Chapter 2534: No One Can Leave

"Ten consecutive years of deficits — that's a huge sum. The hole has to be plugged by someone; right now Songuo pays part, and Yanhua Bay pays part. Songuo complains bitterly, every year trying to wrangle with the Heavenly Palace to squeeze out more subsidies. But this bunch at the Baisong City Office, they've made their hands slick with oil profiteering from the logistics and transport plum assignment."

"Would the Heavenly Palace be so kind as to let Songuo support all these people for free?" Dong Rui snorted. "Ninety-nine percent chance it's connected to the Heavenly Palace's experiments in Yanhua Bay!"

What Ling Jinbao focused on was this:

"What about the Peach Blossom Mark?"

"The root cause of this illness, even the Baisong City Lord isn't clear on it — the Sovereign didn't tell him. But he believes it's closely related to Yanhua Bay." He Lingchuan said, "As for the prescription for treating the Peach Blossom Mark, it was given by Yanhua Bay, then officially promoted by Baisong City. Over a hundred physicians in the city have accepted this designation; whenever someone comes seeking treatment for the Peach Blossom Mark, they push these few specific prescriptions at them. In fact, even if they don't follow the prescription and grab the medicine, the Peach Blossom Marks on the patients' faces will still fade."

"Also, those young couples who voluntarily moved out of Baisong City — they actually couldn't leave freely at all." He Lingchuan sighed. "Relocation requires handling procedures at the City Office; the city side knows they want to leave, and finds a chance to intercept them halfway after they leave the city."

"Where were these people sent?" Ling Jinbao asked, though he already had the answer in his heart.

"Yanhua Bay." He Lingchuan's answer, as expected by both of them. "This evening another couple was caught; they didn't report to the city government, but left the city privately. Right now they're hidden in an abandoned farmstead in the northern suburbs, and tomorrow morning they'll be handed over to Yanhua Bay."

Ling Jinbao chuckled: "Baisong City provides good food, good drink, good work, even sucks blood from other cities to support everyone all these years, and they think they can just brush off their sleeves and leave? There's no such good deal!"

Gathering hundreds of thousands of young men and women in the city, giving them good food and drink, easy and simple work — on the surface everyone looks well-fed and well-clothed, but secretly not letting them leave voluntarily...

This matter, upon careful thought, is extremely terrifying.

"Captive breeding. My younger sister raises aphids and periodically harvests honeydew — that's exactly how she raises them." Zhu Xiuer was also very familiar with this process, because Erniang's nest inevitably has large areas for raising giant aphids. "Not only do you have to take care of their eating, drinking, and excreting, you also have to watch humidity and environment, care about their physical condition, and protect them from natural enemies."

Aphids have many natural enemies — snakes, insects, rats, ants all come to steal.

Compared to the humans of Baisong City, the more you compare the more alike they are, the more alike the more it makes one's blood run cold.

"The Heavenly Palace spent great effort captive-breeding the people of Baisong City — this one cycle is ten years. Tsk, during these ten years, how many experiments has Yanhua Bay secretly done on them?"

"I've also asked the City Lord what the Heavenly Palace is tinkering with in Yanhua Bay. But he isn't clear either; he only knows that every few days monsters run out of there to hurt people, all oddly shaped, different from ordinary yaoguai." He Lingchuan continued, "A few months ago another yaoguai escaped from Yanhua Bay, ate seven or eight hired farmhands in the northern fields. Baisong City also sent people to cooperate with Yanhua Bay's hunt, and killed the monster in the fields. That thing had its mouth on the side of its cheek, and an eye growing on its palm — indescribably bizarre."

"Natural creations, no matter how strange, possess a harmonious beauty." Dong Rui was very certain: "Something that looks this disharmonious must be a yaokui without a doubt."

Heaven-born and earth-raised yaoguai, no matter how bizarre their appearance, still observe symmetry. But deformities triggered by divine blood or other external forces break this symmetry and harmony, so the observer's feeling is especially repulsive.

"Among them there was one especially cunning, evaded the capture squad for three days, and was finally caught back by Yanhua Bay."

"Caught back? Captured alive?"

"Right. These monsters appearing in the north of the city also forced people not to dare live in the suburbs or towns, all crowding into Baisong City." He Lingchuan thought a moment. "Oh right, the City Lord also mentioned that in the past half month Yanhua Bay's demand for supplies — especially rice, flour, grain, oil, timber, anchor rods, clay pots — has exploded, so Baisong City's logistics transport volume has increased accordingly. So many laborers working non-stop, from early morning till dark without rest."

Ling Jinbao oh-ed: "No wonder there've been so many merchant caravans entering the city recently — turns out they've got a big job."

"Huge increase in demand for rice, flour, grain, oil? Those are all things people eat. Timber and anchor rods, for building houses." Dong Rui stroked his chin. "Could it be that many people have come to Yanhua Bay?"

He Lingchuan corrected: "Anchor rods are used to reinforce underground structures."

He's crawled through many mine tunnels, seen this thing plenty.

"So Yanhua Bay is doing some big project?" Dong Rui rubbed his hands. "Great opportunity! The more people, the more mixed, the easier for us to blend in."

"Exactly."

As they spoke, everyone returned to the inn to regroup, and Zhu Xiuer also brought the prey back.

Tao Zhi was tied up five-flower style, a big wad of spider silk stuffed in his mouth, unable to make a sound.

Dong Rui carried General Xiaoyao in through the door, and behind him He Lingchuan promptly put up a soundproof barrier —

Very timely, because the little dragon inside stared round-eyed, almost jumping up:

"Mon-mon-monster!"

Dong Rui said irritably: "Louder, why don't you, or you won't wake the others."

The little dragon hurriedly covered his mouth, just staring at the monster unblinkingly.

So Er Pang spoke the truth — there really are monsters roaming the city at midnight!

Ling Jinbao said to him: "Forgot to ask earlier. Where are your family?"

The little dragon's face darkened slightly: "Mother passed away, father remarried, swept me out the door."

Here Dong Rui also searched a soft pouch from Tao Zhi, still warm inside, hiding two live hookworms.

He rubbed his hands: "Come on, let's see what's hidden in here, whether it's what we think!"

"Too much trouble, why not just ask it directly?" Ling Jinbao took the spider silk wad from Tao Zhi's mouth, then kicked it in the head, "What did you steal from the woman? Speak!"

They already had a judgment, but needed a definite answer.

Tao Zhi glanced at the three, face showing difficulty.

Ling Jinbao pressed a dagger to its neck: "I'll only ask one last time, then I'll go find your other companions for the answer!"

The dagger pierced Tao Zhi's neck, black blood flowed out. It had to say:

"I'll talk, I'll talk — it's an embryo sac."

The little dragon heard this term for the first time, looked at everyone, finally couldn't help asking: "What's an embryo sac?"

"Before a fetus forms it's sac-shaped — that's the embryo sac, far smaller than a water droplet." Dong Rui took out the hookworms, about to dissect them, then stopped and said to He Lingchuan, "The embryo sac is tiny, human eyes can't see clearly. My tools aren't all here — don't you have a round mirror?"

He Lingchuan then took out a crystal round mirror from his bosom, twirled it twice in his hand, and it shrank to the size of a lens.

(End of chapter)