Chapter 267 - Resume the Journey

Plague?

Li Huowang was immediately attracted to what they said. His instincts told him that this was what he had been looking for.

Li Huowang stood near the two men while ignoring the stage completely. He was waiting for them to continue speaking. But what made him anxious was that they had been talking excitedly when he accidentally overheard them, but now they had gone completely silent.

After a moment, Li Huowang walked up to the fat one among the two and gently patted his shoulder. “My dear friend, may I ask what is happening within Pi County? Why is there a plague? I hadn’t heard anything about it before.”

The fatty, who had been concentrating on the pink show, was displeased when he got interrupted by Li Huowang. “What is it to you? Who are you?”

But when Li Huowang passed him two fragmented pieces of silver, the fatty immediately perked up and became much more polite.

“I hope this is enough. My relatives are staying in Pi County and I’m worried that something might’ve happened to them if there is a plague. I’m sorry for my brashness; I’m just worried about them,” said Li Huowang, making up a story.

The fatty couldn’t care less if Li Huowang was saying some bullshit; after all, the money was real. With this, he was more than happy to help Li Huowang.

“You could’ve just said so. It’s nothing much, don’t worry about me,” said the fat man as he took the two fragmented pieces of silver. “Don’t worry, your relatives should still be alive. While the Pi County doesn’t actually have a plague, it would still be better to bring them out of there. The feng shui over there is quite bad.”

After speaking to this point, the fatty then whispered, as if afraid of someone overhearing them, “But let me tell you this. When I was there on business with them last time, I saw that the people over there were very nervous and their faces didn't look healthy. I don’t know what happened to them, but I could see why the people would say that there was a plague in Pi County. Those people looked worse than sick people.”

“The entire county’s people looked very nervous and unhealthy?” muttered Li Huowang.

After a moment of thought, he asked another question, “Is there anything else weird about Pi County?”

Even though this world was quite bizarre, it was still too early to know what was happening to the people of Pi County based on just these two clues.

“I don’t know. I just went there and quickly came back. If you are worried, you can go there and see them yourself. It’s just a ten day journey so it should be fine. See, I came back safely didn’t I?” said the fat man.

“Ten days?” muttered Li Huowang as he turned around and went back to the inn.

Back at the inn, Li Huowang unfurled the map with Bai Lingmiao and soon found where the Pi County was. It was in the same direction as Cowheart Mountain!

In the end, Li Huowang decided to check it out.

It was not a minor case if an entire county went crazy. Li Huowang felt that he had a high chance of encountering the people from the Surveillance Bureau over there.

This was his only choice.

Just then, Lu Xiucai ran into the room excitedly. Just as he was about to say something, Li Huowang looked at him and said, “Go tell your father to stop performing once you end with the current one. We will resume our journey tomorrow.”

Hearing this, Lu Xiucai nodded and ran off.

By now, everyone was already used to Li Huowang suddenly telling them to move out. Soon, they loaded all their stuff into the ox-cart and the newly bought horse carriage. As for where they were heading and what they were doing, they were either too lazy or too scared to ask. All they had to do was follow Li Huowang’s orders.

The only thing different this time around was that the Lu family was now much happier after their performance. All of their faces were ruddy and refreshed.

“Hehehe, Young Daoist~ This is what we agreed upon last time. Half of it is yours while the other half is mine,” Lu Zhuangyuan showed several fragmented silver and bronze coins to Li Huowang.

Li Huowang stared at the grinning Lu Zhuangyuan. “What? You managed to earn this much?”

Li Huowang knew that the Lu Family’s past performances had never been this lucrative.

“Hohoho, the Liang Kingdom is indeed wealthy. Everyone here is so rich~” said Lu Zhuangyuan as he smiled happily and placed the money onto the ox-cart.

When Zhao Wu saw that Li Huowang did not turn down the money, he took a piece of string and tied up the bronze coins.

Li Huowang naturally did not turn it down. Even though the amount wasn’t huge, they would still be able to deal with their daily expenses using it. At the very least, their meals would be more luxurious every day.

“Bring out the cured meat. Let’s make baked rice with cured meat,” instructed Li Huowang.

When Li Huowang said that, he suddenly heard someone gulp. He felt that they should’ve eaten enough meat back in Qing Qiu, and so there was no reason for them to be so hungry for meat.

“Who did that? Did you not eat anything today?” questioned Li Huowang.

When he turned around, Li Huowang saw that it was not someone from his group, but a skinny man with white hair. Behind him was a youth. Both of them were harvesters and were on the same path as Li Huowang.

When they noticed that Li Huowang was staring at them, the old harvester started staring toward a harvested field on the other side.

Growl~

The old harvester’s stomach was still grumbling. After a moment, he placed his shoulder pole down before tying the hemp rope on his waist tighter.

Li Huowang stared at the harvester’s tattered clothes and then continued on with his journey.

Throughout their journey, no one spoke besides Puppy.

When the sun was about to set, the ox-cart finally came to a stop and everyone immediately started with their respective chores.

“Senior Li, look! There’s a wild vegetable here that we can eat to offset the oil from the cured meat!”

Due to being focused on the map, Li Huowang didn’t know who said that.

He was focused on the map because they couldn’t afford to make a single mistake. One wrong turn and they would have to waste days just to travel back.

Soon, dinner was served. Their menu tonight was baked rice with cured meat as well as some wild vegetable soup.

Looking at the oily rice with bits of cured meat within, Li Huowang looked at the two harvesters sitting farther away from their group.

At this moment, the two harvesters were scooping up some cold water from a stream to drink while eating multigrain rice balls from their pouch. The younger harvester was staring at Li Huowang’s bowl of hot rice, only to be stopped by the older harvester pressing his head down.

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

After a moment of thought, Li Huowang said, “Take two bowls of rice and give it to them.”

“Alright.” Bai Lingmiao nodded before turning to the pot.