The pit was dug bigger and bigger until there was no more water, and a stone ladder was exposed at the edge of the water.
Everyone had retreated to the ancestral hall. Xia Junnan squatted on the side and poked the stone stairs again and again with a wooden branch: "It's quite strong!"
When he poked it, water splashed from the branches, making them yellow, muddy and disgusting.
The entire stone staircase was soaked in water, and the water was two feet deep, making it difficult to swim down.
"Second Miss, would you like to drain the water?" Zhan Ning said, "There is a lot of farmland here, and there must be a black tube for absorbing water."
"This water comes from the river," Xia Zhaoyi raised his eyes and looked at the stone bridge in the distance. "We have to send people to open channels upstream, then block the waterway, and restore it after the water is pumped out."
"Second Miss," Xia Junnan stood up, "I'm here to watch. You should go back to the city first."
Xia Zhaoyi shook his head: "You have been very tired these days. You go back first and call the people from the Duwei Mansion in the south of the city to come and work."
"There are ready-made prisoners of war here," Zhan Ning said. "At any rate, there are about a hundred people who can work for us!"
"Hey!" Xia Junnan shouted at him, "These are just ordinary soldiers. Who knows whether they voluntarily enlisted in the army or not. They are different from those who roam the countryside in the Duwei Mansion in the south of the city."
"General Xia Junnan is right," Xia Zhaoyi said, "Just leave fifty troops and horses for me. You can go back to the city first."
When she is not smiling, her face is beautiful and cold, and there is an inhuman alienation, accompanied by a commanding tone, which is not angry but powerful.
Xia Junnan had no choice but to accept the order and take the people away first.
Many nearby villagers were sleepy and yawning all over the place, but they still gathered people outside to watch the fun.
Because this is a rural road, it is some distance from the village. After they left, the village chief and township chief came belatedly.
The mayor stepped forward and said timidly: "General, this is..."
"I was dug up," Xia Zhaoyi said, "Are you the mayor of the township?"
"Yes, yes, my surname is Pan and my single name is De."
"Mr. Pan, who owns this ancestral hall?"
The mayor looked towards the ancestral hall in the distance.
This ancestral hall is very simple, or crude. Xia Zhaoyi has been to many ancestral halls in Xizhou before to pretend to be gods and ghosts, but those ancestral halls, even those in the most remote corners, are of higher quality and scale than this one.
"This...has been abandoned for a long time."
"How long is long?"
Mayor Pan thought for a moment and said, "I guess it's been ten years."
"I thought that a hundred years ago," Xia Zhaoyi looked towards the ancestral hall, "just looking at its construction, before it was abandoned, it shouldn't be that bad."
"Well, it really doesn't work."
"Before it is abandoned, there must be an owner. Who is the original owner?"
"This..." Mayor Pan pursed his lips, looking a little hesitant.
"Say!" Zhan Ning shouted.
"Yes, it's a man named Chen."
"Are they from the Chen family?" Zhan Ning said, "If this family is not extinct, you should call them over immediately. If you dare to lie or conceal something, you will take care of it! Our people will secretly investigate from time to time!"
"...I don't know if it means the house is extinct or if it just disappears. In one night, there is no one left."
Xia Zhaoyi looked down at Pan Xiangchang's legs and found that he had been shivering.
"You guys tell me." Xia Zhaoyi looked at the people who came with Mayor Pan.
Several people looked at her, pursed their lips, and did not dare to speak.
"Take down this Mayor Pan!" Xia Zhaoyi suddenly shouted in a crisp voice.
Mayor Pan fell to his knees with a plop: "No, no, general, don't! I know I was wrong!"
"Wrong?" Xia Zhaoyi looked sideways, "Where did you go wrong?"
"When the Chen family came to me and said they wanted to build an ancestral hall, they had already chosen the land. Seeing that it was remote, I agreed. He also said that when building the ancestral hall, they didn't want outsiders to pass by, for fear of being unlucky, so only the Chen family would be left alone.
Of course I won’t agree to this, because the road goes toward the sky! But if you give it to me, give me five taels of silver, I will seal the road here."
"When did they disappear?" Xia Zhaoyi asked.
"After the construction was completed, it disappeared within a few days. We find it strange that half of the ancestral hall was just built and left here..."
"Everyone in the Chen family is gone?"
"No more! There is still blood in the Chen family compound! There is only blood and no people! The house is also abandoned there. Now that I pass by it, I feel sad and my back is cold!"
"That's right, we haven't seen anyone from the Chen family since then." Someone agreed.
Xia Zhaoyi asked: "I haven't seen anyone, so how many people are there?"
Mayor Pan looked at the village chief and the others.
Everyone started counting on their fingers on the spot.
"About...sixteen people!"
"How many men, how many women, how many old and how young?"
Everyone calculated again.
One person said: "Nine boys, seven girls, no one is old, and three children! One of them is a girl, but she is very energetic. If she is still alive now, she will be eighteen years old."
"You'll feel gloomy when you pass by the house, and you'll probably feel the same when you pass by the ancestral hall." Xia Zhaoyi smiled faintly, turned around and looked at the several corpses still on the ground not far away, "Where's the girl who first discovered these corpses."
Zhan Ning paused and quickly looked around.
Looking around and around, Zhan Ning showed annoyance: "Second Miss, I was careless. I just let two women who came to join in the fun to comfort her, but..."
However, he did not remember the woman's appearance, and he even forgot the girl's appearance.
"The lights nearby are not dim, but here is the darkest place. The roads around are wide and there are many roads, so it is impossible for her to take a small road to go here. Did she bring us here to let us pick up the body?
…”
Xia Zhaoyi looked at the small pool exposed in front of everyone.
"Second Miss, could it be a trap? Then do we still pump this water?"
