those boys and girls aged thirteen or fourteen, after living here for a long time, they would become more or less aware of the secret transactions taking place, so it was not surprising that they would want to escape. Although only a handful of them managed to escape, there were still some.
So, he didn't think anything strange about the three girls' escape. But after such strict security last night, they still lost three young children. It was really... huh...
“Yes.”
After counting the number of people, he breathed a sigh of relief and hurried to the next room.
The other room is for boys over ten years old. Boys over ten years old must be separated into different genders. This is Tan Mozhu's requirement. It is not because of the difference between genders, but because he is afraid that boys and girls will develop feelings for each other and make secret appointments under the same roof.
The girls here must be virgins to be considered a rare commodity.
Young people should also not experience love affairs too early. Once their minds mature, they will be difficult to control, and it will be even more difficult for them to become playthings of some powerful people with special preferences.
Purity and innocence are the selling points of these human beings, just like the fish raised in a pond, which are fresh, delicious, clean and non-toxic.
“The number of people is right.”
There were quite a few people in this room, and Shen Qiushan's heartbeat gradually calmed down.
"On a rainy day like this, even the ghost messenger might not want to come out from underground."
He muttered to himself as he entered the third room, where girls over ten years old lived.
There is a fourth room where the nanny and the baby live.
"If ghosts catch people, why don't they catch babies?"
He suddenly had a doubt...
"What's that smell?"
But soon, his thoughts were interrupted by a fragrance in the room.
He sniffed hard and felt that it smelled a bit like Lingxi incense, but as the door was opened, the fragrance was quickly blown away by the cool breeze mixed with rain.
In a flash, the room was filled with dampness.
Chen Qiushan rubbed his nose and counted the heads of people on the beds row by row as usual.
He found that the people in this room were sleeping very soundly, unlike the children and teenagers in the other two rooms. When he pushed open the door, most of them opened their eyes and looked at him curiously.
In this room, only a few girls were awakened by his movements and looked at him in a daze.
"Huh?"
As he counted, Shen Qiushan felt something was wrong, "Three are missing?"
"You...get up!"
He shouted loudly, startling the girls in the room so much that they all sat up and wrapped themselves in their quilts in panic.
“There are indeed three missing!”
After counting again, it was Shen Qiushan's turn to be shocked.
boom--
Another loud thunder boomed, and he trembled all over and broke out in a sweat.
"Have you heard? The workhouse is haunted!"
"Huh? What's going on?"
"It's said that nine children have disappeared there in quick succession. The first time, three teenage girls, the second time, three toddlers of the same age, and the third time, three girls around ten. Almost every time, it's children of similar age and gender, and they disappear in the middle of the night. If this isn't a haunting, what else could it be?"
"Why do ghosts take these orphans?"
"Catch them and offer them to the river god. The river has risen so much lately that the embankment is about to overflow!"
"Speaking of the dam, I heard something else, and it's not just a rumor."
"What is it?"
"There's a flood control engineer in our county. His wife disappeared while she was pregnant. Someone once saw her being swept away by the river from the shore. She disappeared in the blink of an eye. It's suspected that she was eaten by the river spirit."
"Eating pregnant women and children, how horrible!"
"What's going on?"
These rumors spread like the wind, not only in Fushun, but also quickly reached the prefect, Lord Wang. As Tan Mozhu's private business partner, he could not sit still. As soon as he arrived in Yongnian Town, he ordered people to call Tan Mozhu to come in and question him.
Tan Mozhu absolutely does not believe in ghosts and gods. If ghosts really existed in the world, he would have been killed by the wronged ghosts long ago.
Especially the rumor about the river worker's wife being eaten by the river god made him more convinced that there must be someone behind the scenes.
He suspected that Xu Qiaolian was seen by someone when she jumped into the river to commit suicide. Taking into account the recent incident of orphans missing from the orphanage, he added fuel to the fire and made up a bizarre story about a river god eating people.
The reason why he thought Xu Qiaolian had drowned was that he had dreamed of her standing wet beside his bed, staring at him with a pale face in the past few nights.
But facing Lord Wang's questioning, before he found the person behind the scenes, the ghost story could help him to exonerate himself, so he feigned panic and said, "I've been having nightmares these past few nights. I dreamed that those children were asking for my life... How about I suspend this business for the time being?"
Lord Wang stared at him intently. He didn't dare to look up and trembled continuously.
After a long while, Master Wang turned to the window, picked up the teacup and took a sip. "Some businesses, once started, are hard to end."
"I understand!" Tan Mozhu still lowered his head.
"I will send people to reinforce the river bank. As for you, just do your part." Lord Wang said this and left.
Only after his figure disappeared into the alley outside the window did Tan Mozhu raise his head and wipe the sweat from his forehead. His eyes changed from the previous timidity to a fierce look. "Besides Lin'er, who else wants to harm me? And who has the strength to fool me?"
Two days later, the rain finally stopped. The servants of the Qin Mansion hurried to clean up the accumulated water in the yard, and Qin Yurong finally walked out of the room.
She had been staying in the house for the past two days, and the food was delivered directly to her by the east kitchen. The portions were several times larger than usual, as they said they were to entertain distant relatives.
But no one except the personal servants had ever seen these relatives.
"Miss, the young master of the Tan family is here again."
After basking in the sun in the flower hall for a while, the butler received a message from the doorman and came to report.
Qin Yurong's temples twitched, and she said helplessly, "Bring him in."
"If someone asks you, do you know what to say?" she reminded him.
The housekeeper nodded and said, "It's that distant cousin again. Today is a sunny day, and he came to have tea and reminisce with you, young lady."
When Ah Ri led three girls around ten years old to approach, Qin Yurong's temples twitched again, "Do you really think I'm a river god?"
Ah Ri just smiled and said nothing, bowed and said, "Meet Miss Qin."
After the ceremony, he turned to the three people behind him and said, "Quickly pay your respects to Miss Qin."
"Hello, Miss Qin!" The three of them bowed in unison.
After scrutinizing the three of them, Qin Yurong hooked her finger at Ah Ri, took him aside, and whispered, "What does your master think of this place? A poorhouse?"
"How many more people will he send to me? Isn't he afraid of being discovered by Tan Mozhu?"
Ah Ri lowered his head and said, "Lord Wang has come to Yongnian Town."
Qin Yurong narrowed her eyes, "It seems that my old man has to end his travels early."
"It's all your master's fault!" she cursed again.
A Ri bowed and left Qin's house through the back door.
"This person... looks familiar?"
A Tong, who had just sent his master to Yanzhi, was about to return to the orphanage to continue searching for secret passages or secret doors when he suddenly bumped into a man in the crowd. He stopped and turned around, hesitantly looking at his receding back.
"Have I seen him somewhere?"
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