Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 171
Paying the Ransom
After they found a hotel to stay the night in, Mo Yan and Lu Junming left Yi City early the next morning. Mo Yan neither went back home nor to the commercial firm, but instead followed Lu Junming to the workshop.
As soon as she dismounted from his horse, she instantly rushed towards the office. Chi Jie was the only person there, so she immediately started talking to him about the couple that was selling beef noodle soup.
When Chi Jie heard that, his face became locked into an expression of deep concentration, “So there might actually be reincarnation in the world? It’s unfortunate that my parents from the modern era died when I was young. I think my karma with them is probably insufficient for me to meet them in this era.”
“I left them the address of the storefront. If they’ve come and I’m not around, please don’t just let them leave.”
Lu Junming came over, and when he saw them conversing alone in the office with their faces almost touching, he grabbed Mo Yan’s wrist and dragged her away, “I’m the one who has karma with you from your previous life, not him!” (T/N: And that, dear readers, is what is known as dramatic irony.)
Mo Yan tried her best to be free of him, “Who knows, maybe we’ll have a stronger karmic connection after a few more lives.”
Chi Jie replied smugly, “Definitely, and it’ll be an extremely strong one too.”
Lu Junming glared at him, and Chi Jie grabbed one of the blueprints from the table and ran out, “I’ll take a look at the workshop.”
“How are you planning to deal with the…situation at night?” Mo Yan asked.
“We’ll hide at the exchange point beforehand. Your dad’s still going to pay the ransom, and I’ll take the opportunity to rescue Mo Zheng.”
At noon, while the workers were resting, Mo Yan sought out Dagan to ask questions about the Zhong family. She mostly wanted to know if the courtyard wall of Mo Ling’s future house has been repaired yet, and if a separate door has been made.
His response was that a separate door had been made, but the courtyard wall hadn’t been repaired yet. Not only that, but Zhong Cheng’s second sister-in-law had even adopted a puppy.
Tomorrow was the day of the wedding, so no matter what they did, the wall wouldn’t be repaired in time for the ceremony! Zhong Cheng was a man of his word, so his second sister-in-law probably did something.
With nothing to do, Mo Yan decided to practise her calligraphy, and wrote a letter of guarantee which stated Zhong Cheng had to fix the courtyard wall a month after his marriage.
After it turned dark, they had dinner before laboriously waiting until it was officially night before Lu Junming and Mo Yan set off on horseback. Chi Jie wanted to come as well, but they weren’t doing graverobbing, but saving a person’s life. If Mo Zheng’s kidnapper wasn’t Manager Liang, then there’d even be a fight, so Lu Junming vehemently refused to let him follow them.
They had just gotten onto the main road when they saw Mo Zenian run over.
Mo Yan dismounted, and let Lu Junming find a place to hide in ambush first. She wanted to hand the ransom over with Mo Zenian, so she could help deal with the kidnappers too.
Lu Junming left on horseback first, and Mo Yan followed Mo Zenian, but intentionally decided to stay a certain distance away from him. Along the road, Mo Yan took a sack and filled it with bricks, stones, and even hard lumps of dirt roughly the same size as the silver taels.
Mo Zenian asked in shock, “What are you doing?!”
“Using it as counterfeit money!”
“What, are you broke? Then why are you paying the ransom, do you want to kill Zheng’er?!”
Mo Yan asked, “Would you be so worried if I were the kidnapped one?”
Something changed in Mo Zenian’s gaze, and he hesitated for a while before replying in the affirmative. Mo Yan sighed, “I’m afraid my would-be kidnapper wouldn’t even bother to ask you to pay a ransom.”
The two fell silent, and walked to the fork in the road where they’d be ‘paying’ the ransom quickly. They didn’t know where Mo Zheng’s kidnappers would be coming from, so stood by the side of the road in a conspicuous spot.
It was late at night, and there wasn’t a single person on the road. The wind made the leaves on the trees rustle. Mo Yan searched around for signs of Lu Junming, but didn’t spot him.
Today was the seventeenth, and the sky was clear, so the moon had already risen to illuminate the night sky brightly.
Suddenly, an owl hooted twice from the opposite side of the road. Mo Yan had a flash of inspiration, and raised her head to the trees, but the sound didn’t seem to originate from there.
Then, the owl hooted again, and Mo Yan could hear clearly that the owl wasn’t hooting on the treetops, but below the subgrade on the opposite side of the road. She took a closer look, and behind the trees obscuring the subgrade, there was a gutter almost the height of a man. With a brief burst of joy, she made an owl hoot back. [1]
Mo Zenian turned to look at her, then looked at the other side of the road. It seemed like he had realised something, and then looked left and right for signs of the kidnappers.
Mo Yan looked towards Yi City, but there was no sign of Lin Xian’er. Was she actually unconcerned about whether or not her son was alive?
There was movement in the direction of the Upper Valley, and a carriage drove over basked in the moonlight. Mo Yan and Mo Zenian looked over simultaneously and saw the carriage coming closer and closer, but it stopped twenty or thirty paces in front of them.
“It’s this carriage!” Mo Yan went over to it after saying that, and Mo Zenian followed her.
A figure jumped out of the carriage, but they couldn’t tell if it was Manager Liang. The two stood still, and the figure asked, “Where’s the ransom money?”
The figure had covered their mouth with their hand as well, so they couldn’t tell if they were Manager Liang from that either. Looking at them carefully, using the moonlight as an aid, didn’t work either, as the figure had covered their face with a handkerchief.
“Where’s my son?!” Mo Zenian demanded.
The figure pointed back towards the carriage, “He’s in there. I’ll leave him behind after you pay me the ransom.”
Mo Zenian looked at Mo Yan and whispered, “What should we do?”
“We’ll only give him the ransom after he shows us the child.”
Mo Zenian raised his voice and said, “I need to see the child and confirm he’s not injured before I’ll give you the ransom!”
The figure whistled at them, and two people rushed over towards them from the side of the road. When they approached, Mo Yan could tell they were the same two employees of the former Shunlai Restaurant that had kidnapped Mo Ling.
After seeing them, Mo Yan could confirm that Manager Liang was the kidnapper!
The two quickly approached Mo Yan and Mo Zenian, focusing on the sack in Mo Yan’s hand, “Hand the money over!”
They were here to rob them!
Mo Yan hid the sack of counterfeit money behind her body, and slowly edged towards the trees behind her. Mo Zenian stood in front of her, blocking the former Shunlai Restaurant employees, “Don’t come over, where’s my son? Where did you put my son?!”
The two robbers acted confidently and chuckled darkly, “You’ll get to see your son as soon as you hand over the money.”
Mo Yan shot a look at the carriage, which was backpedalling like it was about to retreat. She was so anxious she yelled, “Lu Junming, don’t let him escape!”
He jumped out of the gutter. Seeing that they had backup, the robbers decided to take the money quickly before running away.
One of the robbers grabbed Mo Zenian, while the other went to seize Mo Yan’s sack of counterfeit money. Mo Yan adroitly ducked behind the trees, leading him on a chase. Lu Junming arrived soon after, knocking the robbers to the ground with two blows as she took the opportunity to hide behind his back.
Being unable to steal the money, the robbers yelled, “Boss, we can’t steal their money! They had defences in place!”
By this time, the carriage had fully turned around, and the driver was about to whip the horses so they would gallop away. Mo Yan said, “The child isn’t in the carriage!”
“We still can’t let him go. He’s at fault whether the child is dead or alive!”
Lu Junming whistled loudly as well, and more people came out from the side of the road to surround the carriage. The last person to appear was Lin Xian’er.
Mo Yan pointed at the two former employees of Manager Liang, “Capture them as well!”
Some of the people Lu Junming had called surrounded the would-be robbers, and seeing that they were armed, the robbers surrendered and allowed themselves to be captured.
The people on the carriage looked left and right, but couldn’t find a way to escape, and didn’t know what to do.
Lin Xian’er shouted, “You bastard, where’s Zheng’er! Where have you hidden him!”
Since he’d been recognised, Manager Liang removed the handkerchief obscuring his face, “There’s no child, I’ve never kidnapped a child!”
He didn’t bring Mo Zheng over, because he didn’t want to be caught red-handed and implicated in the kidnapping. In that case, there wouldn’t be sufficient evidence to try him, and it was a fairly good plan. But the fact he was denying accusations of kidnapping a kid was damning enough to condemn him anyways.
P.S. Forgot to post the previous chappie so here’s a double post- Thanks for reading!
[1] A subgrade is basically the ground below and beside the road.