HLnovel Chapter 388 How did you know I was lying to you?
Chapter 388 How did you know I was lying to you?
Luo Jing instinctively reached out to grab the little beggar, but Lu Yangyang beat him to it and grabbed the little beggar by the back of his collar.
Seeing that things were going badly, the little beggar struggled and cried out, "Let me go! Let me go!"
Lu Yangyang pressed down on the little beggar's shoulder. Feeling the force that made him unable to struggle, the little beggar instantly became obedient. "I was wrong, I will never dare to do it again, please, benefactor, let me go! Please, please!"
Lu Yangyang ignored him and looked at Luo Jing's hand.
Luo Jing followed her gaze and his pupils widened in shock. In the folded silver note that Lu Yangyang had just handed him, there was a small note that had somehow appeared inside.
Luo Jing had assumed the little beggar had come to snatch the money from Lu Yangyang, so his attention hadn't been on the money.
Lu Yangyang kicked the little beggar: "Who sent you to deliver the letter? Tell me, or you're not leaving today."
The little beggar never expected that he would still be discovered even though he hadn't stolen any money.
He said with a mournful face, "I just took someone's money to help deliver a message. I didn't mean to steal the money. Please forgive me, I really don't know anything. It's the rule in our line of work that you shouldn't ask around when you're helping someone deliver a message!"
Lu Yangyang continued, "What did the person who sent you to deliver the letter look like? Was it a man or a woman, and how old was they?"
"It was a man, probably in his early twenties. He looked very ordinary, I don't remember him, I can't recall him. You guys were targeted as soon as you entered the city, I really don't know anything else," the little beggar recalled.
Lu Yangyang frowned. Luo Jing had already opened the note and seen the words on it.
"I have returned to my hometown, do not worry about me. Meng."
Luo Jing exclaimed in disbelief, "This is impossible!"
Lu Yangyang craned her neck to take a look, saw the handwriting on the note, and asked, "Are you sure this was left by Elder Meng? Is this his handwriting?"
Luo Jing nodded: "This is indeed Old Meng's handwriting, but there is no way he could have gone back to his hometown. He told me that his hometown is a small mountain village in the southwest, and he has no family left. If he really wanted to go back to his hometown, how could he not have gone back for so many years, and only go back now?"
Lu Yangyang glanced around, then picked up the little beggar: "Come on, take us to the person who gave you the note."
The little beggar, who thought he was done for, almost burst into tears upon hearing Lu Yangyang's words: "I really don't know! That person looked so ordinary, I just glanced at him and I really can't remember! Please, be kind and let me go, I'm just trying to make a living..."
Lu Yangyang took a gold leaf directly from her purse and placed it in his hand: "Do you remember now?"
The little beggar's eyes lit up instantly: "Don't worry, sir, even if I have to search the entire Jiangnan Prefecture, I will find him for you!"
Lu Yangyang patted him on the back: "Stop talking nonsense and hurry up!"
Then he turned to Luo Jing and said, "Uncle Luo, let's split up. You go find Granny Ku and the others now. Maybe it's just a trap set by someone."
Luo Jing also sensed something was wrong, nodded, turned around, mounted his horse, and rode away.
The little beggar led Lu Yangyang to a nearby alley where a wonton stall had opened. He had just been begging next to that stall when he was approached.
When they arrived at the wonton stall, the little beggar slurped his saliva. Seeing this, Lu Yangyang went directly to the shopkeeper and bought two large bowls of wontons and a few pastries. She walked to the roadside and handed the little beggar a bowl of wontons and two pastries.
The little beggar excitedly took it: "Sir, you really gave it to me! You are such a kind person!"
After saying that, he didn't care about the heat and squatted down to stuff the pastry into his mouth, wolfing it down. Lu Yangyang squatted next to him, took a spoon and scooped up a spoonful of wontons and brought it to her mouth. It was so hot that she almost rolled her eyes.
She couldn't help but recall when she first went to the capital. Because she had never had a full meal since she was a child, she was always worried that she wouldn't have enough to eat. So whenever there was food, she would try to eat as much as possible, regardless of whether it was hot or cold, until she couldn't eat anymore.
The little beggar quickly finished the wontons and sesame cakes that Lu Yangyang had given him. Turning his head, he saw that Lu Yangyang was also eating. He glanced at the shortbread wrapped in oil paper in the empty bowl next to her, swallowed his saliva, and stared at it longingly, wanting to reach out and take it.
Lu Yangyang picked up the pastry: "Want some?"
The little beggar nodded hurriedly, then added to his own predicament, "I think you might not be able to finish it, so I can eat another one for you."
Lu Yangyang grinned at him and said, "I can finish it."
The little beggar looked at her in disbelief.
Lu Yangyang quickly finished the remaining wontons and pastries, leaving the little beggar dumbfounded.
When Lu Yangyang returned the empty bowl, she looked at the little beggar squatting on the ground and said, "Let's go, take me to see the person who gave you the note."
“I…” The little beggar froze.
Lu Yangyang smiled: "What? Still trying to fool me?"
The little beggar was terrified: "You...you...how did you know I was lying to you?"
“If you really didn’t know who he was, you wouldn’t keep emphasizing to me that he was too ordinary to be easily identified. You would only say what he looked like, so you’ve been lying from the very beginning,” Lu Yangyang directly exposed him.
The little beggar was shocked and stammered, "I...I...I really..."
Lu Yangyang looked at him coldly.
The little beggar quickly gave in, looked around, and lowered his voice, "I'm doing this for your own good. Oh, since you bought me food, I'll be frank with you. The person who gave me the note is from the Salt Gang. You're in big trouble now. If you want to live, forget about that big guy and run! The Salt Gang leader has ordered that big guy be killed. You're just collateral damage. If you don't run, you're really going to die!"
Salt Gang?
Lu Yangyang looked at the little beggar in surprise.
Screaming inwardly that it was bad.
She was really narrow-minded; she hadn't even considered this aspect.
She only thought that solving the salt mine problem would solve the issue of smuggling salt in Ning County, but she overlooked how those people secretly transported the smuggled salt could be sold. Naturally, the most likely way was through the salt gang!
Luo Jing led the salt workers in a rebellion at the salt mine, escalating the situation. As a result, the salt mine was shut down by Governor Jiang, and the officials from Ning County involved were also arrested and beheaded. The smuggling of salt was over, but for the salt guild, it meant the end of their source of income!
So it wasn't that they were being watched from the moment they entered the city, but rather that the salt gang had already secretly arrived in Ning County after the salt smuggling case broke out. No, they had been hiding in Ning County all along, even among the salt workers or managers, secretly watching Luo Jing, the culprit, and had even found out his background as the former leader of Wangshan Village. They were just waiting for an opportunity to take him down!