amaotonovel Chapter 1210 Master Duan Shui
Chapter 1210 Master Duan Shui
Yu Nanshu, who went to boil water, and Cui Jinyin, who went to find food, returned.
One of them had no hot water in its hand, and the other had no hot food in its hand, but they were both holding a bulging package in their arms.
They squeezed into the hall mysteriously, and then politely "invited" Xin Ji and Jiang Zhiming out.
The hall door slammed shut in front of Xin Ji and Jiang Zhiming, who looked at each other, completely bewildered.
Just as he turned his head, Hua Duo, who had disappeared for a while, returned, also carrying a package in his arms.
Hua Duo glanced at Xin Ji and the other man suspiciously, then gently knocked on the hall door: "Master?"
"Squeak-"
The door opened a crack, and Cui Jinyin peeked out, stepping aside to let Hua Duo into the hall. She then said fiercely to Xin Ji, "Don't knock!"
Xin Ji laughed angrily: "Did I knock on you?!"
Just as my grandfather said, in front of some unreasonable women, even breathing is a wrong thing!
"No knocking allowed!"
Cui Jinyin left with a single sentence and slammed the door shut without a second thought.
Xin Ji spat at the door, kicked the brick seam twice, and turned to ask Jiang Zhiming, "Aren't you hungry?"
"Gurgle, gurgle—" Jiang Zhiming's stomach resounded like a battle song.
The two of them put their heads together: "A shared kitchen?"
"go!"
......
Inside the hall, three identical pairs of leg guards and three bottles of identical wound medicine were neatly arranged in front of Shen Zheng.
"..." Shen Zheng was both touched and helpless: "You... bought them from the same shop?"
Hua Duo and the other two checked the accounts and came up with two pieces of information.
The first point is that they did indeed go to the same leather goods shop and clinic.
The second story is that Cui Jinyin spent twice as much money on leg warmers as Hua Duo did.
"You...shady...merchant...!" Cui Jinyin's cheeks puffed out in anger, and she gritted her teeth in hatred: "Once the locust problem is resolved, the first thing I'll do when I get back is smash his lousy shop! Smash it to pieces!"
Yu Nanshu felt a little schadenfreude, but not really, because the money she spent on the leg warmers was more expensive than Hua Duo's.
But in any case, Shen Zheng's chafed inner thighs can be saved.
To ensure fairness, Shen Zheng brought three pairs of leg guards and three bottles of medicine into the side hall. After she applied the medicine and put on the leg guards, all three pairs of eyes turned to look at her.
"Teacher..." Cui Jinyin glanced at the two remaining pairs of leg warmers in Shen Zheng's hand and asked hesitantly, "Who... bought these for you?"
Shen Zheng put the remaining two pairs of leg warmers into the pack, tied them up, and smiled: "Guess?"
Let's just guess.
With these identical leg guards, Shen Zheng didn't even know if the ones she was wearing were originally a pair.
......
A moment later, Shen Zheng and the others resumed their journey.
Once back on horseback, Shen Zheng realized that she had been "forcing herself to endure hardship" without any real effort.
The feeling of having leg braces was wonderful. Although the broken skin was still throbbing, she felt a hundred or a thousand times better than before!
"Reach the foot of Wangyue Mountain before sunset at dusk!" With Jiang Zhiming's order, whips cracked and dust billowed.
The group didn't stop for a moment, overtaking several supply teams along the way, heading straight for the foot of Wangyue Mountain.
The county where Wangyue Mountain is located is called Wangyue County, and the village in Wangyue County that borders Yanzhou has a similarly simple and straightforward name—Wangyue Village.
As Wangyue County drew closer, Shen Zheng's heart tightened with each passing moment.
Along the way, people in various counties were busy harvesting crops in the fields.
They moved hastily, their expressions tense, occasionally complaining and sometimes wailing because of the scattered locusts in the fields.
The locusts are increasing in number—this is the most direct impression Shen Zheng has had along the way.
The southwest wind is still blowing, and it seems to be even stronger than before. According to this estimate, the locusts will enter Fuzhou Prefecture in large numbers by the time of Chenshi (7-9 AM) tomorrow at the latest.
After they arrived at the foot of Wangyue Mountain, they had less than seven hours to prepare.
Within these short seven hours, they not only had to build locust-attracting tunnels, but also clear the narrow passes and complete the locust control deployment within them. It was a time-sensitive and demanding task.
Before the sun began to set, the horses' hooves officially entered the territory of Wangyue County.
A strange smell, carried by the wind, wafted into the nostrils of Shen Zheng and the others.
Cui Jinyin sniffed, "What's that smell...?"
Jiang Zhiming sniffed hard, carefully discerning the smell in the air. "It smells a bit like burning mugwort. Could it be that Wangyue County... has already started locust control?"
It's not impossible that ordinary people burned mugwort to drive away locusts.
“No…” Xin Ji’s nostrils twitched slightly as he looked at the gray sky, his expression certain: “This is the smell of incense. During festivals, this is the smell in temples. It’s neither fragrant nor foul, it’s very strange.”
"Incense?" Jiang Zhiming took another deep sniff, the scene from his memory quietly awakened.
Xin Ji was right; this smell really did resemble the smell of burning incense.
"This..." Jiang Zhiming looked towards Wangyue County and asked uncertainly, "Could it be that some monks are performing a ritual?"
"The method?" Xin Ji scoffed. "How interesting."
In times of crisis and survival, there are still people who do not understand the principle that "it is better to rely on oneself than to rely on God".
A hint of embarrassment flashed across Jiang Zhiming's face: "Let's... hurry on our way. We need to pass through Wangyue County to reach the foot of Wangyue Mountain."
The group raised their whips again and headed towards Wangyue County. The scenery on both sides of the road rushed past, and gradually, the wasteland by the roadside turned into rice paddies, and one after another, the figures of the people appeared in the fields.
Compared to the people in other counties, the people of Wangyue County were much more eager to harvest rice, and their actions could even be described as "extremely frantic".
Even so, they only managed to harvest a little over half of their rice.
"How could this be?" Even Xin Ji noticed something unusual: "They seem to be harvesting rice quite efficiently, so how come they haven't harvested as much as the neighboring county? This shouldn't be the case."
Shen Zheng observed the expressions of the people in the fields, and her heart tightened.
This is definitely not right.
In any case, the people of Wangyue County should have been among the first to receive the news, and compared to other counties, their harvest should have been the fastest.
But right now...
Shen Zheng frowned as she looked at the rice stalks that were leaning precariously in the field but still connected by their roots.
where is the problem?
Filled with doubt, the group walked another mile. Every now and then, they saw people hurrying through the fields, seemingly muttering something to themselves.
As the horses' hooves drew closer, the muffled murmurs of the people grew clearer.
"Hurry up, it's our turn. We'll come back to collect the offerings after we're done!"
"It's exhausting! I can't even take care of the fields, and I still have to run back and forth! I finally managed to harvest some rice, but I have to grab a handful to use as an offering!"
"Shh! Don't say things like that, we can't offend the Locust King!"