Chapter 347 Li Ke
Since the fruit tree only bore fruit for the first time last year, wouldn't it mean that the money invested in the fruit tree in the past few years when the fruit tree was still young has been wasted if the owner sells the village now?
Whoever takes over this village will not foolishly include the money invested by the owner.
The farmer replied, "Well, the old slave asked the fruit farmers in the village and said that the owner's surname was Li. No matter how many questions the old slave asked, the fruit farmers would be vague and unwilling to tell the old slave more."
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Speaking of this, Gianzhuangtou also felt that something was wrong.
The things he asked about the fruit farmers were all very common things in Zhuangzi. If Zhuangzi had no questions, why would those fruit farmers be vague and evasive?
He frowned slightly and said quickly, "County Master, I think it's better to send someone to investigate this Zhuangzi first. If there is no problem, it won't be too late for us to buy it."
"Well, then let Chu Cong go and take her to identify the place." Xia Zihan ordered.
Liu Tianzhuangtou had lunch at Chu's house, and then he and Chu Cong took a carriage there. When they reached the foot of Xiangshan Mountain, the sun was already setting in the west and was about to set.
They didn't get off the carriage, they just passed by the entrance of the village.
Then, the head of the farm took a carriage and went directly back to the hot spring village. Chu Zong got off the carriage and entered Xiangshan.
While it was still daylight, she caught a fat hare and roasted it.
After eating, it was almost dark, and the Fruit Tree Manor was shrouded in darkness. Chu Cong looked down from the mountainside and could see circles of chaotic white smoke rising from the chimney on the roof of the manor. .
Chu Cong stood up, clapped his hands, and after putting out the fire, he flew towards the fruit tree farm.
He climbed directly over the wall and flew silently onto the only roof with a light on.
"Old man, what should we do? The two brothers Erniu also left today. In such a big village, we are the only two left. How about we... How about we leave too?"
An old woman's voice came from inside the house.
Chu Cong knelt down, lifted up a tile, leaned down, and looked inside.
Below is a simple room. In addition to a worn-out square table with peeling paint and four chairs, there is only a short cabinet with a dozen pots and jars on it.
There was a dish and a soup on the table, plus a plate of pickles, and three big steamed buns. An old couple in their fifties were eating and talking at the same time.
The old woman added a bowl of soup to the old man, looked at him again, and murmured, "This orchard is very spooky. It has been haunted for half a month. Everyone has left. We are old, but we are not afraid of death." , but my heart felt chilly and I couldn’t sleep at night.”
"We have saved more than ten taels of silver. Otherwise, we can go back to our hometown, buy two acres of land, build a house, and produce our own crops. Although we are not as comfortable as working for our boss, we can no longer stay here."
After talking for a long time, the old man still didn't let go, so the old woman shed tears and cried, "Old man, I don't want to die here."
"Nonsense." The old man slammed his chopsticks on the table and said with twitching veins, "Okay, what are you talking about whether you will die or not?"
"Woooo..." the old woman cried loudly, "When the girl was alive, she was a cruel person. A few days ago last year, she beat her maid alive with a stool. Last summer, she also beat the talented girl to death. The daughter was pushed into the ditch and drowned. This time, I heard that she caused great harm to the Li family and ruined the eldest daughter's marriage, so she was beaten and sent here. "< br>
"It's also retribution. She died, but after she died, she was so vicious when she was reborn and turned into a ghost. How about us?"
"The night before, Er Niu went to the toilet in the middle of the night. On the way back, he saw a girl wearing white clothes, standing under the jujube tree in the yard. Er Niu was so scared that he almost lost his mind."
"Brother Erniu told me quietly. Otherwise, how could Erniu walk away silently so early this morning?"
"Old man, we can't stay in this village any longer. We owe our boss what we owe, let's pay it back in the next life."
Seeing that the old man's face seemed a little relaxed, the old woman continued, "If you feel that you owe your employer something, then when the fruits are ripe, we will come to help him pick the fruits. We don't want any wages or wages, so just treat it as repayment." Favor.”
Perhaps realizing that she had finished speaking, the old woman paused and changed her words, "Actually, there is no such thing as unkindness. Only when we work do our bosses pay us wages. If we don't work, our bosses won't pay us either." They will give us money for free, and we owe nothing to anyone. We are not slaves who sell ourselves, even slaves who serve their masters also have money.”
"Old man, we don't owe our boss anything."
"Don't the boss want to sell this village? Then let's go and tell the boss to leave. The boss won't force us to stay."
"I can't live here for another day."
As she spoke, the old woman burst into tears again. After eating half of the steamed bun in her hand, she couldn't eat any more.
There was only as much soup as there was in the bowl, and I didn't even drink a sip.
The old man was silent for a long time, then sighed and said, "Since you want to move away, then pack your things tomorrow and let's go."
"I will go to the city tomorrow to find Manager Wang. We are leaving. There is no one left in this village. We must tell our boss about this."
"Hey." The old woman's face was full of surprise, she wiped her tears and said, "Then I'll prepare some food first, I..."
As if she had thought of something, the old woman quickly changed her mind, "Let's get ready tomorrow morning. It's late today, let's go and rest first."
Then, after the old man finished drinking the soup, the old woman quickly collected the dishes, piled them into the pot, and soaked them in water without even washing them. After coming out of the kitchen, the old woman trotted all the way, looking back behind her as she ran. She always felt as if something invisible was chasing her, which made her face turn pale with fright.
It wasn't until the lights in the room went out that Chu Cang put the tiles back into place and stood up slowly, his expression unclear, as if he was thinking about something.
After half a cup of tea, Chu Cang finally figured it out, with a hint of amusement on his face.
Haha, a group of cowardly people.
How ridiculous.
ghost?
Still wearing white clothes?
Tsk, what kind of ghost is there in this world?
She didn't believe it. Even if there was a ghost, it was just a human being.
Sometimes, people are scarier than ghosts.
Chu Cang didn't believe a word about the ghost on Zhuangzi. Not only did she not believe it, she also stayed on the roof all night, just to catch the man pretending to be a ghost.
Unfortunately, she stayed up all night and didn't even see a ghost, let alone a ghost.
In the early morning of the next day, before the old couple got up, Chu Cang left Guolin Zhuangzi quietly.
After entering the city, Chu Cang did not go back to the Chu family, but went to the small courtyard where Qi Lan lived. Then he dressed up in disguise and went to the Li family to pay homage to the old man of the Li family and inquire about Li Ke.
It wasn't until noon that Chu Cang made some gains.
After returning to Chu's house, she told Xia Zihan vividly what she had investigated.
"After Li Ke was poisoned by his master's poison the year before last, he took two maids and a wet nurse to the orchard village to recuperate."
"There were originally about a dozen fruit farmers living there. The houses were simple and difficult, and the food and accommodation were very simple. There were not many rooms there, only four in total. After Li Ke left, the farmers gave up the largest room. Room for four of them, master and servant.”
"Li Ke is used to living in the main courtyard, and he is not used to living with a maid and a mother-in-law, so he forced the fruit farmer to give up another room."
"Among the ten fruit farmers, there are an old couple, Old Man Li and Mrs. Li, and Caiwang's family of four. The rest are single men."
"They live in three rooms, and they can live separately. Single men can live in a bunk on the floor, but they can live in two rooms, which is not enough."
"A single man can't live in a room with a married couple. Even if Mr. Li and his wife are old, that's not the case."
"The fruit farmer was unwilling. Li Ke became angry, so he went into a room, threw everything out, and then ordered his wet nurse and maid to live in it."
"The room she occupied was occupied by Caiwang's family of four. Caiwang's daughter was only six years old. When she saw Li Ke throwing away all her belongings, she burst into tears and called Li Ke a bad person. ”
"Li Ke rushed up and slapped her twice, even knocking out her teeth."
"It was later that her illness became more and more serious, and she no longer had the energy to continue beating and scolding the people in the village. Only then did Wang and his family clear out a woodshed to live in."
"I thought that if Li Ke got her wish, the life of the fruit farmers would be easier, but on the third day, the blisters on her face became more and more uncomfortable, painful and itchy, and even the anti-itching and painkillers didn't work. ”
"Li Ke was so upset that she smashed everything in the house. None of the fruit farmers dared to come forward. Only her wet nurse and a maid came forward. The other maid, Xu, was new. Look at her crazy He didn’t dare to step forward.”
Who knew that after Li Ke stopped feeling pain, he would take a stool and beat the maid to death.
The fruit farmers were terrified, looking at Li Ke as if they had seen a ghost.
Not only was Li Ke not afraid, he even spit on the maid's body, "What the hell, you dare to despise me, bah... death is not a pity."
The person who saw that scene happened to be Mrs. Li who was delivering food.
From then on, Mrs. Li did not dare to disobey Li Ke's orders.
On the day Li Ke was sent away, Mrs. Li took out a large sum of private money and asked the steward to find someone. She wanted to build a new small courtyard for Li Ke to live in the village.
She knew that everything in that village was very crude and her precious daughter would not be used to it.
Because there were too many things to prepare, it took a few days.
It wasn't until the seventh day that a large group of people arrived at Zhuangzi. They also brought five or six carts of daily utensils and more than ten carts of house-building materials, all of which Mrs. Li had prepared for Li Ke.
(End of chapter)