Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside Chapter 1532: Departure

In two days the charcoal workshop had to deliver goods out of the city, but six of the ten mules suddenly fell ill. The housekeeper watching over the Yang Family charcoal workshop was furious and summoned their witch doctors to check whether the mules had been poisoned.

But the two witch doctors examined the six mules again and again and even used a wizard’s medicine on them. Not only did they fail to cure the mules, the animals started passing blood.

Two of them collapsed on the spot, whimpering, clearly about to die.

"That old bastard Lv Guixing is looking to die!" Murder flashed in the housekeeper’s eyes as he ordered, "Tell the Lv Family to send over six mules at once, otherwise the Yang Family will go to the government office to sue him and make him pay one thousand tael of Silver."

He then said to the two witch doctors, "Go check the other healthy mules and see if they’ve got the same illness."

"Yes." The two witch doctors went off with the workshop’s junior housekeeper to carry out the task.

...

After hearing what the Yang Family workshop’s junior housekeeper said, Elder Lv was so angry he burst into tears. Pointing at the junior housekeeper, he said, "Your Yang Family bullies people too much! The mules we sent were clearly fine; after just one night they’re sick? And you want us to pay one thousand tael of Silver? Extortion, this is extortion!"

He added, "If you want new mules, you’re not getting them; if you want Silver, you’re even less getting that. And you still want to report to the authorities? I, Lv Guixing, will go to the government office right now to accuse you of extortion and have the government seal up your workshop!"

The junior housekeeper was shocked and hurriedly said, "Elder Lv, the government’s doors are not easy to enter. If we can settle this privately, let’s settle it privately."

Elder Lv sneered, "Heh, settling it privately means having my Old Lv family compensate your Yang Family? The Lv Family has already suffered a loss once; we won’t suffer a second time. I know your Yang Family is formidable, but my Old Lv family also has roots in Beicang Prefecture. If you want to falsely claim the mules sent by the Lv Family were sick, don’t even think about it."

"Come on, to the Yang Family charcoal workshop. I want to see those mules with my own eyes. If it’s the Lv Family’s fault, I’ll compensate you for the mules. Otherwise it’s your Yang Family deliberately slandering the Lv Family, and you’ll have to pay the Lv Family one thousand tael in return and lay out a banquet to apologize to our Lv Family!"

As he spoke, Elder Lv took his eldest son and the housekeeper, rushed out the main gate, and got on a mule cart headed for the Yang Family charcoal workshop.

The charcoal workshop’s junior housekeeper was alarmed and hurriedly led two servants to give chase, but the Lv Family servants blocked them: "Stop there! You Yang family People still want to throw your weight around in our Lv Family estate?!"

"Get lost!" The junior housekeeper kicked down the Lv Family servant with one blow and went after them with his men.

But Elder Lv had gone by mule cart, and they had been held up for a while. By the time they rushed out of the Lv Family gate, the Lv Family’s mule cart had already gone.

The Lv Family’s mule cart charged straight toward the Yang Family charcoal workshop while shouting grievances to the people along the street: "Folks, that Old Yang family is vicious! They slander our family’s mules as sick and want to extort a thousand tael of Silver from us!"

"Oh? There’s such a thing?" Beicang Prefecture was chaotic and full of idle men who loved a spectacle. Faced with such gossip, they naturally had to go join the fun.

So a lot of people followed behind the Lv Family’s mule cart.

When they reached the Yang Family charcoal workshop, Elder Lv jumped off the cart and tried to rush in, but was blocked: "What are you doing? This is the Yang Family charcoal workshop. You think you can just walk in?!"

Elder Lv roared, "What am I doing? Your Yang Family slanders the mules my Lv Family delivered as sick, and you won’t even let me in to see the mules?"

He pressed further, "Does your Yang Family’s workshop have a gold vault in there, or something shady you can’t let people see, that you won’t even let me in to look at the mules?"

It was the most ordinary sort of question, but the Rong People’s Witch Army had a guilty conscience. Hearing this, they were caught in a dilemma.

When the charcoal workshop’s housekeeper heard that Elder Lv had come in person and was making such a scene, he let out a cold laugh, went to the workshop’s main gate, and said, "Our Yang Family charcoal workshop runs an honest business; we won’t allow Elder Lv to slander us. Since Elder Lv doesn’t believe his own mules are sick, then come in and see for yourself—they’re almost shitting themselves to death!"

Elder Lv was puzzled. Wasn’t it said they were digging a tunnel inside the Yang Family charcoal workshop? So how come the workshop’s housekeeper let him in so easily?

But this was not the moment to think too deeply. Elder Lv shouted, "Look then, let’s look. My Old Lv family’s draft animals come from a business handed down in the family; there’s never been a problem. The one and only time something happened, we were framed!"

With that, he led Housekeeper Lv and his eldest son into the charcoal workshop.

All the way in, Elder Lv quickly memorized the layout of the workshop’s buildings and watched the servants bustling about inside.

After passing through more than half the charcoal workshop, the three of them arrived at the livestock shed where the mules were kept. Of the six sick mules, four had already collapsed; they truly were gravely ill.

The workshop housekeeper pointed at the mules and said, "See that? These are your Lv Family’s mules. Hurry up and take them back and compensate us with Silver!"

"Compensate what? We haven’t even figured out the cause of the illness and you already want my family to pay. If I compensate you, won’t the Lv Family’s reputation be ruined? How will we stay in Beicang Prefecture after this?" Elder Lv squatted down and ordered Housekeeper Lv, "Go to the mule cart and bring the kit for treating livestock."

"Yes." Housekeeper Lv hurried out and soon came back carrying a large chest filled with tools for treating animals.

The Lv Family’s ancestral skills were no joke. After Elder Lv worked for a while, he finally found the cause of the mules’ diarrhea.

It turned out that the people at the charcoal workshop hadn’t fed them carefully enough and had allowed greasy, meaty residue to get into the mules’ water troughs, which led to the diarrhea.

"Look at your water troughs—they’re crawling with maggots. The way you raise livestock, it’d be strange if they didn’t get sick!" Elder Lv pointed at the equipment in the livestock shed and scolded them up and down, nearly provoking the workshop housekeeper into killing him on the spot.

Mules in Great Chu were ridiculously delicate—get a bit of grease in their water, have them drink a few mouthfuls of maggoty raw water, and they’d end up this sick.

"The mules of my Lv Family are raised with great care. Their water troughs are cleaned every day, and they only drink clean well water. You didn’t look after them properly and let them fall ill. My Lv Family is not responsible." Elder Lv added, "And you even fed them some strange things, making their illness even worse!"

The workshop housekeeper was startled and remembered the witch doctors’ medicine for the mules. Knowing this couldn’t be dragged out any longer, he hurried to admit fault and claimed it was all a misunderstanding.

"Humph, if you’d said that earlier, wouldn’t that have settled it?" Elder Lv was feeling quite pleased. Seeing how badly the mules were suffering, he couldn’t bear to watch the animals die and ended up treating them.

He cured four of them; the other two were too far gone and died.

This time the Lv Family had the moral high ground. Not only did they avoid paying, they even pocketed a fee for treating the livestock and went home in high spirits.

As soon as he got home, Elder Lv quickly took out brush and paper and drew the layout of the Yang Family charcoal workshop’s buildings. He said to Lord Ghost, "Lord Ghost, I’ve checked it. That charcoal workshop looks perfectly normal; there’s nothing obviously suspicious. And the workshop housekeeper even dared let me in, which proves the workshop is clean. Otherwise he wouldn’t have dared let me in... Could the information be wrong?"

Lord Ghost shook his head. "For him to send word, he’s at least seventy percent sure."

While he was still pondering, Liu Erjing arrived. "Lord Ghost, there’s a message from that side. Have a look."

Lord Ghost quickly took the slip of paper and, after reading it, felt both delighted and saddened.

The note said the tunnel entrance was likely in one of the houses beside the charcoal workshop, and that they had already bought what they needed and would depart tomorrow.

The Rong People’s Witch Army was suspicious by nature; only after these exposed operatives had all pulled out would the Rong People’s Witch Army truly lower their guard.