When Hua Zhi reached the bottom of the stands, she stopped and looked up. She saw several familiar faces. They looked suspicious, alert, and even showed a hint of rejection. In fact, the young men and women of Jinyang stick together more than anywhere else, and are more xenophobic than in the capital.
She didn't say hello to anyone and just kept walking forward.
The lighting in the room was poor and an oil lamp had to be lit even during the day. Hua Zhi stood at the door and saw two blurry figures.
The deputy general explained: "These two people are the internal and external managers of this horse farm. The others are locked in another room."
Hua Zhi nodded, and suddenly turned around and left the house, "Bring someone out."
The relatively young deputy general shrugged and pointed at the door at random.
The person who was called out walked out of the house trembling with fear. He had stayed in the house for too long, and as soon as he came out of the shadow, he was scorched by the sunlight and immediately closed his eyes.
Li He was a man with good eyesight. When Bao Xia was about to move a chair for the young lady, she saw him carrying it over with his long arms and legs. She thanked him, took the chair, put it behind the young lady, and helped her sit down.
Lu Peiyu looked at this person's behavior and curled the corner of his lip in an ambiguous way. He wanted to see what this person who was given great power by the leader of the Qixiu Division was capable of, so he slowly walked over.
Hua Zhi looked at the person in front of her who was looking down with a very nervous expression, and asked in a gentle voice, "Are you the internal manager or the external manager of the horse farm?"
"Reply, reply to the young lady, I am the external manager."
"What do you do on weekdays?"
"That's right. I just take people to serve the guests who come to the horse farm, and some trivial matters are also my responsibility."
Hua Zhi nodded, "How long have you been here? Are you from the Zeng family?"
"I am a servant of the Zeng family. I have been here since we built the horse farm."
"Qi Su Si, do you know?"
The servant glanced at the girl secretly, then lowered his head and said, "Sir, I have heard of it."
"The eldest son of the Zeng family has been executed. I am here on behalf of the Seven Stars Division to ask you some questions. You need to answer truthfully."
The servant's legs went limp and he knelt down, "Little one, little one dare not tell lies."
Having achieved her goal, Hua Zhi stopped scaring him and asked him questions one after another, "Have any tall and strong unfamiliar people come here before? Did Zeng Xianglin do anything that you thought was wrong? Is there anything unusual about the horse farm? Also, do you know where the horses in this horse farm come from?"
Lu Peiyu lowered her arms from around her chest, took a step forward, and pricked up her ears.
The servant swallowed his saliva, his nervousness was obvious, and he spoke very carefully, afraid of saying something wrong. "I have seen the tall and strong man many times. They come to the stable on days when there are no horse races. Sometimes they come to compete on horses, and sometimes they come to treat horses. They know horses very well and can solve any problem. So far, no horse has died in the stable. By the way, the horses are also delivered by them."
Realizing that he was talking too happily, the steward shrank his neck and continued, "Every time they came, the eldest master would follow them personally and would not allow anyone to serve him close. Once, a servant took the initiative to serve tea, and the eldest master whipped him ten times on the spot, leaving his face injured, and asked him to leave the stable. Later, I inquired and found out that the man was sent to the farm."
The steward raised his head, which had been lowered all the time, and said, "In fact, we all know that the eldest master is trying to protect us. Those people... are very fierce. I have personally seen them whip the eldest master. The eldest master, the eldest master treats us very well."
Hua Zhi felt that he wanted to say that the eldest master was a good person, but because she brought up the Qisu Division and said that Zeng Xianglin had been executed, he changed his words.
Yes, how can you say anything bad about a master who protects his servants
"They come here frequently?"
"Not too often, only once or twice a month."
Hua Zhi hesitated for a moment, "Calculate how many of them there are."
"Sometimes they are the same people, sometimes they are different..."
"Give it a rough calculation." Hua Zhi leaned forward slightly, "Think carefully about it. This is very important."
The manager nodded quickly, turned sideways and started counting with his fingers backwards.
Hua Zhi stood up and walked towards the house. There was only one other manager left in the house. She found a chair and sat down. She repeated her previous identity, putting enough pressure on the other person, and then asked, "What are you responsible for?"
"I'm willing to ask, is your last name Hua?"
Hua Zhi's heart moved, "Yes, I am Hua Zhi."
"I would like to ask you again, young lady, have you been to Zeng's house before?"
Many thoughts flashed through Hua Zhi's mind. She took out two account books and asked, "Are you asking me if I have these two things?"
The steward knelt down and kowtowed to Hua Zhi, then he looked at the person behind Hua Zhi.
Hua Zhi turned around and saw General Lu coming in. "They are all trustworthy."
"I am sorry for the inconvenience. The eldest master has instructed that if there is any trouble at the horse farm and the person who comes is a girl named Hua, you must tell her everything. He also asked me to give this to you."
The steward knelt down and walked a few steps to the table in the room, put the table on the ground, pressed one of the legs and pulled out a wooden plug about an inch thick. It was hollow inside. The steward reached in and fumbled for a moment, then took out a rolled paper. He handed it to Hua Zhi with both hands.
Hua Zhi took it in silence, and had a deeper understanding of how strongly Zeng Xianglin protected his family. No matter what was recorded above, one thing led to another. If she had not personally visited the Zeng family to inquire about their affairs in order to protect them, she would not have received the two account books from the eldest lady. If she had not received the two account books, the steward would not have found these things for her.
This is Zeng Xianglin's deepest love for his family, and also his way of repaying her for her kindness.
There were two thin sheets of paper. Hua Zhi smoothed out the edges bit by bit, and what caught her eyes was a letter, a letter that frightened her so much that she almost jumped up.
"I'm glad that you have read this letter, which proves that I am the trustworthy one. When you came to Jinyang last year, I had guessed your identity, but I have been crawling alone for too long, so long that I no longer dare to have any hope. I wonder if you think that the Peng family is developing too smoothly. In order to prevent Zhu Ling from getting suspicious, I have done a lot of cover behind the scenes. You must remember this credit for me and include it in the reckoning, so as to win a glimmer of hope for my Zeng family.
To this day I have no regrets, because I had no choice from the beginning. I could not ignore my family for the sake of justice. If I wanted my family to live, I could only die, an inglorious death. You don't know how much I have been looking forward to this day. I was afraid that if I didn't die, I would cause more people to die. I set up that trap in the Yu family, and I was prepared to catch you and the leader of the Qishusi in one fell swoop. Obviously, I lost, and losing is better than going crazy.
I have also found some things over the years. Apart from Jin Yang who died in your hands, there are still 37 Chaoli people left. In addition to Zhu Yan, there are also the staff around Lu Xinming in the government office. In addition, I accidentally heard them mention a person named Ao. They called him the wise man. It was his idea that Jin Yangcheng is like this now. I think this should be the person you are looking for. I sincerely hope that Daqing will live long. "
There was no instruction, no request, and the letter ended abruptly.
PS: I will post the revised chapter first. This chapter has a lot of deletions and more than half of the content of the next chapter has been used. I will try my best to revise another chapter.