The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 891 - 869: Lending a Hand

Chapter 891: Chapter 869: Lending a Hand

Even though Yang Heshu and Tang He’s correspondence had been continuous, the letters didn’t contain much detail. During this meeting, he took the opportunity to brief the two youngsters on everything that had happened during this period.

The most crucial task at hand was to find the evidence lost in the mountains, and to save their own lives.

County Magistrate Yang had promised to find them helpers, and true to his word, many people were sent over. The next day, a strong man arrived, leading a group of twelve.

The sudden appearance of so many people in the village made the residents of Qili Village anxious.

Old Master Bai had no choice but to come forward and explain, "These are short-term laborers hired by our family. Unfortunately, it’s the busy spring season now, and it’s hard to find help, so we had to look for laborers from outside. I’ll make sure they behave and don’t wander around the village."

The villagers remained skeptical, "Are short-term laborers these days all so strong?"

"Yeah, if they can afford to eat well enough to get so strong, why would they come out to do temporary work?"

Old Zhou, however, knew why they had come and spoke while smoking his dry pipe, "Why are you worrying so much? They are staying outside the village on the farm, and they hardly come into the village. We just need to mind our own business."

Once Old Zhou spoke up, people began to pay attention to him, and they questioned him, "Uncle Jin, we were just about to ask you, why has your granddaughter Manbao come back? Wasn’t she studying in Yizhou City with a teacher and learning medicine?"

"Yes, and the two young masters of the Bai Family have also returned. Is Yizhou City also observing the agricultural leave?"

"How long will she be staying this time?"

Old Zhou said without changing his expression, "She’s back for now and won’t be leaving."

"Not leaving? Why?"

"What else could it be? The teacher in Yizhou City was no good," Old Zhou brazenly said, "Not as good as Mr. Zhuang. It’s expensive to live there, eat there, and since Mr. Zhuang can also teach here at home, it’s better to stay and learn here, where food and lodging are provided by the family, and it doesn’t cost a penny."

The villagers agreed this made sense and stopped asking.

Once the people arrived, Manbao set out early the next morning, her small basket on her back and a small hoe within, ready to leave.

Old Zhou stopped her, "Don’t go alone. Have your brother Silang accompany you."

Manbao had only mentioned briefly that she had offended someone in Yizhou City and could no longer stay there, without naming who, but Old Zhou had his suspicions.

He vaguely knew that the situation couldn’t be settled so easily anymore. It wasn’t a time when he could just declare he would not pursue it.

Even if the Bai Family wanted to disassociate themselves from them, the big villain in Yizhou City might not believe it. So, willing or not, his family had to get involved.

Indeed, ever since twelve years ago when Zhou Yin had crossed paths with Bai Qi, their family had been implicated in this matter.

Old Zhou said, "Let your brother lead the way. Although he hasn’t been to the mountains in many years, he’s still better than you. Don’t go to Zhou Hu. He has his own family to care for, don’t drag them down too."

Manbao agreed.

Zhou SiLang also habitually carried a basket and followed her. The siblings arrived at the Bai Family, where Bai Shan had been waiting. As the three were about to leave, Bai Erlang sneaked out from the side and scuttled between Bai Shan and Manbao, urging in a low voice, "Hurry, let’s go..."

Bai Shan and Manbao, flanking him, started to run, asking as they moved, "Did you sneak out?"

Bai Erlang nodded, "You have no idea how scary my dad is. He actually dug out my brother’s homework for me to rewrite all over again, and I still have to do the assignments given by the teacher. My God, my brother is so much older than me, and he’s been studying for so many more years. It’s horrifying."

The three dashed to the foot of the mountain, where Liu Gui and Pan Ling from the County Governmental Office were already waiting. The two stepped forward to greet them with a bow.

Liu Gui reported, "Young master, we’ve searched several places again without success. Oh right, this is a map drawn by Zhou Hu, but this map..."

Zhou Hu couldn’t draw maps. He had simply drawn circles on a blank piece of paper, telling them that when he and Zhou Yin were young, they had visited here, there, and over there...

Zhou Hu said this while Zhou SiLang was also present. Zhou SiLang grabbed the paper, looked at it, and said, "I’ll lead you. I roughly know these places. Since the mountain is so large and you all need to search it, it can be roughly done. Just be careful during the search."

Liu Gui: ...

Manbao felt it made sense. Now, Keke’s scanning range was a thousand meters. Covering a square kilometer was already vast. She thought covering Dahu Mountain shouldn’t be an issue, and now that there was no need to return to Yizhou City, she had plenty of time.

Thus, she raised her hand in an ambitious gesture and loudly declared, "Let’s go!"

And so, a group of people grandly entered the mountains.

Liu Gui saw her summoning everyone into the mountain and hurriedly said, "Miss Man, there are so many people. Shall we split into several teams to search in different directions? If we send people to every direction, it will speed up the process."

Pan Ling also thought his suggestion was sensible, especially since their group of two boys and a girl didn’t look very reliable as leaders. So, he said, "Young Master Bai, please assign two guides for us. We can split our people into two groups."

Manbao figured that, with Keke present, following them wouldn’t be of much use. So she nodded to Bai Shan and whispered into his ear, "Let’s have them split into four teams, and we’ll be our own team. With my brother leading us, we won’t get lost, and Daji can ensure our safety."

Bai Shan asked, "Just the five of us? Isn’t that too few?"

"Not at all. Aren’t there also six or seven people in their team?"

Bai Shan thought about it and then divided the groups as Manbao had suggested.

Liu Gui was taken aback and asked, "Young master, am I not following you?"

"There’s no need," Bai Shan shook his head and said, "Get four people to split off, send two each to guide the other teams. Brother Pan, please also assign four of your men to join their two teams. Places that have been searched don’t need to be searched again. Continue looking from places that haven’t been checked yet. As for us, we will specifically look for the places marked by Zhou Hu."

Manbao said, "Wherever we have searched, we will carve a cross on the tree trunk. That will indicate that we have covered a kilometer radius around that tree."

Liu Gui’s brow twitched, "A kilometer?"

Manbao nodded seriously, "Correct. Of course, you don’t need to mark anything. With people exchanged between the two teams, everyone will know what has been searched and what hasn’t, and since the directions are different, there will be no overlap."

Pan Ling felt even more convinced that splitting up was the right choice, as Miss Man seemed somewhat abnormal. A thousand meters circumference, especially in such dense woods? How long would that take?

You might as well scale it down, saying ten meters or twenty meters would do.

Pan Ling shook his head but agreed nonetheless.

So, each team chose a direction and set out. Seeing the others depart, Manbao asked Zhou Si to take out the map, and the four heads came together to discuss.

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