Chapter Thirty: Zhou's Big Mouth

  Ignoring the silly and happy knife hands gathered around, Yang Meng found Zhang Pijiang from the shoe factory to make military boots for these new knife hands one by one. This shoe factory has been open until now, and a total of several thousand taels of silver have been spent in dribs and drabs, with no income at all. It seems that it has become a welfare factory.

  Let Wei Chai Zi take the new hand training, Yang Meng came to Tang Mei Yi's side, this stuff since the robbery back, has been practicing hard, it seems that his own skills have put pressure on her.

  "Follow me!"

  It's also time to deal with Yiliang Zhou Qing. Although the Yang family is large and wealthy, they can't afford to have too many mouths to feed. In order to maintain their own income and expenses, the best way is to go and plunder.

  While Yi Liang's Zhou Shi Qing also had good fields, and had businesses, and even planted a mountain full of opium, his assets were definitely not small, just right to rob as his own start-up capital.

  Doing Zhou Shi Qing is a good thing that kills three birds with one stone. Firstly, it can get some money to support the knife hand, secondly, it is still related to the knife hand, and got the tens of thousands of acres of good fields in the Zhou family, which is also good for the knife hands to be more energetic. And thirdly, there is this thing about Tang Mei Yi.

  "Oh..."

  Tang Mei responded with a low "en", and slowly followed behind Yang Meng. This third master suddenly found himself, could it be that he wanted to listen to mountain songs?

  Two people, one in front and one behind, rushed to Yang Meng's courtyard. Yang Meng walked elegantly, but Tang Mei became more and more uncomfortable. After practicing for half a day, Yang Meng was also drenched in sweat, the smell of his body continuously assaulting Tang Mei's nostrils.

  They say that men are attracted to the scent of women, but it's not just one-sided. Yang Meng's body emitted a fragrance that made Tang Mei Yi increasingly nervous as she walked, her heart beating faster and faster. A faint blush also crept up her cheeks. This must be what they mean by "manly charm", thought Tang Mei Yi.

  When he arrived at Yang Meng's courtyard, he didn't stay in the courtyard but went straight into the house. Now Tang Mei was in a dilemma about whether to go forward or backward.

  Go in? Still somewhat unwilling in heart.

  Not going in? Even more reluctant to part with it.

  "Come in! Sit down!"

  Yang Meng entered the main hall, sat down on a chair and pointed to the chair beside him, saying to the beauty outside the door.

  The fun is in the ambiguity, it's better if you're left bewildered. Looking at the beauty who can't enter or leave through the door, Yang Meng sneers to himself.

  In other people's eyes, Tang Mei Yi, who was originally tall and majestic, suddenly turned into a little sheep, twisting and turning to grab the hem of her clothes, and sat down beside Yang Meng.

  "Shall we talk about our own business? You think so, right?"

  Yang Meng leaned forward and sniffed the natural fragrance on You Wu's body, savoring it for a while before slowly saying.

  "What's going on..."

  This has made Tang Mei so nervous that her palms are all sweaty, her face is burning badly, and she doesn't know where to put her hands properly, and her feet keep twisting on the ground.

  "Do you think I'm afraid of ghosts?"

  Yang Meng's ears were sharp! The night his brother came back, Tang Mei was in the courtyard, muttering to herself in a low voice, and he could hear it clearly.

  "Not...not like!"

  She dodged lightly as San Ye's head was about to touch her chest, and Tang Mei stuttered in response, how embarrassing! She didn't expect that speaking so softly would also be heard by him.

  "Let's talk about Yiliang Zhou Daxiang, San Ye promised and will do it. It's been almost two months now, the time to kill Zhou Shiqing has also arrived."

  Seeing Tang Mei's surprised expression, Yang Meng felt that it was almost time to take shape.

  "Ah..."

  The situation took a sharp turn, and Tang Mei thought that San Ye was going to take advantage of her. However, after being touched by him that night and brought into the house today, she realized that San Ye actually wanted revenge for her own sake.

  The huge stone in her heart 'plunked' into the well, and Tang Mei Yi relaxed, sticking her chest to Yang Meng's face. This time she was seducing Third Master herself. Tang Mei Yi let out a soft cry, her face flushing red all the way to her ears.

  "This matter can wait until after I've taken revenge, let's talk about Zhou Daxiang's affairs for now!"

  Yang Meng pretended to lean back and said seriously.

  Tang Mei had never read books, although she had experienced many things, but also hadn't experienced romantic relationships. Yang Meng's advances and retreats made her mind completely confused, turning her into a big silly goose.

  "Third Master, I..."

  Just now, I was wondering what was wrong with myself. San Ye wanted to talk about revenge, but I didn't know the shame and leaned in close. Tang Mei's heart was also tense to the extreme, fearing that San Ye would treat herself as one of those promiscuous women.

  Although the mountain people are more open-minded, perhaps young people find their own partners, but they also know what is shameful. As a mountain girl, Tang Mei was afraid that San Ye would look down on her, and what she had just done was truly damaging to her reputation.

  "Don't be nervous, let's talk about Zhou Daxiong, San Ye will avenge you!"

  Seeing Tang Mei's face turn red and white, Yang Meng lightly patted her shoulder, encouraging her to speak about the situation with Yi Liang Zhou Shi Qing. Unexpectedly, this made Tang Mei's misunderstanding even deeper.

  It's done! Third Master really treats me as a woman of unknown origin, which good girl would let an outsider pat her shoulder? Alas... anyway, I don't want to marry into the Yang family either. If Third Master is willing, he can take me in as a concubine; if not, I'll just be a lowly maid in the Yang household and repay Third Master's kindness.

  "Tang girl, don't be afraid! I won't do anything to you, quickly tell me about the situation at the Zhou's house!"

  The current situation has also exceeded Yang Meng's grasp, and he doesn't know what happened to Tang Mei either. If she doesn't speak up soon, the atmosphere will become awkward. He can only encourage Tang Mei to talk about the Zhou family's affairs.

  "Oh... then Third Master can just call me Mei Yi!"

  Tang Mei forced a smile and said something that was somewhat irrelevant.

  "Alright! Let's just call her Mei Yi, it sounds more intimate that way. So Mei Yi, tell me about the situation at the Zhou household!"

  Yang Meng also saw that this girl was self-abased, and being self-abased is great! The more self-abased she is, the easier it is to handle. It seems that just now, when the girl posted that one message, her own post hit the mark by coincidence.

  "Yi Liangzhou Qing was originally a deputy general of the Green Camp in Yunnan. During the suppression of the Gongmu Village rebellion, he made achievements and got rich. Not only did his men plunder Gongmu Village clean, but also killed many old, weak, women and children."

  He used the wealth he had plundered to buy large tracts of land in Yiliang, and also used his subordinates as an excuse to eliminate the remnants of Gongmu Village, killing many large landlords in Yiliang. The Zhou family's estate became one of the largest and most powerful in Yiliang, and even the government did not dare to provoke him easily.

  After that, he shed his official status and became a wealthy gentleman in Yiliang.

  These things were all heard by Tang Mei from her mother when she was just a swaddled infant, what could she remember?

  "How did Zhou Shiqing get the nickname 'Zhou Daxiangkou'?"

  Zhou Shiqing's rise to wealth is very typical, and many wealthy merchants may have started out in a similar way. It's useless to pursue these things further; the most important thing is to grasp Zhou Shiqing's handle on human trafficking.

  Then, by means of this small handle, his bright and beautiful official outer garment was pulled off, it would be easy to kill him, the most important thing is to let him die with universal jubilation, let him die with great joy, and also let him die in shame and ignominy.

  "The Zhou family not only had many hired laborers and tenant farmers, but also more slaves. These people were all bought by Zhou Shi Qing from the local chieftains in the mountains. The Zhou family had tens of thousands of hectares of good land, but there wasn't a single cow or horse to plow the fields or carry grain. All these heavy tasks were done by those slaves, treating them as if they were large livestock, hence the nickname 'Zhou Da Sheng Kou' (Zhou Big Livestock)."

  All of these were witnessed by Tang Mei herself. They didn't treat the mountain people as human beings, and every year in the Zhou family's estate, many slaves would die from exhaustion.

  These are not the key points, just like those knife households, which household has a decent big cattle, according to Tang Mei's words, Zhou Shiqing is evil, but not to the extent of being unforgivable.

  "Is that all he did?"

  Yang Meng is still not very familiar with the current environment, and many things need to be helped by others. Isn't human trafficking an evil thing?

  "There's more, behind Zhou Shi Qing's mansion, there is a forest, the trees are exceptionally lush, and the reason they're so lush is because they use human fertilizer!"

  This statement makes some sense, but what kind of thing is this fatty, Yang Meng is not clear. Looking at Tang You's gnashing teeth, it's definitely not something good.

  "What is this fat thing, tell me in detail."

  "It's fertilization. The exhausted slaves were dismembered and buried under the trees. Without these scattered corpses, the trees on the back mountain of the Zhou family wouldn't have grown so luxuriantly."

  Speaking of this, Tang Mei thought of her father Wang Tanggui and Uncle Mei Yilao in the village. They were killed by Zhou Shiqing back then, as well as countless old, weak, women and children in Gongmu Village.

  "Haha! This is the way to take one's life!"

  Yang Meng's face darkened with a sinister smile, and these ownerless corpses could be used as evidence to sentence Zhou Shi Qing to death.

  Besides, Zhou Shiqing also had a horse team. This horse team was different from other horse teams in Yunnan Province. Other horse teams were selling goods, but his horse team treated children and women as goods.

  Zhou Shiqing had a group of people under his command, specializing in kidnapping children and abducting women in Yunnan. He would keep the good-looking ones for himself, play with them until he was satisfied, and then reward them to those who kidnapped them. Women who fell into their hands could hardly survive for a few months, and after they died, they were dismembered and buried on the back mountain of Zhou's house.

  The remaining children and women were taken away by the horse gang, trafficked to other places, girls sold into brothels, boys sold to wealthy families, many disobedient children were beaten to death by human traffickers and buried in the back mountain of the Zhou family.

  From the time Zhou Shi Qing shed his official skin to now, he has been doing this business for twenty years. In these twenty years, the back mountain of the Zhou family is filled with corpses, and countless people have been sold to various places.

  Five or six years ago, he saw that opium was profitable and immediately planted all the thin fields in the mountains with opium poppies. The Zhou family not only had a lot of land but also many mountains, and they also made a fortune from opium.

  Tang Mei finished speaking, but Yang Meng furrowed his brow. The tone of her words didn't seem right; it was as if she knew too many things and said too much, which shouldn't be possible for a mountain village girl like Tang Mei.

  "Are these things you have seen with your own eyes, or did you hear them from others?"

  If these things are true, Yang Meng would have killed Zhou Dasao even if there was no benefit. This old man is not human at all. But what if Tang Mei was used by someone else? Then the matter becomes complicated.

  "I heard it from a scholar in Yiliang."

  There is also a scholar-official, could he be a rival in love? If so, then what Tang Mei said is worth considering.

  "Where is the scholar?"

  "He's dead! Burned to death by Zhou Daguang. Two years ago, I went to Yiliang to avenge myself against Zhou Shiqing and met that scholar. His sister was raped by Zhou Shiqing, he wanted to seek justice from Zhou Shiqing, that's how we got to know each other. Many things were told to me by him."

  In order to frame Zhou Shi Qing, he first filed a complaint at the county government office, then spread rumors about Zhou Shi Qing's shameful deeds in Yiliang. As a result, we had only known him for a few days when he was burned alive by Zhou Shi Qing in his own home.

  "In these two years, I also went to Zhou's house several times, but was discovered by his family's guard, Zhuang Ding, every time. It's too difficult to kill Zhou Da."

  After her mother's death a few years ago, Tang Mei relied on her own strength to take revenge down the mountain, but the old grudge was not avenged, and many new grievances were added.