Chapter 353: 349: Water Ghost_1

Chen Guanglu felt increasingly annoyed, so he decided to take his subordinates and leave the inn.

“Hey! Be careful! Perhaps your enemies are almost upon you.”

Huang Xiwen called out from behind him.

He was a retainer for the Commandery Prince’s mansion and was involved in the collection of grain in Qinchuan County with Chen Guanglu. They were in a strained relationship.

Today, seeing Chen Guanglu in trouble, Huang Xiwen was delighted.

Chen Guanglu ignored him, but he was extremely alert.

The Jiang family wasn’t easy to deal with, and he had to serve the Commandery Prince, so he dared not be too ostentatious in his actions. Otherwise, taking revenge would not have been so troublesome.

Killing a few people wasn’t something he hadn’t done before, he could send a few men to attack directly.

But once he committed murder, he could no longer operate freely between Qinchuan County and Zhouhe County. His usefulness to the Commandery Prince would diminish greatly.

So, Chen Guanglu had been suppressing his fury until now.

When the Commandery Prince issued the order for him to escort Zhou Wuchang’s young apprentice, Jiang Yingbao, to the county city, Chen Guanglu finally heaved a sigh of relief.

This was very fortunate; he would not need to worry about anything.

Who would’ve thought that the three men he sent yesterday would not return, he didn’t know whether they were unable to act or had been captured.

Chen Guanglu glanced around and headed towards the wharf.

If the task of capturing the person failed, he would simply make a quick exit, the Commandery Prince didn’t specify that he had to complete the task, so he wasn’t worried.

Arriving at the dock, he looked at the large ship with satisfaction.

With this shipment of grain, he had accomplished a significant task.

He didn’t want anything else; he just wanted the Commandery Prince to grant him a title after his success. His Chen family would then become a noble family for generations, enjoying limitless wealth and honor.

At that time, no matter if it’s the little Jiang family or Wu Shi, it would be as easy for him to crush them as ants.

As he was thinking, a child suddenly came running towards him, shouting, “Sir, someone is waiting for you over there, saying they have urgent news to report!”

A jolt of surprise ran through Chen Guanglu as he asked the child, “Who sent you to deliver this message?”

The child was eating a piece of sugar cake in his hands, replying indistinctly, “A dark-faced big uncle.”

“How many people is he with?” Chen Guanglu surveyed his surroundings.

The kid shoved the last piece of sugar cake into his mouth and shouted, “Just one man, he said he has one broken leg and can’t walk.”

Chen Guanglu signaled his subordinates to investigate in the direction the child pointed out, while he quickly ran towards the big ship.

He was certain that Gao Xun, that fool, messed up his task.

And intuition told him that the Jiang family wouldn’t let matters rest.

Thus, the best course of action right now was to hide from any threat and stay concealed until he left Qinchuan County.

Upon reaching the small wooden bridge, there were porters lifting grain in front and behind. He followed behind one of the porters and stepped onto the bridge.

Halfway across the bridge, someone suddenly bumped into him from behind.

Caught off guard, Chen Guanglu was sent tumbling into the river.

He was a competent swimmer, so he didn’t panic after the initial shock.

However, for some reason, something was wrapped tightly around his leg, dragging him down deep into the water.

Chen Guanglu was terrified; he tried to struggle but could do nothing.

The thing was pulling him deeper and deeper into the water, like a dreaded water ghost.

Gradually, Chen Guanglu’s mind started to drift and he succumbed to the darkness.

On the shore, several people emerged from the water, swam to the shore, and waved towards the people on the boat, “There’s nobody underwater, he’s probably been swept to the bottom of the river.”

The crowd sighed.

“Alas, what on earth was he thinking running onto the wooden bridge? Now, he lost his life because of it.”

Someone asked, “Who bumped into Official Chen just now? Why hasn’t that person emerged from the water?”

“Who knows? Our heads were so weighed down by the sacks, who could pay attention to who was around us?”

“That’s right, the man fell into the river and didn’t resurface, he’s probably done for.”

“Sigh, such bad luck!”

The crowd engaged in scattered discussions, but someone soon came over and ordered them to keep their mouths shut and forget everything that happened today.

It’s not a big deal if a few people drown in the river every now and then.

Huang Xiwen quickly ordered the food to be loaded onto the boat, planning to leave Qinchuan County that night.

Downstream and far from the dock, a large gourd floated up from under the water, with a little girl at one end paddling desperately.

It was her, along with her dad who tied a rope around the tail of a big fish, and then tied the other end to Chen Guanglu’s foot, leaving it up to the fish to drown him.

The task wasn’t too small or too large.

First, she had to catch a big fish using a pill, and then took it into her cave.

After that, her father, disguised as a loader, knocked Chen Guanglu off the boat.

And then, her father fitted the rope thrown by his daughter around Chen Guanglu’s foot.

No matter how good Chen Guanglu’s swimming ability was, he couldn’t escape death this time.

Yingbao climbed ashore, the sky already completely dark.

After changing into dry clothes, she finally let out her father and the horse.

As soon as her father came out and saw that his daughter was fine, he heaved a sigh of relief.

His daughter had taken him into the cave under the river, bringing a great amount of river water with her, which damaged many of the mushrooms by the water pool.

Fortunately, only a small area was affected, the rest was not influenced.

However, it seemed that a lot of fish and shrimp were also swept into the water pool, she didn’t know if it would affect the pool water.

The father and daughter returned home overnight, and it was almost dawn.

Chunniang hadn’t slept all night from worry. When she saw her husband and daughter come back safely, she immediately went to make them food.

“Don’t rush, we’ve already eaten. Rest immediately, Baobao is also tired, let her have a sound sleep.” Her father stopped his wife from busying herself and lay back on the heated brick bed.

Considering his daughter had soaked in the cold water for quite a while, he was worried she might fall ill.

Her father briefly shared the course of events, only mentioning that Chen Guanglu had fallen into the river and disappeared without trace. He didn’t mention any more to his wife.

Chunniang didn’t insist on asking more. She added some straw under her daughter’s heated brick bed before lying down parallel next to her husband in their room.

By the time March arrived, a soft rain had been falling non-stop.

Although the rain wasn’t heavy, the lack of sunlight due to the incessant cloudy, rainy days led to the crops starting to mould.

When it was almost May, the constant rainy days continued. The crops developed abnormalities, the mature ears of wheat and millet started to sprout, leaving the villagers extremely worried.

Harvesting now was too early, the majority of the wheat was still in the milk stage, it wouldn’t be able to be stored if harvested now.

If not harvested, the large patches of wheat would sprout, the household could just about eat it, but this kind of wheat was extremely easy to mould, it couldn’t be stored either.

The villagers sobbed without crying, coming to ask her father what to do.

Her father was also helpless.

Not only did the ears of wheat sprout and get mouldy this year, the growth of the mushrooms also started to go badly.

A lot of them hadn’t fully grown when they became insect-infested and turned black.

With no other choice, they could only discard this batch of mushrooms, and steam and cook the nutrient base anew, raising a new batch of mushrooms.

The mushrooms in their family weren’t affected, especially the ones planted by Yingbao, they were exceptionally plump and hardy.

One day, when Yingbao and her second older sister went outside the village to pick locust flowers, they suddenly found a large team of soldiers riding horses, rushing over.

All of them were dressed in armor, carrying bows and arrows. At a glance, they looked like they had just come down from the battlefield.

Yingbao instinctively pulled her second older sister to hide behind a tree, telling her not to make a sound, but Dahuang who came along with them didn’t understand his little master’s meaning, barking furiously at the cavalry.

Because of this, Yingbao saw the group of cavalry galloping towards them.