Chapter 61: Thunder in the Night
The sky was overcast and there was no light. The lower rooms in the inn cost one or two taels of silver a night, which stingy Zheng San couldn't bear to spend. So, their group, which had come out of Xiaba Village in high spirits, stayed in a shared room with ten coins per room. They even had to find a quiet corner to talk.
Fortunately, they were all roughnecks and no one paid much attention to such things.
"Hey, how's things going on your end?" Zheng San asked, turning his head to the third.
"I managed to spot that foreign businessman, but I couldn't quite understand what he was saying. I don't know if I'm comprehension correct, but he ordered a thousand catties of chili peppers!" San Tou said happily.
"Whether it's right or wrong, words don't lie." Zheng San said confidently. After suffering during that period, he not only recognized and could write common characters, but he could even do accounting. He felt that he could succeed at anything.
At first, he thought he could reinforce his knowledge with Da Niu and the others every day, but he didn't expect them to be so unmotivated. So he could only reinforce the knowledge with San Tou at the same time, which is why San Tou knows more characters than Da Niu and the others.
So every time they split up to talk about chili business, he and San Tou brought back mostly good news.
Gradually, Da Niu and his companions, who hadn't gained much from going out each day, were left at the inn to watch over the luggage, the most important of which were those few thin contracts.
The two thousand catties sent to inform the village need to be increased by several hundred catties, and now there's still...
"Good, good, good! San Tou, I knew I hadn't misjudged you. You're a promising talent!" Zheng San excitedly patted San Tou's shoulder and then said, "San Tou, what's your surname? I can't keep calling you by your nickname outside. We should at least be able to use your surname when we talk."
“I don’t know what my surname should be, and my mother never told me.” San Tou said this with a touch of sadness. Even when asked how to contact him, he would only say “Xiaba Village”, which includes some people he no longer keeps in touch with.
The three heads gradually came to understand that a person without a surname would be looked down upon by others.
So he wanted to have a surname.
"Can I take my sister's surname?" San Tou asked tentatively.
"Who?" Zheng San paused for a moment, then realized, "Sister Chen, her family doesn't have many people, and your family doesn't have many people either, so they could definitely be siblings. Besides, she's very capable. If her family had the connections, they would definitely give her a separate spot..."
San Tou listened to Zheng San's rambling, but he knew that he didn't want to share the same surname with her because of her "great abilities." Instead, something was secretly growing in his heart.
But now that I'm covered in mud, I don't dare touch it.
"It's really cold today, not as warm as our Xiaba Village at all. Come on, let's go back to the house and sleep. If we can finish talking about tomorrow's business early, we can go back earlier." Zheng San muttered, casually putting his arm around San Tou's thin shoulders to shield him from the cold wind, since he himself was dressed more warmly.
The sweaty, stinky dormitory-style bed felt familiar to San Tou. He slept in the innermost spot, habitually sleeping on his side, stroking the polished broken porcelain in his hand, muttering to himself, "I'm not afraid of you."
Ever since he left Xiaba Village, he had nightmares every night about that damned young master of the Ge family. He was dead, but he still had to haunt him in this way.
He merely passed on the message secretly and stood by without intervening, so the other person's death had nothing to do with him!
The rumbling thunder finally broke out, and the low-lying dark clouds, like a broken water ladle, poured down. The newly patched mud wall was battered by the rain and lost its shape, revealing the wooden branches underneath.
The furtive figure walked through the torrential rain, his legs covered in mud. If it weren't for the person in front of him holding him back, he would have fallen into the wet mud.
"Young master, we can do this kind of rough work. Why do you have to come along and suffer?" the burly man who had pulled him back said helplessly.
"Didn't they say the ditch they dug a while ago was filled in? With this heavy rain today, we can use the thunder and rain as cover to quickly dig the ditch open and divert it to that piece of land. It would be best if we could flood that house too! Then we can just say that the rain was too heavy and we were unlucky enough to get washed away, and that little wench won't have any evidence to deny it!" The man became more and more agitated as he spoke, wishing he could open the floodgates right now and teach that little wench a lesson!
This man was none other than Lin Fusheng, the young owner of Jufu Restaurant. He was gleefully directing a dozen strong men to dig a pit. It was truly a stroke of luck for him!
"Yes, dig it down! Make a big hole in her wall!" Lin Fusheng said hurriedly. Just looking at it wasn't enough to vent his anger. He grabbed the hoe from the person next to him, intending to smash it against the fence with a bang, but he accidentally fell to the ground.
"Watch out!" the burly man shouted, reaching out to catch the falling hoe steadily. It wasn't that he was worried about the young master, but rather that the hoe was quite valuable.
Lin Fusheng's robe was covered in dirt, which made him even angrier. Some random stone on the ground hit his palm, and he felt a burning pain.
He's determined to smash this broken wall tonight!
Thinking fiercely, he grabbed the hoe again and smashed it several times in a fit of anger, only making a shallow dent in the fence. Finally, he threw down the hoe and ordered, "Hurry up, or we'll be discovered again!"
"Yes, yes, yes," the burly man replied in a low voice, smashing the wall with extremely fast movements, while trying to control his strength so as not to actually collapse the wall, otherwise the commotion would be discovered.
They were all young and strong men, so they were quick to dig a drainage ditch and break up the paddy field ridge. Someone reminded them, "Young master, you should stand further back. The sluice gate will be opened over there soon."
"Hmm." Lin Fusheng replied lazily, then turned and went to a slightly higher spot, where he could see the water rushing past firsthand, and he was determined to enjoy the view!
A clap of thunder illuminated half the sky. As soon as the sluice gate was opened, water carrying mud and rainwater rushed down the ditch, washing away the surrounding small stones. Patches of chili peppers trembled from the force of the rush.
"Great! Excellent!" Lin Fusheng clapped his hands and cheered happily.
The rumbling sound suddenly woke Shen Zhiyi from her sleep. She saw a flash of white light outside the window and thought it was thunder. Just as she was about to lie back down and continue sleeping, she heard a loud crashing sound. This time she couldn't sit still. She picked up a thick wooden stick from beside the bed and carefully walked towards the door.
As soon as I opened the door, there was a puddle of water right in front of the threshold. It's normal for there to be water on the ground during a thunderstorm, but it's not right that there's so much water in such a large puddle!
Is there a flood?
Shen Zhiyi subconsciously thought of this, turned around and went back into the house to take down the basket hanging from the roof beam, and then took out a few clothes to cover it to keep out the rain. Fortunately, she hadn't had time to retrieve the seedlings she had left at the village chief's house yet, otherwise how would she have moved them out...
No, if her place is going to be flooded, what about the village?
She hurriedly grabbed her basket and ran outside, splashing through the mud and water. When she reached the yard, she noticed that the back wall had collapsed at some point! Looking further back, she saw that the water was coming from the mountains, but there was no river there.
Without time to think, she was about to continue running when she caught a glimpse of a few shadows near the trees. Unfortunately, it was too dark to see them clearly, so she decided to run to a safe place first!
Strangely enough, her running speed was so amazing that she actually ran past the flood.
On the main road in the village, there was no sign of the flood that had been expected. The occasional flashes of lightning reminded her that it was not an illusion or a dream. Shen Zhiyi couldn't help but look back at her own yard. The flood seemed to be under control, and no more water was seeping out.
Boom!
The thunder rumbled again, pulling Shen Zhiyi back from her chaotic thoughts. Whether it was fate or human intervention, it was beyond her control now. The most important thing was to preserve the seeds in her hands as much as possible, so she could only go to the nearest house to put them away first.
She ran out of the house, hunching over to shield the basket with her body so it wouldn't get too wet in the rain. She made her way to Tang Huaya's house, knocking on the door and calling out, "Aunt Zhao, Uncle Lao Han, it's me, open the door."
Aunt Zhao was the first to hear the noise. She hurriedly put on her raincoat and came to open the door. When she opened the door and saw Shen Zhiyi soaked, she was shocked and said, "What happened? Come in quickly!"
Aunt Zhao pulled Shen Zhiyi into the house, but seeing that she was protecting the things in her arms, she didn't dare to take them easily.
"Auntie, the seeds in this basket are still well-preserved and can't be exposed to moisture," Shen Zhiyi said, carefully removing the clothes covering them, afraid that even a little water might get in.
"It's alright, Auntie won't let it get damp!" Aunt Zhao said hurriedly, taking off her raincoat and carefully taking the basket.
“The back wall of my house collapsed because of some unknown water, and I haven’t had time to check on the chili field yet…” Shen Zhiyi said, when Old Man Tang, who had finished dressing, came out. She continued, “I think the water came abnormally, and I also saw several ghostly figures. Uncle Tang, could you come with me to take a look?”
"Hey, let's go!" Old Tang said without hesitation, picking up the hoe that was lying against the wall.
Aunt Zhao quickly put the raincoat on Shen Zhiyi and instructed her, "If there are many of them, don't get into a fight with them. Come back and call for help immediately!"
"Okay, Auntie, we're leaving now." Shen Zhiyi didn't even have time to mention that her clothes were already soaked; this was also a sign of her elder's concern.
Old Tang picked up his hoe and walked outside, and Shen Zhiyi immediately followed.
She recounted what she had seen, as lightning flashed overhead. Old Tang, his face serious, said, "Back then, our village and Yugou village had a conflict over the river. Later, Master Lin built a manor at the source of that river and constructed some kind of reservoir, which cut off the river's flow, and the waterways for both villages disappeared. Later, Master Lin paid for two wells for us and compensated each household with twenty coins, and the matter was never mentioned again."
"If so much water is rushing in, then something must have gone wrong at the reservoir," Old Tang said slowly, increasingly convinced that the matter was likely related to that area. "Could it be because of the ransom issue...?"
“If that’s the case, then they’d better be prepared to be interrogated!” Shen Zhiyi said in a deep voice. “If you don’t want people to know, then don’t do it in the first place. As long as it’s done by people, there will definitely be clues. I don’t believe they can do it without leaving any traces.”
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