"Mr. Zhang, we will help you rescue your son. Now we need your assistance."
A voice came from outside the door. Rong Zhi and Chu Qing Ze had returned.
"Xiao Mo," Xia Yun Ting called out, then moved aside and sat on a chair. He wasn't very good at handling these situations and directly gave his seat to Rong Zhi.
Rong Zhi went to the bedside and checked on Mr. Zhang.
"Mr. Zhang, how are you feeling?"
Mr. Zhang nodded slightly. He suddenly saw Chu Qing Ze behind him, his expression changed, and he coughed violently a few times. Rong Zhi helped him up and he took a couple of breaths before he felt a bit better.
"Chu Qing Ze, you've caused me so much trouble."
Chu Qing Ze's brows furrowed, and he remained silent.
"Mr. Zhang, now is not the time for settling scores. Since you know about Yan Zi Mountain, you must know the powerful forces behind Li Hao. We need your help if we are to eliminate them."
"Eliminate..." A flash of light crossed Mr. Zhang's eyes, then quickly dimmed. He tilted his head and sized up the group.
"How many of you are there?"
"Just the three of us."
Mr. Zhang was completely disappointed and said no more, clearly not trusting them.
"Mr. Zhang, the fact that we could bring you out of the Zhang residence means we have the ability to do so. Don't you trust us yet?"
Several heavy breaths echoed in the room. Mr. Zhang sighed.
"How can I help?"
"Yan Zi Mountain needs your family's assets now. We need to find a way to transfer these assets to make them penniless. You need to tell us how much the Zhang family's assets are worth."
As soon as she finished speaking, Rong Zhi received a wary look from Mr. Zhang.
"Was it Li Hao... who sent you?"
"Of course not. If we were Li Hao's people, why would we save you?" Chu Qing Ze was displeased. "We are also trying to help you. Don't bite the hand that feeds you."
"Chu Qing Ze," Rong Zhi stopped him.
"Mr. Zhang, the entire Zhang family is now under Li Hao's control. If we were truly Li Hao's people, we could have killed you. Why would we bother saving you... Unless?" Rong Zhi suddenly had a flash of insight. "Are there still assets of the Zhang family that Li Hao hasn't taken control of?"
Mr. Zhang lowered his gaze, a hint of guilt flashing in his eyes.
Chu Qing Ze, seeing his reaction, became impatient. "In any case, you only have one path now. Either cooperate with us to eliminate those people on Yan Zi Mountain, or perish on your own!"
Mr. Zhang's recently relaxed expression turned cold. He snorted and said no more.
Rong Zhi and Xia Yun Ting looked at Chu Qing Ze simultaneously. He was really good at making things worse.
Chu Qing Ze felt a little guilty under their gaze. He rubbed his nose and said, "How about this, I'll go find some evidence for you."
With that, he walked out of the room.
Rong Zhi and Xia Yun Ting exchanged glances, not knowing what evidence he was going to find.
A moment later, Chu Qing Ze returned, holding a document and a token. He presented both to Mr. Zhang.
"Look, this is the proof."
Mr. Zhang turned back and his eyes widened.
"You've even bribed the prefect?"
Chu Qing Ze's mouth twitched. He almost threw the items in his hand at him.
"What is this?" Rong Zhi curiously took it and looked. The document was an order from the prefect to arrest the bandits of Yan Zi Mountain. The token was specially made, clearly bearing the character "Chu."
"I contacted the prefect of Jizhou Prefecture a long time ago. The prefect intended to send officials, but their strength was vastly inferior to those on Yan Zi Mountain, and they would have been sent to their deaths in vain. So, I was left here alone to investigate."
However, his strength alone was limited. He had to develop the antidote for the Seven-Day Poison, investigate the forces of Yan Zi Mountain, and prevent them from discovering his identity. Therefore, the investigation progress had been very slow.
He thought this strong evidence would gain Mr. Zhang's trust, but he didn't expect the old man's thought process to be so peculiar.
"Why don't you say I killed the prefect?"
Mr. Zhang snorted coldly. "That's not certain either."
Well, he was neither soft nor hard, and impervious to reason.
"Xiao Mo, I have an idea."
Xia Yun Ting, who had been silent until now, spoke.
All eyes turned to Xia Yun Ting, including Mr. Zhang's.
"What idea?" Rong Zhi asked.
"When an army is fighting, to cut off the enemy's retreat, they usually burn their provisions."
"Good idea!" Chu Qing Ze's eyes lit up. "How did I not think of this? I know exactly where the Zhang family's properties are. Dozens of mu of medicinal fields outside the city, over ten shops in the city, and dozens of residences. They can all be burnt down with a single fire."
"Cough, cough, cough, cough..." As soon as he said this, Mr. Zhang let out a huge cough, as if his lungs and liver were about to be coughed out.
Heartache.
"How dare you!"
"Why wouldn't we dare? You're already considered dead to the outside world."
These words sounded rather rogueish.
Rong Zhi cleared her throat and added, "Mr. Zhang, time waits for no one. The people on Yan Zi Mountain are using people as test subjects for their poison. Within seven days, the poison will damage the internal organs. Chu Qing Ze has been working on an antidote to alleviate the poison. Your son might still be alive, but the longer we delay, the less chance he has of surviving. You can be angry with us, but you can't disregard your son's life."
Mr. Zhang's expression was conflicted. It seemed he only had two paths before him: either tell them the truth, or face death.
"You really weren't sent by Li Hao?"
"Of course not, we guarantee it." Rong Zhi gave a reassuring smile.
"Alright..." Mr. Zhang sighed deeply, seemingly resigned.
"The key to the Zhang family's main mansion's silver vault is with Li Hao, but that's only a small portion. The Zhang family's businesses are managed by Gu Zhou, a shop assistant at the medicinal herb farm. He is very loyal to me. I will write him a letter, and you can go find him."
After speaking, he glanced at Chu Qing Ze, his words tinged with a hint of gnashing teeth.
"Bring me paper and a brush!"
"Here!"
Chu Qing Ze reached into his embrace and pulled out a set of paper and brushes.
It seemed he had prepared them long ago.
Mr. Zhang took the paper and brush and tremblingly wrote a few words, handing them back to Chu Qing Ze.
"Take this and find Gu Zhou. He will understand what to do."
Chu Qing Ze took the paper, and his expression finally relaxed a little.
"I'll go find Gu Zhou now."
"Wait a moment, it sounds like someone is coming."
Rong Zhi perked up her ears and heard footsteps outside.
"I'll go take a look."
Chu Qing Ze casually put down the paper and brush and went out of the cellar. He returned shortly after with a dark expression.
"Yun Heng has arrived, and he brought two people with him, saying they're here to help us develop the antidote."
"They've started surveillance already." Rong Zhi looked back at Xia Yun Ting. "You shouldn't go out yet, your injury hasn't healed."
"Mm," Xia Yun Ting replied. Although his injury wasn't serious, it was better to avoid being seen.
Rong Zhi and Chu Qing Ze went out of the cellar and indeed saw two people standing outside. They were dressed in black, their powerful muscles faintly visible beneath the cloth. Both had sharp gazes, as if they had no intention of hiding their purpose of surveillance.
Upon seeing the two, they did not introduce themselves but instead asked, "Where is the other man?"
The question sounded like an interrogation. Rong Zhi calmly replied, "Are you referring to my husband? He's gone up the mountain to gather herbs. Since you're here to help, why don't you start by chopping firewood and making a fire?"
She wasn't going to be polite to these two.
Their expressions changed, clearly displeased with Rong Zhi's attitude. However, considering their mission, they grudgingly went to make the fire.
They initially thought this wouldn't be a difficult task. But after a while, Rong Zhi said something to Chu Qing Ze, who nodded and went into a storage room. A moment later, he emerged carrying a large pot, over a meter tall.
"Use this pot. Set it up in the courtyard, fill it with water, and chop enough firewood."
The two men looked at the large, dark pot, their mouths twitching. One of them started to say something, but the other pulled him back, and the words remained unspoken.
So, for the entire afternoon, Rong Zhi and Chu Qing Ze watched them carry water, chop wood, add fuel, and stoke the fire.
Fortunately, both of them were martial artists, so this amount of work was nothing to them. When the water in the pot was almost level with the rim, the two men turned to Chu Qing Ze and asked, "Is this good enough?"
Chu Qing Ze smiled slightly. "Boil the water dry."
"What?"
Now the faces of the two men turned dark.
"Are you playing with us? Making us boil such a large pot of water, only to have it boiled dry?" kuAiδugg
"Don't rush, we're making pills, so we need to concentrate the medicinal ingredients." Rong Zhi came out of the room, holding a pile of herbs in her hand. With a wave of her hand, she threw all the herbs into the pot, and a rich medicinal aroma immediately wafted out.
"If you don't want to do it, you can leave."
How could they leave? Moreover, what they were doing was indeed a serious matter. They could only suppress their dissatisfaction and toiled away.
Boiling water seemed like a simple task, but the two men worked hard for the entire afternoon. For some reason, the flames grew smaller and smaller, eventually extinguishing completely.
The water in the pot was still at the same temperature as when it was first poured in, showing no warmth at all.
Rong Zhi was in the room, preparing medicinal ingredients. She looked at Chu Qing Ze, who was earnestly smearing medicinal juice on the firewood, and couldn't help but praise him.
"I didn't realize you were also full of mischief."
"Likewise. If they can still light the fire after this, then they must be gods."
Just then, the two men came to pick up firewood. Chu Qing Ze calmly put away the medicine bottle. The two men looked at the firewood and fell into thought, seeming suspicious but having no proof. They then glared at him.
"What are you doing?"
"Of course, we're preparing medicinal ingredients." Rong Zhi held up the herbs in her hand.
"Why don't you do it?"
The two men said nothing and silently went back to stoking the fire.
Rong Zhi smiled and poured the prepared medicinal liquid into a teapot. She swirled it a few times, and a green hue spread in the teapot, quickly disappearing, making it look no different from normal water.
"Is this the Drunken Immortality?"
"Yes."
Rong Zhi then picked up a few cups and carried the teapot outside. She poured a cup in front of them and leisurely began to drink it.
The two men who were making the fire were almost driven mad. They had been working for so long and hadn't had a sip of water.
Rong Zhi ignored them, and after drinking, she gave them a few instructions before returning to the room, seemingly just to supervise.
After Rong Zhi returned to the room, the two men could no longer resist. They threw down the firewood, picked up the teapot, and poured themselves a cup each.
Since Rong Zhi had just drunk from it, they didn't suspect anything was wrong with the tea and drank it down in one go. As soon as they finished drinking, their bodies went weak, and they collapsed.