Exile with Storage Space: Family Fortunes in the Barren Lands-Chapter 665 - 0618: Fleeing in Panic

A few lackeys came over carrying people.

Those who were captured looked disheveled and panicked.

The Second Master was shocked and angry when he saw those people. How could they be his men?

"Huh, what’s going on?" Someone pointed at the captured people, bewildered, and asked, "Aren’t these..."

Everyone looked at the Second Master, their eyes filled with inquiry.

"What’s going on? Ha! These people were found in the warehouse, holding torches with fire stones hidden on them." Ling Yuezi pointed at the captured people, sarcastically asking the Second Master, "Second Master, don’t you think you owe us an explanation?"

The Second Master was fuming inside!

Shouldn’t it be Mr. Li? How could it be his own men?

But he wouldn’t admit it.

"Ling Yuezi, you’re asking me, how would I know?" The Second Master angrily flung his sleeve.

Ling Yuezi sneered, "Your people repeatedly commit offenses, and you always say you don’t know. How do you manage your subordinates?"

"Yeah, Second Master, how do you manage your subordinates?" someone heckled, "If everyone managed like you, ignoring everything, and when things go wrong, it’s all the subordinates’ fault, you might as well not be the leader."

The Second Master suppressed his anger, pulled the waist knife from a guard beside him, and slashed at the warehouse stewards, "For privately setting fires, according to the village rules, it warrants execution! Today I will teach those violating the rules a lesson on behalf of the Big Master!"

The cold glint of the knife terrified the warehouse stewards, who screamed for mercy.

Ling Yuezi quickly drew her sword, blocking the Second Master’s knife, "Wait! Is Second Master trying to kill them to silence them again?"

Meanwhile, the people clearing the warehouse came running to report, "Miss Ling, the warehouse has been cleared."

"Speak!"

"Yes, the remaining grain is less than a hundred jin."

"Less than a hundred jin? But there are over two hundred people in the village; this amount of grain won’t last even a day." Ling Yuezi turned to the Second Master, sneering, "Second Master, are you trying to starve the entire village to death?"

The Second Master was furious, gritting his teeth and sneering, "Ling Yuezi, how could I starve the village? Stop talking nonsense! Clearly, it’s these people’s failure to guard, and you’re blaming me!"

"I’m talking nonsense? Witnesses and evidence are conclusive, and you still want to deny it? Those people are all yours! What is your intention in allowing your men to set the grain on fire?" Ling Yuezi sternly questioned without any politeness.

The Second Master thought of the earlier plan, unwilling to back down, and asked, "Wasn’t Mr. Li also at the warehouse earlier? Where is he? Maybe he’s the one who started the fire."

"Mr. Li is here!" someone shouted.

Someone dragged out two people from a corner of the warehouse.

They were Li Xingsheng and Lou Chengye.

However, the two had their hands tied behind them, and their heads and faces were covered in soot.

They were in a sorry state.

Ling Yuezi was shocked, "Husband!" She ran over, supporting Li Xingsheng, worriedly asking, "Are you alright? Husband? You just went to the warehouse to check the grain; how did you end up tied up? What happened?"

She tearfully wiped the soot off Li Xingsheng’s face with a handkerchief, then drew her sword to cut the ropes binding him, supporting him.

Lou Chengye had others to untie his ropes.

Li Xingsheng couldn’t help but secretly twitch his mouth, this girl, she acts pretty well.

Ling Yuezi noticed him trying not to laugh and secretly pinched him.

Li Xingsheng gritted his teeth, cursing internally, the ungrateful little girl dared to pinch him?

If it weren’t for him, could this performance have gone so smoothly today?

"Wife, don’t cry, isn’t your husband fine?" Li Xingsheng supported Ling Yuezi, "weakly" coughing.

He claimed to be fine, but appeared very frail indeed.

"Husband, what’s going on?" Ling Yuezi asked Li Xingsheng again.

Li Xingsheng "weakly" gasped for breath, pointing at the caught warehouse stewards, "It was them, they brought me to the warehouse, then drove Ah Qing and Ah Lan away, served us tea. After Xiao Yezi and I drank it, we lost consciousness. When I woke up, there were flames everywhere, and we were tied up." He grasped Ling Yuezi’s arm, "Wife, if you hadn’t arrived with help to put out the fire quickly, I would have been burned to death. Wife, you’ve promised to protect me, now someone has bullied me, you must avenge me!"

He leaned on Ling Yuezi, speaking tearfully, like a little husband who had been bullied.

It was truly pitiful.

Lou Chengye struggled to hold back his laughter.

Ling Yuezi too stifled her laughter, as Ah Lan and Ah Qing had just recounted this bookworm’s impressive fighting in the warehouse.

Swinging a stick with vigor, he knocked people out with a single hit.

This bookworm knows martial arts!

However, he pretended well.

"Husband, do not be sad. As your wife, I will surely help you vent your anger!" Ling Yuezi turned around and glared at the warehouse stewards, "It turns out, you intended to burn the grain and frame Mr. Li. Last time you said he poisoned it, this time it’s arson! You want to make the villagers afraid to take responsibility and put the blame on others! Cowards who dare not own their actions, despicable and shameless scoundrels, how can we allow such people in our village?"

Many people said, "Miss Ling, these people are all under the second-in-command. This incident is inseparable from the second-in-command."

Those who were caught had long harbored hatred toward the second-in-command and began shouting, "Miss Ling, it was the second-in-command who instructed us to burn the warehouse, we dare not burn the grain on our own."

"Second-in-command, why did you allow your men to burn the warehouse?" Everyone looked toward the second-in-command.

"Second-in-command, it’s fine if you don’t like me, but why frame me by burning the grain?" Li Xingsheng looked at the second-in-command and shook his head, "I stayed in the village out of admiration for Yuezhi, I never intended to gain any power here, yet you repeatedly harm the brothers in the village to frame me, this is not what a real man should do."

It is currently the transitional season, and just a few days ago, receiving grain was a great mercy from the heavens to the villagers, yet now it has been burned, not even enough to last a day, who could tolerate this?

For a bit of personal resentment, ignoring the lives of others, anyone witnessing this would be angered.

Under the aggressive questioning of Ling Yuezi and Li Xingsheng, the other villagers grew more resentful toward the second-in-command.

No matter how the second-in-command tried to explain or argue, no one paid attention anymore.

Some people who usually had grievances with the second-in-command took the opportunity to rush at him with knives.

Those who supported the second-in-command also raised their knives to fight back.

Soon, dozens of people were brawling near the warehouse.

The second-in-command had incited public anger.

Fighting against many with fewer numbers, he quickly fell into a disadvantage.

He led his people, fighting as they retreated, and escaped from the village.

The remaining people, those who sided with the second-in-command, seeing him flee, dared not say anything more, all dutifully pledged loyalty to Ling Yuezi, claiming they only followed orders and did nothing against her.

Ling Yuezi seized the initiative, sending people to search the second-in-command’s residence.

Soon, a lot of kerosene and some letters were found at the residence of the second-in-command and his subordinates.

The kerosene was identical to the barrels used to burn the warehouse, clearly purchased in one batch.

The letters were sent by the Southern Yue people.

The letter said if the second-in-command captured the village, they would offer him an official position.

Li Xingsheng held the letters and sneered, "The second-in-command capturing the village to offer it to the Southern Yue people in exchange for an official position, but no mention of positions for the other brothers in the village. When the second-in-command goes to Nanyue, the brothers here will surely be seen as traitors by Zhao Country’s court, and will they still have a place in the future?"

His words made everyone anxious.

They had robbed villages and looted stores before, but never killed anyone.

Since the Big Master fell ill and the second-in-command took over the village affairs, he proposed killing any villagers who resisted.

After killing people, Feihu Village had become a thorn in the court’s side.

The second-in-command handing Feihu Village to the Southern Yue people would be treason.

No future to clean the slate and start anew.

The second-in-command’s actions were too severe!

After several events, the second-in-command’s prestige in the village was completely shattered.

Even those closest to him, fearing repercussions, turned against him regardless of their true intentions.

.

After dealing with the second-in-command, the village still faced a major unsolved problem.

That is everyone’s food supply.

The warehouse was half-burned, and the remaining food not enough to last a day, everyone looked towards Ling Yuezi.

Some of the second-in-command’s men, although they had openly turned against Ling Yuezi, were still discontent, deliberately questioning her on how the food supply would be handled going forward.

"Miss Ling, we can eat half-full today, but what about tomorrow?"

Ling Yuezi said, "Rest assured, there will definitely be food tomorrow, no one will go hungry."

Li Xingsheng also said, "Within three days, certainly ten carts of grain will arrive at the village."

Estimating five hundred pounds of grain per cart, ten carts would be five thousand pounds.

Everyone looked toward Li Xingsheng, was this scholar bragging?

In this transitional period, where would such a large amount of grain come from?