I Got Rich in Period Fiction-Chapter 575 - 569

At the time, before they could even enter the village, Lu Ye and the armed forces’ elder, Old Xu, and a few others were stopped by Zhao Cheng and his group, who were leaving the village.

Zhao Cheng looked at the group in front of him with surprise, revealing a naive smile as he nervously rubbed his hands together and stuttered, "... Lea... leaders, we’re going to go back to work right away, really sorry, we’ll work extra and stay up at night to make up for the delay."

Lu Ye and Old Xu exchanged glances, and Old Xu directly asked, "Did the city’s work team come to your village for an investigation?"

Zhao Cheng pretended to be stunned for a moment, rubbed his large hands, then scratched the back of his neck in a confused manner, saying, "What work team? We don’t know, haven’t seen any."

"Then why are you all not working and running back here, even saying that your wives are about to be taken away by others?"

That was what Qiao Qingyu had heard, but no more words could be pulled out of those people’s mouths.

Of course, there truly wasn’t any time to ask; if given time, how could there possibly be a shell that couldn’t be cracked open?

A man who was older than Zhao Cheng just smiled naively and said, "Ah, that thing... well, aren’t we all out working? The wives and mothers at home got into a fight, so we were worried and quickly ran back, but then it turned out to be nothing, so we’re hurrying back to work..."

Lu Ye stared grimly at the group in front of him, some holding sticks, some holding hoes, some standing empty-handed at the entrance of the village, a dark mass of people, but one could feel that these people were very united. Saying they were a single entity wasn’t an exaggeration.

Old Xu didn’t want to waste words with them; a search through this village would reveal the truth.

He reached out his large hand and pushed Zhao Cheng away, who was blocking his path, "Don’t stand in our way; we have official business today."

Zhao Cheng grabbed hold of Minister Xu, "Leader, what do you mean? What mistake have the people in our village made?"

"Yes, what mistake have we made? You’re blocking us here indiscriminately; we still need to go back to work."

"Exactly, exactly. It’s almost noon, how will we manage the afternoon work without a full meal? We can’t delay planting ginseng; that’s a serious matter..."

There’s truth in the saying that there’s safety in numbers.

At this moment, even with Minister Xu and Lu Ye, and a few armed forces personnel behind them, their voices were not as loud as those of the people in front of them, who were like a bronze wall and iron barricade at the village entrance, simply not allowing them in.

Minister Xu pulled out his weapon, a gun he carried at his lower back.

With his many years of experience, he was sure there was a problem with this village.

Holding the gun, he shouted loudly, "Shut up, all of you, let us through."

The crowd instantly fell silent, virtually speechless.

Zhao Cheng was the first to dash towards the side of the road, and just like that, a path was opened at the village entrance.

The faces of the crowd turned pale.

Their gazes involuntarily shifted towards the leading Zhao Cheng, and Minister Xu, who saw clearly where their eyes were looking, swept his sharp gaze towards Zhao Cheng on the side and noticed his clenched fists.

Minister Xu raised his voice, "I am the armed forces minister from the county, my surname is Xu. Today, I am here on official duty. It has been reported that the city’s work team entered your village but did not leave. Anyone who is not related to this matter but simply following the crowd or was forced into doing something, I guarantee will not be pursued..."

Minister Xu’s words silenced the scene for a moment.

Then two older people from the crowd spoke up, "We really haven’t seen any work team, but if you, Minister Xu, don’t trust us, feel free to come into the village and look around, search anywhere, in these hundred-plus households, nobody can run or fly away."

Someone else chimed in, "Yeah, go and search, once you’re done, we’ll go back to work."

Even one person spoke loudly, "When you’re done, we’ll walk together; maybe we can help you find the work team on our way."

Zhao Cheng’s hanging heart finally eased; Shuiwa Village was still the same Shuiwa Village.

Facing a great foe, they remained very united. He couldn’t help but lift the corners of his mouth with pride, but he quickly reverted to his original expression, yet Lu Ye caught sight of it.

At that moment, the Village Chief and another work personnel finally caught up, and Minister Xu’s group grew to eight.

The Village Chief’s face was ashen with anger, also dripping with sweat. Regardless of whether the big leader’s daughter was in this village or not, the scene was unsightly.

The fact that such a large group from Shuiwa Village didn’t even greet him and just ran back filled him with unease.

As a Village Chief who was born and raised here, he was aware that in this county, many wives in these thousands of villages were bought.

But for many years it had been like this: the bought women, some would stealthily flee, some were beaten, others obediently gave birth and raised their children here, and then some truly made this place their home.

Women, after all, have limited strength, their arms can’t twist thighs, and in the end, they have to give in.

However, in recent years, there was more and more publicity on this matter, and he had also been cracking down strictly.

But he was still worried about the thorn in his side like Shuiwa Village.

The infuriating thing about this village was that they were almost all of the same surname. Although it was called Shuiwa Village, almost everyone here was surnamed Zhao.

The Village Head was an outsider by surname, but since he became the head, he fell sick every other day, and so, Zhao Cheng came to manage the place.

In the past year, there hadn’t been any issues; it wasn’t different from any other village.

Thus, the Village Chief had a glimmer of hope, looking at Zhao Cheng standing in front, he said irritably, "You disregard the organization, you have no discipline; you’re not allowed to run back here before the workday or home time is up. Who allowed you to come back? What are you doing gathering at the entrance? What exactly happened?"

Zhao Cheng was just about to speak when Minister Xu waved his hand, "Village Chief, no rush, let’s first go find people in the village."

The Village Chief nodded his head then glared fiercely at Zhao Cheng, who in turn pretended to be timidly frightened, saying softly, "Village Chief, we came back because the wives and mothers at home started fighting, then others joined in the melee, making the fight get out of hand... so the kids came to tell us, and I rushed back. Who knew they would follow, it’s my fault, we will make up for the work we’ve missed."

While Zhao Cheng was still making promises to the Village Chief, Minister Xu had already led his people into the village.

These people also followed them in.

Minister Xu, along with Lu Ye and the others, began searching every household, leaving no corner untouched, no cellar unchecked. There were many cave-like dwellings here, making the search not too difficult.

After more than an hour, they found nothing.