Lu Yanzheng glanced up the mountain and said to Qin Shen, "Leave two people down here to watch the mule carts, the rest of you come up the mountain with me."
The group walked up the mountain path. Qin Shen, who couldn't hold back his words, kept talking to Lu Yanzheng along the way.
"General, shouldn't we still search Qinggang Village?"
"Um, Madam, do you remember where you found the grain before?"
"General, do you think that one-eyed king will really hide grain in this mountain? Could he have accomplices?"
"General..."
Lu Yanzheng couldn't hold back any longer and gave him a cold glance. "If you shut up, maybe we can find it faster."
Jiang Qinyu secretly found it amusing to see Qin Shen's embarrassment, but she didn't show it on her face.
They soon reached the mountainside, and Lu Yanzheng immediately spotted the caves.
“This place…” Lu Yanzheng pondered, his gaze sweeping across the entrance of the cave.
Jiang Qinyu's heart skipped a beat, and she said casually, "We took a small path up the mountain that night, so we didn't know there were so many caves here."
"Hey, these caves are all open, how could anyone hide anything in them? They couldn't hide anything anyway!" Qin Shen said nonchalantly.
Lu Yanzheng frowned slightly and suddenly leaped towards the nearest cave.
Jiang Qinyu: "..."
Will they be found so soon?
When she put things in the caves, she didn't put them in every single one. Now, if she were asked to identify them herself, she wouldn't know which caves had things in them.
Just then, Jiang Qinyu heard Lu Yanzheng shout from above, "Come up here, search all these holes!"
Jiang Qinyu's lips twitched upon hearing this. This person really is something else; he doesn't let go of any possibility at all!
Judging from what he said, the cave he was looking at had no food, because if it did, he would have shouted it out long ago.
"You guys go up, I'm not going. It's too high, I can't climb up," Jiang Qinyu said to Qin Shen.
Qin Shen nodded understandingly, "Madam, you can wait here. I don't think there's anything upstairs..."
Before he could finish speaking, a soldier who had just climbed up shouted excitedly, "Found it! I found the grain!"
Upon hearing this, Qin Shen lost all interest in talking to Jiang Qinyu and immediately flew into the cave.
"Where is it? Let me see it quickly!" Qin Shen said anxiously.
The others also climbed towards the cave where the food had been found, and Lu Yanzheng had already arrived.
"That damn Zhu Youcai! This is just military rations! How dare he embezzle it with bandits?! I'm furious!"
"Originally, I thought the general shouldn't have locked him up. After all, he was an official of the imperial court, and I was afraid the general would face legal trouble. But now I just want to say that locking him up is too lenient; he should really be executed!"
"Stop talking! Quickly search these caves again; you might find others..."
Lu Yanzheng confirmed that what he found in the cave was military rations. His face darkened terribly, and he quickly went to search other caves.
Before long, the cave complex was filled with shouts of "I found it!", "Here are the daggers used by the military commanders!", and "I found twenty bags of rice and flour!"
Jiang Qinyu stood alone below, feeling extremely uneasy, because the gold and silver in this batch of military pay, and even the gemstones embedded in the dagger, had been swallowed by the system.
Where is she going to repay such a large sum of money to these people?
The only thing that could comfort Jiang Qinyu was that without her, these items might have already been moved or sold by Zhu Youcai and the One-Eyed King.
In this way, it can be considered that she helped them save their food.
But... there was a lot of gold and silver involved. She was truly on the verge of tears, feeling as if she had stolen a huge sum of money from someone else.
Sigh, forget it. I'll find a way to compensate Lu Yanzheng and the others more in the future, otherwise I really can't get over it.
"General, we've searched all these caves, and all the grain has been moved down. Please take a look," Qin Shen said, bowing to Lu Yanzheng.
Lu Yanzheng silently counted the grains around the pile.
Qin Shen pointed at the box of daggers and said hatefully, "General, look, Zhu Youcai and One-Eyed Wang are really scoundrels. They even tried to pry the gems off the daggers. When I get to the county government, I'm going to give them a good beating!"
Lu Yanzheng had finished taking inventory and raised an eyebrow, saying, "All 10,000 shi of grain are here, not a single one is missing. The dagger is also here, except for the lack of gems. As for the pay, not a single penny has been found."
"A corrupt official like Zhu Youcai would be a fool to keep the military pay!" Qin Shen rolled his eyes. "Just thinking about him makes me angry!"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Qinyu took another step back without making a sound, trying to minimize her presence.
That lousy system really screwed her over!
She originally thought she could use the system to earn some money, but Yongshan County was an economically backward place, so even if she brought out good things, she couldn't sell them for a good price.
However, Dingshui Village is too far from Yukang Prefecture, so she can't keep going to the prefectural city.
She had been hoping to exchange some cash until the system opened up a marketplace and allowed trading. But now she realized that the system was too clever; it only gave her points, and she would have to figure out how to get cash herself.
Lu Yanzheng ordered all the grain to be moved away. He looked up and saw Jiang Qinyu standing behind him with her head down, so he walked up to her and asked, "What's wrong?"
Jiang Qinyu looked up, her eyes still filled with regret and helplessness. Seeing Lu Yanzheng, she felt a little guilty and unconsciously took a half step back. "Uh, it's nothing, it's just getting late..."
“We’ve found food, so we can go home now. Hurry up and catch up,” Lu Yanzheng said in a soft voice.
Strange, why does she look so timid? Did the way he spoke just now frighten her?
Lu Yanzheng knew that he could be somewhat frightening when he was serious, especially after he got a scar on his face.
Jiang Qinyu nodded obediently, but still didn't dare to look at him.
She was feeling guilty, not scared; it was just that Lu Yanzheng had misunderstood.
It was indeed getting late. Qin Shen left two people to guard the place, while the rest of them carried a bag of grain down the mountain. They would have to drive the mule carts back up soon to move all the grain away.
After descending the mountain, Lu Yanzheng gave a few instructions to everyone, and then took Jiang Qinyu home.
"Can you not stay?" The atmosphere on the way was too awkward, and Jiang Qinyu couldn't stand it, so she asked to make conversation.
Lu Yanzheng deliberately slowed his pace. Hearing the question, he turned to look at her and said, "Qin Shen will handle the rest."
Jiang Qinyu: "..." Well, this is another conversation killer.
She stopped talking after that and walked on in silence.
Lu Yanzheng glanced at her from time to time, wondering why she wasn't saying anything.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
