Early in the morning, before the mist had completely dissipated, the village was already bustling with activity.
"Look, Battalion Commander Zhou and his wife have been released again. I heard they're going to lead the way to a coal mine."
"How come they are so energetic? They don't look like they've been locked up in that dark room and suffering at all."
Several villagers gathered together, chattering away, their eyes wide as they stared at Ling Huanwu and her group, who emerged from the office looking radiant.
The two, a handsome man and a beautiful woman, stood out conspicuously when they emerged from the low, dilapidated village chief's office.
Standing in the crowd, Song Yaoyao looked at the two people who were still glamorous even after being arrested, and she almost ground her teeth to powder.
Why should I be the only one who can be smeared with soot and blend into the crowd, while they are adored by thousands no matter what?
The group, carrying the repaired exploration tools, set off up the mountain in a grand procession, with Song Yaoyao following closely behind, pondering their next plan.
In the resource-scarce 1960s, coal was a treasure; once mined, it could fetch a good price and improve the family's life.
So everyone was full of energy at this moment, climbing the mountain while dreaming about the future.
Halfway there, Ling Huanwu spotted a village woman whose figure looked somewhat familiar, preparing water for the villagers by the roadside.
Ling Huanwu was puzzled and began to examine it carefully.
The village woman's face was dark and grimy, and her clothes were patched all over.
Ling Huanwu had never seen this village woman before. It wasn't until her gaze fell on the small section of the village woman's fair ankle that she suddenly realized what was going on and had the answer in her heart.
Song Yaoyao was completely unaware of Ling Huanwu's gaze; she was just diligently scooping water for the villagers to drink, making sure that every villager had a drink of her water!
Before long, almost all the villagers had drunk water.
Before long, everyone was suffering from severe abdominal pain and turned pale, making it impossible for them to climb the mountain again.
Zhou Jiuzhen and Ling Huanwu immediately realized that there was something wrong with the water. While comforting the villagers, they secretly observed the movements of the woman who was dividing the water.
Seeing everyone fall, the village woman revealed a smug smile, then stealthily headed up the mountain.
It turns out that Song Yaoyao, disguised as a village woman, had already colluded with several other women, intending to take advantage of this opportunity to secretly mine coal and sell it for money.
She first tried to frame Ling Huanwu and her companion, but failed. When she learned that they had organized the villagers to go up the mountain to mine coal, she came up with this vicious idea.
First, they poisoned the villagers to delay them from going up the mountain, then they went to dig coal with those women and sold it to people who came to speculate and buy coal.
When Song Yaoyao arrived at the mountain, she saw several women digging coal, with five large wheelbarrows parked nearby, but they were only half full of coal.
She urged anxiously, "Hurry up! Those people have probably gone back to the village to check on their pregnancies, so they won't be up so soon. We need to hurry and gather enough coal for five cartloads."
Those who were buying and selling coal for profit stood aside, watching them coldly, and said, "Hurry up, collect all five large cartloads of coal before we pay you. Not a little less."
Song Yaoyao had no choice but to join in the coal mining.
The women were sweating profusely and digging coal frantically, hoping to finish their task before the villagers went up the mountain.
But as they dug, they realized something was wrong.
The more coal was mined, the less there was, until finally only rocks remained, with no trace of coal left.
The women were dumbfounded. They stared at the half-load of coal, as if their hard-earned wealth had vanished just like that. They were all on the verge of tears.
The speculators, seeing there was no coal, immediately started cursing: "What are you doing? You promised at least five large cartloads of coal, and now this is all you have? You've wasted our time and are going to lose money! Pay back our travel expenses!"
Song Yaoyao and the other women were unwilling to let their money go to waste. They thought that at least they still had half a cartload of coal, so they said to the coal collector, "Give us the money for that half cartload so we can get a share."
But the coal collectors wouldn't give them any. Taking advantage of their size, they shoved Song Yaoyao and her aunts aside, saying menacingly, "This little bit isn't even enough to cover our travel expenses. You want more money? Dream on!"
After saying that, the group immediately turned and left, carrying the only coal they had.
After all, if you're caught doing speculation and profiteering these days, you'll get arrested.
Every minute you stay here increases the risk.
Several women worked all night but didn't get paid, and they were unwilling to work for nothing.
They swarmed forward, grabbed Song Yaoyao by the collar, and angrily shouted, "It's all your fault for coming up with such a terrible idea! You said there was more coal in this cave than you could ever mine, and now what are we going to do? You have to pay us back!"
Song Yaoyao didn't have any money. She herself wanted to make some money from the coal and then take the triplets away from here.
Now that her hopes were dashed, she struggled desperately. In the struggle, an aunt accidentally wiped the soot off her face and immediately recognized the disguised person in front of her as Song Yaoyao, who had escaped during the escort.
"It's that murderous woman surnamed Song. If we catch her, we'll definitely get a reward!"
The group instantly started fighting, creating chaos.
Just as the aunties were pinning Song Yaoyao to the ground, an unexpected scene unfolded.
A series of dark shadows covered the figures of the group like mountains.
Zhou Jiuzhen and Ling Huanwu, along with a group of leaders and villagers, stood behind them.
It turned out that Ling Huanwu had already confirmed on the way that the village woman was Song Yaoyao in disguise by a mole on her ankle.
She suspected that Song Yaoyao must have some ulterior motive, so she decided to play along.
After the villagers drank the water that Song Yaoyao had drugged, she took some spiritual spring water from her spatial storage and pretended it was medicine for stomach aches, which she then gave to the villagers.
After the villagers felt better, they rallied their spirits and quietly followed them up the mountain.
The soldiers surrounded the men who were fighting and also sent men to arrest the coal speculators who had previously escaped.
Ling Huanwu looked at Song Yaoyao, who was lying on the ground with a bruised and swollen face, and felt no pity.
She had someone bring a bucket of water and poured it hard on Song Yaoyao's face.
Only then did everyone realize that the person on the ground was Song Yaoyao, who had escaped during the escort.
The cold water jolted Song Yaoyao awake. She screamed and cried, trying to escape, but there were people all around her, and she had nowhere to run.
When the women who had been illegally mining coal saw that their scheme had been exposed, they all knelt down and begged for forgiveness, saying that it was all Song Yaoyao's doing, and that Song Yaoyao had also instigated them to frame Ling Huanwu and the others.
But it's no use saying all this now.
The soldiers arrived quickly and took Song Yaoyao and the other women back with them.
They will pay the price for their actions.
After this incident, the villagers who had selfish motives were all filled with fear and dared not have any more thoughts of speculation.
This is precisely the warning effect that Ling Huanwu wanted to achieve.
If a treasure is discovered in the future, she doesn't want her fellow villagers to be blinded by profit and take crooked paths, causing the treasure to fall into the hands of outsiders and be lost forever!
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