Steam Era: The Lord of 'Puluo' Chapter 1242 599: Mountain Collapse

With a face full of soot, Li Banfeng and the bruised Zhang Peiwen sat together on the village chief's sofa, silently staring out the window.

With a snort, Zhang Peiwen said, "You're really harsh when you hit people, almost as bad as my mom."

Li Banfeng also snorted, "You blew me up, and I'm not allowed to hit you?"

"That dynamite won't kill anyone," explained Zhang Peiwen seriously, "I've been blown up once and didn't die, which is why I dared to blow you up."

"Why were you blown up?"

"I want to go home," Zhang Peiwen said, lowering his head, "I want to go home to take care of my parents. They need me, but the village chief says you can't leave unless you sign the contract, so I tried to escape and then got blown up by the village chief."

"Then you've been confined here ever since?"

Zhang Peiwen nodded, "Although I'm held here! I will never succumb to them. I absolutely won't sign the contract. I refuse to stay here for half a month. Let's see what they can do to me!"

Li Banfeng asked, "From which day is this half-month counted?"

"From the day the contract is signed."

Li Banfeng pondered the time of Zhang Peiwen's disappearance, "From when you came to Gourd Village until now, it's almost been half a month, hasn't it? You might as well have signed the contract early and then left sooner."

Zhang Peiwen blushed, "There's still several days left, I'll behave well in these days, and they'll let me go."

"Did they tell you this?"

Zhang Peiwen shook his head, "That's what I thought myself. Those who behave well will always be rewarded."

Li Banfeng laughed, "Who taught you that?"

"My mom..."

"Your mom reported to the police, they're searching for you. I'm the police, and you still blew me up?"

"You're the police?" Zhang Peiwen glanced at Li Banfeng in disbelief.

Li Banfeng didn't feel like proving his identity, he went straight to some questioning, "What is the name of the taxi driver?"

"Which taxi driver?" Zheng Peiwen lowered his head and wrote with his finger on the ground.

"The taxi driver before you entered Gourd Village."

"I don't know him, he stopped in front of me, probably wanted to make a business deal with me. The road's so close, I couldn't possibly take the taxi."

The words made sense, but Zhang Peiwen's tone and expression were off, as if lying was a daunting task for him.

It's best to get Meng De to verify this, but Meng De is busy at Qi Qiu City's lab, helping his wife with experiments.

Li Banfeng asked again, "How did you enter Gourd Village?"

Zhang Peiwen opened the door and glanced outside, the hallway was empty, then he shut the door and said to Li Banfeng, "Once you leave the village, you can't talk about things in the village, but as I'm still in the village, I should be fine to talk,

I was buying medicine for my mom, turned around and saw two sisters waving at me at the door, so I followed them in..."

This part he wasn't lying about, his story basically matched the monitoring footage.

Li Banfeng asked, "Do you really want to go back?"

"Yes, really want to!" Zhang Peiwen nodded firmly.

"Alright, I'll figure out a way to get you back, but you must not blow me up again or harm me using other methods in the future."

Zhang Peiwen nodded, downstairs came the sound of a ringing gong, Li Banfeng looked out the window and saw Ah Yi calling out, "Come down to eat!"

Li Banfeng shouted angrily, "After coming down you'll blow me up again, or shoot me with a Gatling gun?"

Ah Yi called out, "Our village has rules, no fighting while eating!"

Zhang Peiwen said from behind, "That's right, during meals Gourd Village doesn't permit fighting."

Li Banfeng hesitantly led Zhang Peiwen to push open the door.

The staircase of the house appeared, the two went downstairs, arriving in the courtyard.

The courtyard had been prepared with food, families from nearby houses came to eat, about ten people, sitting around a table.

Gotta admit, the people in Gourd Village might be a bit mad, but they really are quite good-looking, the women with beautiful figures and lovely features, you couldn't even guess their ages.

The men were burly, strong with great physique, not only handsome but full of yang energy.

The village chief wasn't much for decorum, a big table, no rank or respect among people, sit wherever.

There were about a dozen dishes laid out, ingredients were nothing special, cucumber, potato, eggplant, pepper, fish, chicken...

Ayun served everyone a bowl of rice, specifically telling Li Banfeng, "There's more if needed."

The group began eating, Li Banfeng, holding chopsticks, watched everyone until he confirmed they all ate, then he started eating.

After a busy morning, he was indeed quite hungry, the dishes were simple, cooked in big pots but tasted pretty good, mainly because the ingredients were fresh, and the drugged ingredients were appropriately used.

Li Banfeng said to the village chief Ah Yi, "I came here for another reason, half a month is too long, do me a favor, make the time shorter, and I'll immediately sign the Contract Book."

Ah Yi sighed, "We rarely grant favors to anyone."

Li Banfeng grinned, "Rarely, implies you have granted favors before. So tell me, what are the conditions?"

Ah Yi thought for a moment, "What could the conditions be? It's like when we eat, we rarely poison anyone, but if we encounter a fateful person..."

Li Banfeng scanned everyone's expressions.

They pursed their lips, their nostrils fluttering.

Could they be holding back laughter?

Li Banfeng put down his bowl and chopsticks, surveying the crowd, "You're deceiving me. You've all eaten from this table, how could you have poisoned the food? Don't tell me you're willing to die just to poison me?"

Zhang Peiwen reminded from beside him, "The eggplant dish is poisoned, nobody else ate it, only you did."

"Really..." Li Banfeng glanced at the eggplant, he did like eggplants, and had eaten quite a few just now.