kvmb Chapter 268: Master Shen uses the government to find Ma Ming
Chapter 268: Master Shen uses the government to find Ma Ming
"There's nothing new in all this dyeing? Is this the only skill you, the tie-dye masters from Wucang Country, have? I spent a lot of money to invite you here and fed you well, but in the end you treated me like a fool?"
In a dyeing workshop deep in a bamboo forest in Yujiang City, Master Shen Shi had a gloomy face. He angrily threw the new cloth in his hand to the ground and pointed at the two old men in front of him who were bending over and lowering their heads and cursing.
"Master Shi, it's not our fault that our craftsmanship is not good enough. It's because the colors dyed by this famous Jiangnan artist Li are extremely complicated. The imitation dyeing last time was okay, but it will take some time to change the base color..." The older and fatter of the two looked at Master Shen Shi with embarrassment, but before he could finish his words, he was kicked to the ground by the other party.
"Hasn't the time I gave you enough? In the past three months, Shuiliu Cloth Shop has finally made a name for itself in Yujiang City, suppressing the famous Li from Jiangnan. We should have taken advantage of the situation to launch new cloth to stabilize the hot sales, but you want me to stop and give you more time? You dare to pretend to be an elephant even though you don't have a diamond drill. Are you tired of living or do you really think that I, the tenth master, can save all living beings?"
Master Shen's angry shout frightened the two old men so much that they knelt on the ground and begged for mercy. Even the fat slave behind him couldn't help but shiver and took a half step back.
"Three days. I will be merciful and give you another three days. If you can't dye new colors, you will be fed to the fish!" Master Shen pointed at the two people trembling under his feet and said angrily.
"Master Shi, Master Shi, please spare my lives..." The two men kneeling on the ground turned pale with fright. The short and fat man bravely cried and shouted and stepped forward but was kicked away by Master Shi Shen again.
"How dare you, a half-baked person, come and fool me!" Master Shen was still cursing as he walked out of the dyeing workshop. Not satisfied, he turned around and yelled at the fat slave following him: "I told you to go to Wucang Country to find a tie-dyeing master, but you brought these two shoddy people here instead!"
“I deserve to die, but from what I have learned locally, only these two have the best skills…” The fat slave was so scared that he was sweating all over and stood there trembling with fear.
"Okay, stop talking about these two pieces of trash. The most urgent thing is to find a way to get Shuiliu Cloth Shop to ship new goods quickly. Even though Shopkeeper Yang promised to find a way to secretly ruin the reputation of Jiangnan Mingli and help us gain a foothold in Yujiang City, his betrayal will sooner or later let Li Yunye of Qile City find out. If we want to compete with Jiangnan Mingli, the means under the table are important, but the goods are the foundation." Master Shen interrupted the fat slave impatiently and sighed anxiously.
"Master, why don't you borrow the tie-dye master from the Shen family?"
"No, no, I dealt with the famous Li from Jiangnan behind the old lady's back. The Shen family must not be involved in this matter. If my mother gets to know, I'm afraid I won't be able to go back to the Shen family." As soon as the fat slave finished speaking, Master Shen Shi immediately shook his head to reject it. Besides, if the master of the Shen family was able to compete with the famous Li from Jiangnan, why would he have to set up a new team to deal with him secretly?
"After three days, Shuiliu Cloth Shop must have new goods."
Just when the master and servant in the bamboo forest were at a loss, a serious order suddenly sounded. Before Master Shen Shi could react, a black shadow appeared in front of him, followed by an old man in plain clothes in the distance.
"Sir, why are you here?" When Master Shen saw the faceless black shadow in front of him, his expression suddenly became nervous.
"Humph, if I hadn't come, wouldn't your Shuiliu Cloth Shop, which had worked so hard to become popular, be extinguished again?" The black shadow just sneered slowly.
"This matter....my lord also knows about it?" Master Shen turned around and looked at his servant in surprise, but he was relieved when he saw the fat servant hurriedly shaking his head. He thought that it was not someone around him, so he thought that he had a spy in the dyeing factory.
"This is the tie-dye master I found specially for Shuiliu Cloth Shop. Let him help you make new cloth." The black shadow ignored Mr. Shen's question and pointed at the old man in cloth who ran up breathlessly and continued in a cold voice.
"That's great, thank you very much, sir." Seeing someone coming to put out the fire, Master Shen no longer cared about other worries. He hurriedly bowed to the black shadow with gratitude.
"I've helped you so much, if you're still a hopeless case, don't blame me for being impatient."
"Yes, please rest assured, sir."
The master and servant were so frightened that they hurriedly saluted and responded. When they looked up again, the black shadow had disappeared, leaving only the old man in cloth wiping his sweat.
"Sir, there is new progress in the Majia Village case." In the Qile City government office, the head constable Zhou Bing strode into the study and reported to the prefect You Zhiji.
"But does it have anything to do with Jiuhe?" You Zhiji asked hurriedly when he heard about Majia Village.
"Well, that's not the case. The survivors of Majia Village went to Lin County to report to the authorities."
"Survivors?" Although it was not news about Jiuhe, You Zhiji was very happy. The survivors were also eyewitnesses of the tragedy in Majia Village that night, and they must have seen people from Jiuhe.
"This man is none other than the village chief of Majia Village. He told me that when he got up to relieve himself in the backyard that night, he discovered a group of masked men in black entering the village and burning and killing people. He was so scared that he quickly jumped into the dry well in the backyard and luckily escaped. But when he climbed out of the dry well, he saw that his wife and children were all buried in the sea of fire. He was extremely sad, and he was so frightened that he couldn't recover for a while, so he ran into the back mountain. He didn't dare to come out of the mountain to find the government until today." Zhou Bing continued to reply to You Zhiji.
The Majia Village Massacre was discovered after the fire had burned all night, so most of the bodies were burned to ashes. The government could not count the number of people, and naturally did not know that there were still villagers who escaped. Therefore, when the Lin County Magistrate saw the sudden appearance of the village chief Ma today, he was surprised and happy. After a thorough interrogation, he immediately sent people to Qile City to report.
"Did he provide any clues about the group of masked men in black?" After listening to Captain Zhou's retelling, You Zhiji did not find any loopholes for the time being. After all, it was not easy for an ordinary citizen to suffer such a disaster and watch his wife and children die tragically and be buried in the sea of fire without leaving any body, and now he can tell the story in a conscious manner.
"No." Zhou Bing shook his head and replied.
"Huh, you are indeed well-trained." You Zhiji's eyes darkened and he sneered.
At this moment, he was even more convinced that Jiuhe was the real murderer of the Majia Village massacre. However, this killer organization was too cunning, and now he could not find any clues about them. He could only keep calm and wait for the opportunity.
"By the way, Village Chief Ma also filed a complaint with the Lin County government."
"who?"
"He was also a villager of Majia Village, Ma Ming, a 16-year-old boy whose parents died early and he depended on his grandmother for support. However, he suddenly left Majia Village with his grandmother a few months ago and their whereabouts are still unknown. The village chief Ma suspected that the tragedy in Majia Village was related to Ma Ming."
"Why would he suspect that the villagers in his own village had done such a heartless thing for no reason? Did their two families have a grudge against each other?" You Zhiji frowned slightly, looking puzzled.
"Not only is there no hatred, but Village Chief Ma also used money to treat Ma Ming's grandmother's illness." Zhou Bing shook his head again and continued, "According to Village Chief Ma, although Ma Ming is young and looks honest, he is very thoughtful. He doesn't make friends with people in the village and always keeps to himself and is taciturn. Before the grandparents left the village, Village Chief Ma had an argument with Ma Ming over trivial matters in the village. Ma Ming was young and hot-tempered after all, and without saying a word, he picked up a stone on the ground and wanted to throw it at Village Chief Ma, but was stopped by other villagers. Because of the villagers' accusations, he was cursed viciously and threatened to retaliate. Therefore, Village Chief Ma suspected that the massacre and burning of Majia Village was Ma Ming's revenge."
After Zhou Bing finished speaking, You Zhiji did not speak again, but carefully pondered the words of Village Chief Ma.
"Sir, I think we can't trust everything the village chief Ma says. Why don't we find Ma Ming first?" Zhou Bing saw that the prefect remained silent, so he spoke again.
"Well, Ma Ming needs to be found, but I also need to keep an eye on Village Chief Ma." You Zhiji nodded in agreement and gave the order.
Although he could not find any fault with what Village Chief Ma said, it was precisely because there were no flaws that made him suspicious. Now that there was no one else in Ma Village, his words could not be verified for the time being.
"Yes."
The reason why the village chief Ma showed up at the Lin County government was to repay Master Shen Shi for his generosity in giving him five thousand taels of silver to rescue his wife and children from the kidnappers. He followed Master Shen Shi's instructions and said what he should say, and filled in what he shouldn't say with the pre-made story, with the purpose of letting the government openly find Ma Ming.
When Ma Ming left the village with his grandmother and went to Li's house, he only said hello to the eldest son of the village chief Ma. It was not until he was released from prison that the village chief Ma learned that Ma Ming had abandoned Majia Village and joined the Li's house, so he was very dissatisfied.
But this plan of Master Shen Shi also made Village Chief Ma uneasy. It was clear that he was going to fool the government. His fabricated story was broken after Ma Ming showed up. But Master Shen Shi was his great benefactor. Now his wife and children were living in Shen Family Villa. He had to help. Village Chief Ma knew that Ma Ming was a grateful and honest child. Even if he knew that he was wronged by him, he would not take revenge on him.
Master Shen Shi naturally knew that Village Chief Ma had done a favor to Ma Ming. Even if Ma Ming went to court with Village Chief Ma in the future, he would not bear to watch Village Chief Ma go to jail. His ambiguous words would make the government more suspicious, and a simple matter would become complicated. The Majia Village tragedy had a great impact on the people of Jiangnan, and the government would not let go of any suspicious person easily. Even if Ma Ming finally ignored Village Chief Ma, he still had Village Chief Ma's wife and children in his hands. Village Chief Ma would have to consider his wife and children if not himself, so he would not expose him.
The reason why Master Shen was in a hurry to find Ma Ming was that he wanted to know what Jiangnan Ming Li wanted to do by hiding him. Ma Ming was the most skilled tie-dyeer in Majia Village. I heard that his father was a great tie-dye master. I wonder if Jiangnan Ming Li did it for this reason? If it was because of this, he would regret it. At the beginning, the incident happened suddenly and he was angry, so he ignored Ma Ming and let Jiangnan Ming Li get the advantage for nothing. He was unwilling to accept it.