Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 195
Espionage
These past days, Mo Yan had been worried about Lu Junming and hadn’t been able to rest well. He had come back today, so even though she had no idea what had happened to him, she knew he was sleeping soundly, so felt much at ease. She also slept more soundly than she did the past few days.
When she woke up in the morning, she heard the puppy Bingtang barking in the courtyard without stop. Mo Zheng had played with the puppy in the courtyard in the past, but she couldn’t hear his voice today.
When she got up to take a look, Bingtang was sniffing around in the courtyard, like it was trying to look for something. Then, she looked over to the kitchen, which was quiet without a single sign of life.
She called out, “Mr. Zhen, what are we having today?”
There was no response from the kitchen. When Mo Yan ran over, the kitchen was empty. Neither Mr. Zhen nor Mrs. Zheng were present, and it didn’t seem like anyone had touched the stove. She went over to open the lid of a pot, and inside was still the beef noodle soup she had left last night.
Why didn’t Mr. Zhen make breakfast? Where did they go?
She was staring at the pot when Lu Junming strode in, “Is there anything to eat? I’m hungry.”
Mo Yan pointed inside the pot, “This is the beef noodle soup Mr. Zhen made for me last night. Why didn’t he make breakfast today?”
“Where’s Mo Zheng? He should be up by now!”
A bad premonition came across them, and the two ran to the Zhen couple’s room together. After calling at the door twice with no response from inside, Lu Junming kicked the door open.
The items in the room were organised, and even the bedsheets were folded properly. However, there wasn’t a single soul in sight.
Then, they ran to the main gate. The main gate had only been half-closed; it hadn’t been latched nor propped open with a doorstopper. Normally, the Zhen couple would open the main gate, sweep the courtyard and make breakfast after waking up, while Mo Zheng would be playing with his puppies in the courtyard.
Neither Chi Jie nor Ze Wu have woken up yet, so the only possibility was that the Zhen couple had snuck out with Mo Zheng.
“Is today a market day?” Lu Junming asked.
Mo Yan shook her head in a panic, “No,” before immediately saying, “They could’ve gone to the shops! They said that they wanted to rent the innermost shop in the alleyway a few days ago.”
Her brain worked hard to envision a positive image. The small storefront was bustling, with smoke and fire reaching towards the skies. The couple was doing business, while Mo Zheng was playing by the side, and the puppies were enjoying themselves.
Without bothering to groom herself, she just messily put her hair into a bun like she used to.
They ran to the alleyway, but most of the storefronts were still unopened. There was only Mo Zenian, fixing up the outermost storefront. The innermost storefront was unopened, with a single trace of smoke.
The Zhen couple were foreigners, and didn’t know anyone here, nor had any relatives or friends. Even if they wanted to meet up with their relatives back home, they should’ve still given notice to Mo Yan.
Mo Yan froze there not knowing what to do. Lu Junming rushed over and said with gritted teeth, “Despicable barbarian spies!”
“What did you mean?” Mo Yan turned back to ask.
“Something happened at the frontline, because the enemy used a fire attack immediately after equipping the canvas bags and raincoats made by our workshop. Those raincoats definitely keep out the rain, but are easily flammable as tung oil was brushed on them. There were severe casualties on our side, and my father was taken to the metropolis to be questioned for his sins.”
His suspicions aren’t unfounded!
If no spies had alerted them about this, how would the enemy forces have known about how our country’s forces’s raincoats were made?
But they had stayed in the workshop this entire time, so how could they have sent a warning to Nanyong by crossing the border?
Lu Junming turned to look at the post office not far away. Mo Yan agreed, and the two headed towards the post office together.
The boss of the post office was called Liu Si. He was from the same family as Liu Fengchun, but their familial relationship was quite distant.
They went inside to find Liu Si. After hearing that it was related to military matters, he didn’t dare to tarry, and immediately went to check the records of sent letters. A few days ago, the Zhen couple had indeed sent a letter to Jizhou. The recipient was called Zhen Bo, and the address was the Hengfu Inn.
Jizhou was the location where Lu Hong had taken military forces to intercept the enemy forces!
All of these pieces of evidence pointed to the Zhen couple being spies from Nanyong. Perhaps their encounter in Yi City wasn’t coincidental at all.
However, why did they take Mo Zheng away? Travelling with a child was so inconvenient!
The two went back unhappily when a carriage drove past them, loaded full of bamboo. The carriage turned at the corner, probably to go to the basketmaker’s, the Luo family.
Mo Yan said, “With the current border war, trade has been cut off, and there is only a limited supply of bamboo. The cost of bamboo baskets must have inflated massively.”
While she was speaking, Ms. Hua came over from the streets with a bamboo backpack. Seeing the two of them, she asked, “Yan’er, why did you go to the commercial firm so early in the morning?”
Mo Yan shook her head and asked, “Godmother, have you seen Uncle and Auntie Zhen in the past two days?”
“They went to take a look at the shops two days ago, what about it?”
“They’ve disappeared. When you saw them, was there any indication in their voice that they were planning to leave?”
“They were talking about opening a shop! There wasn’t half a word about leaving, did something happen?”
Lu Junming’s stomach started growling, and he said impatiently, “Don’t mention those barbarian spies any more, let’s go and eat first, I’m starving!”
After saying that, he started walking to the streets. Ms. Hua wanted to figure out what was going on, so followed him.
When they passed the braised meat shop, Zhou Liangsheng was about to leave to go to school. When he saw Lu Junming, he asked, “Big brother, you’ve returned?”
Lu Junming didn’t answer him and hurriedly urged him, “Don’t make small talk, grab some cooked meat. I’m starving.”
Zhou Liangsheng turned back to grab the meat, while Lu Junming sat down at a nearby wonton store, “Two bowls of wontons and two pieces of flatbread as soon as possible.”
When the meat was taken over, the bowls of wontons had also been served. Lu Junming made a wrap with the flatbread and the cooked meat, then took a large bite.
Mo Yan’s heart was still too disturbed to eat anything, “I can’t eat this much, godmother, you should have it instead!”
If this was in the past, Lu Junming would definitely have tried to cheer her up and coax her into eating food. However, today, he acted like he didn’t hear her at all, and only cared about digging into his meal.
Ms. Hua waved her hand, “I’ve already eaten, you have it. Why are you so unhappy that that Zhen couple has left? If they’ve gone, so be it.”
“They took Mo Zheng away.”
Lu Junming slapped his palm on the table, speaking through gritted teeth, “If I find them, I’ll chop them to pieces!”
Mo Yan suddenly stood up, “I shouldn’t have let them stay with us, it’s my fault!”
“When did I ever blame you!”
“You haven’t said it verbally, but you’ve definitely been thinking it in your heart. Look at your eyes, you’re glaring at me so much they’re about to fall out!”
Mo Yan turned around to leave, but accidentally bumped into Ms. Hua’s backpack and fell onto the ground. Ms. Hua and and Zhou Liangsheng helped her up, and Zhou Liangsheng said, “Big brother, what happened? How did the two of you get into such a heated argument?”
Lu Junming said defeatedly, “Something happened at the frontline…”
After Ms. Hua heard what had happened, she didn’t understand, “You said that the raincoats were flammable because they were brushed with tung oil?”
Lu Junming nodded, and Ms. Hua gave him a strange look, “You city folk really don’t understand things about the countryside. Tung oil doesn’t catch on fire easily even when burnt, how would it make your raincoats flammable?”
Zhou Liangsheng also agreed, and Lu Junming was shocked. He couldn’t care less about eating, “Tung oil isn’t flammable?”
Mo Yan stood up to ask, “Did you personally witness how your father lost?”
P.S. Break on Wednesday :DDDD This means I get to catch up on translating chapters.