Chapter 164 - 164. What’s The Situation?
“What?”
Yongqi almost fell from the soft couch, and the eunuch beside him hurriedly held him. Yongqi’s breathing was not steady, and he rushed over eight hundred miles to take an urgent look. After looking at it, he slammed the table and ordered with a fierce expression,
“Send An Guangxing to suppress them. Kill all the rebellious disaster victims.”
With this Imperial edict, those pitiful disaster victims were out of luck, becoming burial objects for power.
Just as Ji Shuisheng thought, he would rather kill the wrong person than let them go. As long as they were male disaster victims around Fu County, they were all killed without leaving one alive.
Far from the border, Wan Yulin snorted when he received the Emperor’s Imperial edict. ‘He wants to use the Imperial title to trick me back. Is Yongqi impatient?’
“General.”
Lu Yue saw that Wan Yulin’s expression was uncertain as he held the Imperial edict, so he went over and suggested in a low voice, “You can’t go back,”
“If I don’t return, he’ll sentence me for not respecting the Imperial edict. If I go back, a dragon’s pool and a Tiger’s den will be waiting for me.”
Wan Yulin sneered and threw the Imperial edict on the table, his actions extremely disrespectful.
“Then what do you plan to do, General?”
Lu Yue asked. Wan Yulin raised his eyebrows and said,
“Of course, I’m not going back,”
“What if the Emperor reneges on your military power by disobeying the decree?”
This was what Lu Yue was most worried about. Wan Yulin laughed and was very arrogant.
“The Wan family Army only listens to me, and the Emperor can’t command them. He can cut off my pay and provisions at most, but if I don’t return, he won’t dare to fall out with me like this. Right now, he’s suffering from both internal and external problems. If I rebel, he won’t be able to stop me.” “General, there’s no news of team gold, team water, team fire, team earth, and team five. Could it be the Emperor’s doing?”
Lu Yue hadn’t received any Messenger pigeons for three days. He had lost contact with the five teams he had sent to find the iron mine.
“Who else could it be besides him? Please continue to send people to look for them. I want to fight for time with him. Let the great Xia Kingdom fall into chaos. The more chaotic it is, the more beneficial it is for me.”
Wan Yulin sneered as he stood by the window and looked at the sky. The clouds looked like a dragon, and the wind blew off the head of the Dragon. His smile deepened as he thought, “The great Xia Kingdom will have a new monarch.” After two days, Ji Shuisheng and the rest finally left the dangerous area and arrived at a plain. Everyone was exhausted, and if they did not eat, they would not have the strength to continue walking.
“Let’s rest,”
Ji Shuisheng called for everyone to rest. The horse carriage would not be able to pass through the road ahead. The mountain road was very narrow and could only fit two people side by side. Even a cart would not be able to pass through. At that time, they would have to abandon these carriages, and everyone would have to walk again to advance.
The men hunted in the mountains while the women picked wild vegetables. Fortunately, the wild vegetables were still very dense after the rain, and no more food was left. Su Qing had used the food that old master Chu had given her to last two days, and now, she had finished all of it.
Su Qing looked at her surroundings. Not far away, there was a muddy pond. The water’s surface was very shallow, and the bottom was filled with mud. Ji Shuisheng and the others went over to take a look. There were some fish, but they were small and only as long as a finger. They could not catch them with a vine net. They gave up and turned to the mountains to find prey.
However, Su Qing was interested in the mud pool. She put on a pair of straw sandals, rolled up her trousers, and walked in. The mud under her feet was slippery and sticky, but there were also some hard things.
Su Qing bent down to dig at the hard object. It was intense and immense. The clam in the mud pond was big and fat. It took her some effort to dig it out. She was delighted that the heavens would always leave a way out.
“All of you, come down and dig this.”
Su Qing threw the clam onto the shore and shouted to the girls.
“Alright,” they said.
The girls had absolute trust in Su Qing. They all changed into straw sandals and ran over without even asking why she was digging for this thing.
In the past, the girls did not dare to show their arms and legs. However, they had become bolder ever since they got together with Su Qing. They all learned from Su Qing and rolled up their pants, walking into the mud pool hand in hand.
When Aunt Qiu and the others saw Su Qing and the other girls digging for the mussels, they did not stay idle and did the same. There was strength in numbers, and the shore was soon filled with mussels.
“Jiang Laoqi, Li Daniu, you guys dig out the meat of the river clam. There are pearls in the meat. Find a basin and place the pearls.”
Su Qing shouted at Li Daniu and the others who had just returned from cutting firewood. Everyone was already hungry, and it would be faster to work together.
“Alright,”
Li Daniu happily agreed. He had great strength, but breaking the clam with his hands was difficult. So, he used his sickle to pry open the clam with both hands and revealed the meat inside. He then squeezed out a few tiny pearls from the meat.
“There’s a lot of meat!”
Li Daniu shouted excitedly at Su Qing. In his eyes, pearls were not as attractive as meat.
“Dig out all the meat.”
Su Qing was pleased. The pearls could be made into pearl powder, which had the effect of calming one’s nerves. If made into pearl powder, it could also be used to beautify one’s face. She picked some big and round pearls and strung them into necklaces, which were worth a lot in ancient times.
The clam meat contained iron, which replenished blood, and rich phosphorus, which could promote the recovery of human tissues.
There were many ways to eat the clam. It could be fried with chili, boiled with salt, brushed with sauce, and roasted on a stone slab.
She had thought of three ways to make money from the river clam: to treat illnesses and eat it.
Few people were walking on this road, so no one noticed that the mussels in the mud Pond had grown very big. The enormous mussel was even bigger than her face.
The giant Pearl dug out from the clam was bigger than a thumbnail. It was pink, crystal clear, and especially beautiful under the sun. This Pearl alone was worth a lot.
When Ji Shuisheng and Zhong Yong came out of the mountain with a wild boar, they were stunned by the scene in front of them. Su Qing and the ladies and women of Peach Blossom Cove were digging for river mussels in the mud.
There was a small mountain of river clam shells on the shore. Li Daniu, Jiang Laoqi, and the old and young men of Peach Blossom Cove had already dug out three big pots of river clam meat and a pot of pearls from the river clam.
Even Qin Feng had joined them. This was the first time the old man had done this kind of work, which he found very interesting. He dug joyfully and squeezed pearls out of the clam’s meat as if looking for treasure.
What was going on?
“Shuisheng, we’re rich.”
When Li Daniu saw that Ji Shuisheng and the rest had returned, he carried the Pearl and ran over to show off.
“These were all dug out from the pile of river mussels.”
“… Very good.”
Ji Shuisheng didn’t even know how to describe his feelings. He looked at Su Qing, who dug for mussels in the mud. The sun shone on her body, and her face glowed mesmerizingly under the sunlight. Although her hands were covered in mud, she looked gorgeous. The corners of her mouth curled slightly, and her eyes were bright and full of spirit.
“You guys go ahead; I’ll go and cook.”
Su Qing straightened her back. This mud Pond was too big. They had only dug half of it and still had the other half left. Seeing that Ji Shuisheng and Zhong Yong had returned with a wild boar, she decided to go back and cook.
Cooking was good for her cooking skills. She was just a little bit away from upgrading her cooking skills, and this feast of wild boar meat and clam would upgrade her cooking skills.
“Su Qing, it’s a huge Pearl. Here you go..”