I Was Sold to My Mortal Enemy (Double Transmigrations)

Shi Yi’s eyes suddenly widened as he glanced back and forth between him and Xie Yu.

“You two are actually husband…and wife?” he stammered.

Xie Yu stood up, appearing unfazed, and looked at Shi Yi. He sighed and asked, “Where is my second brother? Where did he go?”

Shi Yi quickly pieced it together.

Oh…., feeling embarrassed, whispered, “He is in the backyard.”

Shi Mo sighed helplessly and apologized to them.

Xie Yu waved his hand, showing that he didn’t mind. He had witnessed Shi Yi created even more bizarre conclusion, so this was relatively minor.

They had come to seek Pei Xing’s opinion on whether they could establish a firearms warehouse here.

There was compelling evidence that the Prince of Chengyang County had conspired with foreign powers with intentions to rebel. In response, his father issued an imperial edict and executed a group of officials involved in the incident. Although the Prince of Chengyang County’s life was spared with the Empress Dowager’s intervention, he was effectively confined in the palace.

The Empress Dowager held significant power, and his father’s gentle temperament had been overshadowed. Even the Empress had been forced into a marriage arranged by the Empress Dowager.

The Empress was the daughter of the Empress Dowager’s sister and the prime minister of the dynasty. The Empress’s son held the title of prince, and the political forces behind them were intricately intertwined. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been crowned as a king so early and banished from Beijing.

The Dayu Dynasty was currently under siege, with unstable frontiers and conflicts erupting in Xizhou and the south. These corrupt officials were aiding those who sought to undermine the empire, and the officials in Beijing were preoccupied with power struggles.

The items Mr. Lu had given to his older brother a few days ago had been put to excellent use in Xizhou. He had obtained his father’s permission to build a firearms warehouse. Since this task couldn’t be entrusted to the Empress Dowager or her associates, it had to be carried out covertly.

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Pei Xing entered with a plate of strawberries, which immediately caught Shi Yi’s attention.

“Strawberries can still bear fruit now!” Shi Yi exclaimed.

The strawberry-growing house had been constructed with a heating wall to enable strawberries to thrive in winter.

Pei Xing smiled and said, “There are many more in the backyard.”

Upon hearing this, Shi Mo and Shi Yi rushed to the backyard to enjoy the strawberries.

Xie Yu, taking a bite of a strawberry, couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy at their carefree lives.

After Aunt Hong cleaned up the broken cups and served tea again, Pei Xing sat down and inquired about their plans.

Xie Yu then informed him of their intention to build a firearms warehouse and that the Prince of Chengyang County was still alive.

“Where do you think would be a suitable location?” Xie Yu asked.

“I’ll take you to the mountain to have a look later,” Pei Xing suggested. “A large construction project might raise suspicions, so why not have Lu Chao bring some craftsmen to build a mine? There’s a jade mine in Xiangshan County, which can help conceal our activities.”

With their plan settled, Xie Yu began to strategize further.

A few days ago, Pei Xing had written to him about the situation in the village and the fact that the magistrate of Xiangshan County was searching for a scapegoat. These individuals needed to be removed, as they could pose a future threat if left unchecked.

Originally, the four county magistrates under Baiyin City were not without blemish, but they had been retained due to a lack of suitable replacements. Now, the situation was calling for action. Weren’t there already three potential candidates available?

When it came to taking action, Xie Yu moved swiftly.

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On the same day, Xie Yu led a group of people to inspect the spice workshop. He headed straight to the accounting room and uncovered the fake account book that Pei Xing had prepared. He flipped through it symbolically, pretending to be furious. He then turned and led the group to investigate further.

The village chief and his family’s house were being searched around, and they stumbled upon something intriguing.

Xie Yu gazed at the boxes of jewelry brought from the cellar, tapped the account books pulled from the cellar with his knuckles, casted a cold glance at the red snake, which had been chopped into pieces, and sneered. He surveyed the four people kneeling on the ground.

“I underestimated you. I didn’t expect that this small Xiangshan Village harbored spies from Nanyi.”

Madam Liu’s face turned pale, and she trembled.

In her youth, she had been kidnapped by the Nanyi people, where she accidentally acquired the secret technique of breeding poisonous snakes and secretly earned a significant amount of money from it. Thanks to her assistance, the transactions between her brother and Nanyi had always gone smoothly. She had never imagined that their operation would be exposed one day.

The poison snake was a mother-child pair. The mother snake had been nourished with her own blood and various poisons from birth. The baby snakes were placed in a ventilated container and allowed to kill each other until only one survived, eventually becoming the most venomous snake, known as the cinnabar snake. Its venom had no known antidote.

Her sister-in-law had been poisoned by this venom in the past and had relied on four potent elixirs to suppress it. It was only when she became pregnant that the poison transferred to the fetus, leading to the tragic death of Ning’er before her first birthday.

Her elder brother had concealed this truth from her, and she only learned of it after Ning’er’s passing. During that period, her elder sister-in-law suffered from a mental breakdown due to the shock, and her relationship with her elder brother nearly fell apart. It was only after the safe birth of her sister-in-law’s second child, Yi Ning, that they managed to reconcile.

The snake that Xie Yu had chopped into pieces was as red as blood, and she had raised it for many years at a glance.

Xie Yu wasted no time in further conversation. He apprehended all members of the Liu family, as well as those involved in the spice workshop, and placed them in the county government cells.