Allure of a Country Maiden
Chapter 170 - 168: Mining Gold Mine Privately

Chapter 170: Chapter 168: Mining Gold Mine Privately

The three of them had picked clean all the medicinal herbs on the mountaintop. Xiao’er had all these herbs in her space and only asked for some sprouts to plant back home. The rest was given to the two Shangguan brothers.

This made Shangguan Xuanhao feel somewhat embarrassed.

"Girl, are you sure you don’t want any? These are many rare and precious herbs that even silver can’t buy!"

Xiao’er shook her head, "I don’t need any more. I have a herb mountain at home that has all of these."

Upon hearing this, Shangguan Xuanhao widened his eyes: "What do you mean by ’they all have kinds’?"

"What it literally means. Can’t you understand that?" Xiao’er looked at Shangguan Xuanhao with a ’you’re so stupid’ expression.

Shangguan Xuanhao turned to Shangguan Xuanyi for answers.

Shangguan Xuanyi nodded in agreement.

"Heavens! Then why did you bother coming to the Medicine King Mountain?! You must be insane! But then again, anyone who can grow so many rare and valuable herbs must be out of their mind!"

"If I didn’t come, I wouldn’t have known that my home has all the herbs grown on this mountain!" Xiao’er asked Bai Tian and Tian Bai in her heart, what other treasures were there on this Medicine King Mountain.

Bai Tian: "There is a gold mine in the abyss nearby. People are mining it now, but no one comes here to mine during the day."

Gold mine? Gold mines belong to the Imperial Court. Private mining can lead to beheading at the very least, and at the worst, the extermination of the entire family.

Wait, someone is mining it now? It’s late at night! No one comes during the day and only at night. Could it be that someone is really privately mining the gold?

Xiao’er glanced at the two men beside her. If she wanted to know whether it was a private mining operation, she just had to lead them in that direction.

In a roundabout way, this could also be considered their private property.

If there really is private mining, it could be seen as giving the Imperial Court a helping hand.

She had heard that the national treasury was depleted due to consecutive years of disaster. If a new gold mine was really discovered, it would undoubtedly alleviate the pressing issue at hand to a great extent.

After all, in such a feudal monarch era, doing more for the Imperial Court meant having more protection for their family!

Xiao’er, intentionally or otherwise, led them around the dangerous areas towards the direction where the gold mine was.

"There is the location of the gold mine below."

"They say that there are even more rare and exotic herbs beneath the cliffs and at the foot of the cliffs. Shall we go down to take a look? Fourth Prince, do you know the way down?"

The Fourth Prince shook his head, "I haven’t been there before, but we can use a rope to lower ourselves."

Shangguan Xuanyi felt that these two people were utterly out of control when they are together! It was night time, not only did they climb a mountain, but they also planned on going down a cliff!

He must be crazy to join them in their madness!

"If you want to go, let’s go in the morning! Look at the time now!"

The reaction of the two men suggested that they were unaware of the gold mine below.

Continuing on down the trail, Xiao’er aimed to get closer to the location of the gold mine, allowing the two of them to discover something unusual.

"Girl, why are you leading us this way? At this rate, when will we ever get off this mountain?" The Fourth Prince seemed to think Xiao’er was completely lost.

"I have a strong intuition for treasures, I’ll go wherever there is one!"

However, Shangguan Xuanhao thought she was just being stubborn and refused to admit she was lost.

"Shhh!" Shangguan Xuanyi signaled for them to be quiet. He thought he saw a glint of torchlight below.

The two of them looked at him:?

"There’re people down there."

They actually had company!

"Let’s go check it out." Shangguan Xuanhao said excitedly.

They finally noticed! It seemed they were indeed privately mining gold, Xiao’er thought.

"We should be careful that the people below don’t detect us." Xiao’er reminded.

The two had no objections.

The way down was not easy, but before they reached the bottom, they heard voices.

They probably thought that no one would be here in the middle of the night in such a deep mountain and wild forest, so their voices were a bit loud.

It could have been the silence, or it could have been the echo because they were in the valley, but they heard an echo.

"My goodness, if all this gold is mined, we’d be rich!"

"Keep your voice down! It’s not even yours. If you ruin the master’s business, your whole family will die."

"Who would show up here at this time!" Although he said this, the tone of his voice significantly dropped.

After that, the three of them couldn’t hear any voices.

But that was enough.

Shangguan Xuanyi gestured to the two of them to go back up.

After they had walked far enough to be safe, the three of them unconsciously picked up their pace.

By the time the three of them returned to the inn, it was almost dawn.

"Girl, pack your bags, we’re heading back to the city right now." Even though Shangguan Xuanyi regretted that Xiao’er had to rush off after walking the mountain path all night with no rest,

But this matter was too big, and they had been to the Medicine King Mountain tonight. It couldn’t guarantee that no suspicious person would know about it, in which case they might alert their quarry.

Xiao’er nodded. She naturally knew the urgency and importance of the matter.

The three of them rode back swiftly to the Imperial City.

Only after escorting Xiao’er back to Marquis Shengping’s Mansion did Shangguan Xuanyi return to the palace.

As soon as Xiao’er got off the carriage and back home, she went straight to Mrs. Liu’s courtyard.

As soon as she entered the courtyard, she heard voices inside.

"I cannot agree to this," Shen Chengyao said firmly.

"Even if you don’t agree, you must agree! I’ve already promised them." Mrs. Shen’s annoying voice rang out.

"Whoever agrees, let him marry his daughter. Mrs. Liu said angrily.

"How could that work, how could my Yuzhu marry, he’s half-disabled! Yuzhu has been delicate and valuable from a young age, she can’t take care of him!"

"Is my Xiao’er a county master granted by the Emperor himself, not more noble than Yuzhu?"

Xiao’er frowned, when did Mrs. Shen come back? As soon as she came back, she started to cause trouble again!

"How can that worthless thing compare to Yuzhu! She’s been washing clothes, cooking, going up and down the mountains, watering the vegetables and farming the fields since she was a child, what hasn’t she done? If she marries, she can eat well and live well, isn’t taking care of a person a good thing? I’m doing this for her own good!"

"Nonsense! Is the county master someone you can insult?" Aunt Rong rebuked.

"Well said, Aunt Rong!" Xiao’er clapped her hands as she walked in, "Aunt Rong, tell her, what’s the punishment for insulting the county mistress?"

"Yes!" Aunt Rong responded with a single word, and then quickly stepped forward to slap Mrs. Shen a few times.

Her action demonstrated to Mrs. Shen what the punishment was for insubordination!

Mrs. Shen’s face immediately turned red and swollen, and her hairpin came loose.

"How audacious! You, a dog slave, dare to hit me! Help! Help! Drag this slave out and flog her, beat her to death!" Mrs. Shen shouted loudly, her excitement making her hairpin drop to the ground.

Aunt Rong elegantly walked back to Xiao’er and Mrs. Liu’s side, her expression unchanged, as if nothing had happened.

None of the servants in and outside the room dared to move, including Mrs Shen’s personal maid, Xuemei.

"Xuemei, you go hit her back for me!" When Mrs. Shen saw that no one was paying attention to her words, she commanded vociferously.

Xuemei lowered her head, motionless, as if she hadn’t heard.

Xiao’er sneered inside, a few days of being served by the servants, and she really thought she was the Old Madam? Her attitude was even more overbearing than the Old Madam!

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.