Hidden in the court

Chapter 112 Red Pomelo

The guard at the entrance of the Agriculture Department looked at him in surprise and hurriedly explained, "Young man, just go in directly."

"Oh, thank you."

After Xie An came in, he began to look for officials from the Agriculture Department.

"Sir, I have a grievance to appeal. My family is in the silk business, but recently the mulberry trees and silkworms can't survive. I suspect someone has poisoned my land!"

Hearing this, the official asked curiously, "If there is really someone so bold as to poison the land, how many acres of mulberry fields do you have?"

"About a thousand acres." Xie An replied.

When the official heard this, he immediately jumped up from his seat, his face changed drastically, and he asked in a trembling voice: "How much? How much did you say just now?"

"Um... about one thousand acres." Xie An answered seriously again.

Seeing the boy's serious look, the official already had beads of sweat on his forehead.

If it was a small piece of land, he could do it, but he wouldn't take it so seriously. Who knew this kid would ask for a thousand acres? That's more than a thousand acres, and it's more than a thousand acres outside Chang'an City. If he can't do it well, his life will be in danger!

I was crying out in my heart, who the hell did this? More than a thousand acres of good land was ruined like this.

He took a deep breath, adjusted himself quickly, and asked Xie An: "Tell me first, when and where, are there any other clues?"

"Your Excellency, it could be lead. It happened about five or six days ago, and there are no other clues."

The official paced back and forth anxiously, and finally called a dozen people to follow Xie An to go to the field to take a look.

After checking the situation on the land, it was confirmed that a small part of the nearly 1,000 acres of land had survived. The official said to Xie An solemnly, "Please rest assured, give me five days and I will get to the bottom of it. The Agriculture Department will also compensate part of your losses, but please don't make this matter public."

Seeing his attitude and address, Xie An couldn't help but feel a little amused. This guy seemed to think of himself as a relative of an official in the Northern Territory. But he didn't deny it. After all, at this time, having such an identity can really make things much easier. The problem of nearly a thousand acres of land would be much smoother if there was a backer.

"You are joking, sir. I won't make it public. I am still waiting to catch the thief." Xie An said with a smile.

"Okay, sir, please be patient and trust our Agriculture Department." The man nodded in response, then left with a group of people.

Watching the people from the Agriculture Department leave in a mighty procession, Xie An turned back to the mulberry garden. At this time, the old man had brought more than 20 dogs with him, and after they had fed and drunk enough and recognized the people, they released them into the fields.

When Xie An returned home, he saw Suo Wei sitting at the table with a stack of papers in front of her. She raised her head and looked at Xie An tenderly: "These are all from Liangwu, who came to the North to do silk weaving business. There are only three families who have old grudges against our family, and their business is not big. There are only cloth shops here, but they all have industrial chains."

Xie An nodded slightly, indicating that he understood.

He walked to the table and sat down, picking up one of the papers and reading it carefully. The paper detailed the backgrounds of these merchants, their business dealings, and their grievances and disputes with the Suo family.

"Are these things I wrote useful?" Suo Wei asked softly, her voice gentle but enough to break the silence around them.

"Of course it will work!" Xie An nodded vigorously, his eyes firm and delighted. He continued, "I have already reported to the Agriculture Department. They promised to give us a reply within five days. We can ask them to focus on investigating these three companies."

Suo Wei frowned, a trace of doubt flashed in her eyes. She was not used to leaving the success or failure of things to others.

"Are we just going to sit here and wait? Should we go to these three stores and have a look?" Suo Wei asked in a worried tone, with a sad look in her eyes.

Xie An shook his head slightly and explained seriously, "It's easy to alert the enemy if we do this. If we go to these stores now, it will arouse their vigilance. So, we have to wait patiently and observe secretly. If it doesn't work, it won't be too late for us to check it ourselves."

"Okay~ I'll listen to you."

Suo Wei understood that what Xie An said made sense, so she decided to listen to Xie An and not go to those cloth shops for the time being.

Suo Wei supported her chin with both hands, staring at Xie An who was looking serious, with a faint curve at the corner of her mouth.

However, when Xie An looked up and found Suo Wei staring at him intently, he was still a little flustered, and could only smile embarrassedly and turn around to collect the papers.

There was a tacit understanding between them.

Suo Wei gently patted Xie An's shoulder from behind and said softly, "Thank you, my husband."

Xie An turned his head away, his face flushed red but he didn't dare to look back.

Xie An suddenly felt something was wrong. He took a quick glance and saw Suo Wei calmly putting away the table on the bed. No matter how curious he was, he didn't dare to ask.

"What are you still doing there? You've almost torn those papers apart..."

Xie An still didn't turn around, nor did he answer. Suo Wei looked at him with some confusion, and couldn't hold back the smile on her face.

She slowly stood up and walked behind Xie An, stretched out her hand and held his hand, took the papers from him and put them away. Then she held his face and turned it around to look at her. Xie An's heartbeat quickened again, his face flushed, and it seemed as if a large amount of steam was coming out of his head. He looked at Suo Wei nervously, not knowing what she was going to do.

Suo Wei looked at the "red grapefruit" and chuckled, then said softly, "Okay, I won't tease you anymore. Go to bed early, you'll be busy tomorrow."

……

The next morning, the sun shone through the clouds, illuminating the entire village. Xie An and Suo Wei went to Sangtian again, hoping to find some clues to find the mastermind behind this incident.

When they arrived at the mulberry field, the old man was waiting there. Seeing the two people coming, the old man came forward to greet them.

Xie An asked if anything unusual happened last night. The old man shook his head, indicating that everything was normal.

"Although the dog barked a few times, it didn't bark at people in bursts."

Hearing this, Xie An and Suo Wei breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that perhaps no one had come last night.

However, when they looked closely at the remaining mulberry trees, they became annoyed again.

The mulberry trees, which were once healthy, now looked sick, with yellowing leaves and withered branches. It was obvious that someone had poisoned them a second time.

"acquaintance?!"

Xie An and Suo Wei looked at each other and said in unison.

This idea emerged in their minds. These dogs came from different families. The only possibility that they could sneak into the mulberry garden and poison the mulberry trees without alerting the dogs was that there were people in the mulberry garden.