Shi Heng and the others were a little shocked when they heard what Mr. Li said.
Even Ji Wanrong blinked and looked at Mr. Li in front of him in confusion.
She originally thought that the tree god's curse was just a rumor deliberately fabricated by the queen's influence who lived in the mountains of Xun County in order to keep other people away from it.
As for the Dead Man's Village, it was roughly the same reason.
Or it could be special reagents used in making human skin masks, such as the ones Ji Wanrong saw in the soil of the sanatorium.
Those chemical reagents affected the surrounding Zhuangzi, causing the people in that Zhuangzi to become seriously ill, hence the name "Dead Man's Village".
But Ji Wanrong did not expect that the people in Zhuangzi were what Mr. Li said were "terrible-looking, stumbling when walking, like to bite people, and like to laugh wildly in the middle of the night."
If you just listen to Mr. Li's words, then the people in Zhuangzi don't seem to be sick due to the influence of chemical reagents, but rather like they have become zombies...
This condition is really strange, Ji Wanrong has never seen it before.
However, they still have to wait until they go to Zhuangzi to know the specific situation.
The secret hidden here was far from as simple as they imagined. Ji Wanrong turned to look at Shi Heng, both of whom had serious expressions.
Mr. Li obviously caught the expressions of the two people and hurriedly added: "Actually, those madmen have no ability to harm people. There are not many madmen in Zhuangzi. The only ones left are some normal people."
"What's more, our Scotch Pine business has nothing to do with Dead Man's Village!"
Ji Wanrong listened to Mr. Li's words and asked again: "Is Dead Man's Village a certain distance from the origin of Scotch pine? Where is Dead Man's Village?"
Mr. Li nodded hurriedly, but seemed unwilling to say more: "We will not pass that Zhuangzi, and the Scotch pine will not have any impact!"
"Did the rumors of the curse of the tree god appear at the same time as the Dead Man's Village? After these two strange things appeared, the business of Scotch pine in Xun County plummeted?"
Mr. Li glanced at Ji Wanrong, and then shook his head: "No, no, it was because our opponent wanted to discredit us that the rumors of the tree god's curse appeared. After the business plummeted, Zhuangzi's population decreased and the Yang Qi decreased. , only then did a madman appear!”
"What I said is the truth! Why does Mrs. Zheng have other suspicions?"
Mr. Li frowned and looked at Ji Wanrong, looking a little impatient.
Looking at his appearance, Ji Wanrong originally wanted to know more about the condition of the so-called "madman" in the Dead Manor, but now she could only smile and say that she knew.
Upon hearing this, Mr. Li changed his impatient expression and asked someone to serve Ji Wanrong the restaurant's most signature snack.
Then he stared at Shi Heng and Ji Wanrong with a half-smile but not a smile: "Jiangnan's pastries are famous, how about inviting Madam to come and try Xun County's pastries?"
He suddenly spoke in a dialect, a Yue dialect, and spoke specifically to Ji Wanrong.
This scheming magistrate was testing them!
The atmosphere in the box was slightly stiff at this moment.
It turned out that even though he said so much in the beginning, he still didn't fully trust them.
When Mo Jiecheng listened, he couldn't understand it at all, and he took a deep breath.
Although Wu Nong's soft words sounded nice, when they came out of the county magistrate's mouth at this moment, they were like a gentle knife, cutting people's lives.
Only Ji Wanrong smiled softly in the slightly stiff atmosphere, and then used the handkerchief in his hand to take a piece of cake in front of him.
Although Ji Wanrong didn't understand everything, he could roughly guess the meaning of his words by listening to the familiar local accent, which was the same as what Yuan Yizhi said.
She took a bite, then nodded, and spelled out a sentence in her mind using the dialect she learned: "It's delicious, each has its own taste."
After Ji Wanrong said this, Mr. Li suddenly smiled.
Ji Wanrong also laughed: "Master Li, does he know Vietnamese? It's a little different from what we usually speak."
Mr. Li shook his head, with a hint of smile in his voice: "I only know a little bit, and I have a northern accent, so it's a little different. I was just showing off."
When everyone present heard this, they all breathed a sigh of relief, but Master Li suddenly turned the Buddha beads in his hand and said again.
"It's Madam who was so complimentary. For my sake, she said this pastry is on par with the pastries from Jiangnan. But in my opinion, the pastries from Xun County are not comparable to those from Jiangnan's Shufangzhai." ?”
After Ji Wanrong heard this, he didn't know the old fox's intention. He originally wanted to laugh and say a few more haha, but he saw Shi Heng suddenly holding her hand at the table.
Ji Wanrong closed her mouth in time, and then heard Shi Heng's voice slowly sounded, with a bit of confusion in his voice: "Has Mr. Li been to Jiangnan?"
Magistrate Li smiled and nodded: "I have been there before."
"Then Mr. Li must have made a mistake. There seems to be no famous pastry shop called Shufangzhai in Yue, but there is a famous shop called Wufangzhai."
"I wonder if the Wufangzhai you went to is?"
When Master Li heard this, the smile on his face became real: "Yes, Master Zheng is right, that shop is called Wufangzhai, but I remembered it wrong."
When Ji Wanrong saw this, he didn't show it on his face, but he took a deep breath in his heart.
She had never been to Yue Di, but she didn't know whether there was Shufangzhai or Wufangzhai there. Fortunately, Shi Heng took it over in time.
Looking at his calm and composed look, he seemed to have lived in Yue for a while. The county magistrate wanted to test them, but he really asked the wrong person.
Shi Heng still had that gentle smile on his face: "If I had known that you like Jiangnan pastries, I would have brought some over for you to try."
After Shi Heng finished speaking, he paused again, and then he seemed to think of something: "Oh, that's not possible. When we came this time, we accidentally encountered a mountain torrent. Fortunately, my bodyguard is highly skilled in martial arts and had to pass by the Jianghu people. If we save each other, nothing will happen."
When Mr. Li heard this, he was very surprised and hurriedly asked if everything was okay.
Shi Heng shook his head: "Everyone is fine, but the carriage was washed away, so we followed the group of Jianghu people and came to the capital to recuperate for a few days, bought a new carriage, and then set off again."
When Mr. Li heard this, he knew that the information he had obtained was exactly the same as what Mr. Zheng in front of him said. The spies said that they encountered a flash flood in the suburbs of Beijing, and then recuperated from the capital for a few days before setting off again.
Only now did he completely believe their words.
After winning Mr. Li's trust, the next thing will be much easier to handle.
Shi Heng and Mr. Li made an appointment to go up the mountain to check the quality of Scotch pine tomorrow afternoon, and also said that they would take a stroll in Xun County after dinner.
Master Shi agreed without doubting his presence.
I thought the meal would be over here, but I didn't expect that there was a roar of a Hedong lion coming from outside the box, and then the door of the box was kicked open.
