The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 723 - 712: Big Moves

Chapter 723: Chapter 712: Big Moves

With County Magistrate Tang as a reference, the characters in Bai Shan’s drawings gradually gained depth. Zhou SiLang looked at the drawing and nodded repeatedly, then felt a bit dizzy and immediately stopped moving his head, only using his mouth to exclaim, "Exactly, exactly like that. But you’ve made it too handsome. His forehead isn’t that straight or that wide. It needs to be narrower, and the eyes are a bit too big..."

Bai Shan made slow adjustments, and Zhou SiLang’s eyes brightened, exclaiming, "That’s right, the robber looks just like this scoundrel."

Manbao leaned over to take a close look and said, "Fourth Brother, this doesn’t look like a sharp-chinned monkey. He looks quite alright."

"This looks quite alright? He’s clearly so ugly."

Bai Shan said objectively, "He looks very ordinary, indeed not as ugly as Fourth Brother Zhou describes."

County Magistrate Tang added, "Looking ordinary makes it harder for a person to be recognized."

He looked approvingly at Zhou SiLang and smiled, "Ordinary people, upon encountering a robbery, might at first glance clearly see the face of the person stopping their carriage, but after a harrowing ordeal, they would forget about it. Some would forget how many people there were, or even what happened during that time frame, let alone remember a face. You did very well."

Zhou SiLang laughed happily but humbly replied, "Not at all, it’s mainly because my family members are all quite clever. Just look at my youngest sister."

County Magistrate Tang gave a polite smile, stood up, and said, "Then, describe for me the appearance of the person you beat up. I will go and speak with Mr. Zhuang."

He definitely didn’t want to stay here and be used as a model any longer.

Zhou SiLang didn’t mind, though. He felt even more at ease with County Magistrate Tang not there.

As for a reference, what did it matter when they had already sketched one person on the spot?

By this time, Zhou SiLang felt that the two looked almost the same, both ugly and fierce-looking.

After a round of descriptions, however, the person Bai Shan sketched turned out different, but you couldn’t deny, the drawing looked quite like the real individual.

Bai Shan handed over the two completed portraits to County Magistrate Tang.

County Magistrate Tang examined them closely and nodded his approval, "I had no idea you were so good at fine brush painting, and you’re only twelve, aren’t you?"

Manbao chimed in from the side, "The master who taught us to draw is very good."

Bai Shan glanced at her and said, "It’s obviously your talent that’s good. We have the same master, and yet I haven’t seen you draw this well."

Manbao huffed and turned her head away, ignoring him.

County Magistrate Tang said with a smile, "I had no idea Mr. Zhuang was skilled in fine brush painting."

Mr. Zhuang, standing at the side, smiled and gestured, "That wasn’t me."

Bai Shan said proudly, "Our paintings were taught by my mother."

After a moment of surprise, County Magistrate Tang smiled, "It seems it really is a matter of talent."

Bai Shan smirked triumphantly at Manbao.

Manbao: ...

County Magistrate Tang put away the portraits and said with a smile, "Leave this matter to me. I will ensure justice for your Fourth Brother. However, now that your brother is injured, what about the grain deal we agreed upon?"

Manbao blinked; matters of business obviously required consulting Zhou SiLang.

Having just been robbed of a cart of grain and the money he was carrying, Zhou SiLang felt the loss keenly and immediately replied, "Lord Tang, though I’m injured, I still have brothers."

Though they wouldn’t make much money from doing business with Lord Tang, the sheer volume was significant. Lijun had already calculated for him how much he would make from this deal, and he was certainly not going to give it up.

He looked at Manbao and said, "I’ll have Manbao write a letter home. In just a few days, the grain seed will be transported here."

County Magistrate Tang brightened up, "That’s good then. You know, the grain seed is for spring planting. We need it as soon as spring starts, so you’ll need to deliver all of it before the New Year, which is stated in the contracts."

This would have been no problem previously, as Zhou SiLang could make a round trip in three days. Even if collecting the grain seed took longer, at most he could bring back a cart in four days.

But now, as he lay in bed, that was clearly impossible.

Yet, Zhou SiLang clenched his teeth and promised, "You can count on me."

County Magistrate Tang left reassured.

Manbao wrung out a cloth and wiped Fourth Brother Zhou’s forehead, asking, "Does your head hurt?"

"It hurts."

"Then stop thinking about it," Manbao said. "It’s such a small matter, Fourth Brother. If you’re worried, I can take care of it for you."

"How will you handle it? There are bandits on the road. What if our eldest brother and the others also encounter robbers when they come?" Zhou SiLang, though seemingly assured, was actually quite worried. Counting on his fingers, he said, "Even if all our brothers come, that’s only five people. But they have a dozen or more."

Bai Shan said, "They’ve just robbed once; they probably won’t dare to do it again so soon."

"That’s all just speculation," Zhou SiLang lamented over the stolen grain seed, distressed, "What if they get a taste for it and decide to come out and rob again?"

Manbao repeatedly nodded her agreement, "Exactly, intelligent people should never try to second-guess the thoughts of fools. It’s very easy to guess wrong."

Bai Shan & Zhou SiLang: ...

Manbao continued, "Having grain seed stolen is a minor problem, but what if there’s a confrontation and someone gets hurt? So, we need to nip their little spark of robbery in the bud."

Curious, Bai Shan asked, "How do we nip it?"

Manbao replied, "They have a dozen or so men, right? We just need to gather twenty to thirty people. I don’t believe they would dare to rob us!"

Zhou SiLang responded, "My sister, you earn so little from a cart of grain. I already feel it’s a loss even if my older brothers all come to transport it. And you want to hire twenty to thirty people?"

Bai Shan appeared thoughtful.

Manbao scoffed at her brother, "Fourth Brother, what are you thinking? Of course, twenty to thirty people wouldn’t be hired for just one cart. At the least, they would escort ten to twenty carts. Maybe we would transport all of the grain required by Lord Tang from Tang County in one go."

Zhou SiLang was taken aback and asked, "Where do we have so many carts? You don’t expect those people to carry the grain on their shoulders, do you?"

Bai Shan then inquired, "Does your family have that much money?"

He said, "The carts aren’t urgent; we can rent them, but buying so much grain seed at once, and Lord Tang isn’t providing a deposit. You’d have to front the money to purchase the grain seed. Does your family have so much cash on hand?"

She wasn’t certain how much money they had at home, but she knew how much she had, and the family’s money was only more, not less than hers.

So it should be enough; the concern was whether her father dared to enter into the deal.

Nevertheless, Lord Tang’s character was trustworthy, and he did not seem like someone short of money. Given that, the risk was worth taking.

Thus, Manbao nodded.

Bai Shan then said, "You should write home first and have them start purchasing suitable grain seed from the villages. Once they have secured enough, we’ll hire people and carts here to go and fetch it."

"Wait, wait," Zhou SiLang couldn’t lie still any longer, propped up half of his body with his right hand and raised his hand to stop them, saying, "Why hire people and carts from here? We don’t lack people at home. Even if our own people aren’t enough, there are still people from the village. People from the city are too expensive and may not be trustworthy. If we’re to hire, we should look in the village, right?"

Thinking again, he felt something amiss and added, "Not right, how much would it cost to buy so much grain seed at once?"

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