Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 493 It's all sand

The emperor remained silent for a long time before suddenly asking about Song Chunlin's whereabouts.

"They didn't get together this time?"

Gu Fengyun replied, "It seems not?"

The emperor chuckled upon hearing this: "They're not together? Then that means we're letting Song Chunlin go and arrest them."

The emperor's guess was correct. However, Song Chunlin had not captured a person, and the grain hidden in the second cave had also disappeared. The group was terrified. Only the old man remained calm. If the first time was a mistake, would the second time also be a mistake?

He was certain they hadn't neglected their duties, and how could so much grain have been quietly transported away right under their noses?

The old man thought of the rumor that had spread throughout the north: that there was an incredibly mysterious figure in the Gu family army who could turn the world upside down with a flick of his wrist and command flowers, plants and trees as his weapons. Yet, no one had ever seen the true face of such a terrifying person.

Although I've never heard of someone being able to conjure other people's things out of thin air, if they can command plants and trees to become weapons, then taking things from a distance isn't impossible.

The old man hurriedly ordered people to investigate, and kept expanding the search area, especially instructing them to pay close attention to the surrounding flowers, plants, and trees, and to report immediately if they found anything suspicious.

Although no one understood what the old man was looking for, they still truthfully reported anything they thought was suspicious. Unfortunately, most of them turned out to be false alarms, and they never found Song Chunlin's hiding place.

While these people were conducting a large-scale search of the mountains, Song Chunlin brazenly stayed in his old hideout, choosing a room that looked relatively clean, and laid his mattress on the floor to take a nap.

While everyone else was exhausted from their work, Song Chunlin woke up and was eating a self-heating hot pot and opening a can of wheat juice. After Song Chunlin finished eating and wiped the oil off his mouth, the search party finally dragged their weary steps back like wandering souls.

"Huh, why do I smell something fragrant?"

"Are you a dog? Everyone inside has gone out. Who's cooking? We can't smell anything."

The person being questioned blushed and kept insisting that they hadn't misheard and that there was a fragrance.

"That's right, it smells delicious, maybe the kitchen made something special?"

"Stop bragging, none of us could smell it, only your dog nose could."

Amidst the unanimous skepticism from everyone, the man also began to doubt himself. He thought to himself that he had always had a keen sense of smell since he was a child, and there was no reason for him to be wrong. But when he tried to smell it carefully again, the faint fragrance in the air had long since dissipated, and he couldn't smell it no matter how hard he tried.

Song Chunlin peered through the crack in the door and noticed that these people didn't seem to want to come to his room. He felt relieved and waited to see when they would leave. He was thinking of going with them to the next place; if they couldn't collect food, they could collect weapons or something.

Meanwhile, in another room, an old man was unpacking a secret letter he had just received. The letter asked them why they hadn't arrived at the agreed-upon place yet and urged them to hurry up so as not to delay their master's important business.

The old man had unspeakable bitterness in his heart. He pondered for a long time before writing his reply, which included the events that had happened during this period and his suspicions. Then he arranged for someone to send it away as soon as possible.

How could Song Chunlin possibly allow them to send the letter out?

He wasn't stupid. He wouldn't let such a good opportunity to sow discord between the two sides slip by. He immediately followed the messenger and intercepted him. The man tried to resist, but the mutated vines sucked him dry. The remaining bones were gathered up and buried in a hole.

After reading the letter, Song Chunlin remained expressionless and calmly took out a lighter and burned it.

The old man was unaware that the letter had been destroyed. He was still instructing his men to set off the next day, even though they had nothing left but a few carts of grain. They were only able to stay because he had been sending people to guard them in shifts.

The next morning, these people set off with the last ten carts of grain. Song Chunlin followed them from a distance, waiting for an opportunity to sabotage them.

The old man was extremely vigilant this time, hardly stopping along the way, and not even going to other grain storage locations. He went straight to his destination, leaving Song Chunlin no chance to scavenge any other grain. However, Song Chunlin had already guessed this would happen, so he wasn't discouraged. It seemed good to be able to find the King of Pingnan by following the clues. Why not just kill the King of Pingnan directly? That way, they would be leaderless and wouldn't be able to rebel again, right?

Meanwhile, the Prince of Pingnan, who had been waiting for his men to deliver grain, was getting impatient. He had sent out many people to investigate, but before his spies could return, the emperor's decree was issued.

The King of Pingnan was puzzled. Why would his good nephew issue him an imperial edict and send over some trivial things for no apparent reason?

The chief eunuch who came to deliver the gift congratulated the Prince of Pingnan with a smile. Although the Prince of Pingnan did not know what the congratulations were, he could not break ties with the emperor at the moment, so he had to bite the bullet and deal with it before quickly sending the man away.

As soon as the Grand Eunuch left, the Prince of Pingnan's expression changed drastically. His advisors looked at each other in bewilderment, unable to understand what the emperor was up to.

Finally, the Prince of Pingnan suddenly spoke up, asking where the men he had sent out were now.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, one of the aides reluctantly stood up and answered.

"Your Highness, we have yet to receive a reply to the letter we sent earlier..."

The expression on the King of Pingnan's face cracked slightly.

"Until now? Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

The staff members were so frightened that they trembled and knelt on the ground in fear, not daring to breathe.

The Prince of Pingnan, recalling the Emperor's sudden gift-giving gesture, suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

“He must have sensed something, otherwise he wouldn’t have sent things over for no reason. Quickly send someone to meet him. I want to see just how much that good nephew has discovered.”

The men sent by the King of Pingnan soon met the old man on the way. When the old man learned that the grain they had stockpiled had disappeared overnight, he was terrified and looked at the remaining grain. The old man quickly reassured him that it was all real.

"Don't worry, I personally arranged for people to keep an eye on this batch the whole time, so that person didn't have a chance to make a move."

"Really?" The scout was skeptical, but the old man pulled him over and patted the grain sacks to assure him that they were all genuine.

However, he underestimated the spies' suspicious nature. With a skeptical attitude, he casually had a bag of grain opened for inspection, and what they found stunned everyone.

"No, this...this...how can this be sand?"

"This bag is also filled with sand."

"This truck is also carrying sand."

……

"It's all sand, these trucks are carrying nothing but sand..."

Even a master like the old man couldn't help but feel his legs go weak for a moment. He only had two words on his mind: It's over!