The Farm Girl’s Charismatic Fortune
Chapter 142 - 138 Cutting Off One’s Own Lifeline

Chapter 142: Chapter 138 Cutting Off One’s Own Lifeline

Unbeknownst to them, the days crept closer to the Small Year festival.

Two days before the Small Year, Ruo Shui had to deliver books to the bookstore and incidentally went to pick up the children from the Martial Arts Academy and the Academy to bring them home.

Starting from tomorrow, the Academy would begin its holiday, which would last until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

Ever since they bought a carriage for the household, Ruo Xuan had been busy with tasks in the fields every day and had not once ridden in the carriage. Aside from Granny Lei, everyone in the household had been for a ride. Today, the grandmother and grandchild finally got their turn.

Granny Lei originally didn’t want to go into the city, but she had never ridden in the family carriage. Her son, grandson, and daughter-in-law had all urged her to try it out and take the opportunity to buy some New Year’s goods in the city for the celebration; only then did she agree to come out.

Leaving the village, it took less than a quarter of an hour to reach the city gates.

Today was the market day in the county town, and with the year’s end upon them, the city was extremely crowded.

Driving the carriage was indeed slower than walking!

Especially now, for some reason, people on the street were running in a particular direction.

Granny Lei lifted the carriage curtain and peered out, curious about the crowd all running in one direction, "What’s happening?"

Ruo Xuan, being small, couldn’t see anything even if she stood up, but she could hear very well! So, she quickly learned from the varying comments of the crowd what was going on.

Ruo Xuan also smelled a faint scent of blood in the air, "It must be that someone from the General Residence of Loyalty and Bravery is being executed today."

Ruo Shui overheard people discussing "treason," "the extreme penalty," and phrases like "punishment of being cut into thousands of pieces."

The General of Loyalty and Bravery was a Fourth Rank leader, and the Imperial Court had regulations stating that officials of the Fourth Rank and above who committed crimes must have their sentences decreed by the Emperor.

Yan Heng sent the evidence of the crime back to the capital to await the Emperor’s instruction. This back-and-forth caused the delay until now, when the Emperor’s decree finally reached Shaxi County.

Therefore, the execution of the General of Loyalty and Bravery and others also happened only now.

Upon hearing this, Granny Lei immediately said, "Old Four, hurry, let’s go see this!"

She wanted to witness the death of these utterly conscienceless people so that she could recount it to her husband after a hundred years.

Ruo Shui also wanted to see, but there were too many people, and they couldn’t move forward. Besides, with Xuanbao being so young and the scene likely to be so bloody, it wasn’t suitable to take her along. What if it frightened her?

He suggested to Granny Lei, "There are too many people, and the carriage can’t make it through, Mother. How about I take Xuanbao to find a place to stop the carriage, and you go watch."

Only then did Granny Lei remember that Xuanbao was still on the carriage. Xuanbao couldn’t go to see it, to avoid nightmares afterward.

"I’ll go have a look. There are too many people, don’t you two go. You deliver the books, that’s more important. We’ll meet later at Xuanbao’s Aunt’s general store."

"Alright! Then Xuanbao and I will go to the bookstore first to deliver the books."

Xuanbao was a child with her own ideas. She stood up, wanting to follow her grandmother off the carriage, "I also want to go with Granny to see!"

"No!"

"No!"

Both men hastily objected in unison.

Xuanbao blinked, looking at her father, "Dad, I really want to see it too!"

Ruo Shui couldn’t bear to refuse her and thought of Madam Liu, quickly looking up at the sky, "Ah! Xuanbao, look at how beautiful the clouds in the sky are! Does that cloud look like a rabbit? And that one like a goat?...."

Xuanbao glanced up briefly.

Granny Lei immediately took the opportunity to slip away.

What a joke!

The execution officer was the Princely Heir Yan, and it was said that his tactics in dealing with traitors were extremely cruel; he did it in front of everyone, cutting the flesh from foot to head, slice by slice, and fed it to wolves, even crushing the remaining bones to feed to wolves.

Making the person watch helplessly as their flesh was cut off bit by bit to feed the wolves.

How could they let Xuanbao witness such a cruel scene!

"It doesn’t look like it at all!" If the white clouds in the sky looked like rabbits and goats, that would be so bothersome! Xuanbao withdrew her gaze.

Granny Lei had already disappeared into the crowd due to the bustling market street.

Ruo Shui breathed a sigh of relief and coaxed, "Xuanbao wants to see, we’ll go next time, all right? Let’s deliver the books first."

Ruo Xuan rolled her eyes just like Yan Huan, thinking whether such a thing would ever happen again.

Don’t think she didn’t know her father was fooling her!

Ruo Shui quickly drove the carriage towards the bookstore.

Since the bookstore was on another street, he had no choice but to follow the crowd, moving slowly for a while, before turning into another street where there were finally fewer people.

Father and daughter arrived at the bookstore.

The bookstore shopkeeper was very happy to see Xuanbao, "Eh, Xuanbao is here today too, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you!"

Ruo Xuan smiled and greeted, "It’s been a long time, Shopkeeper Uncle."

Ruo Shui carried the books inside and said with a smile, "Shopkeeper, here are the books for this time."

The shopkeeper accepted them with a smile, and then paid the silver, before saying with an apologetic face, "Starting today, our bookstore will no longer be accepting books."

Ruo Shui nodded and asked, "Is the bookstore closing for the New Year this early?"

A hint of embarrassment flashed across the shopkeeper’s face, "No, it’s that our owner has hired a lot of people to transcribe books, so we’ll no longer be accepting books from scholars."

Ruo Shui didn’t think much of it, but felt somewhat regretful. Since Xuanbao invented movable type printing, their family had made a fair amount of silver by printing books.

If the bookstore no longer accepted books, they would lose a significant source of income.

However, that was alright. He could ask other bookstores; surely not every bookstore would stop accepting books.

Ruo Shui smiled and said, "Is that so? Well, no problem, let me know when you need more books."

The shopkeeper’s eyes darted, and Ruo Xuan immediately saw that he was lying!

She quietly cast a mind-reading spell.

The shopkeeper said with a smile, "Okay, the moment my master needs to acquire books, I’ll notify you right away."

There would be no later. The master had somehow obtained a set of movable type printing, and from now on, the bookstore would print its own books.

That set of movable type printing was quite efficient; it could print several hundred books a day. With many hired hands, they could produce up to a thousand books. Why would they need to take in external books!

Ruo Xuan: So the movable type printing has already spread!

Was she inadvertently sabotaging her own livelihood?

But it didn’t matter; they could sell the books they printed in their own bookstore.

Since the bookstore was no longer accepting books, Ruo Shui took the silver for this time and left after saying goodbye to the shopkeeper, pulling Ruo Xuan along.

Ruo Shui said to Ruo Xuan, "Xuanbao, let’s go check out other bookstores."

These days, he and his brothers had worked day and night to print quite a few books; there were still hundreds of books piled up at home. Somehow, he had to find a bookstore to take them!

However, after visiting many bookstores with Ruo Xuan, they all said they would no longer be accepting books in the future.

Ruo Shui said in astonishment, "Strange, why have all the bookstores stopped accepting books?"

Xuanbao: "It’s because our movable type printing has been spread around!"

The Imperial Court was aware, and she had received rewards, so Ruo Xuan thought it was normal for the method to spread.

Upon hearing this, Ruo Shui also felt it made sense.

"So that’s how it is. It seems like we can only sell our books at the Academy from now on."

It was a pity they could no longer earn silver from transcribing books!