Chapter 392: An Unexpected Assassin
Wrong chapter posted, this is Chapter 392, An Unexpected Assassin.
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The elderly, women, and children, having learned how to operate the new machines, began to leave in succession.
Zhong Gaoliang pulled the engineer's arm, chuckling, "Since you've come all this way, don't rush off. Why not have a meal here before you go? While resources in our mountains aren't as abundant as in Gao Family Village, you can enjoy some truly fresh, firsthand mountain delicacies. Hehehe... we just caught a snake today, you know."
The engineer was overjoyed. "Snake meat? Then I'd be delighted to impose."
The moment Li Daoxuan heard this, his mouth started watering profusely. He quickly opened a food delivery app, but a search yielded nothing! No snake meat available. Ugh!
Blast it, my little people are eating better and better lately. They're practically lording it over me, their Heavenly Lord! It's seriously unfair!
Li Daoxuan could only squat in a corner, sulking.
Just then, amidst the scattering elderly, women, and children, a young woman seemed to have been jostled by the crowd. She lost her footing slightly, her body swayed, and she unexpectedly tumbled out of the flow of people.
The young woman consequently stumbled out from between the two jailers, falling prone on the ground, landing right at the feet of Zhong Gaoliang and the engineer.
Zhong Gaoliang was still contemplating whether to help her up when suddenly, the woman propped herself up with both hands and sprang up with a swift motion. A shard of porcelain slid from her sleeve, and she plunged it fiercely towards Zhong Gaoliang's neck.
This sudden turn of events truly caught everyone off guard. No one could react in time.
Zhong Gaoliang froze completely!
The nearby jailers also failed to react in time. Not a single person managed to intervene.
The engineer, even more so, was utterly useless in a fight, completely incapable of acting.
Li Daoxuan was still scrolling through his food delivery app, searching for snake meat. His attention was nowhere near the diorama box.
It looked as if Zhong Gaoliang was moments away from being gravely wounded when suddenly, a figure blurred past. Lao Nanfeng darted out from the group of prisoners, reached out from behind, and seized the woman's arm. As he pulled her backward, the porcelain shard in her hand couldn't be plunged forward, leaving it suspended in mid-air.
Then, Lao Nanfeng tripped her, and the woman fell with a thud. He immediately knelt down, pressing his knee onto her back, and using his body weight, pinned the woman motionless.
It was only then that the others nearby reacted. The jailers' sabers flashed from their scabbards, and in a mere instant, five blades were pressed against the woman's neck.
Lao Nanfeng clapped his hands and stood up. "Heh, I'd noticed something was off with this woman for a while. She secretly hid a porcelain shard during a meal. I thought she'd use it for a fight in prison, never expected it was for assassinating the warden. Now I've done a great service. Looks like I'll get a few years off my sentence, hahaha!"
Zhong Gaoliang only now snapped out of his astonishment. He felt a chill on his neck, reached up to touch it, and found no injury. "Whoa!" he cried. "I just walked through the gates of hell!"
Li Daoxuan's attention also turned back to the box. A chill ran down his spine. *Damn it,* he thought. *This woman is vicious! She almost killed one of my important little people. This isn't just any ordinary little person; this is one of *my* little people whose name I actually remember! He's more favored than the average one. If he really died, I'd be heartbroken!*
He quickly took out his Infinite Gauntlet and put it on, then reached his hand into the diorama box. His giant finger tapped the ground in front of the woman...
...dropping a large piece of paper that read: "Investigate. Find out everything about this woman."
Everyone saw this. Even the Heavenly Lord had personally intervened in this matter, showing how serious it was.
Just moments ago, there were only five blades pressed against the woman's neck; now, in a flash, there were ten.
Zhong Gaoliang's face darkened. "Why did you try to kill me? What did I do wrong to you? I make sure you all eat your fill every meal and never go cold. Was it necessary to take my life?"
The young woman had known she would die the moment she made her move and hadn't expected to live, so she now spoke with defiant resolve: "I want to kill someone from Gao Family Village. You're the highest-ranking Gao Family Village person I could get close to, so I tried to kill you."
Zhong Gaoliang: "???"
Everyone: "???"
Li Daoxuan was also utterly bewildered.
The woman said, "My own brother was shot dead by people from Gao Family Village."
At once, everyone understood.
Ah, so that's the reason!
Among the labor reform prisoners, those with relatives summarily executed by Gao Family Village were not few. The young men from these households of elderly, women, and children were mostly fierce bandits from Wang Zuogua's army. Not just this woman, but almost certainly eight or nine out of ten in the large group behind her were in the same situation.
The motive for the assassination had apparently been found, and there was no need for further analysis.
Li Daoxuan sighed softly.
The jailers looked at Zhong Gaoliang, waiting to hear what he would say.
Zhong Gaoliang, however, was no great figure. He had merely "skipped a grade" from farmer to warden and had no experience whatsoever in handling such matters. He looked around, bewildered, searching for someone to tell him what to do.
After searching for a long time, no one offered him any advice. Instead, Lao Nanfeng spoke in a deep voice: "People like this usually have to be killed. Kill one to warn a hundred."
Zhong Gaoliang let out a soft "Eh?" "Do we *have* to kill her?"
Lao Nanfeng nodded. "If this were the border army, they'd chop down an enemy's kin like this without batting an eye." As he finished speaking, a strange look crossed his face. He scrutinized the woman from head to toe, noting she was a young girl. Then he changed his tone: "Before the chopping, they might even... heh..."
That "heh" was quite terrifying.
The woman had clearly prepared herself for death, but hearing that "heh," she understood that she might face something even more terrifying than death itself. This time, she was genuinely scared.
Her face turned pale!
She began to ponder inwardly: *I have ten blades against my neck right now. If I just push hard against a blade, I'll join my brother. I won't be disgraced by them.*
But such things were easy to think about, much harder to actually do.
People without depression found it very difficult to kill themselves. Even knowing death was inevitable, it still took immense courage to actively seek it.
Zhong Gaoliang was somewhat confused by Lao Nanfeng's words.
Another person might have followed Lao Nanfeng's suggestion, but Zhong Gaoliang wouldn't. When he first became warden, he hadn't rented out his family's land because he didn't want to become the kind of landlord he despised; instead, he had lent his land to his neighbors for free.
That was just the kind of person he was!
He couldn't bring himself to give a killing order.
He looked up at the sky: "Heavenly Lord, what should I do about this woman?"
Li Daoxuan sighed softly, then displayed a large piece of paper: "Tie this woman up, escort her to Gao Family Village, and hand her over to Gao Yiye."
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