jdhmnovel Chapter 1351 Suckling
Chapter 1351 Suckling
After surviving an assassination attempt, Shen Zheng became the center of attention for everyone in the county government.
In the following days, wherever she went, she was always followed by at least seven or eight people, which made quite a spectacle of herself.
The villagers were terrified and would wander the streets whenever they had a spare moment. Over the course of a few days, they caught several "suspicious people".
Xu Yunyan was the kind of person who would rather kill three thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free. He interrogated all those suspicious people.
Suspicious Person Number One – A man from Yanzhou who wanted to buy a house in Tongan County but couldn't find a broker. While wandering around the streets, he was stopped by the county residents.
Suspicious Person Number Two – A man from Fuzhou, who came to Tongan County with a large sum of money to buy rice seeds. Fearing that the money would be stolen, he was extremely vigilant and kept clutching his pockets. He was then subdued by the county residents.
Suspicious Person No. 3 – a habitual thief, had his eye on Suspicious Person No. 2 and followed him until he was mistaken for an accomplice and apprehended by the county residents.
Suspicious Person Number Four – A constable from Fuzhou, who was on leave, came with Suspicious Person Number Three, intending to catch him red-handed and take him back to claim credit. However, he was held down by the county residents who mistook him for an accomplice, Number Two.
After a thorough interrogation, the assassin was nowhere to be found, but a habitual thief was apprehended.
The constable from Fuzhou was devastated when his merits were stolen. Xu Yunyan personally apologized to him and wrote a letter of commendation to Jiang Zhiming before the matter was finally settled.
After this incident, Xu Yunyan stripped the people of their "right to arrest," but many more county soldiers in disguise appeared in the streets and alleys.
Before we knew it, late autumn had arrived.
That day, Shen Zheng went out, accompanied by Yu Shizhang, Mu Ruojue, and Hua Duo.
The autumn wind was bleak, constantly lashing against the carriage curtains. Fortunately, the curtains were lined with cotton and were thick enough to prevent them from being blown around.
The wheels rumbled, and the horse-drawn carriage left the county town, heading straight for Xiahe Village.
"Are we heading to the dock?" Yu Shizhang asked.
Shen Zheng shook her head: "Go to the mudflats behind the back mountain."
"What are you going there for?" Yu Shizhang asked again.
Shen Zheng kept everyone in suspense: "You'll know when we get there."
Seeing her like this, Yu Shizhang sighed helplessly, "We just survived an assassination attempt a few days ago, and now you're running around aimlessly again. What am I supposed to say to you..."
God knows, he hasn't been able to eat or sleep well these past few days. Every time he closes his eyes, he sees the image of her with a knife to her neck.
Just imagining the scene made him break out in a cold sweat and feel extremely frightened.
But Shen Zheng, after a few days of quiet, started wandering around again as if nothing had happened.
"Sigh—" Yu Shizhang sighed deeply as he thought about it.
Shen Zheng patted her chest and reassured her, "Don't worry, I'm wearing a breast protector. I must say, it really makes me feel safe."
"Sigh—" Yu Shizhang sighed again.
Heart protector.
As the name suggests, this thing protects the heart, but those ruthless thugs who lick blood from swords always have their eyes on people's necks.
"Don't sigh." Shen Zheng pointed to the back of the carriage. "Aren't Su Yan and the others still here? Even if someone else dares to come, they won't be able to get close to me."
Yu Shizhang paused for a moment: "You knew Su Yan and the others were with us?"
"..." Shen Zheng choked: "Are they very secretive?"
With such a large group of people trailing behind, it would be difficult for her not to notice them.
"Their duty is to protect your safety." Yu Shizhang looked at the carriage curtain. "Even if Hua Duo is highly skilled in martial arts, neither I nor Xiao Xu would feel at ease having her protect you alone. Just that day, that villain's knife almost touched you..."
"Hey, I won't talk about it." Shen Zheng felt a chill run down her spine just thinking about the scene, and quickly whispered, "The past can't be retrieved."
"..."
The village road in Sanhetu was wide and flat, and along the way, many caravans and carriages passed by them.
Shen Zheng quietly lifted the curtain to look at the wagons loaded with goods, and an idea suddenly flashed through her mind.
"You mean..." She frowned and asked Yu Shizhang in a low voice, "Could there be any spirit powder mixed in with these goods?"
Yu Shizhang's expression hardened.
After lowering his eyes and pondering for a moment, he concluded: "This... is really hard to say."
Today, the most prosperous port among the surrounding prefectures is Tongan Port. If someone were to transport spirits by water, they might unload their goods at Tongan Port.
If you want to catch those who sell spirit powder, the dock is indeed a good place.
Can......
“Inspecting the goods is too troublesome.” Seeing Shen Zheng’s thoughtful expression, Yu Shizhang also began to ponder. “Spirit powder is expensive and is now considered a scarce commodity. If someone deliberately hides it among other goods, it will be impossible to find without a careful search. But... if we send people to inspect each of the goods docked at the shore, it will not only prolong the ships’ stay and delay the passage of the dock, but it may also alert the culprit and give the person who hid the goods a chance to move them. We can’t exactly order a search of everyone, can we?”
“Check the goods…” Shen Zheng murmured.
In reality, it's impossible to inspect every item at the dock, let alone conduct a body search.
But there are some things that humans can't do, but what about animals?
Can't animals do that?
"Wang Wang-"
A dog barked from ahead.
A commotion broke out among the caravans approaching from the opposite direction.
"Dog! Why is this dog chasing us? We didn't do anything to it!"
"Hey, it's the roadblock dog at the village entrance! It chases anyone whose car smells of meat! Hurry up and give it two dried fish, or it'll follow us all the way to the county and bite our trouser legs as soon as we get out of the car!"
"So vicious? Why not just smash this vicious dog with a stone?"
"Are you crazy?! This is a dog from Tong'an County! And this dog is very clever. It roams around the village entrance during the day and spends the night at the dock. It will bark at the slightest disturbance on the dock!"
"Oh, it can catch thieves?"
"Hey, it can't really be called a thief, and I've never heard of it catching one, but it guards the boat, so it's a good dog. So stop shouting to kill it, it'll be bad if the people of Tongan County hear that."
"Oh well, let's just give it a couple of dried fish. We're not short of money."
As soon as Shen Zheng lifted the curtain, she saw two small dried fish, each about the thickness of a thumb, arc through the air and smash straight into the big yellow dog's head.
Smelling the aroma of meat, the big yellow dog stopped on all fours.
"clatter--"
The dried fish fell to the ground.
The shopkeeper in the car opposite laughed loudly: "This stupid dog doesn't even know to open its mouth to catch it. It's not as smart as you say!"
The big yellow dog glanced at them and began to eat heartily.
It ate only one of the two dried fish, and held the other one gently in its mouth.
"Suckling sound—"
Shen Zheng poked her head out and started calling to it.
Yu Shizhang: "...You still have the mind to tease the dog?"
Shen Zheng made two more "sniff" sounds, but the big yellow dog seemed not to hear her and turned to run towards the dock.
"Yo-ho—" Shen Zheng raised an eyebrow as she looked at its wagging tail: "Still a snob. Not bad, it has personality."
As we all know, having a personality means being different from others, whether it's a person or a dog.