Tao Lengshuang thought of Tao Fangfang's personality and made a guess, then changed the subject: "Aunt Shen Er, are you going to Lotus Town recently?"
"I want to go to town to sell some things. You know my family's situation, I want to subsidize the household expenses."
Given her family's current situation, she needed to hire someone to look after the house.
The most suitable candidate was the Shen family. httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
Aunt Shen Er repeatedly agreed: "Isn't Zhuzi going to need some nourishment soon?"
"My husband and I discussed it. I plan to go to town tomorrow to buy some supplements for Zhuzi, and also sell some things to subsidize the family."
Tao Lengshuang mentioned asking Uncle Shen Er to help look after the house and invited Aunt Shen Er to go to town together tomorrow.
For the time being, she couldn't go to Dongdu, so she might as well sell the cordyceps in the pharmacy in Lotus Town.
Aunt Shen Er repeatedly said yes and said not to take Tao Lengshuang's money, promising that no one would be able to get in tomorrow.
After agreeing on the departure time for the next morning, Tao Lengshuang sent Aunt Shen Er and her husband out, and then prepared the things to take tomorrow.
She had to bring the child along, in case the Tao family played any tricks.
...
As evening approached, Mo Lingxi returned.
As soon as he got back, he learned from Xiao Feng about everything that had happened at home, including the fact that someone had tried to kill him and Tao Lengshuang.
Surprised and suspicious of Tao Lengshuang's calm killing, he patted Xiao Feng reassuringly: "Xiao Feng did very well."
Tao Lengshuang's performance was not what a village girl should exhibit.
But this person was indeed Tao Lengshuang. Was it possible that she was controlled by someone through some means?
He needed to investigate this matter thoroughly.
"Daddy."
Xiao Feng pointed to the room where the bodies were hidden and said softly, "What should we do with that? It will be bad if the villagers find out."
Mo Lingxi had an idea about this. He asked Xiao Feng to go back to his room to rest, while he went into Tao Lengshuang's room.
Tao Lengshuang was impatient to see him and spoke in a bad tone: "What is it?"
"Are they after you?" Mo Lingxi asked directly.
Tao Lengshuang understood and said mockingly, "I'm just a village girl, who would come after me?"
"This matter is likely aimed at you. I advise you to stir up less trouble, lest you implicate the family."
Mo Lingxi narrowed his sharp eyes, his heart filled with suspicion, and looked at her unpleasantly: "You know yourself whether it was you or not."
Tao Lengshuang was amused to the point of anger: "I say, Mo Lingxi, have some shame!"
"Who would want to kill me? It's not because of what you've done that you've brought trouble to the family."
Mo Lingxi said coldly, "Someone tried to kill you when I went out before."
Tao Lengshuang was speechless, frowning and thinking about this matter. She also wanted to know who would target her, a village girl.
"Behave yourself, or you will bear the consequences."
Hearing Mo Lingxi's warning, Tao Lengshuang glared at him and said with a sneer, "Oh, you know to behave yourself too."
"At least I'm in the village every day, unlike you, who goes wherever you please all day, doing who knows what."
She paused, then added, "I'll say it again, no matter what you do, please don't implicate the family, and don't bring danger to me and Xiao Feng."
Mo Lingxi's eyes sharpened, and his voice grew cold: "If anything happens to Xiao Feng, I will make you understand what it means to wish you were dead."
Tao Lengshuang was stunned for a moment, then looked at him as if he were crazy: "You don't think I'm threatening you with Xiao Feng, do you?"
This was exactly what Mo Lingxi thought. He leaned down and stared at her coldly: "Remember, don't do things you shouldn't."
With that, he left the room.
Tao Lengshuang's face contorted. She endured and endured, suppressing the urge to poison Mo Lingxi, but decided not to give him acupuncture today, letting him suffer for a few more days.
After all, she wasn't the one suffering.
Unaware of this, Mo Lingxi thought that just taking medicine would suffice and was unaware of his own condition.
In the evening, Mo Lingxi ordered his hidden guards to deal with the bodies and investigate who was responsible.
...
The next day, before dawn.
Tao Lengshuang and Xiao Feng were ready. The mother and son carried a bamboo basket covered with a cloth and walked out hand in hand under Mo Lingxi's gaze.
The mother and son met Aunt Shen Er and her son, Shen Dahan, and a ox cart at the village entrance.
Seeing the ox cart, Tao Lengshuang asked in surprise, "Aunt Shen Er, where did the ox cart come from?"
Aunt Shen Er invited Tao Lengshuang and her son onto the ox cart and had her son drive it towards Lotus Town.
"I borrowed it. I need to buy a lot of things today, and there are many of us, so we borrowed an ox cart. It's convenient and fast."
Tao Lengshuang knew that borrowing an ox cart was not cheap, so she immediately gave her ten copper coins: "Aunt Shen Er, please don't refuse. This is what we owe. Otherwise, I wouldn't dare to go to town with you next time."
Aunt Shen Er accepted the copper coins and said with a playful scolding, "Don't do this next time."
"Have you eaten breakfast? I brought some flatbreads."
She took out two flatbreads and handed them to Tao Lengshuang and Xiao Feng.
Tao Lengshuang repeatedly declined, saying she had already eaten. In those times, no family had it easy, and flatbreads were good things. She didn't need to be greedy for this bite.
Seeing this, Aunt Shen Er put away the flatbreads and chatted casually: "The harvest next year might not be very good, and there might be a famine."
Tao Lengshuang's family had no land. They mainly relied on Mo Lingxi for hunting, and now Tao Lengshuang had another way to earn money.
Upon hearing this, her heart tightened, and she quickly asked about the harvest.
If the harvest was poor, grain prices might rise, and various supplies would be scarce.
For ordinary people like them, this was a life-or-death issue.
Aunt Shen Er said that the weather this year was not very good, and coupled with various reasons, the growth of rice in the fields was not good, and it might be reduced.
Because their village was near the capital, at least the supplies were not tight. She heard that places farther away, or remote towns, were lacking many supplies, and some even sold their children to exchange for food.
"And..."
She cautiously looked around, lowered her voice, and said, "I heard that some places are in rebellion, it's the trouble caused by the higher-ups."
She pointed to the sky, her face full of fear.
Tao Lengshuang understood immediately and asked in a low voice, "I heard that person likes pleasure very much?"
She also learned this from the original body's memory.
Aunt Shen Er nodded repeatedly, stating that she had also heard it from the villagers. It was said that the person in power extremely enjoyed pleasure and was very extravagant, demanding the best of everything, and completely disregarding the lives of those below.
She also said that officials were often killed, and many people curried favor with him and entered officialdom, saying that some scholars no longer studied properly but spent their days trying to curry favor to become officials.
She chattered on about how luxurious the people in Dongdu were, how often bad things happened, etc., but these were all things she had heard.
Tao Lengshuang listened carefully, organizing the effective information.
Combining the actual situation, the current emperor was a foolish and incompetent ruler who only thought of his own pleasure and did not care about the lives of those below or the situation in various regions.
If this continued, a large-scale uprising was only a matter of time.