Love Lock

Chapter 60: Countless Question Marks

The next day was New Year's Eve.

In the afternoon, light snow began to fall from the sky. The glistening snowflakes drifted down slowly, draping the ancient Qingshui County in a white veil.

In the streets and alleys, every household is decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations. The red lanterns sway gently in the cold wind, exuding a strong festive atmosphere.

At this time, the number of customers in Tongfulou gradually decreased, as diners were busy rushing home to reunite with their families and celebrate the New Year together. However, the waiters and chefs in Tongfulou were working tirelessly, their feet barely touching the ground.

In the evening, the people who work on the other side of the wasteland would return here to have a meal together and reunite with their families.

So, they are currently busy preparing enough food for more than 400 people and setting up a sufficiently spacious venue.

The magistrate said that everyone has worked hard during this period, and this is the first New Year that everyone has spent away from home.

Therefore, we will not be receiving any outside guests for dinner; it will be a family reunion. We must ensure that everyone eats and drinks well, and make the reunion dinner lively and festive.

Since its opening on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month, Tongfulou has been packed with customers every day for the past four and a half days. All of its signature dishes are made with pork, featuring innovative and delicious flavors at reasonable prices.

The invitation to distinguished guests and the 50% discount on the opening day allowed many people to witness the uniqueness of Tongfulou's dishes.

Through word of mouth among the diners, almost everyone in Qingshui County knew about Tongfulou.

Before leaving, Han Lei instructed Luo Hai to use a scarcity sales strategy, selling only one pig per day until it was sold out.

So, as expected, those wealthy people who used to look down on pork as cheap meat have been lining up and frantically buying it up these past few days.

The wealthy and powerful either have their servants arrive early in the morning to reserve seats or have them line up to get their food packed.

The scene of wealthy people flocking to cheap meat and scrambling to eat it was unprecedented in Qingshui County.

Seeing this, the shopkeeper, Uncle Wang, couldn't stop smiling. He couldn't help but secretly admire her: that pretty and charming Miss Han is truly an extraordinary person!

These days, Luo Hai is so happy he wakes up smiling even in his sleep. Besides the restaurant business being exceptionally good and back on track, everything is also going smoothly at the wasteland and pig farm.

Professor Han Lei's method of building pigsties is novel. They are not only neat, clean and easy to clean, but also provide a continuous source of fertilizer for the wasteland.

In the cold north, the entire pig farm was surrounded by walls made of stone and concrete. The roof was made by building a frame with bamboo poles and then nailing on transparent PVC padding, making it a proper sunroom.

During the day, the pigsty not only provides light and warmth but also shelters from wind and snow. At night, covering it with straw mats makes the pigsty even warmer.

The pig feed left by Han Lei was also very effective. It not only saved the pig farmers a lot of trouble, but the pigs also grew quite fast after eating it.

Following the pig-raising techniques left by Han Lei, many of the sows became pregnant.

Half of the wasteland has been reclaimed and is being irrigated with well-rotted pig manure. At this rate, it may be ready to plant crops by spring.

As per Han Lei's request, after more than a hundred craftsmen finished repairing the pigsty, they worked overtime to rush the repair of the dormitories where the farmers lived.

In just a few days, the dormitory wall was built. Once it is fully completed, the farmers can live there directly without having to travel back and forth so arduously.

Luo Hai brought people to the site every day to supervise and help. Seeing the farmers working hard from dawn till dusk, he realized how arduous their work was.

That's why he decided that the restaurant wouldn't serve guests tonight, but instead everyone would gather together for a family reunion dinner.

As night fell, the snow fell heavier and heavier, a good omen for a bountiful harvest. In the distance, a long caravan of horse-drawn carriages brought back farmers who had been working in the wasteland.

Since Luo Hai emphasized the rules to them last time, everyone has consciously lined up to enter Tongfu Restaurant after getting off the carriage, and there has been no more chaos or crowding.

At this moment, a large Spring Festival couplet was pasted in front of Tongfulou, and a row of red lanterns illuminated the street in front of the door. From a distance, one could see that the tables inside were full of sumptuous food.

Luo Hai and his men from the yamen were already waiting inside. After the farmers entered Tongfu Restaurant, Luo Hai gave them New Year's greetings.

Then, everyone raised their glasses in celebration and enjoyed the food...

Tongful Lou was filled with laughter and joy, a festive atmosphere prevailing. No one noticed the dark figure standing beneath an old locust tree at the street corner.

The figure was none other than Wei Dabao.

He clasped his hands to his chest, hunched his shoulders, and trembled as he peered through the doors of Tongfulou at the farmers inside who were feasting and drinking.

The reason Wei Dabao braved the wind and snow to personally observe and investigate Tongfu Restaurant during the Lunar New Year was because the two servants he had sent to scout the situation a couple of days ago had mysteriously disappeared again.

Since he first discovered the problem between Tongfu Restaurant and the county magistrate, he has sent out three groups of servants to investigate, but all three groups have disappeared.

The kind of person who is neither seen alive nor found dead.

On the day Tongfulou opened, he went inside to check and found nothing unusual. Tongfulou was just an ordinary restaurant selling food.

That day, he also sampled the food and drinks at Tongfulou. To be honest, the taste was indeed delicious, but apart from the use of pork as the main ingredient, he didn't find anything particularly special about it.

The problem is, Tongfulou's slogan is to sell only one pig per day, and once it's sold out, that's it. Where do Qingshui County get so many pigs?
He knew very well that before Tongfulou opened, nobles never ate pork, and ordinary people couldn't afford it. Not to mention Qingshui County, not many people in the entire Dajing Dynasty raised pigs.

So, where does Tongfulou get its daily pig from?

These farmers go out by horse-drawn carriage every morning and return by carriage in the evening. Since they need to travel by horse-drawn carriage, they must be going to a very far place.

Where are all these farmers going?

Most importantly, these farmers were clearly peasants, so why were they involved with the county magistrate?
If these peasants were going out to work for the county magistrate, what's puzzling is that the magistrate not only didn't treat them like cattle and horses, whipping them, but instead ate and drank with them, and greeted them with smiles.

It's truly unheard of and unseen that, as it is now, nobles and commoners are eating, drinking, and celebrating the New Year together.

Did the groups of servants he sent out discover some unspeakable secrets about these people? Is that why they disappeared without a trace? Could they have killed them to silence them?

Countless questions arose in Wei Dabao's mind, and he felt increasingly suspicious about the relationship between Tongfulou and Luo Hai.

He wanted to stay there to continue observing and gathering information before tracking the farmers' next stop. But the snow was falling heavier and heavier, and the cold wind kept blowing into his collar, making him shiver and his teeth chatter.

"Forget it, this awful weather. Let's go back and send people to keep an eye on you! I refuse to believe we can't uncover your secret." Wei Dabao breathed hot air into his mouth and muttered to himself.

After saying that, he tightened his thick cloak, turned around, and disappeared into the night.

Where are you, monthly pass?



(End of this chapter)