Fairy, I really am a villain!

Then, a series of footsteps sounded behind him.

Chapter 426 Life Money

"What is this doing?!"

A group of constables from the Six Gates came hurriedly over. When Xue Ruyu turned the corner, he saw the mess on the ground.

There were two tall and strong men with unfriendly faces standing in front, and a dark-skinned boatman with a simple face was lying behind. His clothes were dirty and had many footprints on them, and he looked extremely embarrassed.

Between the two groups of people lay a broken gourd and some scattered silver coins on the ground.

In such a scene, anyone could tell what happened at a glance - Xue Ruyu could certainly tell what happened - he immediately felt a surge of anger in his heart, and shouted, "How dare you rob ordinary people of their money in the street? Do you really have no respect for the law?"

"Oh my, sir, you are really embarrassing me. How dare we go against the imperial court?" Gong Liansheng first showed a flattering look on his face, and then smiled and said, "We just bumped into each other accidentally. It was just an accident."

"A collision? Those shoe prints on his body were also from a collision?!"

Xue Ruyu hated this kind of bullying the weak the most, so he immediately led his men to fight back, puffing out his chest and glaring angrily.

"Then the officer thought..." "Didn't you guys beat them?"

Seeing him snort coldly, Gong Liansheng continued to speak humbly: "If you put it that way, we are teaching this bastard a lesson on behalf of the official."

"Teach me a lesson?" Xue Ruyu laughed in anger, pointed at himself and said:

"You mean I instructed you to hit someone? Where's the evidence?"

"If you can't produce it, I will directly take you two back to the government office for slander and convict you all together!"

The two did not answer.

Thinking that they had nothing to say in rebuttal, Xue Ruyu leaned over, kindly brushed the dust off the worker's body, and prepared to pull him up.

However, Deng Wengang slapped his hand away with force, and stood up on his own, staring at him with his red eyes, and making a sound like a wild beast from his throat.

"You are..." Xue Ruyu felt a chill in his heart when he saw this.

He even had a hunch that if he didn't have so many constables with him, the honest and simple man in front of him might pounce on him and punch him hard.

...What happened?

"Does the official have an imperial decree on him?"

Seeing this, Gong Liansheng smiled and said, "If that's the case, why bother with people like Deng Lao Er? Rather than causing a commotion and then dying, it's better to just let him end it all on his own, so you don't have to work so hard, sir."

"What do you mean by that?"

"What I mean is that it would be best if 70% to 80% of the hundreds of thousands of boatmen in Jiangzhou died, so that there would be no more storms in the future, and the money they earned would barely be enough for the remaining people to live on—" "Boss, be careful!"

Almost no one present had time to react, only the sharp-eyed follower Douding saw a black shadow flash by, but he was too late to stop it.

boom! !

First there was a tiny sound of breaking air, and then Gong Liansheng, who was standing, was hit in the abdomen by something. The whole person was thrown backwards by the force, and the flesh bomb hit the steps heavily.

Seeing this, Deng Wengang widened his eyes in some surprise.

Upon closer inspection, the location where the blow hit was almost exactly the same as where he had been hit before.

Suddenly I turned around and saw that gentle and reassuring face. It was Master Wen.

The strange thing was that usually when he saw this person he only felt respect and gratitude, but this time there was a hint of suspicion in his heart, and he couldn't help but start thinking about what Gong Liansheng had just said.

Will the salary increase be a ulterior motive?

"How about it, can you stand up?"

Walking closer, Fang Xiwen reached out to help him straighten his clothes and said softly, "If you don't mind, can you tell me what's going on?"

"Third Master, this is it..."

As expected, Deng Wengang did not push him away. Instead, his eyes turned red with some grievance.

Not long ago, his wages were withheld and when food prices were rising, his whole family relied on the porridge and relief from others to survive... In his heart, Master Wen San was a thoroughly good man.

However, when he explained, he somehow concealed what Gong Liansheng said later, and only said that he was going to buy medicine and was robbed and beaten by them on the way.

"I see. You should go quickly." Fang Xiwen glanced at him and nodded gently. "Take this little money and buy some medicine for sprains and bruises. Take care of yourself so as not to delay your future work."

"Thank you, Third Master!"

Deng Wengang was about to cry when he heard this. He hesitated for a while and then left in a hurry with the money.

At this time, Gong Liansheng, who was knocked to the ground by a scabbard, struggled to get up, covered his abdomen with one hand, and grinned: "As expected of the Third Master, even the guards have such good skills."

He looked up and found that it was a young man who looked very effeminate. There was a cold look in his eyes hidden under his hat, as if issuing a silent warning.

"Ha, my Xiaoqing didn't know how to control her strength. Are you okay?"

After walking a few steps forward, Fang Xiwen smiled apologetically.

"If I tell you I'm fine, will Master San give me money to buy me some medicine for my injuries?"

"If Boss Gong thinks highly of my little tricks, then of course it's fine."

"Well, if you want to buy my life, this amount of money is indeed a little too little."

"I never thought of buying anyone's life," Fang Xiwen restrained his expression, paused, and smiled again, "I don't need to buy your life either."

~~

In the end, Gong Liansheng said nothing. He covered his abdomen and limped away with the help of his followers.

At this time, Xue Ruyu, who had been watching for a while, was confused. He walked closer and asked tentatively: "Master Wen, can we talk somewhere else?"

Glancing at him, Fang Xiwen suppressed the smile on his face and casually waved, "Please come in."

Seeing this, Xue Ruyu dismissed the detectives and followed him without saying a word.

They entered the piano room which served as the reception, which was the same room as before, and each of them took a futon.

Fang Xiwen maintained a calm demeanor and had just sat down when Luo Qingni, who was sitting next to him, sat over to him and wrinkled his clothes.

Seeing this, he frowned slightly and put his fist to his lips, "Ahem."

Somehow, she seemed not to understand. She didn't move her lower plate at all. She grabbed the snacks on the table and stuffed them into her mouth, slamming them and eating with relish.

"My style has dropped a lot with this guy around..." He felt angry and amused.

Xue Ruyu on the other side was strangely reserved, "Third Master, I don't know what just now..."

"What you did was exposed."

Fang Xiwen made a pot of tea and said calmly, "I thought Master Xue was so quiet during this period, but it turns out he was secretly doing something."

"...Did you find out?"

"If this refers to the smuggling of materials, then no. Although I guessed that you might have taken some action, I didn't expect that you would never come to see me again."

Chapter 427: Sword Immortal's Accomplice

Yang Tianxiu had mentioned the idea of ​​building a ferry in Jiangzhou at the Qushui Literary Meeting a long time ago, and now it has become his legacy of a vicious plot.

Among all the means of transportation, the demon boat has almost the highest transportation speed, and with the blessing of the formation, it is not afraid of wind and thunder, and is little affected by weather factors. Therefore, it has an overwhelming advantage over canal transportation.

Once the ferry was built, the several shipping routes designated by the imperial court would overlap with the local water transport routes, and the latter would inevitably be greatly affected.

This is a method of cutting off the firewood from the bottom of the pot, which is more fatal than changing the canal into the sea:

After all, if the canal transport is simply changed to sea transport, the boatmen and sailors can still make a living in another place, but it is not possible to change it to a ferry. The lucrative positions will be controlled by the Chamber of Commerce, and the common people will not get their turn.

But no matter which one of them it is, the Cao Gang, which relies on sucking blood from them, will not have an easy time.

Therefore, as long as the imperial court showed its intention to build a ferry, the Dajiang Gang would have only two choices: either rise up in resistance, or be boiled like a frog in warm water and watch themselves being cut off from survival.

If we only look at the performance of this corner of Zhoushan City, it is obvious that they chose the former, but it has not yet reached the level of violent disobedience. They only stop at inciting the people and trying to stir up a civil uprising.

After all, after the Gao family showed their fangs, any direct confrontation would result in them being hit by the iron fist of the Dharmakaya. Any sect that came would have to carefully consider their options, so a stalemate was inevitable.

However, Xue Ruyu's behavior directly added fuel to the fire on both sides: he directly transported the ship carrying materials in a fair and honest manner.

"Did I reject you too firmly last time? No, I just said we can talk next time."

Seeing that he didn't answer, Fang Xiwen continued to talk to herself, "Of course, there are many people in Zhoushan who can settle the matter. It is normal for Master Xue to choose to find someone else. But why were you exposed?"

"How did you find out?" Xue Ruyu asked puzzledly.

"The ferry hasn't been built yet, so you still have to dock to transport materials. Coincidentally, I have an informant there."

Originally, Fang Xiwen came here to look for clues about the traitor in the Sword Sect, so naturally he needed an organization to collect and process intelligence.

With the young master's order to borrow some people from the nearby Xinggong branch, and adding those boatmen who had been helped by him before, it was easy to form a makeshift team.

"The Third Master is indeed all-powerful."

"You haven't answered my question yet." His eyes were slightly cold. "Why was it exposed?"

From the first conversation, Xue Ruyu was still inclined to handle the situation gently. He said at the time that he hoped to use the reputation and resources of Master Wen San to temporarily appease the people, and also proposed a Jiangzhou Transport Envoy as a fallback plan.

Although he did not agree immediately, he said "let's talk about it another day". As a result, the former transported the things over within a few days and prepared to start work - which would have been fine, as he would not mind if they could be properly hidden - but they were discovered by the Cao Gang.

This move is either intended to deliberately intensify the conflict or is simply stupid.

"If you don't answer, I'll just treat you as an idiot and there's no need to discuss future cooperation."

Glancing at him, Fang Xiwen raised his cup and took a sip of tea. It's better to have no teammates than to have a stupid teammate.

"Although I am indeed stupid, I have been wrongly accused of this matter," Xue Ruyu smiled bitterly, knowing that he could not get away with it. "The one who transported the materials here was the Minister of Industry, my superior. He did not inform me before, so..."

"Do you think I will believe it?"

"The document just arrived here yesterday. If you want to see it, you can follow me to the government office now."

"So what if the document is real?"

"Do you have any questions, Master San?"

"Heh," Fang Xiwen chuckled, "I will assume for the time being that it was the Shangshu who acted on his own initiative."

Seeing that he looked better, Xue Ruyu took the initiative to pour him a cup of tea. After refusing for a while, he said, "Then Third Master, this matter..."

"Hey."

Just as he was about to get to the point, he saw the other party raise his hand.