In Love With My Fierce Farming Wife!
Chapter 1313 - 1221: Probing for Information

Chapter 1313: Chapter 1221: Probing for Information

You should know, it was the Qin clan communities and Su Clan that dominated the docks—when those officials came, they would take a detour. Who would dare to come searching? Even if they did search, it was nothing more than a routine procedure.

Several ideas flashed through Su Pan’er’s mind as she looked towards the large ships at the dock.

When did it happen, without her knowing, that this once tiny Shuanghekou had become such a large dock?

The comings and goings of ships seemed to mock her ignorance.

With the iron mine, how far was it to the production of weapons?

Su Pan’er bowed her head, hiding the gleam in her eyes, and silently shouldered the large sack, dragging it laboriously towards the big ship.

By noon, the big ship had been filled with countless sacks carried by the laborers. Once the ship was full, numerous barrels of fresh water and provisions were loaded aboard. Then, the big ship sounded its horn and set sail.

Su Pan’er had noticed that these big ships appeared to be carrying government grain on the surface, but underneath, it was all iron ore.

This grain transport ship, not a sea vessel but a river one, was originally built to carry four hundred dan. Now it had been artificially modified to be bigger and wider. By calculating the load capacity of such a ship, it could carry at least five hundred dan. With more than thirty soldiers as escorts, along with the boatmen and other workers, the actual operational capacity of this newly opened water route was certainly top-notch!

"Ruan Qi, we’ve all agreed to eat lunch over there. Are you coming?"

Brother Zhang came over, wiping the sweat off his forehead as he asked.

The men who frequently hung around the riverbank were tanned to a dark shade by the fierce sun, and their wide grins revealed their exceptionally noticeable white teeth.

"Sure! Just that..."

Su Pan’er said with a shy smile, "To be honest with Brother Zhang, I, well, ahem... have no silver..."

"Ha ha... I thought it was some major concern! It’s just this? That’s no problem at all."

Brother Zhang laughed heartily, stepping forward and patting her shoulder. "The place where we’re headed for lunch has a fixed spot. We run a tab until the manager pays out our wages at the end of the month and then we settle up. That’s how it works here. With the manager holding our wages, are they going to be worried about you skipping out on the bill? Come on, let’s fill our bellies first, and we’ll be ready to work in the afternoon."

"Then, many thanks to Brother Zhang."

Su Pan’er smoothly agreed, taking the opportunity to bend down to adjust her shoe and shrugged off Brother Zhang’s big hand from her shoulder.

Brother Zhang shouted out, quickly gathering a large group of people who moved towards the lunch spot amidst loud jests and laughter. Naturally, Su Pan’er, a new face among them, attracted everyone’s attention and became the subject of their discussions.

Su Pan’er went with the flow and, with her ruffian bravado and strong affinity, quickly mixed in with the others.

The laborers’ spot for eating was very close to the dock, at the end of a large row of shops near the dock. There was a shed set up according to the terrain, and underneath it, an auntie was profusely sweating as she quickly tossed and turned the eye pancakes in a large iron pan.

These eye pancakes were, in plain terms, guotie cakes.

Unleavened dough was balled up and stuck to the sides of the pan and baked with charcoal fire, and the hole in the middle could be threaded with a string to hang around one’s neck as rations—this was actually the current battlefield ration for soldiers. It had been widely adopted here.

As Su Pan’er sized up the surroundings, the group of laborers had already started shouting and found spots on the ground to sit down. Some ordered eye pancakes from the waiter, while others took out the dry rations they had brought with them. Paired with the thin wild vegetable porridge served by the waiter—which was so watery it could reflect one’s image—they ate it along with pickled mustard plant stem.

Brother Zhang also got a large oversized bowl of wild vegetable porridge, topped with a small pinch of pickled mustard plant stem, holding a string of eye pancakes in his hand, each as big as the mouth of a bowl. At a rough glance, there must have been around ten or so.

"Hey, why are you still standing there daydreaming? Hurry and line up, or else there won’t be any pickled mustard plant stem left."

He urged Su Pan’er.

Su Pan’er hurriedly agreed and, following the example of everyone else, stepped forward to get a bowl of porridge and two eye pancakes, which surprised the waiter so much that he looked up at her.

"Only two? Is that enough? Young brother, as they say, being able to eat is a blessing. You can save elsewhere, but if you can’t fill your stomach, how will you have the strength to work?"

Su Pan’er glanced at the others around her, most of whom had four or five eye pancakes, and readily conceded, "Then give me four."

"Alrighty!"

The waiter cheerfully handed over four eye pancakes.

Su Pan’er took them and remembered the past, when she could demolish two ducks in one meal. Now recalling it as she watched the ravenous laborers, she felt a sense of warmth in her heart.

The laborers talked among themselves about the things they had seen while they ate.

"Hey! That ship we loaded goods onto today apparently had two young girls hidden on board, who were as beautiful as flowers and looked like jade. They didn’t have any adults with them, and looking at their demeanor, they probably got tricked by some heartless bastard. Such a sin!"

"Since it’s such a sin, why didn’t you, Peng Erniu, go play hero saving the damsel in distress? You missed a golden opportunity for nothing."

"I really wanted to! But last time I meddled in others’ business and ended up getting bitten back instead, which cost me half a month’s wages. Seeing those two young girls board the ship looking all happy and pleased, if I were to tell them they were being deceived, wouldn’t I just get beaten up again? I’m not doing such a foolish thing anymore!"

"Hahaha..." Everyone burst out laughing together.

Another, while eating his own dry rations, also waved a leek in his hand: "What’s the big deal about two more young girls? Guess what I found today?"

He said with a mysterious air.

Su Pan’er silently listened, walked over to Brother Zhang’s side, and found a small rock to sit on, copying what others were doing. She started eating the eye pancakes in her hand.

The pancakes were really not delicious; not only did they contain wild vegetables, but Su Pan’er also found a mix of at least five kinds of coarse grains inside. However, the wild vegetable porridge was thin enough to dip the pancakes in. As for the small pinch of pickled mustard plant stem, it didn’t look like much, but it was surprisingly crunchy and tasty once in the mouth.

Having worked all morning, Su Pan’er was extremely hungry, and everything she ate tasted sweeter.

While quickly stuffing food into her mouth, she pricked up her ears to listen to the conversations of the others.

"What on earth did you discover? You always talk in half-truths, leaving people itching with curiosity. Out with it, stop dawdling."

Someone teased and scolded from the side, giving the talker a slap on the shoulder for good measure.

The slap almost made him lose his balance, nearly tumbling over. Even his large oversized bowl almost toppled, but he managed to stabilize it in a frantic scramble.